Alone Excerpt: Facing the Painful History

NOTE:

I will not be blogging about my experience on the Camino de Santiago during the months of September and October. You can follow me on Facebook where I will be posting occasional pictures and comments. To follow either “friend” me on Facebook or use this link: https://www.facebook.com/brian.heron.73/

Every Monday during this period I will post an excerpt from my book, Alone: A 4,000 Mile Search for Belonging—excerpts that I believe reflect many of the assumptions and experiences that have become the basis for this current Pedal Pilgrim work.

Alone Excerpt: Facing the Painful History

Pages 67-68 at the Big Hole National Battlefield

About halfway between the summit and the town of Wisdom, I arrived at the Big Hole National Battlefield. I was inclined to ride on by and get into Wisdom on the early side, but an inner voice told me here was something I needed to do. I wasn’t disappointed.

Panoramic paintings recreated the scene of the Battle of the Big Hole of August 9 and 10, 1877. I looked out over the rolling hills and imagined the atrocities and shame that took place there. In a surprise attack by the 7th Infantry Regiment on the fleeing Canada-bound Nez Perce, nearly ninety Nez Perce and thirty-one soldiers died in a brutal and bloody battle. Just as I felt that I belonged to this land, I also recognized that this was my history. I am a child of the West and a descendant of those early settlers. We had learned about this history in public school, and played Cowboys and Indians on dirt mounds where suburban houses were being built by the dozens on old tribal lands. What had felt like innocent childhood games was exposed as replaying genocide.