Shirts N' Skins
(Renegade Essays For The
21st Century)
“Since the beginning of the
technological juggernaut, the only consistent opposition has come from
land-based native peoples. Rooted in an
alternative view of the planet—Indians, Islanders, and Peoples of the North
remain our most clear-minded critics.
They are also our most direct victims.
That technological society should ignore and suppress native voices is
understandable, since to heed them would suggest we must fundamentally change
our way of life. Instead, we say they must change. They decline to do so.”
Jerry Mander
“The voyage of
discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
Marcel Proust
Before We Get Started…
Our opinions are our own and are not intended to
represent any other group or individual.
We expect that even some American Indians will disagree with our
perceptions and conclusions. We’re okay
with that, believing that a book can be just as important as a springboard for
dissent and controversy as it is a hymnal for agreement and praise.
We have
deliberately used the language to its fullest, preferring to resist the
contemporary temptation to simplify our vocabulary. Languages evolve rich and nuanced vocabularies to more accurately
express the detail of a perception or content of an idea. Deliberately and disingenuously utilizing
simplistic language can obscure the clarity of those perceptions, not elucidate
them.
We respectfully
acknowledge that a significant amount of the information in this book has been
gathered from the ideas and works of other popular (and not so popular),
authors. We have made every attempt to
identify them and give credit, both in the text and in the source list. Still,
the knowledgeable reader may find instances that lack quotation marks or
identifying notations. We urge readers
to accept the factuality of this book as a tertiary source only, and to look to
the book list to read those works that can be classified as primary or
secondary sources. We do include some
primary, as well as secondary source information—but believe that it will be in
the best interests of all readers to study further any controversial issues or
facts that interest them. We have no
desire to be considered scholarly, or literary experts—preferring the title we
chose—renegades.
We
hope that the entire stew will be tasty enough for our academic readers to
forego their justifiable criticisms. In
addition, since these essays have been composed over time, the discriminating
reader will undoubtedly encounter some repetition. We hope this will not be too tedious or distracting, and that our
affection and earnest enthusiasm to build a subjective theme into the entire
work may be viewed more as a musical piece than a literary one, with movements
and repetitive themes toward a single end.
Natives do not
need us to "educate" them in regards to the issues and concerns we
all share, our intention is simply to contribute to the timely and important
discussions being held within, and without, our individual Nations.
Where we have
erred, over-generalized, misrepresented, or misunderstood our subjects or the
facts, the responsibility is ours alone.
A final word—if any essay
seems to be too much—skip it and go on to another. We tried to make each one
stand-alone. Who says a book must
progress front to back?
Why Us, Why This, Why Now?
One of the
reasons we have taken undertaken this compilation of essays, ideas, quotes, and
rephrased writings is to put educational information from many places and
authors into a central stewpot for general consumption.
First in our minds was the
simple importance of offering an alternative voice to the litany of textbook
clones offered by our educational system to indoctrinate our children with an
acceptable and unified theory of American history and contemporary social and
political philosophy.
Second was our observation
that Native People are some of the most patriotic Americans we know. Our history values the warrior, and the
entrance of many of our loved ones, past and present, into the U.S. Armed
Forces is a source of unity and pride for all of our Nations. Our Veterans have served with dignity and
honor in every U.S. conflict during the last century. However, we believe that many Native Peoples have been
misinformed and, in some cases, intentionally misled, about the history and
motives of the United States Government—particularly as it relates to military
engagements in the last fifty years. It
is our contention that Native people, along with many other Americans, have
been fed a conglomerate series of myths and morality plays that inaccurately
represent the history, not only of the American Experiment in the past, but the
part, place, and importance of Native Peoples in that history. We think that a clearer understanding of the
motives and failures of the American Experiment will help Native Peoples make
important decisions regarding our continued support and cooperation with
American foreign and domestic policies.
It is
not our intention to devalue the heroes and cherished beliefs of European
descendants or global immigrant Americans, but we feel that Native peoples have
the right to be educated to the events of history, as we understand them, with
the Native perspective taken into consideration. Native people should feel empowered by what they learn, or
re-learn, and should rightfully feel a great deal of pride in the
accomplishments and sacrifices made by our ancestors, as well as the modern
heroes of our time. One of the most valuable lessons that can be learned from
history is that all the great leaders, spokesmen, healers, warriors, and
artists of the past were common human beings, subject to all of our human
problems and vices. None were so perfect
or heroic that they did not experience moments of failure, doubt, tragedy, or
criticism. In acknowledging this, we
understand that each of us has the potential to be like them. As Native people, we are less inclined to
look for individual heroism than collective balance and wisdom. There is plenty of that to be found in these
pages as well.
If one is not
exposed to contradictory ideals and opinions, fundamentalism prevails. Not that all fundamentalism is bad—it simply
depends on the historical reality of the premises and events of the past that
bolster a fundamental belief. We agree
with John
Dominic Crossan, when he described what history should be; “History is the past reconstructed
interactively by the present through argued evidence in public discourse.”
Unfortunately,
much of what Indigenous Peoples have learned about their contemporary world is
what they have been given by the conquering culture, its history, and
world-view. It is time for debunking
the myths of America. We are certain it
will make us plenty of enemies. So be
it.
Many American
Indigenous Peoples indulged in warfare.
Some did not. It's up to the
reader to explore the differences in Indigenous cultures and Nations to
identify those differences. But for
those who prized bravery, courage, and heroism as it applied to conflicts
between men, their defeat at the hands of a more callous, brutal, and heavily
armed foe was debilitating and heart-wrenching. Many individual Natives, searching for an extension of those
traditions, have sought continuity in service to the United States of America
and its Armed Forces. Successful
integration into an armed force means that one must put aside personal
attitudes and opinions, conform to the orders and expectations of superiors,
and accept the values and perceptions of those who direct one’s actions. In order to survive one must ultimately
accept what one is told. Questions or
indecision can get you killed.
Even before the First World War, Natives were proudly
serving in the Armed Forces. We would
not presume to speak for them or those who have served since, except to notice
that, by and large, they are proud of their service, honor the flag and their
officers, and generally exhibit the expected patriotism one might expect from
honorable veterans. We want it to be
crystal clear that we revere and honor all our Native Vets. We also think that very few of them have
received the education or historical background necessary to understand the
behind-the-scenes reasons for the conflicts they were (and are), involved in
and the real reasons many of these conflicts were enjoined. By the late 1960's, some of them, in their
hearts, probably wondered why they were killing other brown people in the
jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Later, and more recently, conflicts in the
Middle East have taken the lives of both Native men and women. However, myths
and politricks, as well as the realities of survival, have kept them from
questioning the larger American picture.
