Being a Good Ancestor

Red Paper

Being A Good Ancestor

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A RED PAPER

Being a Good Ancestor Presented at Keeping the Homefires Burning Gathering Coeur d’Alene Nation, Worley, Idaho June 25, 2015 Battle of the Little Big Horn Anniversary, 1876

This educational project is published by Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples, Inc. P.O. Box 4569 Arcata, CA 95518

- 07.09.15 Written by: Henrietta Mann, Ph.D. Board Member Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples

About Henrietta Mann, Ph.D. Henrietta Mann (Southern Cheyenne), a Seventh Generation Fund Board Member, greatly values Native American education, which has been the backbone of her life’s work for more than fifty years. Henrietta is sought out as a spiritual mentor, and she has prayed at ceremonies ranging from Indigenous gatherings in New Zealand to Ground Zero. Dr. Mann also prayed at Stonehenge and at Cape Canaveral when Indian astronaut John Harrington went to space. At age sixteen, she enrolled at Southwestern Oklahoma State in Weatherford, and she later earned a Master’s degree from Oklahoma State and a Doctorate from the University of New Mexico.

Seventh Generation Fund's Red Papers emanate from the Gourds of Wisdom: Keeping Indigenous Knowledge, an Indigenous Peoples' Think Tank.

The Seventh Generation Fund recognizes that the teachings shared in this publication come from traditional Cheyenne knowledge and wisdom keeping and through Henrietta’s contribution and leadership is shaping Seventh Generation Fund’s principles, organizational framework and program methodology as we look forward to our next forty years.

As we journey through life, we need to be cognizant of the fact that each of us is but a cultural extension of generations upon generations of Xamaa-voestaneo’o, “the natural people of our beloved homelands.” Our good-hearted ancestors wrapped us lovingly in our protective cultural ways—good resilient ways that have carried us to today and will carry us until the end.

It almost defies one’s ability to think about the fact that our respective national languages are as old as time itself, and that they are rooted in creation. Creation also marks the beginning of our respective cultural histories, which in spite of the version of American history we learned at school, did not begin in 1492. The truth is that we are ancient peoples, who are the grandparent generations of our home continents. As ageless peoples: We are spiritually rooted in our lands.

We possess strong value systems and good lifeways.

We followed instructions and instituted democratic forms of governance.

We know to live within the sacred circle of life.

As Indigenous Peoples, our traditional knowledge contains much that is profound and which teaches us to live in concert with everything in our environment. Simply stated and understood, we are to stand in sacred kinship on and with our lands—this earth. Standing in good relationship requires living respectfully with all that exists within this revered, honored circle of life.

We are taught that all life exists within an interdependent, inter-related world, characterized by inclusivity. In this encompassing view of the universe, everything has a place within the circle and depends upon everything else for its very existence. Thus, voestaneo’o, human beings, the “humble, upright two-legged walkers with five fingers” depend upon everything else to live.

This concept appears to be a missing element in the basic understanding of the majority of global leaders and the corporate world.

To illustrate this kinship, let us just consider the four basic elements of which all life is composed: Earth, Air or Wind, Fire, and Water. Not only do they constitute our physical makeup, we are dependent upon them and cannot live without them.

EARTH Man has yet to find that place, perhaps in some far-flung galaxy light years distant from our beautiful Blue Planet where humans might live. Unfortunately, there are those of our relatives who have not lived in respectful co-existence with earth, and tragically, we are beginning to experience the negative impact of escalating mindlessness in the rapid and dramatic earth changes called climate change and global warming.

Thus, as good relatives should, we must intensify our solemn stewardship responsibility to this earth from whom we are made. As stated in some Indigenous creation stories, human beings

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were created from earth, which is variously referred to as dirt, mud, soil, clay, dust, or as the Cheyenne say, ma-omotse, “red salt.” Succinctly, there is no denying that we are earth.

