by Sean Jobst
12 May 2021
The following is a compendium of four articles I wrote after my two weeks as a guest on the Oglala Lakota reservation - one social, one political-economic, two spiritual - in late June/early July 2010. That experience was invaluable to my own development and, although I didn't recognize it at the time, set in motion the chain of events that would culminate in the discovery of my own indigenous European heritage - that we were all descendants of tribes and still carry that within ourselves, ready to be tapped into.
As part of my respect and solidarity with the Lakota people, I offer this publicly as I will not profit from Indigenous suffering. Its also a public vow to live up to the promises I made to my hosts at the time, to publicize the issues specifically facing the Oglala Lakota and the exploitation that continues to occur amidst our "bread and circuses" charade. There will be more articles in the future....
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Whiteclay: Genocide by the Bottle
July 17, 2010
Imagine a town dedicated to selling alcohol, such that the town exists for no other purpose. Think about seeing drunks passed out on both sides of the street. Now, imagine drunks having sex out in the open. And imagine the police doing absolutely nothing about it, not to mention media ignoring the problem.
A figment of the imagination? No, it’s a very real fact of life – and it’s an everyday occurrence in the Nebraska border town of Whiteclay. The reasons this isn’t being addressed like it should be will be made quite apparent.
Ordinance 88.01 bans the sale and distribution of alcohol in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Yet, neither the tribal government nor police enforce their own laws. Since the law is being violated in plain sight, there is no other explanation but that the tribal government and police exist solely to perpetuate the same old colonial dictates upon the necks of the poor Lakota Oyate (people).
They choose to ignore their own laws, because they have neither the will nor the intention to enforce Lakota sovereignty. For to do so would mean an abrupt end to their cashflow. For this reason they are willing partners in the federal government’s colonial policies which continue to destroy, rob and plunder First Nations people.
Whiteclay exists within the sovereign treaty lands of the Lakota. Initially called Doings, Lakota ranchers used to trade their goods with white farmers who lacked those goods of such quality. However, it wasn’t long before unscrupulous peddlers arrived to sell whiskey to the Lakota. This would soon be followed by peddlers selling other types of alcohol.
This was all in flagrant violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty made between the United States government and the sovereign Lakota Nation on April 29, 1868. The “bad man” clause of Article I leaves no room for ambiguity:
“If bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington City, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained.”
In 1882, U.S. President Chester A. Arthur established the Whiteclay Extension as a 50-square-mile buffer zone, south of and adjacent to the Lakota reservations. Since alcohol was forbidden on the reservations, so too was it prohibited in this buffer zone.
In 1889, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation that incorporated the entire buffer zone within the boundaries of the reservation. Yet all this changed in 1904, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed an Executive Order that reduced the boundaries of the reservation and effectively abolished the buffer zone.
The measure was unconstitutional, for Article VI of the U.S. Constitution recognizes treaties made with sovereign nations as being the law of the land. This man was later honored by having his bust carved into Mt. Rushmore, deep in the heart of the Black Hills, an area sacred to the Lakota and several other nations. Just another reprehensible case of in-your-face colonial dehumanization policies.
Today, Whiteclay is an unincorporated town of only seven. There are four liquor stores – Mike’s Pioneer Liquor, State Line Inn, Arrow Head Inn and Jumping Eagle Inn – and the nonprofit 555 Whiteclay ministry operated by Rev. Bruce Bonflour, who also runs an associated soup kitchen.
Each of these enterprises operate for solely one purpose: to profit from the Lakota people who purchase alcohol. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see if establishments are formed right outside the borders of an area that prohibits their specific industry, that it is set up for this purpose. And given the poverty and corruption rampant in the Pine Ridge reservation, there is no other word to describe Whiteclay except for exploitation.
These are words that come from my heart, for I personally walked through Whiteclay twice and came into direct contact with the issues highlighted in this article. I personally saw the effects of alcoholism with my own two eyes. What I witnessed was genocide by chemical means, a modern version of smallpox-laced blankets.
There is an annual blockade led by the Stronghearts Civil Rights Movement of Duane Martin, Sr., since 1999. The purpose is to prevent the illegal flow of alcohol and drugs onto the Pine Ridge rez. This year’s blockade also brought participation from the leaders of the Alabama-based Stronghearts Preservation Movement, who are also councilors of the League of Indian Nations of North America. Other participants included organizers of the 500-mile Sacred Hoop Run, children and one of the grandmother elders.
