On Monday, the South Dakota Board of Education adopted new standards for teaching our kids about Native American history and culture. The Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings and Standards bear the native name for the Seven Council Fires, the seven bands comprising the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota peoples.
The new standards should pass muster with history teacher and legislative culture hawk Jim Bolin, since they are state-level standards created by fellow South Dakotans, not by nefarious non-heartland ne'er-do-wells from San Francisco or other such liberal lairs of licentiousness.
However, if you read through the Oceti Sakowin standards, you may find a few lines that could raise eybrows (am I allowed to say red flags here?) among a few of my South Dakota neighbors (you know who you are):
- (p.3) 6th-8th graders will research and write about the Oceti Sakowin's "communal ownership and stewardship." Aren't those code words for communism and radical environmentalism?
- (p.4) 3rd-5th graders will learn about the "interrelationship of all creation" through the Mitakuye Oyasin, a traditional Lakota prayer. (Who says you can't have prayer in school?)
- (p.6) 9th-12th graders will "simulate assimilation experiences." Yikes: that could get ugly. Just don't let them pull that Bafa'Bafa' manipulation on you.
- (p.7) Students will learn about creation stories and study the importance of "spiritual" health (o.k., even I get a touch nervous about that coming from a public school).
- (p.12) 6th-8th graders will not just study and understand but "defend" the cultural beliefs of the Oceti Sakowin.
- (p.13) Starting in 6th grade, students will explain, then evaluate the influence of "Manifest Destiny and Imperialism" on the Oceti Sakowin. (Culture warriors, take note: we will tell your kids that America is not exceptional, that we acted like imperial conquerors just like lots of other countries.)
- (p.16) Students will learn about our destruction of Native culture from, among other resources, Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (which I read while riding the iron bird home from visiting the Great Father in Washington last week).
For the most part, I think these standards constitute a great addition to the K-12 curriculum in South Dakota. Aside from caution about making sure the public schools teach understanding, not adoption, of spirituality, my only other major concern is that the educated folks who composed these standards cite Wikipedia for their definitions. (Come on, people, this is an official government document, not a blog post!)
But I wonder: will all of my neighbors respond as favorably to curriculum standards that clearly teach appreciation of the red man's ways and healthy criticism of the white man's ways?
Great post, CAH. One 1925 author called the Plains cultures: communism with prejudice.
"6th-8th graders will research and write about the Oceti Sakowin’s “communal ownership and stewardship.†Aren’t those code words for communism and radical environmentalism?"
Yes, "soviet" means council, "Seven Council Fires". The spiritualism you mention is pantheism. I testified to that fact when the Board passed Common Core Standards. Pantheism is the basis to the "New Age" religion which is the theocracy being created by the New World Order. This is all originating out of the "British Empire" via Sion Freemasonry.
Here we go...something new for the morally just to get riled up about. I applaud this finally happening. This is a major part of the history of our state, whether people like to admit it or not. I hope that educators take advantage of the native population and have them come in and speak to their classes so the culture can be truly passed on.
I am already nervous about the backlash on this. *sigh*
Steve,
You forgot to mention Kenyan anti-colonialism, The Illuminati, Yale's Skull and Bones fraternity, and the Tri-lateral Commission.
Either you're off your game or I am soon going to hear a famous rapper bust a rhyme without calling a woman a '"Ho" or using an F-bomb
Email the name of your dealer, Steve.
Not sure the Lakota culture was/is pantheist, Steve. We should maybe discuss what you think that word means.
http://www.bluecloud.org/shiningthrough.html
I encourage you all to read this very well written and informative article.
Bill,
I said the religion of the New World Order theocracy is pantheistic (radical environmentalism is an example). I did not say the Native's was. You are right, that would be an interesting discussion point.
When I lived in CA, 4th graders studied the California Missions in their State History curriculum, and this generally included fields trips to a mission. I did this as a 4th grader and my kids did so as 4th graders - wacky as the "Golden State" can be, I don't recall a single argument about the danger of students being "Catholicized" by the experience. We went, we saw, we received information about what went on. We did not pretend to say Mass or make Rosarys in class.
So I think you will find surprisingly similar language from "liberals", "conservatives" and, most importantly here, Native Peoples, that dabbling in ceremonies/rights is inappropriate. Those of us in spiritual vocations would go so far as to say "dangerous." So this should be done with great sensitivity - I would say as no more than a reading assignment. It would be best to have any classroom interpretation done by a Tribal member, IMO, and kids should not be required to say a prayer or burlesque a ritual. Native people get just as upset with Whites romanticizing and playing with their culture as they do with Whites dismissing it as "primitive superstition."