AIR or WIND There also is no denying that we are air, which resides in our lungs and keeps them from collapsing. According to some oral traditions, the wind spirits were called from their homes in the four directions to come give humans the breath of life. Breath is the sacred wind of life. It is the breath of Earth. We are dependent upon air and it’s oxygen for life.

Not only is air necessary for life, it is necessary for speech, as well. Therefore, with their great wisdom, our oldest relatives naturally associated breath with speech, with life, and ultimately sacredness. This knowledge was handed down as a part of their original teachings, and we know breath, language, and life are intertwined, inseparable, and sacred.

Thus, it is that words are sacred and carry a power of their own, and our natural teachings emphasize that the utmost care be taken in the way one utilizes air for creating words. Words carry the power to bring about happiness and understanding, and if used carelessly, they can inflict great mental and emotional pain and harm.

We know as indigenous people the negative self-esteem or poor self-concepts that can result, and have resulted, in the use of demeaning language and stereotypes, in words such as “lazy, dumb, backward, drunken, or dirty Indians.”

It comes as no surprise that our oldest grandparents used their words carefully. Imagine the time it took for them to design interdependent cultural and linguistic systems that provide quality lives and the means to survival. Our respective languages are critical because of the embedded codes of persistence and purpose. All we need do is to look at military “Code Talkers,” who used indigenous languages to win two World Wars.

FIRE There would be no life on Earth without the heat and light of that colossal star we know as the sun which provides solar energy. Today, some solar farms are harnessing the sun’s light.

Without this heat and light, planet earth would be cold, dark, and devoid of life. At a miniscule level, the human body intricately produces human energy resulting in warmth and a “normal” temperature of around 98.6° Fahrenheit.

Although we carry a fire within, we also are dependent upon sunlight and firelight to sustain ourselves. Difficult to imagine, we are related to the powerful spirit sun and to the sacred fire spirit that burns during our ceremonies. The intense heat from the rocks in a sweat utilizes that powerful heat source to purify the participants, physically and spiritually.

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As humans we convert light energy into the resultant warmth of body energy, which is necessary for sustaining life. Thus, fire, just like air and earth, are the basic kinship building blocks to the one universal family that exists within the sacred circle of life. Such kinship ties obliterate all differences that exist between human beings and the many different peoples of Earth, such as: The water people, The tree people, The ant people, The flower people, The humming bird people, The buffalo people, The star people, And on and on.

In short, all those many unique peoples that flourish within the one planetary community we call home.

WATER Finally, there is the fourth and vital element of water, H₂0 that combination of oxygen and hydrogen that falls from the clouds as rain, hail, or snow; which flows in rivers and streams; stands in ponds, lakes, or oceans; or is stored in deep underground aquifers. Water in its solid form is ice and it can be gaseous as steam or fog.

Regardless of its state, it is a common indigenous belief that water is life and life is water. Our bodies have rivers and streams within, just like those that flow upon Earth. The liquid in the blood called plasma, which is primarily water, causes the blood to flow throughout our body’s cardiovascular system. This flow is a life force upon which we are dependent and can truly call “lifeblood.”

Water that has been prayed over can bring blessings to those that drink it, whether it is at a special meal, the morning water ceremony in a Native American Church service, or water that people stand in line to drink when sun dancers and sun dance women break their fasts at the conclusion of their renewal ceremony. Our first grandparents with their wisdom knew and passed down their teachings for us also to respect water because it is sacred and essential for life.

As is true for Earth, Air, Fire and now Water, the four comprise all life. We as humans share this basic commonality, as do all other life forms, which results in a gigantic, all-encompassing kinship system, in which there is no hierarchy. Everyone and everything is alive and stands in sacred and proper relationship to everything else in this relational world. We must emulate our ancestors, who serve as powerful role models, and also be good-hearted people—relatives—who sustain our kinship obligations and responsibilities.

