Confluence of the Two Rivers: Contact History and the Animal First Peoples
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World of Contact History - Example of the Schitsu'umsh
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World of the Animal-First Peoples
the
Schitsu’umsh
("the ones that
were found here" - Coeur d’Alene)
The Creator and Animal-First People - Amotqn "the one who sits at the head mountain" (Coeur d’Alene) - Akbaatatdia "the maker of all things first (Crow) - and the Titwa-tityá-ya "animal people" (Nez Perce) - the Animal-First People. (AKIN to Hindu Brahman)
- The world was brought forth and prepared by the Creator and the Animal/First People, such as Coyote, Crane, Salmon, etc., for "the coming of the human peoples." In their travels, they rid the world of most of its "man-eaters" and "monsters" and embed within it the provide the "gifts" the human people would need to prosper.
- Creation of Human Peoples, including the Schitsu'umsh (Coeur d'Alene) - Apsáalooke (Crow) - Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) - Suuyapi ("whites" - Coeur d'Alene) - Baashchiile ("person with yellow eyes" - Crow). The human people are a part of, inseparable from the landscape, yet incomplete, in need of assistance and guidance, as not all the "monsters" were destroyed.
During the Creation - "the Dreamtime" (Australian Aborigines), the entire landscape of the world is infused and embedded with "Gifts" -
- Gifts of foods and medicines - creation of the Animal and Plant Peoples, the means of shelter and transportation, family and tribal structures, as well as ceremonies and rituals to help perpetuate it all - such as the Sundance and Sweat Lodge.
- Gifts also of essential Miyp - "teachings from all things" - practical knowledge and moral ethics,
- as well Gifts of fundamental ontological Principles - the structuring of reality itself,
along with access to the Gift that animates it all, Baaxpée or Súumesh- "spiritual power.
The "Bones"
called "attributes and principles" in Carry Forth the Stories, beginning on page 171 -
"axiom" = a statement or proposition which is regarded as being established, accepted, and self-evidently true. Will consider three types of "bones" or axioms:
ontological axioms = fundamental ways reality
is defined and organized
(dealing with dimensions of time, space, causality)
teaching axioms = knowledge and strategies of doing, and the ethics for engaging and interacting with others = Miyp (be they human, animal or spirit interaction), providing a a map to navigate the many paths over its landscape.
spiritual power axiom = animating, life-force, bringing forth life and altering the material world = Súumesh - Baaxpée
These "bones" that are seen etched deep into the rocks, river beds and valleys of the landscape and that are reflected in the oral traditions, such as Salmon and Coyote, such as Sedna. These are the Indigenous textbooks, the how (a map) to navigate the many paths over its landscape.
The "Flesh" - Oral Narrative as "Text"
Responsibilities of Storyteller:
Responsibilities of Story Listener:
Adding "Flesh" to the "Bones" to Bring the Stories "Alive"
the Palouse
Story Text:
Salmon Goes Up River
Reflective Write Social Science Humanities
Story Text: Sedna, Souls (Inua) and Seals - Why should humans fear? What can be hidden in a stone?
Inuit background. (Metaphor for human - spirit - animal/fish relations throughout Indigenous communities world-wide.)
The Living Stone (32 min., this 1958 National Film Board of Canada classic illustrates key Indigenous cultural values, told in story format; go to 5:00 and 20:30 of this YouTube)
In conjunction with the Salmon and (Sedna story texts:
Story Texts: Gift from an Eagle (Tom Yellowtail)
Story Text: Deer Hunter and a Brother (Cliff SiJohn)
Story Text: Muskrat Man
Story Text: the Rainbow
Ontological Bones:
Snq-hepi-wes - "where the spirit lives, from horizon to horizon" (Coeur d’Alene)
Ashammaléaxia - "as driftwood lodges" (Crow), or Chnis-teen-ilqwes - "I am part of all" (Coeur d'Alene)
Unshat-qn - "eye to eye" (Coeur d’Alene), also one of the miyp.
"Connecting the dots" = Hnkhwelkhwlnet - "our ways of life in the world" -
- Consider storytelling dynamics, and responsibilities of teller and listener (Carry Forth the Stories pp. 43-48), nature of orality (Carry Forth the Stories pp. 48-58) and power in words - dasshússua (Carry Forth the Stories pp. 51-52, 187-88) - resulting in "swirling"
- Consider Sqigwts
Dots connected, a working definition
Reiterate: The "Gifts" for the human peoples, from the actions of the First Peoples, such as Salmon, Sedna and Coyote, include: foods and other materials needs, as well as other essential gifts that would be needed for a successful life. Key: Humans incomplete without them.
