> Tim Giago: 'Culturecide' began in Indian Country
> Monday, November 16, 2009
>
>
> On this sunny November morning I find myself thinking about that tough,
> old Lakota chief from Standing Rock because his life exemplifies the clash of
> cultures.
> On a day like today, Tatanka Iyotanka (Sitting Bull) was sitting on a
> bench outside of his log home on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation conversing
> with his two wives when a Christian minister rode up to the house in his
> buckboard.
> The minister exchanged a few pleasantries and then got down to the
> business that had brought him to the home of the great Sioux leader. He told the
> Chief that it was un-Christian of him to have two wives. It went against the
> will of God. It was barbarian. It was the way of heathens.
> Sitting Bull listened patiently, probably with a small grin on his face
> because he had heard all of this before from the white man, and said to the
> minister, “Well, there they are. Now you tell them which one has to leave.”
> Which of these Lakota women would you deprive of a loving home? It was an
> answer based on plain Lakota logic. But then Lakota logic had baffled the
> white man for a century. And well it should because it was logic based on
> centuries of cultural beliefs totally unknown to the European settlers.
> The problems between the two races began because by not understanding the
> culture of the Lakota, the white man then disrespected it. He disrespected
> it by trying to remake it into something he could understand. If he could
> not remake it, he attempted to diminish it or destroy it.
> Lakota logic and European logic did not blend. It was like trying to mix
> water and oil.
> A Lakota man took more than one wife for many reasons. Perhaps a brother
> had died leaving a widow with children. In the Lakota way, the surviving
> brother then became responsible for his brother’s wife and children. It was
> his duty to give them food and shelter. His brother’s children became his
> children and his brother’s wife became his wife. Unchristian? Uncivilized?
> When the settlers moved west they saw it as their responsibility to
> disrupt the civilization of the Lakota. Just as the Spaniards made it an edict to
> either convert the indigenous people of South and Central America or kill
> them if they did not convert, so too did the settlers moving west try to
> convert a people by destroying their culture. Culturecide?
> Of course, changing a culture is something that cannot be done over night.
> As so many conquerors have discovered in history, the best way to create a
> new culture in their own image is to start with the innocent children.
> Institutionalization seemed to be the best way. But
> in order to do this the new government of the United States needed help.
> It turned to the many Christian churches and organizations that were already
> intent upon saving the souls of the so-called heathens. In the late 1800s
> the government and the church convinced tribal leaders donate land to the
> Catholic Church (and other religions) in order to construct Indian missions
> that would be turned into
> Institutionalization
> In collusion between church and state, the boarding schools sprang up all
> across Indian country. They were precursors of the federal boarding schools
> like Carlisle and Haskell, schools intent upon acculturation. Stewart,
> Pine Ridge, Phoenix, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, were just a few of the Bureau
> of Indian Affairs boarding schools that soon became familiar institutions
> across the west.
> Hundreds of religious institutions from Arizona to Washington State to the
> Dakotas had already begun the tedious and intense process of destroying
> the different Indian cultures and traditions. The same thing was happening
> across Canada. They called the schools “residential schools” up there. A
> continent-wide, methodical destruction of language, attire, religion and
> culture of many indigenous tribes had begun. The same thing had already happened
> across Central and South America at the hand of the Spaniards.
> This was done by the do-gooders and Churches. The thinking was at the time
> that if the Indian was made over in the image of the white man, this would
> bring an end to the Indian problem. The acculturated Indians would assume
> their roles in society and the headache they presented would vanish. They
> would become plain and simple Americans.
> However, the process of acculturation did not provide for inclusion.
> Indians were not recognized as citizens of the United States. They were isolated
> on distant lands.
> They were excluded from voting or participating in the governments of the
> newly formed states. The message was, “You can act like us, dress like us,
> speak English like us and worship our God, but you are not welcome to our
> table.”
> The process of acculturation was not a complete failure. Many Indians
> converted to Christianity and became, in the eyes of the federal government,
> civilized citizens. Those who did not were shunned. They were often looked
> down upon by the converted conformists. What is worse, this stigmatization
> forced the traditional Indians into various stages of poverty. They became the
> have-nots. The good BIA jobs went to the conformists.
> While those who acculturated and converted to Christianity prospered
> somewhat, the traditionalists remained as the poorest of the poor. And this
> condition exists even to this day on many Indian reservations.
> Modern terminology still points this out. When someone does not conform,
> they are said to be “off the reservation.” And this is so ironic, because
> those traditionalists that did not conform were usually, “on the reservation.
> ”
> But I believe those who have been shunned for many years, the
> traditionalists, are winning over the hearts, mind and spirits of those who converted.
> The traditionalists have remained steadfast in their beliefs; they have
> retained their spirituality and language, and have set the example for those
> who thought that by abandoning their culture and traditions they would be
> better off. But many conformists still wonder if this is the best and only
> way.
> When Sitting Bull told the minister to select the wife to leave his home,
> he spoke volumes about the upcoming assault upon the culture and traditions
> of the Lakota people. Sitting Bull could have said, “The road to hell is
> paved with good intentions.”
> Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the publisher of Native Sun News. He was
> the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists
> Association, the 1985 recipient of the H. L. Mencken Award, and a Nieman Fellow at
> Harvard with the Class of 1991. Giago was inducted into the South Dakota
> Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2008
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