it has been a big week here at the Center of the East and West Gate the snow has finally melted and the grass overnight is green and growing so fast I swear you can watch it changing
last Saturday I went to see a screening of the the film "The Ioway 2&3" it is was the second and third films in a series about the Ioway Indian tribe made by Fourth Wall Films. The series is about the history of the Ioway from pre european through today.
I have not seen the first film. this film was to me extraordinary in that it showed three things about this group of people that I felt were significant
the first was that they are generous in the film, which is more like a documentary than a feature film, they recount how a group of Ioway went to Europe to plead for support and help in their struggle to keep their lands and homes their way of living as well as their spiritual practices. Like many other tribes the Ioway had made agreements with the us government in an effort to protect them selves from annihilation. also like so many other tribes the agreements were not upheld and the payments the land and their traditional lives eventually were absconded by people who sought profit by exploiting the situation or who thought by right of the doctrine of discovery (which is an interesting thing to google) that because they were not christian they had no rights
the Ioway are still here though and they are recovering what they can
which were the other two really cool things in the film the Ioway have kept and continue to use their relationship with the horse to make their lives meaningful and rich (rich as in full not money)
the third thing was that the film documented a young Ioway woman who talked about how living as an Ioway and incorporating the traditional dances, the language, and their way of thinking into her daily life is what kept the tribe intact and held the promise of survival
before all was lost back in the 1800's the Ioway sent a delegation to Europe to ask for help
In native tradition a council is held to talk about grievances. a circle is called to freely and openly hold to the light any action or inaction that is causing distress. In the circle council the use of an equal and broad perspective was designed to keep things in balance. it was understood that anyone who sat in the circle would be able to speak equally and that the decisions made in council would be respected. I believe the Ioway must have thought that pleading their case to the world council, people who appeared to be as powerful as the US would bring support and that they would get a fair hearing, fair meaning that they would have the support of those who listened. what they did not count on was that the people whom they were seeking support from saw them as oddities and that because they were not christian or of a white skin color they were not equal human beings that deserved support from their fellow human beings rather than receive support they were given boxes of bibles to take home
it is of course complicated to seek help when one group of people live one way and the majority lives another as is evident still on the world stage in the lives of gay and lesbian people, people who are against mining in wisconsin, and people who do not want our country to go to war or to continue wars for profit it s a big list in our world today I believe there are more people who would choose peace rather than profit if we sat in council together.
what was interesting about this trip that the Ioway made to Europe and part of what made the film extraordinary was that the film documented that the Ioway, while they were in Europe, gave all of their own money to the poor that they encountered. while they were there they saw people who were in greater need than they were and so they gave all they had to help relieve that suffering trusting that not only was it the right thing to do but they believed in their own faith the circle of life and the plenty that exists and they acted on it without reserve They saw the people of Europe as their family and that family was in need so they immediately acted on it without regret or fear
in the film it was finally documented that the indian people were not angry or savage or faithless but that they were kind, humanitarian and willing to give all they had to take care of another who is in need trusting that life would in turn take care of them it was an example that was not recognized at the time
that generosity still exists in those people today that generosity still exists in the blood and the heart and the action of the native people who survive I believe that it still exists in others as well
it is an important factor to remember in the efforts that we all are making to grow new grass in a country that has endured a long winter
as a person of mixed blood heritage, red and white, and also as a person who was not raised in the red society but the white, and also as a person whose red genes have led down a long road of learning and practicing and eventually living the middle life guided by the inner blood understanding and memory, the teachings of traditional ways by both native teachers but also by the practice of the ceremonies and the other beings that make up our world, and who also has the educated logical mind and experience of living in and growing up amongst the white world I did not see where my inner impulses for generosity and kindness originated until I went to Lame Deer, worked with Margaret and the other native pipe carriers there and saw the film and met one of the Ioway who was there to speak afterwards
I found comfort in the public acknowledgement of kindness in my relatives while I am not a descendant of the Ioway I am a descendant of native people people who are kind and generous perhaps, in the overwhelming power of the society that strives to conquer all of us, generous to a fault. but things are not finished yet as the greening grass in the lawn outside reminds me
things are not yet finished growing here in the land of brave and the home of the free it is the heart of the native people that was not and cannot be conquered by greed it is that heart in all of us that I wish to speak to today
I have sought to find my home, my nature, my safety and solace while also enjoying and participating in this world amongst my friends as well as within myself no matter what skin color any of us are and no matter where we were raised or what we choose as our own personal spiritual pursuit
there have been so many many times when I have had a different thought or a different perspective or experience than was expressed by those around me it was confusing at times more often that not and also isolating in a very long uncomfortable way its like being a person who can see a whole different universe around and through all of us yet it is continually surprising to me that others don't see it
it is and always has been for me a world created, grown and evolving from kindness, from generosity, from peace a world heart that beats from love
I put together a little puzzle this morning. it is a little puzzle that was discovered amongst my great-grandmothers things after my grandmother died I think it came out of a soap box kind of like a prize only it wasn't a cracker jack box It is the picture of a little girl brushing her dogs teeth once I finished the puzzle I thought about how funny it is that my great-grandmother, then my grandmother, then my mom kept this puzzle and my sister got it and she gave it to me and I am a veterinary dentist. how funny to think of my great-grandmother looking at a puzzle of a girl brushing dogs teeth so long ago
when i look at the picture on the puzzle I see a little girl forcing her dog to submit to her will and the dog is struggling and the girl is determined maybe I see that because the film reminded me that it was when people decided to force a others who were in their "care" to do what they decided was good for them it is hard to be a child born in the middle . On the one side are my ancestors who participated in the forcing of others and on the other side are my ancestors who were forced.
