This could apply to everyone but here it is used to recognize what happened to the Native American Indians when they were forced to give up their free lifestyle and culture of living in the wild and to live on Reservations. Much of this happened in the middle of the 1800s. This terrible dilemma for the Indians will be described through the lives of two exceptional Native American Indians, Ohiyesa and Sequoyah. Ohiyesa was a Sioux of the Dakota tribe and Sequoyah was a Cherokee. Both were remarkable intelligent men but with very different stories. Ohiyesa lost his mother shortly after childbirth and was raised by his grandmother. They lived in Minnesota during the Sioux wars, massacres, and hangings. It was believed during these uprisings that his father was killed and he and his grandmother moved to Canada along with his uncle. His grandmother taught him what he needed to know to survive in the wilderness and his uncle taught him to hunt and the way of the warrior. One of the things he was taught was that when he was old enough and skilled enough to become a Sioux warrior he was required to avenge his father’s death and must kill the white man. He lived with his grandmother and uncle until he was fifteen years old when a single event caused his whole life to change. Upon returning from a hunt he saw what appeared to be a white man talking to his uncle. He began to ready his weapon but his uncle motioned him it was ok and to approach. It was not a white man, it was his father in white men’s clothing! He had not been killed by the white men but had been imprisoned for many years and eventually cleared of the charges and set free. During his imprisonment he converted to Christanity and learned the white man’s language. His father wanted him to return with him and learn the white man’s ways. Ohiyesa did not want to go but was obedient to this father.
Ohiyesa became successful in the white man’s world. Among other things he became the one of the first Indians to publish books. They were published under his Christian name, Charles A. Eastman. It is worth noting what he wrote in the foreword of one of his books, Indian Boyhood. It is repeated below:
The North American Indian was the highest type of pagan and uncivilized man. He possessed not only a superb physique but a remarkable mind. But the Indian no longer exists as a natural and free man. Those remnants which now dwell upon the reservations present only a sort of tableau – a fictitious copy of the past.
He later wrote in The Soul of the Indian, in the last paragraph of the foreword his feelings about how the white man felt about his Indian religion. He is repeated below:
My writing does not pretend to be a scientific treatise. They are true as I can make them to my childhood teaching and ancestral ideals, but from the human, not the ethnological standpoint. I have not cared to pile up more dry bones, but to clothe them in flesh and blood. So much that has been written by strangers of our ancient faith and worship treats it mainly as a matter of curiosity. I should like to emphasize its universal quality, it personal appeal!
The first missionaries who came among us were good men, but they were imbued with the narrowness of their age. They branded us as pagans and devil-worshipers, and demanded that we renounce our gods as false. They even told us that we were eternally lost unless we adopted their faith and all its symbols.
We of the twentieth century know better. We know that all religious aspiration, all sincere worship, can have but one source and goal. We know that the God of the educated and the God of the child, the God of the civilized and the God of the primitive, is after all the same God; and that this God does not measure our differences, but embraces all who live rightly and humbly on the earth.
Clearly he was a brilliant man of the world and his thoughts ring true even today. I will return to more of his writings before I discuss Sequoyah but here is a little more about the extraordinary accomplishes of Charles A Eastman (Ohiyesa). His father sent him to white schools with the admonition that “ it is the same as if I sent you on your first warpath. I shall expect you to conquer.” He went to Beloit College where he learned English and immersed himself in the culture of the ways of the white world. He then went East and attended Dartmouth College then was accepted into medical school at Boston University which he completed in 1890.
He married a white woman from New England who was herself an author and they were constantly involved in efforts to build bridges between the Indians and the non-Indian people of American. He became deeply involved in the Boy Scouts program believing it was the best way to give non-Indian youth a sense of the wonder that he had learned growing up in the wild. He worked as a doctor on the reservations, established his own practice and later, with the help of his wife established a camp of their own in New Hampshire in which he tried to recreate the experience of Sioux education and values for non-Indian children.
Unfortunately financial problems and the barrier between Indian culture and white civilization took their toll and in 1918 he and his wife separated (never divorced) and he left New England and returned to the native forests of the Midwest.
Here are some more writings of Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa).
Ohiyesa became well educated in Christian doctrine and was disappointed that the white man seldom lived out the principles of the stated Christian doctrine. It is attributed to Gandi when asked what was the weakness of Christianity he replied, the Christians! To Ohiyesa, the spiritual life of the Indian was lived out each day, he did not observe that in his white brothers. Here are some of his thoughts. More details on his writings can be found in his books and other places.
The Great Mystery
To the Indian their attitude about religion was an attitude of the mind not of dogma. This makes sense since they had no written language. They believed that the “Great Mystery” surrounded and embraced them and was as simple as it was exalted. The Great Mystery could bring them to the fullest measure of joy and satisfaction. They believed they were all created children of God and were conscious of their divinity. They believed they could stand before God without any intermediary.
The Temple of Nature
They also believed there should be no temples or shrines among them save those of nature. It would seem a sacrilege to the American Indian to build a house for the Great Mystery when they believed he existed everywhere.