The police ostensibly cooperated this year, admitting on camera that they confiscated 52 cases of alcohol. Yet no one was arrested for alcohol possession and the police were unable to account for the confiscated cases. The police later changed their story and the Rapid City Journal relied on a statement from the police chief who wasn’t even present at the blockade. Just another example of a profit-driven corporate media that connives to whitewash those with power and privilege.
Why aren't the tribal police "protecting and serving" the Lakota Oyate by consistently preventing the illegal flow of alcohol and drugs? Why did the police chief give testimony that openly ran contrary to what his officers said ON CAMERA?!Why aren't the tribal police "protecting and serving" the Lakota Oyate by consistently preventing the illegal flow of alcohol and drugs? Why did the police chief give testimony that openly ran contrary to what his officers said ON CAMERA?!You may sit from afar, in the comforts of your own home, and ignore what happens. But you are only deluding yourself, for buying into a system that leaves no stone unturned to destroying culture, history and nature for profit.
You are just as responsible for the problem, since you enable the entire greed mechanism. Even if you arrogantly proclaim this is not your problem, you’re only deceiving yourself. For you are enabling the greedy business elites to line their pockets from the labor and livelihood of others.
And likewise you further empower a government that has increasingly become indistinguishable from the big corporations and special interests. So not only are you empowering their greed and corruption, but you are enabling them to take away your liberties and expand at your expense.
Colonialism dehumanizes the people who are being colonized, this much is evident. But it also dehumanizes the people in whose name these policies are being implemented. For such a people to tolerate these policies means they have lost their conscience.
The purpose of this article is merely to inform and empower the individual, not to dictate a course of action. Such a task would be unnecessary, for anyone with an open mind and conscientious heart can already find the answer within their self of what to do. When are you going to stand up and remove the blinders from your eyes? When are YOU going to stand up and do something about this problem?
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The sovereign Lakota people declare their monetary freedom, institute silver-based currency
December 12, 2010
The U.S. Dollar is declining at an astonishing rate. The debt continues to rise and so do prices. It’s simply becoming more expensive to live, yet goods are actually becoming qualitatively less valuable. The cruel reality of a monetary system based literally on creating something of no value out of thin air and calling it money, has become obvious to an increasing number of people.
To finance their operations, governments have been borrowing money from the bankers. It can be said with complete accuracy the financial elites possess real power, for they have control over the circulation of money. Governments are in debt to the bankers, but the bill is passed down to the real producers of a society, who are the citizens. It is the common people who suffer through rising prices, paying more taxes, and losing their jobs and homes.
So it should come as no surprise that an increasing number of people are rejecting this orthodoxy of paper money, and are recognizing in contrast to the inherent pitfalls of paper money, the innumerable advantages of gold and silver. For those are resources existing naturally and have inherent value.
Even while more Americans are becoming awake to this reality, the bi-metallic currency is actually being instituted in many places throughout the world. Yet the most significant change here is not to be found in its larger cities, but rather in the Plains. This is the phenomenon of a Lakota indigenous tribe that is reclaiming their sovereignty – and instituting a silver-based monetary system.
Who are the Lakota?
The Lakota are one division of the Sioux nation, the others being the Nakota and Dakota. The Lakota are a confederation of seven sub-tribes. The largest are the Oglala, who inhabit the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of southwest South Dakota.
This current writer visited the Pine Ridge reservation and saw a society that has been impoverished by a continued colonial enforcement against them, as well as a federal government that continues to violate its own treaties and a local government who’s corruption knows no shame.
Yet this is unlike many other colonized peoples, for the Lakota were never defeated militarily. In all actuality, they successfully resisted all efforts by the U.S. to subjugate them. After the Lakota, along with the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho, defeated the U.S. Army at Little Big Horn in 1876, the government then resorted to other means to subjugate the Lakota.
These included massacres such as the slaughter of over 150 Lakota at Wounded Knee in 1890; chemical warfare such as alcoholism, drug abuse and contaminating the water through uranium mining in the sacred Black Hills; and repeatedly violating its treaties with the Lakota, such as the Treaty of Ft. Laramie that was signed in 1868.