While real
historians argue about the reasons and behind-the-scenes decisions of World War
One and Two, the rest of us are reasonably comfortable with believing that it
was a black and white struggle of good over evil, tyranny over freedom. Of course, that's what we were taught and
told, so perhaps it's not that unreasonable for us to believe it. Certainly, those veterans who saw the
horrors of those wars have arguments aplenty for America's justifications, but
our interest here moves into the time when the general education of everyone in
America was thought to be “a given”, and getting information—as simple as
turning on the TV or radio. The 1960's were a time when TV, radio, and the
print media reached into almost every single household except those in
Indigenous America. Suddenly, Americans
were discovering that the Government was capable of lying to its
citizens—and its veterans. History
began to get a lot more interesting as we
discovered real discrepancies in what we had been told about events,
decisions, and policies of the past. It
became evident that we knew a lot less about who we were, where we had come
from, and what we represented than we had been led to believe.
This book is an
attempt at discovery, as well as an evaluation of where we have come from and
where we are going. If it can be a burr
under a blanket, or provide one single fact that helps move us toward a clearer
view of a future we would like to share, we'll be happy with our efforts.
Some of our
editors felt our tone throughout was entirely too militant. We agonized over whether some
of these essays could be classified as rants that might detract from our
purpose of education—being too controversial, too negative, or worse—off
topic. Ultimately, we decided that there
were good reasons for expressing our militancy. The foremost reason being the
word—militant—because that is exactly how we were described in our youth. Though our muscles aren't as firm, and our
short-term memories are failing, our minds still carry much of the same angst
and anger we felt in the late 1960’s and early 1970's.
There have been changes in Indian country,
some of them good, some not so good.
Many of our complaints from yesterday are still aggravations today. Much of the feeling of brotherhood and
community of that time has dissipated with the drive for “economic
development”. All of us who were active
in the seventies know we're only a small step away from being classified and
catalogued by the FBI again, this time as "domestic terrorists". Who knows, this book could put us back in
their scopes. We're certain that the
names of the American Founding Fathers and all of the Native heroes and
heroines we cherish would be included with ours on that list, so we’re okay
with that. In these turbulent times, we relish the opportunity to stand up for
militancy and be identified as “renegades” again.
The modern need
to push books into the fast food culture and see to the comfort and ease of any
potential readers has crept into the organization of this manuscript. In our effort to help you save time and make
decisions as to whether or not to read entire chapters, we have included, in
western fashion, an introduction for each of the essays contained in Volume
One, Shirts. In this fashion, each
essay can be scrutinized before the actual reading commences, to determine
whether the larger body of what follows piques the reader’s interest or
not. We have added an index of
additional information to shorten some essays for similar reasons. This is a
reflection of the philosophy of western civilization as we recognize that many
of our potential readers would like to be forearmed in their knowledge of what they are being
asked to read, in order to decide whether to order the Big Mac or just go with
a Taco Salad.
Essay One
BlueWolf & Lupe'/ Shirts N' Skins
The “Shirts” Perspective
We
start the book, as typical Americans, discussing a movie. The hugely popular Matrix Series can be used
as a corollary to the present perceptions of Western Civilization—a
civilization that has consistently demeaned the ideals, social forms, and
spiritual systems of the world’s Indigenous peoples; trampling upon human
rights wherever possible to gain control over those peoples and ravage the
natural resources that drive the engine of progress and civilization
forward. In this chapter we discuss the
nature of perspective, what the modern world asks of its citizens, and why.
Whether the
Wachowski Brothers intended for the convoluted message of their hugely
successful Matrix movies to be deciphered is not known, but certainly, the mass
of interpreters ready to lend the movie their philosophical bent has added to
the confusion as to the intent of its ideal.
The first movie clearly presents us with a reasonable corollary to the
situation of our time—namely that western civilization is party to a mass
manipulation of perceptual reality intentionally skewed to keep the energy and
purpose of that society serving the interests of a calculating few. The fact that the few are not machines, but
Huxley's “Power Elite”, is irrelevant.
At first viewing, the original Matrix is a traditional
sci-fi thriller that promises an adventure of breaking free from the
constraints of runaway technology (in the form of artificial intelligence), and
returning to a real, albeit sometimes unpleasant, perceptual reality. Unfortunately, there is at least one scene
in the movie where an insidious underlying theme of the Matrix is
revealed. In that scene, the leader of
the rebellion, Morpheus, reveals to the hero, Neo, the truth of what had
occurred to bring about the catastrophe that had decimated the planet. In the midst of his soliloquy, he makes the
astounding statement, "Since the beginning of time man has depended on
machines for his survival."
Say what! Long
before western civilization brought its supposed advantages to these shores,
Indigenous Peoples, without even the benefit of the “beast of burden” wheel,
created pyramids and road systems, had continental trade and communication
systems, and extensively farmed and landscaped the continents. Despite the persistent myth put forward by
Thomas Hobbs that Indigenous peoples led short, brutish lives, modern studies
have determined that only two or three hours of labor per day was necessary to
provide the daily necessities for most families. The rest of the time was for family, debate, game playing,
leisure, and the arts. Modern social scientists are beginning to postulate that
specialization, once considered one of the defining attributes of advanced
civilization, may actually be a step backward in the evolution of societies,
especially as it relates to the time necessary to procure necessities, and the
general contentment of the People.
The second movie expounds further on this ideal,
especially during the conversation between Neo and an Elder, beneath Zion,
where the machines that produce the atmosphere and life-support are found. Their discussion about the feasibility of
humans surviving without machines would be ludicrous if it wasn't treated with
so much serious deliberation by the characters.
Unfortunately, these philosophies and conclusions are
reflective of western civilization's preoccupation with the concepts of
technological progress as an inescapable roller coaster on which man is blessed
(or doomed), to ride on the rest of his universal journey.
One is allowed to criticize western civilization's (now
modern global civilization's), failings, even predict potential dangers to come
but not to suggest that its sacrosanct growth be constrained. The discussion is framed within the context
of an acknowledgement of, and resignation to, its existence. Little discussion is allowed that refers to
any attempt to alter it at a fundamental level or present alternatives to its
underlying philosophies.
