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Chapter One:
Where Social Ethics is Instructed by
Native American Social Wisdom about Tribalism

by Theodore Walker, Jr.

[Return to Main Menu to select another interpretive theme.]
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tribalism as interpretive theme:

It is characteristic of Native American social wisdom concerning human peoples to be attentive to these interpretive themes: tribalism, nationalism, relations to other life/land, and religion.

Here, social ethical reflection is very much instructed by Native American reflections on tribalism.

people, peoples, peoplehood

Native Americans characteristically understand collective human existence in terms of being "a people." In CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations speaks in terms of the concept of "peoplehood" (CUSTER, p. 180).


[See CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989/1969) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]

And attention to "peoplehood" is strongly prescribed by Deloria and Clifford M. Lytle in THE NATIONS WITHIN (pp. 8, 12, 242).


[See THE NATIONS WITHIN: THE PAST AND FUTURE OF AMERICAN INDIAN SOVEREIGNTY (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984) by Vine Deloria, Jr. and Clifford M. Lytle.]

A people is capable of shared experience and purpose. Capacity for shared experience and purpose is a significant part of what distinguishes a people from a mere population. For example, the set of all humans born on Earth on any Tuesday in any odd numbered year is a statistical population, but not a people. This population is not a people insofar as it has virtually zero capacity for significant distinct shared experience and purpose. A population with such limited capacity for collectively shared experience and purpose is not even potentially a people. A population that is a people is a people by virtue of capacity for shared experiences and purposes.

peoplehood and tribalism

Native Americans characteristically connect peoplehood with tribalism. This connection is evidenced in the fact that many Native American tribal names actually mean or refer to identity as a people. For example, "Lenni Lenape" is the original name of the Delaware tribes, and Lenni Lenape is translated as meaning: "Original People," "True People," and "We, the People" (WALLAM OLUM, p. xv).

[See THE RED RECORD: THE WALLAM OLUM: OLDEST NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN HISTORY (Garden City Park, New York: Avery Publishing Group, 1989) translated and annotated by David McCutchen (p. xv).]

There are numerous other instances where original Native American tribal names translate into English as meaning people, the people, we the people, the human people, the chosen people, or some specification of identity as a distinct people.

And, virtually without exception, Native American thinking about human peoples includes attention to tribes and tribalism.

A tribe is a cross-generational community of many significant shared experiences (including religious experiences) and social ethical purposes.
Righteous tribalism's defining social ethical purposes are to contribute to the welfare and prosperity of the people, and to contribute to proper relations (respect and reciprocity*) to other life, including especially the land.

*[George Tinker of the Osage nation describes "respect" and "reciprocity" as characteristic values of Native American religions in his essay, "For All My Relations: Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Christmas Trees" in SOJOURNERS (January 1991).]

Tribal purpose emcompasses local, broadly inclusive (including national and international affairs), and all-inclusive circles of concern, including concern for the welfare of future generations, especially the seventh generation to come.
  • [See Tribal Purpose according to Vine Deloria, Chief Oren Lyons, George Tinker, Ed McGaa/Eagle Man, Chief Seattle, and Chief Red Cloud.]

Tribalism is important for interpreting various circles of social ethical concern, circles ranging from the most general population of all peoples to very specific peoples, tribes, and nations.

There are twelve circles of concern identified in this chapter.
You may visit them sequencially, moving from the most general to the more specific, by simply continuing to scroll down the page,
or,
you may jump to selected circles by selecting from the following Circle of Concerns Menu.

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chapter 1 ----about Tribalism

Circle of Concerns Menu


Select a circle of concern (from sections 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12):
[ or continue scrolling forward ]


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(chapter 1, section 1)

Tribalism
among Human Peoples Generically:
Descriptions, Predictions, Visions & Prescriptions


Here, our concern embraces human peoples generically. This, our most general circle of concern, includes all past, present, future, actual and conceivably actual human peoples in all actually and possibly peopled spaces.
[See chapter 1, section 1, summary statements]

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definition:

A tribe is a cross-genenerational community of many significant shared experiences and shared social ethical purposes.
The social ethical purposes of righteous human tribalisms include:
:o: contributing to the welfare and prosperity of the people,
including future generations, especially the seventh generation, and
including other peoples, tribes, and nations, and
:o: contributing to proper relations (respect & reciprocity) to the land and other life,
including other-than-human life, and
including local, more inclusive (cross-generational, past-present-future, tribal, intertribal, national, international, global, interplanatary, cosmic), and all-inclusive life.

description:

As Native Americans characteristically understand collective human existence, to be a people at all is to be at least minimually tribal in some respects, and normally very tribal in important respects. A wholly non-tribal population is merely a population, not a people. According to Native American understanding, a people is (more or less, and normally more than less) a tribal entity.

