A librarian's thoughts on cowboys

A lot of people were nervous when they heard I was going to Bosnia because they immediately thought of the war during the 90's. The recent history of war is visible anywhere you care to look for it in the architecture of the city. While the aftermath fascinates me, I do not expect to write about the war a lot here nor do I expect the talk about the war all that frequently with my students or friends (fingers still crossed on finding some of those...)

With that preface, I was struck by about a 90 second conversation that I was a part of on my first day here. At the American Corners library that I mentioned before the librarian was showing us some of the paper wigwams that local little ones made to celebrate "Native American Day". Then she told us about an American person who was there to talk and how he fielded questions so well from the children. When one little boy asked, "Did the cowboys really kill the indians?" the man answered, "Yes, white people killed a lot of Native Americans." The librarian the told us how taken aback she was by this because, "Serbs would never admit to something like that," And then without so much of a pause she showed us that the library also had Oprah's O magazine and which computers had internet access. So, just like that, little reminders pop up of the reality here.

*Note: I'm aware of the potentially un-PC-ness of the term "Native Americans". Also, by relaying this story I am not accusing any side of either guilt or innocence, just telling a story that happened to me.