Indigenous writers and scholars began discussing NMAI’s offensive “cultural amnesia” before the museum even opened its doors in September 2004. For a more in-depth discussion, see American Indian Quarterly’s special issue called “Critical Engagements with the National Museum of the American Indian,” which contains nine thoughtful essays. (Vol. 30, Nos. 3 and 4: Summer/Fall 2006).

There are a lot of folks who post here that do not celebrate Xmas for some reason or another.  I don’t because I am atheist.  I hope that doesn’t put anyone off but if it does, sorry, life is a bitch, then you die.  Whether or not you might consider this trite or too sentimental, I don’t really care what you think.  But if you do happen to appreciate the spirit in which it is posted, then here’s to your laudable credit. Because there is such turmoil and sadness in the world at this time, and because there are so many different people with various beliefs that are often at odds with each other, I am proposing something to you, that a few others and I will participate in, that is to celebrate the universe, the planet Earth, and yourself, your consciousness by jubilating in the Winter Solstice.  What some of us are doing is on December 21 or 22, depending on where you are at in the world, the solstice happens, we will raise a toast to remember the love we have of the universe, the Earth, others, and of course, ourselves.  If you don’t know what the solstice is, I am directing you to a couple of websites that explains it much better than I could ever. 

http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/wintersolstice1.html

Some of it refers to your regular variety religious holiday associations, and pagan events.  For me none of these are interesting as there are the perennial selling efforts that is anathema to my mind.  And I do not subscribe to any religious order of any stripe.  But I do have always in my consciousness the wonderful experience I am having with this life I have found myself in and the lovely people I have had the pleasure to learn of and some even to know.  And I honor it at this time since winter solstice is the beginning of a new year, and with it the possibility of a better being in the world.  We can celebrate the world, and ourselves with all our warts and beauty marks, can’t we?

8 days to solstice

You may see this invitation elsewhere as I hope to be ubiquitous with it.

117271 by Kilantra Ouspenskaya on 11/30: “Would we show the life of Christ without the scourging, and suffering on the cross...”

Sadly, that is exactly what does happen at this time of year, Kilantra. People revert from the Christian to the pagan winter solstice ceremonies.

There is nothing wrong with that except that they then ludicrously fantasize about Jesus being born in a “manger” without understanding the galling reality of the story.

Think about a stinking filthy cowshed at the back of the inn. They had to lift Mary up into the hay in the manger (where the cattle feed from) to get her out of the shit and piss on the dirt floor!

Anyone who has ever been to a country fair where there are livestock penned for a few days on show or to a dairy where there is a milking shed will know exactly what I mean, uhh.

The keyword is ‘understand.’ One track minds do not lead to understanding.  It is called not being able to think beyond blind emotion.  You just can’t get it.  It is not like the world does not know about suffering.  Every ethnic group has suffered in one way or another since men discovered ways to subjugate other men.  Why don’t you and others who think as you do put up billboards across the nation about the vanquished American Indians, then the world can see it, constantly?  Perhaps you enjoy gutwrenching since you seem to need eternal visual reminders of living on this ‘stolen blood soaked land.’ Your melodrama is a personal psychology.  What Jews would do in Germany is something you would not know.  And what do you know of African American museums?  Try the Kendall Whaling Museum, in Sharon, Maine.  It doesn’t mention slavery but rather exalts the mastery and skills of African Americans in that industry.  Or check out the Bridgewater State College Hall of Black Achievement that cherishes and respects the achievements of African Americans throughout American history and if slavery is mentioned at all, and I haven’t found it, it is en passant. 

The massive crimes you mentioned are not ignored, for if they were you would not know about them.  I bet you never took a classor even read a book on the atrocities whites committed on Native Americans.  And if you did, well there you go, they were not ignored.  Oh, by the way, there are about 10,600,000 references on Google for American Indian museums, that’s like over ten million!  If you want to know the gutwrenching bloody history, I’d bet again it could be found there, plenty.

The Native Americans who put this museum together are amazingly enlightened people.

Why would the “friendlies” help the whites?  What could be their reason?  What is their history?  To call the museum a disgrace is shameful.  Where did tentaculata get the “simple policy fact:” about the Smithsonian anyway?  You should read all of Christie’s posts again.

I do not care who designed it, or why. If you are selling yourself or your creation as a depiction of the all important history of a people and then of the nation that resulted from their decimation, and you sugar coat it in the slightest way, you have created a deadly insult both to the destroyed people and the nation that resulted.

If we teach lies, then we live lies.

Thank you Outraged.

