The Reservation Recently, the residents of a neighborhood in northwest Richardson (Texas) reconfirmed what had been the common practice for many years, calling the neighborhood the "Reservation". This practice, whose origin is lost in the mists of time, no doubt arose out of the fact that most of the streets in the neighborhood are named after American Indian tribes, such as Cheyenne, Cherokee, Navajo, Seminole, and the like. For this reason, it’s quite possible that the practice was originated by local real estate agents who wanted a distinctive name for what is one of the most livable neighborhoods in the City; certainly, the "Reservation" is a much catchier name than the official one: "Richardson Heights Estates North". The name’s usage was so entrenched by the 1990s that when a group of residents met to form a neighborhood association, there was no question of what name we would chose for the homeowners’ association: RHOA or the "Reservation Home Owners Association". The dichotomy between the official name of "Richardson Heights Estates North" and "Reservation" caused little trouble through the years. The official name – often abbreviated to "Estates North" – appeared on deeds and on the entrances to the neighborhood, while the residents, the homeowners' association, and everyone in Richardson referred to it as the "Reservation". Even when a "sign-topper" program was introduced, the act of using the name "Reservation" as a cap on many of the street signs in the neighborhood caused little fuss. But when it became clear that as a result of bond programs that there would soon be money to create signage for new neighborhood entrance features for the Reservation, people began to come forward to protest the use of the name. Their argument was that a "reservation" was an undesirable place where American Indians were forced to go - often at gunpoint - resulting in poverty, high unemployment, frequent suicides, and drug and alcohol abuse. Thus, naming the neighborhood the "Reservation" simply because the neighborhood was full of streets named after Indian tribes would be insensitive and demeaning, to say the least. But that argument did not sway the hundreds of neighborhood residents who voted on a Sunday afternoon in October by a ratio of at least 10 to 1 to retain the name and to urge the City to place the name "Reservation" on the planned entryway signs. As the homeowners' association president said that afternoon in supporting the retention of the Reservation name, the use of the street names and the neighborhood name was meant to honor the American Indians, not dishonor them. It is clear that the residents of the neighborhood have no intention of dishonoring the American Indian. Indeed, the association's president stated that there are at least 14 residents of at least partial American Indian descent, twelve of whom told him that they are happy with the name "Reservation". But it is also clear that to the American Indians who attended the Council meeting on the following day to speak out against spending public money on that name, that for them, the use of such a name institutionalizes the general ignorance of the reality of the American Indians' history. As a resident of this neighborhood, I suspect that the overwhelming vote by the residents to retain the name was partially in frustration – they themselves harbor no ill-will towards the American Indians, do not carry prejudice against them, and have the understandable reaction that people have when they feel that they have been falsely accused of ignorance and bigotry. The residents do not understand: if American Indians feel that the use of the word "reservation" is insensitive, then why do so many of the American Indians themselves use the word? Indeed, the quick search of websites of American Indian nations shows that the word reservation is widely used, and is even a marketing tag line – “Join Us on the Fort Apache Reservation!” is the cheerful title of the home page of the White Mountain Apache. Nor is the word used only in its historical context of the undesirable areas that the American Indians were forced into, but is used also in a day-to-day, matter-of-fact way to describe the locations where they live. The Navajo website makes a passing reference to “NAU Distance Learning Campuses across the Navajo Reservation in Arizona” as if referring to the area as a "reservation" were no different than referring to our own area as "Dallas County". Still, the American Indian representatives who appeared at the Council meeting were concerned that the use of such a name trivializes the sufferings of their peoples (for American Indians are not one people, but many different nations, separate in language and culture). They referenced the Saturday morning shows of "cowboys and Indians" with their simplistic and often wrong representations of the American Indian, and the poverty that afflicts the people of many reservations – even those where casinos have been built, enriching the few while failing to lift others out of despair. Why would otherwise intelligent, well-meaning people want to remind American Indians of their long troubles? So how do we resolve this dispute? I suggest that we do so by giving both sides what they want. The Lakota activist Russell Means had an interesting view that has some relevance here. I hesitate to use his name as he has been highly controversial both in American Indian and "white" circles, but I think that looking at an essay he wrote in 1998 will shed some light on what the solution can be for us. In this essay, entitled I Am An American Indian, Not a Native American!, he wrote the following: "We were enslaved as American Indians, we were colonized as American Indians, and we will gain our freedom as American Indians and then we can call ourselves anything we damn please." (found at [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/bismarck_200504A16.html]) He argued that calling American Indians something other than "American Indians" would lead to society forgetting what had happened to the American Indians in their long dealings first with European then with American governments. This argument reminds me of the problem that modern Germans have experienced in educating their young. Germans were so ashamed of the Nazi era that the subject was largely taboo in German schools, with the result that German children were raised not realizing the depths of the horror of the Nazi crimes. I saw this first hand in Munich in 1988 when a young German business colleague ended a telephone call at his office desk with a cheery "Heil, Hitler!" We two American witnesses were aghast, but the young German thought it was funny. Thus, to follow this logic, the best way to simultaneously honor the American Indians as well as to preserve their true story would be to not only keep the name "Reservation" for the neighborhood, but for the neighborhood to also actually do something to honor that heritage. If the neighborhood is so proud of its links with the American Indians, then the neighborhood should step forward and show it. The association's website should contain a history of the American Indian peoples whose names dot the neighborhood's streets. The association's website should contain links to the official websites of these American Indian nations along with explanations of how they are organized – for example, we have a street called "Apache", but do most non-Indian Americans realize how many different Apache tribes there actually are? The association should create and conduct events that teach the children the history of the very peoples for whom their streets and neighborhood are named. Indeed, "our" local grade school, Mohawk Elementary, should go out of its way to tell the story of the Mohawk to its students. Such activities need not be confined only to the "Reservation". How many Richardson residents know that there is still a spring in old east Richardson that was used by Caddo Indians for perhaps more than a century before the first Anglo settlers arrived? As the webpage at the University of North Texas says: “The Yoiuane tribe of the Caddo group of Indians lived here as early as 1690 to 1840. They hunted buffalo and deer on the prairie. They used McKamy Spring as a watering place.” Instead of keeping the official but meaningless name of "Estates North", let’s use the name "Reservation" as a teaching moment for the residents of the neighborhood and of the City as a whole. Let's teach our children both the good parts and the bad parts of our common history – after all, American Indians are now just as American as any of the rest of our citizens. We are all Americans, and the answer to solving our common problems lies not in suppressing certain terms and nurturing long-held hurts, but in bringing forth dialogue and understanding, which can happen only if we remember why we call things the way we do. This is a classic "win-win-win": the residents get their name, the American Indians get their recognition, but most of all, we all win when we openly and honestly talk about turning a sometimes bitter past into a common, bright future. William J. 'Bill' McCalpin At 1400 Cheyenne Drive for 15 years