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A sovereign people declare monetary freedom
Tired of this colonial enforcement and the U.S. government’s blatant violation of its own treaties, on December 17, 2007, a Lakota delegation went to Washington, D.C. and declared the treaties to be null and void, and due to this reasserted the freedom and sovereignty of the Lakota Oyate (people).
It gradually became more and more clear the key to actual freedom, in our society based so much on power and wealth talking, was to institute a monetary system of inherent value. On November 24, 2008, Lakota freedom activists announced the introduction of the world’s first non-reserve, non-fractional bank that would accept only silver and gold currency for deposit: The Free Lakota Bank.
“Today is a great day for us, a day that we begin to exercise our rights as a sovereign people with strength and pride,” said Canupa Gluha Mani (Duane Martin, Sr.), Tetuwan Council Judicial Member of the 2500-member Cante Tenza (Strong Heart) Civil Rights Movement.
“We invite people of any creed, faith or heritage to unite in an effort to reclaim control of wealth. It is our hope that other tribal nations and American citizens recognize the importance of silver and gold as currency and decide to mirror our system of honest trade.”
Structure of the Bank of Lakota
The Bank of Lakota is part of the American Open Currency System of Dallas-based Rob Gray. The pure-silver Lakota Dollar is available through currency officers or “bulk orders.” This is designed to avoid their receiving worthless paper money in exchange for selling real wealth. A bulk order means 20 ounces (566.99 grams) of silver plus $5.25 is either to be physically delivered to the purchaser or left in deposit in their account with the Bank.
All deposits at the Bank of Lakota are liquid, which means it can be withdrawn at any time in minted rounds. The whole process is anonymous, as the Bank doesn’t track the names of its clients or the movements of their money. Duane Martin Sr. has rejected Social Security numbers as “prisoner numbers” and hence the Bank is committed to respecting the privacy of its clients unlike what occurs in the current financial structure. “Since we deal only in real money, we do not participate in any central bank looting schemes,” says the Bank’s website [now defunct].
There is a two-tiered security. First a SSL Online username using a strong keystroke encryption program, and second an automatic phone call for the user to enter a PIN number. There is a preliminary period where the Federal Reserve notes are converted into metal. There is an inexpensive monthly fee for account maintenance, a 0.00005 service fee or 5 cents per thousand. Furthermore, there is a General Investment Fund that allows a waiver of investors’ maintenance fees and earns a current annual rate of return for the Fund of 7.24%.
Microloans and the “American Dream”
Although firmly rooted among the sovereign Lakota people, who have a living attachment to their land and their ancestors through language, the Bank of Lakota nevertheless exemplifies a worldwide trend towards micro-loans and separation from the fractional reserve banking system, which merely dwindles wealth through inflation and has meant giving away power to a small super-wealthy financial elite.
Microcredit is the extension of small microloans to poor people in order to spur an independent source of income through entrepreneurship and start-up businesses. It is a revolutionary idea perhaps first proposed by the American individualist anarchist Lysander Spooner for poor people to escape the clutches of the State and those financial interests that use it to exercise their money monopoly. In recent years the most well-known – and successful – microloan program is the Grameen Bank that was founded by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh.
The Bank of Lakota is a model designed to empower people into exercising their inherent power as free beings, by rejecting this paper that is merely a mortgage on wealth which doesn’t even exist and is then backed by the combined weight of State power and the monopoly of what American founding fathers and successive thinkers called “the moneyed interests.”
“We hope that someday the rest of the world will awaken from the American Dream: the dream that a person can sustain life by consuming more than producing,” the website continues.
“We call it the American Dream because you must be asleep to believe it. Well, that dream now has a silver lining; as people discover the dream is really a nightmare, the only solution is a return to value; value that comes from production and honest trade.”
A history of Indigenous money and trade
On July 2, 2010, the current writer had a lengthy conversation with Duane Martin, Sr. with the history and various facets of trade and money when it comes to the Indigenous nations of Turtle Island, the land now called by the colonial-derived term “North America.”
From the beginning, the European colonists relied on the knowledge of Native people to survive on this land. This included everything from their knowledge of plants and herbs for medicinal purposes to the use of Native forms of trade. The most well known was wampum, a clam shell money that due to being found within nature was not susceptible to inflation.
Both because it could be found locally and to avoid the costs of importing from Europe, many colonists adopted Indigenous trading practices. The Dutch colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant paid his workers in wampum. And indeed Manhattan was purchased with wampum.
