INTRODUCTION

The last paper of this course brings us to today about the situation in North America. Throughout the paper, we will explore the ways Native people knew about the newcomers, the impact of contact that newcomers had on the traditions and the strengthening of traditions via renewal and revitalization. The paper will also examine the important role that the inner briefs play in the Native people’s lives and how they determine their life ways and what the signifance of Native culture and traditions are for our modern world.

ESSAY BODY

Describe at least one prophecy and explain its significance in the historical experience of Native people.

Let us look at the Ojibwa prophecy. The forth Prophet spoke of the coming of a Light-skinned people to this Island. It is given, further, that they would come wearing one of two faces; either of brotherhood or of destruction. It was obvious not long after their arrival tat they came wearing the face of destruction. The Fifth Prophet spoke of this time, of the destruction that would come, of the desecration of the Earth and of the poisoning of the waters. And the Sixth Prophet forewarned that this would cause the young ones to turn their begin to forsake their traditional and spiritual ways. As a result of their coming and what ensued, the sacred ways would almost be lost and the Ojibwa people, as a people, would almost disappear. Now, we have witnessed this taking place. We have seen the exploitation, the devastation, the Earth desecrated, the language being lost, the spiritual decline, the uprooting of the people and their culture, the loss of pride and integrity. Many of us today, in fact, are products of the Sixth Fire. The Seventh Prophet, however, spoke to us about a turning point in this cycle. He spoke of a time when the young people would begin to retrace their steps, essentially a “new” people. The sacred ways would be sought our again and regained. If we look around us today, it is said, we will be able to see these signs. This is the time of the Seventh Fire. We have entered the time that the Seventh Prophet spoke about.

There is also an Eighth Fire that is spoken of. However, this depends on what occurs during the time of the Seventh Fire. If the Light-skinned people are able to find within themselves that spirit of brotherhood with which they should have come them we can look forward to a time of peace, Brotherhood, harmony. But if this does not occur, and the newcomer continues to wear that face of destruction, what has already happened since their appearance here will only continue to occur, only in greater magnitude and acceleration. They came; it is said not having found in themselves a sense of love and generosity. They came, then, with hate and greed, and it is upon these that their “civilization” and societies have been built/ Without change, therefore, it will be these very things, hate and greed, that will turn around on them and destroy what has been built up.

Explain how European contact impacted upon Native people.

It wasn’t long after the first Europeans set foot in North America that it became obvious to the Native peoples what ‘face’ the newcomers came wearing. The subsequent “history” of contact event though colored by European historians makes it abundantly clear that they came wearing the “face of destruction.” Somewhere and somehow, long before they left their homelands across the Great Water, the Light-skinned people had lost that “spirit of brotherhood” with which they should have come. The Native peoples of North America bore the brunt of that loss.

Shortly after Columbus first landing the newcomers were already taking “specimens” back to Europe with them and with Columbus. Continuing with the Spanish who followed them, there began a slave trade with the Native peoples. This began with the Native peoples in the Gulf of Mexico and New Mexico area, but quickly spread up the coast all the way to Newfoundland. Generally these people were taken to the West Indies or abroad because there was too much trouble with them being employed as slaves within their own territory. However many were employed in the early colonies of New England-rivaling even the Black Slave Trade already well under way.

Particularly notorious were the Spanish for raiding, plundering, raping and mass murdering among the Native peoples of Mexico and Mew Mexico, including the Pueblos, the Hopi and the Navajo. Thousands and thousands were exterminated and villages and sacred sites destroyed by plundering and burning.

Perhaps the most devastating of all, was the denial and absolute repudiation of spiritual and traditional ways. As spiritual peoples and peoples of spiritually based cultures, this meant a total undermining of the Native peoples, their cultures and life ways. The newcomers could not admit, imagine or allow these so called “primitive” people the existence of valid and complex religious systems belonging specially to Native people.

