Tricksters

I swear, Wile E. Coyote is a Native American trickster spirit! The more I read about the coyote trickster spirits, the more I see that goof chasing the road runner and getting creamed in the process. The Native Coyote is full of mischief and he gets himself into trouble all the time. He foolishly puts himself into bad situations and is led to disaster as the audience watches or listens with anticipation and a smile. The Coyote regularly gets killed and then comes back to life. Sounds a great deal like our Looney Toon!

Now I wonder if the rabbit trickster compares to Bugs Bunny?

Coyote & Rabbit

Coyote and Rabbit are a pair of stinkers in Native stories. Animals talk in their tails the tricksters do many things as well. They do foolish things and sinister things and then they sometimes do things that do not make a lot of sense. When they do show up, though, one is always looking for the other shoe to drop. Will the hero suffer or will the trickster fall into their own web? It is different every time...

Thomas King

You'll never believe what happened! After reading several very offensive books and wading through the forums of arrogant, ignorant, and angry Indians, I was furious and no longer interested in helping or even listening any more. True, not all of the American Indian literature has been vulgar and mean, but enough of them were horrible and I was turning dark in my opinion of the American Indian's plight. Then I read the words of Thomas King.

Of the many books we have been reading thus far, "The Truth About Stories" has been one of the better ones. Much like Sherman Alexie, I do not feel like I am under attack from King. He is entertaining, professional, and does not scoff at the white people who might be reading his book. He does what he sets out to do... he tells stories about telling stories.

This book has found the middle path. Wisdom flows and I feel enlightened. I heard his words and understood the subtle and not so subtle racist things that people said to him. I felt him shoot the deer and agreed when he set the rifle down. I felt mixed about Ishi, there was both good and bad. I almost cried when he talked about Louis and how he must have felt before he shot himself. I did not feel accused by these stories. I felt as if I was along for the ride as these stories were being told.

Thomas King is a wonderful story teller. As a teller of stories myself, I can only hope to achieve the ability to touch others through stories as he has.

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus is a childhood hero of mine who has come under massive attack in the past decade. I am torn in my own opinions of him in this present day. When I was in grade school he was the man who discovered America and the reason we are all here! He was also the most courageous man of his day. He was willing to do what no one else was willing try. He was willing to prove to his culture that the Earth was round.

Like most great men of his day, the community at large thought he was mad. He fought hard to get permission to try to find a way to India by going around the world. No one else had the courage. He beat the odds. He found America.
Now he is belittled at every corner. He is the man who brought the evil white man down upon the Native American Indians. He took slaves, much like every other man in his culture. He fails at the moral standard of today. A man who beat the odds and changed the world has had his trophy taken away.

He wasn’t the first! The Vikings were the first! Well… yes, but the Europeans did not have this knowledge… so he was the first European to discover America.

He didn’t find America! He found Cuba! Sure… but he also found the “Americas” and was willing to try when no one else had the courage.

HE brought genocide to the Indians! No he didn’t. He was a curious explorer and a man of science. What other governments decided to do was not his fault.

Seven Circles

www.sevencircles.org

I found an interesting web site called "Seven Circles" and it is full of information. Native American events as well as phone numbers for the people setting up the events are there along with descriptions of some Native traditions and even a native joke of the month. While the events take place in California, they are a friendly group who is willing to answer questions. Their information is helping me in my final project.

We Shall Remain - Part 1

The first episode of this series was about the true story of the Thanksgiving story. While the American version only talks about the beginning, the Native story tells how it ended. The Wampanoag was the tribe who first saw the pilgrims, and many members of their tribe wanted to simply kill the English settlers off. The chief, however, felt the pilgrims were fragile and could be easily dealt with if they became disruptive.

An epidemic had been killing the Wampanoag off and they needed allies. Thus an alliance of convenience was formed between the two. Unfortunately they each had very different ideas on what this treaty meant. To the Wampanoag the treaty was a way for the two people to come together. They were becoming one people and this bond would unify them. To the English pilgrims, the Indians were simply an obstacle to be used and then discarded when they were through.

