Opinion

Ivan Starr: Learning what it means to be a Lakota person

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The following opinion was written by Ivan F. Starr. All content © Native Sun News.

Learning what it means to be Lakota By IVAN F. STARR

I’ve alluded to this particular situation several times prior and I’m doing it again, “Our educational system is in need of a major overhaul.”

Yes, we do have an increased number of college-degreed tribal members and our high school dropout rate may have improved, but our schools are still not teaching our youth those elements that are truly vital to the future existence or survival of the Lakota Nation.

The government and parochial classroom has been the dominant tactic used to transform the Lakota into bona fide members of the greater society. As a result, we have struggled within an imagery likened to that of the European races without our own valid and culturally distinct language, culture, or land to call our own. Oddly enough, our ancestors have warned us about this their entire lives.

Our youth are knowledgeable of and influenced by the constitution and distorted history of the United States. At the same time, our youth are lacking in the basic knowledge of our treaties and the long list of congressional laws that ruled over our ancestors, us living today, and will rule over our youth. Ideally, they should be just as aware of government (both old and new), their culture, language, and spirituality.

They ought to have been fluent (at least) with their native Lakota language. The majority of our youth do not possess that ability to communicate with their ancestral language. Proficiency includes that unique capacity to think Lakota. As many have said, if we can accomplish that, the ill-fitting clothes, the gang mentality, alcohol/drug abuse, single-parenthood, and so forth will be lessened.

As distraught as I am over this issue, I cannot blame the schools or our educators for this educational deficit. They are partly to blame but if I was to point my finger at anyone, it would be toward those people involved in tribal treaty organizations, both past and present. For example, most people today don’t know the history of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven fires) confederacy and its purpose.

Let me explain further. Resulting from many years of research and active involvement, these men do hold valid knowledge of our treaties, the tiospaye system of government and the federal history regarding “Indian” treaties and everything else that is connected. That is not the problem. The problem is that our treaty people have not been sharing this vital information.

I’m not sure exactly what this important public information is used for but I recall being interested in learning back in the early 1980s. I went to a meeting at the old Loneman School gymnasium for the purpose of beginning my self-education process. However, what I saw then was rather disheartening. I was so disappointed that I became ill at that meeting.

I never attended another treaty meeting since. Initially, I saw respected elderly Lakota men from other clans sitting around the table. Then as the meeting progressed, I witnessed what continues to bother me nearly four decades later. Keep in mind that these men were the supposed leaders of the Lakota Nation or the Oceti Sakowin.

As the meeting went on, I realized that the men were vying and parrying with each other as to who was the most knowledgeable and had the most right to lead. One man produced an old document signed by a President McKinley. He was using it to put himself forward by challenging the others if they could beat that. As for constituents, there was hardly anybody in attendance.

I was reminded of the head of an animal lying on the ground without a body to support it or an organization without people to support it. I attended one more meeting recently just to see if things had improved. All I can say is that this meandering going-nowhere internal squabbling has been continuing with little change or improvement for decades.

I am not an expert on the subject of treaties and I am not a traditional elder deserving of a high position, except in my own little family, but I see a definite need for this treaty group (s) to share this vital historical information with the people. Such a process will eventually build that vital support or substance for the old government and eventually close that gap between them and the people.

The Iroquois’ Great Law of Peace, the forerunner of the Constitution of the United States, is based solidly on the people it governs. This proves beyond any doubt that without people, a government cannot exist. In other words, the people must have ownership of a government and be involved. They must be accorded equality, respect for individual worth, freedom and the majority must rule.

I have heard many of these treaty people argue that these principles are the inventions of white men. Well, I’m in opposition to that viewpoint. In fact these newcomers to the land, these so-called “white people,” are still learning about these centuries-old purely indigenous tenets of how to conduct themselves, how to treat others, and basically how to live together. It is sad to know that the European newcomers actually tried to steal them by passing them off as their own invention. Truth is native people were using these principles long before 1492 as evidenced by the Iroquois’ Great Law of Peace and on a local perspective, the Lakota tiospaye system. Both were highly effective indigenous systems of government that were based on the rights of the governed.

Anyway, the best way that I can think of to start gathering people is for the treaty advocates to begin communicating with our existing educators. These professionals may be “colonized” but they are Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota deep inside. All of us, commoners and professionals alike, must realize that. Then we must not only look at the current educational system, but actually work to make a difference.

We must look beyond the local educational scene and examine the European-based bureaucratic and parochial systems that have “educated” native people since that very first contact. The objective is to develop a universally comprehensive course of study (curriculum) that includes everybody at all levels, not just one school or group.

I am not college-degreed and penning my thoughts or opinions is the only thing I can do. I may have been indoctrinated into thinking like a Wasicu, but I am definitely relearning what it means to be Lakota. There, I’ve made my thoughts public once again and now I leave it at that. Any changes or improvements to this enervating system of education and ‘lifestyle’ are up to those who can.

(Ivan F. Starr, P.O. Box 147, Oglala, SD 57764; 605-867-2448; mato_nasula2@yahoo.com)