"A wise man deeply believes in silence - a sign of perfect balance. Silence is the complete balance of body, mind and spirit. He who manages to remain calm and untouched by the storms of existence - so that his leaf does not flicker on the tree, nor does a small wave move on the surface of the shining lake - has, according to the sages, a perfect way of life. Silence is the foundation of character.
Silence and patience, love for nature and the very way of being - as the supreme wisdom of life that brings inner peace, harmony with yourself, others and the environment, and a unique code of ethics - full of mercy, empathy, call for honesty, sincerity, respect for everything and everyone , miles away from the world of raging greed, selfishness, lies and violence, constituted the essence and beauty of a single people who sought peace, love, balance and reconciliation, following in silence and purity of heart their inner voice of ancestral wisdom. Their customs, myths and legends, the way they treated themselves, their ancestors, the dead, all living beings and everything that exists, tell us about their authenticity, uniqueness, sincerity, honesty and a specific view of life and the world.
"Everything that an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always acts in circles, and everything tries to be round. The sky is round, and I also heard that the Earth is round, and so are all the stars. The wind, when it is strongest, blows. Birds build nests in circles, because their faith is the same as ours. Even the seasons in their shift form a large circle and always return to where they were. Man's life is a circle from childhood to childhood. And so it is in everything in which strength moves. "
When the Indians gave names — whether to people, places, or appearances — they did so with miraculous measure, creation, and subtlety, striking directly at the essence of things. With each name, you received in a few words the essence of the person or phenomenon to which the name referred, a full description of his characteristics and character, in the most concise and perceptive way possible. Time has shown that one of the greatest and most important Indian legacies was precisely their language. The first European colonists adopted many words from over 20 languages of the Algonquin group of peoples: names of various types of food and animals (raccoon, opossum). Other well-known Indian words include: caucus (political gathering), moccasins (shoes), toboggan, totem and tomahawk (ax). The most noticeable are the Indian toponyms - which include the names of 26 of the 50 American states. For example, the name Texas comes from the Kado language and means friend, ally. Tennessee was named after a Cherokee village, and Ohio is the word of the Iroquois for a good river. Massachusetts is the name of a tribe that lived in the vicinity of the bay of the same name, and Wyoming comes from the Algonquian words meaning in the great plain. The name of the city of Chicago in the Algonquin language means the place where onions grow, and Mississippi in the language of the Chipeva tribe means the Great River.
The word tomahawk is probably from powhatan - tamaham, which means he cuts. Tomahawk was a cold weapon, an ax, originally Algonquin. As for some of the authentic Indian customs, it is interesting to mention that they used smoke to purify the spirit. Burning plants for emotional, psychological and spiritual cleansing is a custom in many religions and spiritual groups. The famous Indian "peace pipe" is a kind of ceremony that was practiced after the conflict and the signing of the armistice. Scalping the enemy as a type of trophy is a custom usually attributed to the Indians, however, it is interesting that they took over this custom from white immigrants from Europe. In this regard, the key question is once again: who were the savages in fact?
The legend, along with the Indians, included their feathers, bows, arrows and spears, clothes with fringes made of deerskin (one of the symbols of their world of freedom, fearlessness and unrestrainedness of their rebellious spirit), tents - wigwams, canoes, long hair decorated ribbons and feathers, the smoke signals they communicated with, war axes and warrior colors, their sorcerers - shamans, rain dance and the magical tam-tam rhythm of drums, totems, prairies and wilderness, mustangs, wild horses and bison - buffaloes they sent to "Eternal hunting grounds", as well as all their respected ancestors, and in the end, unfortunately, themselves.
The Indians tried to live in harmony with nature, its rules and changes. In the Indian horoscope, the signs were related to animals whose characteristics and way of life are ideal for symbolizing human characteristics. The eternal circle of repetition and return of everything opens the zodiac sign WILD GOOSE (December 22-January 22), followed by: OWL, PUMA, RED EAGLE, DABAR, DEER, DETLIĆ, MORUNA, BROWN BEAR, RAW, SNAKE and IRVAS.