The most widespread medium of exchange on Turtle Island was wampum, however it was not the only one. The Lakota primarily used their food-stuffs for exchange. It was something of a barter economy, in which commerce was a trade enterprise and not a value system.
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| Maquinna |
However, the colonists became ever more greedy in their search for gold, including in the lands of the Lakota Oyate. This became a justification to further exploit their fellow human beings, to exterminate nations and destroy the land. This was a way that only knew exploitation and not charity, as was noted in a speech by Maquinna, chief of the Nuu-chah-nulth (later Mowachalit) people of Nootka Sound near modern-day Vancouver, in the late 1700s:
“Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. We are Indians and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank.”
Currently the Lakota Dollar is not merely put away and store as a savings for future generation. Rather, it is being used to pay for necessities such as utilities. And the Lakota have a historical basis for modern entrepreneurship, through crafts that are then exchanged. In fact, Cante Tenza has even helped finance its struggle for freedom partially through manufacturing its own lotion from local plants and herbs.
Conclusion
The exploitation wrought by colonial enforcement has continued even as wealth has gone from tangible gold and silver, to worthless paper, and finally nowadays to mere numbers on a screen that nevertheless are used to impoverish entire nations.
This is the Age of the Financiers. The State borrows from the Big Bankers to finance its own operations, as the distinction between government and corporation continues to be blurred daily. Yet more people are awakening to the cruel reality that we are like cogs in a machine, and that everything is part of this Technique of the Bankers. Yet we can escape their clutches by reasserting our sovereignty, like a brave number of Lakota freedom activists have done despite the odds.
Any change must come from within ourselves, from a consciousness within, that sees how value rests not with money but that money is merely a means of exchange – and it shouldn’t define us. Maybe only then can we avert the crisis described in the prophecy of the Cree people of Canada:
“Only after the last tree has been cut down; only after the last fish has been caught; only after the last river has been poisoned; only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten.”
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A Narrative of the Lakota Sacred Hoop Run
by Sean Jobst
Written for a Sociology of Religion university course in Fall 2014….
For two weeks spanning late June and early July 2010, I stayed as a guest on the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. The opportunity came after my work with some local activists fighting the destruction of Native American mounds in Oxford for the sake of consumerism. Some Lakota activists came to assist our cause and from those meetings I visited Pine Ridge as the guest of a traditional Lakota activist. During those two weeks, I spoke with many traditional Lakota people and learned more about their spirituality than other outsiders.
The Oglala are one of the seven bands of the Lakota people, who along with the Natoka and Dakota make up the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires), labelled as "Sioux" by the French who could not pronounce the Ojibwa term for these people, "Nadewisou."(1) Lakota stress how one cannot learn about their traditions from books, because they are passed down through oral tradition. Lakota spirituality is not religion, so any study should not be viewed through Abrahamic lens of "religion." Among the Lakota, there is no separation between the sacred or profane, spiritual or physical. There is one spiritual path based on an interconnectedness of all life.
Out of deep respect of the Lakota people who honored me by telling me about their traditions, which were passed down orally while I wrote them down in typical wasichu(2) manner, this narrative will focus on one aspect of Lakota spirituality. This aspect connects both their spirituality and their current plight as an oppressed people, no contradiction as there is no sharp distinction between past, present and future in Lakota traditions.
Lakota spirituality is linked to the sacredness of the Black Hills, an area I was blessed to visit but which has also been desecrated by the wasichu authorities such as through uranium mining, tacky tourist traps and the unsightly carvings on the mountain called "Rushmore." This narrative is the story of the Sacred Hoop Run, an annual event into the Black Hills that connects the primordial heritage of their ancestors to their own current struggles against the social problems faced by the Lakota oyate (people). Lakota tradition holds that creation began in the sacred Black Hills, so the solution to their problems can be found by a literal return to their sacred tradition through the sacred site of creation. A traditional teacher named Randy Lays Bad recounted the story to me:
"Oral history states that the Black Hills used to be a vast prairie, no trees at all, until on the advice of an owl the animals held a race to see who would be the dominant species. He called on the four-legged and winged animals. When they gathered together they had a race around the Black Hills, in a hoop. That is also why we call that place a race-track, because it formed a hoop.
