Wednesday, November 13, 2019

12,286. RUDIMENTS. pt. 868

RUDIMENTS, pt. 868
(they come prancing) pt. two
The next morning they went
up close to the Messiah to
see if he had any of the scars
of crucifixion which the
missionaries on the reservation
had told them about. There
was a scar on his wrist, and
one on his face, but they could
not see his feet because he was
wearing moccasins. Throughout
the day he talked to them : In
the beginning, he said, God
made the earth and then sent
the Christ to earth to teach
the people, but white men had
treated him badly, leaving scars
on his body, and so he had gone
back to Heaven. Now he had
returned to earth as an Indian,
and was to renew everything
and make it better. In the next
Springtime, he told them, when
the grass was knee-high, the
earth would be covered with
new soil which would bury all
the white men and the new land
would be covered with sweet
grass and running water and
trees. Great herds of buffalo
and wild horses would come
back. The Indians who danced
the Ghost Dance would be taken
up in the air and suspended there
[I then immediately thought of the
strangeness of Chagall paintings]
while a wave of new earth was
passing, and then they would be
set down among the ghosts of
their ancestors on the new earth,
where only Indians would live.
-
After a few days at Walker Lake,
Kicking Bear and the others learned
their dance and they mounted their
horses to return to the railroad  -  as
they rode along, the Messiah flew
above them in the air, teaching
them songs for the new dance. At
the railroad he left them, telling
them to return to their people
and teach them what they had
learned. When the next Winter
was passed, he would bring the
ghosts of their fathers to meet
them in the new resurrection.
The dancing frenzy had spread  -
and the people of Kicking Bear,
and Short Bull, and Big Foot, and
others, were following the lead
of their chieftain in propagating
the dancing. They danced until
they fainted, because they wanted
to bring their dead warriors back. 
By early Autumn, (the Moon of the 
Falling Leaves), the official word
was: 'STOP the Ghost Dancing.'
-
In their fervor, Indians were
believing no harm could come to
them and bullets would not harm
them. White Hair McLauglin was
quoted, "A more pernicious system
of religion could not have been
offered to a people who stood on
the threshold of civilization.'
Although a practicing Catholic,
McLaughlin failed to realize the
Ghost Dance as being entirely
Christian. Except for its difference
in rituals, its tenets were the same
as any Christian church. The Messiah
had told them 'You must not hurt
anybody or do harm to anyone. You
must not fight. Do right always.'
Preaching non-violence and brotherly 
love, the doctrine called for no
action by the Indians except to
dance and sing. The Messiah would
bring the Resurrection. But because
the Indians were dancing, the agents
became alarmed, and notified the
soldiers, and the soldiers began the
march; which march eventually
ended in violence and ended the
entire Indian scenario. By the
end of the period, Sitting Bull
had been killed, as well as many
others, as violence begat violence.
One standout opponent was Dr.
Valentine McGillycuddy, a former
agent: "The coming of the troops
has frightened the Indians. If the 
Seventh-Day Adventists prepare
their ascension robes for the 
second coming of the Savior, The
US Army is not put in motion to
prevent them. Why should not
Indians have the same privilege?
If the troops remain, trouble
will follow."
-
I'll close this little sequence with 
the word of Black Elk, in his
old age: "I did not know how 
much was ended. When I look
back now from this high hill of
my old age, I can still see the
butchered women and children
lying heaped and scattered along
the crooked gulch as plain as
when I saw then with their eyes
still young. And I can see that
something else died there in the 
bloody mud, and was buried in
the blizzard. A people's dream
died there. It was a beautiful
dream.....the nation's hoop is
broken and scattered. There
is no center any longer, and
the sacred tree is dead."
-
No one has ever answered for
any of this stuff, and that 
always bothered me. It wasn't
that they were my people in any
way  -  nothing like that  -  but
in every other pose and stance, 
Americans of the 1960's, and other
times, and now too, always got
all up and righteous about their
'quests'  -  Freedom, Liberty, the
Right to be left alone, the free reign
of property rights, ownership,
fealty to no other, etc. Yeah,
big deal and right, sure. Every
damn holiday or parade there'd
be packs of them stand up to
spout and salute, sponsor and
go on and on about all that, and it
was all based on lies and deceit.
And there weren't any to ways
about it. I just got disgusted.
-
There were (are) a whole raft
of good books you can read on all
this, but you won't  -  and you won't
because no one else does. The whole
culture has been set up against
reflection; against any meditative 
qualities  -  except for listening to
the usual gas-bags hanging from
clotheslines, going on about their
shriveled nature. Here's where you
can start : 'Black Elk Speaks.' 'Bury
My Heart At Wounded Knee.' And
'Son of the Morning Star.'
-
Prancing They Come : 'See them
prancing. They come neighing, a
horse nation. See them prancing.
They come neighing, they come.'

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