The first generation was able to live in peace because they needed each other. Once the English population swelled, they no longer needed the Indians and they were discarded. They had no tolerance for differences so they tried to convert the Indians to their way of life. They pushed and pushed until the new chief, Philip, was forced to declare war.

Interestingly enough, it was the intervention of the Mohawk tribe on behalf of the English that turned the tide of the war. Had the Mohawk not gotten involved, them English may have been pushed into the sea. It is a sad thing indeed that the Native American tribes contributed to their own demise in such a way.

So the real story of the first Thanksgiving ends with the children of the pilgrims killing all of the Indians who helped their parents survive... such a sad sad tale...

Qwo-Li Driskill

Qwo-Li is a difficult topic for me to write about. I almost decided not to blog at all about him because it means facing my personal prejudices and fears. As far as most men go, I consider myself to be one of the more sensitive ones. I'm ex-Army, chivalrous, and I firmly believe that every person in this world deserves the right to pursue happiness. This said, I have a confession.

Like most American men I find it very sexy to watch two women kissing and disgusting to watch two men kissing. It is a double standard but it that is what my biology does to me. However, I believe gay men and women have the right to happiness and I fought in the Army to defend that right. But even with these beliefs... Qwo-Li really freaks me out.

Part of this freak-out comes from the fact that I REALLY love his poetry. Some of the sexier bits of his writing are so well done that I get all tingly inside. However, my homophobic side gets me all twisted up inside when I remember this is a guy who likes other guys. It is all so confusing.

I think my biggest problem is that he chooses to dress as a woman. As a pagan, I have had to adjust my wardrobe, my appearance, my mannerisms, and my way of life to conform to the primarily Christian society. When I see someone getting hurt because they refuse to conform, it upsets me. Part of me gets angry at society, but part of me gets angry at the individual. I see acts of physical conformity to be part of the growing up process. While we are allowed to think whatever we want, we should accept that a boy in a dress is going to get his ass beat and he should probably stop wearing dresses in public.

While I do not condone the beating, I would probably do my best to avoid talking to him if I ran into him on the street. I see the boy in a dress to be a childish thing. Much like how I will never voluntarily walk through Harlem for fear of being shot, I do not feel a man should wear a dress.

So am I insensitive? Am I an ass? Maybe, but at least I gave 5 years to the Army so that these debates over rights and freedom could continue. Maybe in a generation or two things will be different. Maybe in a generation or two, the boys will not have to wish they were girls. Maybe... but I doubt it...

Oral Tradition of John Trudell

A funny thing happened in my poetry class. My poetry professor told us to write up a paper and presentation on present day great American poets. I decided to present John Trudell and my professor had never heard of him. She tried to talk me out of it, but the more I looked at her “alternative poets” the more I felt compelled to go back to John Trudell. Thus... I have finished my presentation and will be presenting tomorrow (April 15th).

Thus the tradition of Oral Teaching continues. I find irony and joy in this.

It is up to us to make a difference

I have been reading a few of my fellow classmate's blog entries and I figure I should put this out there instead of responding to the individual. Life is neither fair nor easy. It is up to the strong to use their power wisely and if you are angry about what is happening then it is your responsibility to live properly and help those who are being hurt.

My personal hero is King Arthur. I don't mean the all too realistic one with too many flaws, I mean the idealistic one who said, “the strong should defend the weak.” We are college students and we are in a position to become strong. It is our responsibility to defend the weak. The world is the way it is because people allowed it to get that way. It is up to us to change it. That is why we are here. We are here to learn and to make a difference.

Don't press the reset button, I like my Internet. Instead, get involved and try to make a difference. That is how we become better people. That is how we make this place we live into a better world.

