Month: May 2021

Have you ever wondered what happens when life ends? I’m sure you have and believe this or that. There are so many different beliefs or if you prefer religions out there today.

Here is the rub what do Indians of India believe? I may step on some sacred cows here but what the heck! Oh, cows yea the Hindus believe they are sacred and yet people are starving.  Just as with the many cows wandering around they have as many gods.

The Buddhist are told once you reach enlightenment you’ve attained everything.  Can one really reach such a point? What is enlightenment?

Is it reached in death: reincarnation into nirvana?

Surely some like the Mormons or Latter-day-Saints teach that your own righteousness makes you worthy enough to populate your own planet in the afterlife. You become a god maker.

Some Muslim preach that dying for Allah means you get to have some 79 or something like that virgins as gifts from him? Begs the questions where are they going to come from and how old will they be?

How about Christians? I know that a belief in Christ Jesus means eternal life through his death, burial and resurrection. A belief that we are sinners and in need of a savior.

Indians, also called native Americans -First peoples, natives, or indigenous are separate groups and have their own beliefs too. Now exactly what do we, they believe?

They believe in the great spirit. They believe in doing sweats to purify the spirit as well as cleanse the body and mind.

They have healing ceremonies. And some even are keepers of sacred things. Like fire, the drum, the mountains and trees.

I heard one say that its spiritual and doesn’t matter which race or color you are.

Indians have their own church the Native American Church. Peyote is used to enhance the spiritual experience. As with all things they say that it is open to anyone who wants to join.

Well, there is the teaching though I’m not sure where it came from. The story or belief in the happy hunting ground. Why a hunting ground if we are spirits, do, we hunger? Can one kill a spirit bear or buffalo and what would it taste like?

One would certainly hope that its’ not all hunted out for spirit fur or for spirit housing or other things. Surely no spirit tribal casinos there?

There is the belief that we came from under the earth. Hmm the bible does say that God formed man from the dirt?

When I was growing up, we played in the dirt and got it all over us. Our parents especially mom scolded us sometimes harshly for getting dirty and muddy!  Come to think about it weren’t we just playing with parts of our DNA?  You think maybe?

Who knows?

Do you know where you will go?

If as people who are spiritual as the firekeeper said don’t it make you wonder about the spiritual hereafter?

April is known as the rainy month as the saying goes “April showers bring May flowers.”

It also has April Fools’ day and sometimes it does fool us even when things have turned green. Just as you think no more freezing weather that’s when the old man from the north blows in.

He brings with him cold air and occasionally ice and snow.

Like the other night at church as one person said “did you see the snow it was just white?” My brow furrowed as I asked the question “white huh, what color was it supposed to be?”

Ok, so I can be a smart-alex at times.

No, it’s not misspelled!

I was searching through the history of my tribe when I came across a government program known as “The Federal Relocation Act.” It was used to relocate Indians off the reservations to cities. With promises of jobs and places to live. Its’ purpose was to help (or maybe better force) the Indian to assimilate into white society. It didn’t quite work out like they thought it would.

It really didn’t work out well as many of those that went became homeless, alcoholics, and impoverished. A whole culture was changed not for the good. Yet some did survive but most went home.

I use white society because that was the terms used in those days. It is true color was an issue and most of society saw the Indian on tv a raiding, a scalping, and a raping. It wasn’t all that unusual to find prejudice and work harder to find.

Again, we see parallels with other races of color and their fight for rights to be who they are.

I watched a show with Denzel Washington about the struggle in South Africa for their rights. In one scene he was in court and the judge asked him “why he called himself black when he was more brown than black? To which Denzel’s character replied well why do you say you’re white when you’re more pink than white?”

It was true he did look more pink.

I told my wife that I had used a line in story of an Indian coming out onto the street and seeing all the people passing by. He saw different colors some black, brown, greenish tinted ones, and some pink yes pink not all white people are just white!

You have to meet others from Africa to see and a variation in color we call black..

These days the news outlets make a great deal of saying that the government now is represented by some people of color. Why is it that there seems to be only black and brown are those we consider of color?

In grade school we had crayons that had at that time maybe 12 colors and white was one of them.

I told people this story about my sister buying a television set for the family back in the 60’s. it was the first color television I had ever watched and frankly the only one in the neighborhood

I’m not bragging but not everybody sees the same things in life. In this instance this television had two colors. Uhuh! Black and white! You see that is and was at that time color television.

Today I live in an American society with all its faults and history. I live because I was born here.

Those natives, Indians that chose to go what is considered the white mans’ way were called “Apple Toms!” A play on “Uncle Tom.”

“Red on the inside White on the outside.”

How about that I’m red on the outside white inside and I do sometimes get the blues so I do become red, white and blue!

I see color too because to be color blind is as my brother in law Delmer used to say “that’s just adumb.” Those who say this never see the green grass, the blue skies, the rainbow of colors, or pink!

 Hah! So what is color? Glory be!

What color is the Indian?