This class shall be called Red Heart
THE NEW BABY
Life’s mystery, maybe that’s what it’s all about. When a new baby is born, a father and a mother look down at this new little mystery, this new person. Yet ahead are many years of growing up / many adventures / excitements / disappointment / sorrow / friendship / hope / love / and much much more for this tiny new life.
When a Native American father looks down at his new baby, what does he see?
When a Native American mother looks down at her baby, what does she see?
When a mother–of any race, culture, or country–looks down at her newborn infant . . . . what does she see and what does she feel?
Obviously, the same red heart beats in all of us. The same emotions of love, joy, and happiness exist in all of us, the same. These emotions are not unique to any one group; they are human emotions. Virtues are not unique to any one group, either. This is to be kept in mind when I refer to the Native American virtues: compassion, love, honor, loyalty, courage, and wisdom. These are not just Native American virtues, these are human virtues. But in contrast to the racist stereotype of Native Americans as savages, it is important to affirm this viewpoint over and over again–the same sense of virtue, the same emotions and intellect, exist among Native Americans as among any other group.
The love a mother and father feel in looking at their newborn baby excites similar thoughts and emotions in the hearts of all parents everywhere, and you know this is not a matter of race or skin color. This is about what Dr. King called “the content of their character” in referring to his own four children. Parents will learn to love their children and will try the best they can to raise them right. They will give them as much of their guidance, experience, love, and compassion as they can. They will also encourage creativity, honesty, and independence if they desire to help their children to explore their full range of possibilities and individual potential.
How is this different in one culture or another? The thoughts and the feelings are the same or similar, though the specific sound of words and rules of grammar may vary from one linguistic group to the next. But here I talk of thoughts and emotions that need no special language, that go deeper than words: the beating of the human heart with the strength of love or the fire of courage, if honor ever demands of us that we defend our loved ones–with force if need be.
And make no mistake about it, in discussion of Native American culture, it is very plain that a vibrant warrior culture emerged among many tribes, or nations. A strong, brave warrior–well-trained to withstand hunger and pain–was ready to give his life to defend his people. Indeed, it is the especially terrifying aspect of the European invasion that a new people arrived with an insatiable lust for land and gold, so much so that unbridled power and a brutal immorality went hand in hand. And this at a time when the superiority in European weaponry was becoming more and more pronounced.
This at a time when European soldiers and settlers arrived willing to kill with no thought of compunction or a single twinge of conscience, as they came into conflict with Native American cultures where the best and brightest men of each tribe, each nation, believed it was his duty, his sacred duty, to defend his people and give his life in battle against the enemy if necessary.
Needless to say, the stories of courage of Indian warriors during this long history of warfare amaze us even today, and often takes on an almost legendary quality–to be passed down to our posterity as words of wisdom bathed in truth, though perhaps mistakenly perceived by future generations as legend or exaggeration whose exact historical authenticity can no longer be ascertained with any degree of certainty . . . .
Many Kills, the adopted brother of Sitting Bull stepping in front of the man who had saved his life so many long years ago–to honor a warrior’s debt of a life for a life. Crazy Horse, riding his horse up and down before the soldiers before the battle began, preparing his own blood brothers with a great show of courage that they might fight the more bravely in battle, and if they were to die that day, that others could speak of their final moments with honor and pride.
The rest we know all too well. The senseless massacres, the many Trail of Tears, the Cherokee, the Navajo, so many others . . . but where comes the courage to resist, to fight to the death? What is the deeper emotion beyond courage? Is it not love?
Is it not the love that demands we protect that which we love, the family, relatives, and friends nearest and dearest to our hearts? How is this different for Native Americans than any other people? It is not different; the Native American who looks down at his newborn baby will be stirred by those feelings of love which will become the foundation of courage to resist . . .
“Wakeneyeza” the Sioux (Lakota) say, translated as “sacred little beings” for their children. Yes, “sacred little beings.” A new life, a new future. And though we can teach our children the best we can, we can never fully predict how they will grow, what they will look like, or how the personality and character will turn out, what they will say and do later in life. But that is for the future . . . for now, I am talking only about the newborn, the moment the baby is born. And once we have raised the discussion to such a plateau, how can we ever reconcile the word “savage” with people as fully human, virtuous, and eloquent as any other, including ourselves?
