SERENDIPITY

Marilyn Armstrong — Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth

Tag Archives: Native American

Unraising ones consciousness

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Having had ones consciousness raised, it’s impossible to unraise it. I suppose that’s the way it’s supposed to be, but it’s inconvenient.

I started reading history when I was very young, maybe 10 or 11 years old. It wasn’t long before I realized that what we were told in school had little to do with real history. I was astonished at how much history is completely omitted from school curricula. I understand that elementary school history is not real history, but even so, it began to nag at me, a mental itch I could not scratch. The more I read, the more it bothered me.

By  proclivity and coincidence, I’ve lived an integrated life. My husband is West Indian, my best friend is Native American and I’ve been subject to some serious consciousness-raising. I had to call her this evening and complain. She has ruined westerns for me. I can’t watch them any more without thinking about massacres. I need to remind myself that my people were not even in this country yet. They were still back in Russia dodging the Czar’s thugs.

Which brought me back to my original problem. I can’t read about savage Indians slaughtering the brave settlers without saying “Hey, wait a minute … That’s not right!” I truly can’t help it.

Nor can I watch “Gone With the Wind” and not know behind the big white mansion were slave quarters. I can’t watch our cavalry riding out to kill Indians without remembering the broken treaties, the systematic, state-sponsored annihilation of entire tribes down to the last child. It takes a lot of the fun out of watching those romantic old movies and the worst part is that I also love those movies. I would like to turn off my conscience for the duration of the film, but I can’t.

Cherrie refuses to apologize. She merely says “My job here is done.” Smug. And we laugh.

So I apologize for sounding overly sincere. I don’t like sounding so moralistic, but I can’t turn away. I wish I could, at least for the duration of a movie. I understand the history of the world is one civilization conquering another and taking its land for their own. So it has always been.

I don’t have to like it.

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Awakenings: Arrival of the “Ghost Dance”

See on Scoop.it – Movies From Mavens

Arrival of the “Ghost Dance” This Day in History: December 29, 1890 –  Massacre at Wounded Knee How did it begin, this hate for the Indian nation?  They were, after all, native to America well before the arrival of the “white man.”

Marilyn Armstrong‘s insight:

As events in Canada unfold, this is an especially timely anniversary.

See on awakenings2012.blogspot.com


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Winter Tipi

The fire was the heart of the tipi.

Fire is both light and heat. I built a great little fire pit in my tipi. When the fire was burning bright, it was all the light I needed. The peace I found quietly by the fire on winter nights in the tipi is impossible to exaggerate.

It seems impossible that you could safely have an open fire in a little 12-foot tipi, but it works beatufiully. If the flaps are set properly and the fire is high enough, you don’t need a chimney. The tipi is a chimney. Sparks can be startling since wood will pop and crackle, but the sparks flare out before they make contact with anything.

Even when it was bitterly cold and snowing outside, it was cozy and warm in the tipi, sometimes too warm. I had to open the door to let the cold air in. Sometimes, I sat half in and half out in the doorway because it was so warm … and this was the dead of a New England winter.

Fire pit. The trails are sparks from the fire.

There is something very soothing about a tipi. Is it the shape? Of maybe it was just that it was my own place that I had — with help — built. It’s the only thing I ever built. I was very proud of it.

I painted the tipi door from a design I found online. Not an exact reproduction. Not even close, but all thing considered, not bad.

I could light the fire in under a minute. When it’s zero and snowing outside, you have to be quick.

Native Commandments

Jasper Saunkeah, Cherokee

Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect.
Remain close to the Great Spirit.
Show great respect for your fellow beings.
Work together for the benefit of all Mankind.
Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.

Do what you know to be right.
Look after the well being of mind and body.
Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
Be truthful and honest at all times.
Take full responsibility for your actions.
Let us greet the dawn of a new day
when all can live as one with nature
and peace reigns everywhere.

Oh Great Spirit, bring to our brothers
the wisdom of Nature and the knowledge
that if her laws are obeyed
this land will again flourish
and grasses and trees will grow as before.

Guide those that through their councils
seek to spread the wisdom of their leaders to all people.
Heal the raw wounds of the earth
and restore to our soul the richness
which strengthens men’s bodies
and makes them wise in their councils.

Bring to all the knowledge that great cities
live only through the bounty
of the good earth beyond their paved streets
and towers of stone and steel.

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