tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29769707.post436932385830910994..comments2024-02-10T18:19:36.406-08:00Comments on Newspaper Rock: Natives in Encounters at the End of the WorldRobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01478763837213733775noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29769707.post-69355402070143096052010-04-23T09:52:52.260-07:002010-04-23T09:52:52.260-07:00There is the Canadian film called, "The Snow ...There is the Canadian film called, "The Snow Walker" (2003) about a pilot (Barry Pepper) who crashes in the Northwest Territories and surivives by the aide of a native girl (Annabella Piugattuck) on the frozen tundra. <br /><br />Although the "end of the world" is actually about the opposite pole, there must be some similiarities in dealing with surviving both climates.<br /><br />Why does the so-called "modern man" keep himself divided from the environment and feel the need to "destroy" the planet?<br /><br />The answer is because "man sees himself as SUPERIOR" over all other life forms on the planet the same way he sees himself as superior over other men and places a hierarchy with race relations.<br /><br />This has been the historical difference between indigenous cultures and the "industrialized" man. Where one cultures wealth and value is intertwined with the spiritual and physical environment in living matter created by God, the latter interprets superior value of the spiritual and physical realms in books, buildings and wealth created by man.<br /><br />In the film, "The Snow Walker", the pilot survived the war and learns quickly that the values he placed on so-called "civilization" mean nothing against the raw elements and nature and that his true value(s) as a human being surface only when guided by his indigenous counterpart, whom at the beginning of the film, he despised.<br /><br />Sound familiar? I can imagine what the American colonists were thinking when they were freezing, praying and starving to death when the "savage heathens" came to their aid, taught them how to hunt and farm, then harvesting the bounty as the first Thanksgiving.<br /><br />What became of those Indians that saved the colonist can be found in themes like, "The Lone Ranger" where the Natives always save the whiteman and end up being packaged and sold as mascots and commodities to exploit and profit. And now that Indian Nations try to reap a little "capitalism" themselves, Americans suddenly become communists and socialist out to regulate and legislate what they cannot touch if they do not get a piece of the "American" pie!<br /><br />How is this for the "Greatest Nation on Earth?"Apache Mannoreply@blogger.com