An
Illinois man erected "nine wooden crosses outside Red Lake High School" on Thursday night.
Greg Zanis, of Aurora, Ill, has traveled the country placing crosses he's made to honor people who have died in car accidents and school shootings. He calls his group Crosses for Losses.
Zanis said he puts up the crosses at the scenes of school shootings because he believes they happen because God is excluded from schools, so kids don't learn the difference between right and wrong.
"We need to tell them there is a God," he said."
However, in Red Lake, perhaps not everyone believes in the same God as Zanis. On Friday morning,
two of the crosses were missing
The crosses for the slain students Thurlene Stillday and Chase Lussier were missing Friday morning. News photographers said they saw Stillday's mother drive away with them. She did not return a telephone call Friday, but she arranged a traditional Ojibwe burial for her daughter.
It should be noted, that many Native Americans still hold to their tribal beliefs and take their ancestral spirituality seriously. Three of the victims will have traditional and under the circumstances, perhaps some residents of Red Lake felt the crosses crossed the line of respect for tribal member's traditional beliefs.
Thurlene Stillday, Chanelle Rosebear and Dewayne Lewis, all age 15, will be laid to rest in Ponemah, a deeply traditional community on the reservation where many families bury the dead in their yards
"Ponemah has ... a long tradition of having their own Ojibwe faith and religion," said Kevin Cease, director of the Bemidji funeral home handling the arrangements for all of the victims. "For them, that's their roots."
The question arises as to why is it so hard for some people to respect the religious and spiritual beliefs of others? In a country founded on the separation of church and state, why can't some people accept that running around hoisting crosses might offend some who are not of the same faith?
A couple of years ago I met Native American poet and activist John Trudell during a performance of his band, Bad Dog. Listening to Trudell's blend of spoken word, blues, and traditional National American chants, it is easy to absorb and understand the tragedy of the treatment of our nation's First people all these years. His most recent recording, Bone Days includes a song that I feel has some merit in this post. Native American's do not need anyone to tell them that there is a God, as Mr. Zanis asserts... they have their own...
Hanging from the Cross
"We weren't lost and
We didn't need any book
Then the great spirit
Met the great lie
Indians are jesus
Hanging from the cross
Hanging from the cross
In the name of their savior
Forcing on us
The trinity of the chain
Guilt sin and blame
The trinity of the chain
Guilt sin and blame
Hanging from the cross
Hanging from the cross
In a delusional grandeur
They lie to us then
Lie to themselves
About lying to us
Hanging from the cross
Hanging from the cross
In the name of the mother
The child and the human spirit
Indians are jesus
Hanging from the cross
Hanging from the cross"
May we all seek to find a greater understanding of America's "First People"... "Mitakuye Oyasin - We Are All Related."