The connection between peoplehood and tribalism is such that to describe a people as "non-tribal" cannot mean that said people is wholly void of tribal existence and purpose. A wholly non-tribal population is not a people. As Native Americans use language, to describe an actual people as non-tribal can only really mean that said people is very much deficiently tribal or inadequately tribal or wrongly tribal in important respects.

evaluation:

In addition to being a descriptive social scientific concept, tribalism is also an evaluative concept. From the perspective of Native American values, if it were said of a human population, "They have no tribes;" this would be understood to be a mightyly unfortunate circumstance. If on the other hand it were reported that tribalism exists among a given people, this would be understood as normal and proper. According to Native American interpretations of the world of actual and conceivably actual human experience, tribal existence is normal and fundamentally good.

According to Native American social wisdom about human peoples generically, tribalism is important, anthropologically-sociologically normal, fundamentally good, ethically prescriptive, and religiously appropriate. Throughout most of the many generations of human existence, most human peoples have been tribal peoples. Normally, and rightly so, human peoples are tribal entities.

prediction:

According to Native American social wisdom
concerning all human peoples in all peopled spaces and times,
where human peoples are rightly tribal,
righteous tribalism will contribute to
good and proper relations among humans, to
good and proper relations with other life (respect & reciprocity*), including past-present-future-lesser-equal-greater-visible-invisible life, and to
good and proper relations with the all-inclusive life of the Great Spirit/Creator (reverance).

*[George Tinker of the Osage nation describes "respect" and "reciprocity" as characteristic values of Native American religions in his essay, "For All My Relations: Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Christmas Trees" in SOJOURNERS (January 1991).]

vision:

The vision of rightly tribal peoples is a vision of individuals and groups contributing
to the good,
to shared well-being,
to the welfare and prosperity of other life;
including other life within and beyond one's own tribe and nation, and
including human and other than human life,
locally, nationally, globally, cosmically, and all-inclusively.

prescription:

According to Native American social wisdom,
all human peoples in all peopled spaces and times should be rightly tribal.
All humans, collectively and individually, should contribute to the welfare and prosperity of the people, and to the welfare and prosperity of other life;
including especially future generations, and
including other life within and beyond one's own tribe and nation, and
including human and other than human life,
locally, nationally, globally, cosmically, and all-inclusively.

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(chapter 1, section 2)

Tribalism
among Contemporary Human Peoples Globally:
Descriptions, Predictions, Visions & Prescriptions


Here, our concern embraces contemporary human peoples globally, that is, the circle of all peoples presently existing on this planet.
[See chapter 1, section 2, summary statements]

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description:

According to Native American social wisdom
about contemporary human peoples globally,
the last 500+ years of human history has been a history of 500+ years of modern anti-tribalism and 500+ years of resistance by traditional tribal peoples around the globe.


[See "The Sweetgrass Meaning of Solidarity: 500 Years of Resistance" in SOJOURNERS (Vol. 20, No. 1, January 1991) by Robert Allen Warrior.]

[See THE STATE OF NATIVE AMERICA: GENOCIDE, COLONIZATION, AND RESISTANCE (Boston: South End Press, Race and Resistance Series, 1992), edited by M. Annette Jaimes.]

Presently, there exist traditional tribal peoples continuing to resist the detribalizing and anti-tribal forces of modernity,
and there exist modern non-tribal peoples who are insufficiently tribal and even anti-tribal.

Here, we employ a basic social-anthropological typology which recognizes two main types of contemporary peoples: traditional tribal peoples and modern non-tribal peoples.

This typological distinction is instructed by Native American social thought. For instance: the thought of Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations.

In his book GOD IS RED: A NATIVE VIEW OF RELIGION: SECOND EDITION (Golden, Colorado: North American Press, 1992), Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations distinguishes between natural peoples and hybrid peoples (see p. 2, and see chapter 9--"Natural and Hybrid Peoples," p. 150). And according to Deloria, it is characteristic of traditional tribal peoples to be natural peoples, and of hybrid peoples to be modern non-tribal peoples. Hence, the distinction between natural and hybrid becomes a distinction between traditional tribal and modern non-tribal.

Also, in THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERN EXISTENCE (New York: Harper & Row, 1979) by Vine Deloria, Jr. and in THE NATIONS WITHIN: THE PAST AND FUTURE OF AMERICAN INDIAN SOVEREIGNTY (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984) by Deloria and Clifford M. Lytle, and in other published work;
traditional peoples, including especially traditional Native American peoples, are understood to be tribal peoples, and
modern peoples, including especially modern European and European-American peoples, are understood to be non-tribal and even anti-tribal.

For Deloria and other Native Americans, deficient tribalisms and anti-tribalisms are defining characteristics of modernity.