Celebrating living culture is possible without defecating on history.  By all means feature the work of living artists, tribal dances, and “daily life.” But HONESTLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE PAST WHILE YOU HONOR THE PRESENT. 

I have been to the museum.  It IS tantamount to holocaust denial and it does not matter who is doing the denying.  The fact that this museum was designed and curated by Native Americans only makes it more appalling. 

A simple policy fact: The Smithsonian Institution and the United States government that funds it necessarily approved the Native Americans involved with this museum.  Otherwise they would never have been permitted to be involved.

White men did not kill Sitting Bull.  He was shot in the chest and in the back of the head by two of his own people – Red Tomahawk and Bull Head – who worked for the white men.

Throughout the history of relations between whites and indigenous people there have always been the “hostiles” and the “friendlies.” The hostiles included the likes of Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse.  The friendlies assisted the whites in subjugating the hostiles.  The friendlies did as they were told. 

The NMAI is a disgrace.  A disgrace to the country, a disgrace to those who designed it – regardless of their race and PARTICULARLY if they are Native American—and a disgrace to history.  The friendlies are all over it.

Thank you Outraged.

Celebrating living culture is possible without defecating on history.  By all means feature the work of living artists, tribal dances, and “daily life.” But HONESTLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE PAST WHILE YOU HONOR THE PRESENT. 

I have been to the museum.  It IS tantamount to holocaust denial and it does not matter who is doing the denying.  The fact that this museum was designed and curated by Native Americans only makes it more appalling. 

A simple policy fact: The Smithsonian Institution and the United States government that funds it necessarily approved the Native Americans involved in the creation of this museum.  Otherwise they would never have been permitted to be involved.

White men did not kill Sitting Bull.  He was shot in the chest and in the back of the head by two of his own people – Red Tomahawk and Bull Head – who worked for the white men.

There have always been, in the relations between whites and indigenous peoples, the “hostiles” and the “friendlies.” The hostiles included the likes of Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse.  The friendlies assisted the whites in subjugating the hostiles.  The friendlies did as they were told. 

The NMAI is a disgrace.  A disgrace to the country, a disgrace to those who designed it—regardless of their race and PARTICULARLY if they were Native American—and a disgrace to history.  The friendlies are all over it.

Christie as articulate as one can be has had to repeat three times “that the museum was planned, designed, and built and is staffed by Native Americans [in the Western Hemisphere] and Outraged cannot seem to get it.  He/she seems only to be stuck on a particular nettle, that this museum does not parade the genocide of Indians.  A solution would be to build another museum called The Genocide Museum.  Then all the genocides in the world in the history of humankind could be honored to one’s heart’s content.  There’s no doubt it would be a Hall of Horrors and a sore reminder of the predisposition of human capacity for atrocity.  Try to grow bigger than yourself Outraged.

#107818 by Scott on 10/17 at 1:52 pm
(148 comments total)

I’d even support faking a signal, to engineer the galvanizing event that gives us a chance to share a common cause.

Hah! Check it out.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/10/14 /giuliani_preparedness_key_even_if_aliens_attack/

I am willing to cut you some slack since you have not been there. But this article is not an accurate portrayal of what goes on at the museum. I could not help but notice a few things about it (in addition to the “you’re not suffering enough” tone:

One- big one- It does not mention that the museum was planned, designed, and built and is staffed by Native Americans (from all over the north and south continents, not just US Native Americans)- it was the intent not to be a “dead museum”, but a living one wherein the current life was given as much weight as the past and viewed in light of the past.

Two- she seems obsessed with the prices of things (jewelry, food, etc). Having lived in DC for a number of years and being poor, I have gone to all of the Smithsonian museums numerous times (admission is free, so it’s one of the few times I do not feel so annoyed at the rate at which I am taxed, especially since DC had/has not real representation, but I digress). The point is- if you go into any of the Smithsonian gift shops you can find some rather expensive stuff. Much of it made elsewhere under dubious conditions (ok, I’ll say it; China). The articles she cites, jewelry for the most part, in the NA Museum are made by people who live in the US and who are continuing a tradition of “local” art, if you will. There is something a bit untoward in her going on and on about the prices. Almost as if she resented having to pay a person of oppressed heritage a decent amount for beautiful work. Shouldn’t we be cheaper?

Besides, not everything costs a hundred dollars or more. There are plenty of smaller things and books which are well within reach as a nice souvenir.

Also- I have eaten in every single Smithsonian cafe (most often the one between the East and West wing of the National Gallery of Art, because they have ice cream)- it’s not cheap. It is often delicious, but cheap? No. I have eaten at the cafe in the NA Museum- and it was about par for museum cost, but much tastier and more pertinent to the actual museum.