In response, to preserve and protect their most sacred traditions and therefore to survive as a people, the traditional and sacred ways “went underground,” were altered or disguised, were practiced secretly though “illegally,” or were preserved mentally and orally until it became possible to publicly practiced them again.

Jack Forbes reminds us that the slave trade not only involved a large of African people but also involved a large number of Native Americans. And, throughout the Americas, enslavement of Native Americans occurred, from the time of Columbus to the 1800s. Many lives were lost; many families were split up; many diseases were spread and many people were absorbed into the new situation, losing many their traditions. And yet, the  term “genocide’ is still seen by many to be too strong a term of what happened to Native Americans The short accounts which Forbes places in his writings are succinct and compact and provide you with a realistic picture of the times.

Explain why the renewal of traditional beliefs is so important to all peoples in today’s world.

After many generations of loss of land, loss of cultural and spiritual freedom, of expression and forced acculturation, there seems to be something changing among Native people. There is a “re-awakening.” And the “re-awakening” is taking the form of restored pride and dignity, of standing up and re-affirming of rights and expressions for so long denied and suppressed, as well as a “re-tracing of the steps” to traditional ways and spiritual renewal.

Native people, in spite of the hopes and attempts to change them to a “different path,” have never really forgotten nor relinquished the spiritual ways or traditional life and values. Where they have been hidden from view, they have been practiced in secret; where their form has been altered, the essence and quality has been maintained; where they have been ridiculed and denied, they have been quietly but faithfully preserved and passed on, awaiting the ‘time of renewal” and “re-awakening’ that their prophecies assured them would eventually come.

In recent times, as late as the 602 and 70s Native people have found a new vision.  Then Sun Dance has been renewed where it has not been danced for over 50 years. The Midewiwin has begun to spread to areas where it has not been known since the 1800s. The pipe is being carried again through North America. Men and women purify themselves in the Swear lodge once again. Young men are seeking visions and the old ones are being sought out and listened to. What has been hidden is being brought out into the open. What was thought to be lost is still very much alive. The young are retracing their steps’ then grandfathers and grandmothers are showing the way. We are living, even amidst appearances to the contrary, in an exciting and hopeful time for Native People, a time of new vision fulfilling an ancient prophecy, a time for a new people to work out the dreams of an older generation.

From the beginning, we talked of a “primary total vision,” a new way of seeing. Now we have come around again to this same theme. We must be able to apply this “vision” both to understand and appreciate Native traditional and spiritual ways. But it is the kind of “vision” we need for this new time. We can learn this to some extent by studying the Native tradition, but ultimately it must come by applying these concepts, principles and beliefs of a “natural people” in a natural world.

Sakokwenonk was, in the final reading of the course, details why it is important for men and women to raise their children is traditional ways, to return to the ways of the ancestors and follow the teachings of the elders. He feels that the way to the future it through the past and then original instructions that were given by the Creator. Reflect on this perspective and how it can be achieved and what the impediments are to a renewal of traditions.

CONCLUSION

For hundreds of years, Native traditions have spoken to people about how the universe is structured, how life should be lived and how the inner spiritual realm of existence survives within the context of the physical reality. Thus, this unit expresses the power of the human spirit and its ability to preserve that which is envisioned as universal truths of existence. Through this course, I gained a better understanding on how these impacted on Native traditions and cultures. In spite of the chances to their way of life, native tradition still maintains their essence, validity and essential qualities. I appreciate why renewal and revitalization of traditional beliefs are occurring in many Native nations and why there is increased vitality in Native traditions and culture. The outcome to renewal of native traditions is yet unknown but it is a dynamic force throughout North America today that is affecting many people’s lives and many aboriginal nations.

REFERENCES

Forbes, Jack D. “The Newcomers in the Southwest.” The Indian in America’s Past. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice- Hill, 1964. pp. 36-37 and 50-52.

Sakokwenonkwas. “The Road Back to Our Future.” Akwesasne Notes. Rooseveltown, NY: Mohawk Nation, Early Summer, 1976, pp. 36-38.