Modernity continues to oppress traditional tribal existence. Modern nations, educational institutions, religious institutions, private sector interests and public policies across the globe are continuing the 500+ year old modern tradition of destroying traditional tribal existence.

evaluation:

The continuing destruction of tribal existence and tribal values contributes to many of our most pressing social and ecological difficulties.
According to Native American values, among contemporary human peoples globally, there is not enough traditional tribalism, too much modern non-tribalism, and too much modern anti-tribalism.
The presently continuing anti-tribalism of modern existence is not good.

prediction:

According to Native American social wisdom
about contemporary human peoples globally,
continuing with past (500+ years) and present modern habits and behaviors will contribute to increasing social difficulty for human peoples globally, and to increasingly destructive and exploitive relations to other life.
Continuing with modernity will continually and increasingly threaten the well-being of other life and the very survival of human life.

vision of an alternative more favorable future:

Many Native Americans envision the possibility of a more favorable alternative to continuing with past (500+ years) and present modern non-tribal and anti-tribal habits of thought and deed. They envision a future where human peoples are rightly tribal, that is where human peoples seek to ensure the welfare and prosperity of all, and where human peoples are properly related (respect and reciprocity) to other life, and to future life.

prescriptions:

In CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS,
in GOD IS RED, and
in THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERN EXISTENCE,
Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations prescribes a new creative synthesis---a synthesis of tribal existence with modern networking technologies and with modern corporate structures.

Deloria holds that the alternative to the continually increasing tragedies of modernity is through a re-appropriation of rightly tribal values. Accordingly, Deloria prescribes that the modern world learn tribal wisdom from traditional tribal peoples.

[See CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989/1969) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]
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[See GOD IS RED: A NATIVE VIEW OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION (Golden, Colorado: North American Press, 1992/1973) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]
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[See THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERN EXISTENCE (New York: Harper & Row, 1979) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]

According to Native American social wisdom about contemporary human peoples globally, what the world needs now is more righteous tribalisms.

Prescribing more righteous tribalism means
prescribing more collective commitments to contributing to the welfare and prosperity of the people, including especially future generations, and
prescribing more collective commitments to contributing to the welfare and prosperity of other life.

According to many Native American visions, repentance (more righteous tribalism) will make a difference. More righteous tribalism will contribute to an alternative and more favorable future, a future where human peoples globally are rightly tribal, where well-being and prosperity is widely shared, and where humans are properly related (respect and reciprocity) to other life.

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More Righteous Tribalisms
for Traditional Tribal & Modern Non-Tribal Peoples:
More Specific Prescriptions & Visions


Here our concern is with more specific meanings of prescribing and envisioning more righteous tribalisms
for contemporary traditional tribal peoples, and
for contemporary modern non-tribal peoples.
Also included are social ethical analyses of tribal, modern, and Christian family values.
[See chapter 1, section 3, summary statements]


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prescriptions:

For contemporary traditional tribal peoples, more righteous tribalism means continuing and increasing resistance to modern anti-tribal influences, and contributing to a global resurgence of righteous tribalism.
The need for a global resurgence of righteous tribalism means tribal peoples should teach tribal wisdom to non-tribal, anti-tribal, and wrongly tribal peoples.

For contemporary modern non-tribal peoples, more righteous tribalism means repenting of anti-tribalism, and retribalization.

More righteous tribalism means moving from a continuation of modernity (500+ years of anti-tribalism) to a new way of life--a post modern existence free of modern anti-tribalism and commited to embracing righteous tribal values.

Modern non-tribal peoples should embrace righteous tribal values and retribalize themselves.

More righteous tribalism requires changes in modern family values and practices, and changes in the way modern social sciences and social ethics value tribalism.

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For both traditional tribal and modern non-tribal contemporary peoples, more righteous tribalism means forming new tribes and developing new forms of tribalism.

[See CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989/1969) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]

[See THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERN EXISTENCE (New York: Harper & Row, 1979) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]

visions / alternation more favorable futures:

Native Americans envision an alternative to continuing with modernity. They envision an alternative and more favorable future where resurgent tribalisms among rightly tribal peoples contribute to a global tribal renaissance.

In this alternative vision of the future, rightly tribal peoples teach tribal wisdom to modern non-tribal, anti-tribal and wrongly tribal peoples, thereby helping them repent of non-tribal-anti-tribal and wrongly tribal ways in favor of becoming more rightly tribal.

This is a vision of a genuinely post modern world where righteous tribal values are embraced in creative new ways.

signs of an alternative future:

Moreover, Native Americans see signs of this coming change in the present. The most important of such signs include the following:
:o: resurgent tribalisms among traditional tribal peoples, including Native Haawaiian peoples,
:o: Native American resolve to teach tribal wisdom and righteous tribal values to non-tribal and wrongly tribal peoples, and
:o: a new and growing appreciation of tribal social wisdom among some contemporary scholars.

