'I too have learned that all things are interconnected.' ö Al Q'yawayma.

"America is the only country
that went from barbarism to decadence
without civilization in between." - Oscar Wilde.

POLITIQUE INDIENNE DES USA, 1840-1890 This non-biased information page corresponds to the official curriculum for the 1996 Agrégation d'Anglais, a competitive exam for French teachers of English. Apache - Artwork © Rhonda Angel - reproduced with kind permission. "No Indian has more virtues and none has been more truly ferocious when aroused. He could travel as invisibly as a ghost, appear or disappear as silently as a shadow. The dusty warrior, with a dash of color at the headband, was seldom seen, and if seen was seldom hit, and if hit was seldom knocked down to stay... Apaches were terribly hard to kill." - Capt. John G. Bourke, US Calvary. "The Apache {uh-pach'-ee} were notorious for... see the description by Rhonda Angel. IN THE NEWS: NATIVE AMERICAN STORIES MAY REDUCE VIOLENCE - In the 1993 school year, teachers at Baboquivari Middle School on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation sent students to the principal's office for discipline 1,399 times. But over the next three years, disciplinary referrals dropped 54 percent, to 639 last school year. The principal and some teachers at the school 60 miles west of Tucson credit the steady drop in violence and other misbehavior to revival of an O'odham tradition- telling stories. In 1994, the school launched a program in which tribe members visit students, primarily at-risk students, and tell old stories and help renew fading cultural traditions. The program, called Cultural Enhancement Through Storytelling, has a staff of three. - Enric Volante, The Arizona Daily Star "Trouble-plagued reservation school has telling change" as published in The Seattle Times, May 31, 1998, A8 (quoted in EDUPAGE). ð Pour les classes de collèges et lycées : ð First Nations - A STUDY PORTFOLIO - materials and Resources. ð Chronology ð Cartes historiques des Etats-Unis ð Native American Geography Quiz - Did you know that "Texas" is a Native American word meaning "friend"? The Twenty-five other U. S. states also are derived from Native American names. Can you name them? answers. THE WORD 'INDIAN' "When Columbus and his crew arrived, he called us 'Indians.' But what did we call ourselves before he arrived? We called ourselves the people - the human beings." -Tall Oak/Marragansett.  "The word 'Indian' evolved from the term 'Las Indias', meaning the people of the Indies, when Columbus thought he had landed there. He hadn't, and they weren't, but the word has stuck throughout the centuries. 'The First Peoples' or 'Indigenous Peoples' is really accurate.'Original Americans' is O.K., but most people have become accustomed to 'Native Americans', or 'American Indian'. It's more respectful of an ancient race which is, after all, one of the four races of man: Black, White, Yellow and Red." Julia White, Native Site.  IMPORTANT TEXTS Aboriginal America (American History, Vol. I) by Jacob Abbott New York: Sheldon & Company. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860. The Trail of Tears by John Ehle, published by Anchor Books - a division of Doubleday, (c) 1988, ISBN # 0-385-23954-8. Walking The Trail by Jerry Ellis, published by Delacorte Press, (c) 1991, ISBN # 0-385-30448-X. Custer Died for your Sins -an Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria, Avon, New York 1969 - devenu un classique. 500 Nations by historian Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., founding chairman of the board of trustees of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. "The book itself is based on a documentary filmscript by Jack Leustig, Roberta Grossman, Lee Miller and William Morgan, with contributions by John M. D. Pohl. It was an 8 hour series on television in the States about 2 years ago. I saw bits and pieces of it and decided I wanted the book. The publisher is Alfred A. Knopf; New York. 1994. There is also a CD-Rom put out by Microsoft Corporation and also titiled 500 Nations. The book is obviously the most extensive. It's 468 pages long and a large size book." -Rhonda Angel. 500 Nations CD-ROM: La mémoire des nations indiennes est évoquée par des documents d'archives: tableaux de peintres anglais et espagnols, gravures, photographies. On trouve aussi de nombreuses interviews d'Indiens vivant aujourd'hui, qui racontent de manière saisissante la vie de leurs ancêtres. Description par Elisabeth Mollard. 500 Nations, Microsoft Home, PC/Windows, 299F. 500 Nations, Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. 3-hour audio. Read by: Gregory Harrison, with special introductory and closing remarks from Kevin Costner.  