BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Native American The Campfire Circle

Black Elk was a man of great vision. I currently live near where the writer Black Elk befriended was born on the Omaha Reservation. There is a beautiful sacred garden there today, but the lessons they taught are being forgotten here today. There is much fighting, discrimination, unjustice, and corruption on all sides. To take a lesson from Black Elk would do us all good. Black Elk knew the value of sacrifing some for the good of all. That means everybody doesn't get everthing they want. Black Elk saw the coming of many things-that book is amazing.

So, what, if anything, can be done, Nadaurz, to put an end to the problems in that area? How can one get something started that would help the people? Is it possible to start meetings or something to discuss the problems and possible resolutions. Can you teach them to honour the words of Black Elk and other ancestors? Something must be done to bring some peace to the people.

I have some more info on Spider if anyone is still interested.

Spider Man and Spider Woman are Navaho supernaturals or Holy People.

Spider Woman is an important mythic being among both the Eastern Pueblos and the Western Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona.

Spider, Spider Woman or Spider Man is a beneficial character in the myths and stories of the Plains, Southwestern, and Western American Indians.

Spider Woman is a very important personage in the myths of the Hopi. She even takes a part in the Sunset Crater myth, which may well have some Sinagua affiliations - The Sinagua peoples were the ones who carved out their cliff dwelligs in Arizona, now know as Montezumas Castle. The Sinagua learned much of their crafts from the Anasazis.

Things have gone past the point of any easy solutions. The feelings are rooted deep in bad behavior on both parts, both current and past. To be honest, things have deteriorated to the point another Wounded Knee II is on the horizon. In a nutshell...the Omaha tribe is aserting their right to govern reservation land such as liquor taxes and licenses, tribal sales tax, etc. The Whites (for lack of a better term) are not complying, claiming the tribe has no right within the village of Pender, Thurston County's county seat. The white business owner's filed suit in state court. Tribe says State court doesn't govern them. And around, and around, we go. State court doesn't seem to give any real ruling. At this point the state, the federal, and the tribal courts all have stuff happening and absolutely nobody is listening. This area is rich in bad blood and ready to explode. At some level everybody is right, but at no level is anybody totally right but nobody will budge an inch. Black Elk knew the survival of his people depended on changing. It greatly saddened him to see but was wise enough to see total annihilation if they didn't let it go and blend with society. I don't know how to bring that message to this area, especially to the non-Natives. Suggestions?

Nadaurz, I just finished reading Black Elk Speaks last night and was greatly saddened by our past history. Black Elk felt, and stated throughout the book, that he did not do all he should have to help his people, he felt he was a failure. I do not believe that. I think, even though he is gone from Earth, that he will be of great help to his people and I hope he knows that now. Change is a very difficult thing for many people to accept. However, change is sometimes the only way to reach peace or at least an attitude of tolerance and acceptance.

Black Elk did all that he could do. In the end, it was Custer who destroyed him and his work.

Black Elk did a lot, Vance, and I recognize this. Black Elk himself felt he was a failure, but I believe he was not, for his teachings and strength are still very much alive today. For some reason, he felt he should have done more and did not feel he had done all that the Six Grandfathers had asked him to do. I think Black Elk was a remarkable man and did much to help his people. The US Army and Calvary acted out of fear, stupidity, and lack of intelligent leadership I believe, and thus destroyed a lot of mankind and what could have been.

Could someone PLEASE enlighten me as to who set the precedent of in-fighting, back-stabbing, general choas, and constant conflict Native American Tribes have to endure to accomplish anything? We have to scrape and claw through both inner and outer sources of conflict. There must be at least one group of us that has not had to endure this type of politcal conflict over and over again. My tribe is certainly not immune, nor any others I know of. It seems there is always a group (either internal, external, or both) that have a perpetual "need" to stick their spoons into the "Pot of Conflict and Discontent" to keep it stirred up. Once the courts are involved, no one at the BIA will go near a situation, not that they could help anyway. And we certainly (and unfortunately) cannot rely on the courts for a strict interpretation and application of the law in their rulings. We seem to have a nationwide abundance of "Creative" judges, both State and Federal.

I certainly don't know the particulars of the local governmental problems of the Omaha. It seems there are similar problems with several Nations popping up across the country.

For many years I have wondered why "We" as a people (all the recognized tribes) have not been able to come together and fight for our rights, such as self determination and use of lands, en masse, as other ethnicities have done in our Country. We just can't seem to maintain an organized inter-tribal "National Front" for the good of all.

Maybe it has something to do with our distinct "Individualistic" natures, which were apparently amplified through the eons before European contact.

Maybe it has something to do with the importance of Sacrifice being stripped from our traditional moral fabric and replaced with the concepts of ownership and materialism. Once again, I'm reminded of the haunting oration by Leonard Peltier in the Robby Robertson song 'Sacrifice.' "If I have to sacrifice some more until my people are free, I will sacrifice some more."

Perhaps it's the defeatism and victimization experienced and possibly amplified through many generations of reservation life comparable to the poverty and corruption of a third world dictatorship, yet in the midst of "The Land of Plenty."

I honestly don't have even a suggestion. It's easy for me to type "Find a strong leader willing to take the heat of compromise to obtain an acceptable solution," when you're in the midst of "Pot Stirrers," just waiting to sling accusations and reminders of prior problems in whichever directions will serve them, or relinquish their power to negotiate to our over-loaded court system in the hopes "their side" will emerge victorious, and vindicated.

These are empty words, but they are all I have. You are not alone. Historically, we have sacrificed and yet survived through much worse. The Omaha will survive this too.

Vance, I need to send you one of my refrigerator magnets. It says "Custer had it coming!" History has pretty much proved his ambitions and that he ignored orders, which resulted in the deaths of himself and his men. Somewhere I read of his memorial being urinated on as a rite of passage. Maybe that is in 'Coyote Blue' a work of fiction. But there are always some kernels of truth in fiction. The "truth" of Custer has made it's way out, and I feel he has become a historical footnote. Custer wanted to be a hero, did something stupid and got shot.

On the other hand, Black Elk's teachings and prophecies continue to be discovered and studied to this day. Maybe they have yet to reach their full impact and fulfillment. He and his People were not defeated by Custer and the rest of the US Calvary, they were immortalized, and their descendants are still here.

OK, so I had lunch with my Tribal Chief today, and I'm feeling a bit "Native." But Custer did have it coming :-)

It must have one fine lunch, Icp!