Ivan Star Comes Out: Assimilation has taken our Native identity away

Wednesday, December 5, 2018  

By Ivan Star Comes Out
Native Sun News Today Columnist
nativesunnews.today

American history always mentions “Indians,” if at all, in a disrespectful way. In recent times though, that situation is being reversed as awareness of it is growing.

Still, I feel obligated to remind our youth of what happened to us as a culturally distinct group of people in recent recorded history. To make it short, the Europeans came by the boat-loads and savagely destroyed the first Americans.

Recent scholarly research has now revealed that as much as 90 million indigenous people were killed because the settler believed they were subhuman savages who did not belong in their new “civilization.” Their ancient cultures, languages, world views, and spiritual beliefs, were also attacked and demolished. Although, we have been trying to maintain our culture and languages, things have changed.

As a young man, I distinctly remember listening to older men and women at their occasional gatherings in my home community. I recall a startling prediction they discussed which is more so now because we are actually living it. The only option is to continually educate our youth so they may adjust appropriately.

They said there was a day coming when the Lakota (or natives for that matter) will be different because each new generation is losing sight of their ancestral ways. Indigenous worldview will be obliterated to the point where they will only see through the eyes of the colonizer. They will be blue- or green-eyed, blond, light-skinned and speaking a strange language that is neither English nor Lakota.

Ultimately, our language and culture must continue if we are to claim our Lakota birthright in the future. However, the problem has been that these very elements are being colonized too. Imagine Lakota language with a European flair. We must make an effort to correct it as we move along. For our children’s sake, both “full-blood” and “mixed-blood” must come together on this.

I thought for years about that prediction that was discussed and now see how accurate it was. We have far too many adults, young and old, who appear to be annoyed, aggressive, and are concerned only with their own wellbeing and happiness. In other words, there is a sort of near-sightedness toward the future among the people.

Although commendable progress has been made, we still have that substantial percentage that refuses to learn our cultural ways. As a result, they speak an odd Lakota language and they’ve altered cultural customs too. It is now being diversified with what has been called a “prison culture.” This includes gang signs, bandanas, tattoos, shaved heads, dress style, and a new vocabulary.

I remember the words of Steve Dubray, spoken so many years ago, “The best gang to be in is the Red Road gang.”

I agree in the sense that he was referring to a return to Oceti Sakowin culture, specifically the spiritual way and its ceremonies. I’ve also heard people asking where all this came from or when it all began. The only thing I know for sure is that it did not start yesterday.

I begin with the Age of Discovery, of globalization, of colonialism. Europeans came here to their so-called “new land” with the intent of conquering and settling it. Christianity dictated that all non-believers were “Saracens” (Arab or Muslin) and thus enemies of “God.” Thus, the “new world” natives were killed and removed from the path of that self-proclaimed God-given right to claim the land.

Next were the pilgrims with their extreme and rigid fundamentalist Puritan beliefs. They were basically fleeing a hostile Christian Church of England ruled by the rich and powerful (aristocracy). They came fearful of reliving harsh lives as serfs, peasants, paupers, and the like again. Believing God sent them, they arrived with bibles and guns in hand.

To make a long story short, the European asylum seekers killed 90 million natives since their arrival via disease, guns, and their Bible. Native languages were considered “foreign.” Indigenous world views and spiritual beliefs were beyond Christian comprehension. They forced Christianity on natives to make them familiar and enslaved or killed resistors and took their land.

In the mid-1800s, the new government continued this destruction by setting up so-called “schools” for the native children. In reality, these institutions were designed to “kill the Indian” in our children. They tore them away from their parents effectively destroying the family unit. The colonizer, as treaty signers, had already stolen territory previously established under custom law (international law).

Ivan F. Star Comes Out can be reached at P.O. Box 147, Oglala, South Dakota, 57764; via phone at 605-867-2448 or via email at mato_nasula2@outlook.com.

Copyright permission Native Sun News Today

School on Pine Ridge Reservation immerses children in Lakota culture (May 22, 2018)