One of the most tragic stories in human history describes the
spread of civilization into the lands of the wild and free. This story has countless variations, in every
region of the world, and they rarely end happily, with the wild and free expelling
the invaders. Instead, what usually
happened was that the civilized people proceeded to kill or enslave the natives,
and then destroy the ecosystem, which eventually doomed the civilization.
In New England, the European invaders tried to transform the
Indians into submissive, hard-working Christian farmers. This plan enjoyed little success. In the 19th century, the strategy
changed. Indians were herded into
concentration camps called reservations, or gunned down if they resisted. The Indians were hopelessly outnumbered and
outgunned.
The first wave of my Norwegian ancestors immigrated in 1879
and settled in the eastern regions of Iowa and North Dakota — recently the home
of the Lakota and vast herds of bison.
This was three years after Custer was defeated at Little Big Horn, and
eleven years before the last group of free Lakota was exterminated at Wounded
Knee. The world would be a happier place
today if everyone had stayed at home, spent time with therapists working through
their superiority and domination complexes, developed effective family planning
systems, and learned how to live in harmony with their land.
Kent Nerburn’s book, Neither
Wolf Nor Dog, presents the Lakota perspective on the European invasion, as
seen through the eyes of “Dan,” a 78 year old elder (1913-2002). It’s a perspective that white folks are
rarely exposed to, unfortunately. Dan
had many important ideas that he wanted to pass along to the younger
generations of all peoples, and Nerburn compiled them into a book. The format of the oratory was very laid back
— riding around Indian country in an old Buick with two elders, a big dog, and
a cloud of cigarette smoke.
Dan was a traditional Lakota who had no affection for white
government, white religion, or white people.
He had been angry all his life at what the whites had done to his land
and his people. The conquest provided no
benefits for the Lakota, it was a complete disaster, a toxic explosion of greed,
craziness, and injustice. Yet white
historians described the conquest in glowing terms — brave pioneers conquering
and civilizing an untamed wilderness — progress! God bless America!
The perspective in Lakota country could not be more
different. In their eyes, the conquest
of America resembled something like the 2011 tsunami of east Japan that erased
everything in its path. The bison were
exterminated, the forests were eliminated, the prairies were plowed, and
contagious disease killed millions. They
shot the buffalo just to kill them! They
had no respect for the land or the beings that lived there.
When Indians killed “innocent” white settlers, the whites
howled about barbaric savages and bloody massacre. But the Indians had little choice. The invaders intended to completely erase
Indian society, even if this included exterminating every Indian. The whites relentlessly advanced. The soldiers were young men who had been
hired to kill the “animals” that stood in the path of empire, and many of them
took pleasure in killing. There was no
possibility of negotiation, because the invaders broke every agreement they
made. There was nowhere to flee to. Surrender promised cultural
obliteration.
For the whites, the land was not alive and sacred — it was a
treasure to be seized and exploited as quickly as possible. The Lakota saw the land as their sacred mother,
and they treated her with great respect.
Dan could never understand why, despite their good treatment, mother had
gotten angry and punished the Lakota with invasion, diseases, and harsh winters. Dan wondered what she had in store for the
whites, who have shown no respect whatsoever.
We’ll surely find out.
One day, Nerburn drove Dan through his village on the
reservation, an impressive scene of rundown houses, junk cars, and trash. White people typically drive through and
perceive nothing but “a bunch of shit.”
Dan asked Nerburn what he thought Indians saw when they visited a white
city. “We say the same thing.” “You see a dirt path with a pop can next to
it and you think that is worse than a big paved highway that is kept
clean. You get madder at a forest with a
trash bag in it than at a big shopping center…”
White people are fascinated with the idea of freedom, because
they have so little freedom in their lives.
Dan saw that whites are confined in a world of cages — their fenced
property, their permanent home, their rulers, their bosses, their laws, their
religious beliefs. Indians have always
enjoyed great freedom, and they had no desire to become farmers and join the
whites in their world of miserable cages.
This is why the whites had Sitting Bull murdered. He didn’t want to sign treaties, because that
would turn his people into blanket Indians.
They would turn white. Sitting
Bull said “I do not wish to be shut up in a corral. All agency Indians I have seen were
worthless. They are neither red warriors
nor white farmers. They are neither wolf
nor dog.”
After Sitting Bull was gunned down, many of his people fled
to Wounded Knee, with soldiers in pursuit.
The weather was frigid, but they didn’t dare make fires, fearing that
they would be discovered. They were
cold, hungry, and weak when the soldiers caught them. The Indians were disarmed, then all of them
were mowed down with machine guns — men, women, children, and the elderly.
The climax of the story came when Dan and Nerburn spent a
night at the Wounded Knee cemetery, in a realm of powerful spirits. Throughout his life, Dan had remained in
close contact with the spirits of his ancestors. The invasion had filled his life with pain,
rage, and sorrow. The injustice was
unbearable. Why did the Creator allow
this to happen? His ancestors had died
running.
Dan prayed for healing.
He was sure that the passage of generations would eventually bury the
anger. Peace would eventually return. This is a book I will never forget.
Kent Nerburn, Neither
Wolf Nor Dog, New World Library, Novato, California, 1994. Due to popular demand, Nerburn wrote a second
book about Dan, The Wolf at Twilight (2009).
1 comment:
ISD Live with John Paul Jackson - More About The Perfect Storm
Post a Comment