The poet/activist, John Trudell, says it best in his
inspirational spoken-word CD, Descendant Now Ancestor, when he describes the
current world view as a twisted perceptual reality that allows a few to utilize
the global consumer society as fuel in their dominant quest for world
power.
The response of
a contemporary newspaper journalist to seeing the second movie probably
represents the normal citizen's jaded and self-serving view of that
manipulation. He wrote that though he
was stimulated by the initial promise of the series, its failure to deliver the
punch of idealism necessary to be convincing caused him, in the end, to
identify more with the traitor who ratted on his friends—in order to be
re-inserted into the Matrix where he could, at least, have the benefit of a
pretend steak.
The nightmare of the real that Morpheus promises has
come true. If we can't, or don’t want
to, discriminate between the real and the imaginary, who cares? After all, if the Matrix can provide news,
entertainment, and experiences that gratify the individual human being, why
worry whether they are real or contrived? Where is the value of the real?
Having convinced
the citizenry that technological civilization is inescapable (at least for the
small segment of the world's population enjoying its supposed benefits), we are
further promised sensory delights, entertainment, conveniences, and comforts
unavailable outside the "Matrix" of consumerism and global economic
imperialism. Since the fantasy of our
"superiority" is evident, and any alternative has been described to
us as a "thin gruel" existence, most people are willing to overlook
the terrifying realities of how we obtain our wealth and comfort, preferring to
"close their eyes and savor the taste of their steak". The sacrifices and changes in living
standards necessary to change the systems so that further exploitation of the
planet and its peoples can be avoided requires a change in the perceptual
reality of western civilization.
To be awakened to the real world is as much a shock as
the original movie portrays it. The
horrors are so many, and so real, that it is difficult to resist re-immersing
oneself in the distractions and sensory delights of the technological age. For some freed men and women, being faced
with the full brunt of that terrifying wave of reality is too much. Suicide and violence are the only responses
they can imagine. Others of us have
been activists all of our lives. By
whatever means, we have grown up outside the very real matrix of the twentieth
century. Our hatred and loathing for
the myths and lies that persuade so many, drives us to write and speak for a
new perceptual reality. As John Trudell
says, “if we use our collective intelligence consciously and coherently—as
often as possible”—we may, in the long run of time, make a difference.
We're here to offer you a choice between
perspectives. Take the blue pill and
reject our premise and conclusions and you can return to your life undisturbed. Take the red pill and we will provide you
with the impetus to create a "new perceptual reality".
Erich Fromm described the problems contemporary citizens have balancing
their modern reality with their natural sense of what is real. He said, "They are normal only in
relation to a profoundly abnormal society.
Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their
mental sickness. These millions of
abnormally normal people still cherish "the illusion of individuality, but
their conformity is developing into uniformity. Uniformity and freedom are incompatible, as are uniformity and
mental health. The difficulty with
ordering large civilizations is that there are no strict guidelines as to how
much organization is necessary. Too
little (organization) and unrelated citizens, lacking powerful unifying ethics
and purpose, become lawless and anarchistic.
Too much, and individual creativity is suppressed or inhibited, leading
to stagnation or despotism. Liberty
arises and has meaning only within a self-regulating community of freely
co-operating individuals, but the demands of economics and order in large
populations often co-opt the values of the people so that they settle for
comfort and distractions instead of freedom.
The press, radio, (television, the web), and cinema are an indifferent
power(s), serving as often as a weapon for dictators as it does an
indispensable tool in the survival of democracy. Outlets for the free expression of opinion must also bear the
costs of competition and profitability in democratic environments, coming under
an economic censorship that is, in effect, as limiting as the political
censorship endured under totalitarian regimes.”
There
is a group of Americans who make it a point to constantly criticize any attempt
to preserve Indigenous language, culture, identity and social customs—believing
that everyone should uniformly homogenize themselves into modern society,
exhibiting only pride in the accomplishments of western civilization. More often than not, these people are
Euro-centric and extremely nationalistic. They continue, even in the face of
new evidence, to describe the continents of the Americas, before the arrival of
Christoforos (Columbus), as having been predominantly wild and empty, occupied
mostly by savage hunter-gatherer societies, with little or no cultural
development. For proofs, they point to
the lack of identifying characteristics that make up what they consider a
superior civilization; utilization of the wheel, development of writing,
technological advancement in weapons and machines, scientific advances in the
alteration and domination of the natural environment, and utilization of
resources to create economic stratification and specialization, etc.
As young men, we spent a number of years in exile from
the modern social and technological environment—enough of an exile that we did
not know what year it was. We returned
with an altogether different feeling about the modern life we were leading—a
life that we had been led to believe was as normal and as inescapable as the
tide. We realized that all the pent up
raging emotions of our teenage years were not a normal reaction to the natural
world. Talking to Elders of just a few
generations past we learned that youthful rebellion, with all the emotions and
reactions we have come to take for granted in our youth, were unknown among
Indigenous Peoples. In fact, they were
unknown to 20th century rural Americans until the 1950’s, when
Hollywood—utilizing broodingly handsome young men like James Dean and Marlon
Brando—convinced everyone that that kind of behavior was traditionally typical
of young people. We realized that much
of this rebellious behavior resulted from a feeling of being trapped on a
irrelevant, surreal, frustrating, unfulfilling, unhappy, endless, and seemingly
unstoppable, roller-coaster ride. A
thrill ride with the thrill removed: a dead end road defined by a meaningless
abstraction called “success”, which seemed largely based on a similarly
abstract economic or social classification.
This economic abstract is a direct descendant of the dreams of poor and
classless Europeans who came here searching for their own nobility at the
exclusion of any other goal. For them,
freedom meant nobility, the unfettered opportunity to pursue power and wealth.
Fortunately, our experiences liberated us from the
matrix of the modern global perspective and allowed us to experience being
happy, content, balanced, harmonious, and free—for the first time. We no longer
felt constrained by the myths of our previous indoctrination. We were free to involve ourselves in the
society and the civilization without the hopeless, gut-wrenching feeling that
we were trapped with no release available to us. To experience release, we had only to pull back from the
tentacles of consumerism, allow ourselves to be satisfied with less comforts,
conveniences, and entertainments, and to engage in satisfying interpersonal and
inter-tribal cultural and spiritual activities. That experience gave us the perspective to begin the examination
of all of the structures and pre-defined realities that society, the mass
media, and public education had ordered our minds to accept. Over time, we began to make comparisons
between what we saw as Indigenous Native values and “Ways”, and those put
forward by the dominant anti-culture around us. We use the word “Way” (in this context), to mean a
life-philosophy or world-view resulting from the homogeneous integration of
language, spiritual philosophy, social morality and ethics in physical
interaction with the natural world.
