In the first post in this series – two days ago – I stated that I prefer to say “All life matters” rather than “All lives matter” or “Black lives matter” because I find my choice to be more inclusive. I also prefer it because it is more attuned to the Native American peoples understanding of creation.

One of my favorite resources is A Native American Theology by Clara Sue Kidwell, Homer Noley, and George E. “Tink” Tinker (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY – © 2001). The following words are offered early in the volume to assist the reader with the Native American understanding of creation:

When the word [creation] is used in a Christian context, it seems to Indian peoples to connote a heavy dose of reification that is completely lacking in any Indian intellectual tradition, i.e., creation has been historically and continues to be objectified as a thing, something that is quite apart from human beings and to which humans relate from the outside. This objectification is strikingly different from the traditional Indian sense that all of the created world – including every tree and rock – is just as alive and sentient as human beings are, and the further sense that Indian peoples have that we are related to all of these sentient persons in creation (34-35).

I never cease to be amazed at some of the things that I find each day on my Facebook news feed. Even this morning there were two posts that immediately caught my eye – one that I had seen several times and one that was new to me.

The one that I had seen before spoke about a public figure – a musician – who reportedly uttered some extremely rude words once as a description of Native Americans. However, other posts about this same report have also been written stating that the original post is un-true and out of context. Remember – just because you find it on the internet, Facebook, or any other source does not mean that it is true. That is why I decided not to speak further of this matter. It might well be true – but – there is at least an equal chance that it is not true.

The other one, however, set me to writing this post:

Congressional House Chairman Bishop Calls Native American Artifacts “Bull Crap – Not an Antiquity”

WASHINGTON – House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop [R – Utah] last Friday (July 10) dismissed the historical value of Native American artifacts as a basis for establishing national monuments, as first reported by “Greenwire” in a story about President Obama’s designation of three new national monuments: “There is nothing that Obama did today that had anything to do with an antiquity,” Bishop said. “There are criteria for using the act. There is nothing Obama announced that had anything to do with the criteria.”

Ranking Member Raul M Grijalva [D – Arizona] released the following statement in response.

“The natural and cultural resources protected by these designations are, in fact, antiques; species and trees and rocks and cave paintings and beautiful landscapes are all quite old. We want them to remain antique, House Republicans want them to become extinct.”

Grijalva thanked and congratulated Obama earlier today for his designations of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in California, Waco Mammoth National Monument in Texas and Basin and Range National Monument in Nevada (http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/).

Incidents like this are just the very tip of the proverbial iceberg. Sadly many of these debates are clearly linked to money and power rather than any consideration of what might be in the best interest of all people – certainly not what might be in the best interest of all creation.

To close this post, I recommend that people visit http://invasionofamerica.ehistory.org. On the opening page of this site you will find an interactive map that will provide the focus for the coming series of posts on this blog. A smaller version of the same map is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJxrTzfG2bo.

Thank you for visiting this blog and reading this post. You are encouraged to follow this blog and leave comments – joining in a community discussion of these topics. Also, I encourage you to invite others to become part of this community.

Until next time – mitakuye oyasin – these two words will be the topic of my next post on this blog.