Once
again, I feel as if I have written words similar to these, many,
many, times before. They still rattle on until I put them down on
paper and share them. They appear to want to share themselves
independent of the neural pathways I label as “Moi”.
I
awoke this morning to memories of my Native American ancestors. I
believe that those of us who live in the Americas, whose European,
Asian, Middle Eastern and yes, even African ancestors, will never
sleep peacefully until we recognize and teach our children what
actually happened to the first people on this continent. We must
teach our children the truth about those who lived for thousands of
years with a rich culture, whose languages were as old or older than
Sanskrit; the millions who roamed traded freely from Canada to Tierra
del Fuego; who managed the biosphere of the entire continent -
forests with no undergrowth, so there was more room for deer, turkey
and other game, floating islands of cultivated fields in the
Amazonian basin; navigation and trade canals that ran for thousands
of miles; astronomical observatories second to none in the ancient
world; languages of immense richness and complexity. Until this
history is as much a part of the education for our children as the
powdered wig-wearing Mason founders of our country; until we admit to
ourselves the thousands of treaties that were written and broken and
do what we can to redress the miscarriages of justice done in the
names of European dominated governments; until we are completely
honest about these sort of things we will continue to be a nation
living a lie. Such nations, or any people, who lie to themselves
about their past: not wallow in its misery, but freely admit the
miscarriages of justice done in the name of their religions, governments or the
love of greed, power and imagined wealth; these nations or people are
not living up to the full potential of what humans are capable of
being. Imagine a butterfly who refused to emerge from the chrysalis
and spread its wings, and you see the image I am seeing.
I
dreamed of the first people of the Americas, but the same can be said
of all first people around the world. Archaeological, and Genetic
evidence is building for the all but incontrovertible fact that all
of us are descended from a few hundred or a few thousand breeding
pairs of the ape Homo Sapiens Sapiens, who lived in Africa at roughly
two hundred thousand years ago. If true, and one buys into the
capitalistic idea of hereditary ownership of land and wealth by
single families, then we need to reconsider our accounting of how
management of the planet's resources should be distributed. Each of
the descendents of the initial breeding pairs should receive
consideration. Otherwise, we are not being true to very principals of
inherited wealth that we espouse. We are instead, saying “might
makes right”, and that all broken treaties are valid, which is to
say no treaties are valid. In this type of world all of us will go to
sleep worried that someone may take from us what we inherited. If on
the other hand, we say the rule of inheritance is inviolate, then
genetics should soon tell us exactly how many breeding pairs we
descended from and that figure can be used as the basis for
distributing responsibility for the management of the nation's
resources.
However,
for me personally, this equation will forever be incomplete, since it
ignores the simple fact that Homo Sapiens Sapiens is not alone on
this planet. All life, which by my accouting includes every atom
making up this planet, for even the so-called inanimate elements,
even the very stone itself is constantly changing and evolving into
new forms; all life is owned by life, and is responsible for the
nurture of life. This phrase makes no sense in English or American
English, because that language, even most of the language in science
and current major religions is based on the idea of ownership in
order to manipulate, rather than responsibility in order to nourish.
Here
again, native peoples such as my Native American ancestors can help
guide us. We must be honest with our children in all things as soon
as they open their eyes. We must show them that they are part of the
web of life, not separate from it. We must coach them in how to try
and right the wrongs for which they play a part. Only then, can we
hope to have them realize their full potential as human beings. Only
then, can those who harm become those who nurture. Only then can we
devote ourselves to our true destiny – to continue to grow, learn
and enjoy the vastness of the Universe. What would Star Trek be like
if the crew fully acted out these principles, precepts, or laws?
Roddenberry gave us one vision. Perhaps, there are others, even more
wonderful. Perhaps, here again Native peoples, first peoples, can
show us the way. Maybe their Crow Medicine can achieve its full
potential in the stars.