500 Nations music by Peter Buffett for the CBS-TV documentary on the history of the Indian nations of North America.  The Indian Question CD-ROM. The Native Americans CD-ROM.  "The British and later the US government looked at the the map and thought that we were using only part of our homeland.In 1783 the politicians started to seize "surplus" lands. In 1838-39 the War Dept forced my ancestors and 17,000 other Cherokees to move to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) on the infamous Trail of Tears. Today more than 200,000 people identify themselves as Cherokee, East and West, but not all are enrolled members of the federally recognized tribes, and many are mixed bloods. Most still live in Oklahoma or in North Carolina. Cherokee life still goes in and out of balance, but Cherokee people persevere..." - Charlotte Heth, Cherokee, Ph.C., National Museum of the American Indian, former Professor of Ethnomusicology at UCLA, in Native Peoples magazine, Fall/Winter 1996. "L'Indien, comme le Nègre, vit en dehors de la civilisation américaine. Mais avec cette différence que le noir en est exclu comme indigne par la société de ses maîtres, tandis que le sauvage la dédaigne et la fuit comme une déchéance et une servitude. Le premier, quoique étranger et esclave, multiplie dans une étonnante progression au sein de son abjecte misère; le second, indigène et libre, marche à une rapide extinction dans sa fière indépendance. Au sud des Etats-Unis, on craint que ce ne soit une lutte à mort qui se prépare en silence entre les deux castes; au Nord Ouest, c'est probablement une lutte qui va finir par la disparition prochaine de tout un peuple. Les Indiens eux-mêmes ont le pressentiment de ce douloureux avenir. Une de leurs tribus l'exprimait ainsi, en 1829, dans sa pétition au Congrès: Nous voici les derniers de notre race, nous faut-il donc aussi mourir !.." Texte complet. Ressources en Français Elise Marienstras (Paris VII) reste la spécialiste française de cet aspect de l'histoire des Etats-Unis. Voir en particulier "La Résistance Indienne aux Etats-Unis du XVIème au XXè siècles", collection Archives, Ed. Julliard-Gallimard, 1980., et "En marge. Étude sur les minorités aux USA", en collaboration avec Maspero, 1971. Fonds "Rencontre des Deux Mondes",oBibliothèque Schoelcher, Fort-de-France, Martinique: GRUZINSKI, Serge: "L'Amérique de la conquête peinte par les Indiens du Mexique." UNESCO, 1991. LECAILLON, Jean-François: "Résistances Indiennes en Amérique." L'Harmattan, 1989. LEVI-STRAUSS, Claude: "Tristes Tropiques." Plon, 1955. RUDEL Christian: Les Amériques Indiennes: le retour à l'histoire." Karthala, 1985. BALLAZ, Jesus: "Au pays des Peaux-Rouges." Bordas, 1987. BANCROFT-HUNT, Norman: "Les Indiens de la Prairie." Atlas, Paris; Erasme, Bruxelles; Ed. Transalopines, Lugano. BROWN, Dee Alexander: "Enterre mon coeur" - la longue mareche des Indiens vers la mort." Stock, 1981. CAMUS, William: "Mes ancêtres les Peaux-Rouges." La Farandole, 1973. CHESNEAU, André: "Les Indiens des Plaines d'Amérique du Nord." Les Belles Images, cop. 1976. COCHISE, Ciye Nino: "Les Cent premières années de Nino Cochise." Ed. du Seuil, 1989. COULET DU GARD, René: "Vie et mort des Indiens d'Amérique du Nord." France-Empire, 1989. DAVIS, Christopher: "Indiens des plaines d'Amérique." Flammarion, 1977. DELORIA, Vine, Jr.: "Peau-Rouge."/préf. Y. Berger, Ed. Spécioale, Paris 1972. Marc ADELARD-TREMBLAY et al, "Les Facettes de l'identité amérindienne - the patterns of "Amerindian" identity", Presses de l'Université Laval, Québec, 1976. FRONVAL, George: "Les signes mystérieux des Peaux-Rouges." F. Nathan, 1976. FRONVAL, George: "Géronimo, l'Apache Indomptable." F. Nathan, 1984. FRONVAL, George: "Sitting Bull: le grand chef Sioux." F. Nathan, 1984. FRONVAL, George: "La véritable histoire des Indiens Peaux-Rouges.", F. Nathan, 1976. GRENIER, Nicolas: "Sur les traces de Indiens d'Amérique" Gallimard, 1985. HANSEN, Walter: "Crépuscule rouge: les denbiers combats des Indiens d'Amérique." Pygmalion, 1980. JACQUIN, Philippe: "La Terre des Peaux-Rouges." Gallimard, 1987. MAC LUHAN, T.C.: "Pieds nus sur la terre sacrée." Denoel, 1971. OURS DEBOUT, Luther: "Souvenirs d'un chef Sioux." Payot, 1980. RASPAIL, Jean: "Les Peaux-Rouges aujourd'hui." Flammarion, 1978. "La Résistance Indienne aux Etats-Unis: XVIè-XXè siècle." Gallimard, Julliard, 1980. TALAYESVA, Don C.: "Soleil Hopi." Plon, 1959. "Terre Indienne: un peuple écrasé, une culture retrouvée." THEVENIN, René: "Moeurs et Histoire des Peaux-Rouges.", Payot 1977.USHTE, Tahca: "De mémoire indienne: la vie d'un Sioux voyant et guérisseur." Plon, 1977. WELCK, Karin von: "Les Indiens d'Amérique du Nord: hier et aujourd'hui.", préf. Anne Vitart, Centurion 1988. WHITEBIRD: "Whitebird: Indien par le sang, Américain par la loi." Balland, 1989. Indian Policy chronology. Cartes historiques des Etats-Unis Native Indians in 1998. On the Hopi. MORE DELANOE, Nelcya (essai): "Vine Deloria and the Indian Renaissance." Le Magazine Littéraire 50, mai 1972. ROSSIGNOL, Marie-Jeanne (contribution): "Indians, Settlers, and Soldiers: The War of 1812 and Southern Expansionism." Papers in American History. Keele University Press, England, 1996.  