The First Station of the Cross: Pontius Pilate condemns Jesus to death

[The following is from a series first posted during Lent in 2015.]

< Introduction: The Hard Lessons of Lent                                                                The Second Station of the Cross >

"Pontius Pilate condemns Jesus to death."

A scene from an American Indian Boarding School

“Aside from the U.S. Government's Attempt at Genocide, what Has Caused the Most Egregious Cultural Harm to the Psyche of the American Indian People?”

(Read more at Indian Country Today Archives)

The United States engaged in a systematic process of genocide in dealing with the Native American Population. Although today there is greater awareness and the boarding schools which sought to eradicate Native American culture are no more, Native Americans continue to suffer under the grips of a death-making Empire. On Native American reservations, people suffer the numbness of alcoholism and poverty which includes a poverty of income, a poverty of opportunity, a poverty of healthcare and a poverty of choices. Pilate, in his modern incarnation as representative of the Empire on American soil has condemned many to their deaths.

 The Second Station of the Cross >

-

The First Station of the Cross: Pontius Pilate condemns Jesus to death

[The following is from a series first posted during Lent in 2015.]

< Introduction: The Hard Lessons of Lent                                                                The Second Station of the Cross >

"Pontius Pilate condemns Jesus to death."

A scene from an American Indian Boarding School

“Aside from the U.S. Government's Attempt at Genocide, what Has Caused the Most Egregious Cultural Harm to the Psyche of the American Indian People?”

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/10/29/aside-us-governments-attempt-genocide-what-has-caused-most-egregious-cultural-harm-psyche

The United States engaged in a systematic process of genocide in dealing with the Native American Population. Although today there is greater awareness and the boarding schools which sought to eradicate Native American culture are no more, Native Americans continue to suffer under the grips of a death-making Empire. On Native American reservations, people suffer the numbness of alcoholism and poverty which includes a poverty of income, a poverty of opportunity, a poverty of healthcare and a poverty of choices. Pilate, in his modern incarnation as representative of the Empire on American soil has condemned many to their deaths.

 The Second Station of the Cross >

-

There's a New Saint in Town

St Kateri Tekakwitha on the grounds of
St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Adamsville, Ala.

Growing up in Tallapoosa County in east central Alabama, I very quickly became aware of the fact that I was living and walking on ground that was once the home of Native Americans, or “Indians” as we said back in the 1960s. “Tallapoosa” after all is a Native American word.  Depending upon whom you believe, it comes from the Choctaw term for pulverized rock, or a Creek word meaning “golden water" (I like golden water - it's how the Tallapoosa River looks after a big rain).  In addition to our county name, there were other place names that derived from the former Native American inhabitants. In fact, Alabama is full of Native American place names: Saugahatchee, Wetumpka, Tuscaloosa, Eufaula, Sylacauga – they are too numerous to mention here.  Not only did the place names reflect Native American heritage, their history was ever present.  Arrowheads could still be found on occasion during hikes in the woods and on walks along the lake.

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, on the Tallapoosa River and just a few miles from our home, memorialized the defeat of the Creek Nation at the hands of General Andrew Jackson and his army. Jackson’s role in the Indian wars set him on a path to the presidency where he would sign into law the Indian Removal Act. The Cherokee Nation went to court and won when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that act unconstitutional.  Undaunted by the rule of law, President Andrew Jackson proceeded with the forced removal of Native Americans from their tribal lands in what would be known as the Trail of Tears.

Withered Memories

Having grown up in the shadow of Native American history where Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctoaw influence had been reduced to place names and withered memories, as a young adult I began to wonder how my life might have been different, how our culture could have been different, if we had learned to coexist with native tribes  rather than implement the genocidal policies our forbears chose.  How might our development as a country have been augmented? What values would we hold as a society? Would we be closer to nature and more respectful of the environment? Would we be more inclusive and less xenophobic? How would I see the world differently if I had grown up in a land that included its native population and respected their culture?

