THE ESCALATING COSTS OF THE CONQUEST OF NATIVE AMERICANS

THE ESCALATING COSTS OF THE CONQUEST OF NATIVE AMERICANS

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© February 20, 2008

“The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every port of earth is sacred to us . . . So if we sell our land, you must keep it part and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers. Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? . . . This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

Part of the famous letter Chief Seattle to the “white man” about selling the land to them.

“The medieval method of arguing the way to truth did not prepare Europeans for an extra continent. Nor did it help that primitive people discovered inhabiting this new continent, America, in early sixteenth century, were living in a relative state of harmony without the benefit or knowledge of progressive education, rule of law, politics, history, and of course, Christianity. It was clear to observers that these primitive people were surviving without European culture, happily so, thriving in voluntary, organized and functional societies of countless Indian nations and more countless tribes within these nations.

“Sixteenth century Europe was awash in utopian fervor looking for the cultural absurdity of an ideal society. Once word spread of the immaculate harmony of these primitives a world away, shock and awe led to mocking them, setting off the spread across Europe of radical concepts of free association. No longer should there be submission to the rule of law and authority, but communities should come together of their own free will and voluntarily agree to live in harmony sans laws. Europe, free association advocates insisted, should adopt what appeared to be the system of the American primitive tribes.”

James R. Fisher, Jr., “Nowhere Man” in “Nowhere Land” (2006 unpublished)

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I

What should we make of “Indian talk” from a Chief Seattle? Clearly he lost. Or what should we make of the reaction of European society after America was discovered with primitives living in harmony with nature?

To give you a sense of the impact on European intellectuals, one hundred years later or in the late seventeenth century, the British empiricist, John Locke (1632 – 1704) would come up with his theories of liberal democracy: "Two Treatises on Government" (1690). It was published anonymously. It constituted Locke’s reply to the patriarchal “Divine Right of Kings."

Locke’s work embodied the defense of natural rights and a justification for constitutional law, the liberty of the individual, and the rule of the majority. If the ruling body offends against natural law, he argued, it must be overthrown.

To show his debt to Native Americans, he claimed that all men are originally in a state of nature. He believed natural law provided certain rights to be gained by working for them.

The system of capitalism is an economic expression of Lockean principles, a system, of course, that provides goods and services for a financial profit. There was no such system or need for one with Native Americans. The cost of conquering the Indians leaves us where we are today.

II

The Indian or “primitive” culture as we prefer, in very general terms, involves a deep connection with nature and an understanding and respect for the inexorable cycle of life. Man is but a part of Nature and the cosmos. Man does not live by reason alone, but by intuition, imagination. Logic is not stressed as the path to wisdom. Emotions play a more important role. The expression of feelings doesn’t make a man weak.

There is no debate about the existence of God, no ontological argument, no inductive and deductive proofs about the Immovable Mover. The “Force” of Nature is a given, as well as the fact that there is a spirit world that coexists with the realm of physical reality.

There is order to the cosmos with higher powers (gods) at the top of the hierarchy followed by man, animals, and inanimate natural objects. All are part of God.

There is no debate or conflict between Rationalism and Empiricism. The world is neither an idea in the mind of man nor only understood through sensory experience. There is no Kierkegaard “either/or,” or conflict of opposites that permeates Western thought. No dualism in Native American culture.

III

The seamless harmony and flow of Nature is at the heart of its philosophy. Death is not an end; it is simply part of life and a journey into a new phase of existence of the spirit, although this belief is also true of religious people from all cultures. There is a healthy mind-body-spirit connection that is now more accepted in other societies and cultures. A human is one organism, not separate parts, and disease of the soul can become disease of the body. This is the basis of holistic medicine, which has grown in popularity in the West.

Mankind, then, is just part of a harmonious whole, not as the exalted center of the thinking universe, or as a malignant accident of nature. Sunrises, sunsets, and the changing of the seasons measure time, not clocks. Time is simply the life process. Of course, in this age of electronics and the Internet, Native Americans have had to adopt Western ways. The West, however, has never ceased to be intrigued by the philosophies and traditions of Native Americans. Nor have they been successful in burying them.

Native Americans are not a monolith. There are more than 700 nations, and many more tribes within these nations. Although there is diversity, there are common cultural philosophies.

IV

Traditional Native Americans believe whatever name or characteristics people give the Creator, they are all referring to the same deity. Christians, Muslims, Jews and Native Americans are what God made them.

Where Native Americans differ, they do not see themselves stained with Original Sin nor do they see themselves as inherently wicked needing to be saved. After all, they say, how can that be when God made you? So, they don’t need a Savior to redeem them.

Native Americans know mainly of their shared beliefs through oral storytelling rather than dogma or didactic lecturing. They don’t need an arm waving, histrionic and threatening rhetorical messenger to remind them of their sins and damnation. They know Nature gives and takes, and is a challenge to their existence from time to time as it is with every living thing. They take comfort in their oral tradition, and history, mythology, spirituality and philosophy that enlighten and entertain against this reality.

