From: beaver.cs.washington.edu!gnosys!anchor.esd.sgi.com!lyn (Lyn Dearborn)
Subject: Re: NativeNet Chat's Direction
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 05:01:34 GMT

Original-Sender: anchor.esd.sgi.com!lyn (Lyn Dearborn)

Regarding Gary's posting about setting up a separate list deal with JUST
North American Indians and their issues:

"     B. Are we talking about information channels open to anyone who is
        interested, or should it be limited to actual Native people?  If
        the latter, how would it be determined that someone qualifies,
        and what standards would be used, and how would the restriction be
        enforced?  Personally, I would not want an exclusionary kind of
        network, and I doubt that others would either, but I can and do
        see there being some great value in establishing private elec-
        tronic mail and news (conferencing) links between given organi-
        zational entities of given groups of Native people,..."

I acknowledge that I can only truly speak for myself, and I ALWAYS speak from
the heart, no matter how vulnerable that may make me .... but I'm also
reflecting the views of a half a dozen other Native Americans of mixed blood
quantum who have similar fears of my own ... None of "us" wants to be
"studied" by scholars of Native American culture, Psychology, Cultural
Anthropology, Sociology, Comparative World Religions, etc.  MOST of the
postings on NativeNet are coming from sincere sources; many are from those
wishing to increase their knowledge base .... I'm not saying there is anything
wrong with this.  BUT there is a limit of how many of your concerns you wish
to air to not only perfect strangers, but to those outside your cultural
experience who MIGHT use this information to make judgements, etc.  Whether
or not this judgemental crud is a reality is irrelevant.... it isn't how
you are judged by others that counts diddly-squat in the Book of Life, but
rather how you PERCEIVE that you are judged by others ...  A wonderfully
wise woman from Washington named Anita Mayer goes around the country teaching
weaving classes to weavers and "want-to-be-weavers".  So what you may ask?
As a person of "old ethnic traditions" herself, and perhaps just because she
is from an island in the Pacific Northwest, she has used her "life knowledge"
to put together classes teaching weavers "how to live" rather than "how to
weave" -- if you know how to live, the art of weaving can follow more
clearly.  In a wonderful book she has written entitled "Clothing From Hands
that Weave" she quote many wonderful people, mostly women, that would really
help US learn a lot about predjudices, fears, and the constrictions we place
on ourselves as a result.  THIS IS A REAL BARRIER FOR SOME OF US on the Net --
seeing the INCREDIBLE possibilities to reach out for consolation, support,
emotional strength, or whatever, but SOME OF US really need to know
WHO WE ARE REACHING OUT TO ... and right or wrong, there are social barriers
that limit our possibilities .... no, I'm not a racist .... culturally
paranoid perhaps, but not a racist (I can't tolerate JERKS of any race). I've
had close friendships in ALMOST every race I've encountered until recently.

Sorry for the endless tangents I tend to get off on ... Where was I ... oh
yes, limiting ideas and how that relates (if at all) to Native American
interests and NatNet as my Directory calls it...

I was speaking of the Wisdom of elders, and in particular, that of Washington
State Elder Anita Luvera Mayer.  Her second book was called on weaving and
more importantly "getting a life" is called "Handwoven Clothing Felted to
Wear" ... sounds innocent doesn't it... but its filled with subliminal
messages ..NOT... Nothing subliminal about her messages and I get the
strangest feelings about them at times ... like how they can relate to
Native American issues today; women's issues today; heck, oppressed people
everywhere today PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO CREATE THEIR OWN OPPRESSION.

Her dedication might just as easily been directed to the Clan elders:
"For the women of yesterday and today, whose hearts nurture and love and
whose hands pass on the traditions of a people."

There's more:
	"That is called freedom when a person does in their work what they
love to do and in their spare time that which is required of them."
		Author unknown

"No man is free who is not master of himself."
	Author unknown.

