Sue Wrote:
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> This is a very interesting thread. I guess it's
> sinking fast over the edge of the page and will
> disappear soon.. too bad it can't be bumped to the
> top.
My husband and I are planning on making more topics on this as well as other things, hopefully in the near future. This week has been very hectic for the both of us and we're in the midst of a big home improvement project this weekend, lol.
>
> Anyway, imo, the Navajo culture and the uncanny
> ways of the land and nature around them have a
> great and beautiful intrigue. I think that I did
> know something about the Long Walk and the
> terrible proprietary ways of white Europeans,
> though I had not known that much about Kit
> Carson't horrible doings until now.
Kit Carson is viewed with absolute infamy out here in direct opposition of the Kit Carson that I learned about when I was in school. It's atrocious and quite sad how much was left out about his actions.
>
> What interests and disturbs me is the internalized
> conflict of Navajo on Navajo, along with the food
> and health problems due to eating habits. I can't
> really analyze my motivations exactly, but I keep
> wanting to see native tribal nations flourish and
> do well; and I hope that wish includes all peoples
> and cultures, including my own.
Diabetes and obesity are definite problems on the reservation. Although there are internal conflicts, there does seem to be a strong common goal of cultural preservation within the tribe. I know that I am trying to learn what I can from my husband's elders so that I may pass information down to my daughter as well. The theme seems more to be of saving the culture than letting it fall to the wayside.
I see the Navajo Nation in a curious way. I see them diligently trying to preserve their heritage as well as trying to become modern. I think that if they should succeed at blending the two, they'll be a phenomenal tribe.
>
> I do appreciate the notion that the disruptive and
> oppressive night predations of the skinwalkers
> might have the consequence of strengthening and
> reviving the native Navajo spiritual and healing
> practices. Still, isn't the idea that such a
> cultural and spiritual vivification would not take
> place otherwise somewhat sad and perhaps even
> tragic?
I find the idea tragic as well but thankfully, it was just speculation. We can continue to hope that the tribe has preserved things on their own volition and not out of necessity.
>
> I was also wondering whether anyone here has been
> watching the Tony Hillerman films produced by
> Robert Redford and shown on PBS? The haunting
> music and the beautifully evoked ghosts of a
> wonderful spiritual past are well depicted, and
> that might be where I learned about skinwalkers
> without knowing exactly what they were.
Hillerman is pretty well respected out here. Although he is not always accurate, he does at least try. He did a lecture in our town not that long ago but unfortunately, we couldn't go. The antagonist in the movie was a bit of a disappointment to us because he was trying to mimic a skinwalker to commit his murders but it was still a fun film.
>
> As for Carlos Castaneda, aren't his writings and
> researches considered quite charatanistic and
> controversial these days? As I remember, his
> books were part of the hippie scene in the
> seventies, and added a bit of cache and a
> considerable amount of justification for using
> mushroom hallucinogens. A former friend of mine
> developed a passionate obsession for the teachings
> in Castaneda's books and eventually joined
> something of a Castaneda cult, attending out of
> town workshops. She became so immersed in the
> cultlike phenomenon that a proclivity towards
> paranoia turned into a crazy belief in something
> like dark watchers/ predators that could take over
> your entire mind and being and so you had to do
> these exercises every day to ward them off, along
> with studying and learning and doing spiritual
> exercises designed to enable you to evolve your
> mind to the poing that you would live on after
> death. In the early days, long before she got to
> that crazy paranoid obsessive stage, I used to
> enjoy hearing her talk about the books and her
> experiences with mescaline, something I never
> experienced.
Yes, Castaneda is viewed as a charlatan. That's one of the key reasons why I haven't read much by him, lol. It certainly be the first time that anyone perverted any Native American ways for self profit.
> It's weird how people I used to know
> and admire, even look up to, ended up crazily
> obsessed with cults. I will always remember my
> shock when the music teacher and choral master at
> my university ended up as the male half of Bo and
> Peep and then later as the leader of the suicidal
> Heaven's Gate. In college, I almost took singing
> lessons from him.
lol, that is scary! Then again, don't cult leaders tend to be very charismatic?
Stephanie
In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson