

I offer thanks to my
friends,
relatives, and ancestors whose strength of purpose
led me to my own. A
special
thanks to my co-author,
Rev. Marilyn A. Riedel,
for her deep love and dedication to me and this project.
Without her tireless
effort and selfless interest,
this liberating history
of Oregon would never have been written.
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Bones Suggest Early Settlement
Milwaukee (AP):
Mammoth bones found in Southeastern Wisconsin suggest human settlement
13,500 years ago—or 1,000 years before what has been considered the
oldest
human community in the Western Hemisphere, an expert on pre-historic
Indian
life says.
Carbon dating established that the bones
found in Kenosha County are 13,500 years old.
"I think we can build a case for people
having used the carcasses," said Eileen Johnson, curator of
anthropology
at the Museum of Texas Tech University and research director at Lubbock
Lake National Landmark.



Authors
Guardino and Riedel at Wisconsin State
Historical Society in Madison
Photos
Courtesy of M. Constance Guardino III
and Rev.
Marilyn A. Riedel 1996
Although the research is preliminary,
"there
do appear to be marks that may well have been made by tools, certainly
by people," said Johnson, who examined the bones in Kenosha and
Milwaukee
this week.
Monte Verde in Southern Chile has been
considered
the oldest human.
For thousands of years, Native American
memorizers retained and transmitted knowledge through memory and word
of
mouth. The memorizers, who were usually women since they were less apt
to be killed in battle, were among the most respected citizens of every
nation. Memorizers spent their lives absorbing historical, medicinal,
religious,
and secular literature from their predecessors, and in turn teaching it
to representatives of the next generation. Until recently, Native
Americans
were reluctant to share this knowledge with the white man, but to avoid
its being lost forever, Cherokee
Dhyani Ywahoo,Chief
Sedillo of the Yanqui Indians, Apache Chief Asa Delugio, and others are
generously revealing what is so carefully preserved.
Dhyani Ywahoo tells us that the forebears
of the Cherokee came from the Pleiadians to Atlantis, where they lived
until its final destruction. When their homes sank into the ocean, they
escaped to this continent. Before the Europeans arrived, Dhyani
Ywahoo's
people lived a happy life, always harmonious with their natural
environment.
The Cherokees' advanced mathematical skills, detailed knowledge of
astronomy,
and legends of their sources of power reflect the wisdom and
accomplishments
of their ancestors. Cherokee medicine people utilized crystals to
capture
and manage earth's energy for their protection. Ywahoo describes this
positive
energy issuing from forceful dragons the Cherokee called Ukdena.
Ancient
sacred rituals help these descendants of Pleiadians from Atlantis
maintain
a harmonious balance of power from the sun, the moon, the earth, and
the
universe. The Cherokee grew bountiful crops and lived happily for an
untold
number of years in the Southern US. When western civilization
encroached,
the number of Cherokee medicine people decreased, the shamans lost the
dragon power, and their beneficial relationship with the energy
currents
of the universe disappeared...
Legends transmitted for generations by
descendants
of the Algonquin
family refer to the great flood and to the big country that sank in the
sunrise sea. In their drawings the crescent is its symbol; when the
points
are up, the old land is still living, and when the points are down,
their
homeland is covered by the ocean. The Sioux,
like Aztecs and the Caribs, believe they are the children of seven
kings
from an old, red land. To this day they still keep seven tribes. Their
realistic tales of the flood help to confirm that their memorizers
related
facts, not fiction, Apaches
recall a grand fire island in the eastern ocean and the maze like
entrance
to its port. Asa Delugio offers a graphic description of the sacred
mountain
that "spurt fire like a giant fountain" describing "the Fire God
crawling
through the caverns, roaring and thrashing the land about like a wolf
shakes
the rabbit. He reports that after his distant forefathers fled from
their
homeland, they traveled west to South America and eventually reached
the
mountains. Here they found temporary shelter in immense, ancient
tunnels.
After leaving the mountains they wandered with their seeds and fruit
plants
for many years before coming to the North American continent. Hopi, who
live in the Southwestern US, describe their Third World, the one before
this, as being an advanced civilization on a red land where the
inhabitants
wore shields to fly thorough the air. Their legends portray an
overpowering
flood destroying that world and survivors migrating on reed rafts to
the
present Fourth World. When they finally landed on the shore of a warm
country
to the south, their ancestors separated into various group sand began
their
long migrations over the continent. The Hopi
expect that the islands of their past home will emerge one day to prove
the truth of their memories.
Giants in History
Translators attempting to learn things
from
Indians, particularly in the mid 1700s, did not always render the
proper
meaning of what the Indians were saying. If presented with the
assertion
that coincident with these large creatures were tribes or groups of
very
large men, the chances are substantial that the translator would use
the
English word "giant" as an adequate substitute for the Indian word or
description.
The word "giant," unfortunately, has certain connotations in the
English
language and immediately suggests children's stories, folklore, and, in
the minds of scientists, superstitions.
From talking with elders of several tribes,
my understanding is that the Indians were describing people of more
than
average height. In fact, some elders as a routine matter have reported
that the Indians themselves were much larger and taller. A more general
description of these people used by traditional elders is "the tall
ones."
Ella
E. Clark's collections of Indian
traditions,
Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest and Indian Legends of the
Northern
Rockies, contains numerous stories of giant people ... she respected
the
elders who shared their stories and tried, as much as possible, to
retain
the exact wording and flavor of what they said, although sometimes she
used "giants" also.
In a story discussing the origin of the
Chief's Face, a rock formation on Mount Hood, south of the Columbia
River,
an elder commented: "In those days [early times] the Indians were also
taller than they are now. They were as tall as the pine and fir trees
that
cover the hills, and their chief was such a giant that his warriors
could
walk under his outstretched arms." The mountain exploded, and the
people
could not live near it for a long time. When they returned to the area
"... The children, starved and weak for so long, never became as tall
and
strong as their parents and grandparents had been." The story predicted
that the people would remain weak until a great chief came who could
conquer
the volcano spirit.
This tradition seems to be straightforward
and appears to describe a condition of malnutrition which might be
expected
to occur if people were deprived of food for several generations. One
would
expect that after a century of living again in a fertile land the
deprivations
suffered as a result of the volcano would have been overcome and the
people
would have returned to a normal size again. We have seen a similar
situation
with the Great Depression generation in America. It is important to
note
here, however that human beings, as a result of some change of living
conditions,
beginning with the eruption of volcanoes, suffered an irreversible loss
of size.
Clark also recorded a story of the Coeur
d' Alene people involving giants. These
men
had a strong odor and apparently painted their faces black. They were
"taller
than the highest tipis" and "when they saw a single tipi or lodge in a
place, they would crawl up to it, rise, and look down the smoke hole.
If
several lodges were together, the giants were not so bold." Initially
this
description seems highly exaggerated, but again, if we know the Indian
background, the story is not unreasonable.
Many tribes of the Pacific Northwest lived
in pit houses much of the year. These houses were partially underground
and partially above ground, thus vulnerable to Peeping Toms from the
outside.
So to have these giant people looking through smoke holes does not
imply
that they had an unusual fictional height, but only that they were
sufficiently
tall so that they could easily look down on these kinds of dwellings.
These stories of large people imply that
Indians have a sense of historical sequence, somewhat different from
Western
history but nevertheless of some significance because some unusual and
spectacular observations and experiences are remembered for thousands,
perhaps tens of thousands, of years. Would the Indian accounts be
"accepted"
by scientists today as evidence of the existence of giants and the very
recent existence of some kinds of megafauna (defined as
"individuals
or animals of a certain region, period, or special environment large
enough
to be visible to the naked eye."? In America? Absolutely not.
There is strong doctrinal bias against
giving
any Indian accounts credence—simply because the source is Indian. It is
often hazardous for scholars to adopt a pro-Indian stances and suggest
that Indian people could accurately remember anything of past events.
Sometimes
scholars even suggest that the Indian knowledge which does correspond
to
scientific knowledge was passed along by earlier scholars studying the
same tribe... Some scholars have also alleged that Indian traditions
and
folk lore are not historical fact because "Indian traditions do not
distinguish
between Myth and history, nor between human and supernatural." ...It is
almost impossible to get non-Indian scholars pried loose from their own
cultural presuppositions to do careful interpretive work on Indian
traditions.
Scholarly journals are littered with similar
kinds of situations in which Indian accounts are rejected simply
because
they are Indian and theories are discredited because scholars are not
willing
to give credence to Indian accounts that seem to be accurate memories
of
times past. In general practice, a scholar discredits an Indian
tradition
and then debunks it, classifying it as a psychological quirk
illustrating
the primitive mind.
Considering all the fraud that has occurred
in scientific circles—from Kepler fudging his data, Mendel rigging his
figures, Burt writing his own reviews of his publications, and more
recently,
fraudulent reports in such areas as the breast cancer studies—it seems
ludicrous that a scientist would call into question the veracity of
others
under any circumstances. Add to that sorry history the factual world
view
of the first Europeans who sought the Seven Cities of Gold, Prester
John's
palace, and the Fountain of Youth, a world view from which the Western
scientific tradition has sprung, and it will be obvious that a long
tradition
of fantasy, Myth, fictions, and lies exists among Europeans and
scientists
that cannot be overlooked. Dismissing Indian accounts on the basis of
predetermined
doctrines, then, is not really a good idea and may prevent us from
retrieving
some factors about Pleistocene America that would be useful in
understanding
what happened over here.
What we can establish, as common ground
between science and the Indian traditions, is that many creatures,
including
human beings themselves, were much larger during the late Pleistocene
and
that body size decreased measurably...
We know that these large people were not
destroyed by the Indians. Many traditions suggest a state of peaceful
coexistence
with the tall ones. Frances Densmore reports a Sioux tradition in her
classic
study Teton Sioux Music which may give us some hints concerning this
relationship:
"It is said that the Thunderbirds once came to earth in the form of giants. These giants did wonderful things, such as digging the ditches where the rivers run. At last they died of old age, and their spirits went again to the clouds and they resumed their form as Thunderbirds."
...But the giants could well have been
the
white-skinned race which forced the Salish,
Sioux, and Algonquins out of the north country and then, if we follow
Werner
Muller's thesis, migrated east and invaded western Europe, routed the
Neanderthals,
and are known as the Cro-Magnon peoples.
The demise of the megafauna
in almost every instance, is attributed by the Indians to an
intervening
act of the Great Spirit. With the tribes of the Mississippi a cause, an
epidemic which also kills the giants, also, is given. The act of the
Great
Spirit, given by many tribes as the cause of megafauna extinction,
implies
some kind of natural event that was understood as an act of grace by
high
spiritual powers.
... So the Great Mystery made a great tent
and kept it dark for ten days... Many of the Sioux believed that the
event
centered in the Devils
Lake area of North Dakota and held the
place
to be sacred. It seems that the “dark tent” was some kind of traumatic
climatic activity wherein the sky turned black for a significant period
of time and great changes took place on the Earth.
... Donald Patten, in a highly informative
and perceptive article entitled, "A Comprehensive Theory on Aging,
Giantism
and Longevity," raised a series of important questions about megafauna
size and subsequent reduction to contemporary species size that bear
reviewing...