INDIAN POLICY DOCUMENTS HIT THIS OBJECT Indian Web Sites "The center of the Universe is everywhere."-Hehaka Sapa (Black Elk), Oglaga division of the Teton Dakota. U.S. Indian Policy: 1830 -1890 : Composed by Professor James Bolner, Sr., of Louisiana State University, this most comprehensive and earliest 1997 Agrégation Page contains major legislation, important court opinions, commentary and editorials... Also, an early idea of the Internet's possibilities for competitive exam preparations. Native American Internet Site.  Mémoire des nations indiennes évoquée par des documents d'archives: tableaux de peintres anglais et espagnols, gravures, photographies. Nombreuses interviews d'Indiens vivant aujourd'hui, qui racontent de manière saisissante la vie de leurs ancêtres.  The Diary of Peter Pitchlynn is particularly interesting because it directly relates the state of mind, interests, and concerns of a young Indian of prominent Choctaw family concerning the removal from their homelands. Hopi Dissertation Abstracts. In 1854, the "Great White Chief" in Washington made an offer for a large area of Indian land and promised a "reservation" for the Indian people. Chief Seattle's poetic reply is one of the most profound statements ever made on the relationship between earth and man: What is man without the beast? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. This earth is precious to Him (God), and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator... "This Earth is Precious" - 1854, Chief Seattle. "Today there is a growing awareness that environmental and social problems will require more than scientific, economic and political solutions. Modern man has knowledge, but can he let go of his self-centered values and rise above his indifferent attitude, indifferent to one another? In my view it will take a true yieldness to and practice of God's spiritual principles to achieve the balance we are searching for. I have heard and seen those values or principles practiced by our old people. They include being thankful, loving, forbearing and being patient with one another, respecting one another, the earth and all living things.The Psalms tell us that "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof: the skies proclaim the work of His hands." If we heap contempt on the earth is it any wonder that our lives are in shambles? I have the notion that if we overcome the predisposition to subdue the earth, to extract maximum material value, that our family and personal lives will be more inclined to come into balance. We would then cease to be so egocentric, we would be thankful and praise our Creator. Chief Seattle had a clear vision of 'God's requirements'. -from a lecture given by Al Q'yawayma at the Heard Museum on 1-23-1991 and Santa Fe East Magazine, Summer 1991. "Some tribes such as the Hopi were never conquered in the classical sense and never signed a treaty. Technically, some believe, the Hopi are still a sovereign group of villages located high on the mesas of northern Arizona. To make that point, a number of years ago one of my relatives prepared his own passport to attend a meeting in Sweden. After much dialogue, the U.S. State Department honored his Hopi passport. And my role as an artist? The role of my art and life as an artist is to glorify God, our creator. As with our ancestors, Native American artists can help interpret through inner spiritual eyes the world and the environment that surrounds us. Artists will help us to see. They will provide a nonverbal record of history. As a potter I work with the precious earth, the living clay. I too have learned that all things are interconnected... "And my role as an artist ? The role of my art and life as an artist is to glorify God, our creator. As with our ancestors, Native American artists can help interpret through inner spiritual eyes the world and the environment that surrounds us. Artists will help us to see. They will provide a nonverbal record of history. As a potter I work with the precious earth, the living clay. I too have learned that all things are interconnected..." - full text of lecture. "The root cause of the problems that threaten life on earth is the concept of