Scripture/ Sacred Narrative In First Nations’ Culture
Slide 1 – I would like to begin with a little contextual background.
· FN cultures in
n the FNs colonial-historic relationship with European cultures has created diverse subgroups within First Nations communities which already vary depending on their linguistic groupings.
n Different colonial tools were used within different geographic locations and also within different factions of linguistic groups.
n In Saskatchewan, three treaty signing areas are represented and the missionizing attempts of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and methodist residential schools, along with the more “secular” industrial schools, has created a multi-valenced group we label under one title, “First Nations.”
n FNs are then whitewashed into a generalized category within RLST textbooks, if they are even discussed, under chapters on “Oral traditions” or “Indigenous traditions.”
n It is from the colonizer’s location of power as a euroacademic within this politico-religious history that we ask the question, “Is there scriptures within First Nations’ cultural systems?”
Slide 2 – Yes. Residential schooling and secular institutions founded on Christian paradigms has been and continues to be assimilated into much of the philosophical foundations of FN peoples.
- All FN peoples have been impacted by Christian scriptures through the experience of having their children removed or as they themselves being children removed from their communities and sent to residential schools between 1838 to 1984.
- (HAND OUT BOOKLET)
- Imposed Christianity has influenced some FN to be exclusively Christian, while more traditional lineages continue their ethnically distinct ways.
- The more traditional people oppose the missionizing practices of Christianity, but have some level of respect for the narratives within the scriptures and especially for Jesus as a “Holy Person.”
But what about traditional oral culture?
Slide 3 –There are no equivalent to scriptures in oral tradition, and, like the concept of religion, scripture is a colonial construction forced into and onto FN knowledge.
As a side note, the academic method of comparison is a colonial procedure that has been used and continues to be used to delimit and/or assimilate other cultural knowledge into the eurocultural mold. Because of this colonial intention, I have not fully applied this method as assigned. Sorry Volker, I could not ethically do so.
Slide 4 – In the nēhiyawēwin, many new words in the last two centuries reflect the Christian practices and principles in light of how they differ from traditional constructs, such as the verb “to pray”.
- Cree language is a verb-based language where each noun is created by describing a process or distinction of the object in narrative, and usually relational, form.
- This is different than the object-emphasized English language, or even the gendered speech patterns of the Amerindian Lakota linguistic group.
- In Cree, there are no gender differentials besides napēw (man) and iskwēw (woman) acting as nouns.
- Explained in a simpler way, each noun is expressing or referring to a sacred story of one sort or another.
- For example, my daughter’s Indian name is pihaysiw asiniy ka-nipawit, Thunderbird Woman Standing On a Rock, a story that she must live into as she grows in life.
- Now, the reason that I am adding so much contextual information is that colonial relationships are still operating as can be seen within the presence of the Department of Indian Affairs here on campus within the FNUC building.
- Because of this I have to ask the question, how can scholars ethically relate the Judeo-Christian concept of written scripture to the oral nature and political climate of relations of sacred narratives in the FN environment?
Slide 5 - Rather than continuing to impose eurocentric structures onto crosscultural data, we must try to search FN knowledge for FN models that can transform our structures into more globally and humanistic ones.
- This then takes us out of our cultural-specific paradigms into the globalized arena of humankind as a group.
- So where do we begin to search for FN knowledge contrasted with our Christian scriptures?
- Mnemonic and other storytelling devices are used within narration and utilized within all aspects of FN culture, whereas we segregate these aspects as separate components in our eurocentric analysis of society without returning them back into the larger narrative and analyze the process of their relationships with each other.
- Myth, stories told by mothers to teach children, tall tales that challenge the storyteller’s technique, all interweave within FN knowledge structures.
- Many of the pictorial references are secondary re-presentations of the primary oral narratives that are memorized and structured within FN ways of knowing and sometimes also have alternate uses within ceremonial constructions.
- Here, for example, are Iroquois Wampum Belts, used for various reasons, with some of these recording the story of Falling Sky Woman. Some of these are used only within ceremony as doorways that open points of contact between spiritual beings in the universe, with humans as lower incarnations of spirit.
Slide 6 – These are some examples of birch bark scrolls. The center one is from Cree material culture, while these outer two record the Sanskrit language and are included to show how some indigenous techniques are represented in other more familiar cultures where we would not expect to find them.
Slide 7 – The most well-known hide paintings are the Lakota Winter Counts such as Red Crow’s, named after the lineage that records and holds the oral transmission (similar to our historians only with more specific narrative boundaries).
- other FN linguistic groups have hide narrative accounts, most without linear time formats like these pictured. These are now recorded on paper and in book formats rather than hides.
- One Amerindian author, N. Scott Momaday shares how an old man, Pohd-lohk, has kept the Kiowa historical records in a book that is bundled with spectacles to be used in reading this spiritual history. The old man does not need the spectacles, but they are bundled as a ritual object to be used when reading this one specific book (pages 47-52).
Slide 8 – Tipi coverings can be seen here in
- In Cree culture, women owned the tipis.
- Travelers could “read” the different tribal affinities, the lineage of each family within the compound, and even distinguish between specific exploits of family members by viewing the tipis.
- Traditional nēhiyaw cultural historians were women whereas men overall maintained specific and ceremonial narrative constructions.
Slide 9 – The tipis were owned by women and were the homefire protectors
- It is generally the woman who painted her spiritual story within the inner sanctity of her home, with the other family member’s histories being referenced within her story.