Frankly, going by this article I wondered if *she’d* been to the museum. The last time I was there (granted this was about two years ago, since I live elsewhere now), there were stunning presentations of dances, heart-breaking galleries of photos and videos from two continents, and art as I’d never seen gathered in one place before.

If it makes you feel any better, there are many commentaries through the place on the history- the cruel parts- as well. It is just not the only focus, and it is not done in a vengeful, nor self-pitying manner. It is a dignified thing. Why should anyone be ashamed of things done to them not of their choosing?

RE: #107748 by Christie on 10/17

Christie:

I haven’t been to the musuem so I’ll give you some leeway there.  My comment was not meant to say that a “Native American Museum” include ONLY the genocide of Native Americans.  But to create a museum about Native Americans and NOT include the genocide is a lie.  One would assume there are historical artifacts in this museum.  For that reason alone, it should have been included.

It seems rather petty and shallow to coordinate a whole history and culture of Native Americans and then to project it as the Native American version of the Brady Bunch through the ages. Why is it, and I’m not saying this is just you or just this museum, that we want to prettify the past and present.  Life isn’t always pretty and it should be depicted realistically, good and bad.  What is the matter with the TRUTH...ALL of it.

When we write about current events should we “leave out” that everyday we are killing innocent Iraqis?  You know, all that death and suffering and do we have to keep reminding ourselves......it’s so depressing.  For instance, should we just not address it and depict current events as the ipod phone, youtube, suvs, ebay, globalization, theme parks, “Family Guy” and the era of big screen TV’s?  I mean these things really are more positive....and let’s face it why go over and over and over it that we’re killing innocents, stealing their oil and ruining their families everyday....cause you know....really we’re more than that.

So...you asked why I had an issue with it?  That’s why....

107814- Oh, well, pardon me, then, I suppose I have no right to talk about any of it. Yes, Hmmm. Trail of Tears was comparatively nothing. This game of “You have not suffered enough to know” is a load of hooey, quite frankly.

Scott- I only brought up the 1/4 this’n’that as a prelude to explaining how I know- from family, distant and recent- about genocide. Generally on the forms I just put “Human”, and have perhaps one of the only registered “Human Beings”, as that is what is on my kid’s birth certificate. But believe me, I have been asked “who are your people” enough to slip into the fractional recitation by rote. Next time I will just say “Earthling”, even though the “ling” part always sounds a bit twee

Shenonymous, thank you. It’s good to see at least one person who is willing to drop the crap and recognize that viewing oneself or ones community solely in terms of victims is self-negating and disempowering. I prefer, as do many, do count the strengths we have as people. It is also refreshing to see someone knowledgeable about the global and historical commonality of atrocity.

Christie gives us a moment of reality and looks forward seeing the possibility of a wholesome future.  History reminds us of what has happened, it does not provide an opportunity to brood.  She does completely the opposite of brooding! She is infectiously joyous.

Atrocities of humankind predates human consciousness.  And whether or not any act is an atrocity actually depends on one’s perspective.  We are here talking about morality. 

Morality is learned human conduct.  As often a serious thinking white woman of mixed Mediterranean descent whose grandparents emigrated to the US in the early 20th century, I was taught and always had a high respect for native Americans.  I am astonished there is at least one person of American Indian heritage that speaks of celebrating that ancestry instead of the usual hypercritical lament.  I have been reminded of the plight of the American Indian every time an Indian has media time.  It has been made indelible in my mind.

While it is important to remember the history of the United States with respect to native Americans, it is also important to remember the fact that while it is true American Indians were decimated as an entire culture and as human beings, when examined from a historical point of view, victims of deliberate genocide and utter displacment is not a unique phenomenon and is not unlike or different than when the Romans invaded the Celts, or when in 2000 BC the Zhou overran the Shang in China. It is no different than in the present the Janjaweed slaughter of hundreds of thousands continuing to go on now in Darfur and the Sudan. Do you think the people of Darfur will sue someone for reparations or ever have the opportunity to create a museum of their genocide?  Italians warred with each other and others to create their individual indigenous provinces and country borders as did the English peoples throughout their history. The English slaughtered 10,000 at Agincourt to conquer the French.  And where did Greece get those slaves that are mentioned in Plato and Aristotle?  And what about the Bantu enslavement by the Swahili and the appropriation of Bantu land?  It is historically a human utilitarian way to take over land and resources. 

Next time I make it to Washington, D.C., I will definitely make it a point to visit this wonderful museum.

I’m merely an Earthling myself, I’m afraid I don’t subscribe to being 1/4 of this and that or 1/2 of something else.