... Patten links the propensity toward
giantism
with longevity, suggesting that the two phenomena seem to occur
together,
and that at one time animals and people grew larger than today and
lived
longer He points to the advanced ages of the patriarchs recorded in the
Bible and references to "giants in the earth" and "mighty men" as
evidence
the Near East had its giantism also. Patten demonstrates in several
writings
that in the pre-flood era the people regularly lived unusually long
lives.
It thus was not uncommon for men in their seventies and eighties to be
fathering children and for many generations to have shared long periods
of time with each other...
...Once human longevity stabilized around
four score for a life span, people began to doubt that anyone lived
much
longer. Even in ancient times extreme skepticism existed regarding
this.
Patten cites the efforts of Josephus to convince his readers that
people
really did live longer in ancient times. Josephus, in mentioning the
advanced
age of people before the flood, argued, along with many noted witnesses
"that have written Antiquities... (among them Mantheo,
Berossus, Mochus,
Hestiaeus, Hieronymous, Hesiod,
Hecataeus, Hekkanicaus, Acusilaus,
Ephorus, and Nicolaus) that the ancients lived a thousand years..."
Many
times Indian elders have told me that in the old days people lived
until
they were 200 years old and, why I have no reason to doubt them. I have
encouraged some of them to talk openly of these things but they are
reluctant
to draw the fire of skeptics.
So we are talking about a golden age when
there was very little hardship, when there was considerably more
species
of animals living on all continents, and when there was no Ice Age.
This
idyllic planetary condition was remembered in a substantial number of
human
societies but according to Patten's theory, was shattered by the
appearance
of a comet or meteor composed almost wholly of ice and water that
passed
close enough to the Earth to disintegrate, dumping ice in massive
amounts
on the magnetic poles and precipitating an ungodly amount of rain on
the
temperate regions.

Large amounts of ice quickly formed gigantic
icy mountains in areas of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres where
we
had glaciers, producing, as some scientists have speculated and as the
Shoshones have reported, mountains of ice that reached to the sky. The
impetus of this dump provided the mechanism to enable the ice to travel
in all directions, most particularly uphill, at a very rapid rate of
speed,
accounting for the glacial "advances" and, if there were several dumps
over a short period of time, the "retreats" or "stages" of glaciation
as
well.
Prior to the disaster, Patten suggests,
the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was considerably higher than our
present
level. With the icy catastrophe, the ocean cooled significantly, and as
the temperature of the water decreased, much of the CO2 was
absorbed by the colder water. Some carbonate strata were formed
—limestone,
dolomites, and dolostones—and more CO2 was taken out of
circulation.
About 50 to 75 percent of the biomass was buried, fossilized, and
deposited
in strata as tidal waves laid down immense beds of plant and animal
matter...
Several studies have shown that carbon
dioxide
enhances plant growth and Patten suggests that all organisms are
somewhat
affected by the amount of carbon dioxide available to them. The
hypothalamus
gland serves as a supervisor of the hormone system and carbon dioxide
acts
as a stimulator for it. An excess of carbon dioxide, at least something
greater than our present concentration in the atmosphere, would
stimulate
cerebral circulation and oxygenation. Too much would tend to act as an
anesthetic. In pre-flood days, then, there was sufficient carbon
dioxide
present to create giantism and promote longevity. Reduction of the
percentage
of carbon dioxide meant slower growth and a downsizing of the fauna and
flora.
We actually hear about CO2 every
day but in a different context—global warming and air pollution. During
1995 there were constant alarms by scientists concerning the breakup of
the Antarctic ice shelf with icebergs the size of Rhode Island breaking
from the main body of ice. Our atmosphere is definitely getting warmer
and having a drastic effect on the polar ice sheets. In a sense we are
returning to prediluvian conditions. We never stop to think that
there were once corals growing in Northern Norway and lush foliage in
Alaska
and Siberia. Our fossils give evidence of a much warmer Earth. And this
warmer Earth had megafauna, suggesting that opportunities for maximum
growth
were present also. Among other factors, this warm climate has supported
substantially more plant growth, which must have produced increased CO2.
The Earth's atmosphere, then, might have
originally been much different and possessed maximum benign living
conditions.
With a maximum benign percentage of carbon dioxide during much of the
planet's
history, producing monstrous-sized dinosaurs could not have been
difficult,
given carbon dioxide's effect on growth... Perhaps the Earth, minus the
tremendous amount of ice and water dumped on it, might have been a
different
place to... live. A collapse of that atmosphere once the dinosaur age
ended
and again in the Pleistocene would significantly reduce the size of
animals
over several generations until they were again adjusted to the present
atmosphere. Every living creature would be affected and that would be
why,
according to the Indians, these giants are simply "gone."
Derek Ager, the dean of European
stratigraphers
in geology, summed up the theories purporting to explain the major
extinctions
of the geologic past: "Almost all the theories (including the Noachian
one) that seek to explain major extinctions in the past, lead by one
route
or another to climatic oscillations and related matters such as the
composition
of the earth’s atmosphere. These in turn tend to point to
extraterrestrial
phenomena." Patten certainly suggests an extraterrestrial source of
planetary
change, but he does not rest there. He takes seriously the effect this
source would have on the atmosphere and does not simply try to locate
mechanical
geological disruptions...
... Actually, the size of human being
started
to increase with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the
introduction
of more carbon dioxide into the air. Patten cites some startling
figures:
"With the onset of the petroleum age, atmospheric CO2 began
to increase even more sharply. In 1957 the concentration of Hawaii (and
the South Pole) was 311 ppM (parts per million)... By 1971 this had
risen
to 322 ppM, the rate of increase during the 1970's...steepening
slightly.
By extension the concentration by 1979 is between 329 to 330 ppM. The
concentration
of atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing between .7 and .75 ppM per
year."
A related factor here is how an increased
percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would affect our
radiocarbon
dating, which has all of the megafauna clustering at around 12,000
years
ago. If there was significantly more carbon in the atmosphere, the
initial
premise of radiocarbon dating—determining the amount of carbon 124 in
vegetal
and organic material—would be much different at its starting point. We
could not assume, as we do today, that the percentage... was the same
as
what we find today... We simply have not thought about these things.
Scientists casually say that climatic
conditions
have changed, implying a rise or fall in the surface temperature of the
planet, but then they do not think through the remainder of the
problem.
Since carbon dioxide is absorbed in cold water rather easily, the onset
of the Ice Age...would have reduced the amount of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere simply by decreasing the mean average temperature of the
oceans.
Thus... adjustments have to be made in scientific thinking regarding
atmospheric
carbon dioxide.
Change of atmospheric composition, then,
is a reasonable solution to the question of giantism and the demise of
the megafauna of the Pleistocene
(geological period). Watching this process of downsizing, Indians may
have
felt they were being saved by the Great Spirit, they may have seen
individuals
of both sizes in the same area and attributed the demise of these
creatures
to an epidemic. Indians themselves may have been reduced in size, not
through
malnutrition but because of the change of atmosphere. The exposing of
Mount
Hood would have been a minor local event, a mere hiccup within the Ice
Age disaster. But effects of the new atmosphere would have caused a
permanent
reduction in size that the Indians recognized.
... No advances can be made in our
understanding
of our planet and ourselves when scholars simply recite doctrinal
beliefs
as if they could verify sagging credibility. Science increasingly acts
as if it were a religion by relying on authority rather than argument
of
evidence...
Geology and Native American History
Deloria's, in moving the discussion now
to
the field of geology, is to offer evidence from the Indian traditions
that
would suggest that American Indians have occupied the Western
Hemisphere
for very long periods of time and could not have been latecomers to
this
continent via the Bering Strait around 12,000 years ago. In order to
present
this evidence I will first look at some of Ager's critiques... and then
examine traditions recounting what the Indians say occurred a long time
ago.
Ager is among the few scholars who have
suggested that some geological events may have been experienced and
remembered
by early human beings... [and] speculates that "it may well be that
early
humans first kindled their fires from the conflagrations caused by such
geologically recent eruptions." And again he suggests: "... many early
humans must have seen geological phenomena far more violent and
spectacular
than any we know in historic times, including the last great
volcanicity
across Northern Europe from the Auvergne to Rumania and the Explosion
of
Santorini
which may have given rise to the Atlantis legend..." Philip King echoes
this possibility in his book The Evolution of North America, a rather
technical
treatise which gives a comprehensive overview of the geologic history
of
our continent, when he notes that "... all the evidence seems to point
to the astonishing conclusion that the Grand Canyon was cut largely in
the two million years or so of Pleistocene and later time, or a time
when
men were living already on the earth. If primitive man had been living
in North America, he would have witnessed the formation of the Grand
Canyon."
There are indeed many traditions of human
societies relating times when the Earth boiled and fumed, when, as the
Hopis say, the world was destroyed by fire. If some geologists are now
speculating on the possibility that people saw and remembered such
events,
why aren't these accounts useful in science? Here the arrogant attitude
of scientists that all early people were frightened of nature and
formulated
fictional tales to explain the origin of things precludes scholars from
using these accounts. Scholars have devised a technical language to
deal
with the traditions of the past and non-Western peoples, and this
language
is designed to cleverly divert this non scientific information into
harmless
categories where it cannot disrupt the doctrines we are currently
supporting...
How Scientists Neutralize Native American Historiography
Three basic concepts stand in the way of
examining the traditions of Indians in a fair and intelligent manner:
"myth,"
and its progeny "euphemerisms" and "etiology." "Myth" is the general
name
given to the traditions of non-Western peoples. It basically means a
fiction
created and sustained by underdeveloped minds. Many scholars will fudge
this point, claiming that their definition of myth gives it great
respect
as the carrier of some super-secret and sacred truth, but in fact the
popular
meaning is a superstition or fiction which we, as smart modern
thinkers,
would never in a million years believe.
Within the broad classification of myth
are two subcategories of story—line creations: "euphemerisms" and
"etiological"
myths. The euphemerisms is a narrative which contains some
participation
of the supernatural that is wholly constructed by primitives and which
they insist is historically true. For decades the Trojan War was
believed
to be a euphemerisms until Heinrich
Schliemann began to dig tells in Asia
Minor
and proved the conflict to have a historical basis. An etiological myth
is a narrative made up to explain something which people have observed
or which they wish to explain in familiar terms. Looking at various
kinds
of landscapes, in etiological format we simply assume that primitive
and
ancient people would make up a story, based on their knowledge of
nature,
to account for waterfalls, volcanoes, rivers, and so forth. Most of
modern
science is, in fact, etiological myth, since we cannot explain fossils,
we cannot explain sedimentary deposition, and we cannot explain the
causes
of glaciation.
It is possible to separate non-Western
traditions
from the mainstream of science and keep them comfortably lodged in the
fiction classification because most of them contain references to the
activities
of supernatural causes and personalities and are not phrased in the
sterile
language of cause and effect, which has been the favorite language of
secular
science. It is unfair to do so, however, when scientific writers have
complete
license to make up scenarios of their own which could not possibly have
taken place and pass them as science and therefore as superior to other
traditions.