"These animals raced, their hooves and paws bled. Even though it bled, they continued to race on the advice of the owl. And they formed a groove in the form of a circle. As that happened, the center rose and formed a mountain. Trees rose, plants of all kinds rose, waters came about. The blood that was spilt around that race-track, soaked into the mountain and turned the mountain black. And that is why we call it the Black Hills.
"So the race in oral history is that the animals had three laps around the Black Hills. As they came to the finish line, the buffalo was near the finish line and the magpie was on buffalo. Throughout the whole race, he just sat back and watched. But then he flew off and crossed the finish line, winning it for the two-legged animals, the human species of the Lakota people. He was rewarded the colors of the rainbow by Tunkasila, or the Great Spirit. It is takuskan-skan, something that moves rapidly or swift. Takuwakan, something sacred, something very powerful beyond our imagination.
"From this point on, the first pioneers when they started Manifest Destiny into the plains and as they became Western, the race stopped for the animals because of railroads, fences and the Westerners. So from that point on, our race was conceived to recapture the spirit or identity of the Lakota people, to bring back what was lost and to empower the future generations so they can understand the Sacred Hoop and be able to survive in the future.
"And that is why we tackle many issues, such as the 1851 Treaty, the 1868 Treaty, mineral rights, water rights, grazing rights and timber rights. In other words, treaty rights. Also, fishing and hunting without license. There are many things that we want to give back to the people. Other things that we've added on was drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, gang violence and teenage pregnancy.
"Since we tackle these issues, cultural awareness or explaining to non-Indians that this is not a protest run. It is to let the non-Indians and the United States government know that the Black Hills and the land are not for sale. We try to give back the traditional understanding to the kids so they can use it in today's world. Throughout this run, we teach language, culture and history. Like wolakota, a spiritual balance within yourself, and wowahunkiye, or teachings that are passed on from generation to generation - social skills or values."(3)
The Black Hills (He'Sapa in Lakota) is considered the center of the universe, the most sacred area where holy-men pray and receive powers from Tunkasila. One of the most well-known Lakota holy-men, Black Elk, prayed on top of Harney Peak in the Black Hills for Tunkasila and the spirit of the Lakota oyate to mend the Sacred Hoop, make the Lakota nation strong again, and for them to respect each other, the land and all life. The Lakota believe that by going back to the Sacred Hoop, they will go back to their ancestral way where everyone knows their purpose.
The creation story versions vary slightly according to sub-tribe of the Oceti Sakowin, but the main details are the same. It was in the Black Hills where the ikce wicasa (common man) was given the intellect and responsibility to care for the land. The land became sacred after the animals sanctified it by spilling their blood. The Lakota thus look at animals for their knowledge of Tunkasila. Learning from the animals helps them to survive into the future.
The annual Sacred Hoop Run was established in 1982 and started in July 1983, initially as a way to bring publicity to the violation of Lakota treaty rights. Simultaneously, it was also designed to restore pride in Lakota youth for their tradition, to recapture the spirit of understanding and bound the Lakota oyate together by reuniting them with their unci maka (grandmother earth). It carries on the Lakota tradition of endurance, where young men are trained to carry messages across vast plains to neighboring nations. Spiritually, they are challenged to prove their worthiness before Tunkasila:
"The Sacred Hoop 500 continues on to let the people know the sacred hoop still exists and the Black Hills belong in their hearts. We enable and empower Lakota people of all ages to continue and participate. We run to gain strength, wisdom, and knowledge of the Creator and the sacred hoop."(4)
During my two weeks on the reservation, I also met with Gary Lays Bad, the brother of Randy Lays Bad, who is also a traditional teacher and an organizer of the Run. In one interview with the media, he spoke of responsibility as another objective:
"It is up to Lakota Oyate to make change and make a difference for the future of our young ones because we need to understand that not only is the Black Hills involved in what we do, it is a big part of us. We talk about getting the Black Hills back and that the Black Hills are not for sale. We have been making that challenge for 27 years now. We've been telling them that this land belongs to our people, our young ones, and future generations."(5)
In his personal conversation with me, Randy Lays Bad described the structure of the Run. The race runs 500 miles through the Black Hills, through parts of four states in late June. The first day is a gathering at Bear Butte campground near Bear Butte, South Dakota. The first leg of the run is from Bear Butte to Pine Ridge (128 miles). The second is from Pine Ridge, through Nebraska to Lusk, Wyoming (112 miles). The third is from Lusk to Four Corners, Wyoming (109 miles). The fourth is from Four Corners to Alzada, Montana (99 miles). The fifth and final leg is from Alzada back to Bear Butte (89 miles), ending with a prayer ceremony and a picnic. Consisting of three to four teams of 15-40 runners, the Run is designed to stimulate the spiritual and physical needs of Lakota.
