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Nato-North Atlantic Treaty Organization

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been a silent partner on the world stage for more than half of the century and the most successful political-military alliance in history. The United Nations and their peacekeeping efforts have had the spotlight for the past few years. However the driving force behind any successful agreement or, if needed, action on the part of several countries has been because of the strong foundation and experience of NATO and its members. The following report will chronicle the events leading up to the creation of NATO, its first decade, the constant struggle with communism in the decades that proceed, and finally the challenges for NATO today and in the future.

In the years after World War II, a new threat encroached upon the leaders of Western Europe and their hopes of a stable peace. This threat would be from the growing dominance of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in Eastern Europe. The USSR had an increasing appetite for the smaller countries to her west. These aggressive demands for territory and the placing of installations in taken countries fueled the fears of many that the USSR was marching toward a third world war. Britain and France, not wanting to make the mistake again of appeasing this new menace until it was too late, developed the Dunkirk Treaty in 1947. This treaty in essence pledged a common defense against any aggression. The USSR answered this by creating a European Communist organization called the Cominform and it rejected the European Recovery Program, which is commonly known as the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan, named for the US Secretary of State, was basically a financial bailout for the European nations. These nations were starving because of the slow and near stopping of the coal and agricultural industries after WWII. The US offered millions of dollars to all of Europe to aid in rebuilding for four reasons. First, Europe had been a great marketplace imports and exports for the US. Second, historically West Germany had been an industrial hub and needed to be brought back to tip-top shape to buffer the expanding USSR. Third, with its increasing mass the USSR was becoming a rival to the US. Lastly, without this aid Western Europe might look to the USSR for help, which would make life a lot tougher for American interests. The year of 1948 was pivotal for Europe. In February, the Communists in Prague staged a coup d’etat and the spring brought the beginning of the Cold War. Immediately after WWII, Germany was divided in to occupation zones by Britain, France, the US, and USSR. The capital of Germany at the time was Berlin, which happened to fall in the Soviet zone. The governing administration located in Berlin fell, because of the obvious reason of “too many cooks spoil the broth”. When this happened, the USSR demanded that Berlin become solely part of the Soviet zone, since its status as capital was ruined. The USSR enforced this ruling by blockading all land routes into and tried to force the other powers out of its respective sectors of Berlin. Eventually the Berlin Blockade was squelched by a military airlift that lasted the rest of the year. The city still remained divided and became known as East (Soviet controlled) and West Berlin. This transgression on the part of the USSR prompted negotiations between Western Europe, the US and Canada that resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty. The language of the North Atlantic Treaty originally consisted of its preamble and fourteen articles. The preamble states that members will promote common values and will “unite their efforts for a collective defense.” The key article of the North Atlantic Treaty is number five (it’s the one that inspired my title) it reads, “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them…shall be considered an attack against them all.” Another interesting article is the last one, number fourteen, and it calls for the deposition of the official copies of the treaty to be kept in the US Archives. The US already was establishing itself as the dominant member of an organization that is supposed to be based on equal responsibility. After the ratification of this treaty the structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began. The highest policy-making body in NATO is the North Atlantic Council, which met in Paris until 1967. The council composed of permanent delegates from all members was responsible for general policy, budgetary outlines, intergovernmental consultation and administrative actions. There are two main temporary committees that answer directly to the council. Those are the Secretariat, which handles non-military functions of the alliance (economic, scientific, cultural, and environmental issues), and the Military Committee or the Defense Planning Committee (DPC), which consists of the chiefs of staff of the various armed forces. They meet to discuss military policies, develop defense plans for their respective areas, determine the force requirements, and deploy and exercise the forces under their command. The forces directly below the DPC are the Allied Commands Europe (was first headed by Eisenhower), Atlantic, and Channel and the Regional Planning Group (for North America). To assist in carrying out their global roles, the council and the DPC have established committees to deal with emergencies and the new threat of nuclear power. They meet only in a dire situation. However, until the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, NATO had no real military structure. The Korean War was at first perceived as part of a worldwide Communist offensive beginning in the divided Germany. This perspective lead to the NATO military force that was explained in the preceding paragraph. Within NATO’s first decade the main military and security forces have come from the US. Along with this the US was depended on for the revival of Europe’s economy and polity. The Korean War also brought an overall expansion of the organization. By 1955, Greece, Turkey, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had entered as members. The only provisions for West Germany was not allowed to manufacture NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical) weapons. With the rearmament of West Germany in progress, the USSR and her allies decided to created a treaty organization of their own. The Warsaw Pact, signed in 1955, combined to powers of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and of course the USSR. The members of this communist alliance were under strict control of the soviets headquartered in Moscow. Key posts in these satellite countries were usually ran by soviet-born or soviet-trained officers and all their equipment was standardized to the regulations of the USSR. The structure of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) was similar to NATO. Two major bodies carried out the policies of the pact. The first was the Political Consultative Committee, which handled all activities except military, and the Unified Command of Pact Armed Forces, which had authority over the troops assigned to certain members. On paper you can see the similarities, but the USSR rule with absolute dominance. When members tried to break away or try to join NATO, the consequences were terrifying. In 1956, Hungary tried to withdrawal from the WTO; the USSR took unilateral military action against the revolt killing 200,000 people. Another member state, Czechoslovakia attempted to leave and was swiftly forced back by a soviet invasion. Albania seemed to find a way out, because of their alliance with China and