I think our only hope is that SETI finds evidence of alien invaders.

I’d even support faking a signal, to engineer the galvanizing event that gives us a chance to share a common cause.

107683-

Yes I am sure I am not Ann Coulter, as when I look in the mirror I do not see an Adam’s apple.

First off- I am of mixed heritage, including about 1/4 Smokey Mountain Cherokee and about 1/4 Mexican Indian. I am also about 1/4 Jewish. I am familiar with the term Genocide, as well as with the lasting results.

I am also familiar with the history of the museum itself, and know a number of people who work there now, as well as a number of people who helped to design and build it. Guess what? Every single one of them is Native American- this whole project has been such- and let me tell you there was quite the hue and cry in DC about that. Part of why it took so long to be built was that we did not want a typical museum, and we wanted to tell our own story. Which includes much more than genocide.

Are you familiar with the idea that life does go on, scarred but still there? That another wallow in the genocide pool was not what we wanted for this museum? We are well aware of what and who have been lost. What seems to escape people today is that life, on the reservation or off, is not just colored by what has gone before. The museum is about those of us who have survived. it is the world seen through *our* eyes, which see life as well as death.

That’s why we bring in programs about the current doings of the tribes, why we feature the works of living artists. If you look closely- or even not so closely- you see that there is deep consideration and respect for the past in the works displayed and performed. All things considered, it’s a miracle of some kind that there *is* anything left- but what we have we will not give up.

You might ask yourself why there is such disappointment at there not being an emphasis on the destruction. I am not going to claim that there is an “Indian Way Of Looking At Things” which you, o, white man, must learn to understand- mostly because there are a lot of Native American views- but I am going to ask the question: How much of our suffering must we put on display before you are convinced of our worthiness to have a museum? Follow up- Why are you offended at our celebrating what still exists?

Re:#107447 by Christie on 10/16 at 8:02 am
(23 comments total)

Christie:
I was reading through the comments and then I came upon your comments.  Please tell me you are all of 25 yrs. old.  Your flippant verbage “Sorry there’s not enough suffering for you”..is so very...."Coulter".  Stay with me now and try..REALLY TRY to impersonate a live, functioning, ethical human being.

A genocide occurred. Do you know what a genocide is?  I find it impossible to imagine that if we were to jump back in history and talk to those who survived this travesty that they would “prefer” that a musuem be built as a “celebration of their survival” with barely a mention of the genocide.
-----

In a post before that you said, when describing the museum, “It is a nuanced life, it is not rendered in black and white, it is shaded many many grays.”

Actually this museum sounds very much like it’s in black and white. Well, mostly white.

Are you sure you’re not Ann Coulter.....?

A very important point about the museum has been missed- perhaps deliberately by the author of the article: The museum was designed, built and is staffed by Native Americans. *WE* decided how to show ourselves. Believe me, we have not forgotten what our ancestors went through, and we know the lasting effects of our history. Sorry there’s not enough suffering for you in this museum; it’s not a denial of history, it’s a celebration of survival in spite of history.

We live in a world of denial, Japan still denies any atrocities in China.  Turkey just keeps denying the murders during their Empire stab campaigns.  It goes on and on.  Bush and company denies anything and everything.  Why China is closing down the web may be to deny what they will do next.

This museum should be demolished and in its place the real Holocaust museum should be build.

Why is it that so many Caucasion Americans still deny the autrocities of this nation? They are so numbered and so vast, yet they are still excused and denied. They began with the pilgrims, who killed and pillaged the villages of those which showed them survival skills, and continues to this day. This is not the land of freedom and democracy, it is the land of greed and amnesia run by an oligarchy.

Sorry, but when I visited the museum (numerous times when I lived in DC), I was glad not to see yet another weep fest. Native American life is made up of more than grief about the past and present, it is made up of daily living- which is what the museum shows. It is a nuanced life, it is not rendered in black and white, it is shaded many many grays.

It is a museum unlike any other in that it features *present* day life. What have the effects of the Trail of Tears and reservations been? We are still here despite it all, battered but not all dead.

You’re alright.  I’ll keep in touch with your thinking. Thanks.

Well, whaddaya know?  Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, has known all along it’s all a Song ‘n’ Dance.  Good for the Dr.  Good for his wife, who’s been in on the secret.

This old Indian has known a few sage farmers, too, and Confucious was not without a measure of naivete.  Self-examination is alright as far as it goes, but maybe won’t go by itself as far as there is for us to get.

Let’s hope the good Dr. means to just keep-on playin’ on.  This old savage believes “religiously” in MUSIC!

HokaHey!