Power and Place - Summary

Power and Place, by Vine Deloria, Jr. and Daniel R. Wildcat, Copyright 2001 published through Fulcrum Resources, is a book on Native American Indian education and the issues facing Native American students in the American school system. This collection of sixteen essays discusses problems in western civilization’s attempt to educate the indigenous people, Wildcat's term for Native Americans.

Wildcat declares “The Native American still does not fit comfortably or conveniently into western civilization.” He says this is not something that the indigenous people should regret. Each essay is a dialog that begins with explaining the current situation, the western ways, and how indigenous ways could be used to respond to the problems.

An example is in the essay of “Understanding the Crisis,” Wildcat points out how scientists want to solve the energy crisis with technology. He declares that this crisis cannot be solved by technology alone, but through the philosophy of how we live. This formula is repeated as Delora and Wildcat have an essay-by-essay dialog about the system, how it works, and how it could or should work.

A Man’s Reply Without Apology

From time-to-time I read an article that is so absurd that I cannot help but feel the writers of it live in a fantasy world where life is either much better or worse than it really is. In the article of “Indigenous Feminism Without Apology,” a very angry woman, Andrea Smith, rants about the fanatical Christian Right as if it was the controlling power of all decisions in the United States. By looking at the most extreme cases of bigotry and close-mindedness, Smith paints a nightmarish picture of a country controlled by the white church where every non-white lives in poverty under the lash of the elite white class who controls everything.

While it is true that there are problems, it is not as bad as Andrea Smith claims. Her article is posted on an extremist website that makes it sound like we live in a Fascist society. Like a paranoid scitzofrantic who thinks "the man" is out to get them, they conspire to survive in a country that is not as closed minded and racist as they like to pretend it is.

I see no reason to give this article any more of my attention. If life really was this one-sided, then I, a white, blond haired, blue eyed, man, would need a monocle and a really twisty mustache that I could twiddle as I schemed my next diabolical act against women and brown people.

The Sacred Hoop Summery

The Sacred Hoop, by Paula Gunn Allen, is the first gyncentric book of Native American feminism published in the United States. This book is a gyncentric collection of essays, poetry and fiction, from many feminine writers, tells and retells stories both new and old. Stories of a time when women were the rock of the tribe and female wisdom was honored.

The Sacred Hoop is full of information and is structured in three parts. The beginning is about the past, the role of our grandmothers and the sacred. The middle is about the present, Contemporary poets and stories. The end is about souls, families, and stories from other tribal cultures. As the first gyncentric book, The Sacred Hoop is the base line for all other books of its kind. It is a place where Indians and spirits are always found together.

Civilized Marbles

Once upon a time there was a boy named Joey. Joey's prized possession was a bag of marbles. He treasured them and played with them and marveled at how pretty they were. One day a bigger boy with red hair named Tommy pushed Joey down and stole his marbles. Joey cried and cried and then he got angry. Joey watched Tommy, hated Tommy, plotted against Tommy.

One day, Joey saw that Tommy had left his marbles unattended. Joey sneaked over and stole his marbles back AND stole Tommy's marbles too. Now Joey had all of the marbles, but he was still angry. Later on he saw a boy named Jeffrey. Jeffrey had red hair too and this made Joey angry. When Jeffrey's back was turned, Joey stole Jeffrey's marbles too. When his parents caught him, he told them of the other red haired boy who stole his marbles and said that it was okay because all red haired boys were thieves.

This is what modern American Feminism has become. All the women who have had their marbles stolen are trying to steal all of the marbles of every man because some men have hurt women. The same can be said about racism, religious persecution, and any other type of power struggle that exists in our culture. We need to get OUR marbles back, but share the others. That is what it means to be “civilized.”

Christianity and Native American Spirituality

The concept of having a mixed belief system is not new to me. A person can be a Christian and a Native American if they choose to be, there is nothing evil about it. Unfortunately the Native American tribes have been told that they are ignorant, savage, and evil due to their tribal beliefs.