As for the seasons, the symbolism and essence of the story is the same as for the horoscope, or in general the view of nature and way of life. The first season began with the Indians on December 22, the month of the deep sleep of the earth. It is followed by the Month of Rest and the Month of the Great Wind, which last until March 20. The common name for the first season is the Age of the Spirit of Vaboosa and it is the time when FATHER SUN begins his journey south, examining the past and predicting the future. The second season began on March 20 with the Month of the Bud, followed by the Month of the Return of the Frogs, and ended on June 21 with the Month of Sowing the Corn. The second age is called the Spirit of Wabons. Then Father Sun reveals his face more and more and all nature flourishes. The third season - the time of the Spirit of Swanodes when the whole Earth flourishes, plants and cereals bear fruit, and the rivers are full of fish, begins on June 21 with the Moon of the strongest sun, continues with the Moon of the full grain, and ends on August 23 with the Month of Harvest. The last season is the time of the Spirit of Mujakevis and those are the months of peace and examination of one's own work. This era begins with the Moon of the Wild Float, continues with the Moon of the First Frost and ends with the Moon of Deep Sleep…
The spiritual life of the Indians is a separate story, a wonderful world that essentially separates them from today's spiritual emptiness and hypocrisy, disguised by technological miracles and false piety…
"The God of white people engraved his commandments in stone slabs with his iron finger so that people would never forget them. The red man doesn't understand something like that. Our faith is respect for our ancestors. It consists of dreams that the Great Spirit generously gave to the elect in the quiet nights. It is woven from the visions of holy people and is written in the hearts of our people. "
The Indians nurtured the awareness that all living beings are equally important to the Great Spirit, the Creator, and that man must not destroy the flora and fauna in his obsession. The very core of the North American Indian faith is made up of myths and legends from ancient times, which they called "the time before the great change." It was a time when humans, animals and natural forces had the power to talk to each other. Indian legends are the source of the belief that every man has his protector spirit who watches over him and helps him in difficult times. Myths were transmitted orally to young Indian generations, by campfires. The games of fire and shadows under the starry sky of America reinforced the impression of a magical and supernatural world of myths and legends.
"God Hagaiho created the world out of nothing, he created things and living creatures, but it was not necessary to create a dog, because a dog has always existed. The dog was never considered an ordinary animal, and man gave in to the dog in his stories and legends. There was a legend in the eastern states about the origin of Borzoi: Once King Solomon, receiving an order from God, told all the animals to gather at a meeting, where each morning each animal could express its wishes and needs and get advice from the creator on how to behave. towards each other. All the animals except the hedgehogs gathered. Angry, the creator asked if anyone wanted to go in search of a hedgehog? Only two volunteers were found: a horse and a dog. The horse said: "I will find him and I will drive him out of the pit, but I am not able to take him, because I am tall, and my nose is not protected from his needles." And the dog said, "I'm not afraid of his needles, but my head is too wide and I won't be able to get the hedgehog out of the hole if it hides there." Hearing this, Solomon said, "Yes, you are right, but I will not destroy the appearance of the horse and reduce its height, because that would be a very ugly reward for his obedience and loyalty. It is better to add beauty to a dog as a reward for its obedience. " And after thinking about it, the emperor took the dog's head in both hands and stroked it until it became completely thin and pointed. Then all the animals saw that the dog turned into an elegant and thin Borzoi. So the horse and the dog followed the escaped hedgehog and brought him before the emperor. King Solomon was satisfied, he punished the hedgehog for dragging himself on the ground all his life, and he rewarded the dog and the horse, saying: "From now on, you will be man's companions all your life and the first after him, before God.
All the tribes of the eastern part of the forest belt believe in the supreme deity of the Great Spirit. It created the world and all life. The Great Spirit is immaterial and invisible, he is outside the sensory world and he is not a specific person to tell stories about. He is sometimes called Manita. The world of most of the tribes there consists of the sky, with four to twelve layers. The Great Spirit exists in the uppermost layer. Mighty deities also live underground, and under the surface of rivers and lakes. It is dark and opposed to the forces of light, multi-layered. The most powerful deities live deepest in it - Underwater panthers or Giant horned snakes. The essence of the whole story of Indian spirituality and faith is honesty and respect for all other living beings, their deep compassion and their fruitful deeds, without a shred of greed, materialism and vicious hypocrisy of those who systematically destroyed them for several hundred years - to extinction.
The Indians expressed their beliefs and views of the world through numerous rituals, addressing their prayers and hopes to the gods, thus establishing a connection with the whole of Nature. Throughout his life, the Indian tried to cultivate a harmonious relationship with everything that surrounds him, and he did not forget that even at the moment of death, the moment of meeting the greatest secret of human existence in this world. He always tried to live honorably, and the rituals in that sense reminded him of those values that one must never forget.
Live your life so that the fear of death never enters your heart.
In the spiritual life of the North American Indians, tobacco symbolized the miracle of creation, and its smoking (the famous Indian "holy pipe", "peace pipe" or "calumet") shows people their respect for the Great Spirit, the creator of everything. With the smoke rising from the pipe, human prayers, thoughts and feelings also rise high towards the Great Spirit. If the owner of the pipe lives a good and religious life, he will be rewarded with the honor and strength he will receive.
The Indian Ghost Dance was a messianic movement that emerged among Indians (1970s), expressing a desperate desire to return to a better past, to return to a life without hunger, misery, disease, war, and Indian division accompanied by subjugation to whites. It was an attempt by the Indians to accept the Christian teaching of salvation. After all the defeats and sufferings, it was necessary to give meaning and hope to one's suffering on the spiritual plane. Their messiah - called Wovoka was called the Son of God and Christ who descended to earth for the second time in the form of an Indian to convey the message of the Great Spirit.
