Tangent to the Present...

Thus far I’ve explained how this whole adventure started for me.  There is still much that has transpired between choosing the tribes in my story, learning more about them and today.  Suffice it to say, I have already invested quite a significant amount of time in this project, mostly in researching and printing from the internet and then studying that information.  I am currently reading an old book on the Cheyenne, called “The Cheyenne Indians: Their History and Ways of Life, Volume 1” by George Bird Grinnell.  I am only about a quarter of the way through the book, but it has already done a great deal in helping me understand and get to know these amazing people.  Besides this book, I have its second volume and another by John Stands in Timber to read as well. 

As a people in general my impression is that they seem to have a great sense of humor, a deep devotion to family and community, a strong sense of morality, and a strong balanced character; things taught from a very early age. Each day as I read a portion of this book, my respect grows and I can only wish that history could have been different, but I can hope that the future will only grow brighter and brighter.  There are many things here that the white man could learn from, then, and still today.

I think one of the things that right now I am coming to see as the most misunderstood, is the “warfare”.  And I say that not just in relation to the Cheyenne and Crow, but to the native tribes in general.  I believe I understand it better, and have a wholly different perspective on it than before. It is not at all the blood thirsty, always vengeful, thievery portrayed in literature and theatrical arts.  That seems wholly a white man’s application of their own cultural beliefs, never mind the highly likely intentional misrepresentation to make one look superior over another. I ask you not to forget that people are people, they have families who love them and rely on them, and can’t afford to lose them.  The previous being said, I do not feel yet, that I can express the true nature of it all; such as to do the subject justice.  So for now, I withdraw further comment, except to say this: even if you are inclined to believe the portrayals rather than researching and understanding it for yourself, I ask you to consider your own ethnic background and I venture to suppose that you will find the portrayal you find so easy to place on another, fits your own distant history a might bit better.  I do not think that there is any race or culture that can look back, or even presently, and not find this type of warfare.

On another subject, let’s talk language.  I cannot explain why I feel this, but I feel that you somehow have a better sense of a culture when you understand its language.  As of now, I know three languages, at various levels of proficiency.   They are, in order of proficiency, if not order learned, English, German and Spanish.  I tried at one time to learn Russian, but learning a new character set and language proved too challenging for the time I had to invest in it.  Tonight I decided to brave learning some Cheyenne.  I say some, because I do not believe that without the ability to interact with someone well versed in a language, one can learn it to great fluency.  You need to hear it spoken to pick up the correct tones and pronunciation. However, I did order a CD set and downloaded every PDF document the Chief Dull Knife College website had on the language, as well as some others available on their partner site.

And so off I set to learn even more… am I spreading myself too thin?

Where to start?

So my little epic journey into the discovery of understanding of a culture foreign to me had begun.  And naturally, the first question to arise is, as the title of this section implies, “Where do I start?”  There are so many tribes, never mind the dizzying topics that arise when trying to learn of another culture.  My respect for the field of anthropology grew rapidly.  I am far from one learned in this field, but a computer programmer by my schooling and profession.  However, I am logical and analytical by nature, and I suspected these qualities would lend themselves greatly to the journey ahead.

Putting these qualities to immediate use, I began to break down my problem.  I needed to find a focus and wind my way outwards from there.  Immediately, various thoughts blazed their way through my mind, various stories told, generalizations heard of, questions that begged answering.  Do I start with an element that makes up a culture and investigate it, could perhaps all Native Americans have the same beliefs and culture or be similar enough to one another?  That rang absurd almost as immediately as I wondered it. 

I then realized that I needed to look closer.  The catalyst that had started me on this journey was my story and the desire that the story be told in truth.  So then, that is where I had to start and I soon mapped out the foundational concepts I had conjured up on that vacation’s drive home.  In doing this, I found something that needed to be settled.  I had two tribes in the story, and quite literally that is what they were listed as “main tribe” and “enemy tribe”; after all, every story has to have an antagonist.  At this point, they were nameless; which to me was a pitiful state for two brave nations.  Here was a path to follow, discover the names of these two tribes.

The only thing I was certain of was where I wanted the story to take place, on the northern central plains of the Americas.  Here again, my ignorance was quickly made evident to me.  You see, while I knew enough to know that tribes like Navajo, Apache, Hopi were all southwestern tribes; Cherokee and Mohican eastern; Paiute close to the area where I grew up; the only plains tribe that I could state with certainty, thank you Hollywood, was the Sioux, and I guessed perhaps the Pawnee as they always seemed to be in the antagonist role for Hollywood that I could recall.  I’ve heard of many other tribes, but I wouldn’t have been able to put them on a map with any amount of accuracy upon which I would wager even a single copper cent; were I the wagering sort.   

Thus I had come upon the next stepping stone on my path of discovery, “who lived on the northern and central plains?”  In researching I soon found familiar names flooding the pages; Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Pawnee, Sioux to name the big guns on the block; the Blackfoot, Comanche, Kiowa, Shoshone, and Ute reached too far away from where I wanted the story to take place and so I could cut my list in half rather quickly.  I narrowed the list further quite easily as I took my own over-familiarity as a clue and guide, I would not use the Sioux or Pawnee as one of the two main tribes.  Researching the remaining tribes, a comfort, familiarity and respect began to grow and I settled into my main choice, the tribe known to most as the Cheyenne.

