Every year at this time, I go through the same mantra but at an accelerated rate both of recurrence and realization. "Wasn't it only yesterday that I took down the Christmas lights? So why am I putting them up again today?" Then I wonder how I'll handle the holiday stresses. I'm happy to report that this year, each time some lights blew out in the rain, I've taken the darkness in stride and repaired the problem the following day. How unlike me! Am I, at 62 (going on 63) actually maturing? I like to think so. This year I also realized that my focus is no longer on longevity but rather on lucidity. As long as I continue creating something and sharing it with some one(s), I'm still ticking. Well, I believe that I'm ticking louder than ever before! May all of you have the happiest of holidays. Much love and peace, Ed Coletti
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(P1) Philosophical
The response to Bill Edelen's piece on Crazy Horse was overwhelming. Here's a piece from Duncan Lee that was inspired by Edelen and your responses.Crazy Horse has long been a hero of mine. North American Indian spirituality makes more sense to me than any I've run across. The basic tenets and beliefs are logical and believable. It is a constant source of mystery and amazement that Indian tribes who had no contact with each other have very similar beliefs in spirituality. Crazy Horse was one of the best known shamans probably because he was also a fearless warrior and highly intelligent leader .
According to Peter Mattiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, the US government has broken every treaty signed with Indian tribes. From the early 17th Century to the end of the 19th, the US government carried out an official policy and practice of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Indian peoples. What was left of the tribes, living on desolate reservations, were taught to become dependent on government hand outs (many of which were stolen by corrupt politicians and bureaucrats), forced to become "civilized" in special schools and encouraged, if not coerced, to convert to Christianity (or as some Indians call it today, "go the Jesus way").
What the US government did do, however, was grant the Indian tribes some special situations that might help them earn a few extra bucks. One such perquisite is not requiring federal or state sales or excise taxes be collected on the sale of goods on the reservations. Indian tobacco shops have long been a source of cheaper cigarettes. How ironic that it was the American Indian who introduced the white man to smoking tobacco. Now the Indians watch thousands of white people die each year from tobacco related diseases. Sweet, if somewhat black, justice. Unfortunately, the Indians are not immune to the same fate.
Another area in which the US government thought it would try to help the tribes was to allow gambling on the reservations, or tribal land. At first this was limited to bingo and other simple games. But the tribes fought, often in court, to be allowed to offer the same types of gambling that the white man had in their casinos. Now, full-blown casinos are springing up all over the country in states that never dreamed of having legal gambling. Some of these casinos are posing serious threats to the business of white owned casinos. The result of this phenomenon is the creation of very rich tribes who are becoming forces to be reckoned with in business and politics. In many states, governments negotiate deals with the tribes to provide funds for the states' coffers. Recently it was reported that the Seminole tribe of Florida has purchased the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino/Restaurant chain, the wisdom of which I question, but nevertheless it illustrates the financial strength the tribes with casinos are achieving. Only about fifty per cent of the American tribes are involved in gambling and there are still many reservations that are locked in poverty and little hope.
The supreme irony would be their purchasing land and real estate that would begin to reestablish ancient tribal lands. Examples would be land in Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota that made up much of the Lakota tribal land. I'm not sure, however, that the Lakota are involved in casinos. It is still an ironic position the casino owning tribes find for themselves. After three centuries of genocide, theft, corruption and discrimination by the white man, the American Indian tribes are becoming rich and powerful from the vices of the same whites. As the saying goes, "What goes around, comes around".
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(P2) Poetical
First Breath Last Breath
When a baby boy is born
and the midwife
holds him up
as he takes
his first breath,
Place him over
the mother's face
so when the baby exhales
his first breath on Earth
the mother breathes it.
And when the mother dies
her middle-aged son
the baby grew up to be,
by her side
his head next to her head,
Follows her breathing with his breath
as it becomes shorter
and as the dying mother
exhales her last breath
her son inhales it.
Antler
Denver Quarterly
Volume 40, Number 1
2005
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(P3) Political
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