deadindians

^ analogy for the modern tribal councils (the soldiers)

The females were all educated by the Motokis society, to which no male ever belonged or was admitted to. This secret tradition is therefore a matter on which I cannot comment except to say anything which has been written about the Motokis in modern times is almost certainly perverted-poisoned by Christian influences and consequent male view.

In the male educational tradition, if the band were largely an extended family made up of mostly cousins (1st cousin & brother are the same word, likewise uncle & father and so forth) as a matter of cultural habit, the nuclear families within the band were those several parts making up a clan’s patrilineal education system. Similar, but not precisely identical, to government, the male education reflected both consistency and diversity. In this case, had I been a male of former times, chances are most of those surrounding me would be Black Doors and this tradition would be the bands primary education model at the nuclear family level. Additional (compulsory) education would be the province of the warrior societies and elective education could be found in the ‘medicine societies.’

Throughout one’s life, defying the western stereotype of ‘shiftless, lazy Indians’, so-called ‘leisure time’ was much preoccupied with education.

When necessity of acquiring western technology (firearms) preceded the actual arrival of the Whites, this new pressure had already begun breaking this system down, through the erosion of values. To acquire guns required violating the most basic tenets and associated values of one’s education to sustain life within the cosmos. This requirement was reflected in the so-called ‘fur trade’ where the ‘Beaver Nation’ (mostly) was assaulted and nearly driven to extinction. With the new steel traps, the Pikuni (and nearly every other native human nation) set out to alter the cosmos as the skins of their sacred companions were harvested en mass, setting into motion a chain of events; whiskey came with the steel traps & firearms they traded the beaver pelts for and the rank and deep fear (a new concept) of what they were doing within the cosmos, created the opening for alcohol to make deep inroads into Pikuni society.

This knocking the cosmos out of balance had been deceptive in the perception of one’s surrounding in  the environment. Already dealt a death-blow, the dying cosmos appeared to live on; very much like the individual cells of a complex organism die over time following a mortal blow and cessation of brain function. There could be breath went on for awhile but then this ceases as well. At the end, a corpse’s hair and nails continue to grow for a bit longer. This may sound harsh but is an accurate reflection of what had happened since; within the families who’d kept their traditions more intact, in vicinity of vestiges of undisturbed nature, the original knowledge continued (in ever diminishing  form.)

Contrast this to the modern tribal council and its western economic development model and here I will note a few salient examples of how we, as native peoples, have embraced a lie; the native corporation throughout Canada and Alaska, the Navaho tribal council forcing through gambling after it’d been twice rejected by tribal referendum, the Navaho tribal council forcing electricity (with attending television) on all rural or remote households against the will of those wishing to keep to tradition (and off the grid), the Shoshone-Arapaho of Wyoming chasing the antelope to extinction on their reservation with all terrain vehicles, the Blackfeet of Montana aspiring to get a family member into tribal council so “it will be our turn” to loot that nation’s resources, such as clear cutting the Hudson Divide of premium house logs, sold to sawmills off the reservation – while the Amskapi Pikuni throughout have suffered chronic-critical housing shortage. And those many tribal members employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs who’ve made a career of bringing the nations into the ‘modern concept’ (while stealing the people blind), those several nations where one faction gained control over another faction and expelled their own people with dis-enrollment (such as the Cree had done to many of the Chippewa at Rocky Boy) and it just goes on. Tell me; just who among these can claim to be Indian?

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Cosmos & Cosmology Cross-cultural encroachment (1)

Cosmos & Environment Cross-Cultural encroachment (2)

Cosmos & The Nation Cross-cultural encroachment (3)

Cosmos & The Clan Cross-cultural encroachment (4)

Cosmos & The Family Cross-cultural encroachment (5)

Cosmos & The Self Cross-cultural encroachment (6)

Cosmos & Consciousness Cross-cultural encroachment (7)

Cosmos & Consciousness (notes)

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Life in Indian Country Essay collection