... In the early 1970s, Dorothy
Vitaliano attempted to show that some information possessed by
very ancient peoples and the non-Western tribal groups, and classified
as "myth," might indeed be useful. She began to match some accounts
with
modern geologic knowledge to create a new discipline which she called
geomythology.
Geomythology,
according to Vitaliano, is an effort "to explain certain specific myths
and legends in terms of actual geologic events that may have been
witnessed
by various groups of people." ... Linkage of traditions and legends
with
present-day knowledge might provide some additional data for scientific
experimentation; it would also verify the historical basis of legend,
take
it out of the category of folklore, and give it some real status.
Minimally, verification would suggest that
a particular group or tribe of people lived at a specific location and
had been witness to a geological event. In an unexpected format,
Vitaliano
was stepping forward to provided substance to Ager's offhand remark
about
the geologic events that the ancients might have experienced. It should
be apparent how useful this approach is to American Indian efforts to
get
traditional knowledge verified.
This knowledge of geologic and climatic
events in the North American ancient past preserved by the traditions
of
the tribes can be a significant source of information for modern
science.
But it would require that scientists honestly reevaluate much of their
dating of strata and abandon orthodox doctrines in instances where
common
sense dictates. Fresh-looking lava must reasonably be recent; processes
of erosion cannot be suspended, like scientific beliefs, simply for
doctrinal
purposes.
If the Indian legends demonstrate the
presence
of people in North America, or even the Western Hemisphere, tens of
thousands
of years ago—or in the case of Mount
Multnomah 25 million years ago—then that discrepancy should
alert
scientists and they should reexamine their doctrines in light of the
conflicting
interpretations. The idea that people have only been in the Western
Hemisphere
for 12,000 years is simply an agreement among scholars who neither
think
nor read and who have been stuck on a few Clovis and Folsom sites for a
generation. I personally cannot believe that any people could remember
these geological events for tens of thousands of years. My conclusion
is
that these are eyewitness accounts but that the events they describe
are
well within the past 3,000 years. It is past time that this resistance
be ended and a new scenario for the Western Hemisphere be constructed.
Volcanoes provide the easiest natural
phenomenon
to link to tribal traditions because they are not difficult to date in
the geological strata. ...Matching traditions about floods and the
creation
of lakes, rivers, and inland seas is somewhat more difficult. ...Flood
stories are almost always linked with the concerns of fundamentalist
Christians,
who believe that Indian accounts of a great flood will provide
additional
proof of the accuracy of the Old Testament. With their cultural
blinders
in place, it never occurs to them that the Old Testament may very well
provide evidence of the basic accuracy of the Indian story...
... All societies have these kinds of flood
stories. Perhaps the belief is held that flood stories respond to a
basic
human psychological need and are therefore a part of the orientation
process
which human groups devise to enable them to live in this world.
Accepting
the possibilities that these flood stories speak of a planetary event,
not so long ago, involving significant psychological trauma, would free
minds to make progress in all sciences.
... The pervasive nature of the large
floods,
the wide geographical scope of their damage, and their seemingly
complete
destruction of the world as people have known it leads many tribes to
remember
the experience as a general purging of evil in the world. The tribal
accounts
therefore need to be "de-mythologized," not in the old Rudolph
Bultmannian
search for enduring religious truths, but simply to eliminate the idea
of crime and punishment to allow a concentration on the physical
phenomenon
of an unusually spectacular and destructive flood event.
The flood stories of the seafaring Indians
of the Pacific Northwest coast used the sea as the Plains tribes used
the
land. With a complex set of triangulation devices, these tribes—Quinaults,
Makahs,
Clallams, and others—went far out to sea hunting whales and seals.
Therefore,
over time, they experienced the terror of the sea as well as enjoyed
its
more placid benefits. If any groups knew and understood tsunamis and
other
hazardous ocean activities, these would be the people.
Their flood stories, for the most part,
involve tsunami actions of unusual strength and duration. Mount Shasta
legends say that the sea came inland and rose until it nearly covered
this
peak and then final receded, leaving behind dry land and the marshes of
the northern part of the state and Southern Oregon. Strangely, no flood
stories were collected by Ella E. Clark from the Oregon tribes, and my
suspicion is that these tribes may not have survived the flood, or may
not have been affected by it.
... We discovered almost all that Washington
State Indian groups have a flood story involving the sea invading the
land.
The people's solution, having been forewarned, is to build canoes or
rafts
and attempt to ride out the storm. In many of the stories only the good
people in the canoe are saved. Most of the stories involve the efforts
of the Indians to survive by fixing their canoes to the tops of
mountains.
They then identify landmarks and peculiar geological formations on
mountains
as the site where the canoes were tied.
More often, this flood separates the
different
canoes and the tribe is scattered over a vast area before the water
ebbs,
leaving the people isolated from each other.
...These flood stories which involve tidal
waves must be distinguished from flood stories which have rain as their
primary source of water. Tribes all over the country have flood stories
that feature incessant rain as the source of the disorder, and these
stories,
if any Indian stories, may have some relationship to Noah’s flood. Otis
Halfmoon, a Nez Perce elder, told Ella Clark that "it rained for a
long,
long time. The valleys were filled with water, and the animals lived on
the tops of the hills. Some of the animals were saved, but the big
animals
perished. That is why people have found the bones of big animals along
the Salmon River and big hip bones near Lewiston." This tradition fits
comfortably with the argument earlier concerning the demise of a major
portion of the megafauna at the time of the large ice/water dump.
The rain scenario is also found on the
Pacific
coast. ... The Skokomish
relate that the Great Spirit was displeased with the evil in the world
and after having secluded the good people and animals, "... he caused a
heavy rain to fall. It rained and rained and rained for many days and
many
nights. All the earth was under water. The water rose higher and higher
on the sides of Takhoma
(Mount Rainier)." The water did not subside until it had reached the
snow
line.
The Quileute Indians who live on the Olympic
peninsula have a tradition which fits perfectly with the icy comet
scenario.
They experienced a storm of vicious intensity and prolonged duration.
According
to their tradition: "For days and days great storms blew. Rain and hail
and then sleet and snow came down upon the land. The hailstones were so
large that many people were killed. The other Quileute
were driven from their coast villages to the great prairie, which was
the
highest part of their land." The storm lasted so long that the people
grew
thin and weak from hunger, and it was so intense that the men could not
go out on to the sea to fish. Since theses people always had a ready
supply
of food in this area, the long duration of the storm seems to suggest
we
are dealing with a major climatic event. I would date this storm of
rain,
hail, sleet, and snow as preceding the tidal flood which divided this
tribe
into smaller scattered groups.
With some few exceptions, Indian flood
stories
are sight specific, and while they may testify to the occurrence of a
planetary
event, they are more probably memories of local phenomena. Their chief
virtue is that they suggest some evidence that a number of easily
identified
tribes have occupied the areas in which Americans found them for a
considerable
period of time. This evidence can help amend the rather artificial
boundaries
which the Indian Claims Commission and other agencies have forced on
many
tribes.
The Indian legends also sketch out what
could be a fruitful area of new research in establishing a more
specific
history of North America that could take the place of the present
speculative
chronology of "primitive man" with its endless "phases" of hypothetical
occupations, the great variety of pottery types which many scholars
argue
show cultural development, and the interminable arguments over the use
of scraping tools and spear points. The difficulties, however, are
enormous
because North American geological history has been stretched across a
uniformitarian
framework which requires countless millennia to pass between geological
events, thereby trivializing catastrophic events to make them appear as
slow natural processes that we can observe today.
Making Honest People out of Scientists
Obviously, from the objections I have
raised
in this book, a great deal of the current popular scientific beliefs
and
doctrines do not hold up to any critical review. I hope that the next
generation
of scholars, Indian and non-Indian, will force open any breaches I have
identified in the wall of scientific orthodoxy and make honest people
out
of scientists who are now afraid to publish their true beliefs and
thoughts
out of concern for conformity. To that end, therefore, I will now
articulate
areas where I believe good research and much difficult thinking will
produce
substantial breakthroughs in the years ahead.

Photo
Courtesy of M. Constance Guardino III
Creation
Apart from tribes having migration
stories
as descriptive of their origins, the majority of stories of origin
suggest
a creation in which people are given, simultaneous with their creation,
an awareness that they have been created. These traditions often
suggest
that there was no essential spiritual/intellectual different between
people
and animals. Some tribes report that an entity should change shape and
experience what various birds and animals experience in that particular
kind of body. Thus stories relate that people and animals married each
other. Peter Noyes, an elder on the Colville
Reservation in Northeastern Washington State, told Ella Clark:
"Long ago—I don't know how long ago, the animals were the people of
this
country. They talked to one another the same as we do. And they
married,
too. That want on for many, many years, and then the world changed."
From
the Sioux stories of compatible spirits I felt that this "marriage"
must
have been a blending of tow kinds of individual spirits.
Human beings seem to be the focal point
of communication in our world. Many traditions say that we cannot do
anything
very well except communicator, and consequently we are chosen to be the
carriers of ceremonial thanksgiving activities on behalf of all other
forms
of life. We are not the only primate-shaped creatures, however, since
there
are peoples larger and smaller than we are, and some of these other
peoples
at on time coexisted with us, much as Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal are
now
knows to have been contemporaries.
The Early Climate
This age, if we now move to a framework
of
world ages, and these could be geologic ages, was a golden age and was
somehow disrupted, and planetary-wide catastrophes followed, radically
changing the nature of our physical world. It was at this time, moist
probably,
that many of the older mountain chains were created, and thereby
climate
began to resemble what we have today. A feature of that world, however,
was that the atmosphere was much different from our familiar sky today.
The planet was shrouded in some kind of water vapor canopy and, while
people
could distinguish light and darkness, the canopy was too thick to
produce
clear images of the sun and moon. In this scenario the Indian
traditions
and the description of Genesis are mutually supportive of each other.
Another feature was the rain and snow and
thunderstorms, as we know them today, were not meteorological
phenomena.
Instead, the Earth was covered by a mist which constantly evaporate
water
from the ground and precipitated it again. Clarence Pickernell, a man
with
Quinault, Chehalis,
and Cowlitz ancestors,
said
that "...when the world was young, the land east of where the Cascade
Mountains
now stand became very dry. This was in the early days before rains came
to the earth. In the beginning of the world, moisture came up through
the
ground, but for some reason it stopped coming." The parallel with
Genesis
is firm: "For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth,
and
there was not man to till the ground." (Genesis 2:5) "But there went up
a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
(Genesis
2:6)"
Lest scientists begin to hemorrhage, these
citations, in my mind, have nothing to do with the validity of any
religions—Indian,
Christian, Islamic, or Jewish. What we may have here is simply a
description
of a rather unusual planetary climate which characterized the initial
state
of our world—when human beings were around to experience it and how
they
remembered it.
This condition existed prior to the origin
of the four rivers of Mesopotamia mentioned in the Old Testament. I
have
already noted that the Sioux spoke of a time when there was no thunder
and lightning and the rivers were made by giants. We are therefore
talking
about a time when the Earth lacked large rivers because there was
insufficient
rain to provide copious amounts of water to create the flow and beds of
rivers. With some exceptions, the oceans and possibly some shallow
lakes,
it was not possible to have flowing water in the atmospheric mist of
the
early days. Conceivably, this condition may suggest an explanation of
some
of the more geologically placid eras of the past.
