And then I had an experience lifted out of time and space in a rundown, dusty thrift shop in Winterhaven, Arizona when Sundance suddenly asked to visit it.
There among stacks of old books and magazines, a cacophony of throw away objects from locals, Sundance found several volumes of the Stockholder’s Board of the Hudson’s Bay Company founded in 1670 primarily for the fur trading business and colonization of North America by the British.
Gabe Sharp served nearby at the Quechan Indian Reservation as a social worker fulfilling his dream of helping his people – the Colorado River Indian Tribes – to return to health and wellbeing someday. In the little dusty town of Winterhaven, in a disheveled second-hand store, we touched back in time through historical records that graphically outlined plots to seize native lands, and the purposeful use of alcohol to facilitate the process.
At times like those I often felt as if I entered another reality where my teacher and I traveled time channels to the past. There we sat together, carefully reading these documents out loud, and making runs to a local library or consulting texts from her wonderful library, to learn more about the history of colonization in North America. There it was in black and white and without any reservation – the blatant conniving of grown men who recorded their reservations, knowing it was wrong to outright seize land from people who had done nothing other than welcome them to their country.
European culture would introduce a world view so different and with grave consequences on the natural world and a way of life that would later inspire our fledgling republic. The shaking of the Earth is still felt. Today in Canada, native people continue to resist the forces of progress and its underlying economic values.
We were shocked by the recorded discussions between original board members who felt some tinge of guilt about seizing ownership in the name of the King. In fact, they feared he would not go along with it, so they planned a scheme to get Prince Rupert to make the declarations. We laughed to read the names of these men including one Richard Nixon. Though both of us, my teacher and I, knew about the facts of this early colonial period in what is now Canada and northern New York State, we were incredulous to read the actual discussions and plans by a small group of men who would crush nations to get at trees and animal fur. Another evil evident in these meeting notes was the discussion about use of alcohol to manipulate tribal leaders.
The Doctrine of Discovery and the policy of Manifest Destiny derive from these forays by powerful nations to justify taking other nation’s freedom and resources. This has been justified based on power and dominance, and a profound misunderstanding about human’s relationship to Nature. The stockholders utilized religion and power as their rational for violating the natural rights of nations and the Earth Herself.
These then were the ways in which over the four years of study I lived near my teachers so we could do research together. I spent days out and about in the Yuma area with my teachers when I could observe how white culture treated them and explore my own assumptions and automatic thinking about culture and race.
While studying with Sundance, she introduced me to her Catholic faith through the life of Blessed Kateri who subsequently became Saint Kateri Tekakwitha. Kateri was known as the Lily of the Mohawks. I learned to pray the Rosary and made an altar in my bedroom. When I joined the Kateri Society based in Fonda, N.Y. they sent me several Kateri objects such as a necklace, a history and prayer card. I added these to my altar along with a small statue of her. She is beloved among Catholics and native peoples. This may seem like a profound contradiction, but you’ll understand why when I post the next insights I made about the fluidity of Spirit.
To be continued …
Resources:
Susan Feathers 