|
Thanksgiving Address
and the Pledge of Allegiance
From: Indian Country Today
October 6, 2005
The flare-up was predictable. Most
tellingly, it sprung up at Akwesasne, NY Mohawk land, where the beacon
light of Indian consciousness has flashed before.
The Board of Education that oversees the 65-percent-Mohawk Salmon
River High School, banned from its total school system an established
morning ritual: the recitation of the Haudenosaunee (Mohawk)
Thanksgiving Address, or "the words that come before all else." This
blow to Mohawk pride and identity caused quite a stir in the Akwesasne
community, bringing to the fore important questions of Native cultural
existence in North America.
For local reporters, a sense of wonderment is expressed, that a
controversy for once, has arisen between Mohawks and a segment of the
local white establishment, not involving gaming, land claims, or
contraband. This time, the issue is over a deeply-felt, and these days,
more often-heard traditional oration, one that is best given in the
ancient language which, at Akwesasne, many people - particularly older
adults - speak and understand.
As in all things Mohawk, the expression of the sovereign Indian
culture is at the forefront. Salmon River High School, for instance,
flies three flags at the same height: Mohawk, American and
Canadian. The Mohawks have fought hard to establish respect for their
tribal sovereignty and cultural heritage.
Established as a Jesuit-controlled village, Akwesasne (St. Regis
Parish), Catholicism on the Mohawk reservation was particularly harsh
against practitioners in the longhouse traditional ceremonies. Yet, the
ancient practices survived; and as the younger generations graduated
from college, while elders still conducted ceremonies, community
consciousness about the ancient culture forced the teaching of
language, history, and other Native studies as topics in the local
curriculum.
On the same reservation, the Akwesasne Freedom School conducts a
successful Mohawk language immersion curriculum. The Thanksgiving
Address, as recited in Mohawk, is a centerpiece of the introduction
and study of the language there.
Conducted for more than three years, the community, and students, had
come to expect the recitation each Monday morning. As the message of
the Thanksgiving Address is completely positive and humanistic, while
"addressing" higher beings, the Mohawks were proud to share it with
students from the local non-Indian families, and the hard-won right to
be represented and understood in the public sphere was enhanced.
The decision to deny the recitation of the address hit many Mohawks
as needless hostility. A school board member had complained that the
address, which mentions and gives thanks to a "Creator," violated
the separation of church and state. The Board quickly banned the
recitation out of hand.
Several hundred Mohawk students conducted rallies and civil protest
against the decision, while the Board denied any redress. Five
sixth-graders were suspended. Things got a bit hot. Mohawk families
sued, arguing that a reference to a "Creator" does not define the
address as a prayer. This hard-to-make argument reflects the fervor of
the moment in the continuous search for respect as tribal cultures.
Various definitions of prayer have, of course, arisen. The school
board itself opted to consult Webster's Dictionary, while Mohawk
commentators wonder why they did not consult the elder culture
specialists in their community. "There is no word for 'prayer' in our
traditional language," one parent told National Public Radio.
A clarifying argument focused on the Pledge of Allegiance, with its
unambiguous reference to a country "under God." What makes the
Pledge of Allegiance so sacrosanct, when a Mohawk cultural expression
cannot be held to be less unifying or humanistic? The Pledge,
community activists pointed out, started out without referring to a
"God," and was proclaimed in 1892 to celebrate the Columbus 400th
Anniversary bash of the time. Only in 1954, were the words "under
God" added in.
This interesting history is enough to lighten the discussion,
except the Mohawks are serious about their culture, and its
representation in education: and the Thanksgiving Address is as
central to the ancient culture as anything one can find. Mohawk Chief
James Ransom, credits the strength of traditional culture with his
community's high rating for college-level students.
While Ransom approached the matter with diplomacy, an Albany
reporter cut to the chase. "It's essentially about two different
world-views - the Mohawk's spirituality, and the culture of white,
Christian America ... [and] ... the affair has brought to the surface
what Mohawks say are centuries-old efforts by a dominant European
society to obliterate the American Indians' way of thinking." ("A test
of Mohawk spirituality, God, law: Tribal members contest school ban on
traditional ritual, seek to halt Pledge of Allegiance," by Rick
Karlin, Albany Times-Union, Sept. 25.)
Some compromises are being heard now. The Salmon River schools have
offered a more private space for Mohawks, and others. The legal matter
persists. It is an interesting case, and reflects the Mohawk proclivity
for focusing issues that will widen across society.
As the Bush administration gleefully pushes the challenge to
science from creation-based sources, the assumption is that this
reflects only the Biblical creation. Well, other peoples, among them
traditional Native practitioners and believers, have creation stories
too. The variety of creation, and thanksgiving ceremonial traditions
among Native peoples, can no doubt represent the widest imaginable
rainbow of possibilities, if the challenge is there to explain the
spiritual nature of the universe according to our own cultural
traditions.
If the Pledge of Allegiance, complete with its reference to the
Christian deity, must be allowed in America's schools, so too, must the
ancient Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address be allowed its reference to
the longhouse deity. Consistency of application of Constitutional
principles and interpretations regarding the separation of church and
state would suggest, it seems obvious to us, either they both stay in,
or are both cast out of the classroom.
Nobody denigrates here the Pledge of Allegiance - the recent
100-year-old statement of commitment means a great deal to many people
- but there is nothing like the strength of a truly ancient expression
of human connection to the natural world, as represented by this
central Haudenosaunee oration.
The Thanksgiving Address, fixing the mind of the human being in the
context of the wondrous forces of nature that surround us and sustain
us, is at once mystical, and deeply truthful. Beyond this particular
controversy, we submit, it deserves deep and abiding contemplation.
|
|