Volcanism
When this world was destroyed, it was
ravaged
by fire, and here we have plenty of stories about the destruction by
fire
which I would take to be volcanic action of unprecedented severity. The
lava flows, already observed, are often very fresh, as if they were
still
"warm" in some locations. Our world was radically changed, but stories
seem to suggest that our species, while reduced significantly, was not
destroyed as completely as during the first flood and mountain-building
catastrophe.
It is difficult to go beyond this sequence
because the different tribes have different descriptions of volcanic
activity.
In fact, it may be going too far to suggest this sequence. It would
seem
likely...that the volcanism
was a onetime event. What is important to note, however, is that in
both
instances of these early changes in world conditions, humans either
were
warned by the spirits or intuited hard times coming because we survived
in enough numbers to repopulate the Earth. Surveying the Indian
traditions,
it seems likely to me that higher spiritual entities must have warned
enough
people, or provided for them in some other way, to ensure the
continuance
of the human species. Regardless of how many religious trappings have
been
attached to introduce lessons of morality, these are basically, in my
mind,
geological reports.

Crater Lake,
Oregon
Photo
Courtesy of Julie Hendricks
Living Fossils
Scientific authority
figures...casually
let fly remarks that drastically undercut their beloved evolutionary
doctrines
without even realizing what they have done. We have literally hundreds
of "fossil creatures" from the past living with us today. In fact, when
we begin to compile a list of the animals casually mentioned by
scientists,
it is alarming. Where is evolution?
... [M]any living creatures today should
actually be classified as living fossils, representatives of remote
geological
eras, because they apparently arose in remote times and however somehow
survived al subsequent geological changes to persist today.
Gordon Rattrey Taylor, in The Great
Evolution
Mystery, notes the following: bees, bacteria, salamanders, penguins,
oysters,
king crab, opossums, platypus, and shark, including a large number of
familiar
mammals and fish have dates from around the Paleocene—12 million years
ago.
It should not take a genius to recognize
that the so-called antiquity of these creatures is illusory. We see
hundreds
of species in our modern world who are, in fact, survivors of previous
Earth epochs. If we could find an honest scientist and have her or him
make up a complete list of animals, fish, birds, reptiles, bacteria,
and
plants that "stopped evolving" millions of years ago and are found
alive
and kicking in the modern world, we would have a pretty good inventory
of contemporary fauna and flora... It must be possible, and probably
necessary
to understand our situation, to collapse these millions of fictional
years
as much as we can and understand that our planet has a much different
history
than we have been told.
Dinosaurs and Monsters
The discussion of living fossils was
necessary
because a number of tribal traditions describe creatures that may have
been dinosaurs. In the world view of orthodox science, such a
suggestion
is preposterous at first blush, but as we have seen, a number of fauna
originated in very early times and the crocodile and alligator
apparently
came on the scene before the dinosaurs flourished. The Tohono
Oodham (Papagos) live on a large reservation in Southern
Arizona
which contains peak Baboquivari. There, in their earliest traditions,
an
extremely large animal, personified as the Spirit Etoi dominated the
vicinity.
...Good authority suggests that it was some kind of dinosaur. ...In a
revival
of ancient customs with their tribe members in Northern Mexico, ...it
is
believed on object of particular sacredness used in this ceremony wan
an
unfossilized dinosaur bone from one of Etoi's personifications.
Again the Pacific Northwest peoples have
a number of stories concerning oversized animals in their lakes and
rivers.
Since the current trend in dinosaur research suggests that these
creatures,
for the most part, were warm-blooded and had social and instinctual
characteristics
like mammals of today,... some of these creatures, described as animals
or large fish by observers, were surviving individuals of some
presently
classified dinosaur species. That is to say, humans and some creatures
we have classified as dinosaurs were contemporaries.
The best-known story concerns the monster,
known as Ogopogo,
who lives in Lake Chelan (50 miles long and 1,600 feet deep) on the
east
slope of the Cascades.
Why would we attempt to identify this
creature
as a dinosaur or comparable animal? Indians generally speak with a
precise
and literal imagery. As a rule, when trying to identify creatures of
the
old stories, they say they are "like" familiar neighborhood animals,
but
then carefully differentiate the perceived differences. I have found
that
if the animal being described was in any way comparable to modern
animals,
that similarity would be pointed out; the word "monster" would not be
used.
Only in instances where the creature bears no semblance to anything we
know today will it be described as a monster.
Deloria further describes other native oral
traditions and pictographic records discovered in the Great Lakes
region
of a monster called a "water panther." It was described as having a
saw-toothed
back and a benign, cat-like face in many of the carvings where it lived
in streams and lakes identified by pictographs posting warnings!
Similar
animals were also described crossing the Missouri and Mississippi
Rivers
into Southwestern Missouri by the Sioux. In this case the dinosaur had
"...red hair all over its body...and its body was shaped like that of a
buffalo. It had one eye and in the middle of its forehead was one horn.
Its backbone was just like a crosscut saw; it was flat and notched like
a saw or cogwheel." Deloria suspects the dinosaur must be a
stegosaurus.
The dinosaurs thus easily displace the familiar, perhaps Pleistocene,
megafauna
and move west, where their remains are found in the Rocky Mountains
today.
Havasuapi Canyon in Northern Arizona at the intersection of "Tobocobe
Trail"
with Lee Canyon depict spectacular local fauna: a dinosaur, Diplodocus,
under an extremely aged desert "varnish" covering in the lines of the
figure.
Found also were a fourteen feet high cow elephant striking an equally
tall
giant of a man with its trunk. He is in the water, a typical ambush
location
found in several Southern Arizona sites of remains butchered from the
hunt
as shown in the marks on the mammoth's bones. Also seven Ibex
identified
from the knobs on the horns and two deer are shown driven into the
canyon.
Above the canyon floor on a plateau was found an ancient megalithic
fortress.
These dinosaur scenarios...make a point
about the longevity of American Indians through its own prehistory.
Many
scholars, when reminded of it, simply say, "Oh, that old thing," as if
this whole discussion had been satisfactorily explained decades ago.
But
it has not. Orthodox scholars simply omit any evidence that shakes the
foundations of accepted scientific belief from consideration.
Radiocarbon Dating
What are the real facts about radiocarbon
dating? Depending on the varying percentage of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere,
radiocarbon dating might be significantly affected, changing the dates
from what have been previously accepted. Today, lay people have
surrendered
their trust to science and uncritically accept the results of
scientific
investigations. Merely citing a few radiocarbon dates in support of a
theory
by a person with academic credentials means to the average person that
in fact science has irrefutable proof of age using this technique.
Deloria refers to several specific instances
of false radiocarbon dating. The tale begins with directors of some
radiocarbon
dating laboratory asking the investigator what dates s/he will accept
for
the material they bring to be dated; then, when a figure is obtained
that
comes near this date, it is reported—together with tolerance values—to
make the test appear honest. Lab personnel are told what date the
scientists
would prefer and the public is rarely made aware of these manipulations
of scientific fact behind the scene.
(1) In the Antarctic Journal of the US,
W. Dort wrote that freshly slaughtered seals, when subjected to
radiocarbon
analysis, are dated at 1,300 years old.
(2) In Science, M. Keith and G. Anderson
wrote that shells of living mollusks were dated at 2,300 years old.
(3) In The Physiology of Trees, Bruno Haber
wrote that wood from a growing tree was dated at 10,000 years.
The tree that was tested was growing next
to an airport which had a high level of carbon dioxide from airplane
exhausts.
The next generation of people working on
these problems, unless they are warned, will simply build on the errors
of the famous personalities of the past.
Psalm 114
When
Israel went forth from
Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people
of
strange language,
Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
The
sea looked and fled,
Jordan turned back.
The mountains skipped like rams,
The hills like lambs.
What
ails you, O sea, that you
flee?
O, Jordan, that you turn back?
O mountains, that you skip like
rams?
O hills, like lambs?
Tremble,
O earth, at the
presence
of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of
Jacob,
who turns the rock into a pool of
water,
the flint into a spring of water.
Modern Micmac Compared with Davenport Hunt Tablet
This is a facsimile of Verse 4 of Psalm 114. In exit Israel, as rendered in the Austrian edition of the Abbé Maillard's translation. It deals with the rolling back of the Red Sea "when the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like young sheep." It is here chosen for comparison with the Davenport Micmac text, as certain features of the Davenport style are retained, while new features are introduced. The literal translation is: “The mountains (a) skipped (b), likewise (c) the sea (d) as beasts do (e), also (f) (g), (untranslatable particle) the hills (h) as do (i) the beasts' (j) young (k)." Note conversion of reading direction to L-R, though the heads of the animals are now wrongly oriented by Egyptian rules; old Indian residents of Maine in 1866 could still recall when the script was written both vertically and horizontally in any direction.
Resolving the Fell-Diop Disparity
I am concerned that Barry Fell has lapsed
into the typical Western European scientific attitude and biased
assumption
that denies Northern African and Egyptian authorship of written
language.
When Ramses III defeats the Vandals-Sea Peoples three times (1194,
1191,
and 1188 BCE), who are Nordic-type white, blonde, and blue eyed, and
settle
in the already settled (Berber) Libya. [Fell assumes being invaded and
therefore changed and built up by the "white Aryans," the so called
white
Egyptians. Dr.
C. A. Diop, French African history scholar and
scientist-archaeologist
elaborates disproved in his book, African Origin of Civilization, an
explanation
for the presence of the "Libyan" alphabet as alphabet of Nordic origin.
It survived in Libya, but died out in its northern homeland, to be
replaced
by runes. Fell also guesses that the "blond Tauregs" were from Nordic
immigrants
at the time of the Sea People's invasion.
Egypt's more advanced status as a nation
state than its other Mediterranean neighbors. Also cite date of 1700
BCE
of bronze age voyage of Scandinavian King
Woden-lithi voyage to America to barter
textiles
with the Algonquin Indians in return for metallic copper ingot, and
thus
setting up a permanent trading colony. Thus Bronze Age "Europeans" were
literate, educated people, who left engraved rock inscriptions,
recording
their Teutonic and Celtic tongues, using alphabets that survive today
in
"remote parts of the world" (Africa), but died out and were replaced
2,000
years ago in Europe when the Roman script became the predominant
alphabet.
Diop relates the Lower or Northern part
of Egypt dating back to the pre dynastic have failed to uncover the
existence
of a White type. The Whites of Lower Egypt were transplanted there at a
well—known, precise historical epoch; it was during the 19th Dynasty,
under
Merneptah (1300 BCE), that the coalition of Indo-Europeans (peoples of
the sea) was conquered; the survivors were taken prisoner and scattered
over the Pharaoh's various construction sites between 1,300 and 500
BCE,
these populations had time to spread from the Western Delta to the
outskirts
of Carthage. In Book II of his History, Herodotus explains how they
were
distributed along the coast.