Questions like these led me to come to appreciate the words and witness that I found in works such as Black Elk Speaks, by John Neihardt which relays the story and vision of the Lakota shaman Black Elk in his own words; and Russell Means' autobiography, Where White Men Fear to Tread, which gives an account of the modern day plight of Native Americans from their viewpoint told by one of their own, beginning with the Wounded knee massacre. Knowing that as a descendant of Scots-Irish settlers I walked on blood-stained ground, I therefore wanted to learn more about the stories of the Native Americans who once walked the same ground.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha

Last month when I learned that there would be a “Native American Mass” at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church (Adamsville, Alabama) for the feast of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, I was naturally intrigued and made it a point to attend. Kateri Tekakwitha, I learned, was canonized just last October – the first Native American saint to be recognized by the Vatican. Known to devotees as “The Lily of the Mohawks,” her official feast day is July 14.  When I arrived for the service I was surprised and amazed that there was a beautiful shine to the Algonquin saint on the grounds of St. Patrick’s Church.  I learned that there is a Kateri Circle that meets at St. Patrick’s whose purpose is “to promote Native American spirituality within the Catholic Church.” I learned from the parish’s website that the shrine was dedicated in 2005.

I went to the Mass at St. Patrick’s with the full understanding of the complicated nature of the church’s relationship with the Native American population.  The conversion of American Indian tribes to Christianity was a mixture of genuine compassion on the part of many missionaries and a sense of patriarchal condescension on the part of many Christians. Moreover, it was one element in a larger attempt to eradicate Native American culture as white settlers sought more land to occupy.  Today, much too late by some standards, we are coming to have a better understanding of Native American cultures. We are beginning to recognize that while there is value in cultural exchange, efforts at wholesale conversion can be just another form of aggression on the part of the dominant culture.  That being understood, I was interested in seeing what a Native American Mass would be like.

When I arrived for Mass, the service was simple and straightforward. Scriptures for that day were read from the lectionary and prayers were offered.  The hymns that were sung included "We Are One in the Spirit." The priest, Father Vernon Hugley, gave a homily recounting some of his experiences growing up as a minority (African American) in the South and offering St. Kateri as an example of living with simplicity. 

After the Mass, the congregation processed to the Woodland Garden. It was then that I first laid eyes on the Shrine to the new saint. There was a gentleman there who played a Native American flute as more prayers were offered. There were some people visiting from New York of Mohawk descent who spoke of their veneration to St. Kateri Tekakwitha. One of them, dressed in Native American garb, explained the custom of smudging then offered the ceremony to all who wanted to participate (which was everyone present). Smudging, she explained was a cleansing ritual in which a smoke, or incense, derived from the burning of sage was fanned upon an individual using fan made of bird feathers. Native Americans would typically undergo smudging just prior to entering into ritual dance. Smudging was also often done for a household if there had been a visitor who had brought any kind of negativity or disharmony to the family therein.

I participated in the smudging ritual and listened to members of the Kateri Circle explain the medicine wheel which stood next to the statue of St. Kateri. The conversation turned back to St. Kateri when one lady from the Mohawk tribe in New York told of how her obstetrician had told her when she was pregnant that her child would be born handicapped. Her grandmother, not knowing of the doctor’s report sensed something was wrong and appealed to Kateri for a healthy child. That same “baby” was with her that day as a completely normal 20 year-old young lady.  [Kateri had been named “venerable” by Pope Pius XXII in 1943, and “beatified” by Pope John Paul II in 1980.  According to Catholic practice, that made veneration appropriate, though she had not yet been named a saint.] 

The members of the Kateri Circle and the Native Americans who spoke to the group that day were delighted that the Vatican has recognized St. Tekakwitha. They saw it as an affirmation of their culture. “We were not even recognized as citizens of the United States until 1924,” one person pointed out (that was the year the Indian Citizenship Act was passed).  As the ceremonies were carried out with the Native American flute playing in the background, there was a definite sense of progress in multicultural relations. Whereas in the past, there had been an attempt to eliminate Native American languages and cultural practices from American Indian tribes, on this day there was an affirmation of Native American customs.

When she was declared a Saint in October of 2012, Kateri Tekakwitha was named patroness of the environment and ecology.  As the Roman Catholic Church has made room for Native American customs within her fold, may we likewise make room for some of the values shared by our Native American friends.  Respect for the environment and consideration for future generations would be a good place to begin.

The plaque on a stone by the Medicine Wheel reads:

"An ancient symbol of the Sacred Connection

of the Creator, all People, and all Creation.

It is still a powerful sign of good medicine"

_______

All photos were taken by Charles Kinnaird

*

Native American Poets

Celebrating National Poetry Month

From Bill Moyers & Company, here is author Sherman Alexie's Top Ten Native American Poets. Follow the link below: 

http://billmoyers.com/content/sherman-alexies-top-ten-native-american-poets/

Native American, or American Indian?

