zeptember

When I hopped back into bed last night, I finished a book I’ve been reading, called Two Ravens: The Life and Teachings of a Spiritual Warrior. I cried - I didn’t want the book to end.
Two Ravens was a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), the members of which I’ve followed for over thirteen years, starting with Leonard Peltier, whom I learned about in college. The last news I’d heard on AIM members was in 2005, when the feds were on the hunt for John Graham for the murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash in 1975. Turned out the feds were trying to get Arlo Looking Cloud, already in prison for her murder, to indict Graham in the murder, and they even started going after Peltier again as a main suspect, too. More info here and here.

Back to Two Ravens - he had been a warrior for AIM, and like many Native Americans, suffered from substance abuse, mainly alcoholism, as well as (justified, IMO) racism against white people for what the whites have done to the natives since their arrival in the Americas. But over time, Two Ravens became a spiritual leader for his people, and later started building a bridge between all other races and his own. He was persecuted by his own people for this. It’s such a moving book.
The only other book I have in the house by a Native is Custer Died For Your Sins, by Vine Deloria, Jr. I need to read more books from Deloria, and seek out authors and storytellers from other tribes.

Growing up, my Ma always told me I am of Cherokee descent, and that her grandmother was “a full blooded Indian”, but we don’t know from which tribe. In a lot of the U.S., Native Americans are still commonly called Indians - a misnomer dating back to Columbus.
Ma always told stories about how there’s an Indian burial ground on the hill above the family farm in Kentucky, and that although the land was purchased with this old burial ground, the family never went up there to disturb it. Ma always liked to braid my hair and tell me I had high cheekbones and that I was her little Indian girl. Bugger the fact that I’m so pale I could blind someone. Nevermind that, Ma said - when I *do* tan, it turns golden (only after I fry lobster-red, first). Once I am golden, I’m definitely Indian, Ma would insist. It wasn’t until college, when I learned about Leonard Peltier and Vine Deloria, JR., that I stopped telling people that I was part Indian.
However, I had the love of Native Americans in me because of my Ma’s stories all those years. That’s when I became interested in the history of AIM. I started to donate to the Free Leonard Peltier fund. I started becoming angrier with the white race, listening to the band Rage Against the Machine.

In recent years, I’ve given to the Native American Rights Fund.
With my genealogy research, I’ve tried for years to get information on one Dolly Burke, the one who Ma says is the full blooded Indian in the family. If I can just discover if this is true, and from what tribe she came, then I will feel less restless in my own spiritual development.
Genealogy has already helped me discover that I am part Polish and part Scottish and part Canadian on my dad’s side of the family. Genealogy has helped me to discover that I’m not Scotch/Irish on my Ma’s side of the family, as they’ve always told me - I’m actually Appalachian. Sure, the Appalachian people originally came mostly from Scotland and Ireland, but come on, in my family, there’d been no immigrants from Scotland and Ireland since the 1630’s. I’m sorry, but you can’t claim lineage to the motherland if it’s been that long a gap in time. You become a new breed - Appalachian.

All of these things help piece together my spiritual puzzle.

I don’t want to claim any one ancestry, because I am from many. I do want to claim CORRECT bits of ancestry, however. I don’t want to go around adding JEWISH Polish customs when we actually came from CATHOLIC Poles, who had different customs, for example. The same will be true once I find out whether our family really did have any Native American descent. I’ll want to know WHICH tribe and find out THEIR customs, and incorporate THEIR beliefs into my overall spiritual and belief system.

Of course, I’m not hellbent on ONLY finding out my various ancestry just so I can ONLY utilize and revive beliefs and spirituality from those fronts. I also go into world culture - I have a deep respect for Tibetan Buddhism, for example, and I am fascinated with folk magick the world over.

Alas, something is still lacking for me - I want to find out who Dolly Burke was. If I find out she was *not* Native American, will I continue to be so enamoured with the Native American legacy? The answer is most definitely yes.