Miyp - "teachings from all things" and Baaxpée - "spiritual power."
Miyp Bones - "teachings from all things" (Coeur d’Alene) - strategies for engaging with others
Story Texts: Rabbit and Jack Rabbit, at Graduation, the Deer Hunter and Brother (reconsidered)
(Lawrence Aripa)Story Text: Four Smokes
Story Texts: Coyote and the Rock Monster, Coyote and the Green Spot, Coyote's Basket, Coyote and His Bride
Miyp Bones:
Ammaakée - "give away" (Crow), Téek’e - "to give and share [food with others]" (Nez Perce)
Cikáyw "bravery" (Nez Perce) and others
Isáahkawuattee "old man coyote" (Crow) - Smiyaw "coyote" (Coeur d’Alene) - ‘Iceyéeye "coyote" (Nez Perce)
Story Text: Vietcong solider and the Little Pouch
Spiritual Bone:
Baaxpée (Crow) - Súumesh (Coeur d’Alene) - "Medicine" (in addition to miyp gifts, and food/shelter gifts, also embedded in landscape)
Take Home Reflective Write: In some deep reflection, what is our own ultimate goal in life, i.e., your highest and most meaningful aspiration, and how are you going about attempting to achieve that goal,
and contrast that with what you understand might be the ultimate goal in life and the means to obtain it, among Indigenous peoples? The Indigenous "there, there."
The Indigenous "there, there."
Story Text: Burnt Face (Tom Yellowtail)
What are the Means to the Goal?
The Indigenous Means
Your Responsibility. The task of protecting and preserving the health of the "family" is attempted only during the course of one’s lifetime.
After Life is a "Camp across the river," (no karma and reincarnation attempts; no redemption/salvation and heaven or hell consequence)
What are the Indigenous Themes and their Contrasts ?
Many Paths to the Creator. Yet it is a very personal quest into the spiritual world of
súumesh, a path individualized to each person’s needs and disposition. There are multiple paths to the Creator and Animal Peoples, to the Ultimate Meaning and Bliss (however it is comprehended), all equally valid and potentially effective. (AKIN to Hindu four yogas)Story Text: Tom Yellowtail's Wagon Wheel.
Still Images of Wagon Wheel - Sun Dance -
Addressing the "Mutually Exclusive" in our lives.
If we come to appreciate and travel a particular landscape and its epistemology with competency, but whose ontological principles might be diametrically opposed to another landscape, whose "bones" might be "mutually exclusive" of each other, do we have to make a choice of which we can travel?
Consider the metaphor of Tom Yellowtail's Wagon Wheel, and the example of Tom and Susie Yellowtail (Baptist and Sundancer; Nurse and Healer). As applied to our methodology, the "spokes" are analogous of any number of ways of representing collective diversity and individual uniqueness, that which is differentiated and distinguished. The "hub" is analogous of any number of ways of representing what is shared in common, the universal, the ubiquitous, such as a “language” that transcends differences, and can be comprehended and spoken with some degree of universality. The interplay of spokes and hub can accommodate traveling over the many distinct paths, addressing the mutually exclusive in our lives, both personally as well as publically and professionally.
What are the Indigenous Themes and their Contrasts ?
Story Texts: Awakening story and Matt. Description of Ceremony. Woman and John. Water from the Tree. Myself and Bishee. Others
Means = Rites of Passage: Discuss stages of any rite of passage. (outline)
- - - rites of passage and Sundance are simply other examples of transitory intersections of those participating - unfolding story events - like Burnt Face.
Example of the Apsáalooke - Crow Acts of Prayer in the Fast and Sundance. (Pipe and beaded bag, beaded belt, video and slides from Crow Sundance - audio from Shoshone Sundance)
Application: Way of Life. The quest for spiritual guidance and power, and all its associated rituals and ceremonies, the "religion" of the Indigenous peoples, is thus understood as a "path" or "way of life," comprehensive of all one’s actions and thoughts, and not a compartmentalized segment of one’s life.
What are the Indigenous Themes and their Contrasts ?
Applications include: hunting, lost people, in games,
Pow Wow: Grand Entry; Crow Old Style Dance; Women's Double Beat; Drum
Among the many applications, the most important today is in Healing, of all types of "wounds."
