|
|
26 February, 1996
Sociology 217c
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
The earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself. One thing we know, our God is also your God.
Chief Seattle, 1855
Lack of understanding, and perhaps forgetfulness, are perhaps the true cause to most of the inhumanities done by mankind against themselves. Religion is a prime example where little or no knowledge of another path leads to contempt and fear of the other people. The Native Americans of what is now the United States of America is a classical example where a lack of understanding lead to the near extinction of a people. Other examples include the often overlooked so called Albigensian Crusade, from 1209 to 2144, which lead to the total destruction of a religious group called the Cathar. This action by the Roman Catholic Church left tens of thousands dead in a part of France. A papal legate, in reply to a question of how to tell the Cathar from the Catholic, stated "Kill them all. God will recognize his own" (Robinson, 1989). This lead to the creation of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition, where history witnessed the systematic elimination of heretics, witches, and other 'enemies' of the church. The slaughter was second only to the elimination of the Native Americans in North America. This paper will first look at these differences and then look at the effect of the systematic 'saving' of these people.
Fundamentally, there are extreme differences in the spiritual cultures of the European settlers and the Native Americans. The settlers were of many diverse religious sects, including Catholic, Quaker, Mormon, and many other Protestant sects. Often these groups would be at odds with one another due to religious differences. The differences in all of these European religions combined, however, were marginal due to the differences between the Europeans and the Native Americans.
Native American spirituality was animistic, not monotheistic. This means that the did not worship one God, as all the European settlers did, but honored the spirit which was in all things. The Natives Americans lived in a world where mythology and reality were in perfect harmony. European definitions of religion fall short when applied to Native American Spirituality, or any Shamanic path. Durkheim, for instance, states that religion is "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things" (class notes, February 2, 1996). When everything becomes sacred, when the act of grinding corn has a spiritual quality to it, when creation comes not from a single deity, but from an act of nature, where does the European definition of religion fit? Luckert (1984) offers an alternative definition, "man's response to so-conceived greater-than-human configurations of reality".
Luckert's definition is much more complex than Durkheim's, but it allows greater understanding of a culture where things are not as clearly tied to a single, Biblical, source as they are among the Europeans and their descendants. Take for instance creation. The most common story among the Native Americans, and some Asian communities as well, is that a living entity dove down to the bottom of the ocean and brought up dirt to form the land (Miller, 1992). Miller offers other creation myths as well:
Alternatively, the earth began when a turtle floated from the depths of the sea and agreed to support land. Many Northeastern tribes share this story. The Delawares trace their ancestry to this turtle and a gigantic cedar tree that grew at its center. The Iroquois and related tribes, who trace kinship through female links, tell of a woman who fell from the sky and found refuge on the turtle's back. (1992)
The relationship between the Native American and all things were sacred to them. Hunting, fishing, cultivation, and other acts which sustained the people were sacred acts. Campbell (1990) tells of how to the hunter, the animal he hunts becomes his principle animal, and how in planting, the plant becomes the principle plant. He explains this with a short myth:
There are Pueblo myths and Huichol myths in Mexico, telling of the corn maidens. One of them, in one of these myths, is compelled by the young hero's mother to grind the corn, and as she is grinding, her own arms disappear. And she disappears. She is grinding herself away. Our whole life is sustained by the mystery of life, and everything that you eat, whether vegetable or animal, is a life that is being given to you through its own willingness to become your own life substance.
This is a complete turn around from the Genesis, where we are given mastery over the animals. For the Native American, mastery can not exist over the animals, for they are the brothers and sisters of the Native Americans.
Each individual is literally a cousin, a brother, a sister of EVERYTHING! And not just Sister Hawk, Brother Eagle, Sister Bear; but Brother Mountain, Sister Cloud, Brother Sun, Sister Cottonwood. In everything is some of the "spirit stuff" which is the true existence of the cosmos: the same spirit stuff is within each individual human. (Hawk & Cat, 1990)
What effect would the civilizing of these people who lived in harmony with nature have upon them? The film, In The White Man's Image, showed the good intentions of Pratt and his helpers in founding the Carlyle Indian School. It is unfortunate that these good intentions paved the way for the greatest blow to native spirituality.
One of the first things that the Indian Schools did was to cut the children's hair. According to the film, this was a sign of mourning and death. Naming was also something which was done to these children shortly after arriving in their new homes. According to In The White Man's Image, names were written on a board and they were asked to chose their new name, with no knowledge of English or what the names meant.
The traditional teachers of the youth, the tribal elders, were not longer a source of information for these children. The tribal elders represented more than just the older members of the tribe. They were the keepers of the lore, of the myth and the medicine. Luther Standing Bear, who was one of the children who was forced to choose a name with no meaning to him, writes:
The Sioux people have many stories which are told by the older ones in the tribe to the younger. Many main events and historical happenings of the tribe are told as stories and in this way the history of the people is recorded. These stories were not told, however, with the idea of forcing the children to learn, but for pleasure, and they were enjoyed by young and old alike. (1988)
One of the key points made here is in that the stories were not forced upon the children. In the Indian schools, learning was forced. There was no pleasure. The teachers also were not the tribal elders, they were not the grandmothers and grandfathers. Indian society was markedly different from the society of the white man. Family was not limited to the household, or to the modern concept of the atomic family. All members of the tribe were brother and sister, just as the rocks and birds were brother and sister. The following example states these relations in the Blood Indians of Canada:
For instance, all my female relatives of AnadaAki's age were my grandmothers, as well as some who were younger. Also, all the women of my tribe who lived long ago were spoken of as grandmothers. In addition, it is common for any old woman in the tribe, when speaking kindly, to call any young woman or girl "my granddaughter". (Hungry Wolf, 1980)
There are many other factors which lead to the near total destruction of the native spirituality. There was some conversion to this new religion, though as Chief Seattle said "our God is also your God". The Native American did not seek to convert the white man, to destroy his cosmology. In the reality of the Native American there was room for all.
The Native American religions survived the best efforts of the white man to crush them. The spirit of the people was dampened, but not extinguished. Just like many of the European immigrants, who rejected their culture of origin, the third generation is seeking to learn what their parents never knew.
"The child said, "My name is Mary in the English way, but in the language of our people, I am called A-wa-sa-si."
"And what is it you wish, my child?" asked Oona.
"I should like," said the child, "to hear the stories of our people."
(Broker, 1983)
Children like Mary, A-wa-sa-si, who are now seeking out the grandmothers and grandfathers are the hope of survival for the rich spiritual life of the native peoples. It speaks well for a people to have suffered through disease, relocation, genocide, and being 'saved', to reclaim their culture which was taken away from them. The United States of America is a multicultural nation, regardless of what the leaders want. The Native Americans should be an example of what happens when you try to strip away a culture from a people. Unemployment, alcoholism, illiteracy, and suicide, things which didnŐt exist till the white man tried to save the native.
If some good can come out of the near destruction of a people, let us hope that our leaders will recognize what happened, and make steps to avoid the destruction of other peoples in our Nation, and in our world.
Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway narrative. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.
Transformations of Myth Through Time. New York: Harper & Row.
American Indian Ceremonies. New Brunswick: Inner Light Publications.
The Ways of My Grandmothers. New York: Quill.
American Tribal Religions, Volume Eight. Navajo Coyote Tales. Department of Religious Studies, Southwest Missouri State University.
Earth Maker: Tribal Stories from Native North America. New York: Perigee.
Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry. New York: M. Evans & Company.
Stories of the Sioux. Lincoln. University of Nebraska Press.