The Power of Silence
The Indians believed profoundly in silence as a sign of perfect equilibrium, the balance between body, mind, and spirit. They felt closest to God when they were silent. This is something I can definitely relate to since I have attended numerous “silent retreats”. Scripture tells us “Be Still and know that I am God”. Any search for God should begin in silent mediation.
The Importance of Prayer
The American Indian considered prayer, which they considered the daily recognition of the Unseen and the Eternal, as their inevitable duty. They considered every act of their life as prayer and in a very real sense a religious act. In addition, the American Indian traditionally divided mind into two parts, the spiritual mind and the physical mind. They believed that the spiritual mind is concerned only with the essence of things, and it is this which they seek to strengthen by spiritual prayer, during which the body is subdued by fasting and hardship. In this type of prayer there was no beseeching of favor or help. They considered the physical mind as lower and concerned with personal or selfish matters, like success in hunting or warfare, relief from sickness or the sparing of a beloved life.
The Presence of Spirit
As indicated above, they believed that the Spirit of God is breathed into humans (the spiritual mind), but not humans alone but to the whole created universe. This is a particularly interesting since we are just now beginning to grasp that we all share in the same beginning and are interconnected. Because of their belief that the Spirit of God is part of the entire universe, Indians love to come into sympathy and spiritual communion with their brothers and sisters of the animal kingdom. They believed that a mysterious wisdom of animals was given to them by above and that Indians paid homage to their spirits in prescribed prayers and offerings.
The Indians found this interconnection by observing and living daily in nature. However before going further, it is worth including Ohiyesa’s comments on the way Indians considered the unborn. What follows is an expert from Kent Nerburn’s book, The Wisdom of the Native Americans, what follows is in Ohiyesa’s own words.
The Great Song of Creation
Our education begins in our mother’s womb. Her attitude and secret meditations are such as to instill into the receptive soul of the unborn child the love of the Great Mystery and a sense of kinship with all creation.
A pregnant Indian woman often chooses one of the great individuals of her family and tribe as a model for her child. This hero is daily called to mind. She gathers from tradition all of his noted deeds and daring exploits, and rehearses them to herself when alone. In order that the impression might be more distinct, she avoids company. She isolates herself as much as possible, and wanders prayerful in the stillness of the great woods, or on the bosom of the untrodden prairie, not thoughtlessly, but with an eye to the impressions received from the grand and beautiful scenery.
To her poetic mind the imminent birth of her child prefigures the advent of a great spirit – a hero, or the mother of heroes – a thought conceived in the virgin breast of primeval nature, and dreamed out in a hush broken only by the sighing of the pine tree or the thrilling orchestra of a distant waterfall. And when the day of her days in her life dawns, the day in which there is to be new life, the miracle of whose making has been entrusted to her, she seeks no human aid. She has been trained and prepared in body and mind for this, her holiest duty, ever since she can remember.
She meets the ordeal of childbirth alone, where no curious or pitying eyes might embarrass her; where all nature says to her spirit: ”It is love! The fulfilling of life!”
When, at last, a sacred voice comes to her out of the silence, and a pair of eyes open upon her in the wilderness, she knows with joy that she has borne well her part in the great song of creation!
Presently she returns to the camp, carrying the mysterious, the holy, the dearest bundle! She feels the endearing warmth of it and hears it soft breathing. It is still a part of herself, since both are nourished by the same mouthful, and no look of a lover could be sweeter than its deep and trusting gaze.
Not only is the beautifully written, it continues the Indian concept that all creation is interconnected, including the baby in the womb. This interconnection is believed by many scientists. Thus the Indians recognized the baby in the womb as a new creation. Considering the respect of the American Indian for the unborn child one might ask who is the savage, the American Indian or the present society which allows the killing of millions of unborn babies in the wombs of their mothers? The purpose of including this is not to develop a discussion about abortion but to emphasis how the American Indians considered all creation to be connected, including the unborn. Ohiyesa was a great spokesman for the Indian cultures.
It should be noted that Ohiyesa only became an author and a noteable writer who was capable of expressing the morals and values of Indian culture after he learned English. It should be also noted that none of the North American Indians had a written language. This next story is how one Cherokee Indian changed all of that. It is the story of Sequoyah.
The Cherokee nation was once a very large nation whose territory covered parts of present day Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Kentucky and much of the Smokey Mountains. Initially they were peaceful toward the settlers but as the settlers pushed more and more into the Cherokee lands it caused tension between the Indians and the newcomers. First the British and later the newly formed United States offered to protect the native lands through treaties. But the governments never honored the treaties and often settlers moved into the Indian lands. Among the Cherokee there were Peace Chiefs and War Chiefs which resulted in on and off wars between the Cherokees and the white man. Often the white settlers could not (or would not) differentiate between the peaceful or warlike Indians. This caused much mistrust. This was the time in which Sequoyah grew up.
