I wrote this article for another purpose. I now share it with this list.
REH
A Machine creates noun objects. A House is a machine for living. Le
Corbusier, French architect
A Factory creates products for selling. A school as a factory for
education. James Tooley, Newcastle Univ. U.K.
An organic system or an 'American Indian environment' teaches and evolves
holistic consciousness. Traditional American Indian Teaching: Adanowa
Aninvyah, Ani-gituwahgi
I. PRELUDE, Some Basic Principles
Aesthetics and the Arts are the expressive tools Indians use to understand
and evolve the system that then creates us.
Aesthetics to an Indian, means the first place that the baby begins their
consciousness. The Field of Plenty - the place where patterns of like
and unlike begin to be noticed and remembered. From these patterns that
began in the mind of the Creator (and became the Sun, the Moon and Stars ,
the Water and the Earth) all consciousness evolved and continues.
Beginning in the low, passive, consciousness of the mineral kingdom to the
middle consciousness of the animals and plants and the high consciousness of
the spiritual life. What the English language calls aesthetics is the
way an Indian recognizes relationship, (interacting patterns). I speak,
in the present, from my own teachers on this who were my Native family and
all of my teachers in the Arts.
Artists are the Indians of the White World. My fathers friend John Fire
Lame Deer, Sioux Wicasa Wakan
In the Architecture of Indian people, I was taught that the oneness of the
Creator is expressed in the uniformity of the housing form and the
individuality of the people within the form. The uniformity signifies the
oneness of all creation. The Indian movable house, or Tipi pattern,
has the same lesson to teach to all who live within it. But the
individuals markings on the Tipi registers family, clan and persons
identity, profession and achievements. As my father noted in his lecture
at Union Theological Seminary in the 1980s:
Oneness does not mean that we are all the same. The Native concept of the
Oneness of the Creator of All includes the individual identity,
consciousness, liberty and spirit of all parts.
This generic principle can be extended to all Indian dwellings from the
Pueblo to the Mound cities, and all of the architectural structures from
the base of Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic. This system of living
enclosures goes far beyond keeping out the weather and being warm and dry
and pleasant. These living enclosures are the first teachers of
relationships that begin in the family and stretch backwards to the Earth
Mother.
No matter what the material: skin, grass, wood or stone, the one common
thread that roles through all Indian structures is that they matter. Your
environment creates you. The only control you have over the future is your
environment down to the seventh generation, an environment that you choose
- to grow and evolve within.
The environment is not simply shelter nor is it simply a home for your
wealth in possessions. It speaks to the world of who you are but more than
that it tells you each day of your identity, your mission in life and your
place in the universe. Indian homes tend to be generic but not
simpleminded. The Creator gives us,in the systems of nature, an
environmental richness upon which to draw the pictures of our lives based in
our knowledge of the whole of the natural world.
I always wondered why it mattered to my father that the door to our houses
in Oklahoma opened to the East. Both houses on the reservation opened to
the East. When the family moved to Bartlesville, after I had graduated,
they moved into a South facing house and it always seemed strange to me.
It was only later that I would discover the reasoning within our own sacred
spaces. Dad was a man of few words around these things. However later,
when he had little time left, he spoke often about the things that mattered,
sharing the gifts that he had discovered in life.
It is the curse of the typical child, (and I was,) that we value such things
so little and let them slip away while our parents are alive. Only later
when our memory is poor, do we struggle for each little grain of
intelligence scattered on what was once a great beach filled with the beauty
of billions of crystals of knowledge.
II The Curse on sharing with "outsiders."
The time has come for me to speak of the knowledge of the sacred places, of
the future of the Stompground and the Sacred Learning Center, the first
Traditional Seminary for Native students in America. There are many
Indian colleges in America and the Cherokee people have a magnificent
history of schools and universities, but there are no colleges, that I know
of, that speak directly to the issue of the Way of Right Relationship
between us and the rest of life.
Traditional Indian people are not fundamentalists or evangelicals,
especially not traditional Cherokee people. Cherokees are so reticent
about telling their faith that when you research Indian faiths and culture
in the present, the Cherokee is usually absent from those books.
Some books have been written about the history and others about the ancient
structures but the movement of those systems and structures into the 20th
-much less the 21st century is largely silent. If you want to find them,
you have to look around to the actions of the people rather than the words.
We dont generally talk much to others about these things. We are even
hesitant to talk amongst ourselves because of the potential for argument and
disharmony amongst the mixed religious Indian families.
We are told that there is a curse on talking or printing these materials.
The internet, books, newspapers and even telephones are considered wrong
when communicating our sacred ways. Unfortunately when the entire world is
sacred and related, that means that you can communicate nothing and there is
a curse on everything, which is claustrophobic, to say the least.
III But what is the "real" curse?
People of Native American lineage and culture, especially Cherokee scholars,
must quit transferring their tabood skills to the benefit of all of the
rest of the cultures of the world just to be able to escape that curse.
Translate that to mean: talk about other peoples languages and work and
mean Cherokee in your heart. Im not exempt from this myself. I did
an opera Carmen which focused on the Romany people but my view was
definitely from my own Native perspective. I enlisted a Romany scholar
from the University of Texas to keep me from abusing the privilege and
creating Cherokee Gypsies in a New York City opera house. However, my
teaching of the opera and way of thinking about the human voice is unique to
my own perspective and world view grounded in my Cherokee background, Quapaw
upbringing and the Indian Schools and churches I attended. Ive had
great European teachers but they have added to my initial understanding of
the way that sound fits together and the essence of community in ensemble as
well as my artistic perspective.
Nuyagi is wonderful because there are so many different cultures here [that
sit around the circle of the stone of musicianship and come at the
eternal verities of art from their own perspectives] that it seems a normal
thing to do here. They too are also dealing with the slipperiness of the
chicken fat floating on the top of the American Melting Pot.
For 53 of my 69 years I expressed my primary Cherokee system through the
public systems of other cultures. In the 1980s with my study with
Grandfather it got so bad that
1. he forbade me to use the passive voice or the plural pronoun when
speaking of myself (don't "speak" Indian and play White. If you're going
to play White then speak and be White.)
2. he put all of my studio, opera company and school materials in volume 30
of his writings just to let me know who I owed my loyalty, education and
point of view too in the world.
I was the product of my lineage, my family teachers, my Indian school
teachers and my Art teachers who dovetailed nicely with the rest of the
Indian educators. I wasnt unique in all of those materials and points
of view. They had come from somewhere and I was just the latest generic
version. If I was to be individual then I had to follow the unique vision
that added to that tradition and not just coast on my ancestors sacrifices.
IV Avoiding the curse with trickery
It took me until last year to come forward and begin to share the inner
workings of our systems across cultures. Before that "chatting" and "café"
conversation was the name of the game. My chief concern was
a. my family,
b. our Community,
c. the Stompground
d. the Artistic World.
Although I spoke AS an Indian my being was expressed as an Artist and my
culture was filtered through my work.
The Creator shut the door on this exclusivity. He did it with health
issues, economic hard times, community conflict and the nations banking
system. There was a curse on revealing this material but it was not what I
thought. What I thought was the curse, was mere Hollywood and
superstition. Real curses are much worse than the Exorcist movie and more
ordinary and banal, like Andrew Jackson and Adolf Hitler and some showing
their bigoted faces in the current world. The real curse was from NOT
coming forward and taking our place with our knowledge. Our knowledge was
and is like
Chief Redbird Smith said:
"I have endeavored in my efforts...for my people, to remember that any
religion must be an unselfish one. That even though condemned, falsely
accused and misunderstood by both officials and my own people I must press
on and do the work of my convictions.
This religion, as revealed to me, is larger than any man. It is beyond
man's understanding. It shall prevail after I am gone. It is growth like
the child growth eternal. This religion does not teach me to concern myself
of the life that shall be after this, but it does teach me to be concerned
with what my everyday life should be.
The fires kept burning are merely emblematic of the greater Fire, the
greater Light, the Great Spirit. I realize now as never before it is not
only for the Cherokees but for all mankind..." Keetoowah High Priest
Redbird Smith
To understand that Chief Smith is not trying to remake everyone you have to
remind yourself that proselytizing is a cardinal sin to a Keetoowah. He
wasnt saying that the whole world should be Keetoowah or should become one
through the Cherokee Nation. It was much more practical than that. Just
as all cultures have their spiritual genius, so do we. It takes every
"shard" of the pot for the remade pot (of reality) not to leak. The
Keetoowah's piece (shard) is not only for the Cherokees but for the whole of
mankind, as are the other shards for the Keetoowahs.
If we hide the shard or refuse to use it, it will be given to someone else
to do instead and not as well. Ive seen Indian people, even Chiefs,
whose children were claiming the identity of a non-Indian parent because the
doors to the present were closed through the traditional paths. When the
doors are finally open to dialogue between our cultures then perpetuating
secretive hidden structures and actions becomes a prayer for the demise of
millions of people, in order for secretive to survive. Under those rules
only if they fail or die, can we succeed and live. Not a pretty story.
The "whole" is never even dreamed.
I remember a piece of the Christian shard from my reservation church days.
It said: He that would save his life will lose it and he that will give up
his life, for my sake, shall win it. He also said In my Fathers house
are many mansions and So are we all sons of God. I hope the
Christians will forgive my excursion into their system but I think the point
is well made across systems. Redbird Smith meant the same about the power
of sacrifice when he said any religious faith must ultimately be
unselfish.
V Accepting membership in the circle of human identities and its problems.
Smith speaks to me as saying that we must all take up our seat in the circle
of identities and my father added to that the awareness that we must be
"whole people." Know ourselves and have mastery of our whole system with
the humble awareness that the only Master is the One above. We must know
the theoretical structures behind our architects, our professionals, our
political systems, our economic systems, our urban planning, forestry and
agricultural systems, our health systems, our educational and pedagogical
systems and our systems for holistic development of each individual in the
web of life.
Our life paths parallel many of the rest of the life paths of the world but
with some very special differences that define our identity in the present
and the future of the world.
