WE WERE SAVAGES?
~ Millie Chalk
At least that’s what our history books said. We were taught that our people were ruthless, blood thirsty heathens, ignorant of social responsibilities with no conscience or caring regarding anyone or anything.
These ideas were taught in schools throughout this country regardless of whether you were white or Native. What angers me is that still in this day and age, there are many that are under the impression that the lies we were told were in fact the truth. Some under the guise of “expert” or “historian” continue to perpetuate such accounts to feed their own egos.
It wasn’t too long ago that my eyes were opened to the truth and upon further research I found out that instead of my ancestors being savages, they were actually a part of a more highly evolved civilization than perhaps even what we term as our advanced civilization of today.
Civilization isn’t a unique singular creation but the sum of many parts and the adopted attributes of many cultures and systems of belief. To deny that fact is to deprive those individual parts their right to be regarded as valuable contributors in any society, reducing them to mere objects of conquest.
You don’t have to take my word for it. You can do the research for yourself, but let me start your quest for knowledge by listing what most would recognize as some of the most important attributes of a more perfect society.
1. Benevolence. I think I should start with what I consider to be the greatest accomplishment of a people and while western civilization could only value material possessions, in Native America a person’s wealth was measured not by what he owned but by what he gave away.
2. Freedom. This word took on a whole new meaning because with our people each person was governed only by the dictates of his own conscience. Even the role of Chief was that of a counselor, not a ruler.
3. There were no poor among them. At a time in Europe when there were beggars on the streets and people were thrown into institutions for what they owed, here in the Americas a village worked together in common to provide for everyone with the strong hunting, gathering and farming to provide food for the weak, the elderly and the children.
4. Equal rights for all. Native American women were held in the highest regard, owned most if not all the material property, chose for themselves who to marry, helped to govern the tribe, and children were respected and valued as individuals whose contribution was greatly cherished.
5. Even greater than being tolerant, our people appreciated each individual for who they were and what their role in society was no matter how great or small or how diverse. We believed differences created a more colorful experience upon this earth.
6. Freedom of Religion. When Europe was red with the blood of those whose religious beliefs differed from whoever was currently in rule, we believed spirituality was a personal matter with no one owning the right to interfere or dictate a person’s beliefs.
7. Social order. We maintained for hundreds of years rules of democracy that even the United State’s constitution was patterned after.
8. Lovers of Peace. It is said that our people never fought a battle in anger until the white man came and taught us how to hate. Battles amongst our people were for survival and defense of family with homage paid to our rivals that fought with bravery and honor often in the form of a grand feast and the return of those captured along with gifts from the victors.
9. Great Intelligence. From the structural engineering marvels of Tenochtitlan to the genetic engineering miracles of the development of corn and 75% of all the food in our world today, many of our people’s accomplishments have yet to be matched by current technology.
10. Advanced Medicine. When western civilization was bleeding people to treat depression and using leaches to reduce a fever, our people were successfully treating many by using everything from medicinal herbs to performing brain surgery.
11. Environmentalists. Native Americans recognized that the earth was a living, breathing entity that gave us life, not to be disrespected and we as stewards were responsible for her well-being as she gave to us ours.
This is only a short list of some aspects of our society that existed at a time when the Europeans came to this country. There are many, many more examples of the difference between our forbearer’s lives and those of the Europeans illustrating how advanced our civilization was at the time the explorers came upon our shores.
As time passes on we will all someday see who indeed the real savages in our history were. Blood thirsty savages that saw only what their greed allowed their eyes to see, men with no conscience or concern for any living thing, supported by a God and a religion manipulated to give them the divine justification to bring the heathen world to its knees in submission or destroy it totally.
There are many lessons we can learn from our past. One lesson is to not judge a people we don’t understand too quickly or even better to not judge them at all. Another lesson to be learned is to question anything that our heart tells us could be otherwise. And finally we learn from history to let a people tell their own story, for we would know better than anyone what we believe, what our history was and how it affects our lives. This is why Whisper-n-Thunder exists and my hope is that someday through our efforts and those of countless others, everyone will know the truth about the existence of a great civilization, giving us the hope that someday such a society is possible again, featuring all the above attributes that I’ve listed.
Until then we must speak up for what is true regarding our people in the schools, in the libraries, in the courts and to those we come across that might continue to mislead or perpetuate the lies that have existed now for hundreds of years. We have an obligation to do this not only for our ancestors but for future generations, for it is past the time that this injustice of stigma comes to an end. Through our determination, our sacrifice and our love, we won’t condemn our children to walk in darkness but allow them to see the light of hope and reconciliation.
