Tiny Steps to Reconciliation

For a brief time we faced one another in the steam room at the Plunge. Through the mist we shared our thoughts. She was angry and set against the "white man."

"We will not forget or accept your conquest. No one owns this water. The water comes from Mother Earth and is for everyone," she said angrily.

"Now that the city owns the Plunge and has the use of the water, it belongs to all of us. It is not longer in private hands so you and I and everyone have a right to the use of this water", I replied. "I would like to see an elder from Pine Ridge bless this water as a sign that all of us together share this water."

"No matter", she answered sharply. "It will make no difference. We will not forget how you took this land and now say that you own it and the water."

I felt the strength of her anger after years of her people being betrayed and losing their culture and way of life through the "eminent domain" belief of one race over another. Her ancestors, and herself, had lost their land, their language and their spirituality. Her feelings of rage were in sharp contrast from others of her Sioux ancestry who had achieved forgiveness in spite of the past injuries. I had met several in that steam room who reached out to me in love and gentleness. I remembered them and tried to hold their level of peace while feeling her anger bombarding me at that time in that place.

"My hope is for us to accept what we have now and cannot change and move on together toward a shared understanding and greater knowledge of one another as a people. Perhaps in that way we will create some change."

"Well", she acknowledged, "I have lived in Hot Springs for a long time and it is the least racist town in the Black Hills."

"I take that as a compliment. Let us start from there."  I did appreciate her one gesture of acceptance that we have made progress. I know well of the past history of the extreme racism prevalent in this area. I know that everywhere in everyplace prejudice and hostility still exists. But we are taking steps, little by little, toward understanding one another and through that understanding, reaching forgiveness.

So, we are the "least racist" community. I take that as a meaningful gesture we have achieved some wisdom. One little step and then another, can add up to a powerful amount of forgiveness in time.