A Few Extracts
A few excerpts from “Neither Wolf nor Dog. On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder” by Kent Nerburn
On Promises
The tobacco is like our church. It goes up to God. When we offer it, we are telling our God that we are speaking the truth. Whenever there’s tobacco offered, everything is wakan —sacred or filled with power.
That’s a lot of why we Indians got into trouble with the white man’s ways early on. When we make a promise, it’s a promise to the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka. Nothing is going to change that promise. We made all these promises with the white man, and we thought the white man was making promises to us. But he wasn’t. He was making deals.
We could never figure out how the white man could break every promise, especially when all the priests and holy men —those men we called the black robes— were involved. We can’t break promises. We never could.
A lot of them were private —we didn’t needa priest to make them happen. But they were real. They were promises to the Creator to do something. So we thought we were seeing the same thing from the white man. Especially when he swore on the Bible or used the name of God to make a promise. But I guess it was a lot like their church. It was only important on some days. The rest of the time it didn’t matter.
On Land and Property
Let me tell you how we lost the land. It wasn’t our land like we owned it. It was the land where we hunted or where our ancestors were buried. It was the land that the Creator had given us. It was the land where our sacred stories took place. It had sacred places on it. Our ceremonies were here. We knew the animals. They knew us. We had watched the seasons pass on this land. It was alive, like our grandparents. We were part of it. The land was part of us. We didn’t even know about owning the land. It is like talking about owning your grandmother. For us, the earth was alive. To move a stone was to change her. To kill an animal was to take from her. There had to be respect.
We saw no respect from these people. They chopped down trees and left animals lay where they were shot. They made loud noises. They seemed like wild people. They were heavy on the land and they were loud. Then these new people started asking us for the land. They wanted to give us money for the land. Our people didn’t want this. Then these people said that we didn’t belong here anymore. That there was a chief in Washington, which was a city far away, and the land was his, and he said they could live here and we could not.
We thought they were insane. These people would ride across the land and put a flag up, then say that everything between where they started and where they put the flag belonged to them. That was like someone shooting an arrow into the sky and saying that all the sky up to where the arrow went belonged to him. We thought these people were crazy. They were talking about property. We were talking about the land.
Your people came from Europe because they wanted property for their own. They had worked for other people who had claimed all the property and took all the things they raised. They never had anything because they had no property. That was what they wanted more than anything.
Everyone believed that whoever had a piece of paper saying they owned the land could control everything that happened on it. The people came here to get their own property. We didn’t know this. We didn’t even know what it meant. We just belonged to the land. They wanted to own it.
Your religion didn’t come from the land. It could be carried around with you. Your religion was in a cup and a piece of bread, and that could be carried in a box. Your priests could make it sacred anywhere. You couldn’t understand that what was sacred for us was where we were, because that is where the sacred things had happened and where the spirits talked to us.
Your people didn’t know about the land being sacred. You were killing all the animals. The buffalo was gone. The birds were gone. You would not let us hunt. You gave us blankets and whiskey that made our people crazy. We were put in little pens of land that were like tiny islands in your sea.
The worst thing is that you never even listened to us. You came into our land and took it away, and didn’t even listen to us when we tried to explain. You made promises and you broke every one. You killed us without even taking our lives. You killed us by turning our land into pieces of paper and bags of flour and blankets, and telling us that was enough. You took the places where the spirits talked to us and you gave us bags of flour.
To us the land was alive. It talked to us. We called her our mother. If she was angry with us, she would give us no food. If we didn’t share with others, she might send harsh winters or plagues of insects. We had to do good things for her and live the way she thought was right. She was the mother to everything that lived upon her, so everything was our brother and sister. The bears, the trees, the plants, the buffalo. They were all our brothers and sisters. If we didn’t treat them right, our mother would be angry. If we treated them with respect and honor, she would be proud.
For your people, the land was not alive. It was something that was like a stage, where you could build things and make things happen. You understood the dirt and the trees and the water as important things, but not as brothers and sisters. They existed to help you humans live.