The movement was started by the sorcerer (shaman) Wovoka. He had a vision of a great flood that would fall to the ground and wipe out all the settlers. Just before the flood, thunder - the birds will descend to the ground and take all the Indians who have remained faithful to the holy path. When the water recedes, the bison and Indians will be returned to earth and everything will be as it used to be. Ghost Dance clothing is made to protect Indians from white bullets. It was decorated with drawings of plants and animal protectors. Preparations for the dance were performed so that the spirit of the ancestors would enter the body of those who dance and make them immortal. The Indians danced in circles singing sacred songs.
During the Battle of the Wounded Knee in 1890, the American army killed many Sioux. Many of them wore clothes decorated with an eagle, bison or morning star, believing that these symbols would protect them from injury. After that tragic event, Wovoka withdrew - the tragedy marked the end of the Dance of Ghosts. About a hundred years later, dancing became a way for surviving Indians to connect with their ancestors. The ghost dance originated in the reserves, where Indians (defeated, deceived and disenfranchised on their own land) died of hunger and hopelessness.
WINTU WOMAN - 19th century
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat everything. When we dig roots, we dig small holes. When we build houses, we dig small holes. We shake corn and other fruits from plants, we don't uproot a tree, We only use dead wood. But white people drill the ground, cut down trees, kill everyone. White people don't pay attention to anything. How can the spirit of the earth love the White Man? "Everywhere a white man touches her, it's a pain."
CHAPTER MAQUINNA, NOOTKA
"I was in Victoria once and I saw a very big house. They told me that it was a bank and that white people put money in safekeeping there and that they would benefit over time. We Indians do not have such banks: but when we have a lot of money or blankets, we give them to other chiefs and people and over time they benefit them and our hearts feel good. OUR WAY OF GIVING IS OUR BANK ”.
RED CLOUD - Makhpiya-luta (1870)
"In 1868, a white man came and brought some papers. We couldn’t read them and they didn’t tell us what was really inside. We thought the agreement was to move the fortress and stop fighting. But when I arrived in Washington, the Great Father explained to me that the translators had deceived me. I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of my people. We do not want wealth, but we want to raise our children properly. Wealth will not bring us good. We can't take him to that world. WE DO NOT WANT WEALTH. WE WANT PEACE AND LOVE ”.
WILLIAM COMMAND - Mamiwinini, Canada (1991)
"Indians see the two faces the pale face faces, as the path of technology and the path of spirituality. We feel that the path of technology is leading modern society to a wounded and scorched earth. Could it be that the path of technology represents a rush to destruction, while the path of spirituality represents a slower path, which the Indians traveled and which they are now looking for again? ”
And after the Month of Deep Sleep, Columbus' "discovery" and the arrival of the first pale-faced colonists and conquerors.
From early colonial times, European policy aimed to obtain territories from Indian tribes on the basis of official treaties. About 370 treaties were signed between 1787 and 1871, but most were violated, amended or ignored as the country became increasingly open to white settlement.
The Indians moved deeper and deeper to the west, so that the Decree on the Relocation of Indians, adopted in 1830, enabled the President of the United States to move them to Indian reserves. Immigrants, gold diggers and railways tore apart tribal territories causing war conflicts. And not only that.
The settlement of white man in America leads to the sudden destruction of nature. The warnings and appeals of the Native Americans were in vain. Centuries later, the sin of the past has come to fruition in the form of global climate change and catastrophes in the form of devastating tornadoes, droughts, floods and earthquakes roaring modern America. In 1830, US President Andrew Jefferson signed a law deporting five large Indian tribes to reserves, which were later also (contrary to the treaty) either taken away or reduced. That is how the first "democratic" genocide was carried out, supported by the American Senate. Thus, in a brutally "certified" way, the story that began in 1492 with the "discovery" of America ("India"?) By Europeans, is the story of convoys, "missionaries" and executioners who destroyed and plundered everything in front of them, killing the natives. American Indians (misnamed one of Europe’s delusions and lies) and taking away their homeland. Thus began the crescendo, the bloody end of genocide against one people and race, a perfidious and cynical deception, the history of the "winner" turned into a "democratic" triumph of "civilization and Christianity", "welfare" for the natives, "savages".
Prepared, elaborated and implemented with sarcastic brutality, this law was aimed at the ordinary plunder of the Indian land, the land of the natives who lived there for thousands of years, in harmony with God and Nature. Five great Indian tribes: the Cherokee, the Chikasau, the Koktau, the Crick, and the Seminole were expelled from the area of the most fertile country, which included a territory the size of Western Europe. The Indians, and especially the Cherokee tribe (a people of high culture, who then had their own letter, newspapers and literature) called persecution, i.e. "Relocation" along the Path of Tears.
The Indians were expelled by the U.S. military from their centuries-old habitat, brought to concentration camps (sounds familiar!) And then escorted from the camps to the dry and desolate prairies of Central America. During the winter journey of over 2000 km, they were also killed (over 4,000 were killed in Cherokee alone). It turned out over time, it was just a "blessed demonstration exercise" for all disobedient and unsuitable peoples who in the future will dare to resist the benefits of the force of "democracy" (rule of the people, whatever that means or wherever this miracle existed), an example application of "libertarian so-called Christian Cultures ”and an introduction to the story of how those who“ threaten ”American interests across the Universe end up. It was a silent triumph of evil and hypocrisy, a pogrom that almost destroyed one nation. Only their extremely strong spirit (their Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka), culture and rich tradition, orally transmitted from generation to generation, saved them from the evil of complete destruction.
