2020-08-27 - The Returner by John Medicine Horse Kelly ====================================================== Salmon art > The salmon represents instinct, persistence, and determination in > Haida culture. The Returner is an autobiographical narrative by John Medicine Horse Kelly, a local indigenous man. The first part of the story takes place around Grants Pass. He went on to graduate from Oregon State University as a language worker. Then he lived and worked on Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) in British Columbia. Having grown up in Grants Pass, i appreciate the parts of the story that refer to the local history and landmarks. The author learned and studied the Takelma language, and wrote about the Takelma culture in more depth than i had read before. The author also writes about unpacking the consequences of racism. He discusses becoming aware that he hated white culture and the cognitive dissonance between loving some white people and hating white culture. Reading this, i saw a distinction between white culture and colonialism. The former consists of a group of people and the latter consists of a group of behaviors and beliefs. Below are excerpts from the book with comments in square brackets. ----- I enrolled in Rogue Community College at Grants Pass, Oregon. I soon learned that to succeed in the college world, I had to learn a few things more. Fortunately, my most important lesson came almost right away in my first college quarter. I was not willing to risk standing out in a crowd, so I asked no questions and took no chances, a trait that I later learned was very Indian. I was hanging around the back of David Fuller's science class getting my usual low grades when Professor Fuller confronted me. "Why didn't you pass that test?" he asked. "Didn't know the answers," I replied. "Why didn't you ask me for help before the test?" "'Cause, you're too busy; got lots of other students to look after." "Not true," he said. "Why do you think they hired me?" "To teach?" "Yeah, that's right. To teach. So you know what that means? I and every other teacher have no right to turn you down if you ask questions. So ask." I put him to the test, coming in after class nearly every day just to ask questions. Dr. Fuller was good for his word. My next test was an A-plus. I liked that very well. ----- You'd think that a perfect 4.0 would be enough to raise my self-esteem. But it didn't. Something still felt very wrong inside. ----- In the fall of 1982 I transferred from Rogue Community College to what is now Southern Oregon State University in Ashland. Professor Casebeer has a special talent for bringing like-minded people together, so he introduced me to Thomas Doty, who as "Coyote Old Man," makes a living telling local First Nations stories to youth and adults. From both Tom and the professor I gained a deep respect for First Nations oral traditions; something of which I had never before been aware. [Once i listened to Coyote Old Man tell stories at a BSA Scout camp.] ----- The Table Rocks are the heart of Takelma Indian Myth-Time, a place that this nearly extinct tribe considers as most sacred ground. The Takelma call the Lower Table Rock Didankh, meaning "Rock Above." The Table Rocks are the embodiment of their cultural hero, Dal Dal, meaning "Dragonfly." Dal Dal was a dragonfly, so the top of Lower Table Rock high above the valley is even shaped like a dragonfly... [The top of Lower Table Rock is shaped a miles-long dragonfly bent into a half circle. See: Upper and Lower Table Rock @Wikipedia ] ----- Between Chuck and Sapir I learned that language was the soul of the Takelma; that even the syntax contained concepts, realities and a worldview that could be experienced in no other way. Even the metre recorded the Takelma worldview. The poetry both in metre and content focused on multiples of fives, the sacred number to the Takelma. ----- Their language was unique: a linguistic isolate that was a tonal language reminiscent of Asian cultures. Takelman culture also was unique. Unlike other First Nations, the Takelma had two branches of medicine people: the S'omomloholxas and the Goyo. The S'omomloholxas were the more powerful of the two. The Goyo would either heal or harm depending on the spirits and upon who was paying them, but the S'omomloholxas used their powers only for good. ----- [Chuck] said that his grandmother had taught him that two ways existed to obtain power through the spirit walks. One way was to go into the woods and seek the powers. Whatever power would come was received without question. The other way, the way of his grandmother's medicine group was different, Chuck said. She trained initiates to be selective on the spirit walk; to test the spirits, receiving only the ones who were beneficial and who loved truth. "Those powers are the strongest," Chuck said, "because they originate with the source of everything that exists." ----- I understood at that moment why Sapir said the more powerful group were called the S'omomloholxas. The word means "their power comes from 'S'om," from the high mountains. [In latin letters, i see a resemblance to OM.] ----- Wallace's entire liturgy is only one word long only ONE word: RESPECT. In the Lakota tongue that translates roughly as: "Mitak-oyas-in," meaning, "All my Relations." ----- Learned to love the woods and mountains in those days. No pain there; just the opposite. Coming up to places like this [Grants Pass Peak] is sort of like being pulled from the fire. Besides, there's Something up here. Something. Watching. A Consciousness, maybe, peering out like a million blue sparks; like eyes reading souls from the ends of every pine needle. From every needle, from every blade of grass, from every star, something Is--looking for worthy thoughts. But It feels so calm. ----- The Lakota are warriors and from them I learned a new lesson: that Indians do not have to be losers. With truth as a weapon, First Nations people can successfully defend their right to exist. ----- "Jesus chose to suffer for others; we do the same," Robert said. "I think Jesus would have made a good Indian." ----- "... You know, the way things are going," he said with a sweep of his hand, "the nations of all living beings are going to die soon. I know it, and every one of them knows it, too." "Then why, Grandpa Pete, do they keep on having babies if they know they're all going to die soon? Why not spare the babies and the pain? Why don't they just quit?" "Because, Takaju (grandson); just because. They keep on going because it is their nature." That one statement changed my life. ... Sometimes the criticism, the gossip and even the slander from a few among my own people are severe, but I don't quit. I remember Grandpa