These stories describe a world where animals and humans are equals in the cycle of life. Animals, though hunted and killed, are revered for their sacrifice, and their spirits worshipped because without them humans would perish.

There is no sense, as in Genesis, that mankind was meant to have dominion over the earth and to subdue it, and the other creatures of the earth. The Native American sense of time is also based on natural rhythms of the seasons, cycles of the moon, and their own body clocks.

V

Native Americans don’t talk of a heaven and hell, but of other places of existence replete with spiritual life, and constant interaction between these other worlds. Spirit guides visit humans, and humans can, if they know how, visit other dimensions in astral projection.

VI

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961) incorporated a good deal of native spirituality into his paradigms.

Native Americans often have converted to Christian faiths only to eventually return to shamanic religious practices. Jung explained this in his psychiatric terms as the Shadow surfacing.

The Shadow is a person’s dark side, which remains suppressed after years of parental and societal pressure. It is a combination of Freud’s Id (our impulsive side) and Superego (our judgmental or moral side).

Jung claimed social conditioning creates a “good side,” compliant and passive, while containing a “bad side,” lustful and aggressive. Western culture and Christianity could be something strange to the natural culture of Native Americans. The more they strain to assimilate into the wider culture, in this case the American culture, the more likely their dark side will appear. Once it does, Jung suggested most people, no matter their ethnicity, are inclined to project negative shadow elements on people that they dislike or fear.

Native American Indians know that when they have dislike for someone for no reason at all it is perhaps because they see aspects of themselves in that person. It is as if they see their soul reflected back to them as a shadow of themselves.

Jung used this phenomenon in his therapy. He encouraged his clients to own their own shadows, and not try to bury them. Burying them never works. The shadow will be heard, usually when least expected. Similar to Native American philosophy, Jung believed we must own our shadow and integrate it on the path to Wholeness.

VII

A common tradition among Native Americans is the belief in the “Medicine Wheel.” The symbol of the wheel represents the cycle of life, both macrocosmically (the world) and microcosmically (the individual). The four spokes of the wheel are the four directions of the compass. Each direction has its own philosophy, a symbolic animal, and a color.

EAST is the beginning because the sun rises in the east. The color is gold, and the animal is the golden eagle. The philosophy is one of seeing the world as it really is with clarity and without illusions.

SOUTH is the color green, and the symbolic animal is the mouse. The mouse represents the striving and curious nature that is to be encouraged. The mouse is shrewd, savvy and dogged explorer.

WEST is where the sun sets, and the color is black. The animal is the bear. The bear is a nocturnal creature and hibernates in a cave. The bear is the symbol of introspection. Most of our minds are subconscious, and traverse darkened realms, as the bear prowls the night indulged in introspection to find illumination. This indicates a highly sophisticated understanding of the human mind.

NORTH represents winter, and the color is the white of the snow. The totem animals are the wolf and the buffalo. These animals represent intelligence and insight, things that often come too late in the winter of our lives.

Native Americans believe, should you reach the center of the wheel where the spokes meet, you will have perfect balance. This is similar to Jung’s notion of individuation in which there is the successful integration of all the disparate aspects of our body, mind, and spirit.

VIII

Some Native Americans regard a criminal as a sick person, not an evil person. What the sick person needs is healing rituals and ceremonies and rehabilitation until well. A repeated offender, who fails to respond to this wellness regime, and is deemed beyond redemption while remaining a threat to the lives of tribe members, is quickly dispatched.

IX

Everyone and everything are connected. Everything has to go somewhere. Nature knows best. We cannot change Nature. There is no free lunch.

Humans are just one small part of the cosmic picture. The cycle of life is one of constant change. But it is not one of chaotic or meaningless change. Everything that is happening is happening for a purpose. Nothing diminishes the purpose even if we have no sense of what that purpose maybe.

People have a body and live in the real world, but they also have a spirit and there is a spiritual world that is as real as the world we see and experience with our five senses.

We are on earth to learn. Learning requires a balance between the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of Nature. The spirit will give us help if we ask. We are meant to achieve maximum human potential and the only sin against God is our failure to use whatever gifts God has given us for our own good and the good of the community.

I share this with you as I reflect on two renditions of this and other related ideas that I have learned from Native Americans. It seems to me we are slipping over the precipice into the void of dangling participles.

I developed one rendition of this problem in NEAR JOURNEY’S END? CAN PLANET EARTH SURIVE SELF-INDULGENT MAN? (2004)

When I could find no publisher, I rewrote it in terms of the same three participles: Past Imperfect, Present Perfect, and Future Perfect.

The second rendition was NOWHERE MAN IN NOWHERE LAND (2006). This is a take off on the meaning of “utopia,” which is essentially "nowhere."

Native Americans have never worried about utopia or dystopia, or of Sir Thomas More, Ayn Rand or George Orwell and their respective versions of this idea. We brought our cultural plague to Native Americans. Despite this insult, they attempted to teach us how to be good stewards of the earth. We have been poor learners.

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Dr. Fisher is an organization/industrial psychologist and former international corporate executive who lives in Tampa, Florida and writes in this genre. He is currently working on a novel of South Africa.