[See "How Do You Say Computer In Haawaiian?" (WIRED, August 1995) by Constance Hale and "Divided Destiny: Despite Factions, Many Hawaiians Support Native Rule" (The Dallas Morning News, 18 September 1995, pp. 1A, 8A) by staff writer Christy Hoppe for attention to resurgent tribalisms and nationalisms among Native Haawaiian peoples.]
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[See MOTHER EARTH SPIRITUALITY: NATIVE AMERICAN PATHS TO HEALING OURSELVES AND OUR WORLD (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990) by Ed McGaa/Eagle Man for witness to Native American resolve to teach tribal wisdom and righteous tribal values to non-tribal and wrongly tribal peoples.]
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[See "Oren Lyons The Faithkeeper with Bill Moyers," a Public Affairs Television interview of Chief Oren Lyons by Bill Moyers (Air Date: 3 July 1991, transcript #BMSP-16 by Journal Graphics, New York, 1991) for witness to Chief Oren Lyons' and Hopi resolve to teach traditional tribal wisdom and righteous tribal values to non-tribal and wrongly tribal peoples.]
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[See THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERN EXISTENCE (New York: Harper & Row, 1979) by Vine Deloria, Jr. for an account of modern scholarly attention to traditional tribal social wisdom.]


Additionally, for many Native Americans, the the internet and the world wide web are signs of an alternative more rightly tribal future.

the World Wide Web
as sign & resource

Back in 1969,
in CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman Oklahoma: Univerisity of Oklahoma Press, 1989/69),
in 1973
in GOD IS RED (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1973),
and again in 1979
in THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERN EXITENCE (New York: Harper & Row, 1979);
Vine Deloria, Jr., of the Sioux nations predicted marvelous new developments among Native American peoples, and that foremost among those marvelous new developments would be tribal appropriations of electronic networking technologies. Deloria held tribal existence was "fast becoming the most important value in life" (CUSTER, p. 247), and he held that traditional tribal peoples could and would appropriate modern networking technologies in ways that favor the increased well-being and prosperity of tribes and tribal peoples, and in ways that contribute to the development of new tribes and new forms of tribalisms.

Presently, Native American use of internet-world-wide-web technologies indicate Deloria's predictions are coming true. Today, the Native American presence on the world wide web is considerable.

For example,
there is a Native American corporation called Advanced Tribal Integrated Information Networks or "ATIIN."

"Atiin" is "a Navajo word for roadway or pathway -- symbolizes the Information Superhighway and the desire to integrate culture and technology" (ATINN, inc.).

ATIIN web presentations are among many contemporary examples of Native Americans integrating of tribal culture with modern technologies in ways that enhance tribal existence.

Clearly, Deloria was correct in predicting new tribal appropriations of modern networking technologies. And Deloria's predictions came before the world wide web, and before the internet.

In 1996,
there were many Native American web pages witnessing to other predictions and visions of web networks transmitting and receiving tribal values and serving tribal purposes.

For example,
some web pages report that in the early 1950's an elderly Cherokee woman predicted the world "will be covered by a giant spider web"
and
many Native Americans understand this vision (and similar visions) as fortelling and prescribing a new tribal resource--tribalizing networks such as the internet and the world wide web.

[For web references to this 1950's Cherokee vision of the world wide web,
see "Native Netizens: a Special Report" by Cayenne Woods
(URL: http://www.netizen.com/netizen/96/48/index3a.html)
or, see a web-downloaded-local-copy of this special report;
and, see Tsalagi Cultural Center
(URL: http://www.ionet.net/~skili/center.html).]

The internet (including the world wide web) and
other modern communication-transportation networks are
part of many Native American visions of the future and
part of many Native American prescriptions for retribalizing the world.

In THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERN EXISTENCE (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), and in other publications, Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations dialogues with Marshall McLuhan, Alvin Toffler, and others who view mass media and electronic networking technologies as tribal phenomena.

[For a recent Marshall McLuhan inspired tendency to see mass media and the world wide web as tribalizing, see work by Derrick de Kerckhove, and see "What Would McLuhan Say?: Derrick de Kerckhove, the man who occupies the same swivel chair as mass media's philosopher king, ruminates on how the Web is creating a newly tribalized society" by Kevin Kelly in WIRED magazine, October 1996, p. 148-149
and at http:www.wired.com/4.10/.]

Deloria and other Native Americans agree in acknowledging tribalizing potentials and actualities,
but they do not identify networks with tribes.

According to Deloria, a network is not a tribe (MME, p. 108).

[Also, in "Vision and Community: A Native-American Voice" in YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE: LIBERATION THEOLOGIES IN THE UNITED STATES (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1990), edited by Mar Peter-Raoul, Lindan Rennie Forcey and Robert Frederick Hunter, Jr., Vine Deloria, Jr. says, a "network is not a community" (p. 75).]

A usenet is not a tribe.
An internet newsgroup is not a tribe.
An electronic bulletin board is not a tribe.
A chat room is not a tribe.
A just-in-time community is not a tribe.

A tribe is a cross-genenerational community of many significant shared experiences and shared social ethical purposes.
The social ethical purposes of righteous human tribalisms include:
:o: contributing to the welfare and prosperity of the people,
including future generations, especially the seventh generation, and
including other peoples, tribes, and nations, and
:o: contributing to proper relations (respect & reciprocity) to the land and other life,
including other-than-human life, and
including local, more inclusive (cross-generational, past-present-future, tribal, intertribal, national, international, global, interplanatary, cosmic), and all-inclusive life.