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Like them, we must focus upon our life’s purpose which is nothing short of “being a good ancestor.” We each have an obligation to walk gently upon this earth and to honor all that lives within the spacious circle of life.

The foregoing cultural philosophical knowledge teaches us about our place in the universe. It teaches us about the necessity of maintaining a delicate balance between independence and interdependence. We each are expected to develop self-reliance and confidence, but “being a good relative” also means being consistently concerned about the whole. As Indigenous Peoples, our greatest assets are our cultures, spirituality, and environmental ethic, especially as it concerns our lands and more specifically, our sacred places of power.

Contemporary dominant society has continued to treat its indigenous population as if we are invisible and does little to better our quality of life, despite the government to government relationship indigenous nations have with the United States of America. However, we become visible when the corporate world decides to exploit our territorial resources.

As Cheyenne’s, our great prophet Sweet Medicine warned us long ago about the strangers who would come from the east, who did not follow indigenous ways. He said these strangers would want the land that would result in many wars, but they would eventually take it. He also said they would be looking for a certain [yellow] stone that the Grandfather Great Spirit had put on earth in many places. These strangers eventually found that stone in such places as: California, Mexican Territory in 1848 [49ers] Pikes Peak Region, KS/NEBR/CO Territory in 1858 Montana, Idaho Territory discovered 1852, inactive till 1862 The Black Hills of Dakota Territory in 1874-1876 As Sweet Medicine predicted, aggressive westward expansion resulted in confusion, conflict, loss of lands, and mass relocation of indigenous peoples. This unconscionable land seizure was justified by the 19th century concept of Manifest Destiny, believing it was Anglo-Saxon America’s divinely ordained right to appropriate and occupy this continent from the Atlantic Ocean west to the Pacific. Manifest Destiny is “American imperialism,” and to others in less harsher terms as “nation building.”

American imperialism resulted in a different kind of economy, wherein Indigenous resources became increasingly scarce, particularly among Plains Indians who were dependent upon the bison. The wholesale slaughter of this relative, thrust them toward starvation, a situation exacerbated by the paucity or unavailability of rations promised in treaties. They became destitute in a country that measures wealth differently.

In traditional Native societies a person’s wealth was measured in terms of how much one gave away. Giveaways were a time honored community way of distributing resources. Such generosity, however, became cause of great consternation for Indian agents who were oriented

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toward a different ethic based upon acquisitiveness and mercantilism. Work horses, wagons, and farm implements sometimes ended up as giveaway items, which frustrated farm agents intent upon transforming natives into the image of white yeoman farmers.

Based upon their Anglo Saxon agrarian orientation, Indian agents and missionaries strenuously objected to the amount of time native peoples spent at their ceremonies, rather than attending church services or doing farm work. Farm work gave way to ceremonial gatherings, especially those directed toward world renewal, which required faithful stewardship responsibilities.

Culture barriers inhibited understanding, resulting in some native ceremonies being deemed by government as “religious offenses.”

Spiritual and cultural development must be given equal emphasis with economic development when it comes to native asset building. This is particularly true in view of the indigenous history of America. Following contact, our ancestors, saw their worlds fragment around them as they were confined to ever smaller land areas, driven from their homelands, and decimated by military conflict and the new diseases which immigrants brought them.

Indigenous languages bore the frontal assault of extermination and tragically, some of them have become extinct, or maybe a handful of elders, yet, speak the language. Some are definitely endangered, and children no longer learn the language as a first language in the home [Northern Cheyenne]. Yet others are severely endangered where the language is spoken by the older grandparent generations, and although the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves [Southern Cheyenne].

Serious nation building efforts must focus upon language revitalization and maintenance efforts.

Because we are a people of oral traditions, and in order to be accountable to our ancestors, we must seriously pursue linguistic and cultural preservation. Language and culture are two sides of the same coin. Being a good ancestor, means to ensure the continuity of our peoples’ uniquenesses. Our languages and cultural ways have enormous value and they fall naturally into any plan of asset building.

