Jul 19, 2007

Commandments


Posted by Faded at 12:09 PM
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5 comments:

old hack said...

I hate that term "native American". It's so ignorant.

At some point in this country we have to stop generalizing the vast diversity in the tribes that originally inhabited this land.

Just as I'm an Irish American We should address each tribe as an individual race. The Apache and the Choctaw in the prime of their reign would not appreciate being considered the race. Just as a Sunni and a shiite wouldn't like to be generalized as "Arabs"

3:07 PM
Faded said...

well, it's less ignorant than "Indian", which truth be told, is how a majority of the "Native Americans" around here refer to ourselves. Just like I cant tell what Irish clan I hail from, I don't really know what tribes I'm from, tho I've been told before, My family, and thousands of others, have assimilated so much into Americans, that we stopped caring which tribe/clan we came from. I take pride in my primitive blood roots, but just not so much that I have to divide and categorize it to death. I was talking to a friend who lives on a rez in Washington state, and listening to her describe how the different tribes fight with each other over petty little differences just illustrated what true ignorance is in the native American community.

Divide and Conquer worked against BOTH The Irish Celts and the Native Americans. If those tribes had stood together they might not have lost so much. And watching them fail to stand together today just irks me again, whether its the Irish in-fighting or the Indian in-fighting.

4:40 PM
old hack said...

Man I'm happy to hear you say that. Cuz My hypothesis is that If America had not been invented that here on this plot of land there, if they had kept their land , would be divided countries much like in the middle east where the apaches would have been war mongerals against the other tribes once industrialized weaponry was established.

Also I disagree with you that we shouldn't dissect our ancestry. I feel we should all know how we got here and why our original Immigranting ancestors felt it necessary to take that arduous journey across the atlantic.

No German would ever wish to be called Irish. Only in America are we all "white".

I don't think it's a matter of political correctness as much as it instills more of a sense of national pride that our family came here because America was more free then whatever national identity they left behind.

For instance on my fathers side, his father was only the third born American and he enlisted in WW2 to fight against his own grandfathers countrymen.

In other words. Not only is it respectful, It's relevant.

9:39 PM
Faded said...

Well, good points. But I think that when you dissect "German" from "Irish"- you make it seem like there's some significant difference there. There's not. You can only trace your blood back so far, before your lineage dissipates into the true fog of ignorance and our mongrel roots. There is no such thing as pure blood. The more that people champion differences, the more they purposely segregate themselves. I dont consider myself to be better than someone else because I am part indian or part irish. I consider myself better than some people because I am smarter, or stronger, more open minded or more empathetic. Racial qualities mean nothing to me, but then - maybe because I am such an obvious bastard AND mongrel that my mind has led me to this way of thinking.

All I know is that I don't hate someone or look down on them for their race, and everyone I know who has too much pride in their own race ends up looking down on others sooner or later for nothing more important than who their mother or father fucked. Pride in lineage is a useless arrogance.

That said, there is a reason why "whites" have came, saw and conquered so much, so often and so inevitably. They end up checking their tribehood at the door and replace it with loyalty to their national heritage.

12:04 AM
old hack said...

I see your point. I think that national heritage is more in the eye of the beholder though. As you seem to follow the guise that 1492 was the beginning of your heritage. I'm more inclined to follow the philosophy that World History is American history. Considering that America was created by a combination of all the worlds nationalities.

I hope that clears me from being misconstrued as an Irish supremacist. heh.

I think my search for my ancestry from across the pond is in some way inspired by a jealousy I have for the rest of the worlds deeper connection to ancient history.

1:57 AM

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