I think the new material is totally appropriate and goes with former Gov. Rounds' calls for greater cultural understanding and relationship in SD. This is the history... very recent history as the world goes... of this part of the world.
What value is a defunct culture to modern Native Americans or any other Americans?. We need more such mythology in schools like we need brains of swiss cheese.
I want to see a story of the Norwegian Vikings and The Hanseatic League and all that irrelevant stuff in schools. It is about as relevant.
http://www.troynovant.com/Franson-JM/Essays/Hanseatic-Teutonic.html
Let's learn more about Lutefisk and Longboats.
The kids of all races need more of the STEM education and less of the irrelevant humbug. Fourth and fifth graders of all races can learn more even if their only resource is something like the Khan Academy.
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Doug...were you not hugged enough as a child? Do you derive pleasure in bitching about everything that doesn't fit in your very small, very lonely, very outdated box?
I'm worried for you Doug. Perhaps a nice nap would help you.
"In order to prepare students to live in a culturally diverse society, schools should formally require all students to study other cultures and societies in depth."
A sensible idea indeed: America is no doubt a society of diverse cultures, and this diversity is increasing every instance. Hence the upcoming generation requires more skills to live and communicate in this ilk of society. Studying other cultures in school time can be of great help in this regard.
Firstly, the motive of school education is not to produce, career oriented students, but to produce better human beings who can live and share the world with others in better terms. Keeping this in mind, students should be made to study subjects that can help them understand their surroundings, and their neighbors. This can help them to develop a good rapport in a diverse society.
Secondly, social sciences, if the curriculum helps to widen the scope, can eliminate the hesitation that keeps people away from coming into friendly terms, with each other. People from different societies will be able to intermingle with ease and comfort, if given the opportunity of understanding each other. Once this reluctance is overcome, our society will improve dramatically. It is a proven truth that, the betterment and improvement of any social system depends upon the depth of the relationship, which its individuals enjoy.
Moreover, educating students about diverse cultures can help them understand their own culture in a better manner. Contrasting their own trends and ideas with others, is a very good way of understanding that what is better and why. The juvenile minds will not only learn about other cultures, but will also get closer to their own culture. They will start developing an affection for their own culture, when they will compare and see the differences.
Furthermore, human beings are always in search of better opportunities. Studying diverse cultures, from very early age, can help the upcoming youth in developing a better common culture that contains many different trends from various societies. In such a culture, healthy habits are surely given more chances to develop. This pruning of ideas can help the society in becoming healthy and strong. The inhabitants of such a society are more confident, self relying, open-minded, and versatile in nature.
In short, I see no obstacle in opting for a curriculum that can certainly help in making our society a better place for its inhabitants.
The value of diversity is greatly exaggerated, but it does serve the purposes of a government unable to control our borders and provides many excuses for failure.
The above is from the Essay section of Praxis testing and says exactly what I am thinking
also read here and see why the National Curriculum Standard for Social Studies says learning about a "defunct culture" can help students.
http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/strands
I appreciate Father Tim's comment about respecting sacred rituals and symbols and not turning them into silly classroom activities. Good comparison to Catholic studies!
Shane, I'm with you on studying culture. Doug, the culture may be changing, but it certainly isn't defunct. Far from irrelevant humbug, history and culture are key to understanding who we are and where we can go from here.
That said, if studying lutefisk and longboats will help us understand our culture, I'm all for that, too. I do take to heart, Doug, what sounds like a concern that there are only so many hours in a school day, and that we might have to pick and choose what we teach. I would hope there's time in the school day for STEM and Native culture. If there's not... well, then comes a hard discussion about priorities. (But first, I'd drop all those weight-training classes MHS offers.)
Father Tim was spot on with Natives helping to teach especially when it comes to rituals. Some other genius had that idea too. hmmmmmm I wonder who that was?
[CAH: I think it was that Shane character. Great minds think alike! :-)]
Sanford Health officials have started placing Ojibwe/English signage throughout their complex http://bit.ly/o8mKju
8 minutes ago
The second most neglected culture in education is Freemasonry. The first is Biblical Christianity. Surprisingly enough, those are the real two sides to the culture war.
Oh, now check with Mr. Goeman, Steve: he'll tell you how folks got owly when I talked about Christianity in the classroom. ;-)
Cory, which Christianity...the real one or the false ones?
