
I just wrote a newspaper article about the “Copus Massacre.” It was the early 1800’s, and some settlers had come to the eastern side of Ohio, where they lived scattered in cabins. One of these settlers was James Copus, a Christian missionary. It was said that he lived in peace with three Native American tribes in the area and would regularly smoke a ceremonial peace pipe (see photo) with them. One day the U.S. Army came. They had orders to move the native Americans to a temporary Reservation in western Ohio. The Army asked Copus if he’d try to persuade them to move voluntarily. He tried, but the Army became impatient and ended up burning the Native American villages to the ground and forcing the Native Americans west. In turn, the Native Americans thought Copus had betrayed them, and some returned to kill him, some soldiers, and other settlers in the area. *This is merely a microcosm of what we did all the across the country over time. Manifest Destiny? God’s will? Hardly. It was blind greed. Our Native American position paper addresses this, on multiple levels. And what is contained in that paper is key to putting our country on the right track, finally.