As with every bend in the road of a journey, something new to discover can lie just behind that bend, and so it did with the identifying what I thought was one tribe.  I soon discovered there are two parts to the Cheyenne nation, the Northern Cheyenne and the Southern Cheyenne.  However, in short I discovered that they are named so simply for the locality of the reservations on which they were forced to live, one in Montana and the other in Oklahoma, respectively.  They are one people though.  However, as anyone can logically infer, the longer people once from the same area stay apart in different areas, the more likely that certain differences will arise amongst them.  While the current reservations are in Montana and Oklahoma, that is by no means their original homeland.  Just as most plains tribes were, so too were the Cheyenne a nomadic group that relied upon the buffalo.  From my research, it seems they roamed primarily the areas of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado.  That being said and remembering their nomadic nature, there are accounts of ventures outside of this.

While in English they may be referred to as the Cheyenne, it is important to me to show honor and respect for their true name. They are the Tsitsistas and So’taeo’o people; spellings, of the last of these especially, vary.

So then, I had my main tribe, what then of the other; the one I had labeled as the “enemy tribe”?  I made my choice not out of derision or in any way in a manner meaning to degrade a proud and noble people.  I made my choice based upon the historical fact of who was the natural antagonist tribe of the Cheyenne.  That quickly became clear and I found the tribe most know as the Crow, or as they call themselves, the Apsa'alooke.  Interestingly, today the Crow reservation borders the eastern edge of the Cheyenne reservation in Montana, but reaches a bit into Wyoming as well.

I had taken my first steps.  I had found a path to follow and from these early first excursions into unknown territory, I had found my focus, the Cheyenne and Crow peoples.  The next step was a natural one; find reliable accurate information to educate myself about the daily lives, the customs and the experiences of these tribes in the nineteenth century.  As I set off on this next leg of my journey, excited to learn, in the recesses of my mind I knew it would not always be easy, and I expected I would shortly find hurt and heartache.

The beginning...

A little over two months ago, a great passion awoke in me, began to dominate my thoughts, and has since taken me by the hand to walk a path of learning and enlightenment.  When these things happen in one’s life, there is a choice to be made; to follow or not to follow.  In today’s modern age, too often the choice is to ignore the simpler things, those things without perhaps, material benefit.  Why then do something if there is no material benefit?  Sometimes the journey itself is the benefit.  For me, I don’t need to benefit in a material way, a spiritual connection to understanding and the growth of this alone, is to me, a benefit.  I have chosen to follow this passion and to experience whatever lies ahead.

As with an actual literal road, I expect there will be smooth comfortable parts, bumpy and rough stretches and some neigh impassable areas.  Some of these may prove to be completely impassable, while others may eventually be overcome with the assistance of a guide.  My only plan is to enjoy all facets of this journey.  Even when the going gets tough, as I am quite sure it will, there is something good in it for me to learn; of that I am confident. 

One would have the right to ask what course it is that I am charting.  Just as a prospector will probably not reveal his final destination, so too shall certain things about my endeavor be mentioned without great detail.  However, general knowledge tells us that a prospector searches for treasure and he may well at least divulge what sort of treasure.  So too, shall I divulge the two pronged nature of the journey I undertake.

The first prong:  It is my intention to write down a story; a story that developed during a long drive home from vacation; a story that was sparked by a conversation between a friend and me.  The story is centered deep in the heart of the lands stolen from the Native American peoples.  At its heart is a way of life that was maligned by the presses of the time, erroneously portrayed by Hollywood and nearly completely misunderstood by most non-Native Americans; myself included. 

My story grew and developed in my mind from the fertile seed planted that one day in August 2011.  With time I came to realize that I wanted this story to be able to stand strong and proud; just as the Native American people did, do and should continue to do.  I wanted this story to be one that would not make the head of a Native American who read it shake in disappointment, but perhaps instead, smile as the events, the plots and the storylines that weave the story’s tapestry, weave it in truth.

This meant a second prong to my journey.  A prong of learning, researching and digging deep to understand as best I can, the true realities of Native American life before the twentieth century.  This is a massive commitment that I do not believe I had full grasp of as I began researching the internet, reading books and watching PBS documentaries told from a Native American perspective.  However, I am slowly beginning to see how little I understood and how much more I still have to understand.  Though it already gives me great pleasure to know my thinking and understanding have been adjusted in many ways already; it is also an honor and privilege to be able to set straight the misconceptions of some people around me.  In saying that, I do not by any stretch of the imagination think that peoples as wise, strong and proud as the Native American peoples are, need little old me to defend them.  However I will present for consideration the following: if you have a dear friend that is maligned and slandered or even just had a negative comment made about them, would you not out of loyalty and human love want to speak up?  This is all I endeavor.  I am not so presumptuous as to think it is needed, and perhaps in some cases, not even wanted.

And so, I’ve started my journey already.  When not attending to work, home or spiritual obligations, my free time is mostly spent learning and writing.   And now, I decided to document the experiences and discoveries along the way in this blog.  And perhaps, just perhaps, my musings here will inspire you to follow a simple passion that awakes inside you.