You took the land and you turned it into property. Now our mother is silent. But we still listen for her voice.
Comments
Nice.
Virginia
Mr Nerburn
Im ashamed of what was done to your race and most other races on this planet By europeons in the name of religion or just ignorance, for the lies taught as history to all. the unnecessary pain and suffering felt by all mankind.
I am here now to make amends for the evil in life.
I have studied hard to find the right path Which I will walk so that others will see. Leading by example not force is the only hope for victory. as wars only propagate themselves.
Mikey
In response to the excerpts from the passionately poetic writings of Mr. Nerburn, I respectfully offer some data and perspectives
For many years the American Indian was stereotyped and generalized as a violent, uncivilized, inferior savage who brutalized and victimized the peaceful, culturally advanced white settlers.
Today, in our politically correct era, elites relieve their guilt and demonstrate their enlightened superiority by stereotyping and generalizing the white Europeans as violent, uncivilized, inferior savages who brutalized and victimized the peaceful culturally advanced American Indian. All stereotypes and generalities are bank, reactive mind. A=A=A=A=A.
Sanity is the ability to recognize differences, similarities, and identities
The numerous Indian tribes, nations and confederations differed among themselves almost as much as they differed from their brethren to the south, the Aztecs and Incas. Likewise, Europeans differed from each other from one country to the next almost as much as from the people of Asia and Africa.
The interactions between the Europeans and American Indians were varied, complicated and complex. They took place over several centuries and were changing and dynamic over that time period.
Great historical tomes are available for those so inclined. I wish to take a few paragraphs to present what I believe are pertinent and not as widely known facts.
The often sad history of the Western Hemisphere Indians closely parallels the history of conquered peoples around the world. The fact that the suffering, the betrayals, the contempt and subjugation were prevalent in all regions of the world throughout history does not lessen the human tragedy or the moral implications. One should not assume anything peculiar or unique about either or both of the races involved, or to their relationship or perception of each other. We can find the same results among conquerors and conquered on every continent and in every era of history. Indeed, the brutality, greed and arrogance of European conquerors were the same traits displayed by Indian conquerors toward other Indians before the first ships appeared on the horizon.
Prior to the arrival of settlers, there was a thriving fur trading business between the Dutch and Russians and the Indians of North America. This precipitated violent battles between the Indians for the coveted access to the traders. Unfortunately, among the traded items acquired by the Indians were guns and alcohol. In addition to trading partners, the Indians became military allies, Mohawks with the Dutch, Huron’s with the French and Iroquois with the British. They fought alongside the Europeans in their conflicts with each other. Many alliances and battles took place across racial lines.
Europe itself had only recently (late 15th and early 16th century), repelled invasions of conquest by the Moors, and the Russian and Ottoman Empires. As imperialists, Europeans were unique only in that they crossed an ocean.
In sharp contrast to the shiploads of armed men (conquistadors) from Spain and Portugal arriving in Central and South America, the European settlers on the eastern seaboard included women, children, families and communities too small in number initially to be any threat to the Indians. There was no unified front for either side. Many communities co-existed in peaceful cooperation for periods of time. Unfortunately, as we will see, brutal wars, atrocities, betrayals, revenge and counter-revenge were more the norm between Whites and Indians and between groups or tribes of Indians, one to another.
The Indians of the Americas had no biological resistance to the diseases of Europe. Neither side had knowledge, at that time, of the invisible carriers of the diseases. More Indians died from these diseases than at the hands of Whites or each other. Only about half of both the Cherokees and the Blackfoot, and only 10 percent of Mandans survived the small pox epidemic of the early eighteenth century. Half of the Camanches and 90 percent of the Wanpanoag were wiped out by cholera. By the end of the 19th century the Indian population of the United States was between a third and a fourth of what it is estimated to have been when Whites first arrived.
End of part 1. More to follow.