We remember and know much about things of this world. Our phenomenal knowledge keepers preserved collective memories beginning with creation. Creation stories tell how some people were created here on this earth island; others explain how some fell from the sky land or stars above to live on this beautiful “Turtle Island”; and yet others describe in considerable detail how some peoples emerged from successive worlds below to come live on the surface of earth.

Whatever the beginning, these stories have informed and delighted numerous generations of children and more children. Indigenous Peoples have lived on the land for a long time, and have strong cultural rootedness. Native traditional knowledge ranks among the most profound thinking of the world, especially how one must live respectfully and harmoniously within the circle of life. The circle represents all time, from the moment of creation, and it reaches far into an unknown future.

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Our genesis marks the beginning of cultural development, which is in a constant state of becoming. As much as we would like to replicate exactly what once was, Indigenous People are reality-based. Would any of us want to have lived during the Wounded Knee Massacre, the twin massacres of Sand Creek and the Washita, or in California following heartless Gold Rush days?

Would any of us want to endure the Long Walk, the Trail of Tears, the walk back to the beloved northland, or the Fort Robinson breakout?

Without a doubt our ancestors would make the sacrifice again, because they wanted life for us.

They also possessed the knowledge from their creation stories which taught that they were to live out their days in a compassionate, peaceful, happy and plentiful world. One has to recognize the tremendous wealth of the ways of living we possessed then and still possess today.

Furthermore, one has to acknowledge the spirituality with which we have been blessed—sacred ways that are earth-born and earth-based. We are an extension of earth—this land that has given us life and which we in turn renew and revitalize through our respective ceremonies. We have deep and strong spiritual roots in this our motherland. We maintain our connection to our special prayer places and return time and again to make our offerings and sacrifices, sing our songs, renew our spirits, and to pray for the earth and all life.

Our spirituality is our greatest strength and resource. As such, we must honor and celebrate it with thanksgiving. Our prayer ways are durable in that they survived the relentless three-prong attack by the church, federal government, and education. Religious freedom, however, is a continuing quest, particularly in relation to sacred sites protection. Resource exploitation has no heart and is compromising the sanctity of earth, inasmuch as we currently are experiencing earth changes and its warming.

The Cheyenne initially could not comprehend Sweet Medicine’s prediction that the “earth would burn.” However, it is understandable today with warming of the earth, glacier melt, rising sea levels, and temperature extremes. All of the planet’s inhabitants face a challenging future in terms of earth’s destabilization and unpredictable weather patterns.

Indigenous world views recognized the necessity of a strong environmental ethic, which is characteristic of living in an interdependent, relational world. However, our ancestors’ environmental ethic has been negated, which has tremendous implications for all life. It requires sustained, courage in speaking for the earth and those who have been forgotten by the selfish and thoughtless ones, who are bringing us to the brink of ecological suicide.

What kind of future lies ahead for our children the most cherished of all that we are as Xamaavoestaneo’o, “the natural people of our beloved homelands?” Without the younger generations there would be no one to whom we could stand as an ancestor.

Children and youth, who represent our primary human resource, are clearly a valued asset. Asset building or nation building must develop programs that promote strong, respectful, and

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independent younger people, who are adaptable, positive, hopeful, and who can live in any environment as a good relative.

In this mutually interrelated world of ours, every person was given an identity, a purpose, a responsibility, and certain prescribed kinship obligations. We are taught to remember that people are more important that the accumulation of material wealth. We each have a responsibility, not just to others, but to the humble place that we each occupy in the circle of life.

In closing, it is our responsibility to pass down to our children and grandchildren the incredible ancestral treasure of traditional knowledge, specifically it’s philosophies, languages, spirituality, and environmental ethic. It is imperative to continue to build upon and honor our respective cultural knowledge. “Being a good ancestor” honors the gifts from the past and the hope of the future. Na nea-eše.

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Be a good ancestor

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