some other ideological reasons, and broke off in 1968. With the USSR’s undeniable stranglehold on its neighboring countries in place, the race began for total superiority on the global scene over the US and her allies. The main gauge for this was nuclear weapon advances and stockpiles. Who could have the biggest and best in the shortest amount of time and who would dare to use it first? These pressing questions tainted the next three decades and worried some of the other NATO members that the US wouldn’t honor their pledge if the USSR were to do the unspeakable to Western Europe. NATO members tried to keep a positive perspective, but several events caused a sense of dissatisfaction of its worth by the end of the sixties. To begin the decade off the USSR officially blockaded their side of Berlin by erecting the ‘wall’. At first the Berlin Wall consisted only of barbed wire, but people were ‘escaping’ to East Germany, so an actual concrete wall was constructed with all the bells and whistles, like checkpoints with armed guards and minefields. The people of East Germany were prisoners in their own country and were not allowed to contact or visit family. In addition, the withdrawal of France, one of the founding members, in 1966 by President Charles de Gaulle sent shock waves through the organization. Although they continued to contribute to the alliance, they left the governing duties to the other members. Also NATO was pressured by the smaller nation-states to be come members and that would take a lot of funding, time, and focus away from the problems in Eastern Europe. One of the main factors of the late sixties and early seventies was America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. This horrifying war sapped the US economy, morale, and foreign policy prowess. Although the 1970s began with the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I), this decade created more disillusionment by world powers as the Soviets continued to rapidly stock their military and nuclear arsenals. In 1979, NATO initiated a dual-track program where new defense efforts were coupled with new efforts in reconciliation and cooperation. Unfortunately, the steps taken by both sides were small and uneventful and usually were retracted within a short time. This brings us to the Reagan years, the eighties, and to the closest watched political tug-a-war in years. This decade opened with a deepening crisis and in 1983 the USSR failed to prevent the deployment of intermediate-range ballistic missiles, sent to counteract the ones they had pointed a Europe’s major cites. It is possible to say that NATO help greatly in dissuading the USSR from following through on attacking Western Europe. The ‘game’ had gotten deadly serious and in 1987 both sides agreed to talks. Out of these talks came the Intermediate-range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty, which not only gave people a sense of relief across the world it also began the breakdown of the Warsaw Pact and the WTO. The change in the wind prompted the Berlin Wall that separated a people for over twenty-five years to be torn down and Germany was finally reunified. The late eighties to the mid-nineties finally saw the beginning of the end to the Cold War. This time also showed the world the success of NATO and the unified efforts of its members in meeting the challenge of the Communists and the WTO. NATO had finally shown itself to be a viable source for communication and resolution between factions instead of war. That became more evident in the 1990s, with the continued depletion of nuclear arsenals on both sides, the dissolving of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, and the continued duties to help return the countries of Eastern Europe to normalcy. An example of this is evident in Bosnia/Herzegovina and Kosovo. These areas and people have been able to strengthen their nationalistic feeling with both encouraging and disastrous results. Through the efforts of the UN and NATO forces a peaceful conclusion may be in the future for this troubled culture. The organization has already placed in the works the inclusion of the Czech Republic (formerly part of Czechoslovakia), Hungary, and Poland. These talks are setting the stage for NATO’s most significant expansion. These countries will need modern military training, upgrades on their communications, command, and air defense systems at an estimated cost of between $25 and $35 billion over thirteen years. The members of NATO pay out this money, the US share being approximately $200 million over ten years. There was a time that even the thought of these countries entering NATO peacefully was unheard of. These new members make NATO’s interests in the Balkans even more timely. Over the past few years, the establishment of a long-term stability in the Balkans has fallen on NATO’s already overweighed shoulders. The former Yugoslavia is one area of Europe where the end of the cold war has not brought about the general trend towards openness, democracy and integration that we have seen elsewhere. Ending this anomaly will mean looking beyond the time frame of NATO’s Stabilization Force in Bosnia. Once the parties realize that settling differences peacefully and democratically really is the only viable option, then Bosnia and other countries in the region will have the right to the fullest integration into the international community. In Kosovo, where the world community is facing humanitarian, political and legal dilemmas, a solution must be found that allows the Ethnic Albanians more autonomy within the confines of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In finding such a solution, we must avoid a situation where moral considerations are pitted against international law. And we must remember that a security policy that doesn’t take as its point of reference the needs of humanity, risks suffering the worst possible fate- a slide into irrelevance. In Kosovo’s immediate neighborhood, NATO has helped to provide hope and some stability, as well as assistance in coping with the refugees in Albania and Macedonia. The latter country is hosting a NATO extraction force, ready to support the verification mission deployed in Kosovo. Hopefully, the prospect of long-term stability, coupled with the desire for economic benefits, will draw the entire Balkans back into the European mainstream. None of this will happen without NATO continued belief in “collective security”. To deal with these challenges, there is a need for further improvements in the inter-operability and sustainability of alliance forces. The future of NATO lies in having rapidly deployable capabilities to fulfill an increasing range of missions. The military forces of NATO allies will need to be on the same wavelength; able to move effectively and quickly, to communicate with one another- service to service, as well as ally to ally- in a world where information technologies are becoming part of the modern soldier’s basic kit. Trying to stay as current as possible on NATO’s movements is not an easy job these days. Every hour seems to bring a new page to NATO’s illustrious history. We can only sit back and watch the further developments in the Balkan region and in the other ‘hotspots’ around the world, like Korea, Rwanda, India, and even within the NATO members themselves. Other important issues approach on the horizon that will strongly effect NATO, the unification of Europe, China’s threats to security and the questions of a possible global peace in the millenium. Can NATO meet these challenges? Can it evolve in the shadow of the Cold War? The next few years will unfold an exciting chapter in the history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