European conquerors and colonizers also brought diseases to which the Indians were not resistant (on this occasion I do not mean mental and mental!). They were primarily smallpox that epidemically slaughtered the natives. Even today, in the reserves, Indians are struggling with diabetes, heart disease and mental disorders.
With the "democratic" relocation, the introduction of genocide, began the easy but sure extinction and disappearance of an entire nation and its civilization, a civilization that primarily cared about Nature, Mother Earth and coexistence with them - over time, bison, wild horses disappeared, forests, other animals and plants, before the onslaught of the "advanced" civilization of modern barbarians, conquistadors and murderers. The era of "life" in the reserves has begun, the predecessors of future concentration camps (probably places for "concentrating" the unsuitable, if by any chance you start thinking with your own heart and head). Fenced, rebuilt and separated from the authorities of a libertarian, wandering nature, flooded with the plagues of "fire water" and the disease of the white man, the Indian began to wither and quietly extinguished, inside.
On the Grand River Territory, which is now located in southern Ontario, about a hundred kilometers west of Toronto, there is a reserve of "Six Nations" in which "live" six Iroquois tribes: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora. This country was "rewarded" by the British crown because of the loyalty they showed during the American Civil War, fighting on the side of the English (are there any bigger cynics and villains!). During the year, most of their property was taken away again, so this reserve was reduced to barely 186 hectares, while, say, the zoo in Toronto covers 282 hectares !!!
Such a brutal fact of what the "life" of the Indian libertarian people turned into after the influence of "civilization, democracy and culture" of whites is compounded by even worse facts about the Indians located on the reserves of Canada (or the United States, anyway): they became the people with the highest rate suicides, involved in the benefits of crime, drugs and alcohol, with an average life expectancy of about 40 years. They are mostly unemployed (percentages range up to 90% of the unemployed, competing fiercely with the white "Indians" of Serbia, prone to unusual records) and live on social assistance (which, incidentally, is incomparably higher than the official - consumer basket survival of measured income in the said country without borders, on the verge of extinction). In the end, through a series of subtle methods of genocide, the number of Indians today has been reduced to "tolerable" by about 1% of the US population! Nothing without democracy and illusions…
And when one thinks that nothing worse could have happened to the Indians, the indigenous people of America, whose country was kidnapped by the white scum of "Christian" Europe (and of course I don't mean sincere, true and merciful Christians!), "Democrats, missionaries and peacemakers" who they killed, cheated, burned and raped everything they came across during almost four centuries of pogrom, life denies it and shows that the negative gradation simply has no end. Namely, no one in Canada today will point out the fact that the first case of biological war in history was recorded in the middle of the fatal 19th century in British Columbia (is there anything but "British") and that it was applied to the Indians. Under the guise of humanitarian aid, the church delivered large quantities of blankets to the Iroquois people, which were previously used by those suffering from smallpox. Completely immune to this type of disease, they were cut down by the waves of death. At the beginning of the 20th century, missionaries established (for "humanitarian" reasons, of course) schools and boarding schools, which officially served for the education and faster inclusion of Indian children in the Canadian state. However, they were all just not that. Until the mid-1960s, real dramas took place within their walls, in which the main roles were played by priests in charge of raising Indian children. Mental and physical abuse, and especially sexual abuse (everything sounds familiar, one would think that history is constantly repeated), were an everyday occurrence. There are many who did not survive, and those who managed to get out of there were left to fight the severe traumas that accompanied them to death, related to drugs and alcohol, the only things they could get there in unlimited quantities. What the "red uniforms" and "priests" failed to destroy and kill, the "fire water" succeeded as a beneficial "cure for the soul" of the humiliated Indians. The effect of isolation and internal re-education, the so-called "Civilization", was eventually fatal…
The story of the Indian "Tear Trail", the pogrom or "relocation" of an entire nation is a symbolic story of the modern world and one civilization, all its brutality, evil and hypocrisy, the story of many of us - the peoples of Africa and Asia, above all, who were expelled and plundered, and some of them were taken into slavery, the way to America (although over time the notion of slaves was relativized, because they were on all sides in various forms of modern slavery and fascism), and then "liberated" from "savagery" by cynicism " of high culture and racial superiority ", about the native Aboriginal Australians, about many peoples of the world who were simply removed as unsuitable and superfluous, about the people of Serbia who (among many others around the world) were expelled from part of their historical cradle - Kosovo and Metohija, tried "Democratic" techniques, ie. "Impoverished" bombs of the "merciful angel" and the rule of human "rights" which prevent the effective threat to other people's interests and rights?!? The modern democratic recipe: silence, destroy and remove, and then "reward" as a "humanitarian" (appetite pills for the hungry) proved to be very "subtle" and "God-pleasing" effective, once tried.