#105809 by halhiker on 10/09 at 10:14 am: “...the Noble Savage and how they were victimized by the White Man.... Do you ever wonder why our own Declaration of Independence calls Indians merciless savages? .....Before they fought the US, they fought each other.  But the US was far ahead of them technologically and they didn’t band together so they lost....”

Oh, really, halhiker, you have dragged the commentary down to this level but you still can’t get it right. The “USA” was only 13 colonies of insurgents back then - there were no states and thus no united states.

And, as with Iraq and so forth today, the US is “far ahead technologically” so that must automatically give them (you/us) the right to attack and invade. You are still living in a tree, halhiker. Better come down, eh?

Then again, who were the merciless savages of the Anglo-Saxon invaders? Search “Irish plantations” and Scottish “highland clearances” and you will see for yourself how the white savages used to practice upon each other, too.

The Declaration of Independence is thus little more than a “Its them or us!” outburst and is therefore a repudiation of Native American’s rights as much as a refusal of English domination. From there, wondrous white man went on to a civil war land grab...... once again fighting each other!

I am so sick of these stupid articles perpetrating the myth of the Noble Savage and how they were victimized by the White Man.  The truth is far more complicated and far more two sided.

Do you ever wonder why our own Declaration of Independence calls Indians merciless savages?  The Indian tribes of the day were not some peaceful philosophers living off the land but warriors, raised to do battle.  Before they fought the US, they fought each other.  But the US was far ahead of them technologically and they didn’t band together so they lost.  They FOUGHT; they LOST.

Treaties were broken by both sides.  People were killed.  To think that the Indians would have treated the US soldiers and citizens better than the US treated them if the Indians had won the wars is naive.  Mercy was not an ideal of Indian warriors.

The US government deserves plenty of blame, for many reasons, throughout history but then so does everyone else.

Tao Walker, I’ve examined my life, I think, to a fault. No one, except my wife, has an inkling of that fact.  I have the huge fortune of having worked as a professional in the studying, performing and teaching of music for many decades and it is there where I have found what I need.  I respect the search, no matter what form it takes, even religious.  Confucious was undoubtedly a bright man and a great human, like billions of others, but he didn’t know everything.  (There’s the joke in my screen name.) I have as much respect, maybe more, for the “uneducated” and “naive” farmers I grew up around as I have for sages like Confucious.

Actually, flipping through a scrapbook from my aunt, I see I can get one generation further back to Terramuggus’s father, Sowheag.  Terramuggus had two known children, Rebecca and a son named Peetoosh.  I am descended from Rebecca.

I can trace my ancestry back 350 years to a Connecticut Indian named Tarramuggus.  Actually, my aunt did the tracing, though I already was aware from family oral history.  I guess there is a small burg in the state named after him, though I’ve never been there.

No “farm” for this old Savage, thanks all the same (Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, #105621).  The good Dr. no doubt comes by his fatalism honestly enough.  Maybe his contributions to various threads here are not fully expressive of his actual outlook on life.  They are fairly consistently confined to the “might-makes-right” school, though....with “fitness” mostly a matter of success at the zero-sum-game of piling-up riches and then defending them from other “gamers.”

What would he make of the Taino People of the Caribbean, as described in the “Columbus” article at the site linked by mike kohr (#105604)?  Oh yeah, it’s a foolish question.  They’re all (like their “discoverer” and his royal sponsors) dead....dead....dead.  And of course Confucious never gave a moment’s thought to Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, at all.  Talk about the tragedy of “the unexamined life.”

Every day is a Good Day to Die.  Maybe it’s not so good to be so preoccupied with that “end,” though, that one dies a little (by one’s own hand, so to speak) every day.  If there is something in the Dr.s personal condition that has him facing untimely that suspected “no-view-of-the-world” estate, he has this old Indian’s prayers and best wishes for a good death on his own Day.

HokaHey!

Tao Walker, I’m sorry Confucious thinks I have a keyhole view of the world.  Now, he has no view of the world and soon I’ll have none, too.  I don’t know about you.  I don’t think you’re going to go too easily.  With such a highly developed sense of self and of the world, you’ve got a lot to work through before you buy the farm.  I’m jealous.

Putting the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. was kind of ridiculous—like putting the Museum of the American Indian in Berlin.

There is no way the Indians are going to get into the Holocaust Museum, any more than the Christian Armenians have.  The Armenians have the problem of Israel being allied (however loosely) with Islamic Turkey.  The Indians have the problem of having had the U.S. as a nemesis and of the analogy of the Indians with the indigenous Palestinian people.  The Holocaust Museum is to a substantial degree about trying to build sympathy for Zionism.  All of this museum stuff is politics by other means.

