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.

Stephen Hawking and the Reality of a Creator

I've been reading a book on Stephen Hawking, the British theoretical physicist who has ALS.
Dr. Hawking wrote a book in 1988, A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME; FROM THE BIG BANG TO BLACK HOLES. In it, he asks, "So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?"
The analogy for the shape of the universe he uses is that of the earth, having a point - somewhere - at the top, widening to the equator, then becoming smaller to a point - somewhere - at the bottom. Since there is no place on the earth that is identifiable as the point of beginning of the earth, so there can be no point of an end to the surface of the earth. Dr. Hawking takes the position that because this is so for the earth, if it is also true for the universe, then there is no need or place for a creator.
He further posits that there is no place for a creator - i.e., no reality of one - because, without a point of beginning, there is no possibility of "anything existing before time".
I believe Dr. Hawking is wrong, and that his position has a basic flaw. This basic flaw stems from the logic he uses to make his position. He appears to believe that if we cannot measure either "time", or the point at which "time" began, nothing existed before it except possibly energy, and nothing could have. Simply because there is no point of beginning - of time or anything else - that we mere humans can measure does not automatically insure that nothing came before the thing we call "time". In fact, 'nothing' has been proven to be impossible to exist; nature abhors a vacuum and there are no true vacuums to be found anywhere.. If there were, the basic laws of physics would be nullified. In short, Dr. Hawking depends on humans' ability to measure and quantify the universe in order to define both the universe and the reality, or lack thereof, of a creator, and his position is based on a premise that is a direct violation to the most basic laws of physics.
Moreover, the lack of a point of beginning or ending of the earth or any part of the universe in whole or in part proves the reality of a Creator, simply because it reflects the eternal nature of the Creator, Which has not beginning or ending Itself.
While Dr. Hawking is welcome to espouse any theory he cares to, the lack of ability to measure a thing does not prove it doesn't exist. The most basic laws of physics speak to this. What this lack does prove is that human technology is not infallible, may never achieve the perfection he seems to believe it can, and in any case, since physics has long ago proven that there is no such thing as a 'true' vacuum – i.e., a space containing absolutely nothing, there may well be a creator.
More than that, I believe absolutely that the universe is a logical creation, and that this in and of itself proves absolutely that there is indeed a creator. To believe in the logic that allows physics and mathematics to exist and to describe the mysteries of the universe and then to claim at the same time that the universe happened by accident is completely illogical. If the universe happened entirely by accident, logic could not function. Predictability would not exist. Chaos would rule, rather than entropy and predictability. The Big Bang may have happened, but it did not 'just happen'. There was a logic – a creator – that made it happen, if it happened at all.

I am a Traditional person of my Lakota People. We have a creation story, as does every other culture on earth. I will tell a part of it here, because it reinforces my position.

Our Lakota Creation Story teaches: Long, long ago, before measurable time existed, and so, before the world (= universe) existed, everything existed, but it was formless. We Lakota call this formless condition 'being in the void'. A void is not an empty space; no such place exists. Void means “the absence of physical form”. Yet, there was life, because everything is made up of spirit (energy) at its most basic.

A proof of this would be lightning. We can see lightning and its effects, but we cannot see the parts that make it up, and we know it is pure spirit, pure energy. Yet, among our People, there are those wakan (mysterious / holy) people who can call the lightnings – the Wikangli Oyate – and work with them. These are the heyoka – sometimes called the Thunder Dreamers.

Anyway, the many parts within the void may not have had form, but they did have a connection to each other; we say, "they were related"; and they knew this and that they made up a whole, because the world (= universe) is composed of spirit at its most basic, and spirit has no one form itself, yet It is everywhere.

For whatever reason, suddenly the group consciousness began to wonder what Its various parts were like. It wondered about this for awhile, until finally Its curiosity was so great It decided to find out.

It began to separate out some of its most basic spirit energy, since Power has many levels, and what eventually formed, was Inyan, the Rock, which later became the Earth.

