Comments by antigeekess | San Diego Reader

antigeekess

"I am going to school to make my people see that Education is the key to survival in 2009 and beyond." YES!!! :) That makes me very happy to hear, CreO. As I've mentioned on these blogs before, I spent about a year doing religious studies at ASU, and my primary areas of interest were Taoism and Native American Studies, especially the latter. In Arizona, the southern desert areas have the Akimel O'odham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pima_Indians ...and the Tohono O'odham. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papago_Indians In the north, there are White Mountain Apache, Hopi, Navajo, and Zuni. There was nothing more gratifying than to see MEMBERS OF THE TRIBES THEMSELVES show up at the university, supposedly to study their own culture -- taught by white men who didn't have a clue! It was extremely enjoyable to see a bright, articulate young Hopi girl straighten one of these "learned gentlemen" out! Used to be, old white guys at universities could get away with just about any careless, condescending interpretations they liked when it came to the various tribes not only of America, but of the world. NOW, happily, those times are gone. It's a little hard to get away with any BS about a given culture when its members start showing up in your class! Not that they're malicious or anything. But unfortunately, they're trying to analyze things like ritual based on a false belief in the reality of objectivity. Trying to use a Western European mindset to look at stuff that requires a whole different worldview... Don't let me get started. I wrote a paper on it. :) Chin up, creO. Believe. :) I'm sure you're aware of the prophecies that say it is in fact the tribes who will produce the leaders that save America from itself. You've been around Anglos enough to know that you are different, in all the right ways. Those are the ways of living that most people in this country have forgotten, and now know nothing about. What 'I' believe is that it's up to the tribes to remind us. Write, speak, teach. I hope that not only do more and more of your people -- and ALL of the tribes -- appear at our universities for an education, but that they do so with an insistence on bringing their own values with them. The rest of America needs to move toward YOU and YOUR people, not the other way 'round. It was your country to begin with. I, for one, hope you take it back. And take the rest of us with you. :)
— October 26, 2009 3:37 p.m.