Return to Native Culture
Return to Native Culture
~ Darrell Day
Everybody knows about the national movements in Canada and the United States to suppress the aboriginal cultures and traditions during the early settlement and colonial days. Everybody knows the bloodthirsty way these attempts were put into affect. What might not be so well-known or agreed upon is the long term negative affect they have had and continue to have on the aboriginal populations in North America.
Photograph: Nora Moore Lloyd All Rights Reserved
At the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, PA in 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is quoted as saying, “Every nation wants to be Canada…we also have no history of colonialism.” (Digital Journal, Oct 3, 2009). This inaccurate statement was quickly recognized to be both false and overwhelmingly misinformed. AFN’s Ontario Regional Chief, Angus Toulouse, was one of many voices to declare Mr. Harper should retract this foolish proclamation. “I am calling on the Prime Minister to immediately retract this inaccurate statement as clearly Canada does have a history of colonialism and for many years forcefully imposed assimilationalist policies on the First Nations people in this country. The devastating effects of these harmful policies are still being felt within First Nation communities across this country.” (Digital Journal, Oct. 3, 2009)
It is this writer’s opinion that the complete oppression and suppression of Native American spiritual culture and religious tradition has been and remains one of the many leading causes of the moral and social downfall of western civilization. I say “one of the many” because there are other reasons for the social and cultural decay in North America, besides the disregard allocated to First Nations spiritual belief and tradition.
I have read in many books, and you could probably cite several examples similar to what I’m about to say, that the first Europeans considered the Native Americans they found here to be beneath them and were, virtually, begging to be “saved” according to their own Christian ethics and moral standards. Yet, our spirituality did not include an idea of an evil entity as does the Christian standard. There was never a “Satan” or “Lucifer” personality in any First Nations spiritual or religious belief. We have a windigo but windigo does not, nor has it ever, symbolized the essence of evil. Windigo is simply a dark spirit, like a catastrophic typhoon or earthquake.
The attempted total disintegration of First Nations spiritual beliefs has been a very grave flaw in the Europeans’ program to build a society and economy here in North America. What was not known or acknowledged in the early days of colonizing North America and building the economical empire that we have today was that one of the main stipulations is the pursuit of INDIVIDUAL and PERSONAL material success. Capitalism provides best for the individual’s success and prosperity more so than a family or group of individuals.
In First Nations’ culture, the group, tribe or clan as a whole, as a unit was always the main concern. The warriors hunted to provide food, shelter and clothing for everyone. The shaman or medicine men were to give advice or seek advice from the spirit world that would ensure the whole tribe remained a healthy, prosperous entity. In our modern society, it is more than obvious that some form of mass healing is absolutely needed or else, God help us all. Alcoholism, drug addiction, crime and domestic assault rates are frighteningly high. What’s worse is that there seems to be no real sign of these things diminishing any time soon.
With the national culture being led away from First Nations cultural and spiritual beliefs, mainstream society ventured and still dares to venture further and ever further away from any sense of union with ourselves, each other and our environment in the process. Our placement of values is always on the material and furthermore, our kind of materialism is only valid so long as whatever it is retains some kind of financial worth and can be consumed (like a car which burns oil and gas or a forest that is clear cut for unnecessary construction uses).
There is an inherent need, an utterly urgent need, for a return to traditional native beliefs and cultural signs. Native Americans and Canadians, generally, are lost in society. Our own ways have been dispossessed and completely displaced among mainstream society. The attitude of western civilization is one of total disrespect for anyone and anything different. Native culture and traditions were the first things and we were the first people to experience the hate and wrath this disrespect is capable of. It is this attitude which further hinders any emotional move toward an earth-based spirituality and/or religion. A return to First Nations culture would be to move away from materialism and the pursuit of economical wealth.
This is detrimental to the overall financial empire which is western civilization. By returning to the real roots of North America, we might be in a better position to help our native youth find themselves and develop emotionally, psychologically and even physically. More important, our native youth will return home to us. There are too many of our youth running away, joining gangs, leaving altogether through suicide, drug overdoses or alcohol related deaths. It is crucial to instil an overall and/or underlying sense of community beginning in the home. This, of course, is what native culture and spiritual traditions are all about.
There is much to be done, my friends, to accommodate a national and ultimately international return to First Nations spirituality and cultural traditions. We have our work cut out for us. It is not impossible. It is a challenge. We, as a people, have always risen to overcome obstacles and when the odds are against us. We never back down. That is how we have been able to survive the attempted genocide on our ancestors. It is how we will not let them smother our culture, our language or our traditions into non-existence.