Yes, in looking at a baby we are looking at a little mystery, part of the bigger, or Great Mystery. That is part of what Native Americans means since mystery, or the unknown, is not necessarily a bad thing, but a good thing. The phrase “Great Mystery” is full of awe and reverence, and the baby that is born reminds us that life moves in cycles, as do the seasons, that this baby will grow and live through many seasons . . . he or she in turn will grow up and we shall see in what ways the son or daughter chooses to honor his or her parents, those who gave them life and raised them . . .
For now we speak of things we hold most dear. We value peace, for we wish to see our loved one raised in safety and sunshine. At the same time we hold up these individual virtues up as worthy of expression and daily practice: honesty, patience, loyalty, courage, and love. Though the peoples of the earth have suffered much, the much longer struggle of humanity to affirm the principles of equality is not over or lost; to the contrary, it is not a battle that can be lost, for the people will triumph in the end.
The majority of the world’s peace-loving peoples will not let this insanity of war and oppression go on forever. Even now, as we speak, the struggle continues and appears to be entering a special period of intensification. Not just Native Americans, but many peoples around the world are speaking up for freedom and justice.
That is the majority I want to be part of; that is the chorus of voices to which I wish to add my own. Now I’m not a singer or a dancer, but I am a writer and a teacher. This is how I have chosen to make a difference, as have many of you. This is a beautiful and peaceful road we are on, and we are not leaving it. As Lincoln said, I would sooner be assassinated on this spot than abandon these democratic and moral principles.
When I was 18 years old, I registered as a Conscientious Objector and told my draft board that I would go to jail for five years before I would carry a gun. They looked at me like I was crazy, which led to a long struggle. Five years later they recognized my right as an American to declare himself a Conscientious Objector and I was granted the status I desired. Had the decision been otherwise, I would have preferred jail with honor than the stain of blood upon my conscience.
Of course, I also have studied history for a long time and see there have been many times when civil wars and revolutions were the order of the day. Perhaps our own society will likewise one day come to another civil war or revolution; only time will tell. In the meantime I believe that for myself principles of a lifetime can never be abandoned for light or transitory cause . . . they remain the best path . . . the path of conscience, the path of peace, the path of love.
As a boy, when I first began reading true stories about the courage of Native American warriors and the wisdom of Native American leaders, I resolved to become a teacher and a writer. I knew then that, in my lifetime, I was charged with a special task of preserving and sharing the true facts of the lives of these courageous Native Americans. I use both oral and written techniques to do so. This was back in the 1950s, a half-century ago, and the government was starting a policy of termination against the reservations and the people on them. At times such people as myself, who made this or similar resolutions, felt like we were laboring alone, in the dark and in isolation, with only occasional contacts and flares of hope against the ever-present dark chasm of injustice.
But the cultural revitalization and educational reform movements of the past decade have brought together hundreds of activists and I am learning I am not alone, that we are not alone; I am meeting people I never dreamed existed, who are themselves very committed to the Native American cause and the cause of human equality for everybody.
People sometimes ask me– or used to, when I was in college at Berkeley– if I were radical enough to support revolution? I answer them thusly: that our country stands for certain ideals and democratic practices. There was a time when an absolute tyranny like that of King George the Third ruled over the colonies with a bloody hand.
A generation of men and women came forward and resolved to fight for freedom and never to submit to tyranny again. It was the existing condition of oppression and repression that sparked this movement and not any unnatural hankering for blood and violence for its own sake, though reactionary forces never tire of throwing that accusation in the face of those who, historically, sometimes found it necessary to take up arms to fight for justice. To the contrary, ordinary working people in our country and around the world instinctively treasure peace and justice as far better than war and bloodshed.
But in 1776 it was time for the people of a new country to stand up and fight if they wanted to have freedom and so the American Revolution began. Our country was born in Revolution. If ever a time comes in American society where the existing govt has become repressive and undemocratic in the extreme, I support the right of the American people to resort to Revolution. It would be the new conditions of social injustice and economic oppression that would create such an event, nothing less and nothing more, as has happened so many times before.
But I am a man of peace and I seek justice, not revenge. I speak the truth as it has been given to me to understand and speak the truth. The giving of a Native American name is not done lightly or in jest. It is an honor name. Thus, I give this class the name Red Heart and it is with that name I shall remember each and every one of you.
Whenever you see a new baby born, your own or someone else’s, whenever you even think about such a scene in the hidden recesses of your mind and imagination, then remember us here, this class, and this name, and these names you gave one another.
I am very proud of each and every one of you.
I Am He Who Speaks the Truth.
I have spoken.