[CAH: Steve, Steve, Steve, you know I always keep it real.]
Is this about the Pat Buchanan comment flap, Steve?
Anyone here old enough to remember the TV series "Roots?" It was a big part of how black and white America came to understand each other better. Prior to that time, there had been a really one-sided view of the history of black people in America and further, many, many black folks in cites had been cut off from their culture... their roots. Their story was forgotten to many them and virtually unknown to any of the the rest of us, especially us South Dakota kids. It was a high quality, multi-racial American learning experience that helped us come to know and understand one another better. I had two very close black friends in those days and we watched the whole series together and greatly enjoyed it.
Similarly, a great many Native Americans have had their culture discredited and stripped away from them, many have been taught to be ashamed of it, or encouraged, as per my friend Doug, to just get over it and move on.
That's not the right way to do it, in my opinion. We are being invited to participate in a great American cultural remembering. The remembering of a culture that was here long before our white ancestors ever set foot on this ground — ground that has now become (for some of us at least) as sacred to us as it was, and is to them.
I feel privileged to be invited into that great sharing. Almost as privileged as I would feel if Wiken invited me over for lutefisk (...well, okay, that might be a bit of a stretch.)
Or this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-FZsysQNw
Bill,
It was Freemasonry that was responsible for the slave trade. Too bad that history is not allowed in public education.
[CAH: What?!? The cotton plantations were all run by Masons? But wasn't America first run by a Mason? And where did this conversation start?]
Steve, check your notes. I think it was sugar.
Cory, Bill, and anybody else interested in reading stuff the historians refuse to address:
At this link http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/scottishriteproject.htm
you will find:
Well, the Reverend W.O. Vaught was a 32nd Degree Mason, a {Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret} within the Scottish Rite hierarchy. What Is the Scottish Rite? What, then, is the Scottish Rite? Freemasonry was founded in the early 1700s in England by the so-called Venetian Party. This clique of British philosophical liberals had a few other experiments in human misery, for example: the East India Company, the royal African Company of slavers, and the slave colony of South Carolina. The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, in particular, has a feudalist lore and legend, that is rooted in the black slave trade through the Caribbean Islands. In those islands, the pagan cults of slavers in ancient Rome, and Venice, were reused as anti-Judeo-Christian or Satanic cults and rituals for the amusement and gratification of the slave-traders, the British, Dutch, Bostonian, and Jewish-ethnic slave runners. The Scottish Rite was formally organized in the U.S.A. in 1801, as a group of Tory partisans on the losing side of the American Revolution.
...
The Terror Project The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, an instrument of British Empire strategy, directed a continuous offensive of murder and racist terrorism against the U.S.A. and neighboring countries, during the middle decades of the last century. We shall trace this endeavor, from the U.S. occupation of Mexico in the Mexican War (1846-48), to the slave owners' rebellion or U.S. Civil War (1861-65), through the Ku Klux Klan's war against Reconstruction of the South (1867-1870s). A few individuals will come into view repeatedly as gang leaders and project directors: Boston's {Albert Pike}, boss of Arkansas; New York's {John A. Quitman}, boss of Mississippi; New York's {John Slidell}, boss of Louisiana; Slidell's nephew and partner, British banker{ August Belmont, }boss of the Democratic Party; Slidell's trainee and partner, Britain's {Judah Benjamin}, boss of the Confederate secret service. Patriots such as then-Congressman Abraham Lincoln saw the 1846 U.S. invasion of Mexico as a crime and folly, pushed by strategists of slavery who also aimed at the destruction of the U.S.A.
Transplanted Southern Democrat John Slidell, and Whig leader Caleb Cushing, spokesman for Boston's opium and slave-running fortunes, had both planned and promoted the attack on Mexico.
Awesome. Great. So root out the Masons, and the Indians' problems are solved, right?
The slave trade started because Europe wanted sugar and the West indies natives (Indians) wouldn't work the crops. You should be reading this book, Sibby, if you're really looking for the truth that nobody will tell you. It's all about food, brother. :
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Gods-Original-Knowledge-Evolution/dp/0553371304
This ought to curl your toenails (h/t hummingbirdminds):
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/20117259426336524.html#.TjI1qbWTOFo.blogger
Bill,
You did see the reference to opium in my prior comment? And you do understand Satan's lie from Genesis?
Yes, Sibby, I'm talking about sugar. Different addiction. Far more widespread and socially acceptable.
Is Satan in Genesis, Sibby? Where?
I've never see any reference to Satan in Genesis.