Today, after conversations with other like-minded
twenty-first century escapees from the ever-present, ever-growing web of the
modern matrix, we think it our responsibility to attempt to explode some of the
myths presently put forward by these adamant ethnocentric enthusiasts.
The first is
myth is that they speak for themselves.
The truth is they are being led by their noses. They are the frontline foot soldier
spokesmen for the Power Elite that need us to accept their perceptual realities
to maintain their strangle hold on the world’s resources and organization.
An example of
the ethics of their motives has been their adamant resistance to making “Big
Tobacco” companies responsible for the consequences of their actions regarding
the health of their customers (victims).
They pretend that the idea of asking our social, political, and economic
institutions to take responsibility for undermining the well being of our
neighbors is un-American, and is in some way a threat to our rights and
freedoms. This is just one example of
the perverted nature of the “spin” that is the modern perspective. Yet, if you examine their catechism, under
their rhetoric and rationalizations, you find that their system of measurement
and empowerment always stems from an evaluation of a faceless and dispassionate
economic bottom line. Just as the
United States announced in a United Nations vote that it could not support the
contention that human beings have a “right” to food, big corporations are
intent in tying up all discussions of human rights, environmental conservation,
and availability of necessities into strictly economic terms. Corporate interests and government
decision-making have become inseparable.
One of John
Trudell's more important observations is that our struggles ultimately should
not revolve around discussions about freedom or rights, but about our
responsibilities. If we continually
meet our responsibilities in a real sense, in the real world, freedom will come
about as the natural consequence of effort and sacrifice.
Through personal experience, we have verified that
western civilization’s concept of social superiority is largely a result of
personal preferences, or an ignorance of alternatives. The close-quartered, mundane, simple, and slow
moving world we experienced in our self-contained exile in the late 1960’s and
early 1970’s resulted in a contentment, happiness, and harmony that we had
never before experienced participating in the lifestyle of the modern world. We became the enemy of progress. We were no longer consumers, no longer
contributing to the gross national product.
A high gross-national-product may not even represent an actual indicator
of economic strength and civil satisfaction anyway. Some theorists now believe that the more people purchase, the
less satisfied they become. Similarly,
a technological advancement may or may not result in an improvement in the
human condition.
Part of the problem of clarifying a realistic
perceptual reality has to do with the short historical view we presently have
of these advancements, and of our infant civilization at large. Many Americans have become largely removed
from the history of their immediate families and have given their loyalties
over to a nationalistic fervor. They
can’t trace their own history back more than a few generations. This results in the loss of any personal or
emotional relationship to history. Once
history is removed from a nation’s historical consciousness, except as an
abstract study, time seems to expand and a century of events takes on an
exaggerated importance. Therefore,
there has been a rush to quantify and expound on the virtues of the American
experiment and modern technological global civilization without an adequate
amount of time to prove its real and lasting benefits or intrinsic
superiority. What appears to some to be
a rapidly advancing global civilization with an exciting and promising
future—appears to others as a dehumanizing, voracious, irresponsible, and
rapacious monster intent on victimizing the planet and its resources.
So we have come to question the modern matrix from its
oldest institutions and beliefs, its very foundations and history, to the often
mutated but similarly contrived ideals and policies of the present. As Indigenous Americans, we accept our role
and responsibility in disputing the assertion that the present civilization is
superior to those of other times and places.
We feel the need to dispel much of the mythology inherent in the contemporary
American Dream and to correct the inaccuracies about our Peoples and cultures
that have become the litany of the doctrine of American social and cultural
supremacy. In addition, we intend to
strive to identify what the elements of the "modern matrix" are, how
it suffocates and stifles humanity and the natural world, what factors support
its dominance and continuation, and how it can, ultimately, be escaped.
Essay Two
BlueWolf & Lupe'/ Shirts N' Skins
What Is Civilized?
Starting our
exploration of the myths of the matrix and contemporary history with this essay
seemed a logical beginning. One of the
main tenants of the dominant western civilization has been their insistence on
the elements that constitute civilization, and their demands on a history that
shows an orderly appearance of civilization descending from Mesopotamia. They make a rigorous denial of the
contention that Indigenous peoples ever independently developed civilizations,
except for a brief credit to the Peruvian cultures. Yet, taking the definition below, an honest historian might
contend that there have been many civilizations on the American continents, and
elsewhere around the world. The
coastlines and oceans have changed, flooded, and receded countless times. Who knows what unknown civilizations wait to
be discovered under the oceans of the world?
Archaeologists are just now determining that simply because no evidence
remains, natural civilizations may have occurred—and been lost without a
trace—in antiquity. As for the
appearance of the other “necessary” elements of civilization occurring
naturally in Indigenous Nations, many historians simply ignored their occurrence
or dismissed them as accidental aberrations. One of the crucial elements in the
myths that comprise modern thought is a belief that the “progress” of
civilization has “developed” due to a series of social, political, and
technological advancements innately superior to any Indigenous reality, past or
present.
Chester Starr
defined the fundamental characteristics of a "civilized" society as:
1. Firmly
organized states with definite boundaries and systematic political
institutions;
2. The
distinction of social classes;
3. The economic specialization of man as
farmer, trader, or artisan, each dependent on the other;
4.
The conscious development of the arts and intellectual attitudes--
a) Specifically the rise of
monumental architecture,
b) Sculpture that carefully
represents man,
c) The use of writing to
commemorate accounts or deeds,
d) The elaboration
of religious views about the nature of the gods, and their relation to men and
the origin of the world.
"Whenever
civilization has appeared, most or all of these characteristics will have
quickly sprung into existence and will have assumed a precise form and
interlocking coherent view, easily distinguishable from other ways of
life."
“What is
civilization? If its marks are a noble
religion and philosophy, original arts, stirring music, rich story and
legend. We had these. Then we were not savages but a civilized
race.”
Grand Council Of American Indians 1927
“The worm thinks it strange
and foolish that man does not eat his books.”