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| The mountain in Wyoming called "Devil's Tower", sacred to the Lakota and other nations. Picture not taken by me. |
Sociologically, oppressed people often have to endure social problems either due to a lack of more positive opportunities, or organized efforts of oppressors to weaken them - or both. In this way, the Run is also designed to direct the anger about poverty and that is exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse, and turn it into a positive awareness. It is also designed to end domestic violence, restoring the traditional Lakota understanding of women as firekeepers in the center of the sacred hoop, with a noble honor of protecting the household and nourishing children that was given them by Tunkasila.
So this is just a glimpse into one Lakota spiritual event and the ways it binds people of all aspects of Lakota society, to know their respective and shared responsibilities. We - generally, non-Native people - can learn alot from them.
NOTES:
(1) Russell Means, Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1995, p. 9; and Stacy Makes Good, "Sioux is not even a word," Lakota Country Times, March 12, 2009, <http://www.lakotacountrytimes.com/news/2009-03-12/guest/021.html>.
(2) "Setting the Record Straight About Native Languages: Wasichu," <http://www.native-languages.org/iaq20.htm>.
(3) Conversation with Randy Lays Bad, in the home of Duane Martin, Sr. (Canupa Gluha Mani), Sharp's Corner, South Dakota, early July 2010.
(4) Randy Lays Bad, "Sacred Hoop 500-mile Run....Nineteen years and still going strong," Well Nations Magazine, May-June 2001, pp. 17-18.
(5) Roseanna Renaud, "Sacred Hoop Runners Carry on Twenty-Seven Year Tradition," Lakota Country Times, July 1, 2009, <http://www.lakotacountrytimes.com/news/2009-07-01/local_news/009.html>.
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[A slightly-edited reflection originally written for the Sociology of Religion course, keeping the same general observations but taking out the parts where I was seeing things from my Abrahamic worldview at the time. - SJ]….
General Reflections on Lakota (and Tribal) Spirituality
My experience among the Lakota Oyate (Lakota people) was a reminder of my own ancient background, and indeed on several occasions my Lakota host reminded me of the importance of knowing and keeping one's own identity as a connection to one's ancestors; without this connection, there is nothing but confusion and one is less than human as it were. He stressed to me it extended far back in time, which in my case was even before my own ancestors accepted Catholic Christianity through the power of the Roman empire and based on the medieval principle that a people followed the religion of their king.
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| The late John Trudell (February 15, 1946 – December 8, 2015) |
John Trudell notes how everyone is a descendant of a tribe at some point in time. This tribal heritage is part of their collective genetic memory encoded in an individual's DNA. This is a knowledge of the experience of one's ancestors, what the Lakota call mitakuye oyasin ("all our relations"), that we are each made up of elements of the earth and connected to it. The reason for being is balance with the earth and all other beings, to borrow for today both for the past and future. In the case of the tribes of Europe, detachment from the tribal heritage occurred by what Trudell calls a religious perception of reality replacing a spiritual perception of reality by force over generations.(1)
Based on the common elements of myths and primordial images, this collective genetic memory can be connected to what Swiss psychologist Carl Jung has called the collective unconscious, which can be studied in both the mythology of a people or in analysis of an individual.(2) Indigenous peoples are particularly sensitive to the ways white people have so often appropriated their culture and traditions. Joseph Epes Brown was an American scholar of religion known for his devotion to studying Native American traditions and spirituality. He notes how many whites have wrongly perceived the Lakota phrase mitakuye oyasin to be a greeting, rather than a prayer of oneness with all life forms.(3)
One of the distinguishing factors of the tribes was that they did not pray to human form, according to John Trudell. The closest they came to it was praying to spirits called ancestors for guidance, but this was still not to the human form. Indigenous traditions of the Americas and even ancient Europe can be best classified with the sociological term animism. Edward Tylor defined this as faith in the individual soul of all things. I feel one of the valuable contributions Tylor made to the field of sociology of religion is to note how the human mind is the same globally among each stage of development, so this should end the bigoted short-sightedness of monotheists who reject indigenous spiritual traditions as "primitive."
