This post is written for Friday Fictioneers. The challenge is to write a complete story with a beginning, middle and end in 100 words or less using the picture prompt below.
PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carroll
The first thing they did was change my name. Ahiga (Navajo fighter) became George. A bath in kerosene, a haircut that reduced my long hair to a head of stubble, and finally dressed in our little military uniforms.
One of the most degrading things they did to me was not allow me to use my native language. Only English was allowed. And of course their religion. They even had the audacity to make us watch Cowboys and Indians movies.
I realized it was an attempt to kill, annihilate or assimilate my people and eradicate our Indigenous culture.
Oh Danny Boy! 
Your writing is incredibly powerful and moving. Your personal experience of having your native language and cultural identity stripped away highlights the painful and lasting impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples. Your words paint a vivid picture of the dehumanizing and traumatic effects of forced assimilation, reminding us of the importance of recognizing and honoring the diversity of Indigenous cultures and languages. Thank you for sharing your story and shedding light on this important issue.
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I’m glad he was aware of their intentions, which had to make his better shielded against it. A story of evil that the white man cannot ever recover from.
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The treatment of indigenous people then and even now is shameful in many parts of the world. It’s good for us to be reminded. Well done!
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Hopefully not to happen again.
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Well done. What a terrible way to treat a child.
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Such a terrible way to treat a human, you would like to hope this wouldn’t happen ever again ❤
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That’s being optimistic.
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I know but maybe one day 🙏
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i’m sure they meant well but to disrespect another culture and impose your own is really bad.
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Not sure that they meant well!
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I’m glad you did not omit the part on religion. It is still a problem to this day (of course it is). Well done, Danny.
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Thanks Bill. Your right on!
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Have we learned from the heinous events of the past? I’d like to think so, but I often wonder what future generations will make of us.
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That it indeed was. A calculated cruelty. An ugliness perpetrated under the guise of culture, when in fact it was an endless barbarism.
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Well said!
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Thank you. It is a topic I feel strongly about (if that wasn’t obvious …).
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The truth will out, lonely much to late…
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Exactly what is happening now.
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Thankfully, although sometimes subtlety and always slowly, we do evolve as a society.
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Slowly is the key word!
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Shameful history and then they have the audacity to make Thanksgiving as if it makes it all better. Nice one, Danny.
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Exactly!
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Unfortunate that it went on for so long and succeeded. Only too late have things started to be redressed.
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Much too late!
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