“Writing and literacy are
generally seen as forces for good…but there is also a dark side to the spread
of writing that is present throughout its history. Writing has been used to tell lies as well as truth, to bamboozle
and exploit as well as educate, to make minds lazy as well as to stretch them.”
“Socrates, in his story of
Thoth, the mythical inventor of writing, had the king admonishing Thoth,
“You…have been led by your affection to ascribe to them (written words) a power
the opposite of that which they really possess. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and
you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, for they will read many things
without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are
for the most part ignorant.”
Patronizing attitudes regarding
assertions by Native Peoples that they either originated on, or came to these
lands many millennia before the supposed land migrations over the Bering Strait
in the Clovis period, (11,000-12,500BP {Before Present}), are one of the more
exasperating irritations Natives endure.
Modern archaeology is well on the way to exploding the main Bering
Strait theory, yet mainstream scientists resist, and our children are still
taught this myth.
The archaeological finds at Meadowcroft, in western Pennsylvania,
have now been confirmed at 16,000 years ago, almost 3500 years before the
“migration”.
Certainly there may have
been peoples passing back and forth over northern lands in ages past (the
Bluefish Caves site in the Yukon is dated 24,000BP), and to insist that no
other migrations occurred and that Siberian origination has been undeniably
established is ridiculous. The oceans
have risen over 400 feet since those times. Any coastal routes, which may have
significantly preceded the Clovis dates, have long been inundated. Yet, none of
the theories, even those who suppose coastal migrations, have been able to
explain why a number of South American digs pre-date North American ones. Scientists are now hard-pressed to explain
how early Americans could have established significant settlements at Monte
Verde, Chile, centuries before they were supposed to be making the arduous trip
through the ice corridors of Canada.
Even more difficult for them to rationalize, are the recent carbon
datings at Pedra Furada, in Brazil.
Archaeologist, Guidon, has confirmed, with the help of internationally
respected Hans Mueller-Beck, that the dig dates at least to 30,000 and most
probably to 48,000 years ago.
This
find is so substantial as to cause Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian to
declare, “It’s becoming very clear that people have been in the New World for
over 20,000 years. How much older than
20,000 seems to be the key question right now, but the old argument—Clovis is
the First Americans—I don’t think that’s a real valid argument anymore."
Other disciplines agree.
Geneticist Rich Ward has
been conducting DNA testing on a small Northwest Tribe that is supposed to have
been in the third, and latest migration (coastal), from the Bering
regions. Ward and others expected to
find only three to ten lineages among the small number of test subjects. The evidence that these few people
represented twenty-eight to thirty entirely different DNA lineages in four main
clusters overwhelmed him. Ward
estimates that a much longer period than previously supposed must have elapsed
for that number of changes in the genetic code to occur.
Linguists are busy adding more fuel to
the fire. It has now been documented
that as many as 2000 different language groups have existed on the American
continents. Experts are convinced that that kind of linguistic diversity could
only occur over a long period of development in situ—as much as 50,000 years!
Of course, Natives don’t
need DNA, archaeology, and linguistics experts to tell us what we have always
known. As much as Europeans can say
they originated in Europe, Indigenous Peoples in the Americas can make the same
claim.
As far as
discussions of the properties that define civilization go, many of the
pre-Columbian American civilizations had all the defining characteristics
listed by Chester Starr in our earlier quotation.
Indigenous
borders were well known and their political systems complex and advanced. The distinction of social classes and
separation of trades most probably occurred naturally within Native societies,
though they may not have reached the levels of distinction and stratification
as peasant or noble, slave or owner, eta (untouchable) or samurai. Nevertheless, there were certainly levels of
social distinction and success in even the most democratic of Native
nations. The creative trades in
procurement of necessities have always ordered themselves toward the most
efficient system, with the most capable and productive assuming their natural
roles in sustaining local economies.
A simple
attitude of superiority does not give one culture the ability to judge the
artistic or intellectual development of another. Examples of monumental architecture abound in the Americas, as do
representative sculpture, including some creations that could not be matched by
today's architectural or artistic giants.
At the time of Columbus,
London, Paris, and Cologne were towns of only 20,000-50,000 citizens. These were roughly equivalent to the
pre-plague size of many American Indigenous eastern coastal agricultural
villages of the time, but smaller than many of the larger agricultural centers
of the Mississippi, Missouri, and what is now the southeastern U.S. None of the major European cities approached
the population and sophistication of many Mesoamerican urban areas.
The first writing known
today in the Americas occurred between 600 and 400 BC by the Zapotec Nations
from Oaxaca, in what is now Central Mexico.
Later, the Mixtec, Aztec, Isthmian, and Maya developed their systems. The most developed—the Mayan system—was almost
totally wiped out by Spanish European colonization. (Though it was preserved
enough to be making a comeback today.)
Most people are unaware that many Europeans, even until the
18th century, considered writing to be of divine invention, and that
the Chinese had libraries containing up to fifty thousand volumes five
centuries before Guttenberg invented his printing press.
Most Indigenous
American Nations made use of the discipline of exact recitation to commemorate
events, convey important messages, and keep history. Messages, still recited in their exact form, exist today that
were carried coast to coast, east to west, north to south, over 500 years
ago! Few written documents exist for
that long in a pristine state. As for
religious views, a rich tradition of Native theology, integrated into the daily
life of the Nations, continues to inspire and support many of the Indigenous
peoples on this continent. Many of
these ideals, symbols, and ceremonies have taken on new significance as modern
men re-examine the supposed superiority of colonial traditions.
Though Neolithic
civilization may or may not have occurred in Europe before the Americas, the
Native ability to advance agriculturally far outstripped the European
civilization with global implications.
Nineteenth century Central and Southern Europe became dependent on
Indigenous American maize as a staple. A dramatic reduction in the European
tradition of starvation resulted from the importation of the potato, which then
led to an increase in health and longevity that precipitated a population
explosion in Europe. Peanuts, manioc,
and maize also transformed African agriculture at the same time that European
diseases began wiping out most of Native America.
We’ve found that
it’s always good to take any scientific pronouncement about Native Peoples and
their history with a few grains of salt.
Our biggest disagreement with the status quo is an insistence that these
civilizations ended. While the
monumental architecture and urban sprawl might no longer be in evidence, many
of the descendants of these Peoples have long memories. They still retain much of the knowledge,
wisdom, and spirit of their peoples.
They are not gone; they are simply harder to see.