At the Wednesday night meeting we watched a video, in between speeches, and there were several very good arguments made. My favorite was, “One was that, there are so many Christians who insist that there is only one God and only one way to worship that God and yet there are so many different types of Christianity in existence. If the Christians cannot agree how to worship their own God, how can they tell the Native Americans that they are doing it wrong?

Bob Thomas, a Native American, said, “We too have a covenant with the creator.” One main thing I did learn, was that many of the problems on the Indian Reservations 1970 was that the different tribes had a major identity crisis. On the reservations they disagreed as to who they were. They fought among themselves. Then in Stony Indian Park tribes from around North America began to send their tribal elders to a conference.

This conference allowed the elders to discover that things were rough all over. No one tribe had all of the problems, and many of their problems were the same. Another discovery was that when these elders and medicine men talked about their faiths, they found many similarities. They decided that they all had different ways of respecting the world and that was alright. This brought them all closer together and allowed them to work together to revitalize the old ways.

While this is not the end of the story, it is the important part. If this movement were allowed to continue then life on the reservations might be nicer than they currently are but Christian fundamentalists are never able to leave this sort of thing alone. Very powerful right wing groups continue to attack the Native American traditions as evil. Unfortunately, some people listen to these ignorant people who are afraid of anything different than themselves.

The narrow vision cannot accept difference. Our world is full of variety and much of it is wonderful. Unfortunately there are many out there who believes different is bad. In the case of the Native Americans, this sows mistrust and strife to people who have already suffered enough.

Down by the River

Ms. Powell makes me happy. She is not hostile and angry, she is a lover of stories. She has learned that stories are the way for us to learn about each other. Her power to hear and tell stories is wonderful. She is a true woman of the world.

Story 1 is a fine example of how we should all live and feel. Our lives, much like our bead work, are things that we tend to work so hard not to ruin that we make it all way harder than it needs to be. We exhaust ourselves, cramp our hands, focus really hard, and miss the whole point of what we were trying to learn in the first place.

Evelyn, an Okla-homa Miami elder, reminds us: “Honey, don't work so hard-it should feel just right when you do it, just like this, comfortable but controlled-you don't want your hands to cramp up. Everybody's different, y'know, but you want to be comfortable while you're beading...”

This is how we should live life... we should start by listening to our elders more.

Story 2 is about our intentions. Our egos are very fragile at times. Often we work toward an unrealistic goal of perfection and we fall flat in the process. If we could simply work for the joy of working or work as a form of thanks to those who came before us then we would work more easily. The irony is that in working for the perfection of our egos we generally end up messing our work up worse than if we just worked for joy.

Later in the article, we see La Flesche's stories about being of two races. She does not see this as a curse but as a blessing. With the education of two cultures swimming in her brain, she is able to call upon more information than either group could alone. By opening herself up to multiple points of view she is more flexible and happier.

Who is Sherman Alexie?

“People say I am like an apple, red on the outside and white on the inside.”

Who is Sherman Alexie? His struggle to learn and be free was a path that any person of his interests and intelligence would have a difficult time with. The book nerd is always bullied by the jock. It is like a karmic balancing act needs to take place in the nerd's life so that they can be miserable as children but happy as adults. Sherman Alexie, however, had the added challenge of being a Native American Indian.

The mythical image that young Alexie put on white kids was similar, in a way, to the mythical image white kids make of the Indians. We tend to think of them as naturalists with magical powers and totem spirit guilds. They tend to think of us as magnificent conquerers who, though the power of manifest destiny, expand our power to the limits of the Earth and beyond. Neither of the outlooks are entirely true, but we allow these prejudices to color our judgment.

Who is Sherman Alexie? He's a person. He has strengths and weaknesses, just like the rest of us. He has a sense of humor that has served him well. He followed multiple women to success, moving to different schools to be near them. His life has been cursed with terrible hardships and blessed with wondrous success. He is a great writer who we respect and a teller of jokes that make us laugh.