Sequoyah’s mother was married to a white trader who eventually left his wife and he was raised by his mother and her brothers, some who favored peace and some who favored war. Sequoyah grew up as a talented wood carver, as well as a skilled hunter. He was also a successful trader. As mentioned they had no written language so it fell upon the medicine men to tell the tales and history of the Indians. They did this by the use of wampum beads. They arranged the beads to form pictures of the main events of the stories. These storytellers were the “living books” of the Cherokees, and for most American Indians. Sequoyah loved to listen to these storytellers and was particularly impressed with their wampum beads.
During one of the more peaceful times, Sequoyah and two of his Cherokee friends were tracking a small herd of deer. By skill and stealth they were almost in position to make the kill when the deer were spooked and dashed off. Suddenly there appeared three white men with muskets on their shoulders with a horse with a deer strapped to it. When they saw the Indians they offered their hands in friendship. The Indians and the white hunters began to talk about strategies of hunting and discovered they had spooked the deer the Indians were closing in on. They were very appologic and the six sat down and started a fire and the white men produced some coffee which they heated on the fire. But suddenly the weather began to get worse and it was certain a rain storm was coming so the three Indians used sappeling and bark and brush and constructed a shelter large enough for all six of them. It was just in time, the rain came and continued for a long time. Sequoyah’s two friends went to sleep but he stayed awake because the white men broke out a book and began to read it. It often caused them to laugh. He was intrigued by the book and asked to examine it. It was made of thin leaves of paper and each leave had marks like footprints of a crow. It reminded him of the wampum beads that contain stories but the book had so many leaves that it contained many more stories. He was so impressed with the book (which he did not understand) that he purchased from the white hunters for two good deer pelts. The white hunters believed they had outsmarted the Indian on the book deal, as did his own companions. None the less he wrapped up his new prized possession and heading home.
Years passed and his life changed as did the Cherokee nation. He got seriously ill and nearly died. When he recovered he had dragged one leg (he probably had polio). However he prospered, he married an Indian woman named Sally, had children, and became a blacksmith and silversmith. He was a Cherokee that adapted to the white man’s ways but others wanted the old ways back. There was continued tension to move the Cherokee further West into the new Louisiana territory, he was happy to stay in Georgia. The United States entered into war again with the British (War of 1812) and the Cherokee sided with the U.S. and helped defeat the British under the command of General Andrew Jackson. Instead of being grateful, Jackson became an Indian hater who was instrumental in moving the Cherokee further West on reservations.
Sequoyah believed he needed to do something important for the Cherokee nation and he thought of his old project about the talking pages (the book he purchased). He began to work on his project at night, developing an ideographic writing system using symbols to represent Cherokee words. He became obsessed with his project and build a small cabin where he worked day and night carving the symbols on to wooden chips. His wife and family and neighbors thought he had gone crazy and was neglecting his family. Sally, who had taken care of the family while he was away during the War of 1812 was angry that her husband was still not helping with the family. So she developed a plan based on anger and hope. She would burn down the cabin and all of his wood carvings in the hope that it would bring him back to his senses. While he was away she set the cabin on fire. When he returned despite his efforts to save the cabin and his work, it was too late. Sally began telling Sequoyah why she did it and pleading with him to give up the project and return to family life. A very strange thing occurred. He was not angry, he was pensive. He was listening to the melodious Cherokee voice of his wife and he had an eureka moment! He realized that words were not symbols, they were sounds! Many civilizations which began with ideographic writing systems took centuries to realize that words should be represented by sounds and he had discovered it by himself in this amazing moment!
His wife never understood why he was not angry and became even more upset when he redoubled his effort on his project. By listening carefully to his fellow Cherokees when they talked and by repeating the words, Sequoyah gradually developed an ear for the different sounds of his language. He noticed that each word broke down into separate units of sound or syllables. As some claim, he never developed an alphabet, but rather he created a syllabary. It took him quite a while but eventually he developed a sufficient syllabary to show it to the Cherokee National Council, It took several attempts including a test in which a council member read a story to Sequoyah who wrote it down using his syllabary then gave it to someone trained on the syllabary but who did not hear the original story. When they repeated it exactly as the original story was told, the Council was convinced. Sequoyah began teaching the Eastern Cherokee to read and write. He later got approval for a printing press that used the syllabary. In 1828 the first issue appeared of the Cherokee Phoenix, a newspaper printed in both English and Cherokee. It was available to both the Eastern and Western Cherokees. His dream for the Cherokees was completely realized. They had taken the New Way, all right, but now it was, in a very real sense, the Cherokee Way as well.
The success of these remarkable Indians proved the adaptability and intelligence of Native Americans. However the plight of the Indian continued and more and more were forced on reservations out West far from their original territories. Even as late as the 1960s there were Indian protests about the unfair treatment on the reservations. It raises and interesting question for today. Does giving up our Constitutional freedoms (freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom to own and bear arms) in exchange for “free” things like free college, free medical care, free housing a good thing? If becoming a ward of the government means giving up our freedom perhaps we should not rush into that deal. Even better perhaps we could ask the Indians on the reservations how it worked out for them.
Will Lannes