by jacktar48
In addition to a great story, your references to Cherokee culture albeit not necessarily accurate has led me to buy the book by Mooney
Thank you
My opinion differs from many of my countrymen in that I think that rather than keeping things secret it would be better to let interested people see what we have.
You can see how many people might have the attitude of "You did your best to kill us all, and denigrate our ancient knowledge, and now you are coming for help? Fuck you."
Keep in mind that Mooney was not Cherokee, and really didn't "get it" in a spiritual sense. The censors also had his nuts in a vice and rumor has it that he had to delete certain observations in order to be allowed to publish.
Furthermore, people didn't always tell him everything they knew. A basic concept is "everyone one knows what he needs to know, but nobody needs to know everything."
Are you in the "real world?" Am I? Does it really matter?
Wherever we are, it's only temporary. Until the next cycle begins...
no thing here is worth never having chapters in order and at hand.
How long are we to pay for the ignorance and short sightedness of our ancestors? I am white but am very curious about Native American ways. Yet because of the acts of people I do not even know, and have no connection with, I am judged. All I ask is that I be accepted for who I am and judged by my actions. I am responsible only for myself. I am sorry that the whites have done terrible things. Yet the people have done terrible things to each other over the centuries. I am sure if I traced my lineage I would find that somewhere down the line my people were treated just as badly by some other race or people. I do not hold it against their descendants today. It is said you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family. The past is gone. It cannot be changed. We can only affect today. Enlightenment comes in the "now". We can't change our history but we can make our children's history better. They can look back and say this is when things began to change for good. The scales began to tip back and balance was restored. Unfortunately there are haters and fanatics in all cultures. No one has a monopoly on ignorance, bigotry, intolerance, etc. I will get off of my soap box now.
It is surprising how many of the Elders I know agree with you completely, even though they have suffered abuse within their own lifetimes.
Still, it's surprising when asked why they don't hate all Europeans, they will shrug and say, they killed us and stole our homeland, true; but we did it to someone else long ago, and I guess it was just our turn to pay.