[Aztlan] geronimo/kennewick/peru

[huehueteot at aol.com]

Ed:

  I don't see how you took disparagement out of what I said. I am in 
personal awe of peoples like the Lakota, the Cheyenne (with whom I have 
some personal experience) the Hopi and the Navajo. Other groups in the 
places where they were relegated by the "progressive" culture of the 
Western conquerors have somehow managed to hide the "elders" and their 
successors from the purveyors of Western Cultural Supremacy. Now with 
the return of Cultural Items that have been desperately needed to 
continue cultural growth and continuation of the institutions that make 
up the core of Native societies some of these institutions are allowed 
to continue their growth and evolution.

  NAGPRA is in part an attempt on a governmental level to rectify 
problems created by un just and down right illegal theft of property 
and human remains of ancestors of current Native American Tribes. The 
problems arise when Native American perception differs from accepted 
scientific opinion about the cultural history of North America. 
Kenniwick is perhaps the most poignant example of this conflict. I am 
not denying that Western culture tried its best to destroy Native 
American culture and society. All I am saying is that somehow some 
Native American groups have managed to keep much (not all notice) of 
their cultures intact by hiding certain key peoples from contact with 
the outside world or by minimizing that contact so that they could 
maintain their institutions. The Cheyenne are a prime example. The Dog 
Soldier Society hadn't been able to initiate new members until sometime 
in the 1980's when the Smithsonian "graciously" consented to letting 
the Dog Soldiers use a pipe in their collections in an initiation 
ceremony. The first such ceremony in some 75 to 80 years. The pipe was 
carried to the event by a curator who sat through the ceremony to maker 
sure that the pipe wasn't missapropiated. The irony of that is so large 
as to almost defy description. Not to mention that since the curator 
was there for the whole ceremony he is now and forever a Dog Soldiger. 
There was considerable unhappiness with his lack of understanding and 
willingness to live up to the duties and responsibilities of such a 
situation. The pipe has since been repatriated to the Cheyenne (I 
believe) under the Smithsonian's separate law and process.

  Countless examples of this sort of thing pepper the record. The US is 
guilty of attempted major ethnic cleansing and genocide. Many many 
cultural objects or objects of cultural Patrimony were stolen from 
native peoples over the last three centuries forcing them either to 
recreate ceremonies or ceremonial items as best as they could or to 
abandon the institutions that these items belonged to. Sometimes there 
was no perceived way to rectify the problem created by a particular 
incident. Some Tribes have had to just abandon ancestors to the Museum 
because they cannot figure out how to counter the spiritual 
consequences of reckless acts of another culture.

  Central and South America are different. I cannot exactly describe 
what the differences are as I don't have the experience of enough of 
these countries to be able to quantify. But, for the countries that I 
have visited I can say that there are places where things have survived 
to a greater degree than most understand. Yet, some things changed 
irrevocable over the last five centuries. One of those things seems to 
be the attitude of the ordinary person to death and dead bodies or 
human remains. What the differences are I cannot do anymore that 
highlight but they do exist.

 Cheers,

 Hugh G. "Sam" Ball

 And remember:

 "This too Shall Pass!

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Edward B. Hanna <edwbhanna at comcast.net>
 To: huehueteot at aol.com; AZTLAN List <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
 Sent: Sat, 20 May 2006 23:15:35 -0400
 Subject: Re: [Aztlan] geronimo/kennewick/peru




 On 5/20/06 8:54 PM EST (UTC-5 hrs), "huehueteot at aol.com"
 <huehueteot at aol.com> wrote:

 > U.S. Native American Religions were also driven under ground, but
  > somehow it was left more intact with less influence from the 
conquering
 > culture in most cases.

  I can't agree. There was a period when very great efforts were made, 
with
  the approval and even active participation of the U.S. government, to 
stamp
  out every vestige of "indianness," to the extent that children were 
taken
  from their parents and installed in special boarding schools, many run 
by
 Christian missionaries, where they were bleached of their religion and
  cultural heritage and were punished if they tried to even speak in 
their
 native tongues.

 And I'm not talking about the eighteen hundreds.. This was taking place
 well into the 1950s and 60s.

 Life today on most reservations is rife with unemployment, alcoholism,
  illness and hopelessness, the legacy of many years of not just neglect 
but a
 blatant, concerted effort to force their assimilation into "American"
 society.

 That these same peoples today are once again beginning to take pride in
  their heritage, are attempting to relearn their old ways, are showing 
an
 active interest in their ancestors, their history and rituals, is to be
 encouraged, not deplored, and certainly not to be disparaged by, of all
  people, students of one of the ancient civilizations that preceded 
them.

 --

 /Ed

 ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
 Edward B. Hanna
 edwbhanna at comcast.net
 ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­