RML (#105542) makes a worthwhile suggestion here, though one wonders how willing the Zionist interests who’ve so monopolized (and “capitalized” upon) the “Holocaust” brand-name, would be to let the Native Peoples in on it.  Then there’s the high probability (make that absolute certainty) that very few if any of us surviving free wild Human Beings would want to fall into that self-pity party trap anyway.

The real agenda of the institution-in-question-here’s instigators is revealed in the “American” part of its name.  Had their focus been genuinely on The People, it would be called something like The Museum of the Native Nations of Turtle and HummingBird Islands.  Even then there would be the unavoidable odor of virtual embalming fluid in the word “museum,” which is invariably associated in the minds of the domesticated with the curiosities of an effectively “dead” past.

Speaking (no ill) of the dead, Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, again weighs in heavily (#’s 105496-539) on the side of those who would have Humanity, as such, trapped forever (or until the last “dog” dies) in the “dog-eat-dog” virtuality so many are unable to see their way clear-of here in these latter days.  His gratuitous (and grossly inaccurate) ascribing of something he terms, sardonically, “lofty thinking” to those of us who don’t share his own bleak assessment of our Human Nature and actual condition, betrays a kind of terminal resignation to the captivity he probably can’t admit he is in.

Besides, he’s got it exactly backwards....not so surprising for someone stuck in a Heyoka world.  It is his adored “civilization” that is in fact the product of “lofty thinking.” The Song ‘n’ Dance of LifeHerownself, on the other hand, is not a “product” at all....being entirely primary and originating and not at all secondary (or tertiary or quaternary or etc.) and derivative.  His is the “keyhole” view of the world Confucious says is appropriate only to very young children.

If Shenonymous (#’s 105512-552) means by “teach (those who are soured on) America,” that she intends it to be exclusively by-example rather than by the usual shock-and-awe instruction, she at least makes a start toward a more grown-up approach to things.  It’s a daunting undertaking, though, because one of the more ingrained and enduring flaws in theallamerican character is americans’ penchant for studiously ignoring the festering rot in their own polity while making pet-projects of Peoples elsewhere, who by-and-large end-up a lot worse-off for america’s attentions than they might’ve been without them....Afghanistan and Iraq being only the most currently telling cases-in-point.

As GreatGrandDaughter White Buffalo Woman is fond of reminding us lately, however, that’ll all come out in The Wash.  It’s her wise way of keeping our attention on the Great Purification Ceremony we’re all fully engaged in these Days.  Washte!  And....

HokaHey!

Buffy Sainte-Marie is among the followers of the late TV preacher Gene Scott, who advocated, at about the time of the Gulf oil war in the early 1990s, “to nuke them [Iraqis] in the name of Jesus.”

Then we must teach those who hate us (America), that we all are not wrong, that a great many of us are rational, humane, and have a great love of the commonfolk and the Earth.  Yes, there will always be the attempt at political control.  Humans give life to governments and humans can take that life away.  It is the motive of greed and power always at work, it seems to be genetic to all animals, but even those animals lower than humans find ways to co-exist most of the time, and I italicize that “most of the time.” But very few, infinitesimal really kill for anything other than food and its source even if tht means territorially.  As rational and reflective creatures, humans have the unique facility to arbitrate that primordial tendency. Your humorous jibe at Bush is fully appreciated,

Agreed, but America, who considers itself to be highly moral and ethical is hated by nations who think we’re wrong (delusional.) There has to be moral and ethical consensus and I doubt we’ll ever get it.  I think there will always be a way for a government so inclined to rationalize its behavior, moral and immoral.  Big rationalizations these days are religious.  Get rid of religion and we might have a chance.  In the meantime, be ready. (Furriners is my little dig at G. Bush)

As you say, the genie is out of the bottle and mankind has evolved, even if we want to call it a smidgen.  Thinking beyond one’s personal or immediate group’s survival is how we humans have evolved.  Certainly you don’t want to take that away from us and we can now, that is, have the ability to think and talk ourselves out of war!  The furriners (silly way of calling foreigners, marauders in this case I believe), may be not yet evolved but that is how the world has worked.  Mental development didn’t take place all at once.  Prejudices and avariciousness has been mediated in many of today’s societies and although not exactly perfect is in a state of development toward the better and moral state.  Anything else is misery for the unique thinking brute.  As you ought to notice in your rush to reply, I indicated that steps to protect one’s physical self is only rational.  Perhaps the early and world of the cave was not built on “lofty thinking,” but the ancient Greeks did have the greatest of rational and high-minded thought.  The kind of thinking we ought to go back to doing.  And the time spent on that is the only way to saving humankind.  Mind built the bomb, and mind can keep from using it.

