I thought I was educated

We all remember this guy in the picture. To me, he was a hero, the one and only adventurous man, the one that discovered America, and saved the Indians. Or so did my 1st. grade books said.
I'll tell you a story, it all started like...

This one girl went to a Catholic school in South America. Through the years, she was taught that there was a man from Spain, the "Motherland", devoted to the Queen and King of Spain and his religion, that brought civilization & progress to the 'savages'. 

He was a good man, advanced, determined. Those poor lost souls that had recently been "discovered", were naked. He gave them clothes, they did not know our God, our religion, and our Bible, he brought salvation and redemption to them.

In her school book, there was a page solely dedicated to the tortures that these savage Indians, would inflict on their victims with illustrations included. This was 1st-grade history after all. It is a true story and, it is my own.

I always wondered if the nuns did not know what happened with Columbus and the Indians, if their ideology had them turn blind, if they chose to look the other way, or if they knew, and just had to keep passing the indoctrination to their little herd, because, after all, there's only ONE Savior, according to Catholics. I will never know. Or I might one day...

The bottom line is that after all those years of having that wiring in my brain about Columbus, one day, four years ago, I was watching Ken Burns documentaries, "The West" and all hell broke loose within. 

I just couldn't believe all the details that the nuns forgot to tell us kids...

Why on earth did no one mention anything about these atrocities before? Why has this information being concealed from the public that even at "Barnes and Noble" there were more books about The Holocaust than Colonization and genocide. What is going on in here?

Immediately all the blame went to Columbus of course, but he was only the one man in charge of a mission, and there were so many more like him doing the same thing: exploring, expanding, looking for new land, and oh! I almost forgot: gold. 

After all, aren't we all geared towards growth in any way or form? 

My sources of history seemed somewhat nonexistent in this area, and the ones I got presented with, were probably tinted with the Hollywood hue. I remember "1492", "The Mission" and "Black Robe" to name a few...  

All of them broke my heart, perpetuating the idea of what being an Indian meant in those times of expansion.

Those times were tough, I thought to myself, how terrifying it must have been: they killed them all. I confess that living in my little protected bubble, It never occurred to me that there are still many  aboriginal, indigenous, native, first nations people alive today. 

I found out that the majority struggle with the consequences of the cruelty of non-stop colonization that systematically tried (and keeps trying now a days) to force them into an alien culture and religious practice. 

I went on a mission of learning. Honestly, I thought it was an initiation of some sort. I had this urgency,  finding out where the Indians were today. What had happened to them? Where do they live? How many Nations are there? Then, in summer 2011, I planned a trip to a rez, any rez.  

I didn't know exactly how was I going to get there, or what was I going to find, I didn't know anyone related to native people, all I knew is that I was going to find out, how, and when, and "whys" of whatever I did not know...it was a call within.