The Spirit of All Nations.
About a year ago I was filling up my truck with gas in Ohsweken. When I went inside the store to pay, there sitting on the counter was the most adorable newborn Ongwehowe baby girl. She had black fuzzy hair, dark eyes, beautiful brown skin and the tiniest pink lips. Mama was proudly showing her off to friends around the village in what I can only assume was her first day out since giving birth.
On June 2, 2014, every “member” of the Seneca Nation of Indians (SNI) received a letter from his/her President announcing the launch of the Seneca Nation’s new Enhanced Tribal Identification Card (ETC) program.
I once made a comment where I referred to “My Elder taught me this.” And someone said, “Holy ever special, you got your own Elder?” Little did they know, that this specific Elder sat me down, and had some deep conversations with me, and said, “I’ve known you quite a long time now, I’d like to believe that you look up to me as your Elder…”
We in the indigenous world are so familiar with mainstream media ‘Spam’-flavoured framing on stories dealing with indigenous matters, that for the most part we don’t even take mainstream news seriously anymore. How often are indigenous truths spun out of control from the work of a network journalist? When was the last time network news covered an indigenous story and you walked away going, Wow! What an accurate portrayal of what is going on with my people’?
There is little question that what the white man found when he washed up on our shores was a free and fearless people. But rather than learn our ways and study how a people could live without kings, queens, courts and prisons or slavery, discrimination and class warfare, the church – the very thing that created many of these institutions and practices – was relied upon to spread all of it to a free world.
I can’t speak for what went on Down Below, but on the Upper End of Six Nay during the Eighties it was quite traditional for kids to team up at someone’s house with a gang of other 8-13 year olds and walk around in a pack until it started to get dark.
The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) wrapped up its 13th session this week. Thousands of representatives of UN member states, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Indigenous Peoples Organizations (IPOs) as well as approved participants from academia and the media. The latter was how I got in. For two weeks hundreds of speakers offered statements and interventions, many of them coming from the Native people of Turtle Island.
As I sit, peacefully reflecting on the last week, I am enjoying the most perfect bowl of cornsoup. My children are resting peacefully in the living room eating the soup I made. My husband is away working but I will keep this soup warm until he comes home. Love is definitely in the air in my indigenous home.
After spending the week in New York City attending the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and listening to dozens of speakers offering their…
Fewer things are more distinctly Six Nations than Bread and Cheese Day. For those of you who don’t have a clue what I am talking about, allow me to explain.
Well, now that everyone can feel better about their battle and stance on unacceptable racism in the wake of giving the old “what’s for” to Donald Sterling, the racist owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, we can all go back to settling in with the institutional racism that keeps Daniel Snyder, the equally racist owner of the NFL’s Washington R-word, warm and safe at night. I know “spic,” “wetback,” chink” and the R-word still can appear in print but if the N-word can’t, then, in my book neither can the R-word.
On May 12, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) will begin its 13th session at the United Nations in New York City. The session will run for two weeks and cover a broad range of topics.
The event is not open to the public. Only confirmed and registered NGO and IPO representatives are allowed to participate. However, as a UN accredited member of the media, I will be there, too. Yeah, that’s right. Two Row Times columnist and radio show host John Kane will be there having the conversations that may or may not be welcome.
It’s an exciting time for rez families when a non-native person is seeking initiation. It is the proverbial turned table of colonization, and it typically begins a very long process of humiliation for the non-native person. How you ask? We tease them. And then we re-tell the story of their humiliation over and over like a war story to all our other Ongwehowe friends and relatives and then they all laugh too. Non-native friends take note: in most cases if you’ve made it this far…you’re in.
I have to begin my column this week by stating up front that I am Haudenosaunee. I support traditional governance based on the Kaianerehkowa and a culture grounded with the Ohenton Karihwatehkwen (Words Before All Else) and the Tiohateh (the Two Row Wampum). I must emphasize that it is traditional governance I support rather than “traditional government.”