WORKS CITED Ergang Ph.D., R., Europe in Our Time (D.C. Heath and Co. 1958) Goldfield, D., Abbott, C., DeJohn Anderson, V., Argersinger, J. & P., Barney, Wm., and Weir, R., The American Journey: A History of the United States: vol. 2; chap. 29, pp. 890 and chap.33, pp. 1031-2 Guehenno, J., trans. by Elliot, V., The End of the Nation-State (UN of Minnesota 1995) Nelan, B., “A Popular Bad Idea”, Time, May 11, 1998 v151 n18 p38 Remington, R., The Warsaw Pact (The MIT Press 1971) Stanley, T., NATO in Transition: The Future of the Atlantic Alliance (Praeger Pub. 1965) Toland, J., The Last Hundred Days (Random House 1966) T. Caspody, A. Millar, , J. Matousek, “NATO’s shaky new triad: the alliance’s three prospective members haven’t made an informed public choice”, The Nation, March 16, 1998 v266 n10 p18(4) “NATO’s New Challenge: What is NATO Without a Cold War?”, Time International, Dec. 10, pg. 50+ “Open Doors: NATO reaches out to Europe’s other half”, Time International, Dec. 10, 1998 p55 Various information including referrals and title graphic attained at www.nato.com

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Bibliography

Word Count: 2494

Native Vs, Euros

Throughout history, the clash of contrasting cultures has never resulted in a positive conclusion, but rather racial segregation and the arrogant use of stereotypes in all aspects of life.

