Natives must face their twin demons
I have friends who admit, with tears in their eyes, that leaving their village was their only choice if they were to pursue their career or have a job or give their children something more than the village could offer. They aren't abandoning their culture. They are trying to span both worlds, trying to be a bridge for their children into both places.
Their children may do better in the city when it comes to educational opportunities. But they miss out on the cultural immersion that only happens when you live the life. Summer visits or going home for the spring hunt may help, but it will never substitute for living there. That's a lot of conflict for young, urban Native parents and their kids to handle.
8 comments:
Although it can be challenging at times, I'm a firm believer in the importance of the two-worlds model.
Living on an earth now populated by a more global, connected community, demands we stay abreast of what's going on out there. This world has become small and to think we can merely hide away in our own private utopia of sovereignty is a fairy tale.
If our youth don't learn what it takes to effectively navigate the muddy socio-political waters of the dominant society they live in, our people are destined to be relegated to the role of accepting what decisions "they" make about the future of who we are (culture, land, air, water, game, health care, etc).
Conversely, if we forget who we are in the process of educating ourselves and learning what this dominant society values, we will no longer be able to recognize why it's important to cherish who we are. We will also become ineffective due to our own cultural apathy.
It's a fine line to walk and not one suited for the weak of mind. But, I bet hundreds of thousands of natives all over this world do it every day. Those people are strong, know how to adapt, and are committed to the core of their being to be the most effective person they can be.
Chief Plenty Coup of the Apsaalooke tribe said:
"Education is your greatest weapon. With education you are the white man's equal, without education you are his victim and so shall remain all of your lives. Study, learn, help one another always. Remember there is only poverty and misery in idleness and dreams - but in work there is self respect and independence."
I agree with your eloquent comment, BDW. Thanks.
Writerfella here --
Eloquent, perhaps, but eventually empty. Education never will do away with either 'The Will Rogers Syndrome' or 'The Indian Crawdads Syndrome.' In one, you achieve that education and do well in the modern world, and your people regard you as 'trying to be a White Man.' It was and is that Will Rogers is not viewed in good stead by his own people. Or you remain among your people, still getting that education and functioning well in the White world, only to be dismissed or at least minimized in your importance to that world because you did not leave your people. In the other, you try to escape the crawdad bucket and the others pull you back in again.
For it is as Vine DeLoria, Jr., wrote: "As Indians we will never have the efficient organization that gains great concessions from society in the marketplace. We will never have a powerful lobby or be a smashing political force. But we will have the intangible unity which has carried us through four centuries of persecution. We are a people unified by our humanity -- not a pressure group unified for conquest. And from our greater strength we shall wear down the white man and finally outlast him... We shall endure."
And it is as an old Kiowa grandfather said, "I do not fear that our youth are trying to learn the white man's ways or speak his language or grow to know well his world. They still will remember who they are and perhaps our children will outrun the white man in his own shoes."
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Let's see...you've imagined two negative outcomes from getting educated. Are you seriously arguing against the idea of education? True, you've done it before, so I'm not totally surprised. But wow.
"Intangible unity"..."remember who we are"...these are the only empty phrases in this context. An Indian could feel intangible unity and remember who he was by staying on the rez or by leaving it to get an education. So these platitudes don't address the question implied in the article. Try again.
The choice posited is 1) stay on the reservation; 2) leave the reservation permanently; or 3) leave the rez, get educated, return to the rez, and attempt to live in both worlds. Instead of obfuscating your point with verbiage, why don't you tell us which of these three options you'd choose? Or which you'd recommend to a young Indian facing this choice? Be brave for once and take a stand.
Unlike your quote, here's a Vine Deloria quote that actually addresses the issue of education:
"Every society needs educated people, but the primary responsibility of educated people is to bring wisdom back into the community and make it available to others so that the lives they are leading make sense."
Sounds like Deloria would support the two-worlds model also. Which isn't surprising since he lived and worked off the rez for much of his career.
Writerfella here --
writerfella always stresses the idea of education when he speaks to Native student groups, el-Hi-Collegiate, sometimes as often as twenty times a year. The context used is that writerfella never could have become the writer that he is without having furthered his own education, attending over a dozen colleges and universities from 1968 - 1983.
And as no choices were posited in writerfella's post, your remarks then only are a EuroMan's malformed interpolation of words and phrases that were not there. writerfella made choices and lived aftermaths that you only claim to know and understand by elevating your blindnesses into sciences. And you do not take a stand so much as to admit that you think you walk on the waters of Lake Superior...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Are you incapable of understanding your own writing? Here are the choices you posited again:
"In one, you achieve that education and do well in the modern world, and your people regard you as 'trying to be a White Man.' It was and is that Will Rogers is not viewed in good stead by his own people. Or you remain among your people, still getting that education and functioning well in the White world, only to be dismissed or at least minimized in your importance to that world because you did not leave your people. In the other, you try to escape the crawdad bucket and the others pull you back in again."
Every choice you posited implies education is bad. If you don't understand the implications of your words, I'm here to point them out for you. No need to thank me for helping you untangle your tangled English.
To reiterate, the original article posited choices. Reader BDW addressed these choices. You called BDW's comments "empty," although you were too empty-headed to explain why. Here are the choices you were unable to address:
1) Stay on the reservation; 2) leave the reservation permanently; or 3) leave the rez, get educated, return to the rez, and attempt to live in both worlds.
Instead of obfuscating your point with verbiage, why don't you tell us which of these three options you'd choose? Or which you'd recommend to a young Indian facing this choice? Be brave for once and take a stand.
Also, you apparently have nothing to say about my Vine Deloria quote. Next time try searching Google rather than supplying a quote that doesn't apply. Then I won't have to show you up and make you look foolish again.
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