The path of Tears is a way of life, "destiny", for all those disenfranchised people who do not fit in and join the general race for profit and a new vision of the world based on lies, injustice, violence and hypocritical "faith" destined only for a minority of "rich" and powerful . Nothing matters anymore except money, power, profit, force and the fact whether you fit (or not) and whether you accept the "offer that is not rejected"! The Indian Path of Tears only paved the main, "visionary" path for the conquistadors of the world, meanwhile disguised and smeared with a new layer of hypocrisy. reserves for the unfit and disobedient, regardless of race, nation, religion or any other characteristic, except of course the amount of money they have…
Years of colonization, American revolutions and expansion to the west brought the destruction of entire villages and mass migrations to many Indian tribes. The tribes were eventually decimated and sated into reserve camps.
For two thousand years, Jesus' original idea of purity of heart, brotherhood and equality of all people has been ridiculed and sought to be portrayed in a completely different light, the very opposite of authentic simplicity, courage, revolutionaryism and beauty. Following the endless Path of Tears, humanity will disappear from the beginning of the story in the infinity of loneliness of spirit…
"When he cuts down the last tree and dries up the last river, the white man will realize that he cannot eat money."
SANTANA - Chief of Kiowa
"I hear you intend to move us to reserves near the mountains. I don't want to move. I like to wander the prairie. Then I feel free and happy, and when we settle somewhere permanently, we fade and die. A long time ago, this land belonged to our fathers, but when I went to the river, I saw camps of soldiers on its banks. Those soldiers cut down trees and killed my bison, and when I saw that, my heart felt like it was going to burn. "
GREAT COUNCIL OF AMERICAN INDIANS (1927)
"White people, who are trying to make us in their own image, want us to be, as they call it, 'assimilated', dragging Indians into the mainstream and destroying our way of life and our cultural patterns. They believe that we should be satisfied, like those whose CONCEPT OF HAPPINESS is MATERIALISTIC AND GREEDY, which is very different from our path. We want freedom from the white man rather than being integrated.
WE DON'T WANT POWER, WE DON'T WANT TO BE CONGRESS MEMBERS OR BANKERS, WE WANT TO BE OUR OWN. The white man says there is freedom and justice for all. We were given "freedom and justice" and because of that we were almost exterminated. We will not forget that. "
The land that the United States intended for the life of the Indians - reserves, was established by the Congress in 1786. The law on the resettlement of Indians, from 1830, had the consequence that the peoples of Crick, Semiola, Chickasaw, Chokto and Chiroki moved to the reserves that were located on the so-called Indian territory, in present-day Oklahoma. About 200 reserves were made in more than 40 U.S. states, mostly in poor countries, which only further impoverished the Indians.
Pale plague, stray, deluded and uninvited guests returned the hospitality to the Indian people, "giving" them pieces of their own, violently stolen land in the end… To some magician, that is. morbid way, that's how the famous American dream or rather nightmare came about.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, European powers established a military presence in North America, so that they could advance and defend their RIGHT - the right to discover, colonize or the right to conquer huge parts of the continent inhabited by Indians. In response to persecution, violence, and plunder, many Indian tribes took the path of war in a desire to resist European colonial expansion.
During the 17th century, the Powhatan Confederation threatened the survival of the first British colony of Virginia, attacking it during 1622 and 1644. Rebellions of the Algonquin and Pueblo Indians followed. In a series of bloody conflicts (until the end of the 19th century), many groups of Indians proposed unification - the so-called pan Indian Alliance against the colonizers. Unfortunately, they never came to life, which made the divided and often quarreling tribes even weaker, especially in relation to the much more numerous, more technically equipped and superior army, as well as the pale-faced executioners of all possible types - from the so-called cowboys, outlaws, European convicts and exiles, to all sorts of adventurers in search of gold and getting rich quick. In most of the mentioned conflicts, European immigrants also had Indian allies (bribed with various goods, trinkets and, above all, alcohol, the so-called "fire water", which destroys all moral principles).
An interesting story is about American President Lincoln and the Indian chief of the Seattle tribe, from the middle of the 19th century, which perhaps speaks most eloquently about the essence of the bloody conflict between uninvited guests and natives, about the essence of two worlds, concepts, views, meaning and value system.
Namely, when the President of the USA, Abraham Lincoln (father of the nation), in 1854 offered the state to buy a large part of the Indian land, and the Indian people were offered accommodation in reserves (camp full board), the chief of the Seattle tribe received an answer. Scripture is one of the deepest and most beautiful thoughts ever uttered about the human environment:
"When the great chief from Washington sends his vote that he wants to buy our land, he asks too much of us. How can you buy or sell heaven, the warmth of the earth? That idea is foreign to us. We are not the owners of fresh air and clear water. If we do not have the freshness of the air and the clarity of the water, how can you buy it?
