Thursday, July 5, 2007

Temper, temper

My kids might as well be playing cowboys and Indians for all the noise they're making. Children (plus myself ages ago) are drawn to the costumes of Indians, and to bows and arrows and smoke signals. Did Indians just play?! I mean the actual Indians? Was life 'play' elevated?! Their language most likely was small in vocabulary, and nature-centered because they knew little else but nature in the raw. I wonder, if they had more words, more inter-tribal communication skills, they might have united, and ended up with a large slice of present day America - not just a few reservations - beginning with the defeat of Custer. We now know, says research historians, that Custer's soldiers ran away.*** Interesting. Human. And, I still love, THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON. (Not crazy about my source, but I could believe that some ways into the 20th Century it was legal to shoot an Indian in California.)


Barry


*** ....and shot to death as they ran. Those Indians had


rifles. American traders gave them the rifles. The horses they got from the Spaniads in the 1500's. 

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting theory......... Could be true, but when you are at one with nature, you don't need a large vocabulary do you?
Just the thought of being with nature and sharing all her goodness. I would never speak.
(bit heavy from me, but there ya go, I ain't always the life and soul of the party!)
Gaz

Anonymous said...

Come join my welcome back party love zoe xxxx
http://journals.aol.co.uk/zoepaul6968/domestic-choas/

Anonymous said...

h

Anonymous said...

Barry, what is this obsession with Native American tribes? Where do you get these baseless antiquated notions? Have you ever heard of the Iroqouis nation? Tell you what, google it online and learn something. I don't excuse bigotry in anyone, no matter how much I like the person. THis is just shameless.--Sheria

Anonymous said...

Sorry Aimer but I don't blog in order
to find agreement, I blog to express in
writing the impulse of the moment. That
is, in a novel or short story I'd practice
social practicality and confine "bigotry"
to the attributes of a character I had created.
If you require that I never offend you, then
please, do not read my semi-private blog, and just
read my fiction if an when it is published.
I do resent being charged with racism (which
you imply if not baldly state) when I have
interracial children from an interracial maggiage.
If you are a totally fixated on being a militant
African American I suggest you be more
clever: immitate MLK Jr. and find complete
naturalness in those not African Americans.
Not I said NOTHING about African Americans:
I spoke only of "Native Americans".

In college, btw, Clyde Kluckhon an Anthropologist,
made a point of telling his class that as of 1953,
and for decades earlier, from a statistical POV
the American African American population was
zero percent pure African Black.

Damn me as an anti-sentimentalist, not as a "bigot."

Barry





Anonymous said...

Barry, I hate to tell you this but your comments about Native Americans are bigoted. Your assumption that, "Their language most likely was small in vocabulary, and nature-centered because they knew little else but nature in the raw. I wonder, if they had more words, more inter-tribal communication skills, they might have united, and ended up with a large slice of present day America - not just a few reservations - beginning with the defeat of Custer" is both bigoted and inaccurate. It is based on invalid assumptions that Native Americans were childlike creatures happily playing in the forests until white men came along and civilized them.  I am a bit surprised that you haven't taken advantage of the Internet to actually learn something about Native Americans instead of merely speculating as to what they were like.

I'm not personally hurt by what you've written. I'm made of much sterner stuff than that. You put your words out here for all to read and I'm merely commenting on your words.  By the way, bigotry and racism aren't the same thing and I never suggested that you were a racist. Thanks for calling me a militant African American; I've never been called militant before; I sort of like it. Bigotry plain and simple, is making assumptions about entire groups of people based on a belief that those people are inherently inferior to the group to which you belong. Characterizing Native Americans/Indians as you have done in these posts is bigotry.
Fortunately, bigotry isn't fatal and can be unlearned if a person wants to become enlightened. The question is, do you want to become enlightened or do you just want to try and make me angry? It won't work; I don't hate you or even dislike you. As a matter of fact, if I dislike you, I wouldn't have ever bothered to respond to this thread at all. I don't waste my time on people that I believe are filled with hate. Racism is about hate and I again wish to make it clear that I would never accuse you of racism

Anonymous said...

PS In additon, you do realize that fathering interracial children isn't really the best indicator of a lack of racism. Think about it, as you point out, most African Americans are not purely African; how did that happen? Can we say, Thomas Jefferson anyone? Miscegenation was a fact of life in this country, before and after the Civil War. --Sheria

Anonymous said...

PS In additon, you do realize that fathering interracial children isn't really the best indicator of a lack of racism. Think about it, as you point out, most African Americans are not purely African; how did that happen? Can we say, Thomas Jefferson anyone? Miscegenation was a fact of life in this country, before and after the Civil War. --Sheria

In having interracial children I am doing Gods work: gene
mixing. Hybrid vigor. My son Mark Andrew, were you to hold him - but it better
be soon as he's growing apace. would charm the pants of you, Lady.

Barry
Have you see the Oscar winning Best Picture
for 2005? Please, take a gander.

Barry
http://journals.aol.com/bbartle3/Vengeance/

Anonymous said...

IT'S CALLED

CRASH

Anonymous said...

Hi Barry, yes I have seen "Crash." I found it well done but it held no surprises for me. We all have biases, prejudices, bigotry, whatever name you give it, it's there in all of us to some degree. I think that what is important is for each of us to recognize our own failings and do as much as we humanly can to change them. I found the movie a good catalyst for some honest communication with friends that run the gamut of race and ethnicity. I'm genuinely interested in what you thought of the film. With affection--Sheria

Anonymous said...

PS I have no doubt that your little one is beautiful. How quickly they grow! At least now camcorders are readily available and we can capture those moments that pass so soon.--Sheria