Black Elk - Holy Man Of The Oglala Sioux

[sparklekaz]

You have noticed that everything an Indian does in a circle,
and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles,
and everything and everything tries to be round.

In the old days all our power came to us from the sacred hoop
of the nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people
flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop,
and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace
and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain and the north
with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This
knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion.

Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle.
The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball
and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon
does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great
circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were.

The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is
in everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like the
nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop,
a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.

Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux 1863-1950

Over a hundred years ago Black Elk had a vision of the time when Indian people would heal from the devastating effects of European migration. In his vision the Sacred Hoop which had been broken, would be mended in seven generations. The children born into this decade will be the seventh generation.

[gruntal]

I find it sad - wretchingly disturbingly sad - that a culture or people would just cease to exist because they could not co-exist beside another culture. In my travels around town I peek behind old houses; stop and examine old abandoned buildings; look at sattelite photos to see if a trace of something hidden is still there. But ironically here my own European ancestry is in decline: massive immigration from the southern and eastern parts of the world will make this part of the world predominately Latino (Mexican) and/or Vietnamese or Cambodian or Korean ect.

The Native Americans were NOT very bright in assessing the extent of the European American civilzation. They rarely strolled down the streets of the major cities like New York. So many people they never saw or could imagine ever existed. How ironic their old nemesis would itself die from demagraphics i.e. the birth rates of General Custer's progeny is not even replacement figures now.

If in fact anything of a cultural nature is revived or revisited I am afraid it won't probably be by the origonal blood line decendents but by a new race (or ethnic group ect) that simply looks around and decides to embrace something at hand that they think ended prematurely and needs to be embraced anew. In the end I wonder if anybody will be able to do more then assume the role and say: "well this must be what it felt like to be a (??) because now we are all so mixed up and integrated it doesn't exist anymore".

I just wonder and wonder what it was like back then ............and wonder and wonder ........because I LOOK like General Custer I think I must FEEL like him and that doesn't work either. So I just wonder and wonder ...........and think optimistically something might have survived we can be and experience now without the old predudices and misunderstandings.

[holistichealer]

Gruntal:

I believe you are semi- correct regarding the Natives here in the U.S. underestimating the problems associated with the European invasion of their homeland. I say, "semi- correct", because the evidence speaks for itself. However, Natives were (and are) a very diverse group of "Nations", so there really wasn't enough organization among them to get a consensus and focus on it. And that, I believe, is the lesson that they failed to learn / test they didn't pass: To live together and get along.

Many people see Native Americans as having one identity, all living the same lifestyles, interacting peacefully and cooperatively, until the Europeans showed up with superior technology and evil intent. But that wasn't the case. They constantly had disputes and were at war with different sub- groups. And that was their real source of demise, IMO.

If they had gotten organized from the beginning and "met the Europeans at the shore", so to speak, militarily, I think that they could have fared much, much better.

Native culture is alive and well. True, it's been damaged and in some ways transformed not for the better. But there are hold- outs of tradition among those who never lost sight of who they were.

And they never will, which is a good thing.

Many people today think that the proverbial fecal matter is soon going to "impact the spinning blades of our wind machines", so to speak. And when / if that happens, people who are more in touch with the old ways will once again take a leadership role in helping put things back in order. I dunno. I'm not making predictions. But if that day ever does come, I suspect that one of the great lessons such people will impart will be about everyone getting along and working together.

[gruntal]

One of the memoriable landmarks of my life was when I read the novel RAMONA as a kid. I never thought of the scenario untill then of Westward settlers traveling from the East Coast U.S.A. . They might have encountered hostile aggressive Natives alomg the route but as soon as they arrived in California it was vastly different. But I don't think they knew or cared. The Indians of California were not very sophisticated even by Indian standards; the climate and natural resources in California made living easy and the warrior mentality wasn't needed. Whites just assumed the worst but the threat just wasn't there - THEY became the decimators of native populations without even much trying.

But the rise of European civilization, as well as the 'New World" United States of America, paid off in unbelievable scientific and technological discoveries and innovations. Alas the political mistakes were also legendary. ( Communism, Fascism, Nazism) . The U.S.A. was much more benign but also incredibly myopic in things like race relations. Now we see the United States of Europe and the coming One World Government. To some of us it is the personification of power abused. Better to split off and be free and "move on down the road".

I think maybe that is how it all started. Cycles. Or as Black Elk noted circles. Progress isn't all about fleeing; it also should be about re-connecting. Back to where you started but hopefully improved.