Every part of that country is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every grain of sand on the river bank, every mist in the darkness of the forest, are sacred in the thoughts and experience of my people. The juices that flow through the trees carry memories of the red man. Dead white people forget the land of their birth when they go for a walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful country because they are the mother of the red man. We are part of that country and it is part of us! The fragrant flowers are our sisters, the Deer, the Horse and the Great Eagle, they are all our brothers. Rocky peaks, lush pastures, the warmth of the body of a pony and a man, they all belong to the same family. So when the great chief from Washington sends his vote that he wants to buy our land, he asks too much of us. The great chief sends word that he will save our place, so that we ourselves will be able to live comfortably. He will be our father and we will be his children.
That great water that flows through rapids and rivers is not only water, but also the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred and you must teach your children that it is sacred, that every reflection in the clear water of the lake tells the events and memories of this people. The murmur of water is my father's voice. Rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. Rivers carry our canoes and feed our children. We know that white people do not understand our lives. One part of the country is the same to him as the other, because he is a foreigner who comes at night and takes everything he wants from the country.
The earth is not his brother but his enemy and when he conquers it he moves on. He leaves his father's graves behind and doesn't worry. He takes the land from his children and does not worry. The graves of his fathers and the land that gave birth to his children have been forgotten. They treat Mother Earth and Brother Heaven as things that can be bought, robbed, sold as a herd or shiny jewelry. His appetite will devour the earth and leave only desolation!
Our way is different than yours. The red man's eyes hurt from looking at your cities. And maybe it's because the red man is wild and doesn't understand. There is no peaceful place in the cities of the white man. There is no place to hear the opening of leaves in the spring or the flutter of butterfly wings. Maybe it's because I'm wild and I don't understand. The Indian prefers the gentle sound of the wind when playing with the face of the swamp, as well as the very smell of the wind cleaned by the midday rain or smelled of pine. Air is precious to the red man because all living things share the same breath - animals, wood, man. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. As a man who dies for many days, he is numb to the stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember that air is precious to us, that air shares its breath with all the life it supports. The wind that gave my grandfather his first breath will also accept his last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it as a shrine, as well as a place where a white man will be able to come and taste the wind, which is sweetened by the smell of wildflowers. So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept, I will set one condition: a white man must treat the animals of this country as brothers. I'm a savage and I don't understand any other way. I saw thousands of decaying bison on the prairie left by a white man shooting them from a passing train. I'm a savage and I don't understand how a smoking iron horse can be more important than a bison when we kill just to stay alive. What is a man without animals? If all the animals leave, man will die of great loneliness of spirit. Whatever happened to animals will soon happen to humans. Things are connected. You have to teach your children that the ground under their feet is the ashes of their grandfathers, so that they would respect the earth, tell your children that the earth is related to you. Teach your children as we teach ours that the earth is our mother… Whatever befalls her, will befall the sons of the earth. If a man spits on the ground, he spits on himself. We know that. All things are connected as blood that unites the family. Whatever befalls the land will befall the sons of the land. Man does not weave the fabric of life, he is just a thread in it. Whatever he does weaving he does to himself. Even a white man whose God speaks and walks with him as a friend with a friend cannot be exempt from a common destiny. We can be brothers after all, we'll see. The only thing I know that a white man will discover one day: our God is the same God. You can now think that you have it as you want to have our country, but you cannot. He is the God of man and his compassion is the same, for the red man as for the white. That earth is dear to Him and to harm the earth is to despise its Creator. Dirty your bed and one day you will suffocate in your own stench. But in your ruin you will shine brightly, ignited by the power of God who brought you to that earth and for some special purpose gave you power over it as well as over the red man. Fate is a mystery to us because we do not know when all the bison will be slaughtered and the wild horses tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy because of the smell of many people and the view of the mature hills messed with chattering wire. Where is the eagle? He left. It's the end of life and the beginning of the struggle for survival. "
If the Euro-Americans committed genocide anywhere on the continent against the Indians, then it was in California, which was attractive in those years because of the so-called gold rush. Between 1850 and 1860, war, disease, and famine reduced the California Indian population from 150,000 to just 35,000. In 1876, for the purpose of self-defense against destruction and persecution, the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes united under the leadership of legendary chiefs - the Sitting Bull and the Crazy Horse, taking a glorious victory over General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn. The last conflict took place in 1890 near Wundin Ni. In 1887, Doss's law granted Native Americans and 41,400 acres of land in reserves to Native Americans who renounced tribal affiliation. In the war against the Prairie Indians (1854-1890), the soldiers aimed to secure settlements and roads, limiting the Indians to reserves. The Indians from the plains faced a large number of immigrants, because the development of the railway under the white man enabled the soldiers to transport efficiently to the disputed territories. In the end, it was as if the massacre and humiliation of the North American Indians was not enough, and another massacre followed - the massacre of the Indian main source of food and life - bison. Namely, before 1830, at least 30 million heads (some authors claim that there were up to 60 million) of bison grazed in the prairie of the USA. Tribes of Indians lived with herds of bison on the plateau. They hunted bison with a bow and arrow and got almost everything they needed from them. Meat for food, leather for clothes, horns for glasses, bones for tools. Ropes, bags, sledges, tents - they got everything from buffalo. The Indians found both the image and spirit of their gods in the bison. Although the Indians exploited the bison so fully, they took only as much as they needed for immediate use. White immigrants did not behave like that. Getting rid of the buffalo was an immediate way to get rid of the undesirable Indian who, without them, would be difficult to sustain. So the buffalo had to be destroyed. The massacre began around 1830. Immigrants did not kill bison for food. They shot bison just to get rid of them. In 1865, a railroad was built across the continent, from east to west, cutting the bison population in two. The "famous" hunter Buffalo Bill killed more than 4,000 bison alone in 18 months. Railway passengers were encouraged to shoot bison from the entertainment train. Since 1870, two and a half million bison have been killed each year. By the end of the 19th century, less than 1,000 (a thousand!) Bison remained throughout North America.