Long before the white man set foot on Canadian and Saskatchewan soil, the Indians, or rather the Native Canadians had been living in North America. When the Europeans came here, there were more than 10 million Indians populating North America and they had been living here for quite some time. It is believed that the first Native Americans arrived during the last ice age, approximately 20,000 – 30,000 years ago through a land bridge across the Bering Sound, from northeastern Siberia into Alaska.

So, when the Europeans started to arrive in the 16th- and 17th-century they were met by Native Americans, and enthusiastically so. The Natives regarded their white-complexioned visitors as something of a marvel. They enjoyed the white man’s clever technology and outlandish dress, such as steel knives and swords, guns and cannons, mirrors, hawksbills and earrings, copper and brass kettles, and so on.

However, conflicts eventually arose. As a starter, the arriving Europeans seemed attuned to another world. They appeared to be oblivious to the rhythms and spirit of nature. Nature to the Europeans, and the Indians detected this, was something of an obstacle, even an enemy. It was also an opportunity. A forest was so many board feet of timber, a beaver colony so many pelts, and a herd of buffalo so many robes and tongues. Even the Indians themselves were a resource, being souls ripe for the Christian plucking.

It was the Europeans’ cultural arrogance, combined with their materialistic view of the land and its animal and plant beings that the Indians found repellent. Europeans were regarded as mechanical, soulless creatures that wielded evil tools and weapons to accomplish mad ends. They believed that the Indian’s rightful land belonged to the Queen, and ignored the fact that the Natives had initially lived in North America for thousands of years before settlers even knew the continent existed.

The Europeans brought with them a desire and will to conquer the new continent for all its richness, and also diseases that hit the Indians hard. Conflicts developed between the Natives and the Invaders, with the Europeans arriving in overwhelming numbers. The Europeans were accustomed to own land and laid claim to it while they considered the Indians to be nomads with no interest to claim land ownership. The conflicts led to many battles and wars. In these wars the Indian tribes were at a great disadvantage because of their modest numbers, nomadic life, lack of advanced weapons, and unwillingness to cooperate, even in their own defense. The Indian’s were then herded into reserves and coerced into signing their land over through the use of unfair treaties.

The Europeans exploited this cultural helplessness. In exchange for items such as firs and beaver pelts to dress the upper-class of settling Europeans, the white people gave the Indian nomads small amounts of land to settle on, called reserves, and useless amounts of paper money that the Indians had no use for. A planned assimilation had already started, causing a growing strife between the white man and the natives. The outburst of society driven stereotyping and racism appeared in no time, and is still prominent in Canada and Saskatchewan.

As children, most of us were given a playground definition of racism. Racism meant assuming bad things about someone just because of the color of his/her skin, and it is the main ingredient in cultural disunity. Think about this: Its definition actually contains three separate components. First, a racist has “bad intent.” Second, a racist makes prejudiced assumptions. And third, a racist targets an unchangeable characteristic about a culture or race.

Let’s begin with the notion of race as an unchangeable characteristic. Race is in our genetic makeup. We did not choose our ancestors, and the Native’s did not choose theirs. The luck of the draw, the miracle of creation, determines a cultures racial heritage. The main part of any liberal culture is respect for these characteristics. We do not deserve to use either praise or slander towards them. No one earns their race, nor can they be blamed for it.

