I chose “In The Light of Reverence” as my resource for this
discussion. There are numerous perspectives associated in the documentary from
legal issues involving past treaty agreements, religious freedom, preservation
of natural resources(both aesthetically and physically), and disparities
between opposing cultural ethnicities rights, wants and needs. Lands that had
originally remained and deemed tribal through treaties were manipulated from
indigenous control eventually deemed public lands. Two significant indigenous
religious sites Mt. Shasta and Devils Tower being open to the general public
denying religious freedoms to indigenous peoples who had revered the sites for
untold generations. Spots as described by Vine Deloria, Jr. as places where the
tribes would “Pray for Earth and continued fertility”. There was reference to
“Spider Woman” who was deemed to be the creator of man, and thoughts that came
to mind that may correlate the disparities of culture between Indigenous
peoples and European was the gender clash between perceived creators with
typical European beliefs of God and how “He” created man.
It was quite
interesting as you cannot access the documentary directly from the link but
doing a Google search I was able to get a link to it through an Oregon State
Cultural Anthropology web class.(link below) Interestingly in one of the scenes
there was a piece of construction equipment that belonged to Peabody Coal(not
directly related to Mt. Shasta or Devils Tower but my curiosity lead me to google
some questions related to Peabody Coal and Native American issues. Check out
the links attached. Perhaps there is some justice with Peabody Coal recently
declaring bankruptcy.
Also, with in the web
link to Oregon State there is another piece related to University of Illinois
mascot and cultural appropriation.
I'm thinking
Yeah! I totally see the connection between changing 'god' to an all powerful dude in the sky, so you justifying the sexist subjugation of the 'goddess' mother earth. This honoring of all things ethereal, intellectual, mental, and theoretical honors and lifts up the cultures which worship these lifeways, while destroying the cultures which worship the earth as sacred family. The funny thing is that the cultures who are devoted to honoring the earth also have a deep relationship with things unseen and ethereal. Its strange to see the culture of the masculine god controlling everything, subjugating sensuality, femininity, and all things physical, but yet violently busting out of the constraints their religion has imposed on sexuality via rape. And rape is an extra specially effective tactic in subjugating an entire culture. Rape the earth, rape the people, then take everybody to church. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteA recurring theme in Indian culture is the importance that they place on preserving what their ancestors created and also respecting the resting places of their ancestors. So of course when they see that their sites will be ruined by the effects of mining, they feel helpless. Leigh Kuwanwisiwma of the Hopi tribe says, “we have failed our ancestors." He refers to a covenant that was made with the spirit-being Massau and through this covenant they made promises to protect the gift they had been given of land and most especially the water on that land. The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 sure seemed promising since it stated that accommodations must be made to preserve sacred places. However, in 1988 the Supreme Court ruled that the benefits of federal projects was more important because it benefited more people than the tribal worship would. It seems that over and over, tribes were promised something and then down the line, those promises would change and what seemed like a positive opportunity would later become just another conflict that they would have to engage in.
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