North America's First Peoples and that of the European settlers could not have been more different. The settlers came predominantly from Western Europe where knowledge was supreme but the Indigenous peoples came from the western hemisphere where wisdom was foremost...
Few non-native North Americans know First Nations peoples' real story. They know nothing of the hundreds of broken treaties, the senseless massacres, or the deliberate spreading of smallpox that killed them by the thousands. Nor do they know what really happened at the Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee, the Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek Massacre, the Long Walk, or Crow Creek. "The Trail of Tears" painting by Robert Lindneux in the Woolaroc Museum, Bartlesville, OK.
Indigenous people were forced from their traditional lands and marched for thousands of miles and placed on reserves or reservations. Many never made it but died along the way.
The main food source for America's Plains tribes was the Buffalo until they were almost exterminated.
Adapted from BIRD WITH BROKEN WING
Indian Life Books
"The shared past is a complicated place," someone wisely observed, "we need to listen to many voices."
The history of North America written by the white man for history books is always written by the victors. Flattened out, and treated as a single story, Native Americans were simply "air-brushed" out of American history, literature, and culture, even though they lived upon this land far past living memory, deep into the time of legend.
"Irreparable damage has been done by white writers who discredit the Indian," wrote Luther Standing Bear, "books have been written of the Native American, so distorting his true nature that he scarcely resembles the real man...who proclaims that every battle by the American Indian was a holy fight for the protection of wives, little children, and homeland; that every "massacre" was the frenzied expression of the right to exist?"
His words are true. Library shelves are filled with books about Native Americans and most of them were written by non-Native writers.
Barbara Alice Mann, another Native author, echoes the words of Luther Standing Bear.
Every Indigenous person has rankled and sickened at the omissions, stereotypes, and deception in a history written by a colonizer. The dehumanizing process is carried out through the words written...branded upon a people, diminishing our stature....Under the category of stereotypes, at least 10,000 volumes could be shelved."
Yet in spite of all these books, few non-native Americans or Canadians know First Nations peoples' real story. They know nothing of the white man's shameful past in their dealings with them; the hundreds of broken treaties, the senseless massacres, or the deliberate spreading of smallpox that killed them by the thousands.
Nor do they know what really happened at the Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee, the Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek Massacre, the Long Walk, or Crow Creek. Or the hidden motives behind the mission system, residential schools, the reservation and reserve system, and the Allotment Act. What about the true life stories of Native American heroes such as Pocahontas, Cochise, Geronimo, Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, or Crazy Horse? The little that we do know about them comes straight out of Hollywood.
Not long ago, a group of tourists came from Italy to tour our country, and part of that tour included the site of Wounded Knee. After learning for the first time its tragic history, one of them wrote,
God forgive us for being so ignorant, the shame that we feel haunts us today. How can a country which boasts its greatness, turn its back on the very people who gave so much and asked for so little. The average non-Indian has no idea of what Wounded Knee was. It's not in our history books..."
Every tribe has a story that deserves to be told. I believe there comes a time when the truth can no longer be ignored. The blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims cries out to be heard and to be vindicated. The time is now.
THE SOUL OF THE INDIAN-A BRIEF GLANCE INWARD
The world of North America's First Peoples and that of Europeans could not have been more different. The white man came predominantly from Western Europe where knowledge was supreme but the Indian came from the western hemisphere where wisdom was foremost.
Land is sacred to North America's Indigenous People. It was their mother and it could no more belong to any one person than the sunlight or the air. But when the Europeans came, they cleared the forests, cultivated the ground, slaughtered wild game in massive quantities, and mined valuable minerals as if there were no end to them. "You white people make slaves of everything," commented one Native, "the wind, the water, the fire and the earth... (yet) everything makes slaves of you white people, and we Indians are free."
From the very beginning Europeans did not understand the Indians' profound bond with the earth. Where they came from, land ownership was a measure of status and boundaries were explicit. They saw land as nothing more than a commercial product and "measured it, bought it, sold it, fenced it, tilled or built upon it, with an abandon that horrified Indians." They assumed it was the same everywhere.
In a letter to the President of the United States, Chief Seattle wrote, "Every part of this earth is sacred to my people, every shining pine needle, woods, every clearing, and every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people...whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. 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." Even in the vast untamed west the land was soon insufficient for the growing tide of European settlers.
"I know of no species of plant, bird, or animal that was exterminated until the coming of the white man," lamented Sioux author Luther Standing Bear. "Forests were mowed down, the buffalo were exterminated, the beaver driven to extinction...the white man has come to be the symbol of extinction for all things natural to this continent."
Indigenous people love and respect all living things and cannot understand how the white man could not do the same.
In this great circle of life, women stood in the center. Their vital role was demonstrated by the image of the earth as divine Mother and the power that flows from her. Because of this the family meant everything to them. Children were usually born into the clan of the mother where they stayed all their lives. Mothers were their first teachers, the ones to introduce them to the "Great Mystery". From being little, onward, they were taught to revere the mystical reality that was always present beneath surface appearances-how to see with their heart, not merely their eyes.
