This photograph always brings a smile to my face. It was taken at Lake Itasca, where the Mighty Mississippi is merely a small stream emanating from the lake. People go there to wade across and to enjoy the very pretty Minnesota state park within which the lake resides.
The photograph also makes me feel some combination of guilty and sad about the way this nation has diminished certain peoples and nations. Our history is quite poor and shameful in that regard. This kindly Native American gentleman was doing something fairly common at the time at tourist locations around the country. That is, to offer opportunities for pictures like this to be taken in exchange for a contribution. I have no recollection of how much money we may have given him, but it was surely not enough to compensate for what may have been to him a somewhat humiliating or degrading place in his life or for the state into which we put his peoples. It is difficult to believe that he could make a very good living this way. On the other hand, maybe I give him too little credit.
1 comment:
Maybe it was as simple as this -- a kind, retired gentlemen that would rather fill his days enjoying the company of tourists than sit in his house by himself. Could be. I hope so!
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