Gyasi Ross: Native nations developed immigration policies too

I don’t know the solution to the current refugee crisis. What I do know is that the topic deserves more thought than is found in any of the memes on the topic. I also know that the subject is infinitely more complicated than the assumption that Native people had an open-door immigration policy that didn’t question the intentions of the immigrants. No. Blackfeet people chased Lewis and Clark from their territory specifically because the Natives paid attention to the circumstances around them. They quickly learned that these white folks were a threat, and changed their policy of international relations accordingly.

Native people were not oblivious to current events or entirely unthreatened by the arrival of white people. It’s silly to think that we were.

The Syrian refugees are caught in a set of current events that, in my estimation, causes reasonable concern for some Americans regarding their family’s safety. The fact that there are also domestic concerns that Americans should likewise pay attention to doesn’t deter or add to those reasonable concerns that those Americans might have about conflict in the middle east. A person can be concerned about both.

History should tell Native people that we absolutely should be concerned about both. The behavior of those first refugees probably means that Native people should be more concerned about any subsequent refugees, not less concerned. Then again, that those refugees are fleeing violence brought on by invaders of their own might mean that native people have more in common with them than the average American. That doesn’t mean that Native people should advocate for accepting refugees or not accepting refugees—it simply means that the analysis is far from simple.