Crazy situation with historical fiction writers circle

Hi–

I’m wondering if I could get some opinions on the following:

I was in a historical writers circle and someone had questions about American Indians as characters, dos and don’ts I told them that there were resources on the web regarding cultural sensitivity, and though I’m only part, but grew up with my grandparents and years with my ex husband had taught me a few things and that I felt upset when people say this country is a nation of immigrants. I told them that I feel that that statement marginalizes or even denies the experience of my ancestors, (me in fact because I was born here) and that we were as much a society of kidnapping and genocide as we were a nation of immigrants.

Anyway, I got some gobbly goop about the bering strait back trying to rationalize his point and then got told I was wrong. I replied with some more info and a clearer explaination and told him more bluntly that I found the statement personally hurtful and racist, on a number of levels, along with being untrue (we had only a 10% immigration rate in the last ten years and that was high), and got told that, while he apologized, he couldn’t resist saying it again and keeping the argument going because “its JUST TRUE we are a nation of immigrants”.

So then, I decided that perhaps, because I’m a woman, he felt I was stupid, so I submitted links to several articles, some by white conservatives, some by democrats, some by black authors, one sort of generic article, one by a member of the latino community, and one quoting Dennis Banks statement regarding immigration. All addressed the falseness of this statement and the problems that it causes and has caused.

I explained to him that he probably wouldn’t like it if some strange family showed up in his front yard, built a house, stockpiled arms and ran him out of his house or worse, which is basically what happened in some cases. I explained about the governments actions to exterminate American Indians. I gave him links to the earliest remains in America, which are quite ancient. And if he wanted to go back further, any nation would be a nation of immigrants (though its not possible for most nations to be that because most nations have always had native populations and maintain them).

I feel very strongly about this issue and always have, thanks to my grandparents and my exhusband and my love of history. My grandparents and parents always reminded me that someone was here before us, before the Europeans came. In researching my family, seeing the moves, the enlistments, the gaps during slavery when I can’t track people down as easily, it just hurts. I know here where I live, the land was taken from the Cherokee and given away in a land grab kind of thing, meanwhile, men, women, and children were dying on the trail of tears and other forced migrations.

I wonder why this man could be so insensitive, actually hateful. I can understand not knowing better, but after you’ve been told and shown twice, and you just can’t resist saying it again, just to hurt the person…. And no one from the historical fiction circle intervened, even when I said it was hurtful. Instead, they took away my membership. I realized this group of hacks doesn’t care how they portray their non-white characters, that they aim to rewrite history in this white idealistic way that makes them feel their ancestors were heros, despite what they may have done, directly or indirectly. One woman said she was writing about a Leni-Lanape man and her editor told her the character didn’t seem real unless she took some words out of his sentences and made him speak in a broken and illiterate way. She said she didn’t know what to do.

I’m really disillusioned that in today’s day and age, people are still up to these tricks and get away with it. Because I pointed out the man’s insensitivity in repeating hurtful and discriminatory statements to me, I was kicked out of the circle. I don’t care except that I’m so sad that so many people are like this. It makes me not want to live in this kind of world. It would be great to hear a voice of support on this.

These people shape a lot of people’s thoughts, especially young people. I would like to start a writing circle for people that want to write well-researched, accurate, and ethical historical fiction. Any thoughts? I’m only part Indian.