Agreed, lofty thinking is a good thing.  Just don’t let it take time away from your preparing your defense against immorally acting furriners invading and taking your stuff, unless your lofty thinking is all you need to sustain yourself.  The immorally behaving furriners won’t care if you don’t like or agree with them and they won’t even care if they can’t take your thinking from you.  If your lofty thinking is all you need, good for you.  I doubt the world was built on lofty thinking, although I accept it might be better had it been.  I don’t think we can change that now.  The genie is out of the bottle, as they say.

This Person’s old friend WolfChild from Rocky Boy’s was Buffy Ste. Marie’s uncle.  She visited family there more than once.  Her voice alone can carry one’s Spirit to good places.  TwoSkirts ((#105352) herself offers both wisdom and encouragement to all of us here, and a fine example of “rising above” the demoralizing “logic” of a “dog-eat-dog” world-view.

Shenonymous (#105399) also rises above it, and reminds us that we have available the experience and thoughts of good Persons and Peoples from everywhere to help us get, all together, through the present “troubles.” Douglas Chalmers (#105405) offers a specific example, in the founder of Aikido.

Mike Mid-City (#105404) points out the crippling effects of hypocrisy and denial.  Finally, mary (#105427) makes it clear there is no healing from any of it apart from facing squarely up to those things in our conduct and character that betray a lack of integrity. 

Several others here also demonstrate the possibility, indeed the necessity, of coming together as Human Beings to address our difficulties and respond to them in ways that are beneficially effective.  This is, after all, the very essence of our organic function within the Living Arrangement of our Mother Earth....Humanity’s own steps and verses in Life’s Song ‘n’ Dance.

HokaHey!

The atrocities of the past can’t be changed, but if we don’t discuss and learn about them and acknowledge them, won’t we be doomed to repeat them..........

#105399 by Shenonymous on 10/07 at 3:18 pm: “...advice on how not to lose is useless because 1) if you presuppose your enemy is out to get you, you put yourself in a state of paranoia...... One could take lessons in a martial art called Aikido, which is called the way of unifying with life energy, or the way of harmonious spirit...”

“The Art of Peace is medicine for a sick world....
There is evil and disorder in the world because people have forgotten that all things emanate from one source....
Return to that source and leave behind all self-centered thoughts, petty desires, and anger....
Those who are possessed by nothing possess everything....”

Morihei Ueshiba http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/users/paloma/Aikido/artpeace.html

Greed has no moral boundaries because it is a measure of immorality.  The Dr. doesn’t know it all.  Dr’s meager advice on how not to lose is useless because 1) if you presuppose your enemy is out to get you, you put yourself in a state of paranoia which if left unchecked can lead to hallucinations. 2) defending oneself can take many forms, mentally or physically, and one can only “make sure,” to a certain degree; again one can become paranoid and spend an unhealthy part of one’s life in some irrational self-defense mode.  One could take lessons in a martial art called Aikido, which is called the way of unifying with life energy, or the way of harmonious spirit, and that would probably keep one always prepared for physical attack, and studying philosophy would keep one continuously ready for mental attacks. Also the Dr. doesn’t say what the loss is about, is it to not lose at anything?  That would be a delusional expectation about oneself.

Arguments can be civilized or not.  What is useful in arguments depends on the nature of the argument.  If an argument is civilized, then it is entered into with agreed to rules of engagement, if there are rules of engagement, then morality does play a role; morality is defined as ethics.  If it is not civilized, then the outcome is dependent on innumerable factors: strength, armaments, the weather, one’s continuing health, nourishment, cleverness, etc., however one wants to define each of these.

The Dr. is a simple pessimist, not really an all-knowing skeptic. The comment about Dr. Phil is really about the value of history, and quite contradicts Dr. K’s opening sentences about the uselessness of history.  The entire commentary is an example of weak argumentation.

So I was watching Buffy Sainte-Marie on Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger (Episode 38) singing “My Country Tis of Thy People You’re Dying”.  It is one of the most heart wrenching songs anyone will ever hear.

I watched, and I listened, and I wiped the tears away.  And I felt the tears dry on my face, and it made me think: Are we supposed to cry forever, or can we let the tears dry? 

What I’m saying is, on my visit to the SNMAI last year, I had a different feeling.  I grinned at the cultural merchandising, I must admit.  I had the same grin on my face when I walked through the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. 