Sibby, how do you know that the fruit in the garden wasn't fermented, and thus contained alcohol, which is basically just high-test sugar? How do you know that the problem isn't addiction to sugar (especially Rum which is made from sugar)?
Have you ever seen birds get drunk and fall out of trees because they were eating fermented berries?
(I love talking to Sibby, he likes to explore around the fringes. Me too.)
"Now, the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hasth said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman: (here is the LIE of Satan, who is the serpent): Ye shall NOT surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
(GENESIS 3:1-5)
Since God can NOT lie, Adam and Eve became MORTAL upon eating the fruit of the tree in the midst that God warned them NOT to eat from. Adam and Eve would have remained IMMORTAL had they not eaten the fruit from that tree that Satan had seduced them into eating from. So, their earthly lives had a time limit like ours after eating the fruit since God does NOT lie, but, Satan was proved to be the liar.
agriculture is the fruit.
Yup. Easy carbs.
Guy, I don't see the word Satan in the text, do you?
You put it in there, right?
If God meant, "Satan" why wouldn't he write "Satan?"
God cannot "lie"? Why not?
Can't God do anything and everything?
Are you saying we can do things God can't?
Bill,
So the serpent could be Lucifer?
And the opium reference was not to surger, but to your reference to funky mushrooms.
Amanita muscaria was the forbidden fruit? Panaeolus subbalteatus? Psilocybe cubensis? Cool!
none of those grow on wood, Sibby.
Bill,
See this link:
http://www.angelfire.com/nv/TheOliveBranch/append19.html
If a serpent was afterward called a nachash, it was because it was more shining than any other creature; and if it became known as "wise", it was not because of its own innate positive knowledge, but of its wisdom in hiding away from all observation; and because of its association with one of the names of Satan (that old serpent) who "beguiled Eve" (2Cor. 11:3, 14).
It is wonderful how a snake could ever be supposed to speak without the organs of speech, or that Satan should be supposed able to accomplish so great a miracle (*3).
It only shows the power of tradition, which has, from the infancy of each one of us, put before our eyes and written on our minds the picture of a "snake" and an "apple" : the former being based on a wrong interpretation, and the latter being a pure invention, about which there is not one word said in Holy Scripture.
Never was Satan's wisdom so craftily used as when he secured universal acceptance of this traditional belief : for it has succeeded in fixing the attention of mankind on the letter and the means, and thus blinding the eyes to the solemn fact that the Fall of man had to do solely with the Word of God, and is centered in the sin of believing Satan's lie instead of Jehovah's truth.
...
The history of Gen. 3 is intended to teach us the fact that Satan's sphere of activities is in the religious sphere, and not the spheres of crime and immorality; that his battlefield is not the sins arising from human depravity, but the unbelief of the human heart. We are not to look for Satan's activities to-day in the newspaper press, or the police courts; but in the pulpit, and in professors' chairs. Whenever the Word of God is called in question, there we see the trail of "that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan". This is why anything against the true interests of the Word of God (as being such) finds a ready admission into the newspapers of the world, and is treated as "general literature". This is why anything in favor of its inspiration and Divine origin and its spiritual truth is rigidly excluded as being "controversial".
When those words were being written, Machu Pichu had already proved the earth was in orbit around the sun and the ancestors of the Lakota were living in paradise somewhere in North Carolina.
Then the christians burned the Library at Alexandria.
Something to add to Bill and Steve's Excellent Adventure.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.21419/full
It seems that around the year 1000 or so, evil Vikings may have brought a Native American woman to Iceland. The maternal genetic material turns up in some modern Icelanders. The things scientists dig up when not searching for snakes that talk or for apples that did not exist.
Right, Larry, they grow on cow dung.
The serpent is the serpent, Sibby. It is what it is, brother.
In Lakota lore they have Iktomi (spider), in ancient Hebrew, they had Nahash (snake). They are both "trickster" archetype characters in human storytelling.
There are "trickters" in all the world's oral traditions.
This particular story (Garden of Eden) tells why snakes don't have legs, and why we wear clothes to cover our nakedness.
I doubt that either is the real reason, but hey, us grampas gotta think up some kinda story to tell the grand kids to explain stuff (because they think we KNOW!). We just try to do the best we can.
ok, wrong period. Thanks for the whap upside the head, Fleming.
(btw, none of those grow on cow dung)
Right. I was thinking of Psilocybe semilanceata.
From the President: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b71YLgES5D4&feature=player_embedded#at=43