Electronic networks may contribute to tribalisms,
and, on occasion,
they may be created by tribes;
but,
the networks themselves are not tribes.

Moreover,
as modern history has already shown,
modern networks can have radically de-tribalizing consequences for many populations.
For example,
British digital-submarine-cable networks, going back to the late1850s (Morse code is a digital mode.), contributed to the destruction of much traditional tribal existence globally.

[For a most excellent and fasinating account of global cable wiring, see "Mother Earth, Motherboard: The hacker tourist ventures forth across the wide and wondrous meatspace of three continents, chronicaling the laying of the longest wire on Earth" by Neal Stephenson in WIRED magazine, December 1996 and at http:www.wired.com/4.12/.]

Modern networking can contribute to good or/and bad.

In order to ensure that modern networking technologies contribute to more righteous tribalisms, modern networking technologies must be animated and guided by rightly tribal purposes.


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Tribalism
among Contemporary Human Peoples
in the Lands of the Peoples of the Eagle & the Condor:
Descriptions, Predictions, Visions & Prescriptions


Here, our circle of concern embraces contemporary peoples in the land of the people of the Eagle and in the land of the people of the Condor, lands recently called North America and South America, or the Americas (including lands and islands recently called Central America, West Indies, and the Caribbean).
[See chapter 1, section 4, summary statements]

descriptions:

As with contemporary peoples globally,
in the lands of the peoples of the Eagle and Condor,
lands which are recently called North and South America,
there are traditional tribal peoples and modern non-tribal peoples.

Here,
the traditional tribal peoples are mainly
aboriginal-indigenous Native American peoples,
and
the modern non-tribal peoples are mainly
hybrid hyphenated-American peoples (European-American, Hispanic-American, African-American, Asian-American, etc.) not originally indigenous or native to these lands recently called the Americas.

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[terminology: "people of the Eagle" and "people of the Condor"]

[terminology: "hybrid," "hyphenated-American," and "Native American"]

[terminology: "Wasichus"]

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[Return to Main Menu.]


Here, Native American peoples are continuing
"500 years of indigenous resistance" to the detribalizing forces of modernity.

"500 years of indigenous resistance" is a Native American description of Native American relations to modernity. Robert Allen Warrior of the Osage nation reports the peoples of the Eagle and Condor (meaning Native Americans throughout the Americas) share this description.

[See "The Sweetgrass Meaning of Solidarity: 500 Years of Resistance" in SOJOURNERS (Vol. 20, No. 1, January 1991) by Robert Allen Warrior.]

And throughout the lands of the peoples of the Eagle and Condor,
hyphenated-American peoples are continuing 500 years of modern existence.

evaluation:

According to Native American values,
it is good that Native American peoples are continuing to resist the detribalizing forces of modernity.

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[See descriptions, predictions, visions & prescriptions
concerning tribal existence and tribal religions
among Native American peoples
instructed by Robert Allen Warrior's "The Sweetgrass Meaning of Solidarity: 500 Years of Resistance" in SOJOURNERS (Vol. 20, No. 1, January 1991).]


[See descriptions, predictions, visions & prescriptions
concerning modern existence and modern religions
among hyphenated-American peoples
instructed by Vine Deloria, Jr. and Robert Allen Warrior.]

[Return to start of this section (section 4).]

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more righteous tribalisms:

Robert Allen Warrior and other Native Americans descended from the peoples of the Eagle and the Condor prescribe more righteous tribalisms for contemporary peoples globally, and more specifically, for contemporary peoples throughout the lands of the peoples of the Eagle and the Condor, that is throughout the Americas.

solidarity:

Moreover,
they prescribe intra-tribal, inter-tribal, inter-national, inter-continential, and global solidarity among Native American and other traditional tribal peoples;
and
they prescribe that hyphenated-American and other modern non-tribal peoples enter into solidarity with Native American and other traditional tribal peoples.

Solidarity with Native American peoples, according to Robert Allen Warrior of the Osage nation, entails commitment to contribute to Native American efforts at:
  • land recovery,
  • national sovereignty,
  • religious freedom,
  • protection of sacred sites, and
  • economic development
    (SWEETGRASS, pp. 23, 24).

[See "The Sweetgrass Meaning of Solidarity: 500 Years of Resistance" in SOJOURNERS (Vol. 20, No. 1, January 1991) by Robert Allen Warrior.]

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Tribalism
among Contemporary Human Peoples
in the Land of the People of the Eagle, also called Great Turtle Island, also called North America:
Description & Evaluation


Here, our circle of concern embraces contemporary peoples in the land of the People of the Eagle, a land long known as the Great Turtle Island, a land which is recently called North America.
[See chapter 1, section 5, summary statements.]



description:

The land of the people of the Eagle is named "Turtle Island" or "Great Turtle Island."