Symbols are for the symbolminded

As I consider the things that divide us as a people I stumbled upon a question that shook me. The question of, “What is in it for me?” is one that the religion of capitalism. No one does anything for free, and even fewer are willing to give of themselves once they have been burned. With most of the world’s powerful people focusing of gaining more power, the less powerful people are the ones with the morals.

There will always be good people and bad people in the world. The question is what the people in the middle do? People who focus and decide that they are going to be good or they are going to sacrifice morality for profit are the true minority in the world. Most people have flexible morals. The people with flexible morals do what it trendy, not what is correct.

The morality of the people in power can be seen in the actions of the people. A bad administration generates a lot of anger and greed from the people. The powerful are also intelligent enough to keep the real power holders out of sight.
George Bush was not the reason for why the country was in bad shape. It was the people behind the scenes who pulled strings and enforced horrible laws who caused our country to end up where it is today.

Barak Obama is not as “in charge” as we would like to believe. While he is a wonderful public speaker and has a great deal of support, it is the actions of the other powerful people around him that will decide whether we get better or not. Barak Obama is a wonderful symbol; I hope the people who rally around him can get things fixed.

John Trudell

The problem with people with power is that they tend to get really freaked out when the people they have power over try to take it away. This is what we say in the sixties and seventies with the civil rights movement. Intelligent people, who just happened not to be white, came into the public spotlight and scared the hell out of powerful people when the upset the status quo. They did this, by asking for equal rights.

We all know the names of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm-X, but the Native American's civil rights leader was pushed aside and ignored. John Trudell is a man who surprisingly few people have heard of. He marched, preached, and fought just as hard as the other civil rights leaders but his struggle was not nearly as successful. How did the government successfully put down his movement? How did he get kept out of the history books? How did this man, who is just as brilliant and dangerous to the people of power as the black leaders survive when others were killed?

To answer the last question, he almost did not. John Trudell's wife and children were killed when fire was set to their house while he was away. For a time, this stopped him from fighting. This may very possibly saved his life but at a horrible cost.

John Trudell makes many statements that are universally true. The powerful maintain their power by keeping the people divided. A divided enemy cannot win against an organized one. By turning our struggle for liberty a racial war we create lines that can divide us. Indians don't want to help the black people and the same is true for the other factions. If they were to work together they would be a louder voice. If they were to support each other they could watch each other's backs. But instead they remain divided and they are weakened.

The dominant capitalistic power that dominates our world is willing to make more money and gain more power whatever the cost. This causes the powerful people to make decisions that are bad for everyone. Most of these decisions are bad for themselves as well. Short sighted waste brings about instant gratification with long term consequences. The ability to make sacrifices for a better tomorrow is something we all need to work at. To do less is a disservice to ourselves and our children.

Generalization & The Art of Otherness

Generalization is an awful thing that tends to creep up any time one group of people encounters another. We want our definitions to be easy to understand and refer to so we stereotype and believe more of it than we should. In this stereotyping, the Irish are drunks, the French are arrogant, black Americans are all rapping criminals, Americans in general are all fat, and Indians are all feather wearing peace pipe smokers who talk about the Great Spirit and induce visions.

As with all stereotypes, there are many individuals of the cultures who fall into these neat little packages. However, there are almost always far more who do not. These stereotypes are created as a sense of explaining an “Other.” The other can be anyone who is not of the same group as the person creating the stereotype. It is by pointing out the things that make us different that we forget the things that make us the same.

Differences are a type of divisional fear that prevents ordinary people from uniting against the powerful. If there are several groups who are taken over by an oppressor, they can overthrow the oppressor if they band together. By keeping the groups fighting, though, they cannot overcome the oppressor and thus they remain conquered. This is what was done to the Native Americans.

The language used by the government was that of “savage.” Whenever a white person was killed by an Indian they were given a name and a small back story to make people feel bad for them. The Indians, on the other hand, were always talked about in the same language that would be used to talk about wolves or bad weather. This dehumanized the Native Americans and allowed the government to lie, cheat, and do whatever terrible thing they wanted to these people. After all, “they were only savages.”

