When I was a child, my Elders taught me European fairy tales - which used to be used to teach social value and life lessons to European children - in addition to our own D/Lakota legends. I grew up multi-cultural. Not merely "bi-"cultural - we lived on the non-Indn side of the Rez line, and there were a number of races and nationalities in the tiny town(s) I grew up in.
Some of those tales focussed on what happens when people toy with 'the system', and the chaos that invariably results. We are in the midst of at least 4 "crisis situations" in the U.S. right now - the ongoing attacks on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the one regarding oil prices, the mortgage mess, and the ethics mess - especially as concerns equal enforcement of laws and behavior of "leaders", also called "people in authority".
The so-called patriot Act is not in the least patriotic. It is a deep-diving, dedicated effort by people who manipulated facts and situations to get - or allow - the September 11th, 2001 attacks to happen so crazy people in high offices could undermine - even eliminate - the Bill of Rights, at least for the main run of the U.S. population. If the people who pulled this off were not in high offices, they would be in mental wards, I firmly believe. Recently, a revised version of FISA was passed by Congress, and it is as un-Constitutional a piece of legislation as I have ever seen or heard of. And the mass of "the American people" haven't said 'boo' against it.
If this had happened 20-30 years ago, there would have been riots in the streets. As there should be.
Recently, someone wondered out loud, why there has been so little outrage at this. My reply was, "Drugs; particularly marijuana. After all, it is the drug of choice for euthanizing elderlies in China, because it destroys a person's will to compete and drive to win. It makes them complacent. And since any kind of second-hand smoke has been proven to be at least as dangerous as first-hand smoke, not merely smoke from tobacco, the children of dope users have grown up without the normal drive to compete and will to win."
Think about that, readers.. Between drugs like marijuana and the great push by pharmaceutical companies to get huge numbers of hcildren on sedatives and tranquilizers, at least one generation has grown up with a decreased competitive spirit and will to win. Of course this carries over into the rest of a person's life.
The oil-price mess and the mortgage mess are both the product of irresponsible people toying with the system - proving that one person can have a big effect.. as well as appealing to these people's egos, while causing chaos. Isn't it odd to you that people who obviously don't have the credit history (not 'score') or income to carry a huge mortgage are just handed them? Bankers don't hand out money; why would they hand out huge mortgages? Unless of course, they were simply behaving in a childish fashion, focussing on 'making' money without ethical considerations, or consideration of the domino effect.. Nothing is truly isolated from anything else in the universe, after all.. Even less so then in a country.
The ethics scandals that have popped up virtually weekly in every segment of the U.S. are part of this ugly scenario. They stem from improper socialization and a deep lack of the elders having taught the children to consider more than just themselves.
The result is chaos, and a major flirtation with major recession and the toppling of the economic stability everyone craves.
Once again, we has met the enemy and s/he is us, takoszja. Now we need to put our heads together and figure out creative ways to pull things back into alignment. The first of which, I believe, is to ditch the 'me first' attitude that has been so prevalent for so long, and do major studies of and committment to the concept of "co-operation".
No one really does anything major alone, after all..
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
About Custer and Independence
On June 25, 1876, a thug commissioned in the U.S. Army and 200-some goons under his command attacked yet another peaceful Indn camp - but this time, instead of slaughtering The People, these hired goons got what they deserved. Today, we ITI commemorate this as the Battle of the Greasy Grass. White people commemorate this as the Battle of the Little Bighorn or Custer's Last Stand. We won the battle, but because our ITI cultures were not oriented to annihilation and the Euro-'American' culture was, we didn't win the war.
The war isn't over, however. It's still going on.
There is a myth promoted in the majority culture that we ITI are "conquered". There used to be a myth-conception that we ITI were going to become extinct. We've pretty well gotten rid of that one. Not entirely - but almost. We're working on it.
But so long as we ITI - Indigenous Turtle Islanders - refuse to be 'acculturated' and/or 'assimilated' - which would be a giant step down and backward from our Traditional Ways - the war will continue.
So long as we ITI have to continue to sue to get our Treatys both recognized and adhered to by the U.S. government - which never intended to adhere to them initially, according to the official historic record - the war will continue.
Supreme Court Justices have written of their distress at the raw deal we have gotten from the U.S. government. It has made a dent in the wall of abuse handed out to us by officialdumb. In a few spots, we have made pinholes.