In our minds,
the developing Nations and Peoples of these great continents have met the
definitions of civilization time and time again. Not only did they exist in the past, they existed at the time of
Columbus. Why do European-descendant historians continue to make light of those
achievements and pretend that only they were party to the higher developments
of men? Part of the answer lies in how
they define the "higher developments" of both man and culture. This goes directly to the crux of what
Native People have been asking themselves for five hundred years. Why do “White Men” think like that?
For more
archaeological examples of pre-Columbian American civilizations, see A1 in our
information index.
Essay Three BlueWolf
& Lupe'/ Shirts N' Skins
Our first essays will be preoccupied with
establishing the events, myths, and motives that led to the way that modern
“White Men” think. To do this we need
to survey the history of Europe and reexamine the events and dynamics that
created these points of view from an Indigenous perspective, including all the
new and relevant information regarding that historical record. We’ll begin by defusing the first controversy,
establishing at the outset what we mean when we use the term “White Men.” Then we’ll advance into a short history that
involves the de-tribalization of Europe, and the dominance of Rome and the
Church. New scholarship provides us
with historical clues as to why Europeans possessed some of the values they
brought with them to the New World
"White Man (Men)":
1) Not a
reference to skin color
2) Description
of a person wholly dedicated to the belief that the present day social,
political, technological, and economic imperatives are superior to any prior
civilization, and that the drive for growth and technological development is
necessary and beneficial to mankind’s progress.
3) Person who
believes that human beings are divinely or innately superior to any other
species, and that humanity is, by natural right and design, destined to attempt
dominance and control of the natural world at every cost.
4) An unreal person; a
ghost; a person willing to kill for no valid reason; a person without a heart;
a defiler of the earth.”
The Authors
The first part
of our historical journey toward understanding how "White
Men think” begins on the European continent.
Modern archaeology has thrown
a monkey wrench into popularly accepted myths regarding the Roman Empire and
the economic stability of Europe. By
the beginning of the seventh century most of Western Europe was in a state of
complete economic degeneration. Even in
formerly highly urbanized areas, city life had shrunk dramatically. This proves that the previous belief in a
highly developed Western European society, characterized by wealth and
sophistication emanating from the Roman Empire, appears to have been
significantly exaggerated. Since a
commercial unity had never been achieved, the fragile Roman unity of the west
seems to have rapidly evaporated after AD 400.
This event has a similar parallel on the American continent. Early fur traders brought advanced weapons
to the northern Inuit and encouraged them to alter their economic patterns to
participate in the fur trade. When the
demand for furs dropped precipitously after a few generations, the trading
companies pulled out and the Natives were unable to procure shells for their
rifles. Having become dependent on this
new hunting technology, they were unable to return to traditional methods
quickly enough to avert mass starvation.
Similarly, the Roman economic “pump” of large-scale commerce and
taxation drove the economy in Britain and other western European areas. When that “pump” was withdrawn, the expanded
economic map was unable to sustain itself, and localities were forced to draw
into themselves and shut down their larger relationships.
Middle European Tribes were
first Christianized en masse between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. This provoked a violent reaction, the like
of which was not seen again in Europe for many centuries. The political change from Tribalism to
Monarchy, as well as the transformation from Earth-based spirituality to
dogmatic Christianity, was vehemently resisted by the common people. As Leslie Tihany wrote, “The Chiefs resisted
because they knew in their hearts that the substitution of a centralized monarchy
for the old tribal order, of feudal fiefs for lands contractually divided among
the Clans, would bring social and economic degradation.” The Peoples were totally against
assimilation because they realized it meant the end of volatile freedoms, and the
coming of immobile subordination. Though
the resentment against foreigners pushing a new agenda was great, there was an
even greater resentment against leaders who collaborated with the eastern or
western emperors. These collaborations, which resulted in diminished
sovereignty for the Tribes, precipitated quite a number of mass uprisings. The focus of the resistance continued until
the Traditional Leaders were wiped out, at which time the peasant’s only form
of demonstrating took the form of open rejection of the established
Church. Gradually, as the people
accepted Christianity, the Old Ways began to fade. Despite this familiar loss of Tradition, generations later,
European Tribal Peoples were still shaving their heads and wearing leggings. On the Eurasian steppe, the horse retained
its position of influence and mystic power.
Like the bison in America, every part of the horse was utilized and
venerated. European Tribes recognized
the Spiritual Power inherent in the trees, rocks, water, fire, sun, moon, and
stars. They carried amulets and talismans and remembered and venerated their
ancestors. Their spiritual and
medicinal leaders kept the natural world in balance with ceremonials, healings,
and cleansings. Group singing was a
common form of worship and social fellowship.
Indeed, at that time, newly formed Christians of all cultural and ethnic
backgrounds believed that the “Saints” could still be present on the Earth, and
they gloried in a universe crowded with intermediary beings, invisible guides,
and protectors. Theirs were not the empty
skies of the Post Enlightenment modern European missionary Christian.
In the ninth and tenth centuries, Bulgarian, Bohemian, and Serbian
mass executions were the order of the day, as the newly baptized Christian
leadership struggled to gain control. Even after the tribal leaders had been drowned in blood, the
common peasantry revolted against what was perceived as a “Greek” religion and
its supporters, mainly due to desperate conditions brought about by war, famine,
plague, and unusually severe winters.
The resistance continued in other areas even into the tenth and eleventh
centuries, when Hungarian Christians made non-Christian worship punishable by
decapitation. The uprisings in Poland during the thirteenth century were
quelled by the Order of the Teutonic Knights, who went about establishing
German colonies from Pomerania to Estonia.
Lithuanian resistance continued into the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries.
Some areas of Europe
embraced a curious mixture of evangelical Christianity and Oriental
dualism. Though some scriptural
justification for these beliefs undoubtedly descended from the Epistles of
Paul, a significant amount of the early Persian Mystery Religions permeated the
doctrine of the so-called Bogomil Heresy.
Bogomil preached that there were two worlds, one visible and temporary,
one invisible and eternal. The world
was a battleground between good and evil, darkness and light. The body was the creation of the Devil,
while the soul was an everlasting emanation of God. Three Popes preached Crusades against the Bogomil Heresy, however
we can see the lasting effects of those early Persian beliefs in the
fundamental Christian vision espoused by modern American Christianity.