Generalizing every Indian in the Americas as one people also allowed the government to take one universally hostile stance to get what they wanted. If every group was different then there would be “good” and “bad” groups. Any group labeled as a “good” group would not be able to be taken advantage of when the time came. This would mean the powerful would have to share their power and that was not one of their goals.

This sort of general grouping can be seen all over today’s political spectrum. Muslims are often viewed with fear because most people are very ignorant to their individual beliefs and differences. Much like the crusaders of old, violent fanatics give every one of their fellow believers a bad name. This bad name is difficult to overcome.

The same can be said about black people in the world who have been given a reputation of being more animalistic. In the United States, any time there is talk about gangs or drugs they show black people. Many times these black people are just walking to school or getting on a bus but the camera is shined on them anyway. This is also true when talking about Africa, which thanks to the media is accused of being one of the most dangerous places in the world.

The phrase, “oh crap the boss is coming, look busy,” is a fantastic example of the real vs the spun. The eye of a camera or the gaze of the story teller can color a people or a situation in any way they choose to. A people who are spun in a bad light lose support. Those who lose their support can become victims and no one will rise up to protect them. This is how the Native American was pushed into their present situation. This is why we all need to be more vigilant and not believe everything we hear.

Greed and Destruction

Our latest reading assignment was a difficult one to read. The fall of the Native American to the United States Government is a horrible story of betrayal and selfishness that shows some of the ugliest parts of human nature. It is a story that causes me to fall into a depressive funk for a few hours, and then it makes me angry.

My anger is a mixture. I am angry that our government could do such a thing. I am angry that our government still does very little to help these people out. I am angry that I am held accountable to things that my family was not even in the country for. I am angry that the human race is capable of this type of behavior. I am angry that men can claim to have honor and integrity and then shit all over a people just because they are greedy.

It is difficult for me to fully understand the mindset of the time period because I was raised to believe that we are all people and I need to treat everyone with a base line of respect. I guess I am an odd sort of person because I was raised to worship selfless heroes like King Arthur and his knights. I have always held myself to that standard. That is why I joined the Army after 9/11. That is why I was often on a superior’s crap list while in the Army. That is why I struggle to understand our world and the people who are in it.

The people of this nation have a real problem with admitting fault. Our sense of self importance causes us to push other people down in a way that should be beneath us. We are better than this… we should act it.

Stories

The stories of the Native American Indians are what bring their world to life. To them the land is alive. The Shamanic traditions state that the world is a living creature who is the giver of life. People are to live in harmony with this life giver because to do otherwise is to secure our own demise.

The story of the Coyote made me think of the Road Runner cartoons. The foolish coyote tries so hard to do thing the unsafe and foolish way and is blown to bits at every turn. He always returns to life in the next part of the story but his misadventures are designed to teach and humor us.

Stories are how we teach children. Stories are how we teach each other. By writing stories, we can spread our points of view to others and help them to see the world as we do.

These stories help us remember who we are. Stories that are handed down allow us to remember who we were. For the Native American Indians, the stories are tied to the land and the people who live on it.

The Confusion of Knowing

Coming into this class I felt I knew a great deal about Native American Culture. I am a practicing shaman, I have read and studied many books, and I have always been interested in the Native American struggle. Unfortunately, every time I think I know what I am talking about, I get told that I don't. Every time I think I am understanding, a Native American in a business suit and a deeply engraved scowl tells me that I am very wrong. This upsets me in ways that are difficult to describe.

I have a conflict in my mind. On one hand I wish to learn about this amazing culture. On the other hand I feel there is entirely too much whining going on and people need to organize and do something about it. I hope to put these feelings to rest in this class with the healing power of learning. I hope to learn what it is that I am missing that creates so much anger and keeps me from being at peace with this topic.