land title acquired and maintained by force. Since modern civilization is based on this concept, it does not hold the key to peace..." - Public Statement of Wiwimkyam of Hotevilla, Keeper of the Hopi Fire Clan Tablets,1997. Full text : Hopi Messages and Prophecies. PRESIDENTIAL MELANCHOLY President Andrew Jackson on Indian Removal, an extract - "...Humanity has often wept over the fate employed in devising means to avert it, but its progress has never for a moment been arrested, and one by one have many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth. To follow to the tomb the last of his race and to tread on the graves of extinct nations excite melancholy reflections. But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissitudes as it does to the extinction of one generation to make room for another (...)." MORE ABOUT CHIEF SEATTLE'S FAMOUS 1854 ORATION Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 18:53:00 PDT Subject : CHIEF SEATTLE'S 1854 ORATION. Original Sender: Gary Trujillo Mailing List: NATIVE-L (native-l@gnosys.svle.ma.us) Written 4:41 pm Sep. 5, 1993 by gates in igc:iearn. "CHIEF SEATTLE'S 1854 ORATION" AUTHENTIC TEXT OF CHIEF SEATTLE'S TREATY ORATION, 1854 Source: "Four Wagons West," by Roberta Frye Watt, Binsford & Mort, Portland Ore., 1934. Originally published in the Seattle Sunday Star, Oct. 29 1887. The text was produced by one "Dr." Smith, an early settler in Seattle, who took notes as Seattle spoke in the Suquamish dialect of central Puget sound Salish (Lushootseed), and created this text in English from those notes. Smith insisted that his version "contained none of the grace and elegance of the original". The last two sentences of the text here given have been considered for many years to have been part of the original, but are now known to have been added by an early 20th C. historian and ethnographic writer, A. C. Ballard. There are many versions and excerpts from this text, including a wholly fraudulent version mentioning buffalo and the interconnectedness of all life which was written by a Hollywood screenwriter in the late 70's and which has gained wide currency. The bogus version has been quoted by individuals as prominent and diverse as former U.S. President Bush and Joseph Campbell. At the time this speech was made it was commonly believed by whites and as well by many Indians that Native americas would inevitably become extinct. THE ORATION TEXT "Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. Today is fair. Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never change. Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the seasons. The white chief says that Big Chief at Washington sends us greetings of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of him for we know he has little need of our friendship in return. His people are many. They are like the grass that covers vast prairies. My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain. The great, and I presume -- good, White Chief sends us word that he wishes to buy our land but is willing to allow us enough to live comfortably. This indeed appears just, even generous, for the Red Man no longer has rights that he need respect, and the offer may be wise, also, as we are no longer in need of an extensive country. There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory. I will not dwell on, nor mourn over, our untimely decay, nor reproach my paleface brothers with hastening it, as we too may have been somewhat to blame. Youth is impulsive. When our young men grow angry at some real or imaginary wrong, and disfigure their faces with black paint, it denotes that their hearts are black, and that they are often cruel and relentless, and our old men and old women are unable to restrain them. Thus it has ever been. Thus it was when the white man began to push our forefathers ever westward. But let us hope that the hostilities between us may never return. We would have everything to lose and nothing to gain. Revenge by young men is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old me who stay at home in times of war, and mothers who have sons to lose, know better. Our good father in Washington--for I presume he is now our father as well as yours, since King George has moved his boundaries further north--our great and good father, I say, sends us word that if we do as he desires he will protect us. His brave warriors will be to us a bristling wall of strength, and his wonderful ships of war will fill our harbors, so that our ancient enemies far to the northward -- the Haidas and Tsimshians -- will cease to frighten our women, children, and old men. Then in reality he will be our father and we his children. But can that ever