The other major heretical
movement spawned in Middle Europe was that of the Hussites, precursor to
Luther’s reformation. Their animosity
to the foreign-sponsored religious establishment in fourteenth century
Czechoslovakia would ultimately change the face of Europe and prepare the world
for revolutions to come in Holland, England, America, France, and Russia. Bogomil and Hussite freedom fighters proved
to be an inspiration to romantic nationalists even four hundred years later.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
As the Germanic Tribes
settled into the former Roman Empire, Roman civilization fragmented. From 900 to 1100 AD, tribes and city-states
engaged in countless small wars. For
protection they began to band together into hierarchical feudal contracts,
establishing fiefs of divided land supporting at least one armored and mounted
knight. Knights swore oaths of loyalty
to their liege, and fighting became a way of life for the upper class. By the 12th century, it was well established
as a phenomenon in France, Spain, and England.
The first tournaments were bloodthirsty affairs with few of the civil
constraints and protections of the jousting tournaments of the 13th and 14th
centuries. These events even drew the
ire of the Church.
In
the 14th century, France and Italy, having regularly commissioned armies for
their regular campaigns, began to have problems with the decommissioned
soldiers in between conflicts. These
out-of-work soldiers took to rampaging and plundering the countryside as an
alternative occupation. The Church
threatened them with every punishment it could until, fearing for the safety of
the whole Christian community, it ordered a Crusade against the marauders. Almost immediately however, a viable
alternative came to light, and a Holy War was suggested. Veterans were enlisted to go to the Eastern
Mediterranean, Hungary, and Spain to fight the advance of Muslims.
Concurrently,
between 1348 and 1350, plague killed fully one third of the population of
Europe. Medieval citizens were
convinced that the plague was God's punishment for human sins. Thinking the Day of Judgement was imminent;
they neglected to plant crops, gave themselves over to alcohol, and experienced
almost complete civil and economic chaos.
The entire culture was affected with fear as death and guilt
accumulated. The artistic motifs of the
time clearly indicate to what extent the populace was overwhelmed. Milder accompanying plagues continued to
ravage Europe until the seventeenth century.
Starvation, pestilence, and landless poverty deeply affected the minds
and values of the European peasantry.
The Church saw
the opportunity to further cement its iron-fisted control over the populace as each of the great European
nations was inundated with crime following the plagues. A plague of bored, idle soldiers resulted in
fascinations with swordplay and duels, and a new class of ruffians and
criminals began to make use of these skills in a society of chaos.
Institutional conflicts
between England, France, Spain, and Portugal significantly sapped the resources
of the European continent. During the
reoccurring wars between England and France, large areas of land were salted to
keep the peasantry starving. After
occupations, soldiers routinely destroyed every farm and household implement
they could to keep the populace impoverished.
Poverty was extreme and contributed to what later became a European
drive to obtain and increase holdings and wealth, even beyond reasonable
standards. Years of mistreatment at the
hands of nobles, armies, and criminals, created a social terrorism that
resulted in peoples maniacally driven to secure for themselves and their
families every security and material wealth possible with little thought given
to others not so fortunate. The
concepts that wealth is achieved through divine intervention, inherent
nobility, and personal merit, only strengthened during those times of
deprivation.
With the resources of Europe
destroyed and depleted, the major European Powers increasingly looked at
expanding their eastern trade. With evidence at hand that shortcuts or new
lands might be available to them over the Eastern ocean horizon, Spanish
military adventurers like Columbus proposed expeditions to the Spanish Crown.
(Controversial new research indicates Columbus may not have been poor, or
Portuguese.) In anticipation of
encountering new pagan cultures, the first Papal Bull, Romanua
Pontifex, was issued on Jan 8 1455. (Edited) "We bestow favors and special
graces on those Catholic champions to invade, search out, capture, vanquish,
and subdue all pagans, to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to
appropriate possessions to Christian use and profit."
We think it
reasonable to presume that people from other continents had reached America
many times before 1492, notably Norsemen, Afro-Phoenicians, and perhaps even
the Egyptians. Some of these contacts
were just trade ventures and some were outright settlement attempts, but
significant interaction occurred between the continents during these contacts. Nevertheless, Columbus made his
"discovery" (although many today believe he actually had charts in
his possession from previous "discoverers"), and his accounts of
riches and the immediate exportation of Native Indigenous slaves created an
immediate demand for knowledge about the New World.
The Renaissance was just over
the horizon and a new player was about to emerge in Europe—science. In the early 1500's, Copernicus engendered a
spiritual crisis in Europe with his revelation that the earth was not the
center of the Universe. At approximately
the same time, Thomas More created a furor with his book "Utopia"
based on the Incan Civilization and suddenly the Dark Ages evaporated in an
orgasm of discovery, change, and violence.
The Christian Church, which
had been the source of much of the stability (and subjugation), of the western
world during centuries of European chaos, entered a period of internal and
violent upheaval. In time, this upheaval came to be called the Protestant
Reformation, but during the violence itself, it was referred to by many less
attractive adjectives. The institution that called itself the Body of Christ,
broke first into debate, then acrimony, then violence and counter-violence, and
finally into open warfare between Protestant Christians and Catholic
Christians. It produced the Hundred Years War and the conflict between England
and Spain that came to a climax in the destruction of the Spanish Armada in
1588. That destruction was widely interpreted as a defeat for the Catholic God
of Spain at the hands of the Protestant God of England.
For a short synopsis of how the Church influenced
contemporary Federal Indian Law, see the Information Index, A2.
Before we
continue our history of the "discovery" of the Americas, let's
establish a picture of what was actually happening there at the time. So much of our textbook historical record
involves the myth of a wild continent—empty of humans yet teaming with game,
wild rivers, and savage men—that the truth is almost incomprehensible to people
educated to those ideas. The advanced
civilizations that literally created the landscapes of North and South America
do not fit the rationalizations of those responsible for their complete and
utter destruction. To admit the facts
would require admission that the American Dream, sought by countless millions
of immigrants, owed more to the callous death, destruction, and disregard for
million upon millions of life forms—human, animal, and plant—than to any
Deity’s blueprint for exalting Europeans.
“Before it became the New World,
the Western Hemisphere was vastly more populous and sophisticated than has been
thought—an altogether more salubrious place to live at the time than, say,
Europe. New evidence of both the extent
of the population and its agricultural advancement leads to a remarkable
conjecture: the Amazon rainforest may be a largely human artifact.”