Story texts: Re-telling the stories of Healing, Bundle Ceremony, Bar Fight and Two Bullets, Own Journey with Cancer.
Funeral, Wake and Burial and "Crossing the Waters, Returning to the Mountains, Preparing the Camp" (primarily Snqhepiwes songs) in Landscape Traveled by Coyote and Crane pp. 240-250
Story Text:
"a
brother"
Efficacy: Swirling and Running with the Coyote and Sharing the Gifts.
(Carry Forth the Stories pp. 184-198)Story Text: The Shaman's Apprentice (Kwakiutl of the Northwest Coast)
Start with the key Axioms - the "Bones:
Ashammaléaxia and Unshat-qn - Reality is made up of a web of interdependent relationships, all equally important. No Separations in space or time. All participants engaged and participatory with each other.
the miyp: Ammaakée - the relationship between all the participants is one of exchange and reciprocity, each contributing to the others. Its a dynamic web of interdependent relationships.
Snq-hepi-wes - Ultimate reality is spiritual reality that emanates with meaning and structure, with archetypal significances, and out of which flows a life-force that can transform. And we as mere mortals have access to and are dependent upon those significances and that life-force.
These Bones are a "given" not only in Indigenous traditions, but also Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, and the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in all world religions.
What is the result of putting the "bones" together?
Snq-hepi-wes
, Ashammaléaxia and Unshat-qn, and the miyp: Ammaakée
Reconsider the "Rainbow"
What is most real? Reality is "the transitory intersection of those participating," an event, always unfolding, anchored to the landscape's embedded miyp, to place-based perennial
Reconsider Act of Storytelling
What is most real? Reality is
"the
transitory intersection of those participating," an event, always unfolding,
anchored to the landscape's
embedded
miyp, to place-based perennial
So How Does It Work? Its Efficacy? The Blue of Lake Coeur d'Alene? Water Drawn from a Sun Dance Center Pole? Shot by a Viet Cong? The Two Bullets? Cancer?
KEY: the Alignment. And the unfolding reality is brought forth and manifested, is renewed and perpetuated, the "life force," súumesh/baaxpée, flows into peoples lives,
at each and every moment when miyp-structured human action/behavior, i.e., acts of storytelling, or ceremony/ritual actions, are aligned with and are parallel to the archetypical structuring of the spiritual world.
This key is what Eliade calls an "hierophany," an alignment of human symbolic action (in words, song, ritual behavior, dance) with the sacred, allowing the flowing through of the sacred into the lives of humans.
Consider Díne (Navajo) Healing Ceremony
- aligning the Creation "Bones," the Yei and Hozo, with the Dry Painting, with the Hocho of a sick person.
Thus in the act of re-telling an oral tradition of the Coyote or Crane, in the act of singing the song, in the act of dancing in a Jump Dance, or even a powwow, in the act of gathering camas roots or huckleberries and sharing them with those in need, in the act of hunting the deer or fishing the salmon and sharing the meat with those in need, the world is re-created, renewed and perpetuated, and all its "family" members are nourished and healed.
"You run and swirl with the Coyote and Crane" (and the other Animal/First Peoples), and in so doing their Gifts of miyp and súumesh are re-invested and re-distributed back into the landscape, for the benefit of all the Peoples, all the "relatives."
The Gifts continue to be shared.
The world traveled in the act of storytelling, in act of singing, in act of dancing is the very world traveled by the Creator, Coyote and Crane, and of the archetypical teachings (miyp) and transformative power (súumesh) of the creation time.
It is the world traveled by the vision quester under the guidance of the Elk or Eagle.
It is the world traveled by the ancestors as they prepare the camp for those yet to come.
All are indistinguishable, one and the same.
Hence, the implicit, perennial desire is to "run with the Coyote and Crane." In so doing, the health, harmony and well-being of the "family" are preserved.
Is this not the Indigenous "there, there"?
What are the Indigenous Themes and their Contrasts, the "there, there" ?
Tommy Orange's There, There - A Novel
(Reader Guide)
Historical Trauma and "the Wounded"
Perseverance, Resilience and Revitalization
"We Shall Remain" by Coeur d'Alene Tribe 2014; "We Shall Remain - It Wasn't Taken Away" sung by Kalolin Johnson from Allison Bernard Memorial High School" in Eskasoni, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada 2017