"Turtle Island" is the name used by ancient Lenni Lenape people. According to the WALLAM OLUM, in remote prehistoric times, the ancestors of the Lenni Lenape people, a people also called Delaware in modern times, migrated from west to east, crossing on a frozen bridge (near the Bering Strait), from a western continental land mass identified as the land of the Serpent or Dragon to an eastern contintental land mass named "Turtle Island."

[See THE RED RECORD: THE WALLAM OLUM: OLDEST NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN HISTORY (Garden City Park, New York: Avery Publishing Group, 1989), translated and annotated by David McCutchen.]

The WALLAM OLUM reports that after many years of wandering across the continent, the ancestors of the Lenni Lenape/Delaware encountered a people who were already at home on the Turtle Island, a people who are now called Iroquois. The migrating ancestors of the Lenni Lenape/Delaware made peace and became friends and allies with the ancestors of the Iroquois. (WALLAM OLUM, p. 41)

Chief Oren Lyons, of the Wolf clan, borrowed into the Turtle clan, Faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation, one of the six nations of the Haudenausaunee confederation of nations (a confederation called Iroquois by the French and Six Nations by the English), teaches us the Haudenausaunee/Iroquois name for the continent is "the Great Turtle Island" (Lyons, p. 2).

[See "Oren Lyons The Faithkeeper with Bill Moyers," a Public Affairs Television interview of Chief Oren Lyons by Bill Moyers (Air Date: 3 July 1991, transcript #BMSP-16 by Journal Graphics, New York, 1991).]

In recent-modern times, modern hybrid and hyphenated-American peoples have come to call the Great Turtle Island by the name "North America."

On the Great Turtle Island,
as in the land of the People of the Condor,
the People of the Eagle, who are the aboriginal-indigenous Native North American peoples, are many tribes and many nations.

Hyphenated-American peoples on the Great Turtle Island are not tribes, and only three nations -- Canada, U.S.A., and Mexico.

The land and water spaces claimed by Native American tribes and nations overlap and conflict with the claims of the three hyphenated-American nations.

evaluation:

According to Native American judgments,
by right of long generations of prior occupancy, and by right of original title and hundreds of treaties, the claims of Native American tribes and nations hold legal and moral priority.

The Great Turtle Island, like the land of the people of the Condor, is traditionally, legally, and rightly the sovereign homeland of Native American tribes and nations.

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Tribalism
among Contemporary Human Peoples
North of the Rio Grande River in the Land of the People of the Eagle, also called Great Turtle Island, also called North America:
Geography, Description & Evaluation


Here, our circle of concern embraces contemporary human peoples north of the river called "Rio Grande" (also called "Rio Bravo"), which flows through the land of the People of the Eagle, a land which is named Great Turtle Island, and which is recently called North America.
[See chapter 1, section 6, summary statements]




geography:

On the Great Turtle Island,
recently called North America,
which is the land of the People of the Eagle,
there is a great river.

Recently,
this great river has come to be called "Rio Grande" by English speaking hyphenated-Americans on its northern side and "Rio Bravo" by Spanish speaking hyphenated-Americans on its southern side.

description:

North of this great river,
Native American peoples are many tribes and many nations
and
hyphenated-American peoples are not tribes and only two nations--Canada and the United States of America.

The land and water spaces claimed by Native American tribes and nations overlap and conflict with the claims of the two hyphenated-American nations.

evaluation:

According to Native American judgments,
by right of long generations of prior occupancy, and by right of original title and hundreds of treaties, the claims of Native American tribes and nations hold legal and moral priority.
These lands and water ways are traditionally, legally, and rightly the sovereign homeland of indigenous-aboriginal Native American peoples, tribes and nations.

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:o: [to Start of Chapter 1]
(chapter 1, section 7)

Tribalism
among Contemporary Native American Peoples
in Native American and U.S. Claimed Territories:
Prescriptions & Predictions


Here, our circle of concern embraces contemporary Native American peoples in territories north of the Rio Grande River where Native American claims to the land overlap and conflict with U.S. claims. Our primary resource is CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989/69) by Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations.
[See chapter 1, section 7, summary statements.]




prescription:

In CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989/69), Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux Nations calls for increased "tribal solidarity" (p. 21) and for "uplifting the total Indian community" (p. 258).

description:

In CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989/69), Deloria notes that for many tribes and nations, the "total" community includes both reservation populations and urban populations.

prescriptions:

According to Deloria, tribal and U.S. public policies must take account of the fact that many tribal persons migrate to and from U.S. cities. Taking account of this and other features of contemporary tribal existence requires a "redefinition of Indian Affairs" (CUSTER, p. 257).

