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Ilse
The Dutch Trader
Netherlands
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May 17 2002
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 Posted - July 13 2003 : 5:43:36 PM
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In light of Russell Means' possible participation in next year's gathering, his most famous speech:
"For America to Live, Europe Must Die"
The following speech was given by Russell Means in July 1980, before several thousand people who had assembled from all over the world for the Black Hills International Survival Gathering, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is Russell Means's most famous speech.
The only possible opening for a statement of this kind is that I detest writing. The process itself epitomizes the European concept of "legitimate" thinking; what is written has an importance that is denied the spoken. My culture, the Lakota culture, has an oral tradition, so I ordinarily reject writing. It is one of the white world's ways of destroying the cultures of non-European peoples, the imposing of an abstraction over the spoken relationship of a people.
So what you read here is not what I've written. It's what I've said and someone else has written down. I will allow this because it seems that the only way to communicate with the white world is through the dead, dry leaves of a book. I don't really care whether my words reach whites or not. They have already demonstrated through their history that they cannot hear, cannot see; they can only read (of course, there are exceptions, but the exceptions only prove the rule). I'm more concerned with American Indian people, students and others, who have begun to be absorbed into the white world through universities and other institutions. But even then it's a marginal sort of concern. It's very possible to grow into a red face with a white mind; and if that's a person's individual choice, so be it, but I have no use for them. This is part of the process of cultural genocide being waged by Europeans against American Indian peoples' today. My concern is with those American Indians who choose to resist this genocide, but who may be confused as to how to proceed.
(You notice I use the term American Indian rather than Native American or Native indigenous people or Amerindian when referring to my people. There has been some controversy about such terms, and frankly, at this point, I find it absurd. Primarily it seems that American Indian is being rejected as European in origin--which is true. But all the above terms are European in origin; the only non-European way is to speak of Lakota--or, more precisely, of Oglala, Brule, etc.--and of the Dineh, the Miccousukee, and all the rest of the several hundred correct tribal names.
(There is also some confusion about the word Indian, a mistaken belief that it refers somehow to the country, India. When Columbus washed up on the beach in the Caribbean, he was not looking for a country called India. Europeans were calling that country Hindustan in 1492. Look it up on the old maps. Columbus called the tribal people he met "Indio," from the Italian in dio, meaning "in God.")
It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain. It must come from the hoop, the four directions, the relations: it cannot come from the pages of a book or a thousand books. No European can ever teach a Lakota to be Lakota, a Hopi to be Hopi. A master's degree in "Indian Studies" or in "education" or in anything else cannot make a person into a human being or provide knowledge into traditional ways. It can only make you into a mental European, an outsider.
I should be clear about something here, because there seems to be some confusion about it. When I speak of Europeans or mental Europeans, I'm not allowing for false distinctions. I'm not saying that on the one hand there are the by-products of a few thousand years of genocidal, reactionary, European intellectual development which is bad; and on the other hand there is some new revolutionary intellectual development which is good. I'm referr
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OH HAI!
Blessinz of teh Ceiling Cat be apwn yu, srsly.
http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page |
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Ilse
The Dutch Trader
Netherlands
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 17 2002
Status: offline
Donating Member |
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Adele
The Huggy Merchant
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 17 2002
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 Posted - July 14 2003 : 02:30:29 AM
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Thanks Ilse...enjoyed reading this very much.
Whilst I agree with a great deal of what he said, most notably, the plundering of Earth resources and the devaluation of other living things, I think he is wrong to criticise all aspects of 'Europe'. His opening statement regarding the written word for example. There are many aspects of all cultures which are equally valuable and worthy. Just because they are different, or even opposite, does not mean they cannot exist side by side, neither one impinging on the other. He uses the written word as yet another representation of everything that is wrong with the European mindset, and this is no different to the European saying that because the American Indian tradition is to relay words by ear and mouth only, they must be backward. Both observations are entirely incorrect.
I am interested to know whether he would desire the American Indian to return to the original way of life...with no external influence. Would he like to see people of other cultures and races 'convert' to the American Indian way of life, instead of the American Indian being assimilated into European culture?
His attitude to the labelling of the American Indian was good to see. I have never understood the obsession with labelling. In the same way as the rules are constantly changing on whether black is an acceptable term to replace coloured...blah blah blah, it does nothing except draw attention from the real depth of the problem. It is cosmetics. A word is a word, it is how it is used, and by whom it is used, that determines whether or not it is derogatory. People have a tendency to look no further than the word, they miss context and intention - far more important.
HM |
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richfed
Sachem
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 13 2002
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Posted - July 14 2003 : 06:17:12 AM
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Well, this will make for a most interesting Gathering!
BTW, I'd change "possible" to "probable," Ilse ... as long as no film comes up & we raise the money, he's here! The wheels are turning ... |
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For America to Live, Europe Must Die