Unchangeable characteristics are only one part of human nature. An individual also has ethnicity, culture, religion, morals, political opinions, beliefs, feelings and traditions, for example. None of these parts of individual identity are directly tied to race. Not even ethnicity and culture are predetermined by race, much less other parts of our identity. For example, a Caucasian may be born in China, and grow up in Chinese culture. In fact, every individual, however influenced by ancestors, family traditions and expectations, is at least capable of creating an independent personal identity. Multiracial individuals are a perfect illustration of this. They do not have a multiracial ethnicity or culture, but rather a personal, individualistic approach to how race affects their identity. The settling Europeans certainly did not understand this; they saw their way of life as superior, and looked down upon the more “primitive” nomadic Indian tribes. Eventually, once established, the European’s developed a fear of the red-skinned Indian culture.

All of these other aspects of identity are changeable, not immutable. Of course, it may be far easier to change our political opinion than our religion, but certain aspects of our identity can be changed easily. Unlike race, they are not genetically determined.

Race is special because we do not choose it. It is the one value you can claim as your own. We can be held responsible, however, for what we do and believe, for how we dress and what we eat, for whom we love and how we love, and for how we worship God or Nature and how we deal out government. Race may be a sacred characteristic of individual identity, but what individuals do and believe is not protected from criticism. When the white man came to Canada for the first time, the natives looked at them with reverence, instead if arrogance and opportunity. On the other hand, the European’s saw the Indians as nothing but savages, ready to be steam-rolled culturally and religiously.

Since the Europeans landed, they (and we) have found it easy to criticize and insult how individuals from other cultures dance, sing, eat, dress and so on. We have the free will to decide what our own conception of ‘the good-life’ is. However, our culture is in no way free from cultural criticism. All cultural norms, from infanticide, spousal abuse and genital mutilation to arranged marriages, pow-wow’s, and eating with utensils, are not free from discussion. If we were to constantly question all of our cultural aspects, it would question our society’s stability.

Let’s look at another part of our definition of racism and why it creates problems between cultures: prima facie assumptions, or prejudice. Prejudice is necessary, but does not fit the full meaning of racism. Everyone is prejudiced, but not everyone is racist. The real racist is irrational, because he comes to conclusions about racial identity due to false assumptions or none at all. For example, someone may say: “All the Indian’s I know are drunks. Here is an Indian I do not know. He must be a drunk.” While this individual is using evidence, personal experience and reason to come to his conclusion, his logic is faulty.

“Bad intent” will show how prejudice is not necessarily racism. In point, the settling European’s were not necessarily racist people when they arrived here, but their intent was immoral from the start. They won the culture clash, and forced the Native culture to lose most of their own racial identity.

But what about those assumptions regarding racial identity that is made with “good intent?” For example, many individuals desire to protect their ethnicity and culture, which comes from their racial identity. To protect their culture, these individuals may decide to protect the purity of their race, as well. So, they push for individuals to marry and reproduce within their own racial kind. Of course, the Indians never even had a chance to do this; they were overwhelmed by the White Culture, and the true roots of their own were nearly lost altogether. Still today the natives struggle for independence, and still today roadblocks are thrown in front of them at every turn by Canada’s white dominated society.

In other words, the Europeans came to this continent with good intentions of their own, but because of the extreme difference between the Native Canadian’s culture and the European’s, the good intent turned to bad intent and led to the destruction of the less-powerful Indian culture, and inevitable racial segregation. These hasty conclusions about “bad” and “good” intent led to more misunderstandings between the two cultures.

How many parents of children do you know that are racially intolerant of the prominent Native population in Regina? Of those, look at how many of the children of those families grow up with the same bitterness and ignorance on the tip of their tongues. Heightened awareness of our diversity breeds heightened awareness of our sharpest oppositions. If improperly handled, diversity can destroy even our most basic sense of unity, and that is why the Europeans could not honour the Native Canadian culture. We no longer even despise their culture, or even try to assimilate them into ours. In order to survive among us, they have adopted our culture. Still, we sweep them under the rug and spit on them in the gutter at every chance; parallel to how the early European’s treated the Natives of early North America and Canada.

The two cultures should be united with one purpose. We should want more than emotional outbursts and intensely hurt feelings. We want an unprejudiced education available to both cultures. If we are to continue seeking an understanding of racism, stereotypes, and prejudices, and abolish the cultural divide, the meaning of these must be accessible to all, regardless of the color of one’s skin. If our early ancestral European settlers had adopted this view, then perhaps we would be living in a unified, unbiased society where both races co-exist as one human.