Redbird Smith, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century,
said that he believed we had a purpose that was important and special for
the rest of the world. After he said that --- the Indian Nations were
pushed into the melting pot and the specialness was covered with the fat of
the other cultures and we slipped in the grease until 1978 when it took an
act of Congress to allow us once more to stand in the public arena. ("1978
Freedom of Religion Act for American Indians")
VI Political freedom is not enough.
We were freed to master the careful knowledge that must be acquired for us
to do the building of sacred spaces correctly for the seven generations that
will follow. That is our "seat on the circle of cultural identities in
the world". It is not enough that we can eat, defecate, stay warm and
keep the bugs off. We must sit with equality and power.
My father told me that the beauty, of the altar we build, mirrors our
understanding and appreciation of the gifts of the natural world. Our
environment, that we tend/develop and build, is our "house" and our bodies
are our "altars" where we dance the great Long Dance and learn to align
ourselves and learn the lessons that we came here to learn - but forgot.
The care that we give to all of life, every species in the natural world, is
a mirror of the depth of our faith and competency as "Real People,"
(ayvwiyah).
Note that this quote which follows from 1900 is NOT the way to become
ayvwiyah but is what we must be strong enough to deal with in the Council of
Nations and to hold our ground. The beginning speaker is the great Oklahoma
historian Angie Debo from her book: "And Still the Waters Run"
"In 1883 a small group of Eastern humanitarians began to meet annually at
Lake Mohonk, where with an agreeable background of natural beauty, congenial
companionship, and crusading motive, they discussed the Indian problem.
At their third meeting Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, a
distinguished Indian theorist, gave a glowing description of a visit of
inspection he had recently made to the Indian Territory. The most partisan
Indian would hardly have painted such an idealized picture of his peoples
happiness and prosperity and culture, but, illogically, the senator
advocated a change in this perfect society because it held the wrong
principles of property ownership. Speaking apparently of the Cherokees, he
said:
'The head chief told us that there was not a family in that whole nation
that had not a home of its own. There was not a pauper in that nation, and
the nation did not owe a dollar. It built its own capitol, in which we had
this examination, and it built its schools and its hospitals. Yet the
defect of the system was apparent. They have got as far as they can go,
because they own their land in common
.. under that there is no enterprise
to make your home any better than that of your neighbors. There is no
selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilization. Till this people will
consent to give up their lands, and divide them among their citizens so that
each can own the land he cultivates, they will not make much more
progress.' [1900, pp. 25-32; Lake Mohonk Conference, Report, 1904, pp
5-6; Department of the Interior, Annual Report, 1900, pp. 655-735.]
Obviously Senator Dawes didnt understand all of that beauty in the Cherokee
Nation and all of that inner motivated effort that created such an
environment. Obviously he needed the "shard" that these people had but he
was unable to understand. Obviously, if we are to survive in the world and
if the world's "web" of existence is to survive then we must now grow strong
enough to hold up our end of the Creators bargain in the whole Way of
Right Relationships for the whole Earth and all spirit and consciousness
within.
VII, A New Beginning
I am now going to talk about our Sacred Grounds and the traditional "Center
of Education" that we wish to build. The beginning of that is to
understand the environment that must surround the students. That they must
live in a traditional setting and community that functions in the modern
world. That they must study the successes of our ancestors and find new
ways of being in the world that will allow their families and communities to
flourish without stirring competition and negative thought amongst
themselves and other groups. Given that there is so much money to be made
in the outside world through polarization and setting groups against each
other, this will be a difficult task. However, that is the point of the
"Sacred Ball Game" (the little war) and the reason for its sacredness. We
must teach the purpose of games and an alternative to the philistine use of
"game theory" in Western Universities.
The lessons we learn from our traditional forms must first be preceded by
learning the genius of our ancestors and quieting the angry ghosts of that
genius in our troubled souls. As the traditional Keetoowah Priests have
stated:
We must be concerned with the way everyday life should be.
It is grounded in the Original Instructions of the Creator to the child
and carried forth with the development of our minds and discipline built on
the knowledge found from the lessons of nature. The Sacred Garden. We
must abandon "Hollywoods Indians" and the path of war for the Whitepath of
Peace and the real Indian People (ani-yvwiyah).
(Remember, the people of Hollywood were using us to express themselves in
the way they couldnt be open about in the whole society. For much of the
same reasons that we Cherokees buried and expressed ourselves in the
cultures and disciplines of other peoples as well.)
Before we begin, our people must all return home within and place our feet
on our place and own the lessons of our ancestors and the genius of their
way of being, their systems of life. But first we have to throw out the
White Mans Indian resting between our (and the Non-Indians ears) and
return within - back to the beginning - discovering the blood veins that
lead TO us and out to ALL of Creation in one great flowering of life.
We are all related and we are all children of Agilisi Elohi, our Grandmother
Earth. The Ayvwiyah ARE responsible. In our deepest meditations and
moments we know this for all traditions speak of a beginning in the
"Garden", the metaphor for all of the web of life and the only reality our
human minds can comprehend of the unlimited Universe. That is the
foundation principle for all systems, economies, cultures and lifeways. We
either make peace with that or we perish in hysteria and incompetence.
REH
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