be? Your God is not our God! Your God loves your people and hates mine! He folds his strong protecting arms lovingly about the paleface and leads him by the hand as a father leads an infant son. But, He has forsaken His Red children, if they really are His. Our God, the Great Spirit, seems also to have forsaken us. Your God makes your people wax stronger every day. Soon they will fill all the land. Our people are ebbing away like a rapidly receding tide that will never return. The white man's God cannot love our people or He would protect them. They seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help. How then can we be brothers? How can your God become our God and renew our prosperity and awaken in us dreams of returning greatness? If we have a common Heavenly Father He must be partial, for He came to His paleface children. We never saw Him. He gave you laws but had no word for His red children whose teeming multitudes once filled this vast continent as stars fill the firmament. No; we are two distinct races with separate origins and separate destinies. There is little in common between us. To us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground. You wander far from the graves of your ancestors and seemingly without regret. Your religion was written upon tablets of stone by the iron finger of your God so that you could not forget. The Red Man could never comprehend or remember it. Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors -- the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people. Your dead cease to love you and the land of their nativity as soon as they pass the portals of the tomb and wander away beyond the stars. They are soon forgotten and never return. Our dead neve forget this beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains, sequestered vales and verdant lined lakes and bays, and ever yearn in tender fond affection over the lonely hearted living, and often return from the happy hunting ground to visit, guide, console, and comfort them. Day and night cannot dwell together. The Red Man has ever fled the approach of the White Man, as the morning mist flees before the morning sun. However, your proposition seems fair and I think that my people will accept it and will retire to the reservation you offer them. Then we will dwell apart in peace, for the words of the Great White Chief seem to be the words of nature speaking to my people out of dense darkness. It matters little where we pass the remnant of our days. They will not be many. The Indian's night promises to be dark. Not a single star of hope hovers above his horizon. Sad-voiced winds moan in the distance. Grim fate seems to be on the Red Man's trail, and wherever he will hear the approaching footsteps of his fell destroyer and prepare stolidly to meet his doom, as does the wounded doe that hears the approaching footsteps of the hunter. A few more moon, a few more winters, and not one of the descendants of the mighty hosts that once moved over this broad land or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to mourn over the graves of a people once more powerful and hopeful than yours. But why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man whose God walked and talked with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We will see. We will ponder your proposition and when we decide we will let you know. But should we accept it, I here and now make this condition that we will not be denied the privilege without molestation of visiting at any time the tombs of our ancestors, friends, and children. Ever part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as the swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Our departed braves, fond mothers, glad, happy hearted maidens, and even the little children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, will love these somber solitudes and at eventide they greet shadowy returning spirits. And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds." THE MAKAH -- FROM FISHERMEN TO FARMERS "In our language, our name is qwiudicca'atx (pronounced kwadich cha'ak). This means -- the People Who Live Among the Rocks and the Seagulls -- and describes our home near to the Pacific Ocean and the Strait of Juan de Fuca; We have always been whale hun ters and fishermen, famed for our skill at managing the rich resources of our area. We owe this success to the wealth of knowledge that our ancestors have given us.  "Radical change came when the House on the Water People -- Europeans in big ships -- sailed into our waters. In 1792 the Spanish claimed our land, but our warriors drove the invaders away. Soon new outsiders were trying to control our property. In 1855 the governor of the Washington Territory signed the Treaty of Neah Bay with us. Our languages was not the primary means of negotiation, and we found ourselves renamed Makah, a word from the language of the tribe to the east. "Thus began the efforts to change us. In spite of our maritime talents and resources, Indian agents and the War department tried to make us farmers. They tried to eradicate our language and our ceremonies. They sought to displace our Elders from their role as our teachers. We are still working to retain rights guaranteed to us in our treaty, and to regain the ability to exercise these rights." - Greig Arnold (Makah), carver, Director of the Makah Cultural and Research Center, in Native Peoples magazine, Fall/Winter 1996. The Wounded Knee massacre (Dec. 29, 1890)... what happened to a Lakota remnant on a cold winter morning over a century ago. "Known to U.S. military historians as the last battle in "the Indian Wars," it was in reality another tragic event in a larger pattern of conquest, destruction, killing, and broken promises that continues to characterize U.S. policy toward Native Americans. Arriving to take up duties at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota only days after this encounter between the Seventh Cavalry and Lakota civilians, in which more than 260 Lakota men, women, and children were killed, Army Surgeon John Vance Lauderdale wrote a series of extended letters to his wife describing what happened. This body of correspondence contains details of daily life on the Pine Ridge Reservation under military occupation. He also shares his views on the Wounded Knee massacre itself and on other tragic events, such as the cold-blooded murders of Few Tails and Lt. Casey. Lauderdale treated the wounded, both Seventh Cavalry soldiers and Lakota civilians. He had little sympathy for the military command and expressed outrage at the tactics used against the Lakota, who he saw as being goaded into a situation by white ranchers, land speculators, government agents, and the U.S. Army." "There is nothing to conceal or apologize for in the Wounded Knee Battle - beyond the killing of a wounded buck by a hysterical recruit. The firing was begun by the Indians and continued until they stopped - with the one exception noted above.That women and children were casualties was unfortunate but unavoidable, and most must have been [killed] from Indian bullets...The Indians at Wounded Knee brought their own destruction as surely as any people ever did. Their attack on the troops was as treacherous as any in the history of Indian warfare, and that they were under a strange religious hallucination is only an explanation not an excuse."--excerpts from an official investigation of Wounded Knee initiated at the request of Congress, written by General E. D. Scott. See the Wounded Knee Site. The Indian and the hunter. "The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development." Frederick Jackson Turner (laid the foundation for modern historical study of the American West and presented a "frontier thesis" that continues to influence historical thinking even today). In "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," a speech to a gathering of historians in 1893 in Chicago at the World's Columbian Exposition, Turner argued that the frontier had meant that every American generation returned "to primitive conditions on a continually advancing frontier line." Along this frontier -- which he also described as "the meeting point between savagery and civilization" -- Americans again and again recapitulated the developmental stages of the emerging industrial order of the 1890's. This development, in Turner's description of the frontier, "begins with the Indian and the hunter; it goes on with the disintegration of savagery by the entrance of the trader... the pastoral stage in ranch life; the exploitation of the soil by the raising of unrotated crops of corn and wheat in sparsely settled farm communities; the intensive culture of the denser farm settlement; and finally the manufacturing organization with the city and the factory system..." "New Agers" and Native Wisdom Nora Bunce, Eastern Cherokee (February, 1995) with a comment by Robert Johnson, an anthropologist. This document is part of the Native America section of the documentary collection, World History Archives, and is associated with the world history resource page, Gateway to World History. 