Barry Fell particularly falls prey to a
picture decidedly showing invading white Indo-Europeans in battle gear
wearing horned, Nordic—like helmets fighting the Egyptians. He makes
the
common assumption the invading (Hyksos, Assyrians, Greeks, Persians,
etc.)
did assimilate into Egypt becoming white Egyptians, and thus gained
such
political, economic, religious, and technological ascendancy which
black
Africans could not have done, as race-culture bias From this reasoning,
Fell imputes the Celtic ogam alphabet as the basis of (hieratic or
non-hieroglyphic)
Egyptian and evolving as the oldest language!
According to (world renowned African
history)
C. A. Diop, these battles did take place in Egypt, but that the
Egyptians
always represented them as races apart and were never influenced by
them,
for the simple reason that the invader's civilization was less advanced
then their own. No one has ever thought seriously of proposing
scientifically
the influence of any one of peoples on Egyptian civilization.
Fell’s specialization is decipherment and
translation of ancient languages and alphabets from pre-Columbian North
American colonizers and Amerindian petroglyphs, images, and symbols,
and
hieroglyphs on other archaeological finds such as pottery, ancient
coins,
for translation and historical content. His expert work [of heretofore
"mysterious, indecipherable squiggles" were variously identified] in Kufic,
Tifinag,
Celtic, Hebrew, Micmac, ancient
Basque etc. decipherment and translations have gained
international
confirmation and verification from significant internationally known
experts
in these very specialized ancient language fields.

Historian Marilyn
Riedel at Confluence
of Portage Canal and Fox River
Photo Courtesy
of M. Constance Guardino III
The Difference Between European and African Researchers
The difference in the intellectual
approach
of the African and European researcher often causes...
misunderstandings
in the interpretation of facts and their relative importance. The
scientific
interest of the European scholar with regard to African data is
essentially
analytical. Seeing things from the outside, often reluctant to
synthesize,
the European clings basically to explosive, more or less biased
microanalysis
of the facts and constantly postpones ad infinitum the stage of
synthesis.
The African scholars distrusts this "scientific" activity, the aim of
which
seems to be the fragmentation of the collective historical African
consciousness
into minute facts and details. Classical Greek and Roman scholars
bristle
when specialist African(ist) historian show how much these Northern
Mediterranean
("Western") culture borrowed from African philosophy, science,
religion,
and culture; and recently, along with the Religious Right, have also
attacked
Afrocentric history as oral myths that black history studies have
mistaken
for "real history!"
If the African anthropologist made a point
of examining European races "under the magnifying glass," s/he would be
able to multiply races ad infinitum by grouping physiognomies into
races
and subraces as artificially as his European counterpart does with
regard
to Africa. He would, in turn, succeed in dissolving collective European
reality into a fog of insignificant facts.
The Boabab Tree
Dr. C. A. Diop of Diourbel went back to
the
boabab last year. I was quite disappointed because I hardly recognized
the signs that I easily identified during my childhood; the bark of the
boabab had developed since. A little boy and girl passed by and
enlightened
me. They helped me to locate the signs which, as a matter of fact, are
riddles, ideograms: a kettle, a sword, a goat skin, a camel's foot, a
string
of prayer beads, and so on, memorializing the visit of a great leader
of
yesteryear, presumably the Prophet...
It is not writing in the phonetic sense
of the word, but a series of drawings. The fact that this practice
dates
from the post-Islamic epoch tends to suggest that it reflects ancient
habits
about to disappear. On the boabab, along with the prayer beads, sword,
and camel's foot, there was an ink stand and even a pen; so Arabic
writing
was known, but it was absent from the bark of the boabab. This is
similar
to the attitude of Njoya, the sultan of Cameroon who, although a
Moslem,
utilized hieroglyphic writing, perhaps because of ancestral tradition,
excluding Arabic characters, to take a census of the population of his
kingdom, to transcribe all the literature, the oral tradition, and the
history of his country.
Millennialism
Theories or theologies of Jesus as a
political
and/or spiritual Messiah as these affect ones understanding of time and
history: what difference does it make (are the outcomes or their
relationships
or impacts as to) how one believes in Jesus as merely a human ("Son of
Man"), and/or (if one believes Jesus is) or the divine "Son of God?"
And
what are the consequent results on the end of time in actual history or
historical sense called [any impact] messianism,
millennialism,
and the apocalypse? That is, what are some of the common confusion
between
eschatology as messianism, millennialism, and apocalypse? These three
latter
terms of traditional Christian-Jewish belief systems upon our
understanding
of history? And how does this historical view or belief and its
practice
make us revolutionaries, liberators, or just supporters of the "status
quo?" in our responsibilities. As citizens immersed by Western Judaism
and Christianity in Western Jewish Christian cultural and religious
values?
And as atheists, humanists, agnostics, polytheists, monotheists, and
paganists?
An evaluation and recommendation.
But this is too specialized a narrowing
of argumentation for the sake of philosophy at the expense of action or
function to argue here. Thus the study, debate, and elaboration of
concepts
of theology and liberation by knowledge elite using code words to speak
to other elite derails any consideration of action, the more difficult
“how to” solutions that inevitably divide people who must follow
through
with/upon the answer to "why do it?"
This usually academic, exaggerated, and
misplaced puffery reinforces the status quo through mutual mental
masturbation
of homo/erotic/social/sexual elite thus preventing implemention in a
functional
way any institutional. group, or individual change or
revolution/liberation
for the people, and the environment—the despised, dispossessed,
alienate,
and under represented—the disposed of society. This is not encouraged
by
other than progressive seminaries and the well-read, interested
layperson—the
religious elite.
It is the people who make and do their own
liberating—not the church, political, and social institutions or
leaders
themselves, nor even by relying only upon an "outside source" (or
being)
to heroically rescue themselves. How our lives are a part of and make
history
no matter what our beliefs, a secularization or freeing the boundaries
of justice for all individuals, groups, societies, and environments
whose
beginnings or ethic and actions or functioning proceed from a core that
is a person's faith, spirituality, and humanistic concern, whatever
ones
belief or theology may be. Faith or its lack is the one common
denominator
each one of us has, or must have, a vision in order to "keep on keeping
on." In the following of ones own values, truths, and ethics comes the
expectation for those around us and the institutions to test us and we
to test them in this liberating process that seeks to treat others as
they
would like to be treated and/or to bring the "kingdom" or "reign of
justice"
on earth "as it is in heaven," so states the Lord's Prayer!
Knowing ones "roots" and cultural traditions
may become a significantly important armor to increasing anonymity,
technological
employment and unemployment, cacooning and interpersonally, physically
deprived social isolation, and subsequent spiritual distress upon the
jobless
individual, uncaring civil society, and the destroyed environment as
mass
culture shock and ego-centered values plummet at dizzying speeds and
seemingly
disintegrate the superstructure man-made artificially created "reality"
from its binary delusion/illusion of their man-made artificiality by a
pull of the atomic-electric plug! and into thin air! Apocalypse! The
end
of "big brother" time!
Ancient prophets and astrologers, Medieval
and modern prognosticators, scientists and environmentalists,
spiritualists
and channelers, UFO abductees and sect believers, and the
superstitious,
facing the dying away of the last seconds of this century and the
great,
uncertain leap into the next predict apocalyptic evens and Armageddon!
This is another way of saying that the
coming
second millennium, unlike the first millennium eagerly expected the
messiah
to come again to end the terrible persecution of Jews and later the
Christians
(by 1,000 CE) in the first, may be the apocalypse or "end of the ages."
Millennialism now very popular, controversial in the religious and
popular,
glitz-news press.
Y2K: The Year 2000 Computer Crisis
The idea of the end of time and history
is
basically an attempt by Judeo Christian Moslem religious tradition to
explain
to their followers why God either allows evil in the world and
therefore
is evil, the problem of theodicy. Thus, one's enemies or "sinners" will
have their day in court for punishment by a vengeful god in the
hereafter
if they escaped punishment, or if not necessarily in this world, but in
"the next" at the judgment throne. On the other hand, being martyrs for
ones faith therefore guarantees a reward in paradise, or after life.
Like
the early Christian masters who, like Jesus in his willingness to, as
church
theologians say "give up his life for the sins of all as a sacrifice"
in
our place to a vengeful god who demands perfection is theologically and
literally biblically acceptable (Levels One and Two) as accepted
behavior
demanded toward women, gays, lesbians, children, and pole of color,
disabled
diseased, poor and others who are weak, the losers; to emulate—to give
until it hurts, or to hurt is god-like and honorable behavior
especially
for the strong and righteously indignant. This masochism results from a
sadistic god and plays out ever day in society between the haves and
the
have not with the powerful and the weak, the influential over the
dispossessed
to "prove that God will thereby take care of them" and so not to worry
in this life. This is a Level One, literal biblical truth (faithing)
interpretation,
to fulfill "for the poor you will always have with you." And sure
enough,
as God promised, there they are! This is the reversal of the Level Five
premise that takes the context of the saying into account, that
questions
why there are the poor, the outcast, and conversely, on the other hand,
praises the "Good (but outcast pariah) Samaritan" who no one thought
would
desire to minister to their supposed enemy. Nor would the samaritan be
allowed to minister to themselves, the pharisee, the priests, etc!
Second, regarding the end of time theology
and the Heaven's
Gate groups mass suicide "to get from this would to the next"
shows
the failure of such a Level Three, conventional, traditional, sybheic
society
judges. How leader-god Applewhite internalized the university's
homophobia
of being a gay employee. Lesbian, gay or even (hetero)sexually confused
teenagers and young adults commit suicide is a condemnation of the
failure
of our society hatred to allow difference and diversity in people, that
"human" (and god-likeness!) and sentient, living beings come in all
modes,
shapes, forms, colors, and sizes, and are no "evil" enemies to
fearfully
undermine. Dysfunctional society enforces, stigmatize, intolerance,
fear,
alienation and rejection. Sophisticated attitudes and measures of
stealth
are used socially and personally to undermine or block the way of
humanity
legally or illegally, by omission or commission, with a fountain pen as
well as gun. So people aren't allowed to be who they are—that it is
unacceptable
to "be(come) who you are, meant to, or called, to do and thus become.
Again,
this is Level Five faithing vs. Level Three conventionality, of public
polls by politicians for legislation and election strategies, etc.

This faithing system to evaluate "cults"
as to whether they are inward, ego, imploding in heir purpose of self
destructive
behavior, and/or outward reaching and giving to others as to
themselves,
no matter who they are (Level 5, transcendent of category). These
benchmarks
to levels of maturing faithing may be used as part if the content or
ethics
of behavior from a universal perspective including religions,
bureaucracies,
groups, politics, and individuals. The processes of becoming manure can
also be identified a the chronological or mental age at which these
behaviors
develop and usually resolved or awareness develops.
If my local Apple Macintosh consultants
are correct, this computer and all those Macs made from 1975 on comply
with the Y2K
criteria
so that if publishing this millennium edition isn’t completed by then
as
planned, we'll still be capable of continuing satisfactorily on January
1, 2000!
Hale-Bopp: History and Time Defined by Cults and UFOlogists
March 29, 1997:
FLASH! Saturday, Holy Week of Easter: This Monday of Holy Week, with
the
presence of the comet, Hale-Bopp,
importuned a great loss of life by mass suicide of Heavens Gate sect of
followers. This death-scene was discovered in Rancho Santa Fe, CA by a
former member alerted by the group's video of its member's plans. This
is the largest such tragedy to date in the continental US. Thirty-nine
androgynous women and men, many being older and some younger, along
with
their leader, Marshall Applewhite, called "Do," of the Heavens Gate UFO
spiritual group were found in their immaculately prepared and clean six
bedroom ranch home.