General Sherman, one of the bloodiest murderers of the Indians, said the following in a letter to Buffalo Bill: "As far as I can estimate, in 1862, in the prairie between Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, there were about 9.5 million bison. They all disappeared, killed for their flesh, skin and bones. At the same time, in that same area, there were about 165,000 Pony, Xu, Cheyenne, Kai, and Apache. All of them also disappeared and were replaced by twice or three times the number of white men and women, who turned this country into a garden and who can be listed and taxed and who can be managed in accordance with the laws of nature and civilization. It is about a comprehensive change, which will be implemented to the end. " Until the end, when there is nothing more that could change!
"A nation is not conquered as long as it has the hearts of its women on earth. Then it's over, no matter how brave the warriors are and how powerful their weapons are. "
Today, of the total U.S. population, Indians make up only 1% (just over 2 million), representing a mostly poor, uneducated, sick, disenfranchised, and population with a very short life expectancy (about 44 years).
In 1883, the U.S. government banned the use of Native American languages, the practice of their culture, religion, and customs, slowly removing traces of crime, hands stained with the blood of the only true Americans. According to the US National Institutes of Health, more than 50% of Indians over the age of 45 are diabetic. The municipality of Shannon, where the Pine Ridge Reserve is located, is the poorest municipality in the United States. Only Haiti has a lower standard in the Western Hemisphere. Unemployment in the reserve is 90%, and in addition to a large number of people suffering from diabetes and kidney diseases, the municipality is burdened with other social problems - poverty, alcoholism and drug addiction. The main causes of these plagues are the change of the Indian way of life: from the former nomadic to the present immobile, static, as well as bad food full of sugar. There is often only one food store in the US Indian reserves, where you can only buy processed products, carbonated drinks and alcohol, without fresh fruits and vegetables.
The consequences of all this are the slow, imperceptible, systematically supported and quiet extinction of the Native Americans - Indians, turned into their own parody and caricature, an attraction for tourists and meaningless statistics, for the sake of order. Manitua has been replaced by Virtual Reality, while the Great Spirit has been transformed into Wall street magic of deception and the Great Void that we consume as we die out…
EPILOGUE: An Indian legend about the end of the world
"When the world dies, a new tribe of all colors and all faiths will be born. That tribe will be called the Warriors of the Rainbow and will put their faith into action, not words.
In the last century, an old wise Indian woman called Eyes of Fire had a vision of the future. She prophesied that one day, because of the greed of the white man, the time would come when the earth would be devastated and polluted, forests destroyed, birds falling from the sky, waters darkening, fish poisoned in streams, and trees no more, the humanity we know will cease to exist. There will come a time when the guardians of legends, stories of cultural rituals and myths and all the Ancient Tribal Customs, will be needed to restore us to health, making the country green again. They will be the key to humanity's survival, they are rainbow warriors. The day of awakening will come when all people of all tribes will form the New World of Justice, Peace, Freedom and the recognition of the Great Spirit. Rainbow warriors will teach people the ancient practice of Unity, Love and Understanding. They will teach harmony among all people in all four corners of the world. As ancient tribes, they will teach people how to pray to the Great Spirit with a love that flows like a beautiful mountain stream and flows along the path into the ocean of life. They will be free from miserable envy and will love humanity as their brothers, regardless of color, race and religion. They will feel happiness enter their hearts and become one with the entire human race. Their hearts will be pure and will radiate warmth, understanding and respect for all humanity, Nature and the Great Spirit. They will once again fill their minds, hearts, souls and deeds with the purest thoughts. They will search for the beauty of the Father of Life - the Great Spirit! He will find strength and beauty in prayers and the loneliness of life. The poor, the sick and the needy will be cared for by brothers and sisters from Earth. This need will become part of their daily lives again. The one who will lead the people will be chosen in the old way - not according to the political current, or who speaks the loudest, who brags the most or by blasphemy, but according to whose deeds speak the most. That day will come, it is not far…
What's left after all?
