[Marxism] Fwd: Response to Blackfoot - Siksika Nation

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

>          Dear Mr.  [deleted] :
> Thank you for this inquiry. I can understand much of what you are going
> through--trying to discover and learn about roots taken away from you--as
> the same was done to my mother who was taken by Mormon missionaries and
> adopted out away from her own Blackfoot roots and identity. Chief Lame
> Deer of the Lakota once said: "You can tell a real Red Indian by how he
> [or she] lives his [or her] life and not by blood percentage." Indeed,
> whether one is mixed-race--as I am and over 95% of  Indigenous
> Peoples  are--or if one is "full-blood", one does not choose one's
> blood-quantum; but one can choose what to do with it: it can drive one to
> be of service to one's People or one can choose to ignore it and perhaps
> even do corruption against what one dares to call one's own Blood and
> People (as some self-proclaimed Blackfoot are doing).
>
> But I welcome your interest and am saddened by the pain that has been
> caused to you that has led you to make this inquiry.
>
> Some Christians, driven out of their own sense of the message of "The
> Gospel" and their own duties as Christians have been of service to
> Indigenous Peoples; but many more, perhaps even the majority, have done
> extreme harm to Indigenous Peoples due to their own arrogance, absolutism
> and very twisted notions of the message of "The Gospel" and their own
> "mission" as supposed "Christians". I for one have little tolerance for
> Christian missionaries since they approach us always to try to convert us
> and have no real interest in or knowledge about Native spirituality except
> what they need to learn in order to try to convert us. Among Blackfoot, we
> do not say that our Spirituality is the only way to a given center--and we
> do not believe that anything not like us must be inferior as many of the
> supposed Christians believe and practice.
>
> Some of these missionaries have been out-and-out "front-men" for
> imperialism and colonialism. We have a saying: "First the Bible, then the
> Buck (Dollar) then the Bullets". This means that when the missionaries
> come, first they bring the Bible (or their own twisted notions of it),
> then they bring in the comerical interests (often the missionaries have
> been also business types seeking to grab lands and develop their own
> profit-making enterprises) and then they bring in the military to protect
> and expand their genocide and commerical interests. This has been what
> Blackfoot have suffered and what other nations like China, India and
> others have suffered.  Some religious types who are particularly dangerous
> (the cults like the Mormons or Moonies, those tied-in with police and
> intelligence services and those with ultra-rightist agenda) we try to
> isolate and expose. Others, who are more simple people drawn to
> Christianity because of life crises or their upbringing, but who are not
> racists or hostile to us, we engage in dialogue when we are approached and
> even try to help them explore--and challenge--their beliefs from the
> perspective of their own "Holy Book" and sacreds. Other Christians who are
> actual allies (driven by some progressive notions of the real message of
> "The Gospel" and their own duties as Chistians) we unite with in united
> fronts against reactionary forces bent on our extermination and that of others.
>
> To begin your road of discovery, I would suggest that you start with my
> website at
> <http://www.aradicalblackfoot.blogspot.com>http://www.aradicalblackfoot.blogspot.com
> where you will find certain documents on some of the history and
> spirituality of the Blackfoot--all have ben vetted by traditional
> authorities and spiritual leaders of the Blackfoot. Please note that on my
> webiste, not all of the links are shown on the front-page index--there are
> other documents and links not shown on the limited menue on the
> front-page. Also, you may want to go to the Center for Holocaust and
> Genocide Studies at the University of Minnestoa
> (  <http://www.chgs.umn.edu>http://www.chgs.umn.edu ) and under the
> section entitled "Histories, Narratives and Documents" you will
> find--toward the bottom of the page--a section entitled "Documents of the
> Blackfoot Nation" where you will find a paper on the history of the
> Blackfoot ( it is directly at:
> <http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories__Narratives__Documen/Documents_on_Native_American_G/BFPaper2.pdf>http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories__Narratives__Documen/Documents_on_Native_American_G/BFPaper2.pdf
> which should help you in your discovery.
>
> I hope that this introduction with be of some help to you. If I can be of
> more assistance to you, please let me know.
>
> Finally, I hope that you will come and visit the Blackfoot
> Reserves/Reservations at Browning, Montana (Blackfeet), Cardston, Alberta
> (Kainai, Blackfoot), Brocket, Alberta (Apatohsipipiikani, Blackfoot) and
> Gleichen, Alberta (Siksika, Blackfoot) that make up the principal Bands of
> the Blackfoot Nation. In the end, our blood-quantums are simply
> facts--something to be neither proud nor ashamed of--as what makes someone
> Blackfoot is ties to the Blackfoot Nation and concrete service to it and
> its survival.
>
> Ni-Kso-Ko-Wa ("We are all related")
>
> Jim Craven
> Blackfoot Name: "Omahkohkiaayo i'poyi (Big Bear Speaks in Blackfoot)

Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org


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