All wore casual new T-shirts, jeans, socks
and sneakers, and were lying in their bunk beds, glasses off, as if
they
were taking but a brief nap. Each had a purple shroud over the face and
body, and a bag packed for a "rescue" journey from their “worn vehicle”
bodies and this corrupted and "spaded" physical world to a "higher
physical
and spiritual plane" by alien space craft.
Among the dead was Thomas Nichols, brother
of Nichelle Nichols, who stared as Lt. Uhura of the Star Trek series.
In
respect for her brothers beliefs, she appeared once on TV's Larry King
Live program representing the family in eulogy to him, delivering a
poem
her corporation produced for children's education on space called,
"Hail
to Hale-Bopp," which will not return in 2,000 to 4,000 years.
When a "window of opportunity" was noted
on the Heaven's Gate web page as portended by Hale-Bopp, a frenzy of
inquiries
crashed the site, while investigators and ultimately the FBI taking
control
of the page and any other internet information "to prevent a repeat"
loss
of life.
Such bright, gentle, and self-disciplined
like-minded people were practicing ascetics in their community of 22
years
including a economically successful cooperative of technological savvy
and expertise in WEB page computer design and marketing. All took
celibacy
vows and were assigned to relate to one other in a platonic
relationship;
voluntary castration of some men, including "Do" took place. The women
wore short hair cuts and casual attire.
In the 1970s, both Applewhite, a formerly
married father of two, and astrologer-confidant Bonnie Lou Nettles, aka
"Peep" and "Ti," gained national attention in 1975, when their group
recruited
members in the coastal town of Waldport,
Oregon. Since this is just miles from the author's former
residence,
she remembers the great stir of public opinion, and vividly recalls the
shock when 20 people mysteriously vanished from her area after this
same
group, (that began at the University
of Oregon in 1972), came through. However, a witness
from
South Beach, Oregon said when he attended their recruiting meeting in
1975,
he was one who didn't join them.
The earliest cult event of the Church of
the Bride of Christ of Joshua II, aka Franz
Creffield, also occurred in Waldport, Oregon, at the early turn
of this century, and detailed in the American Weekly article of March
10,
1946 by Peter Levins, "Prophet Without Honor." Certainly, she feels,
more
such groups and alienated people are searching for help and answers to
life’s meaning from the heavens of outer space and the cosmos where
"Higher
Intelligence" may literally reside. Even our government doesn't want us
to know about the Roswell,
New Mexico, incident by withholding their secret classified
documents
and conspiracy of silence, fanning theories of conspiracy even more!

In 1886, Toledo was touched by cultism when
Louis Kossuth Brooks, his wife, Mary Miller, and his followers built a
two-story colony house where Wright Creek goes into Poole Slough. This
mysterious religious group disbanded when it ran out of food and money,
according to Brooks' daughter, Anne Jane.
There was also a colony of seventh day
adventists
in Chitwood,
according to lifelong resident and historian, Morris X. Smith.
With the November 1978, mass suicide-murder
in Guyana, South America, which claimed the Lives of self-proclaimed
prophet,
Jim Jones, the founder and leader of the People's
Temple (San Francisco), along with 914 of his followers, a US
congressman,
and a member of the news media—and the the settlement of Rajneesh Puram
in Central Oregon—it is interesting to note that sectism is nothing new
to the West Coast, nor to those first settlers of the post-Colombian
colonies
who desired toleration of their beliefs to practice as they would want.
Even today (1997), Eugene, Oregon, boasts
the most secretive Old Testament sect in the US, run by a 58-year-old
former
marine, Jim Roberts, according to Peter Klebnikov in the April 7, 1997
Newsweek article, "Time of Trouble." Called "the brotherhood,"
followers
are grouped into small nomadic cells that recruit college kids across
the
country who are "ready to die for him."
It occurs to Guardino this story is
electrifyingly
connected to her own story a familiar turf and back-yard experience of
historical Portage,
Wisconsin and therefore, is part of the millennium edition of
this
historical work these 22 plus years in its making. And immediately
Riedel
suggests this as a news story or letter format to introduce and preface
the reader to this book and its philosophy as a teaching, liberating,
healing
tool (mini-sermon) on our stories and critique of the concepts of
history,
time, space, spirituality, morality, liberation, and sexuality—all the
"biggie" Western European male value systems that run our lives ragged!
We speak of in this compendium of folk, bottom-up history, which had no
known handle to UFOs, cults, and our own personal experiences. In fact,
we were just remarking this morning that We didn't know why we were
rewriting
or how we were to organizing our creative work together, but that "We
just
had to continue on in blind faith" to do what we both do best: to
"bring
'em back alive" and to enunciate the co-author's perspective analysis
and
essays upon the processes and effective paradigms they both discovered
in returning, reliving, and reviving history through our own liberating
stories and new awarenesses of healing our nation's, and our own
stories.
Finally, the purpose of the “end of history
or of time” can be visualized in the Arthur C. Clarke movie, “2001: A
Space
Odyssey” (1968). At the last scene is the black monolith, a metaphor of
increasing human knowledge, technology, and passing time, a troubling,
shadowy figure opening the beginning of the film. Humanity is curious,
reaches out toward it and when it becomes space-borne, flashes into
brilliant
beams and exploding light sources into infinity, fading to a grand,
graciously
furnished home where the space and time traveler quickly ages and dies.
Into the foreground of the 1987 Harmonic
Convergence line-up of planets, and sun comes the shape of an
arc,
which gradually recedes into an unmistakable human embryo floating in
the
womb that somehow looks like the space traveler!
Being birthed again, reborn, rebaptized
by the breaking waters of amniotic fluid, and of the blood and
straining
birthing pain, life recycles, renews, begins again! From the "big egg"
or womb-splash, rather than a "big bang" theory comes the first
female-inclusive
and original, legitimate creation story! Life cannot be built out of
"No-thing."
Mother's egg, though deeply invisible inside of her is in a natural
cycles
and process of giving birth in her own time: Mother Earth time, and not
by ceacarian section at the masculinist's, controlling,
possessive—convenient
time and baby ownership schedule!
Chronicle Reporter Finds Rajneeshpuram Ghost in the Past 1987
February 15:
Someone who had never been there might never find the place—the road
markers
have all been taken down.
But Rajneeshpuram is still there. Bhagwan
Shree Rajneesh (1931-1990) jumped onto an airplane headed for
North
Carolina in an attempt to flee from federal immigration authorities.
But
it was September 13, 1985. Two months later the once-bustling commune
was
deserted, except for a handful of followers who stayed on to keep the
buildings
from deteriorating until the commune could be sold.
The long drive on gravel and dirt roads
from Antelope to Rajneeshpuram is still just as long. But the
once-formidable
feeling that "something awful is going to happen if I get much closer"
quickly disintegrates once you pass the first of several tiny lookout
stations
where Sannyasins once monitored your progress with walkie-talkies.
City Hall? Must be three or four Jeeps,
modern and shiny, parked out front. Yes, these much be the caretakers.
Now that you think of it, you have already passed a couple of them on
the
road. Their occupants were not dressed in red, orange or pink, though.
You kind of slide east past City Hall and
arrive on Main Street.
Yes, it's just the way you remembered
it—only
not a soul in sight. An occasional tumble weed blows by, and you take a
picture of it just for fun.
The buildings, though empty, are carpeted
and well-kept. Yes, there's the bookstore—where Ma Anad Sheela
announced
to the world that she was not going to take over Wasco
County by bringing in transients to vote. We all just
misunderstood
her sense of humor—remember?
A red-clad man appears as if out of nowhere
and yells that the shops and sidewalks are private property—you are to
stay on the county road.
An encounter.
Except for some cracks in the windows, the
lookout stations stand like tiny capsules, mere suggestions of what
once
was.
Most of the signs of welcome have been
dismantled,
but parts of the marble structures remain. The ever-imposing symbol of
the bird of peace is riddled with bullet holes—ruined forever.
You pass the man-made hours of work (the
Sannyasins called work "worship") it took to dredge it. It sparkles in
the sun.
Then you are there—in the once-promised
land.
That is when you run into your first
obstacle—the
information center, with its huge parking lot, is closed off with a big
wire fence. A herd of cattle grazes outside the fence: The information
center sets isolated, yet another time capsule.
Then there is the air strip. My, must have
been huge airplanes taking off from there once. It seems to never end.
Yet it sits quietly nestled between two walls of mountains. And fenced
off.
As you enter the city center you pass the
once-bustling bus station. Buses were the main transportation across
the
massive commune, where buildings seemed so far and few in between. The
terminal is still there, although the group of telephones that once
lined
one end of the parking lot are gone. ...
They still own the place and have the right
to protect the buildings until they're purchased.
Back on the county road, you venture into
areas that you were afraid to enter before—residential areas where
hundreds
of red-clad Sannyasins made their homes in mobile units. You cross over
a bridge that leads to a vacant lot. A pattern of stones pressed into
the
ground hint that a garden must have existed once.
But no more.
The tour's over. There is nothing more to
see. Only the county road remains open, since all the private roads
have
been blocked off. You retrace your steps as you return the same way you
came. And for some reason as you pass the welcome sign "Thank you—come
again" your pulse slows down to normal.
You can’t resist stopping in Antelope, 13
miles away, and taking a peek into The Antelope Cafe. Remember "Zorba
The
Buddha?" The red visitor caps with pictures of antelopes on them let
you
know you are no longer eating at "Zorba the Buddha."
Nor will you ever. Because you're safe now.
Antelope's safe.
But you can't help but wonder for a moment
if the whole four-year epic of the Rajneesh in Wasco County ever really
happened.
It did. And we will never forget it. --Barbara
Jean Guardino
Bhagwan's in Poona, Peddling His Ranch No Easy Undertaking 1987
February 22: Selling
real estate is not always the easiest thing in the world to do.
But when you've got 64,000 acres, and your
asking price is $28.5 million, you don’t just sell to the first party
that
comes along.
This is the problem faced by Joseph DeJager
of Cushman and Wakefield of Oregon Incorporated Realtors.
DeJager has been dealing with a number of
prospects, mostly private individuals, for the past seven months. He
believes
the property will be sold by mid-year, he said.
Although the property is considered to be
one parcel of land which cannot be subdivided, it is possible to do
minor
partitions, he said. The ranch is made up of seven or eight parcels. "I
would envision maybe two sales," he said.
DeJager said private parties have been
interested
in taking advantage of the existing structures on the property. They
have
proposed game ranches and "Fat" farms, he said.
So far the state has not come forward with
an offer. "I feel the ranch had a great deal of potential for state
use,
which would be beneficial to the local economy and to the state in
general,"
he said. He said he would prefer to see the state purchase the
property,
for possible use as a facility for the elderly, a correctional
facility,
experimental agriculture or university programs, he said.
Rajneeshpuram contains the potential for
"a full array of recreational activities," since it contains an
airstrip,
hotel accommodations, an office and a variety of residential buildings,
he said. It has two lakes and the John Day River running through it,
which
could accommodate water sports including sailing, windsurfing and
fishing.