Medicine Crow (Apsaroke)
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I usually have tried to use the term, “Native American,” with the idea that “Indian” is a misnomer resulting from ignorance of the European explorers and continuing out of disregard for an appropriate name for America’s indigenous peoples.  Several years ago while attending a cultural celebration of “Native Americans” at Desoto Caverns in Sylacauga, I was interested to note that the “Native Americans” who were explaining their culture to us repeatedly used the term “Indian” when referring to their people.

The late Tony Hillerman said once that he considered himself a kind of “reverse missionary” in his desire to present the culture of the Navajo and other Indian tribes in his mystery novels. In his memoir, published in 2002, he has this fascinating explanation of why it is preferable to use the tribal name or else use the term Indian rather than Native American:  

I have occasionally used the Native American term. I was cured of that failing when the Smithsonian formally established its division for artifacts from tribal history and named an Indian as its director. He came to Santa Fe, a panel was assembled to discuss affairs of this new division, and I was invited to sit on it. There were nine of us, I believe, representing Hopi, Navajo, Mascalero Apache, Taos, Cherokee, Choctaw, and a couple from the Eastern tribes, which had somehow escaped the total extermination policy of our British ancestors. I sat as Mongrel-American. One of the first questions from the audience was what title did the panelists prefer.

The first respondent asked for a show of hands of those in the audience who hadn't been born in the United States. Two hands appeared. Then all the rest of us here are Native Americans, said the Indian. We are all the offspring of immigrants. He said his people preferred to be identified as Hopis, but if you don't know our tribe, call us Indians. So it went down the row, each respondent preferring his tribal name, saying that Indians call each other Indians if they don't know the tribe. The verdict was unanimous, with the Apache adding they were only thankful that Columbus was looking for India and not Turkey. The Cherokee noted that the real insult was to be called Indigenous People. Since the Western Hemisphere had no native primates from which humanity descended, that suggested we'd evolved from something else - perhaps coyotes - and were not really human. The Navajo concluded this discussion by proposing that all be happy Columbus hadn't thought he'd landed on the Virgin Islands - a sample of the sense of humor which makes the Dineh my favorite folks.  (From Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir, by Tony Hillerman, pp. 273-274)

Politically correct terminology often comes from academic circles where people are at pains to correct past offenses.  Sometimes, as in this case, those who come up with politically correct terminology don’t bother to consult the people whom they intend to label with more appropriate titles.  It is as if we have yet another situation of the elite explaining to the poor natives what they should be called.  For now, I’ll trust Tony Hillerman on this one.



*

Navajo Wisdom from Tony Hillerman

I enjoy reading Tony Hillerman’s mystery novels because I can learn a bit about Native American culture while being entertained by a good story.  This week I’ve been reading Hunting Badger.  In one passage,  Jim Chee, a Navajo Tribal Police officer recalls a lesson from his uncle and mentor in traditional Navajo wisdom. Jim Chee tries to live in the modern world while keeping the customs of his native culture. He has tried to do this by learning the songs and rituals of a traditional healer.

Here is the passage in which Chee is talking with his now elderly and dying uncle:

"You know the chants. You sing them without a mistake. And your sand paintings are exactly right. You know the herbs, how to make the emetics, all that."

"I hope so," Chee said, understanding now what Hosteen Frank Sam Nakai was telling him.

"But you have to decide if you have gone too far beyond the four Sacred Mountains. Sometimes you can never come all the way back into Dinetah again."

Chee nodded. He remembered a Saturday night after he'd graduated from high school. Nakai had driven him to Gallup. They had parked on Railroad Avenue and sat for two hours watching the drunks wandering in and out of the bars.

He'd asked Nakai why he'd parked there, who they were looking for. Nakai hadn't answered at first, but what he said when he finally spoke Chee had never forgotten.

"We are looking for the dine' (Navajo people) who have left Dinetah (traditional homeland of the Navajo). Their bodies are here, but their spirits are far beyond the Sacred Mountains. You can go east of Mount Taylor to find them, or west of the San Francisco' Peaks, or you can find them here. "

Chee had pointed to a man who had been leaning clumsily against the wall up the avenue from them, and who now was sitting, head down on the sidewalk. "Like him?" he asked.

Nakai had waved his hand in a motion that included the bar's neon Coors sign and the drunk now trying to push himself up from the pavement. But went beyond them to follow a polished white Lincoln Town Car rolling up the avenue toward them.

"Which one acts like he has no relatives?" Nakai had asked him. "The drunk who leaves his children hungry, or the man who buys that car that boasts of his riches instead of helping his brother?"

                                                                          ~From  Hunting Badger by Tony Hillerman