Charles C. Mann
A healthy distrust of ones
memory, and of memory in general , is not a bad idea. When all is said and done, memory is selective… We seem to have
been purposely constructed with a mechanism for erasing the tape of our memory,
or at least bending the memory tape, so that we can live and function without
being haunted by the past.
Elizabeth Loftus
The invading
Spaniards claimed that the bustle and noise of the market at Tenochtitlan could
be heard fully four miles away.
Civilization in the Americas at that time was advanced and
progressive. Where did these
civilizations come from?
Many American Indigenous
Peoples believe that a significant number of the continental Tribes are
originally descended from the Grandfather Quiche Maya Nation in Guatemala. In our discussions of Civilization, we
skirted the nature of how civilizations begin and then radiate outward. Rome and Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia were
undoubtedly centers that most completely represent the accepted characteristics
of modern civilization. To be sure, the
characteristics that defined those civilizations radiated out from those
centers to varying degrees, diminishing somewhat, as they got further and
further from their source.
If we accept those definitions
of civilization, we know that there were many highly developed societies and
governments throughout the Americas at different times in the last 6000 years. The fact that the whole continent was not
civilized to the point of urbanization, is easily understood by the vast
distances and natural geo-physical boundaries found on the continents. Nevertheless, civilizations were huge and
their influences were felt far and wide.
The Mayan Civilization
deserves to be credited as one of the world’s great civilizations. It’s borders stretched from Guatemala to the
western Honduras and El Salvador, to Chiapas, and to Yucatan. The Mayans had a written language, though
they jealously guarded their books from early Spanish invaders, hiding them so
well that it is only in the last century and one half that modern civilization
has become aware of the extent of their literacy. Recorded on smoothed, bleached, and folded bark and cloth,
Bartolome De Las Cases reports that they formed “their large books with such
keen and subtle skill that we might say our writing were not an improvement
over theirs.” Las Cases credited them
with knowing “the origin of everything pertaining to their religion, the founding
of villages and cities, how the kings and lords carried out their memorable
deeds, how they governed and how they elected their successors; they knew about
their great men and their courageous captains, of their wars, their ancient
customs, and all that belonged to their history.” They wrote in an elegant and exalted style, and the Mayan Popul
Vuh, or Sacred Text, is an epic of the most distinguished literary quality.
(Morley) The Popul Vuh, or Book Of The
People, among other things, recounts the time before the days of the conquest,
when the all the Tribes were united and had not yet dispersed across the
region. The modern Mayan civilization
reached its height in the tenth century AD, and continued for at least four
more centuries before it began to wind down in the late 15th
century.
Recently
discovered roads, bridges, and plazas deep in the Brazilian rainforests belie
the myth of a pristine Amazon. Evidence
has found a linked network of urban communities that may have supported
thousands of inhabitants. The roads
appear to link together villages in a carefully organized grid-like
pattern. The evidence implies that the
inhabitants dramatically changed the local landscape by digging enormous
ditches around the villages, building bridges and moats in wetland areas, and
cultivating large tracts of land.
Virtually no part of the large area was truly wild. Even the forested areas appear to have been
more akin to a large park than an untouched forest. Flying over Beni, a Bolivian Province, Charles Mann reports
seeing an archipelago of startlingly round islands, hundreds of acres
across. Each island raised ten, thirty,
or sixty feet above the floodplain.
Trees grew there that could never survive in the water. These forests were linked by raised berms,
as straight as a rifle shot, and up to three miles long. University of Pennsylvania archaeologist,
Clark Erickson believes that 30,000 square miles of forest mounds surround by
raised fields and linked by causeways was constructed by a complex and populous
society. In addition to building up mounds for houses and gardens, these
peoples trapped fish in the seasonally flooded grasslands with zigzagging
networks of earthen fish weirs. They
controlled their habit with fire. The
consistent burning created an intricate ecosystem of fire-adapted plant
species.
This coincides
with evidence found on the East Coast of North America that implies that huge
areas were actually landscaped and controlled Native environments. Fire was an important landscaping tool. The first settlers in Ohio found forests as
open as English parks—carriages could be driven through them. The annual fall burning by Indians along the
Hudson River lit up the banks for miles on end. Dutch from New Amsterdam boated upriver to gawk like tourists at
the display.
John Smith, of
Pocahontas fame, on visiting Massachusetts in 1614 (before the second wave of
smallpox), remarked that the land was “so planted with gardens and corn fields,
and so well inhabited with a goodly, strong, and well-proportioned people…I
would rather live here than anywhere.”
Similar testaments to levels of development
and sophistication have been gathered on the eastern Great Plains from west of
the Mississippi to Canada and down to the Gulf of Mexico. The plains were
burned regularly and this type of purposeful land management was a key element
in the creation of huge bison farms. On
the east coast, when firewood or soil fertility diminished, the large villages
were abandoned slowly, as a new village was constructed—roughly twice in a
generation.
Yet, in all
these areas, more than half a century later, these carefully managed areas had
returned to a wild state due to the deaths of their gardeners. Carefully managed animal populations
exploded into huge herds and flocks. We
know it was not always so because the archaeological record shows no evidence
of out-of-control populations of bison, elk, antelope, doves, etc. in
pre-Columbian sites. Nevertheless, as
historians began to “forget” the level of sophistication and development the
first Europeans found, history was rewritten to reflect the wild pristine myth
of an entire continent empty of people.
Even in
California, the seemingly simplistic life of the Pomoan linguistic Peoples was
much more organized and developed than previously thought. The white settlers assumed they were purely
hunters and gathers and never took the time to observe that the peoples
carefully managed their resources.
Expert observation and specific experimentation established a system of
harvesting, seed storage, and cultivation that created a human-friendly
ecosystem. For those years when weather
extremes might tax their regular harvest staples, specific plants for drought
and wet seasons were planted and nurtured, even engineered. The forests and mountain ranges were
regularly burned and wildfires were virtually unknown until modern times. As with other Indigenous groups these
carefully organized and executed strategies of environmental management allowed
the people plenty of time for the arts, entertainment, and ceremony that their
social and spiritual perspectives demanded.
As for the longevity
of Native democracy, approximately 145 Todadahos have been recorded on the Cane
of Enlistment (still in possession of the Haudenosaunee). Oral tradition indicates that the Seneca
Nation was the last to ratify the Great Law Of Peace around 940 AD. The Confederacy had been at peace with its
neighbors for 552 years at the time Columbus was being rescued by the
Tainos. (Though these dates are in
dispute according to white contemporary historians.)