made the assumption that Orozco’s murals were serious art. My article was not about the Orozco murals except in how they related to the Hovey Murals. I did not think it was appropriate for me to extensively research Orozco’s work, given the scope of my article. My understanding of the Orozco murals is that they are about civilization on this continent before and after colonialism. They address the injustices incurred by indigenous people of this land. Humphrey did not like them because they were “Mex,” critical of Christianity and done by a communist painter. Humphrey could not have cared less about a holocaust as terrible as any humanity has undertaken and endured. So his response was the pitiful murals hidden away in Thayer’s basement.

The point of the article was to bring awareness of Humphrey’s paintings, and what I believe they represent, into our readership’s onsciousness. I thought the pictures we printed obviously displayed the “noble savage” stereotype, and that it would have been redundant and insulting to spend time writing about it, but I am apparently proven wrong. I did state, however, that the murals “represent the Charter of Dartmouth College that made ‘civilizing & christianizing Children of Pagans’ [i.e. Native Americans] the foundation of our Ivy League institution.” Here’s a big newsflash: Native Americans did not need “civilizing,” they had a flourishing civilization before white people showed up and deemed them “Savages.” A colonist view held that they were dumb animals, not people, because they looked, spoke and acted differently. That’s racism, that’s what these murals are about in large part. I also could have mentioned the negative consequences of alcohol on Native Americans from early colonial treaty negotiations to today’s alcoholism problems in that community. My apologies.

It is my hope that individuals will explore these issues on their own. I meant this article to be more of a starting point or springboard. I did not mean to come off as condescending, but people on this campus and in this country do not have respect for the native peoples of this land and how colonialism has affected and continues to affect them. Remember, the Trail of Tears was not an isolated incident. The same thing at the root of that atrocity is the same thing at the root of the Hovey murals: a perspective of racism that disrespects other people’s humanity. People need to be encouraged to find out these things for themselves, rather than be dictated to on the subject. Then these ideas might stick, social responsibility might mean something to individuals. I hope in at least some small way my article contributed towards that end.

Sincerely,

Michael Marlow