Respect and Reciprocity

  "How does a person begin to deconstruct the way they look at the world? After all, worldviews are deeper than culture and language, although both play a part in shaping our worldviews. 

"Hanging out with those who have a non-Western or Indigenous worldview seems necessary to make changes."  (P 128 / Becoming Rooted,  Randy Woodley)

Several years ago at the suggestion of my friend Don Watson, several of us met throughout the summer to read and discuss professor Woodley's little gem of a book on reconnecting with Sacred Earth. Don volunteers at Eloheh, Edith and Randy Woodley's nearby Center for Earth Justice and farm, and wanted to explore their ideas on living better in our troubled world. 

Our Native Voices bookgroup was itself rooted in that summer read, and a small group of us meet in the Fireplace Room at our church monthly to discuss books by indigenous authors. 

"The fires kept burning bright are merely emblematic of the greater fire, the greater Light, the Great Spirit.  I realize now as never before it is not only for the Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ tsa-la-gi) but for all mankind." Redbird Smith. 

We read 1 book a month, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.  Tommy Orange, Wilma Mankiller, Louise Erdrich, Robin Wall Kimmerer, the Woodley's,  Reverend Steven Charleston, Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko....

For next Wednesday's chat, we're reading Dakhóta author Diane Wilson's The Seed Keeper. 

During their forced removal from their tribal homelands (Mní Sota/ Minnesota) in 1863, women sewed seeds into their clothing, so they could feed their families in the new land. In typical fashion, this beautiful tell weaves between the centuries, following seeds and seed keepers. 

Here in the Pacific Northwest, I walk on the land of the Yamhill Kalapuya, and our Native Voices group attends events at nearby Grand Ronde, and visits Chachalu cultural center. (Chachalu - place of the burnt wood, as the land burned before relocation to the reservation!) Chinuk Wawa, the NW trade language, is seeing a revival, being taught and used in community and cultural events. My settler grandma Mary Irel spoke Wawa.

"Tribes tolerated white settlement because tribal culture in the region (Pacific NW) was not based on warfare, but networks of positive relations among kinfolk. The Kalapuyans, Chinookans, Molallans, and all other tribes in the region were engaged in a vast trading economy.... the trade network was aided and enabled by intermarriage between all the tribes in the region (which) helped keep wealth in the families and secure  leadership... 

"When the white Americans established fur trading forts,...tribal chiefs began incorporating the white fur traders and their products into their economy through marriage and forming friendships." (P 40/41 - Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley,  Grand Ronde member, professor David Lewis) 

Longhouse at Lane Community College

Common values among the people who inhabited the Americas for over 10,000 before immigrants from Europe and other points East began arriving:

• Seek harmony 
• Respect the Sacred
• We are all related / web of life
• Honor the earth and all beings
• Look forward by looking back (learn from the past, know where you are)
• Humor (including laughing at yourself!)
• Speak from the heart/  walk your talk
• Listen to each voice  / honor women, children, elders
• Value friendships and family 
• Reciprocity - balance of giving and receiving
• Share what you have with others

Botanist and Potawatomi Nation citizen Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass, Gathering Moss, The Serviceberry) wrote recently that there's more biodiversity, worldwide, on land managed by indigenous inhabitants.  In this clip, Robin talks about the importance of respectful interactions between humans and the land. 

Have you read books by indigenous authors?