Bibliography:

Native American Voices, The book of Genesis V.S. The Cherokee creation myth.

In the book of Genesis there was a God that created the earth and heaven. On the other hand, in the Cherokee creation myth in the beginning there is only water and a beetle accidentally created earth. In the Cherokee creation myth the animals created the mountains, valleys, etc. God created light (so he created the sun) so says the book of Genesis. In the creation myth of the Cherokees the conjurers put the sun seven-hand breaths above the earth. In the book of Genesis God created the flora and fauna and men, namely humans, Adam and Eve. In the Cherokee man came after the animals. There were a man and a woman. They procreated every seven days.

The fire is the cause of what the appearances of some animals are. In the Cherokee creation myth there is a lot about the appearances of the animals. In the creation myth the animals, tree, plants and humans talked to each other and were friends. However, when the people invented all sorts of weapons and tools, the relationship was endangered. The animals created diseases to punish the man. The plants and trees, which were still friends of the humans, created cures for the diseases.

The book of Genesis is more about how God created the Earth and the humans and how this all happened in seven days.

God is the almighty. He punishes the evil and rewards the good. He is the guardian, protector of the world.

In the Cherokee creation myth everything and everybody created the world; not one Supreme Being but all little things. The creation myth is more on the gradual changes or improvements on the earth. And also the man is not the center of interest in the creation myth. Trees, plants, beasts, fishes, birds, insects and people all play an equally divided role in the creation of the earth.

The Native Americans have had great riches in human and spiritual resources. Unfortunately, these riches are ignored and forgotten by the western civilization. However, even today many Indians, even among their young people, still find strength and meaning in their religious beliefs and ceremonies. The school curriculums omitted the riches of the ceremonies and religious beliefs. Risking to create people who lacked their roots and purpose in life and almost destroyed a unique heritage. During the early contacts between the Europeans and the Native Americans, the Europeans found the Indians either a brutal uncivilized savage or as a naive child. Because the Indians did not have any written language, we found it difficult to understand their depth of wisdom.

We also found it difficult to understand the nomadic life many Indians lead. We are obsessed with material achievements and we fail to see the human and spiritual values in life. The Indian tribes in the Great Plains have great beauty and dignity in their cultural forms. One of the symbols that expresses most completely the Plains Indian concept of the relationship between human beings and the world of nature surrounding them is a cross inscribed within a circle. At the center of the circle uniting within a point the four directions of the cross and all the other quaternaries of the universe, is a human person. One of the most precise ritual expressions of this centrality is found in one of the rites of the Avapaho Sun Dance. In this dance their sacred wheel is placed against each of the four sides of a man¡¯s body. Starting from the feet and moving to the head. Then it is turned sunwise four times, until finally it is turned over the head, with the four attached eagle feathers hanging down over the man¡¯s breast. So that he is ritually at the center, a vertical axis to the horizontal wheel. This concept of the vertical axis explains the sacredness of the number seven to the Indians, and it is interesting to note that their interpretation is identical to that found in other major religions. In adding the vertical dimensicus of sky, earth linking the two, with feet on the ground and the head, or intellect at the center of the firmament. The middle disc, like the vertical axis, represents humanity, for in joining sky and earth. This is neither pure spirit nor a gross matter, but a synthesis of both. This particular symbol may be found among the crew in the three things they often paint around the sacred cottonwood tree at the center of their circular Sun Dance lodge. It was further explained to me by an old Crow priest that these circles represent the three ¡®worlds¡¯ that constitute human beings: body, soul and spirit, or again: gross, subtle and pure. In most of the great religious people built centers of worship in the form of cathedrals, churches or temples. For the Indians however the world of nature itself was their temple, and within this sanctuary they showed respect to every form, function, and power. But what is unique in the Indians attitude is that their reverence for nature and for life is central to their religion: each form in the world around them bears such a host of precise values and meaning that taken all together they constitute their doctrine.

