The Wolf in the Twilight: An Old Indian’s Journey Through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows by Kent Nerburn
I love stories about Native American Indians, always believing that I had at least one life in a tribe in the American Southwest. The Nerburn story is a fictional account based on true events that engages the reader as we learn about the plight of today’s Indians struggling to come to terms with the horrors of their past.
An elderly Indian man, Dan, searches for a sister lost years before in one of the government schools set up to educate the youth, which meant brainwashing them into losing and forgetting their traditional ways. I found the story fascinating even if the ending of the story seemed contrived, and I learned a lot and was caught up in the excitement of the lessons.
The Indian elder tells us to help the children and provide them with a healthier way of life:
The way we live today is not good for them. It removes the light from their eyes, because it does not teach them to see the spirit in all of life. It takes away their connection to everything else. They are not allowed to see the role they play in creation… They are not taught that they have an important role to play where they are, and that it is only they who can fulfill that role.
It also reminds us to listen. This seems so trite until we look at our own lives: are we listening to the world around us, or are we too busy in our hectic lives to pay attention to others and our surroundings? Another idea, again so simple, is the idea of sharing. Native Americans and other indigenous peoples know that the haves share with the have-nots, a lesson that is not complicated but often seems lost in our world of the very rich getting richer while the poor continue to suffer. This is not a political argument but a humanitarian one.
This is the story of a story we love to forget: the story that reveals our dark side in our treatment of American Indians. It is good to remember, not only so that we suffer the agonies they endured, but because we must always remember who we are and what we did in the name of progress and civilization. If you’re not an American, you have your own stories, and many involve the exploitation of people who are weaker, poorer, or less fortunate. What will be revealed when history looks back on our era, what errors will be exposed in each country? While there are obvious examples happening in the world right now, what are those stories that don’t seem important or are hidden? What are those shadowy incidents that will eventually be uncovered? This is not a condemnation of anyone, any group, or any country, simply an understanding of the steps in our human and spiritual evolution.
