James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper on this Indigenous People Day to dwell on the special thrill of finding a stone artifact from a previous civilization.
There is a field in central Wisconsin where the keeper has enjoyed this experience a number of times: to spot and pick up and hold in your hand a piece of stone that was last held hundreds of years ago in the hand of someone from a totally different culture but one that shared human emotions and instincts, that is an ultimate “hunting” thrill.
The simple experience of finding a flint arrowhead produces a bonding across the centuries, and for a few seconds it is just you and a previous human sharing a piece of stone; and forgetting the awful history of massacres and abuses that lie between the two of you.
The truth of that history is so bad that there are those who would deny its teaching in the schools.
The keeper plans to take Phyllis and return soon to that special Wisconsin field where it is just him and that other person from way back there in time trying to use a stone to bond with the truth that humans are humans, sometimes companiable but often devious onto an abusive arrogance that threatens self-annihilation.
Happy Indigenous People Day!