Only in being nothing may an individual human being become everything and only then realize the essential kinship with all forms of life. Because of humankind¡¯s centrality it has the almost divine function of guardian ships over the world of nature. Once this role is ignored or misused, people are in danger of being shown by nature who in reality is the conqueror and the conquered. From another perspective in the past humans had to protect themselves from nature, today nature must be protected from humans.

The Inipi, sweat lodge, are a preparation to other major rites. During the four periods of sweating prayers are recited, sacred songs are sung and a pipe is ceremonially smoked four times by the circle of people. At the end of the last period ¡®the door is opened¡¯ and the light enters the darkness. And the people are renewed beings that entered the world of light and wisdom.

The pipe represents the human being in his totality, or the universe of which humankind is a reflection. The bowl is the heart, or sacred center, and each section of the pipe is usually identified with some part of other human being. The pipe was smoked to establish a relationship or peace between friends or enemies. For in smoking the pipe together each person is helped in remembering his own center, which is now understood to be the same center of every person and of the Universe itself.

All true spiritual progress involves three stages, each stage should be realized and integrated into the next, so that ultimately they become one in the individual who attains the ultimate goal.

The three stages are purification, perfection/expansion and union. If we understand the Indian relationship with nature and the values of their symbols and rites, then we may become enriched and our understanding will deepen. The American Indian heritage will claim its rightful place among the great spiritual traditions of humankind.

Through the vision quest, participated in with physical sacrifice and the utmost humility the individual is opened in the most direct manner to contact with the spiritual essences underlying the forms of the manifested world. The greatest power in the retreat is contact with silence.

In several cultures the retreat is initiatory in character for young men or occasionally for young women, who seek spiritual sanction for a new and sacred name; in the arctic or among some south-western peoples this retreat is participated in city by those who seek the necessary spiritual power for becoming special religious practitioners, a shaman, a medicine man or a singer. Among many groups the retreat was specifically associated with the quest for a guardian spirit, although this is not as general a phenomenon as the vision itself among the plains people the vision quest was most intensely developed; it was an activity that was expected of every young man and woman. It was believed that no one in these societies could have success in any of the activities of the culture without the unique spiritual power received through the quest.

The minimal formal elements of the retreat involved the guidance of a spiritual mentor, preliminary rites of purification, the seeking cut of an isolated place and the observance of a total fast.

Essentially, the person was to be exposed, normally four days and four nights, to the elements to the forms and forms and forces of nature, the person should be attentive to whatever might appear no matter how insignificant the being or phenomenon might seem to be.

Not all that sought for a vision received the experience. When the experience did come it was in the form of some being, a bird or an animal or of the powers and phonema of the natural world.

Frequently the animal or bird might become the individual¡¯s guardian spirit, which would protect him or her in the events of life.

In the American Indian cultures the vision experience served in an especially forceful manner to render transparent to the individual some facet of the phenomenal world, revealing aspects of a spiritual world of greater reality underlying this world of appearances. The beings, or whatever might be involved in the vision, serve as intermediaries revealing aspects of reality through which the ultimate reality of the great Mysterious (Wahan-Tanha) may be contemplated, if not comprehended.

For the first time in eighty years the Indians got the attention from the government. Ronald Reagan¡¯s ¡®Indian policy¡¯ was not a very good one, he tried assimilate the Indians.

Ross O. Summer said that retaining the culture and language might be desirable, but not at the cost of keeping the Indians poor dependent or unproductive. Some Indians tried something new and they surprised everybody by taking over the ¡°modern western capitalistic get rich scheme¡±. They started Indian gambling. In 1979 the Seminole of south Florida opened the first bingo hall. When state officials padlocked the building, the courts ordered it legal and open. Buildings as big as airplane hangers and jammed parking lots began appearing on Indian reservation. By 1987 almost fifty tribes were running bingo parlors, bringing in more then 250 million dollars annually. Even the Republicans had to admire such financial spirit.