It has places for horseback riding and other western-style recreation,
he said.
Meanwhile, a relatively small cadre of
Rajneesh
followers are acting as caretakers to maintain the ranch. According to
Moses, president of Rajneesh Investment Corporation, the land is under
24-hour watch, and as a result vandalism has been minimal. He described
the limited damage as "a bit of mischief," adding that the caretakers
have
"techniques and methods" of knowing when visitors are on the property
day
and night.
The county road which runs through
Rajneeshpuram
is not private property, and this sometimes causes problems from a
security
point of view, Moses said. Occasionally people take the county road to
Mitchell, a small community, he said. The county road turns into
Mitchell
Road, which is a very rough road, Moses said.
Rajneeshpuram receives fewer and fewer
visitors
over time. "Apparently it is not quite so interesting a place to see
now
as in the past," Moses said.
The areas other than the county road are
all private property, and are "not available to the public for
traversing,"
Moses said. The exception to this are potential buyers and public
officials
in the course of business.
Moses said he recently returned from a trip
to Poona, India, where he visited Bagwan Shree Rajneesh. The guru talks
to his followers twice a day, although his living quarters are too
small
for him to stage a drive-through as he did at Rajneeshpuram.
Moses said he did not know whether the
bhagwan
intends to stay in India. "I expected he was in Oregon to stay." he
added
that he was "just glad to have a chance to see him while he was in one
place."
The Brotherhood
In 1997, Eugene, Oregon, boasted the most
secretive old testament sect in the US, run by a 58-year-old former
marine,
Jim Roberts, according to Peter Klebnikov in the April 7, 1997 Newsweek
article, "Time of Trouble." Called the brotherhood, followers are
grouped
into small nomadic cells that recruit college kids across the country
who
are “ready to die for him.”
It occurs to the author this story is
electrifyingly
connected to her own turf and backyard experiences and the millennium
edition
of this historical work these 22 years. And immediately Riedel suggests
this as a news story or letter format might introduce and preface the
reader
to this book and its philosophy as a teaching tool/mini-sermon on our
concepts
of history, time, spirituality, morality, liberation, and sexuality—all
the "biggies" we speak of in this compendium of folk, bottom-up
history,
which had no known handle to UFO's, cults, and our own personal
experiences.
In fact, we were just remarking this morning that we didn’t know why we
were rewriting or how we were to organizing our creative work together,
but that "we just had to continue on in blind faith" to do what we both
do best: to "bring 'em (historical figures) back alive" and for the
co-author's
perspective analysis and essays upon them and the processes and
effective
paradigms they both discovered in returning (to the NOW), to reliving
and
reviving history through our discoveries/new awarenesses as liberation
historians.)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Finally, the purpose of the "end of
history
or of time" can be visualized in the Arthur C. Clarke movie, "2001:
A Space Odessey" (1968). At the last scene
is the black monolith, a metaphor of increasing human knowledge,
technology,
and passing time, a troubling, shadowy figure opening the beginning of
the film. Humanity is curious, reaches out toward it and when it
becomes
space-borne, flashes into brilliant beams and exploding light sources
into
infinity, fading to a grand, graciously furnished home where the space
and time traveler quickly ages and dies. Into the foreground of a
Harmonic-Convergance
line-up of planets, and sun comes the shape of an arc, which gradually
recedes into an unmistakable human embryo floating in the womb that
somehow
looks like the space traveler!
Being birthed again, reborn, rebaptized
by the breaking waters of amniotic fluid, and of the blood and
straining
birthing pain, life recycles, renews, begins again!
Unknown to Riedel, Guardino hung up in her
hallway one of her own paintings (1987) with her own poem published in
1974, called "Alpha," I hadn't really seen or studies before, until I
read
this last paragraph to her. I got goose bumps as I beheld a star-scape
of brilliance, galactic clouds, points of light stars, and there near
the
middle, a human embryo enwombed, relating perfectly and
synchronistically
to the meme, the Jungian
Architypal
"group mind" which is herewith passed to you: out of catastrophic
endings
can new beginnings be made!
History as Story
Stories of those who have collected stories are common among the storytellers they have studied. Kuiceyetsa next told stories of three of the leading researchers who had worked at Zuni over the last 100 years:
Elsie
Clews Parsons (1874-1941) stayed here too, and when Max was
little
he said she left her shoes in there, and they were those high tops. He
pretended he was a cowboy. Put those on, got up on the bedside, and his
mother's girdle was on the bed rail, and he was sitting on it like a
saddle
pretending he had a horse. [laughs]
And he'd always pick up those cigarettes
that she smoked. They were scented, I guess, or something, you know.
And
he'd always look around to see if she would drop some, and he'd just
latch
on to them.
Parsons would always have pancakes, and
she my mother-in-law said he always said, "Pancake ready." Max would go
to the door of the house and knock and say, "Pancake ready." They had
it
fixed, you know.
He remembers Elsie Clews Parsons. She stayed
quite awhile, I guess, while she was here.
Parsons began her field research at Zuni,
New Mexico, in 1915, returned as often as she could for the rest of her
life and published a truly monumental series of monographs and articles
about the people she had come to love.
The 71-year-old Zuni woman gave Cunningham a rather full, personal description of Mrs. Parsons:
She was a very rich lady, but you could
not
guess it from the way she lived. She always dressed in sloppy dresses.
One summer she brought white shoes with her. I thought it was funny and
told her so. She became mad, so I explained that when the rains come
she
would realize her mistake. I told her that anyone who comes to Zuni
should
know that it is not New York City. The roads are muddy here. After a
while
she was all right.
She was a real friend of my husband and
me. We always wrote to each other. She had four children, as I have,
and
they were born at the same times when mine were. We joked about it.
Although
she was very talkative, we enjoyed having her with us and she was very
glad for that. She used to pay us well and we did whatever she wanted
us
to do. You see, she did not have many friends at Zuni. We were her best
friends and we worked hard for her. I am not a Zuni and I don't know
everything
about the Zunis. So if there was something Mrs. Parsons wanted to know
about them and I didn't know, I asked the people and they told me
everything.
My husband was an important Zuni and he helped me a lot. One year she
asked
me to maintain a diary of whatever took place in Zuni and I did that. I
guess she got that published as a book.
Mrs. Parsons brought her friends to meet
me. One year an artist—whose name I don't remember now—came with her.
He
wanted to sketch the Zuni dances, but they wouldn’t let him. I guess he
drew some natural scenes and went back.
One thing which always makes me sore when
I remember Mrs. Parsons is that she invited me to visit her in New York
City and I promised her to do so, but never went there. One day I got a
letter from her secretary telling me about here death. She knew that we
were great friends and that I would appreciate her giving me that news.
Native Americans in History
"Tis now time for a
destructive
order to be reversed, and it is well to inform other races that the
aboriginal
cultures of North America were not devoid of beauty. Furthermore, in
denying
the Indian [their] ancestral rights and heritages the white race is but
robbing itself. America can be revived, rejuvenated, by recognizing a
native
school of thought."
—Chief Luther Standing Bear
The seeds for this book were sown in my
mind
during a late-summer day in 1975, by a young American Indian whose name
I've long since forgotten. As a reporter for the Seattle Times, I had
been
researching a series of articles on Washington State Indian tribes. The
research took me to Evergreen State College in Olympia, where a young
woman,
an undergraduate in the American Indian Studies program, told me in
passing
that the Iroquois had played a key role in the evolution of American
democracy.
The idea at first struck me as disingenuous.
I considered myself decently educated in American history, and to the
best
of my knowledge, government for and by the people had been invented by
white men in powdered wigs. I asked the young woman where she had come
by her information.
"My grandmother told me," she said. That
was hardly the kind of source one could use for a newspaper story. I
asked
whether she knew of any other sources. "You're the investigative
reporter,"
she said. "You find them."
...The woman's challenge stayed with me
through another year at the Times, the writing of a book on American
Indians,
and most of a Ph.D. program at the University of Washington. I
collected
tantalizing shreds—a piece of a quotation from Benjamin
Franklin (1706-1790) here, an allegation there. Individually,
these
meant little. Together however, they began to assume the outline of a
plausible
argument that the Iroquois
had indeed played a key role in the ideological birth of the United
State,
especially through Franklin's advocacy of federal union.
...Well-organized polities governed by a
system that one contemporary of Franklin's Cadwallader Colden, wrote
had
"outdone the Romans." Colden was writing of a social and political
system
so old that the immigrant Europeans knew nothing of its origins—a
federal
union of five (and later six) Indian nations that had put into practice
concepts of popular participation and natural rights that the European
savants had thus far only theorized. The Iroquoian system expressed
through
its constitution, "The Great Law of Peace," rested on assumptions
foreign
to the monarchies of Europe: it regarded leaders as servants of the
people,
rather than their masters, and made provisions for the leaders'
impeachment
for errant behavior. The Iroquois' law and customs upheld freedom of
expression
in political and in religious matters, and it forbade the unauthorized
entry of homes. It provided for political participation by women and
the
relative equitable distribution of wealth. These distinctly democratic
tendencies sound familiar in light of subsequent American political
history—yet
few people today (other than American Indians and students of their
heritage)
know that a republic existed on our soil before anyone here had ever
heard
of John Locke (1632-1704), or Cato, the Magna Charta, Rousseau
(1712-1778),
Franklin, or Jefferson.
The Geo Politics of Adopting the Iroquois System
The way in which the Iroquois system
existed
and was adopted requires an understanding of the context. The political
events of the time that brought together the Iroquois leaders and the
mid-18th
Century colonial leaders, the dean being Franklin, who were searching
for
political governing alternatives to European tyranny and class
stratification
experienced in the American frontier. The Iroquois were the greatest
Indian
military power in Eastern North America between the rival French of the
St. Lawrence Valley and the English of the Eastern Seaboard. Less than
a million Anglo-Americans lived in their communities scattered along
the
East Coast, islands in a sea of American Indian peoples that stretched
for inland, as far as anyone who spoke English know, into the boundless
mountains and forest of a continent much larger than Europe. The days
when
Euro-Americans could not have survived in America without Indian help
had
passed, but the new Americans still were learning to wear Indian
clothing,
eat Indian corn and potatoes, and follow Indian trails and water
courses,
using Indian snowshoes and canoes. Indian and Europeans were more often
at peace than at war—a fact missed by telescoped history that focuses
on
conflict.
So Indian peace was as important to the
history of the continent as Indian war, as the importance of English
efforts
to ally with the Iroquois and the need for treaty councils. This
brought
together leaders of both cultures. Ben Franklin, for the earliest days
of his professional life, was drawn to the diplomatic and ideological
interchange
of these councils—first as a printer of their proceedings, than as a
Colonial
envoy. This was the beginning of one of the most distinguished
diplomatic
careers in American history. Out of these councils grew an early
campaign
by Franklin for Colonial union on a federal model, very similar to the
Iroquois system.