But so long as we ITI have to 'justify' our desire for such things as eagle feathers, which are central to our spiritual practices, to officials of the U.S. government while no other group has to justify anything to any officials of the U.S. government, we are not "full" citizens of the U.S. despite the words of the Snyder Act of 1924. So long as we have to guard our sweat lodges against destruction by racists, particularly when we have them off of our Reservations, which are 'countries', and so on a par with the U.S., the war continues.
So long as we are forced to welfare-as-lifestyle, particularly in those states with a large Indn population, the "Custer Effect" is still in effect, and the war continues.
So long as officials in any part of government - at any level, not just federal - try to keep us from accessing our full Constitutional Rights, the war continues.
And eventually, we will win it. It does strike this Indn as sad, though, that in the Age of Enlightenment, with so much accurate information available at the touch of a button, some humans - supposedly the only animals that think - continue to resist the fact that we are human beings with equal rights throughout this land - which is technically still ours, since the Treatys were broken first in every one of the 389 cases we know as Treatys by the U.S. government.
Tomorrow the whites of this country will celebrate "Independence" Day. The reality is, however, that so long as any part of the majority culture tries to subjugate another, so long as the U.S. government tries to restrict Indigenous Peoples' religious / spirituality - Freedoms guaranteed to us all by the Constitution and Bill of Rights (not of priviledges) - people here are not independent of anything except a form of government.
Bigots are prisoners of their dedication to ignorance and all that attends it. And that continues the Indian Wars. To me and many other Traditionals - it's just a day with pretty fireworks displays at night. We had independence; the majority culture which so busily celebrates its illusions is the one that doesn't really believe in them, yet, and so doesn't have them or want anyone else to have them, either.
I shall continue to pray for their enlightenment, and ask you to do so, too.
The war isn't over, however. It's still going on.
There is a myth promoted in the majority culture that we ITI are "conquered". There used to be a myth-conception that we ITI were going to become extinct. We've pretty well gotten rid of that one. Not entirely - but almost. We're working on it.
But so long as we ITI - Indigenous Turtle Islanders - refuse to be 'acculturated' and/or 'assimilated' - which would be a giant step down and backward from our Traditional Ways - the war will continue.
So long as we ITI have to continue to sue to get our Treatys both recognized and adhered to by the U.S. government - which never intended to adhere to them initially, according to the official historic record - the war will continue.
Supreme Court Justices have written of their distress at the raw deal we have gotten from the U.S. government. It has made a dent in the wall of abuse handed out to us by officialdumb. In a few spots, we have made pinholes.
But so long as we ITI have to 'justify' our desire for such things as eagle feathers, which are central to our spiritual practices, to officials of the U.S. government while no other group has to justify anything to any officials of the U.S. government, we are not "full" citizens of the U.S. despite the words of the Snyder Act of 1924. So long as we have to guard our sweat lodges against destruction by racists, particularly when we have them off of our Reservations, which are 'countries', and so on a par with the U.S., the war continues.
So long as we are forced to welfare-as-lifestyle, particularly in those states with a large Indn population, the "Custer Effect" is still in effect, and the war continues.
So long as officials in any part of government - at any level, not just federal - try to keep us from accessing our full Constitutional Rights, the war continues.
And eventually, we will win it. It does strike this Indn as sad, though, that in the Age of Enlightenment, with so much accurate information available at the touch of a button, some humans - supposedly the only animals that think - continue to resist the fact that we are human beings with equal rights throughout this land - which is technically still ours, since the Treatys were broken first in every one of the 389 cases we know as Treatys by the U.S. government.
Tomorrow the whites of this country will celebrate "Independence" Day. The reality is, however, that so long as any part of the majority culture tries to subjugate another, so long as the U.S. government tries to restrict Indigenous Peoples' religious / spirituality - Freedoms guaranteed to us all by the Constitution and Bill of Rights (not of priviledges) - people here are not independent of anything except a form of government.
Bigots are prisoners of their dedication to ignorance and all that attends it. And that continues the Indian Wars. To me and many other Traditionals - it's just a day with pretty fireworks displays at night. We had independence; the majority culture which so busily celebrates its illusions is the one that doesn't really believe in them, yet, and so doesn't have them or want anyone else to have them, either.
I shall continue to pray for their enlightenment, and ask you to do so, too.
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