21 Feb 1995 Original Sender: ftneb@vms.aurora.alaska.edu Mailing List: NATCHAT (natchat@gnosys.svle.ma.us) I would like to offer my views on this issue of Native American beliefs and New Age beliefs. I am a Cherokee woman, my Mother was Nora Emory, the daughter of Sarah Willis, who's mother was a member of the Wolf clan of the Eastern Cherokee. What my grandmother taught me about the beliefs of the people are as opposite from the New age beliefs as any one can get. Because the differences between the two systems, there is no way that there can be any merging of the two without one group giving up their basic fundamental beliefs and adopting the others beliefs. I am not willing to give up what my Grandmother taught me. NO! THE NEW AGERS DO NOT DO A GOOD JOB OF REPRESENTING THE BELIEFS OF MY PEOPLE. They steal the ceremonies and parts of the beliefs that they choose without permission, without knowlege. They bastardize them and re-package them for sell to the public either for money or credibility. And I am so very sick and tired of it. What the new agers do to our beliefs is another form of genocide that my people have had to endure. Date: Sun, 26 Feb 1995 13:16:59 -0900 From: FTNEB@VMS.AURORA.ALASKA.EDU To: johnsorl@colorado.edu Subject:"new agers" and native wisdom... There are some very basic philosophical differences between the "New Age" belief system and the beliefs of my Grandmothers. The main one being the belief held by my Grandmothers that we have a Creator, that exists outside of ourselves. We are a small but significant part of the creation and we are accountable to Creator for how we behave toward others, Our Mother Earth and all of her children. As a young person (42) I have to give an account to my Grandmother, the people, and Creator for the way in which I treat my children. I am not my own god. New agers do not want to be held accountable to the Native community for their behavior. The meanings of our ceremonies are lost on the new agers, they can not see beyond the rituals. When the white race "killed" their creator and decided that they would teach their children that they "evolved" from something without intellect, without feeling, without meaning, it left an emptiness in the children. Today those children as adults look around for all sorts of things to fill that void. Our ceremonies are but one thing that these people have grabbed in order to fill that emptiness. But because their basic beliefs will not allow them to be accountable to a Creator, they do not look for the meaning behind the ceremonies, and they only pick and choose portions which serves their own agendas. There is no one Indian religion, as the new agers would have you believe, our religions are community based, and the practices reflect the individual characteristics of the community and the individuals. True medicine people do not sell their knowledge for profit, it is to be shared freely with the people. As a native woman I look to my grandmothers for the wisdon I need, I do not go looking to take someones else's religion. As a native woman, I accept the pain that comes as a result of genocide and I will spend the rest of my life fighting the devestating effects of genocide on our children. New agers do not want to accept this part of what it is to be native. They do not want anything to upset their romanticized idea of what it is to be native. Granted, not all Native Americans adhere to the teachings of our Grandfathers and Grandmothers. They have given up the old principles for those of the Europeans. I believe that this is why our people self-destruct through alcohol, suicide, drugs, and other ways. But I am grateful that we are beginning to look to these issues. Our Elders are waking up and the heart is coming back into our people. We are gaining control of our own lives again, and at the heart of this new life is Creator, our children, and our Elders. Native people do not have the same religious freedom that White people have. New agers have the power to make themselves heard by the people of their culture. They give a wrong representation of our beliefs, they trivialize our practices destroying their power. As a teacher I see the beliefs of my people minimized and misrepresented in the classroom, and our children that are forced to attend the schools are made to feel shame for the beliefs of their grandparents and shame for who they are. The goal of the dominate culture has been and still is destruction of the native by assimilation. This policy has not changed since the beginning of the invasion, it has gone undrground into the educational curriculum and legal legislation that abrogate treaty rites (the main issue of treaty rites is the natives' right to live on the land). At the heart of our survival has been our spiritual beliefs. The new agers carry out their own form of genocide against our people by stealing our spiritual beliefs, minimizing them, bastardizing them and destroying the power that is in them. These are some of my own thoughts. Thank