Up until the late 18th century major military battles between whites and Indians were rare. Especially when compared to the hundreds of bloody battles to follow.
Because there was so much land in respect to the population when the first settlers arrived, and since whites had many items Indians desired, up until the formation of the new government, land transfers were almost always peacefully negotiated transactions.
In Alaska, where there were vast amounts of land available to settlers without encroaching on the native Eskimos, there was no warfare on either side, no reservations created, no treaties or transfers of land, at the same time all of this was occurring under the same federal government down in the continental U. S.
Unlike the free trade of goods, the exchange of land was seldom if ever an individual action. Whites wouldn’t buy or force the sale of land and then go live among the Indians. Instead, officials of the colonial settlements purchased large tracts from the tribes and then divided it among individual whites. In fact all colonial governments banned individual land purchases at one time or another.
It is helpful to understand the condition of Indian societies at the time of the arrival of the European settlers/explorers.
It may not be fair to compare the cultures of the North American Indian with that of Europe and Asia since the latter had been developing for decades, if not centuries longer.
Nevertheless, many things common elsewhere did not exist in the societies of the Western Hemisphere at the time of the arrival of Europeans to the continent
No written language and no written music and thus no great works of literature or recorded history or musical compositions.
Amazingly, no use of the wheel.
No horses or oxen or other animals capable of pulling heavy loads. No sheep or cattle.
No iron, copper or steel production and the many items they provided.
No woven cloth.
No knowledge of higher mathematics or the sciences, and of course no skill in shipbuilding or navigation and astronomy needed to traverse the seas.
As LRH mentions on tape and by observation, the Indians were severely abberated and inverted on the 5th and 6th dynamic.
They elevated animals to a position above humans in terms of wisdom and knowledge.
There was worship, and an assignment of cause and power to MEST, in the form of mountains and heavenly bodies and certain locations.
They used drugs (tobacco, mescaline, peyote) in an attempt to gain spiritual awareness.
Not all was harmonious and humane between the native people. Stronger and larger tribes preyed on the smaller or weaker. Even within confederations of tribes such as the Iroquois, some played subordinate roles while others led. The Cherokees enslaved other Indians, and after the whites arrived, sold some of them to the Europeans, as they would later buy and sell African slaves, or return them to whites for rewards.
In what started as a battle for better access to the French trading posts, the Iroquois decimated the Hurons and eventually absorbed the survivors into the Iroquois confederation. The Iroquois in particular were known for their sadistic torturing techniques, which could lasts for days until death.
As the Indian population decimated by disease declined, the white population increased from 5 million to 25 million from 1800 to 1850. Aided by corrupt white politicians anxious for Indian land and corrupt Indians chiefs interested in personal riches, the wholesale movement of Indian land at below market prices began in earnest.
Several generations of descendants of whites now viewed themselves as native to this country with as much claim to its land and resources as the Indians.
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had a benevolent attitude toward the Indians as did many leaders, but they had little influence over local events.
Andrew Jackson, elected in 1820 thought it a farce to negotiate with tribes like you would a sovereign government and dismissed Indian claims to land that “they had had not dwelt on nor made improvements to but had merely seen from a mountain top or passed through.”
The great achievement of the transcontinental railroad brought many more people to the mid and far west, traveling in days what used to take months. Indian resistance, such as pulling spikes from the tracks to cause train wrecks and then killing the passengers and looting the supplies was met following the civil war with an army of hardened battle tested veterans.
Just as whites on the frontiers ignored treaties and agreements between colonies or settlements, young Indian braves who saw their elders as ineffective and weak in standing up to the settlers, much as the medicine men were impotent against the white man’s diseases, took it upon themselves in violation of their leaders urgings, to strike back in defense of their land and their people.
Between 1800 and 1850 over 400 million acres of Indian land was “acquired” and over 80,000 Indians moved west of the Mississippi. The tribes displaced westward were now forced to invade the land of other Indians causing conflicts that were at times violent.
All these factors, plus others, brought about what was to follow.