Another way Native American traditions generally and Lakota ("Sioux") traditions particularly have been misappropriated by many whites, is confusing the view of Wakan Tanka with the monotheistic view of God, by whatever name one chooses to call whom one regards as the Supreme Being. Lakota spirituality is not henotheistic, meaning there is no hierarchy of deities with one superior over others. Wakan Tanka means "the Great Mystery," referring to the power or sacredness residing in everything.(4) From a sociological standpoint, this can be understood as a diffused incorporeal power. This is also reflected in the sacredness of lands, which is common to various faith-traditions but as Lakota lawyer, scholar and activist Vine Deloria, Jr. indicates, among traditional Native Americans its an integral part of their collective experience which individuals "feel" even without personally visiting the sites.(5)
I went to Pine Ridge with an open-mind and already sympathetic to Native Americans, but it made me even more sensitive to the misunderstandings often made by followers of organized religions against those whose traditions are more spiritual than "religious." In my opinion, every religion has capacities for both these perceptions of reality; it depends on the individual to focus on one more than the other. An example is the way that many mystics of a faith-tradition may look more at the "spirit" of the law without entirely rejecting the letter, whereas many who are more rigid and reduced religion to "rituals" tend to focus more on the "letter" of the law.
So I observed these Lakota traditions without going to extremes. Many non-Natives approach them with two different extremes. One is to reject their way as "primitive", assuming an aura of superiority over them and seeing their traditions in the narrow lens of Western views. The other extreme is a New Age-type tendency to "share" or universalize their traditions, taking them out of the spiritual and ancestral frame of reference that nurtured it to begin with, to be misappropriated by whites for their own purposes. The latter approach pretends to be "friendly" towards the Native Americans, but is still inherently arrogant and paternalistic, assuming white people somehow know best for Native Americans and have some "right" to take and commercialize others' traditions.
Trudell identifies two perceptions of reality: the religious is theory, while the spiritual is practice. The religious is based on guilt, shame and blame. The spiritual is based on people being responsible, not "guilty." The religious is based on dominance and subservience, following male authoritarian figures. The spiritual is about responsibility, respect and life.(6)
The Lakota taught me to look more into my own spirituality, to celebrate life without any guilt or shame. I found a deep respect for the Lakota, who do not set aside a specific time for "worship". They "walk" the spiritual path everyday, in whatever they do. I have a deepened respect for the Lakota people and culture, so much that I can humble myself to learning about both my own ancestral traditions and spiritual path through these reminders that "reflect" into my perspective.
NOTES:
(1) John Trudell, "What Happened to the Tribes of Europe," <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2wGOlVDsRw>.
(3) Mary Jane Lupton, James Welch: A Critical Companion, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004, pp. 23-24.
(4) Julian Rice, Before the Great Spirit: The Many Faces of Sioux Spirituality, Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
(5) Vine Deloria, Jr., God Is Red: A Native View of Religion, Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1994, p. 271.
(6) John Trudell, "Religious vs. Spiritual Perception of Reality," <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbjzujo1Qx8>.
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ADDENDUM:
I also elaborated on John Trudell and a spiritual-tribal worldview in my "Tribute to Carl Jung - II. On German Identity, Ethnic/Folk Faith, and the Wotan Archetype", written 17 August 2020, from which I take these excerpts....