They believe that all living things should be accorded equal respect and saw children as full participants in their society. Because of this they were given a great range of freedom and rarely punished. The adults were responsive to the wishes of the child; the child was toilet trained when they were ready, not according to some schedule, and in some societies the children nursed until they were six or seven years of age. After that, boys were turned over to their uncles, and girls to their aunts or grandmothers. And all the events of a child's life were publicly celebrated-their first steps, a girl's first menstrual cycle, a boy's vision quest at puberty.
A group of families united by blood, or marriage, is a clan, and clans made up bands. This was their basic social unit. All members within the clan are brothers and sisters; aunts were considered mothers, and uncles were called fathers.
In her book, Speaking of Indians, Ella Cara Deloria, Anpetu Waste Win (Beautiful Day Woman) gives a wonderful picture of how kinship worked. When you addressed someone in your tribe, you would not say, "Sitting Bull" but "My uncle Sitting Bull". All relations not of the immediate family were tahunsa, or "cousins".
The Dakota word for etiquette, woyuonihan, means "full of respect". The word "wacekiya" was used to address a relative or to pray. They did not have time for "praise, flattery, exaggerated manners, and fine, high sounding words" which they saw as excessive and insincere. These had no part in Dakota politeness and if anyone talked constantly he was considered rude.
This exacting and unrelenting obedience to kinship was what men lived by-it was their government and developed a relationship of trust between Native Americans.
In her book, Ella Deloria tells a true story about the power of kinship. A young man had been murdered by a fellow Dakota and, according to their tradition, the family of the slain could retaliate and kill someone in the murderer's family. However, this tribe was blessed with a wise chief.
"My brothers and cousins," he addressed the family of the slain, "we have been caused to weep without shame...we are enraged...Why shouldn't we go out then and give the murderer what he deserves?"
"And yet my kinsmen, there is a better way!" With that, he challenged them to reject the traditional custom, and choose the better way, the way of forgiveness.
"Was the dead your brother?" he asked them, "then this man shall be your brother."
The family of the slain chose to listen to their chief, and adopted the murderer into their family. As he was brought before them, not knowing his fate (and fearing the worst) he was handed the peace pipe.
"Smoke now with these your new relatives," the chief told him. "Be confident that their love and compassion which were his (the slain) are now yours forever."
Tears trickled down the murderer's face as the chief spoke these words. He was now trapped by "loving kinship" and made a better relative than many who are related by blood, because he had been bought at such a price.
The Native people of North America treasure words. M. Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer Prize writer, described their oral traditions as "rare and therefore dear... zealously preserved in the ear and in the mind."17 Not only that, once they gave their word, they never broke it. Nor was there swearing in any Indian language. The worst thing they could say to each other was, "you are a dog!"
With their inherent poise and dignity, they also made great orators. Their discourses were a masterpiece, rich in sarcasm and humor, and great bursts of eloquence, impressing all who heard them. This was true even when their speeches were done by a poor translator or the white man couldn't understand a word that was spoken!
They also treasured silence and meditation; silence was more powerful than words. Silence was the absolute poise and balance of body, mind, and spirit. To them, a silent man was ever to be trusted, but a man too ready with speech was never taken seriously. They often thought the white man lacking in manners. "If you were to ask him, 'what is silence?'" said noted Sioux author Charles A. Eastman, he will answer, 'it is the Great Mystery...silence is the cornerstone of character."
Native Americans are also great listeners. "If I do not listen with care," said M. Scott Momaday "words are lost. If I do not remember carefully, the very purpose of words is frustrated." This attitude was reflected in their relationship with the "Great Mystery" who was to be worshiped in silence and solitude. Silence was necessary because words were so feeble. Creator God was to be worshiped in wordless adoration. It was solitary because no one was to come between a man and his Maker.
Another trait almost universal among them is the love of stories. Luther Standing Bear explained the reason for this. "Stories were the libraries of our people, a people enrich their minds who keep their history on the leaves of memory."
Colin G. Calloway, First Peoples-A Documentary Survey of American Indian History (New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012), 6.
Stuart A. Kallen, Native Americans of the Great Lakes (San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000), 9.
Barbara Alice Mann (editor), Daughters of Mother Earth-the Wisdom of Native American Women (Westport: Praeger Publishers, an imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 2006), foreword xvi, and 1.
Cameron Fleet (editor), First Nations-First Hand (Edison, New Jersey: Chertwell Books, Inc., a Division of Book Sales, Inc., 1997), 184.
Edna Hong, Way of the Sacred Tree (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1990), Foreword.
Marilyn G. Bentz (Gros Ventre) University of Washington.
Ella Deloria, Speaking of Indians (South Dakota: Dakota Press, 1944) Taken from "Kinship was the All Important Matter." Reprinted from Ella Deloria, Speaking of Indians. Copyright by the University of South Dakota Press.