Famous chiefs such as Geronimo, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse and their warriors fought brave and bloody battles of resistance but were eventually unsuccessful.
The viscious and hideous acts of revenge and counter- revenge on both sides created hatred and bitterness that lasted for generations. It would serve no purpose to describe the hundreds of incidents of murder and torture and brutality committed against woman and children and whole communities and settlements burned and pillaged and destroyed. The list of atrocities is seemingly endless and available elsewhere in gory detail for those who wish.
Given the clash of such divergent cultures and the state of development of human nature at the time perhaps it was inevitable that the outcome would be the same one repeated so many times over, since the beginning of history. Yet, time marches forward and today we have reservations full of totally demoralized and unmotivated individuals lost between two cultures and two time periods. What will be their future?
End of part 2, conclusion to follow.
Today, the exploitation continues on all flows. The criminal elements that founded and operate Las Vegas and Atlantic City and others have ‘generously’ decided to assist the American Indian. Taking advantage of a legal loophole, they have ‘helped’ establish and manage gambling casinos on reservations all across the United States. Now the Indians can exact their revenge on the white man by separating the growing number of gambling addicts from their money and assisting them along the road to financial ruin. The casino business feeds into and benefits from the false notion so prevalent in modern culture; That the acquisition of unearned, or for that matter earned, material wealth and possessions can result in personal fulfillment and happiness and that it will somehow ‘solve’ life’s problems. (Play the lottery anyone?).
Since it is doubtful that an ethical lightening bolt will strike and this out-exchange activity will end anytime soon, one can only hope that the Indians will use the large amounts of money from these casinos to initiate some industry or enterprise providing a service or product of which they can be proud and which will engender some sense of esteem and achievement that they so sorely need.
At the minimum, they could finance the training and education of their young people so that they may acquire the skills and abilities that will enable them to compete and prosper in a 21st century world.
Ultimately, the long-term hope for the American Indian is the same as for all of the people of Earth.
Spiritual Knowledge and Freedom.
How about for starters;
A knowledge of themselves as spiritual beings whose individual history may or may not parallel the history of their current body line or genetic entity.
An awareness of the overt/motivitator sequence and the propensity of beings over time to jump from one side of the overt to the other and back again, especially over lifetimes.
The level of personal responsibility necessary to be free of one’s past. That staying attached to a sense of grievance and the wrongs done to one keeps one stuck on the time track, down-toned and destined to fail. Witness the sad levels of alcoholism and substance abuse and suicide present among the Indian population.
The Indian would be well-advised to reject the set of attitudes that are almost required of any group that has the misfortune to be classified as a ‘minority’ by the current American culture. Based on an ever-changing list of characteristics such as skin color, ethnic heritage, religious or political affiliation, one is taught that one’s shortcomings are the result of the actions of others, either currently or in the past. That one’s problems come from social ills (poverty, racism, gender bias, etc.). That the solution is to realize how one has been victimized and to accept a reliance upon the benevolence of the same society/state that harmed one in the first place, in the form of preferential treatment, entitlements and big brother/big government assistance.
One should never seek or need approval or permission from others to exist or to succeed.
Instead, the American Indian is encouraged to know that success and productivity come from whence they have always come. And that is by applying individual power and intention in the form of effort, hard work, discipline, personal ethics, study, practice and talent.
With such things the Indians can return to themselves their self-determinism and a future that is confrontable.
For now, a full and more complete knowledge of the Indian experience and a honest an open recounting and communication about the attitudes, emotions, sensations, pains, opinions, personal experiences etc. properly acknowledged, can bleed off charge from the 3rd dynamic engrams.
Truth is the exact place, time, form and event.
Postulates and live communication not being mest and being senior to mest can bring about a change in mest without causing a persistence in mest, thus auditing can occur.
These items in conjunction with, but by no means in place of spiritual advancement, will bring to the American Indian the relief they and we all seek. It is toward that end that this perspective is humbly offered.
With Love,
Free T.