loss of Native cultures (was: freedom of religion)

Hi Neil,

> From: Neil Haverstick <STICK@...>
> To: <metatuning@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 12:06 PM
> Subject: [metatuning] freedom of religion
>
>
> My dear compadre Starrett said, in the last digest, that one of the
> things that made this country great was "freedom of and from religion."
> Actually, the "freedom of" part has not always been the case, as,
> historically, Native Americans have often been forbidden to practice
> their beliefs, at various times. The Ghost Dance was outlawed, just
> prior to the Wounded Knee massacre; the Sun Dance has been forbidden (I
> believe it's legal now), and the religious sacrament of peyote has also
> been illegal (is it now? I'm not sure what the status is). Also, many
> tribes had their children forcibly removed from their homes, and sent to
> white schools, where they were forbidden to perpetuate their culture, in
> any way; they could not speak their languages, and had to, virtually,
> become like white people. I recently saw an article in the paper that
> talked about the fact that many Native languages are almost extinct;
> there are a few folks who are trying to keep them alive, but it's
> becoming more and more difficult. This nation was founded on admirable
> principles, to be sure; actually allowing all people the pursuit of
> "life, liberty, and happiness" has been quite another story...Hstick

Actually, almost *all* Native American languages spoken within the
USA are extinct or nearly so.

The only ones in the USA which have any strong survival probability are
Navaho, Hopi, Cherokee, Mohawk, North-Slope Inupiat and Aleutian, and
maybe a handful of others (particularly in Alaska).

This is a great loss to the world's linguistic stock, as there were once
*thousands* of different Native languages spoken within the present
borders of America.

The situation is a bit better in other American countries, such as
Canada and Brazil. Unfortunately, most of the Spanish-speaking
countries of North and South America carried out a policy of
exterminating Native culture that was at least as strong as
that of the USA, if not even more so.

BTW, these policies received most of their impetus during the
colonial period: i.e., it was originally the British and Spanish
overlords who wanted to wipe out or convert the Native Americans,
and their policies were simply carried over into the new independent
states which formed out of the former colonies. Apparently, the
French and Portuguese were a bit more sympathetic to Native cultures.
(But don't take my word on that... haven't done much research on it.)

love / peace / harmony ...

-monz
http://www.monz.org
"All roads lead to n^0"

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