Who do you come from?

Mr. Lozer’s sharing was the closest to my heart the whole YSEALI programme, which is saying a lot given the volume and range of activities coordinated for us. (Angain I forgive you for choosing to share about Mr. Lozer on the final day with the Department of State.) And so I have a lot to share, thus I am appending a second post to be comprehensive about the information he shared in his one-hour slot.

Who are the judicious people responsible for guiding the tribes’ legislation? A body called the tribal council. The tribal council has 10 members, 5 women and 5 men – far wiser and more egalitarian than most political bodies elsewhere. They treat their elders with the utmost respect too – an attitude we learn about and which I detail in the Kerr Dam post. What sexism? What ageism? “Tribes” and “natives” may conjure images of barbarism but here were some of the most learned and civilised peoples on the planet, overturning in speech in practice in behaviour in character any attempts to stereotype them.

What environmental devastation? The elegant way they coexist with – indeed, are part of – nature on their reservation is a true testament to their wisdom, understanding, and generations of experience. Mr. Lozer said that when you’re out hunting and you see a successful hunt, you can usually tell whether the hunters are Native. Natives will surround the animal after the hunt, and give thanks to the animal for giving its life by putting their arms and hearts on it. Such practices are passed down from one generation to the next in the Salish and Kootenai tribes to teach members how to respect the earth during the hunt, including making sure tribal members know how to use every single bit of the bison so that none of it is wasted (bones for sleds, skin for coats).

You can go in any time and speak directly to the council. When making decisions, on a wide range of issues from education and healthcare to child abuse and hydroelectric energy resources, council members are 不耻下问 (bù chǐ xià wèn), a Chinese phrase literally meaning “not embarrassed to ask downwards”. They aren’t afraid to ask “subordinates” for information or even admit their dearth of knowledge about a subject in the first place. In fact, Mr. Lozer says they readily acknowledge so and bring in experts to help with assessing the situation scientifically and culturally. Their commitment to make the best decision for the tribe, complete disregard for designation or rank, and comprehensive analysis of issues from interconnected angles…the tribal council genuinely encapsulates stellar leadership qualities. At least I know I would want these qualities in my leaders, and I aspire to become a positive example like that.

Finally, I was awed by their position on two defining issues for Native Americans. First was how to define members of their community. Mr. Lozer shared that the BIA (see previous post) defined a Native American by blood quantum, or how much of their blood is Native. Some tribes require one-sixteenth of your blood to be Indian, some require 50%. Notwithstanding the fact that the blood is typically classified into A, B, AB, O, and not lineage, making this concept potentially a highly racist one –– one of the opening remarks of Mr. Lozer was,m “water is our bloodline”. As it stands, at least the CSKT don’t seem to think very much of the red blood cells running through your veins. On this website, Native writers write,

An Indian is an Indian regardless of the degree of Indian blood or which little government card they do or do not possess.

You are 100% descendant of ALL your ancestors, and that includes your Native ancestors just as much as the others. Honor them.

Mr. Lozer says that he CSKT tribal councils typically ask the question,“Who do you come from?” It does not matter to them what you look like or what is coursing through your body. Going back to my previous post on his sharing, the extended family is an essential unit in the CSKT, and the tribes as a whole act as macro extended families. This unit is so fundamental that it is these ties, bonds, love, respect and care among members that defines membership in the tribes, not your blood relations.

The second issue was that before settlers came in and holed them into a tiny reservation a fraction of their original home range, tribes used the land in a communal manner. They had home bases, but also communal lands where the Blackfeet, Kootenai, Crow, Salish, and other tribes could hunt. Unfortunately, this meant that when settlers intervened and granted Natives property rights, most of them didn’t understand what individual property meant and unwittingly sold their rights. Most of these treaties were unfair because tribal members did not understand what they were signing away, and many tribes inadvertently lost much of their land. In many senses, this is a defining issue for Native tribes because land is their identity; they are tied to their homeland.

Thus, the tribal councils are working to buy back the lands by, as in my previous post, training college graduates who can fight legal battles using documents, but also trying to elevate the tribes' financial resources by growing their cattle and timber industries. Mr. Lozar also said that tribally-developed technology is being bought by many investors and deployed in various scenarios but I have very sadly lost my notes on this section. I did jot down that the CSKT had 5 companies that were generating income so that they managed to recover 70% of the land originally promised to them, of which they were only granted 20% (so they recovered 50%). Hooray CSKT!

Another story of Native resilience. I realised that my previous post ended with examples of their strength and tenacity as well. I wish so much that the momentum of their revival and restoration will carry on to fruition, but there are also so many tribes that are now lost to history, to the whims and fancies of colonisers – their populations were completely destroyed and cultures buried in the earth with them. I feel a profound sense of loss at the cultures and tribes we will never even hear of, but at this juncture we can borrow from the tribes' erudite philosophy: everything in a circle (see previous post). In death one returns to Mother Earth. I think a large part of their healing from traumatic pasts draws from steadfast internalisation of such a worldview, and it is this respect for the circle, and as a shem, that I will attempt to meditate on in my own life.

(3 September 2019)