- Sacred stories passed down, dreams and visions, and the temporal experiences were all interwoven into a pictograph representation of a larger oral narrative.
Slide 10 – Patterns and images referred to stories as applied to clothing, household goods, and ceremonial objects. In contemporary settings, these can now be seen decorating walls and even vehicles.
Slide 11 – The material construction of all the lodges contain teachings and stories shared within the context of the activity(ies). These storytelling processes are similar to the canonization process of Christianity, but not quite.
- the greatest ceremony is the homefire, the center of living life, represented by the tipi with the grand/mother and mother being the recognized spiritual practitioners of these lodges. This is in contrast to the men who need to delegate ceremonial times and ceremonial constructions in order to appropriate the spiritual power inherent in women.
- Each pole, pin, peg, and connecting area represents an aspect of a larger narrative that instructs FN thought.
- These various stories are “bundled” within the image of a tipi, whether as an object of use or as a representation as found within the handout you received.
- The upper parts of the poles represent the larger spiritual history of the family and can be seen as a reversed tipi that encompasses and houses all of the universe, infusing and meeting with the temporal fire located just off of the center of the lodge and protected by the women lodgekeepers.
- As can be seen, the sacred and profane are not separated in daily existence.
Slide 12 – returning to the more colorful aspect of material culture, the more pictorial designs are specific to certain geographic and ethnic factions of FN cultures. For example, the floral designs of the eastern Crees and Métis populations.
Slide 13 – The more geometric designs are of the plains Cree with other designed images communicating West Coast, Inuit, and the like.
Slide 14 – The Jingle Dress and other images are from the
Slide 15 – Geography can act as both Narration and as Organization Principle
· concepts of seasonal learning highlight nature as a mnemonic device for a process similar to but distinct from canonization
- along with seasonal learning, names, whether the name of an individual or group or of a place name, being verb-based in Cree, are stories within their own construction and translatable by the lineage in which they occur.
- For example, the Lakota WBCW is from the Lakota Amerindina linguistic group and is not to be confused with my own Cree namesake, wāpi-mostos iskwēw , White Buffalo woman.
- I also cannot confuse the narrative of my name with other WBW narratives found outside of the Treaty Four area, such as one recorded by Freda Ahenakew of a Northern Cree woman of another Cree dialect. They have different geographical information that infuses her story and my story is infused with my Irish Canadian bloodline.
- Here is an ancient tipi circle that marks the landscape, while the monument is to misti-maskwa, the great leader of the Cree, Big Bear, who happens to be a Saulteaux by birth.
Slide 16 – Like individuals and landscapes, everything animate in movement, including stories narrated from memory out loud to an audience, are seen as containing life energies of their own, like seeds feeding the hungry.
- These energies include spiritual, relational, intentional and many more. Sacrality is simply a matter of degree influenced by perspective, and the position of the story within the larger narrative of the pimātisiwin, the process of life.
- Here are 3 sacred points of reference within
- Cypress Hills, where one narrative line is being highlighted within a movie about the starvation of thousands who would not sign treaty;
- and kihci-manitou sakihikan, the Creator’s Lake, or God’s
Slide 17 – Into the sacred narrative are contemporary locations and now buildings, such as the FNUC, in partnership with the UofR.
- Many stories revolve around specific designs of and in the building, such as the colors trimming each of the floors on the outside of the building, the stone within the glass tipi, the tile work both inside and outside the building.
- Before the building even existed, narratives concerning the pipe ceremonies held on the present grounds, powwows, and other more secular activities and accomplishments of the relationship between SIFC and UofR are bundled into its history infused with spirit through ritual.
- These stories are told by such lineages as deceased James Ironeagle, deceased Gordon Oakes, Deceased Beatrice Lavalee and Willie Piegan, as well as the current elders Isadore Pelletier, Ken Goodwill, and Velma Goodfeather.
- Descendents of those passed over, as well as the current elders can gather together and tell the various versions of narratives surrounding the existence of this building. This is seen as a sacred history of humans, a bundle of “great stories” as I will cover in a little while.
Slide 18 – Underlying all the narrative and teachings are:
-the importance of relationships with all of life, where pimātisiwin is the highest gift, the highest process that is asked for and blessed between people in respectful relation to each other and the world around them.
Slide 19 – Sacrality is only a matter of degrees to and from the Creator, the highest energetic principle in FN thought.
Slide 20 – nēhiyawak (Crees) have their own sacred narrative categories, which are many, with these examples taken from Melissa Blind’s Masters dissertation, “Understanding the Roles of Aboriginal Women in Cree Traditional Narratives,” just recently defended here at the UofR (23).
a) ātayohkēwin – Spiritual History
b) kayās-ācimowina - Old Stories
c) kihci-ācimowina - Great Stories (as seen in FNUC)
d) ācimisowina - Personal Life Stories
e) wawiyatācimowina - Tall Tales
f) kakēskihkēmowina - Counseling Stories
Slide 21 Here is an example of a Lakota spiritual history, a ātayohkēwin within the Cree categorization even though certain components could make it fit many categories. Some of the current categorization problems can occur, but that can be dealt with by further specificity into other cultural distinctions.
Slide 22 To summarize
-Canon and scripture are Christocentric terms inappropriate to the religio-political climate of our country.
-Myth, legend, and folklore desacralize FN narratives and perpetuate the perception of untruth or nice little animal stories.
- New categories must be conceived that allow equitable relationships between crosscultural references.
I would like to thank you for your patience and I leave you with this question and open the floor to any discussion:
Slide 23
