While she believes what happened
to the Choctaw in particular and Native
Americans in general was a travesty, she
understands the need to move on.
“It was genocide, the same as the
Holocoust,” she said. “Our government
was complicit, and I don’t think that
there is anything that can be done
to repay that. But my philosophy is
that there is no one living today who
committed those atrocities, and there’s
no one living today who was subjected
to the atrocities. So we have to learn to
live together and move forward in a way
that doesn’t forget but does forgive.”
Though there is the aspect of ancestral
respect and cultural identification in
Young’s work, for her, throwing clay
is not about strife or sorrow, but about
peace. Midway through a 33-year career
as a quality engineer in the aerospace
industry, she began to look for a way to
relieve the stress. She “discovered and
fell in love with clay.” And it fit the bill
for stress relief.
“The feel of the clay is soothing,” she
explained. “I listen to Native American
flute music while I carve. As the carvings
come to life, the contrast between the
black underglaze that I put on a piece
and the white clay as I carve — it just
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