"What other people think of you is none of your business."
	Author unknown

"A morning needs to be sung to, a new day needs to be honored."
	Byrd Baylor, "The Way to Start a Day"

"If your loom is empty for more than three days, it loses its spirit"
	Navajo saying

Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have
drawn them there.  What you choose to do with them is up to you.
	Richard Bach "Illusions"

"Almost anything you do will be insignificant, but it is very important
you do it."
	Ghandi

"Four things come not back ... the spoken word, the sped arrow, the
past life, and the neglected opportunity!"
	Arabian Proverb

	**The difference between what you are and what you want to be
	  is simply a matter of how hard you work.**
			Joe Jones

Joe Jones?  who's he? ... sorry

	You must do the thing you think you cannot do!
		Eleanor Roosevelt

More poignant Native advice:
	"Do not try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time
		and annoys the pig."
					Author unknown

****** Your LIFE is not in advance of you.  You are not pushing a cart; you
are riding one ***
			Hugh Prather\

This is it!  Your LIFE is not a Dress Rehearsal!
	Prarie Home Companion

What does this have to do with NativeNet????  A lot.. Its about REALITY,
not the world of PCs, C programming, SUN work stations, Cultural Anthro-
pology Thesis subjects, and all the other B.S. that feeds us but has
nothing to do with LIFE and most of us don't realize it before we hit
40.  "WE" as people of Native background need to "get back to our roots"
if only to extract from it a lasting REALITY that will help us in this
fantasy world of technological existence.  WE need to be/feel grounded,
somewhere ... all the studies ever conducted show that to kill a native
american (or at least drive him batty) all you have to do is remove him
from his cultural "knowledge" base and deprive him/her from contact with
mother earth.  It IS possible to be "grounded" without going to sweats and
eating peyote buttons and other things that legends are made of, but alone?
without others in the same predicament?  Not as likely.

Gregg Saris started a "mentor" program with incoming Native American Freshmen
a few years ago with a grant from somewhere/someone (I think) that had these
new Freshmen coming to campus early and working with mentors to learn about
survival on Campus .... and until recently survival for Natives was not a
great prospect.  They helped the "kids" with academic skills to "catch them
up" where necessary, with learning "study habits" they may not have needed
previously ... many of us are brilliant enough that we don't have to study
until somewhere around the 2nd year of college where our innate intelligence
isn't quite enough to get good grades, and memorization of zillions of pgs
of "stuff" isn't possible.... if you haven't LEARNED to sort out the important
from the fluff you may fail (don't ask me about my physics grades).

Well, NativeNet can't replace Gregg Saris (neither can Stanford..) but it
COULD do a LOT if the natives knew there were potential mentors out there to
assist with LIFE trials ... not just school trials.  I hate to use old
racist stereo-types to state a problem but
	You Can't Win a Whiteman's Game in the Whiteman's World if
			You Don't Know the Rule

Of course, if you look at the rate of growth in the US and where our
economy goes and comes, statistically it is no longer a whiteman's world
but I THINK the sentiment remains because while we are now surrounded with
multi-racial invaders/alien cultures, they haven't set out to "conquer us"
or "discover us" and I THINK that is where the difference lies.

IF the "Natives" at least know who "we" are, we can make our own distribution
list if we want to ask other "peers" their opinion on something.  I'm only
speaking for myself, but if I encounter something I really want feedback on
from other Chippewas, for example, and I'm 3 ro 4 thousand miles from home
and I'm scared to go to the Oakland Indian Ctr cause its in a "creepy"
neighborhood, and all the Chippewas at Stanford are too young, where can I
turn?  That takes courage to turn anywhere ... which could lead to depression
drug abuse, etc., etc..... not with me of course, cause I can't drink,
tolerate smoke, etc... I could just get over depressed and do something
crazy like jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, or something equally dangerous
like entering the dating scene again!  I hope you get my point.  A Native
American support group could be a wonderful thing -- not just the spreading
of information, but aiding each other to grow... Can we do that with "other"
cultures as effectively?  Occasionally, but its not predictable -- especially
not over electronic wires where you can't "read" body language, down cast
eyes, embarassment, etc.

How do the other "native links" feel?

Lyn Dearborn
< dearborn@anchor.esd.sgi.com>

"Listen to yourself and push yourself as far as possible, BUT REMEMBER
that you can't go forward without going backwards historically."
			Cynthia Schira