Grand Canyon - Ruins

Grand Canyon is not all about nature and its wonders. There are many reasons to visit this natural world heritage site. Being an ardent traveller, nature lover, history enthusiast and an individual who intimately feels for the oppressed populations, I have a lot to look out for in the Grand Canyon. The first is of course, the natural beauty and the adventure possibilities the canyon offers.

Everytime I visit any historical location in the US. Everywhere, an intense sense of rage and frustration descends upon me because of the terminology which is used by the government/ national park service folks. There is a constant drumming of the fact that there were "Indians" or "American Indians" or "Native Indians" here before the Europeans landed and took over the country. This is grossly wrong, there were large native populations in this country and each one had their own nation, such as Apache, Choctaw, Hopi, Pueblo, Comanche, etc.

I'd like to present this picture of a ruins of a settlement in the Grand Canyon. According to some signage, this picture depicts the dwelling of some Native American tribes during 1,000 BC. Of course the signage says "Indian" while refering to the tribes. I understand that 500 years ago when Columbus landed here, he thought he had landed in India and called the people Indians. But since then the world has changed, there has been knowledge explosion thanks to the internet and other communication technologies. Despite these changes, the only thing that seems to persist is that "Native Americans" continue to be called "Indians". I can only infer this mis-nomer as an effort to degrade us, the real Indians from India.

Way back in 5,000 BC India had a glorious civilization and much more advanced society in terms of urban development, roads, art, architecture, culture, language, metallurgy, etc. Some of which have not been replicated to this date by any other civilization... not even the so called "Scientifically Advanced" first world nations. But these people continue to misrepresent India and our people in various forms. Be it in history or in the media such as the recent Oscar-awarded movie "Slumdog Millionaire" and the people who consume such media happily believe this.

I wonder when the "West will Learn".