[RAA NOTE: Jon, thank you for your insightful,sensible and considerate 
thoughts!]  
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Dear Ms. Peggy Lowe,

You may have received some negative comments on your article on the Columbus 
Day parade but I wanted to say thank you for covering it.  As an Apache, I 
take great pride in this land of my forebears and wish that others would 
take the time to see things through the eyes of those whose families go back 
a great many generations.

I take pride in my heritage and in the fact that my fifth generation 
grandfather was the last leader to truly resist the encroachment and 
destruction of a way of life by the white man - Geronimo.  But, I am always 
careful to note, just as he did, that it is not the "cultural advancements" 
that came with the Europeans that was resisted but rather the capitalistic 
ways of settlers from the East and the land grab.

At the same time, I am also very glad and proud of my other heritage.  It is 
little known by some that Geronimo accepted and had many white friends - to 
include the family of my great-great-grandmother.  If you were to meet most 
of us who are directly descended from Geronimo you would hear Anglo surnames 
- Wise, Wall, Watt - and see us as being Anglo.  When I was in graduate 
school - a Navaho woman asked if I knew I was "White Apache" - I thought she 
was referring to being a mixed blood but she was not.  She explained that an 
entire tribe of Apaches exist that are White Apache - not appearing on first 
appearance to be Native American.  She also shared that many Navaho are also 
thankful for many of the advances brought by the Europeans.

It is high time that we - the average Native Americans - be allowed a voice 
in the press.  There are many of us - Apache, Navaho, Shoshone, Arapoho, 
Cherokee, Souix, Crowe (yes, I have friends from those tribes) that are very 
happy with the advances that the European brought.  We can deplore the 
negative characteristics - the subjugation - that they brought while 
celebrating what they did bring.  For that matter - those who will make a 
careful - that is to say a not so politically-correct study of our native 
histories - will find that we were not much different from the Europeans in 
our internicine warfare.

May I suggest a second article to your article on Columbus Day parade - - 
research how the average Native American truly feels - and you will find 
that we are glad for what Columbus represents.  Columbus represents the 
mingling of two foreign cultures for the betterment of both.  It was not 
Columbus who subjugated the Native populations and without him we still 
might not have the advancements we have.  We might still be the "ignorant 
savages" that Hollywood made us out to be throughout Hollywood's history of 
film-making.

This Apache says "let there be a Columbus celebration!"  Let us celebrate 
the foolhardy courage of a man who would dare to sail where no other would 
sail - - and then let us be glad not for the cultural destruction that 
followed at the hands of Spanish conquistadores - - - NOT the Italians - but 
rather celebrate the benefits that ultimately did accrue to all.