Has anyone found their peace, their God and the path to happiness, remembering the dreams of their ancestors who once set out with curiosity on the path of unexplored India? The story of justice, rights, freedom, prosperity, independence and democracy - isn't it all just a colorful lie for the masses, one of many in a game called "bread and games"? To build happiness on the misfortune of others, justice by violence, law by force, freedom by kidnapping and humiliating others, the power of the people by ruthless manipulation of the enriched and hanged minority - my friend, all that "treasure" was far from them!
To justify the whole story of genocide against one nation by some "progress" - technological and civilizational progress, the spread of a brutal and false faith that exists only as an empty and hypocritical form, a "humane" pogrom of the so-called savages in the name of the higher goal of spreading "democracy and Christianity" is a cynical attempt for lower-grade textbooks with a history of winners…
Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee:
Live your life so that the fear of death never enters your heart. Do not burden anyone because of his faith, respect other people's opinions and ask them to respect yours. Love your life, perfect it and beautify everything around you. Strive to live long and in the service of your people. Prepare a sublime song of death for the day when you will cross to the other side.
Chief Geronimo, Chiracahua Apache:
I know I have to die someday
but if the heavens fall on me
I want to do what is right
there is only one God who looks down on all of us
we are all children of one God
God hears me
sun, darkness, winds
they all hear
what we are talking about now
Chief of Seattle, Sequamish
There is no death. There is only a change of worlds.
I sit on the banks of the Great River and watch its eternal flow that remembers and records everything. Behind me lie the faded remains of the former world of wilderness, the innocence of divine nature and the soul of wandering ancestors, some lone mustangs that testify to the indomitability of former nature - Manitua, a falcon that rises in height and observes the victim with other eyes, the remains of wigwams, canoes, broken arrows and bows, spears, tomahawks, feathers whose remains are scattered by the whirlwind of the devil's time on the outskirts of the megalopolis of concrete, steel, asphalt and glass… I see salmon and trout that are no longer so, crippled souls, all that noise and chaos of those who can't listen, hear, understand, observe and sympathize, all that emptiness full of a bunch of unimportant things and colorful lies, the roar of jackals and wolves in the freedom of prison and the last, decrepit chief and warrior whose gaze it radiates the emptiness and sorrow of the soulless world and the memory that goes back centuries, searching for the lost thread with the spirits of the ancestors, Manitou and the Great Spirit and the world, which and it is no more.
I look back, upset and resigned, listening to the sound of the coming hurricane. The cries of souls, blood-soaked soil and broken bones of ancestors announce the ominousness of the apocalyptic storm, the answer that arrives as an echo of the past, ready to cleanse and purify all accumulated evil and injustice of the world "freedom, democracy, law and justice, the American dream, progress and uninvited guests." ”
My friend, where we have been deceived!
INDIAN PRAYER - Sioux tribe
Sharpen my ear to hear your voice
Make me wise to know the doctrine that You mysteriously put in every leaf, in every stone
I seek strength, but not to overpower my brothers but to overcome my greatest enemy - myself
God, give me the peace to endure things I can't change
Give me the wisdom to distinguish one from the other
Let me not pray for the relief of my pain, but for a strong heart to overcome it
Let me not look for allies in the struggle of life, but to rely on my own strength
Let me not beg for salvation from fear, but for the hope of conquering my beauty
You can be a bad person, have everything and still have nothing; that you are empty inside, that your soul and heart are empty, surrounded by a pile of unnecessary things, someone else's misfortune and false splendor, with which you simply do not know what to do. To one day look back and feel the sheer emptiness, loneliness and evil that eats at you until you completely fade.
You can, on the other hand, be a good man, have nothing, and have everything again; that you are filled from within, that your heart is filled with the joy and happiness of others, that your soul is pure and open in compassion and love, that you do not enslave yourself to nonsense and unnecessary things, to a false glow like a fading deception. To one day look behind you and realize that what you have given and shared with others is all the happiness and wealth of this world, the path to eternity through the memories of some dear people for whom you lived.
It is our belief that the love of possession is a weakness that needs to be overcome. It attracts the material part, and if we allow it, in time it will disturb a person's spiritual balance. That is why children must learn the beauties of giving early. They need to be taught to give what they love most so that they can feel the joy of giving.
The story of the North American Indians is the story of a seemingly lost world of true values and ideals worth believing in and fighting for by living honestly and sincerely, a story of true faith that turns all illusions, evil, stupidity and defeat into final victory. It was a story about dreams that were worth believing in, for them to live and go into legend as a man, as someone and something that is, in essence, the most difficult to be and stay, in spite of everything. On the path of truth, faith, peace, honesty and love, you will find a moment where your life may cross paths with the world of myths and legends of former Indians, a moment where God's touch pardons and blesses only those with a pure heart, filled with selfless love. they truly lived, believed and shared their happiness with everyone.
Hey-a-a-hey! Hey-a-a-a-hey! Hey-a-a-hey! Grandpa, Great Soul, look at me once more on the ground and bend down to hear my weak voice.
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