Pete's words and I understand. I am not working so hard because I have any inkling that First Nations languages will be saved. I keep working because I believe in what I am doing; I keep working because I have finally found my nature. I am at peace because I know that whether or not I succeed is in larger hands than my own. Grandpa Pete's words set me free. [He discovered his dharma.] ----- I became a teacher because the profession, unlike journalism, required absolute involvement in the growth and welfare of human beings. ----- I had a particular dislike for racism and prejudice. My classes reflected this priority. My basic rule was that the classroom was to be a safe haven for all. All actions, words and ideas were to reflect mutual respect and consideration. ----- Later, in my years on Haida Gwaii I observed the self-destructive effects of our anger against the "white man." It is not that our anger is without cause. On the contrary, colonialism, genocide and racism have wronged us in so many ways. The truth is that our anger is the legacy of racism and is eating us alive. Planted deep within our own consciousness, anger turned inward blinds us to the way we treat each other; it destroys our unity. Turned outward, anger causes us to stereotype "white people." This cuts us off from enlightened individuals who truly are our friends. It also cuts us off from less-enlightened individuals who through our example could come to understand the truth. ----- The years ahead would teach me that lesson: that to build, not destroy, I would have to reject my own anger. However much anger seemed to be justified, I would have to find a better way. ----- Worse than that, I was an Indian educated at a university. To the ultra-conservatives among the Haida, that fact alone categorised me as a "non-Haida" regardless of my Haida blood. What I experienced was akin to racism: a form of ostracism based upon personal characteristics beyond my control. On the positive side my alienation has compelled me to examine my own tendencies toward racism. The ultraconservatives compelled me to examine a discontinuity in my own spiritual being. For just cause I hated the racism that had made me its victim, but unknowingly I too had internalised the coloniser. I had become a racist. I loved some white people, but I hated white culture. Culture is the sum of human activity, ideals and experience; past, present and projected. I could not "love" some white people and concurrently "hate" their entire culture. "White" culture had produced those who are worthy of love as surely as those same people had produced the nobler aspects of their culture. ----- Nathan long ago advised me that it is better with patient integrity to act privately than with lack of timing and forethought to react publicly. ----- Eagles And Ravens ================= > Wisdom without knowledge > is far better than > knowledge without wisdom, > > but, wisdom with knowledge > is Power. > > Still, the wisest Eagle > needs to watch out > for Power lines. [ Eagles and ravens are the two Haida clans. See: ] ----- "Even their canoes are shaped like ours. The old timers used to talk about Haidas going to New Zealand, but no one put them on tape. Maori have totem poles; they rub noses when they greet; just like we used to do." ----- Autobiographies began appearing as early as 1762 when a Mohegan, Samuel Occom, who had learned to read and write, wrote an account of his life based upon his conversion to Christianity. Pitt University English Professor David Brumble (1988) in his book American Indian Autobiography documented more than 600 First Nations autobiographers. Although a significant number of the autobiographies were written in collaboration with non-First Nations writers, it is remarkable that so many were written in so short a period. ----- According to one authority, Henry Dobyns (1983), the size of the pre-contact population of the Americas was approximately 145,000,000 for the northern hemisphere, at least 18,000,000 of whom lived north of Mexico. By the last decade of the nineteenth century, only five percent of the original population was left alive: 19 out of 20 First Nations people had been killed (Larson, 1997a) David Stannard (1982) defines the period as "The American Holocaust." The holocaust wiped out nearly 95 percent of the indigenous population, far exceeding in scope even the Jewish holocaust. Stannard (1982) wrote, "The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world." ----- Winnemucca was a pioneer, a forerunner of modern First Nations autobiographers, despite the criticism that she had been assimilated and that her writings were not "Indian" enough. In truth, Winnemucca practised reverse assimilation. She "assimilated" non-First Nations literary forms into her First Nations world, not the other way around. The ability to adapt intelligently to changing environments without sacrificing cultural integrity is a powerful tradition in all successful human cultures. Using the coloniser's English to uphold Native identity was a crucial challenge for Winnemucca, especially because her first language and worldview was Paiute. McClure (1999) writes that this multicultural fluency is instrumental in the struggle against colonialism's stereotyping and racism: > The very existence of autobiographies by Native Americans is a > movement away from static, invented notions of Indianness. In > using this literary genre, the authors are adopting and > appropriating the conventions of the dominant culture in order to > strengthen their own. ... [T]he appropriation of English and its > literary forms is ironic and subversive, and it ultimately leads to > a liberation from one-dimensional, stereotyped inventions of ethnic > identity. If Earth as a planet is to move beyond the overwhelming impact of racism and the American Holocaust all who were involved should openly participate, not just the Aboriginal peoples. On a national scale, the responsible governments include not only those in the Americas, but the European governments that colonised the Americas. To revitalise First Nations languages and cultures, all people must work with one mind. But cultures do not exist. People exist. Culture is ourselves expressing ourselves to ourselves--past, present and future. Culture is our way of life: our relationships with one another and with the Universe. It is powerful; it is sacred; it is vast. Touching the Whole is an inexpressible experience. Touching the Whole is not understanding; it is Being. This way of existing is beyond words. author: Kelly, John Medicine Horse detail: source: tags: biography,ebook,native-american,non-fiction title: The Returner Tags ==== biography ebook native-american non-fiction