A word about Native American/Indian religious practices.

Bgéji ode neshnabé mendokaswenen.

Re: AIRFA: American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

Indian religious practices include ritual activities: the stylized, repeated performances that mark the seasons and their patterns, the passages from one stage of life to another, the commemorations of formative events, and the crises of human existence. Indian rituals include thanksgivings, healings, purifications, initiations, blessings. They imitate animals; they mourn the dead; they conjoin the spiritual and human realms; they praise the cosmic order; and they seek answers. Some include whole communities; others are solitary. Some take years to plan; others are spontaneous.

But just as Indian religious beliefs include more than theistic conceptions, their practices include more than ceremonials. Indian religious practices include what foods can be eaten, what names can be addressed. Since languages are usually gifts from the spiritual realm, the speaking of the native tongue can be a religious act. Hunting, farming, the gathering of herbs can all take on religious significance, as can the deference paid to an elder, the care paid in tending a fire, or the averting of one's eyes before strangers. In short, a whole way of life has religious potential. The confrontation between Indian and non-Indian cultures, therefore, can often be interpreted religiously; in the areas where Indian religions are threatened, one can discern conflicting ways of life, conflicting religious configurations.

The issue is whether the U.S. through its federal agencies, its courts, its state and local governments, can acknowledge and respect (even protect) Indian religious traditions that are different from the religious traditions of non-Indians but that pre-date them by centuries upon centuries. A question exists whether the U.S. can make the intentions of the First Amendment and AIRFA palpable. The answer depends upon the will of non-Indians who hold political power: legislators, officials of the executive, judges, etc.

We hope that we can avoid the sanguine view that the U.S. government always has the best interests of Indians at heart. Such is not the case. There is a long history of intolerance, hostility, and persecution regarding Indian religions, a history that is not entirely over.

Quote from Handbook of American Indian Religious Freedom; page 15

Edited by: Christopher Vecsey.

 

Mégwa énajmoyan ézhechkewat ode bemadzet mine gode bemadzejek.

I will say more of what this human does and other living beings have done.

Neshnabék have a deep respect for our dead and their final resting places. We do not desire for those who are alive to disturb them in their sleep, nor do we want them to be studied or used for institutional purposes, or to be collected for eventual display, either for private gain, or public domain.  

Over the years, the disrespect and utter disregard shown American Indian religious practices has been tantamount to a contempt of Indian rights and feelings. Moreover, the society of today has little or no understanding of native Peoples and their cultural ties with their living, or their dead, and the ensuing prying into Indian ceremonies currently going on among New Age practitioners of the era. In our minds, these attitudes are not unlike the past grave robbing, artifact collecting, and other cultural thefts that went on shortly after the Indian Wars and removals of yesteryear. The current crop of Ghost Hunters/Ghost trackers, cultural/spiritual blood suckers, and other forms of Indian Wannabees assures us the spirit of George Armstrong Custer is still alive and well.

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act is just another piece of paper to most of us who live and breathe our traditions and practices. It is probably of no more value than any of the treaties this government signed into effect with tribes during the days of the Indian wars. Our experience with governmental agencies, be they state or federal, has been quite disappointing, to say the least, over the years of our forced removals and reservation status. All we can hope for is that the various state and federal offices will truly protect the rights of the sovereign nations they once conquered. It would behoove the children of this offending nation to remember these treaties and this new law (AIRFA), when it comes to their neighboring Indian brothers and sisters, and step lightly when you go among those who sleep under our beloved Mother Earth, give them the rest they deserve and leave them in peace.

We address ourselves specifically to those ghost hunters/ghost trackers and other culture robbing individuals who are active in areas where our dead lie in peace, and who go among our living to further disrespect our people, to cease and desist from this type of behavior. 

We cannot speak more clearly than that. If one cannot understand such simple words of advice and request, then this government and its people are truly doomed to live out their days in this fashion and leave a like minded legacy for their children's children. I leave you with this quotation:

"The Indians survived our open intention of wiping them out, and since the tide turned they have even weathered our good intentions toward them, which can be much more deadly."

John Steinbeck

America and Americans.

Nin se Neaseno