In the puzzle I also saw the woman the young girl in whose hands, from whose touch was communicated her desires
one thing that I have always known about me my entire life is that I have this indefatigable kindness inside of me I have always had the joy of generosity so much so that I have in my life given away things that I should not have because I learned of course through a steep falling down uphill curve that it is not appropriate to give away my medicine or to trade things for love
yet it is still good to give without reserve what can be given to those who have less than I do
still in me is forever and always the person who will reach for generosity rather than profit, who will pass along to another everything I have to relieve suffering if it is within my reach to do so. All the while holding my ground firmly against those who would run me over or try to make me into an image of what serves or pleases them. I continue to stand up to those who would do harm to another, yet in doing so I leave the future unmade for any who has done me harm or harmed others because I know that at any moment and on any day any being has the right to change like the grass from a dry frozen brown lifeless state into one of new life. it is not in me to force others to be what I think they should be or to touch them in a way that discounts who they choose to be but speaking out is important it is important as a woman to speak up in the world council not as someone who is right but someone who is equal
there is no sense in holding the future hostage to the past
but we can learn from the past we can learn as I have that the people that I come from believe in a very thin veil between this world and that of the Spirits that generosity was better than war that hard work is part of the day and to play hard also part of life and these things were just what I inherited from my mothers family the Scots and the english
from my fathers family I inherited perseverance, the steadfast ability to let the mind and the body be guided by faith that generosity was and is the soul of not only the family but the neighborhood , the community and is the way that all people should be treated generosity , kindness
but from both my parents I also experienced being on the blunt end of the dark and terrible side of the choices that they made in their lives as have all human beings who live in this country. we have struggled against the negativity that is the mirror opposite of our positive nature. as a child I was silenced for speaking up as an adult I have a choice in whether or not I will continue to be silent
I have had two terrible dreams since I saw the film the first was about how I was dragged before my mother in a court where she accused me of terrible things things that were lies in the dream more and more white women joined her in pointing their fingers at me accusing me of actions and thoughts that I had not done. It was a terrifying force that came from them in the court I kept saying over and over its not true its not true while at the same time realizing that I had no money and no lawyer and did not speak their language. in the dream I felt like there was no way that I could overcome their accusations in their court I had no power it was terrifying because I was going to be killed they were filled with murderous intent and the against their desire to eliminate me from being in their world i had no defense I realized how the Ioway, like so many other people whose lives have been destroyed by the doctrine of discovery, had no power or leverage in a system that was robbing them blind and destroying their lives. it is a terrifying realization to see that in the eyes of the majority even amongst those of your own gender you have no value as a human being
I woke up from the dream terrified it took a while to get my bearings I did not want to get up and be a part of this world any longer it was an overwhelming realization to me that that must have been how the Ioway women felt when they sought equality and help from the women who they saw amongst the white men who lived in those times
I realized that the movie had brought to the surface in me the realization that behind all those men who wrote the treaties, who made the policies to take away native lands, to steal from people who did not understand. behind the men who were in the calvary, the businesses that profited from land grabs, the politicians and bankers who believed in they had a racial and religious right to systematically annihilate those who were different than themselves,
those who were guilty only of appearing to be in the way and of being different
behind all those men who did and to this day perpetrate the death and destruction of a nation of individual races, a land of healthy resources and clean water, a land teaming with life and beauty, behind the men who engineered the march of the machine of religious right , righteous war, who seeding the land with debt, and the slavery of the masses to debt, and fear
were the women
women who were part of the driving force behind those men
women who did not speak out against what was happening
women who also wanted to profit from taking from someone else what they wanted
women whose publicly silent voice was perhaps the loudest because it was heard in the home and not heard in the streets
women who still are today behind the men whose policies are allowed to take the lives of the children raised in this land
women whose touch helped push forward the destruction of freedom and civil liberty
women ask me about ceremony, about the anger of native people, and if the Spirits of the pipes that I carry will harm them
it was and still is a confusing question why would the pipes or the Spirits harm anyone ? the sword is not meant to kill but to protect that which is precious ceremony is for healing for seeking balance
when I ask them why they are fearful of me or native people or ceremony or the pipes they say that it is because of the guilt that they carry
the women have guilt
the film brought to the forefront for me that women have had and do have a say and their guilt is evidence of a long hidden not talked about understanding that they knew they have and perhaps still do touch the lives of those around them in a way that either perpetrates injustice or stands against it
to women I say if you still have guilt at the end of the day it means that somewhere along the course of the day perhaps you have held the intention of being self serving or of power or of ego or of control or of greed or of hoarding rather than generosity or of gossip rather than encouragement or of envy rather than joy or of bitterness rather than determination to take your life not from others, or to blame cause and effect away from yourself rather than acknowledging that from your own hands and your own efforts and your own face to face with the reality comes that is woven in the lives you touch
if you have guilt, even if in the past you sold your life for things that are not in the end satisfying or worth it, or if you silenced yourself and turned your back on things that were and are unjust in an effort to be a good girl, rather than spend the remainder of your day in bitterness or blaming others or blaming yourself rather than spend it in guilt
just get up and do everything you can to make sure that today you do not take the life of another or yourself just for profit because being silent in an unjust home so that you can keep a roof over your head or protect your family is not really protecting them and the guilt of the cost of that roof will take your life as surely as it took the ones it was built on
the women that i meet who talk to me about guilt understand this to be true
do not blame another for your own inadequacies but simply examine and retrain your own life and become adequate seek the circle of those who also are standing against injustice and tyranny seek equality of voice and the council of peace and support it with your touch with your voice with your life
this do
for the sake of all that comes from a woman's touch
all my best
mb
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