The Great Tree of Peace

I am awed by the ancient roots and wisdom of the wide variety of indigenous tribes in North America.  These readings are helping me understand just how fully developed, sophisticated, intelligent and diverse the communities of Indians were and still continue to be in many ways.  Despite the overwhelming ignorance, greed, violence, and abuse of Europeans toward Indians, Indians are still a powerful force on this continent.  This is a testament to their power coming from something much stronger and more sustainable than corruption and violence.  While there is much work to do to make ammends, I believe healing, forgiveness, and restoration is possible, at every level.  It is possible to turn the tides and restore agency to the Indians, and for this land to experience a resurgence of the original power of these peoples.  
I love reading of how the generous Indians repeatedly and remarkably adopted and accepted Europeans into their homes, families and communities. (Nabokov, 75)  Perhaps, with appropriate humility, sacrifice, and heartfelt care, Indians would allow Europeans and all US peoples to stay on this continent and give themselves to the original power of the First Peoples.  There is power and visceral grace in seeing all of nature as sacred.  There is power and strength in living as community rather than for personal gain.  There is power and respect in no longer buying and selling the earth.   
I am encouraged by Oren Lyons responding to interveiwer Bill Moyers' ridiculous comment that the Indians are defeated.  Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga says its obvious they haven't been defeated, that the old ways are still kicking, and the stories continue to be told.  There is a vibrant indigenous government here, among many, that has the strength, intelligence, and capacity to educate and hold us all.  
What if we all listened to Oren Lyons, paid attention to the stories more than textbooks, and gave up our land, hearts, and hands to the Indians in our areas.  Is it possible for us all to learn to feel and honor the Great Tree of Peace in our hearts more than our 'American' fears and concerns?  
I so appreciate Oren Lyons' comment that we must learn to sing the same song, to come back to spirit together if we are to survive.  Its time to stop thinking of what else we can get and how we can love seven generations forward.
I have absolutely no interest in upholding any part of European American culture and will happily sacrifice all of my belongings, thoughts, and beliefs to live in learning next to the Indians, if they would have me.
As I grow through this course I feel my mixed family to have been 'adopted' by whites.  Though my mother did and said things that were Indian and could never quite fit in with 'whiteness', and while I feel she was a beautiful soul and wouldn't want another kind of mother for anything, she didn't know how to fully 'be' Cherokee or to raise me as such.  I feel between the worlds in a way, but with much more resonance to Cherokee culture than the warped white middle and upper class rulership of the US.
I don't feel know enough to 'be' Cherokee all by myself, and I cannot move near or to a reservation because I have a child with a white, Quaker father who will not move.  For me, possible solutions are to learn more about what it means to be Cherokee, to connect with other estranged Cherokee folks in my community, and also to connect more with the Haudenosaunee, my neighbors.  
I don't want to romanticize Native American culture, either.  I know there is no perfect culture or 'right' way of being; that would be extrapolating more white missionary idealism onto Indian ways.  I see there are wounds in many tribes that need deep healing.  I wonder what ways I can help with this.  Is it best to be an ally on the outside?  Is it best to offer myself up to an indigenous community completely?
I have European ancestry, too.  It is challenging for me to imagine and forgive anyone I'm related to in doing what the Europeans have done to the beauty of the land and my people of this continent.  It is challenging for me to take responsibility for any part of that, though I must.  It feels like deep personal and political work to somehow heal the wounds and heal the first contact years ago that created my mother and father lines as white and Indian.  It is my work to give my life and soul to the interconnectedness of all things, to find the right actions to support the Great Tree of Peace and the original power of the First Peoples.  


Nabokov, Peter. Native American Testimony. Penguin Books: New York. 1999. Print.

Moyers, Bill. "Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper" Online video. 1991.
http://fod.infobase.com.library.esc.edu/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=6775