View source | |
# 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.] | |
* * * | |
"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." | |
Canadian Connection | |
* * * | |
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: https://carleton.ca/sjc/profile/kelly-john/ | |
source: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertat… | |
tags: biography,ebook,native-american,non-fiction,oregon | |
title: The Returner | |
# Tags | |
biography | |
ebook | |
native-american | |
non-fiction | |
oregon |