"A redefinition of Indian Affairs, then, would concentrate its attention on the coordination among the non-reservation peoples and the reservation programs on a regional or area basis. In that way migrations to and from urban areas could be taken into account when planning reservation programs. There would therefore be a need for the Department of the Interior to redefine its service function. Present regulations restrict Interior services to Indians living on trust land. Only these people are eligible for health, education, and trusteeship services. An urban Indian can [257-258] become eligible for bureau services simply by returning to the reservation for a decent period and establishing residence. Often he spends as much time and money establishing his eligibility as the services he eventually receives are worth.
Because the bureau is restricted in its services to reservation Indians, little progress is made in upliftng the total Indian community. The result is the continual return of people from the urban areas, adding to the burden carried by the reservation programs."

(CUSTER, pp. 257-258)

According to Deloria's prescribed redefinition, "Indian Affairs" should employ significant coordinated input from both urban and reservation populations to enhance "tribal solidarity," and to create new tribal and inter-tribal community development projects, including especially rural development projects. Moreover, Deloria prescribes that the goal should be economic independence for the tribes. (CUSTER, pp. 21, 26, 264)

Also, Deloria prescribes:
:o: a "redefinition of Indian life" which remains tribal but which has contemporary significance and strength" (CUSTER, p. 264),
:o: "tribal regrouping" (CUSTER, p. 32),
:o: retribalization (CUSTER, pp. 265-267),
:o: development of new tribes and new forms of tribalism, including especially corporated structured tribalism (CUSTER, p. 264), and
:o: "recolonization" of "unsettled areas of the nation by groups of Indian colonists" (CUSTER, p. 263, 264-267, 27)

In short, Deloria prescribes that Indians "retribalize, recolonize, and recustomize" (CUSTER, p. 265).


prediction:

Not only does Deloria prescribes that Indians retribalize, recolonize, recustomize, and achieve economic independence; he also predicts this "will happen" (CUSTER, p. 265).

According to Deloria, this will happen "when the urban Indians have achieved a certain amount of political awareness and made their presence felt in national Indian affairs" (CUSTER, p. 265).

Also, Deloria is certain "Urban Indians will create a new sense of unity as they fight for equal representation in inter-tribal organizations" (CUSTER, p. 262).

Deloria says:


" ... Slowly, but with an irresistible power, there is emerging the cadre for serious tribal cultural and religious renewal. This important element, which previously was but a minor distraction in most tribes, had been represented by stubborn traditional elders who refused to surrender to the blandishments of the non-Indian world. As these two groups interact and influence each other, powerful spiritual and cultural forces are being unleashed in the tribes, and a vision for the future is being created. In the [xii-xiii] next generation we shall see some marvelous things coming from the Indian tribes, assuming that the present generatin can successfully defend the reservations against the continuing attacks of racists and corporate exploiters."
(CUSTER, p. xii-xiii)

Deloria expects when urban tribal members cooperate with rural tribal members, they will create a new tribalism and a new tribal prosperity for future generations of Native Americans.

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a few of Deloria's many publications:

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:o: [to Start of Chapter 1]
(chapter 1, section 8)

Tribalism
among Contemporary European-American Peoples
in Native American and U.S. Claimed Territories:
Descriptions and Prescriptions


Here, our circle of concern embraces contemporary European-American peoples in territories north of the Rio Grande River where Native American claims to the land overlap and conflict with U.S. claims.

descriptions:

European-Americans, including especially Anglo-Americans, are among the modern non-tribal or hybrid peoples to whom Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations prescribes a renewed appreciation of righteous tribal values and more righteous tribalisms;
and more narrowly,
European-Americans, including especially Anglo-Americans, are among the modern hyphenated-American peoples to whom Robert Allen Warrior of the Osage nation prescribes commitment to contribute to Native American efforts at land recovery, national sovereignty, religious freedom, protection of sacred sites, and economic development (SWEETGRASS, pp. 23, 24).

See the following:

In the Native American and U.S. claimed territories,
European-American peoples (including most especially Anglo-American peoples) are represented to Native American tribes and nations by institutions from three main types of sectors:
(a) public-government sectors,
(b) private profit-seeking sectors, and
(c) private non-profit sectors.

prescriptions:

Prescribing more righteous tribalism for each of these sectors means prescribing that these sectors do the following:

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(a) prescriptions
to U.S. public-government sectors:

See the following:
CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989/1969) by Vine Deloria, Jr.;
and,
THE NATIONS WITHIN: THE PAST AND FUTURE OF AMERICAN INDIAN SOVEREIGNTY (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984) by Vine Deloria, Jr. and Clifford M. Lytle.

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(b) prescriptions
to U.S. private profit-seeking sectors:

The U.S. private profit-seeking sectors should
repent of modern anti-tribalisms, including especially economic oppressions and exploitations,
repent of modern mis-understandings of tribalism and accept righteous tribal values, and
avoid uninvited involvement in "Indian Affairs."

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(c) prescriptions
to U.S. private non-profit sectors:

The U.S. private non-profit-seeking sectors should
repent of modern anti-tribalisms, including the modern mis-understandings of tribalism,
accept righteous tribal values, and
avoid un-invited involvement in "Indian Affairs."

For Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations, this means educational and research institutions should repent of exploition and profiteering, repent of violations of sacred sites and ceremonies, and repent of modern anti-tribal habits and philosophies.

[See CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989/1969) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]

Also, for Deloria, this means religious institutions and missions should repent of the modern non-tribal religious habit of assuming a "world religion" is superior to all tribal religions, that one religion is superior to all others, and that all peoples tribes and nations are religiously and morally obliged to convert to this one-truely-forever-in-principle-supreme religion.

[See GOD IS RED (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1973) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]
[See GOD IS RED: A NATIVE VIEW OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION (Golden, Colorado: North American Press, 1992) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]

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:o: [to Start of Chapter 1]
(chapter 1, section 9)

Tribalism
among Contemporary African-American Peoples
in Native American and U.S. Claimed Territories:
Descriptions, Predictions, Visions & Prescriptions


Here, our circle of concern embraces contemporary African-American peoples in territories north of the Rio Grande River where Native American claims to the land overlap and conflict with U.S. claims.

interpretative theme:

Of course the basic social anthropology by which Native Americans interpret human existence generally applies to African-Americans in Native American and U.S. claimed territories. For African-Americans, as for humans generally, tribal existence is an essential feature of normal-healthy-righteous human culture.

description of the past:

In a historically unique fashion, the European-American systems of chattel slavery divorced African and African-American populations from traditional African tribal existence. Enslaved Africans and their descendents in the occupied territories were deliberately and forcefully detribalized by detribalized European-Americans.

description of the present:

In addition to their own special sufferings, African-Americans in Native American and U.S. claimed territories are like other detribalized modern humans in that they suffer from a serious cultural deficiency--inadequate development of the positive aspects of tribalism.

prediction:

As is true for other detribalized modern humans, unless African-Americans "retribalize," their future will bring ever increasing social difficulties.

prescription:

Like other modern non-tribal humans,
African-Americans should retribalize by contributing to the emergence of more righteous tribalisms among themselves and others.

more specific prescriptions:

Carol Hampton of the Caddo Nation along with Robert Allen Warrior of the Osage Nation report that many Native Americans are prescribing and inviting increased solidarity with African-American peoples.

And, Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations offers social ethical prescriptions to African-Americans in chapter 8, "The Red and The Black," of his book --CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS: AN INDIAN MANIFESTO (Norman Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989/1969).

[See a history of red-black solidarity: BLACK INDIANS: A HIDDEN HERITAGE (New York: Atheneum/Macmillan, 1986) by William Loren Katz.]
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[See a note about another historical instance of red-black solidarity--the Ben Ishmael tribe--by Hakim Bey under the heading of "Eugenics" in event-scene 46 (23 July 1997) of CTHEORY: THEORY, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE, VOL 20, NO 1-2, edited by Arthur and Marilouise Kroker.]


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[And see "Gangsta Rap, Hip Hop, Tupac, and Tribalism" and "Gangstas on the Web."]

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:o: [to Title Page] :o: [to Main Menu] :o: [to Circle of Concerns Menu]
:o: [to Start of Chapter 1]
(chapter 1, section 10)

Tribalism
among Contemporary Mestizo-American Peoples
in Native American and U.S. Claimed Territories:

Here, our circle of concern embraces contemporary Mestizo-American peoples in territories north of the Rio Grande River where Native American claims to the land overlap and conflict with U.S. claims.

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See the following:

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:o: [to Title Page] :o: [to Main Menu] :o: [to Circle of Concerns Menu]
:o: [to Start of Chapter 1]
(chapter 1, section 11)

Tribalism
among Contemporary Asian-American Peoples
in Native American and U.S. Claimed Territories:

Here, our circle of concern embraces contemporary Asian-American peoples in territories north of the Rio Grande River where Native American claims to the land overlap and conflict with U.S. claims.

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"Kimochi"

According to the Kimochi Home Page
(at http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~ccambrid/kimochi.html on 28 December 1996):
"Kimochi, the organization, is a fusion of ideas and philosophies born of a joint American Indian and Asian American effort on the campus of the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1972. The name, Kimochi, is a Japanese word that reflects the meaning of "a feeling of good will.""

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[Also, for a Korean Minjung theology, see THE WOUNDED HEART OF GOD: THE ASIAN CONCEPT OF HAN AND THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF SIN (Nashville, Tenn: Abingdon Press, 1993) by Andrew Sung Park.]

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:o: [to Title Page] :o: [to Main Menu] :o: [to Circle of Concerns Menu]
:o: [to Start of Chapter 1]
(chapter 1, section 12)

Tribalism
among Other Contemporary Hyphenated-American Peoples
in Native American and U.S. Claimed Territories:

Here, our circle of concern embraces other contemporary hyphenated-American peoples in territories north of the Rio Grande River where Native American claims to the land overlap and conflict with U.S. claims.

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The End of Chapter One

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original HTML formatting by Theodore Walker, Jr.,
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Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275.
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