Contact with Indians and their ways of
ordering
life left a definite imprint on Franklin and others who were seeking,
during
the pre-revolutionary period, alternatives to a European order against
which revolution would be made. To Jefferson, as well as Franklin, the
Indians had what the colonists wanted: societies free of oppression and
class stratification. The Iroquois and other Indian nations fired the
imaginations
of the revolution’s architects. As Henry Steele Commager has written,
America
acted the Enlightenment as European radicals dreamed it. Extensive,
intimate
contact with Indian nations was a major reason for this difference.
In telling this story, the authors demolish
the stereotypical Western histories of Native Americans whose effective
social and political organization began our earliest revolutionary
models
of political, philosophical and governmental organization and state
craft,
as Franklin, Jefferson, and others knew it as they envisioned the
future,
including Native American wisdom and beauty. This makes our task to
relearn
history in all its richness and complexity, a more complete
understanding
of what we were, what we are, and what we may one day become.
The First Composite Culture
The creation of this culture began
with first contact—possibly long before Columbus's landing. Fragments
of
pottery that resemble Japanese patterns have been found in present-day
Ecuador, dated well before the birth of Christ. The Vikings left some
tools
behind in Northeast North America.
Squanto
(?-1622), a Wampanoag, was one of several Indians kidnapped from their
native land (New England) and brought to England in 1614, and returned
in time to greet the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock by 1620 in English and
produced
the first Thanksgiving, a feast the Indians provided of turkey and many
other of their own domesticated staples for the unprepared Pilgrims. He
helped them survive their first winter, and acculturated them to the
new
land. He was therefore called a Pilgrim father.
Students may not know that following this
rescue, American Indian first cultivated and contributed by the 20th
Century,
almost half the world's domesticated crops: corn and white potatoes,
manoic,
sweet potatoes, squash, peanuts, peppers, pumpkin, tomatoes,
pineapples,
avocado, cacao (chocolate), chicle (as in chewing gum), several
varieties
of beans, and at least seventy other domesticated food plants. The
original
cotton plant was derived from those cultivated by the native peoples,
and
so was rubber, too!
Several Native American medicines were used
among Euro-Americans: quinine, laxatives, and several dozen other drugs
and herbal medicines. The Europeans also adapted many Indian articles
of
clothing and equipment for their own needs: hammocks, kayaks, canoes,
moccasins,
smoking pipes, dog sleds, and parkas, as well as the many Indian words
to describe these, and other features of the new land, half of the
states
of the US bearing names first spoken among Indians, and thousands of
words
entered English and European languages from Native American sources,
too
numerous to list briefly. Native Americans also contributed to the
shape
of Euro-American folk songs, locations for railroads and highways,
dying
cloth, war tactics, and bathing habits. Their contribution to American
civilization so influenced the lives of Europeans in America because
they
were useful and necessary to sustaining life here. The intellectual
contributions
of American Indians to Euro-American culture have not been studied at
all
until very recently, and only inferred from islands of knowledge
written
almost exclusively from Euro-American origin, leaving blind spots that
may be filled by records based on a dwindling Native American source of
elder oral history.
The causes of this neglect has been
scholar's
ethnocentrism that relegate "primitive" people who have more
"institutions
as complex and histories as full as our own, according to Paul
Bohannan,
in a quote of Bernard
de Voto (1897-1955), rails that: Most American history has been
written as if history were a function solely of white culture—in spite
of the fact that well into the 19th Century the Indians were one of the
principal determinants of historical events. Those of us who work in
frontier
history are repeatedly nonplused to discover how little has been done
for
us in regard to the one force bearing on our field that was active
everywhere...
American historians have made shockingly little effort to understand
the
life, the societies, the cultures, the thinking and the feeling of the
Indians, and disastrously little effort to understand how all these
affected
white men and their societies."
Hollowell added: "Since most history has
been written by the conquerors, the influence of the primitive
people(sic)
upon American civilization has seldom been the subject of dispassionate
consideration."
Relationship of Western Individualism and the "Other"
From the absolute perspective, one
is all; when you are healed, the whole universe is healed. Thus,
according
to the Diamond
Sutra, the Bodhisattva ("enlightenment—being," the archetype of
compassion;) who vows to save all beings is still under a fundamental
delusion:
Any Bodhisattva who undertakes the practice
of meditation should cherish one thought only: "When I attain perfect
wisdom,
I will liberate all sentient beings in every realm of the universe, and
allow them to pass into the eternal peace of Nirvana." And yet, when
vast,
uncountable, unthinkable myriads of beings have been liberated, truly
no
being has been liberated. Why? Because no Bodhisattva who is a true
Bodhisattva
entertains such concepts as "self" or "others." Thus there are no
sentient
beings to be liberated and no self to attain perfect wisdom.
Mamana Maharshi clarifies this point:
People often say that a liberated Master should go out and preach his message to the people. How can anyone be a Master, they argue, as long as there is misery by his side? This is true. But who is a liberated Master? Does he see misery beside him? They want to determine the state of the Master without realizing the state themselves. From the standpoint of the Master their contention amounts to this: a man dreams a dream in which he finds several people. On waking up, he asks, "Have the dream people also woken up?" How ridiculous!
I am suggesting that my own world view
bias
has been, (before I became a teacher, a pastor, and) an activist, that
I reach out (to motivate,) to convert other people toward a kind of
duological
existence of: Me or us vs "them" mentality. (Gradually, I first had to
learn, one needs to observe the specific kinds and examples, or stories
of otherness in the communities of people, sentient and insentient
beings,
as to comparison and respect of differences and celebrating the
similarities
in that "unity in diversity" which is our world, gaining some human
awareness
and understanding as these experiences bridges the fearful abyss of
aloneness
and alienation, and suffering, as a process of re-creating renewed hope
and life among us. For a long time I have known, however, that unless I
have experienced what I'm speaking about, and live the values of
love-in-action
I am espousing, I will not and cannot convert others—because I, myself,
have not been converted! The natural unity of the universe is very
difficult
to realize when every day, science and technology regularly break up
everything
around us [values] into abstract, and smaller, more intellectually
manageable
categories or pieces. The unity of people who live this enlightened way
surely have community. If each one of us took to heart the liberating
of
themselves, first, the rest of the process naturally follows. I must
confess
this "power over" tendency to judge others and myself, that something
objectively
"out there," a god, is stronger and required to enforce liberation upon
us as a "disembodied power—value," in order to bring on the
“revolution,”
was more of a conceptual head trip, a dreaming and hoping for a future
vision, but not based on the here and now that we all live in the NOW,
the present. That is to say, the how of doing what we say we want can
only
be done by doing it, showing it NOW, and not waiting for some heaven in
the sky, by and by. Thus, unity is not just a concept, it IS found in
the
present, or must be manifest, brought to life, as life, itself. To live
life fully now, to become aware of the presence of that Universal Mind
in and a part of all sentient and non-sentient being, let go of
reconciling
the hold of the unforgiveness and making amends for the past, and the
sentimental
longing (or "what-if-ing") for dreams of the future, utopia, paradise,
heaven, etc. that only derail the necessity for activism and
justice-making
presence of the NOW.
How long is "now?" you may ask. One
scientist
says that it lasts 13 seconds, that is the amount of memory one can
store.
Is that not in a "twinkling of an eye?" How fleeing now passes, which
many
lived, life experiences highlight! As the Chinese peasant in "Teahouse
of the August Moon" reminds: "Pain make man think, thought make man
wise,
and wisdom make life bearable!"
Distinction Between Human History and the Historical Enterprise
As a historian James
M. Washington left a legacy of his own opposition to the
historical
profession that trained him. He was acutely aware of the distinction
between
human history and the historical enterprise.
The former is the entire story of the whole
human race, and the latter represents those parts of the story
historians
choose to recall.
Hence, his goal was to call to remembrance
the countless narratives of the victims of history, and in the process,
to discover "when, where, and how we failed to love them as the Lord
commanded
us to do." Washington believed that by uncovering the hidden stories
about
black religious experience, perhaps all Americans could learn something
that might prove beneficial to understanding the experience of
non-blacks.
Indeed, he contended that the particularity of human experience holds
important
insights for a broader appreciation of the human condition.
Here, in The Courage to Hope, Washington's
friends and colleagues come together to attempt to give a meaning to
black
suffering that goes beyond the narrow bounds of racial particularities
to unlock the limitless prospects of the human experience. While the
point
of inquiry begins with black suffering to remain at that point means
that
one runs the risk of privileging black pain. The danger in this is that
it places one on a path which leads to the two-headed dragon of
self-pity
and self-righteousness. While pain certainly is relative, it is our
contention
that there are important lessons for all of humanity in the
distinctiveness
of another's afflictions. Of course, we are not suggesting it is the
only
light on the horizon, nor is it the brightest light. Nonetheless, black
suffering is a gateway through which humankind may gain access to its
own
tortured soul. In sum, it is a "faint light" that leads to redemption.
The Cross in the Landscape
"No intellectual or historical mapping can fully locate the cross in the landscape of concept and of sensibility as our century closes. For participants in an overwhelming secular, technologically oriented society, this location is a 'black hole' left by mythologies and unreason out of the past. For the majority, one suspects, of 'practicing' Christians—and what does practicing entail in this context?—the crucifixion remains an unexamined inheritance, a symbolic marker but vestigial recognition. This marker is revered and involved in conventional idiom and gestures. It's concrete status, the enormity of suffering and injustice it incarnates, would appear to have faded from immediacy. How many educated men and women now hear Paschal's cry that humanity must not sleep because Christ hangs on his cross until the end of the world?" —George Steiner
James Melvin Washington was first and foremost a black intellectual Christian obsessed with the meaning of the cross in his time and in his life. He was the existential giant and spiritual giant among us for forty-nine short years because he unrelentingly brought his mind, heart, and soul to bear on the profound truth of evil in the human predicament. He not only understood that a condition for truth is to allow suffering to speak but also that the courage to hope is grounded in the heartfelt grappling with the depths of suffering. In the words of his beloved Paul Tillich (1886-1965), "there is no depth without the way to depth. Truth without the way to truth is dead."
The Historical Shift from Premodernity to Modernity to Postmodernity
The first grand shift from premodernity
to
modernity is often limned as a change from a theocentric world to an
anthrocentric
world in which economics, politics, and culture were the prime movers
in
history, and humans as their agents the proper subjects of history.
According
to the propagandists of modernity, premoderns had employed God to
justify
superstition, irrationality, ignorance, tyranny, and dogmatism. The
flight
from enlisting God as the cause forced humanity, in the estimation of
moderns,
to take responsibility for the world, for the human plight, and to
change
society for the better. In their scenario a return to God as the
subject
would be ruinous to human intelligence and the world.
The second grand shift, modernity to
postmodernity,
is depicted as a transition from an anthrocentric world to either a
centerless
or a polycentric world characterized by loss of the subject. According
to the purveyors of post-modernity, the moderns used the myths of
reason,
the "universal man," and progress to promote universality. The result
was
that the human world became a unidimensional world, with modern
historians
employing their master narratives for Eurocentric purposes. History was
the arena for Europeans and a few others. Africa was bereft of history.
The arena of history—politics and philosophy—was occupied by males;
females
lived in the ahistorical world of the private sphere. For the emerging
postmodern historians of the late—twentieth century, the polycentric
shift
had produced a turn in which all lived experience became the subject of
h