The thing is, I felt a sense of the desire to acknowledge the past while desiring to continue moving forward.  To not allow the injustices of the past and present to render us motionless - especially since ***that is the goal.***

My mother and I are Chiricahua (Chokonni), my dad is Irish (and totally supportive of our matrilineal culture).  Believe me, I know the histories of both branches of my ancestral roots, and both families and the nations from which they came had really tough times (understatement).  We still do. 

But that doesn’t mean that we’re not allowed to rise above.  The sentiments in this article seem to suggest that people need to have permission to move forward and thrive.  I tend to disagree.  If it’s permission we need, let me tell you this:  Our ancestors would NOT be happy to see us dwelling on negativity to the point of paralyzation.

Yes.  Let us acknowledge the atrocities of the past.  But the past cannot be changed.  Let us do everything in our power to stop the atrocities of the present and prevent the atrocities of the future.

That is what I felt as I walked through the SNMAI.  It’s the same feeling I get when I go to pow wows and other NDN cultural events.  Yeah, there’s stuff for people to buy, some of it’s a true credit to our respective cultures and artisans, and some of it’s crap.  Some of the recordings are truly inspirational, and some are just pithy.  But due to the blessings on the events, and due to the diligence of those presenting the bulk of the cultural material, the atmosphere is always positive.

The point is this:  My country, tis of… - thy people ain’t dead yet.  And we ain’t gonna be.  We got too many songs to sing and too much dancing to do.  We got demonstrations to organize.  We got ancestors to make proud.  We got dialysis centers to build, habits to kick, and kids to teach.  Let’s go people.

Hatcha!

Posted but not sure by whom, looks like T.W. via P.T.

“religions at least have the sophistication and compassion to acknowledge we humans are only one small part of this planet and would not survive without respect and gratitude toward the rest of the life forms living on this small blue orb.”

Yes the sophistication of religion has been very apparent throughout history.  Demeaning of women, for entertainment we had the inquisition, then calling people witches and burning them at the stake, manipulation of young minds molded from birth.  The list goes on. Rephrase to say, the manipulation by religion has been very apparent throughout history.

Duplicity has always been a tool of religion and government, depending on which one is using the other at the time, symbiotic relationships we see today.

Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD’s “history” (#105305) is sure as hell the “zero sum game” s/he describes so gleefully here (expecting to end up on the “winners” side, probably).  The Song’n’Dance of LifeHerownself is not such a mono-dimensional construct, however....which is why this present particularly “western” version of “history” is so rapidly reaching its pre-ordained null conclusion.

P.T. (#105337) just keeps on trying to avoid having to face the howling emptiness of his/her own half-"life" (as a “civilized individual") by projecting it onto the effigies s/he cobbles together out of willful misconstructions of others’ words here.  The hard fact is, us Ickche Wichasha are not required to conform to P.T.’s ill-conceived images of us....even if we didn’t already have much better things to DO/BE/DO/BE/DO.

HokaHey!

TAO Walker free and wild?  Poseur is more like it.

When you meet a man who can admit he was terribly, terribly wrong, you have met a great man. Such men are extremely rare.

The same goes for cultures and civilizations.

Most, if not all, cultures and civilizations have a lot to be sorry for. It is a rare culture that owns up to the most sordid elements of its past.

I have known good Germans--fine, hardworking, good-hearted folks--who tell me quite earnestly that “not everything Hitler did was bad, you know.” Which is not quite the point.

Most White and Black Americans have no idea, to this day, of the crimes committed against the indigenous tribes. When told about those crimes, they usually either don’t believe it, or they shrug their shoulders and say, “well, the Indians committed crimes, too.”

Sometimes, you’ll hear, “yeah, but that’s all just history now. We need to move on.” This is similar to the argument for staying in Iraq: “sure, every reason we gave was bogus and a lie, but we’re there now, so we we gotta stay to fix things.” Old data--let’s just erase it.

Or, you’ll hear from seemingly intelligent, thoughtful people: “Well, if two cultures collide, the one with the better technology always wins. The inferior culture gets destroyed. That’s just the way it is. No need to feel sorry about it.”

Human beings have a remarkable ability to rationalize their crimes, don’t they?

Peoples’ opinions about behavior in history are just that, right or wrong.  We know that knowing history has little to nothing to do with its repetition.  If you’re a loser, you can find a thousand reasons, moral or otherwise, to blame the winners.  If you’re a winner, you can get on with the next conquest.  The best thing to do, if you don’t want to be a loser, is to 1. assume your enemy is out to get you and 2. make sure you can defend yourself.  It also helps to recognize when you’re in your enemy’s sights. Greed has no moral boundaries and morality, therefore, has no useful place in arguments about what peoples do to one another, unless, of course, you just like to argue morality.  “All’s fair in love and war.” Rodney Ki