On 26 May 1923, Jung wrote in a letter to the German author Oskar A.H. Schmitz (1873-1931): "We cannot possibly get beyond our present level of culture unless we receive a powerful impetus from our primitive roots. But we shall receive it only if we go back behind our cultural level, thus giving the suppressed primitive man in ourselves a chance to develop. How this is to be done is a problem I have been trying to solve for years....The existing edifice is rotten. We need some new foundations. We must dig down to the primitive in us, for only out of the conflict between civilized man and the Germanic barbarian will there come what we need: a new experience of God." He touched upon the unbridgeable gulf between native Germanic spirituality and the new conquering faith that was a hybridization of Semitic religion with the imperial Roman cult: "The Germanic tribes, when they collided only the day before yesterday with Roman Christianity, were still in the initial state of a poly-demonism with polytheistic buds. There was as yet no proper priesthood and no proper ritual. Like Wotan's oaks, the gods were felled and a wholly incongruous Christianity, born of monotheism. The Germanic man is still suffering from this mutilation." Attempts to fill this void by turning to Eastern spiritual paths were "a morbid sign" that would only "make the original injury worse."(11)
This passage contains a remarkable insight despite some of the verbiage used that on the surface may seem influenced by classical and monotheist ideas about the native peoples of central and northern Europe - i.e. "civilized" vs. "barbarian". This is resolved when we realize the "primitive" Jung meant as the most primal ways of the unconscious, stripped down to the most real and authentic self, especially since he seemed to be lamenting what modern society had become. The "new experience" was not monotheistic, as even the word "God" has Germanic origins conveying multiplicity not "oneness". Jung recognized surviving "polytheistic buds" within the Christianity accepted by the Germans, creating a hybrid bowing to a foreign god while holding to many indigenous folk traditions. It was "poly-demonism" because the Christians turned the gods of the peoples they were conquering either into saints or as "demons", depending on expediency. The gods were "felled" symbolically by the Christian missionaries' destruction of oaks and other sacred trees, such as Donar's Oak or the Irminsul. But as the divine could not be destroyed, these deities remained latent within the unconscious and the landscape itself. Jung warned against trends to fill this yearning through Eastern traditions rather than one's heritage.
His was not a unique perspective but rather one held by indigenous peoples the world over, including many Native American elders and thinkers who have similarly spoken on the need for all peoples, including those of European descent, to look back into their tribal ways to truly know and heal themselves. During my stay on the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge reservation in summer 2010, I received such advice to reconnect to the spirituality of my own European tribal heritage but beholden to Abrahamism I wasn't having any of it then - much as it took Jung years to fully appreciate the Unconscious (as the repository of one's ancestral memories and qualities) and its Archetypes which are highly cultural specific. There are certain symbols recurring on a universal level, but ultimately the Archetypes are tied to how a tribe or people relate to their surrounding landscape and themselves.
The Santee Dakota poet and musician John Trudell seemed to hold a similar definition of "civilized" as Jung, when he said about "the tribes of Europe": "I would suggest every person of European descendancy, that you go and you study – you want to know more about who, your reality? Go and study your tribal ancestry and see how you got civilized. Alright? See how you got civilized. Because terrible things happened. And these terrible things, these are what altered the perceptional reality."(12) Trudell described "spiritual" vs. "religious" perceptions of reality, mirroring Jung's distinction between the Unconscious and Conscious. This monotheistic view that reduces divinity to one, psychologically obscures the multiplicity of one's self and socially breeds leveling political monoliths. Such a "monadic" worldview seeks by its very nature to uproot, convert and universalize all human diversity into a juggernaut of its own distorted image. The Dakota historian and writer Vine Deloria Jr. observed:
"If the propensity of whites during the summer of 1971 to grasp some bit of authenticity by locating, excavating, and embracing Indian skeletal remains can be interpreted as a frantic attempt to discard their own physical, cultural, and spiritual heritage, then the collective psyche of white America was indeed in deep trouble."(13) "A religious universality cannot be successfully maintained across racial and ethnic lines...instead of the message of universal salvation and/or fellowship, ethnicity will almost always triumph....Most likely religions do not in fact cross national and ethnic lines without losing their power and identity. It is probably more in the nature of things to have different groups with different religions....The past history of the West is eloquent testimony to the fact that a universal religion crossing ethnic lines does not lessen wars; it tends to increase them until one particular ethnic group comes to dominate the religious beliefs of the whole group with its own cultural values. Besides the importance of land in religion, the existence of a specific religion among a distinct group of people is probably a fundamental element of human experience."(14)
NOTES:
(11) C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. 1, 1906-1950, eds. Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffé, Princeton University Press, 1973.
(12) From a speech by John Trudell, "What It Means To Be A Human Being," given in San Francisco, 15 March 2001. Transcript: <https://ratical.org/many_worlds/JohnTrudell/HumanBeing.html#keep_the_balance>. The specific points about people of European heritage were recorded and available online under "The Tribes of Europe".
(13) Vine Deloria, Jr. God Is Red: A Native View of Religion. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1994, p. 18.
(14) ibid., pp. 210, 289.