As the most basic spirit energy separated out and formed Inyan, the Rock, some of the Power of Takuskanskan – Something Holy Moving, which is spirit / energy, which is always moving – also leaked out. As it turned out, it had to be this way, although we don't know why, or need to know why, and it could not be reversed without great difficulty.

The color of this Power was bright blue, and became the disc of the sky. This shade of blue is the holiest of the colors. The point when Takuskanskan began to separate out some of Its most basic spirit energy and it became Inyan as it solidified into having form, is when Time began.

We Lakota have known these things far longer than the majority culture has existed. And, whether we argue Dr. Hawking's question from the perspective of the newcomer, physics, or from that of ancient knowledge from my people's culture, we know his question and his belief that there is no Creator, is wrong and his logic is flawed; that he has apparently overlooked some basic tenets of physics and logic. Just because something has always been does not mean there is no creator - it means there must be a creator, since only the form, or lack of it, is the point of contention. The universe IS the Creator, then; resolving Itself into Its myriad parts, in order to learn what It is really all about. The ongoing formation of the universe is a voyage of self-discovery by the Creator. Hechetu ye.

On The Reality of A God-Power - or Not

I'm a shameless read-aholic. I read labels, signs, just about anything that isn't pornographic. I may disagree absolutely with what I'm reading, wonder at the mentality of the writer, but if I don't read what the writer has to say, how can I debate it? If it's dangerous to true freedom, in particular?
Recently, I was scanning headlines, and one of them had to do with the question, "Is There Really A God?" A second one had to do with asking "Is God Dead or Alive?" As an in-the-bones Traditional and one of those females who always has at least one question, I find these two questions uproariously funny.
When you stop to think that both questions / essays were written by so-called leading Christian theologians, it is enough to make me laugh until I can barely breathe even now; more so because they were both serious. To sum up my reaction, it was "hahahahahahahaha-hoo-hoo-gasp-wheeze", with tears running down my face.
I nearly drove my elders to distraction with, "... I have a question" when I was a child. I was raised to work to puzzle out the answers to my questions before I asked for help, so I really have a problem with those two questions. I mean, how can anyone wonder?
The answer is in the Traditional Teachings I was raised on. Our Creation Story teaches that initially, everything existed, but was formless. We call this 'being in the Void'. Suddenly, That Which Is Holy began to wonder what It was really like; what Its parts were; their natures; and so on. In order to find out, It began to separate a piece of Itself out from the Void; and eventually this solidified and became Inyan, the Rock which has, over the eons, become our Holy Mother, the Earth.
"Inyan" is pronounced "EE-yahngh", with the 'n' nasal as in French. Lakota is a nasal - glottal language.
As That Which Is Holy separated out the part that became Inyan, some of Its Power also seeped out and became the disc of the Sky.. The color of this Power is the shade of blue we see in the sky on a clear day. This is more or less, I suppose, why so many of us ITI People consider turquoise to be holy.
This process of separating Itself into Its myriad parts in order to understand what It is really all about continues now, and will until the end of time. What is called "God" by so many is thus absolutely real. There couldn't be a universe without It. And you couldn't exist either, let alone read this blog.
As for "is God dead?" - If "God" were to die, the universe would cease to exist. And you couldn't be reading this. If certain conditions are met, or not met, our Traditional Teachings provide that the world will indeed end.
Since I am the woman who Dances The Four Winds, which is a prayer to heal the Sacred Hoop of the world, it is part of my job to know if that is going to happen in the foreseeable future. I've been trying to get people's attention about human over-population since I was a child. The gross excess of humans on our Holy Mother the Earth these days have thrown her ecosystems into great imbalance. Global warming speaks eloquently to that.
Does that mean the world will end, from my view? Not the entire world. Not the universe, either. Humans have become a cancer in the web of life, and we are facing mass deaths of humans and some other species as a result of human cultural arrogance.
But "God" will continue; there's no question of that from where I sit.