you for asking a native. There are others who can speak to this issue much clearer than I, and with much more knowledge. I encourage you to seek those people out if you want a true representation of how native people view the new agers. Creator bless you. Nora Bunce. Native American Spirituality in modern Anthropology and Archaeology. Date: Sun, 26 Feb 1995 16:37:37 -0700 From: Robert JohnsonTo: Multiple recipients of list ANTHRO-L <ANTHRO-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>Subject: 'new agers' & native wisdom (fwd). There has been a question arise concerning new age beliefs and their "relation" to Native American spirituality. Many in anthropology and archaeology deny or rationalize the continuing injustice of the cultural appropriation of Native American heritage. Many justify their appropriation by appeals to science's "perquisites," or by denying the legitimacy of impact on contemporary Native Americans who hold to their traditional beliefs. Much of anthropological ethnography traditionally has been akin to New Age appropriation in that both can only operate without consideration of the spiritual impact of appropriation on Native American cultures and peoples. These commentaries by Nora Bunce present a challenge to the rationalizations for the continuing appropriation of Native American cultural heritage by American anthropology and archaeology. Native America is not a vanishing people and culture, nor is its cultural heritage that of the dead. Native America History Archives. Please send criticisms and suggestions to Haines Brown (brownh@ccsu.ctstateu.edu). This file was created on 25 October, 1995 Classes de Second cycle des lycées: A STUDY PORTFOLIO EN VRAC Internet resources on the First Nations are considerable, probably richer than any other earthly source... Imposing new names to the Indians.  Pagan Indians... A medical view of indian "frailty". Native arts.  Apache literature  Aboriginal Resources - a true goldmine of information. Pay particular attention to the legal section on treaties, the Indian Removal Act of 1830... Native Web.  American West - about 3/4 down the page is a section called 'Ghosts From The Past - The Indian Removal Act of 1830'. Native People's Study Guide Summer Edition 1996. Hawai'i. Native America.  The Cherokee Trail of Tears: accounts, Princess Otahki. The Chocktaw lived in Mississippi, spoke a Hokan-Siouan language, and were excellent farmers. Being forced to surrender their lands, they moved in 1832 to Indian Territory, and became one of the Five Civilized Tribes.  National Urban Indian Policy Coalition. Indian Policy Center.  From Wooden Ploughs to Welfare: "why Indian Policy failed in the Prairie".  Military Indian Policy. Extermination and Assimilation.  The Army as Instrument of the US Indian Policy.  National Congress of American Indians.  Administrative Policy.  Neo-Term. New Indian Tribe Policy as set by Federals.  Policy Liberalization and Transnational Corpora. Freedom Act.  Trail - Native American Indian Arts.  Navajo Gallery.  Native American Internet Site.  Apache <uh-pach'-ee> literature.  "Noccan Kani" (I am): Indigenous Peoples' Literature.  Indian Arts & Crafts.  Koshare indian museum.  Native American music: Nakai.  Pow Wow on line: get excited ! FOR MORE INDIAN POLICY DOCUMENTS HIT THIS FLYING OBJECT ACCUEIL -- OBJECTIFS-- DE LA PAGE PROGRAMMES AGREG 2001 PREPARER L'AGREG RAPPORTS---- DE JURY - DIDACTIQUE, ECRIT & ORAL: EPREUVES CONSEILS BIBLIOGRAPHIE ABORDER--- LES EPREUVES WIRED---- DIDACTIQUE BRANCHEE FACE AU - JURY DISSERTATION LINGUISTIQUE ART DE LA TRADUCTION -Antony & Cleopatra AGREG 2001 TOPICS -Joyce's Dubliners Manifest Destiny Great Expectations Poverty in -Britain NEWS DAILY --CARTOON YOUR COMMENTS ANGLAIS AU PRIMAIRE--- COLLEGE ------ & LYCEE TEACHING KIDS WEB USE------ PLANS DE COURS--------- INTER- DISCIPLINARITE MUSIC ------- & SONG BACKGROUND MUSIC IN CLASS SHAKESPEARE-- EN MUSIQUE SHAKESPEARE AU LYCEE? 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Internet usage and services grow exponentially, so there may be some links which are slow, or have changed , or even some URL's which no longer exist. The author specifically disclaims any liability in connection with any sites to which links are provided. An E-TEACH vebring site by JS Sahaï Previous 5 Sites | Previous | Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | Site List Ce site expérimental non officiel... lire cet avertissement. This independent, experimental site... read the disclaimer. Vos commentaires et suggestions utiles sont un élément important d'une approche sans parti pris. Agreg Page - first posting December 1996 © Jean S. Sahaï, 1996-2001 - Guadeloupe, Antilles Françaises.