The courts smiled upon Indian capitalism, but not on Indian spirituality. The American Indian Freedom of religion act of 1978 vowed to protect Indian use of protected wild animals whose feathers or skins were featured in rituals, for ceremonial use of peyote, and for Indian sacred lands that were used for religious pilgrimages, burials, or vision questing. Supreme Court Justice Sarah O¡¯conner said in 1988: ¡¯Even if we assume the road will virtually destroy the Indians ¡®ability to practice their religion, the constitution simply does not provide a principle that could justify upholding the Indians legal claims.’ Dissenting Justice William J. Brennan finds this reduces the Indian freedom to nothing more than the right to believe that their religion will be destroyed. After having been forced to do other people¡¯s will, the Indians finally thought to become their own boss.

Yet somehow while issues seemed to pop up all over the reservation. The senate who had given them this so-called privilege wound up hearing slogans like ¡°these hearings are making all of us look corrupt¡±.

Facing the year 2000, the native Americans fear they will eventually have to choose between cultural and physical survival or put differently tribal loyalty and the need to assimilate. An Indian spiritual leader states: ¡±If the United States continues on its present course, it will destroy both Indian and non-Indian people¡±.

The selections in this last chapter, ask whether the future of the first American will be a matter of personal choice, political agreements or a destiny guided by their own native spirits.

Richard S. Cardinal is torn away from his family and placed in a foster home. There, his stay is a terrible experience and he also does not experience very pleasant things neither with that family he lives with nor at school. He tries to commit suicide a couple of times before he succeeds.

The writer¡¯s life on the reservation was all very pleasant until the government found that modernization was needed. The Indians agreed however they regretted this afterwards.

Tayo¡¯s mother is a navajo-Indian and his father is a Mexican. His mother left with his aunt, Thelma, and his uncle, Robert.

When he was four years old his mother left him and never came back. His aunt was ashamed of him because he is a half-blood, but she understands Tayo. Rocky, Thelma¡¯s son accepts him as a brother and treats him like a brother. Josiah also accepted him as part of the family so does his grandmother. Later on he learns his mother had passed away. Ever since he was young he had an enemy, namely Emo, who hates Tayo because he is a half-blood.

When Rocky and Tayo joined the army, Rocky called Tayo brother for the first time. Thelma had always opposed them being brothers, because she was ashamed of Tayo. She excluded him from every family occasion.

¡×Rocky >> is important because Tayo returned home after the war, Rocky did not, he promised he would bring him back. Rocky was his best friends and Thelma¡¯s favorite. He blamed himself for Rocky¡¯s death.

¡×Josiah >> treated Tayo like a son. Does the ranch work with him. Tayo also blamed himself for Josiah¡¯s death.

¡×Thelma >> made Tayo feel different and guilty because he is a half-blood. She excluded him from every activity. She does not like him, but tried to get along with him.

Tayo¡¯s sickness began when Rocky died. He blames himself for his death. He has nightmares in which he sees Rocky and Josiah die. Tayo cried a lot and had to vomit occasionally.

The white doctors think it has to do with post-war trauma and it will pass eventually. The medicine men thinks that Tayo must accept himself, then the disease will be cured. Tayo should not blame himself for everything like the white men. The white doctors and the medicine men do not agree with each other.

The white men do not understand why the Indians want to stay in a dirty town that belongs to them. But the Indians were driven away from the location where the town is built, because it is their ground that of the white men. White men are the witches that were sent for by the Indians.

There is a draught that showed up when Tayo did something he was not supposed to, as in the poem. It could only be driven away if a certain goal was achieved. Tayo as well as the figure in the poem achieved their goal and the rain returns.

Ts’eh Montana makes him cry out for love for her. Out misery from the war she teaches him Indian ways of life and their medicine.

The evil is that we cannot accept and/or tolerate each other for who or what we really are. And that is why we will do everything to humiliate the person we despise. The be-littling gets worse, because the evil one gets followers.

Emo is gone, he cannot remind Tayo that he is a half-blood, Emo killed someone and is on the run. Harley and Leroy cannot get him drunk, Ts’eh Montana cured him.

Thelma finally accepts him. Ts’eh Montana also cured him from the nightmares and vomiting.

The novel is quite interesting, however it is sometimes very difficult to understand parts of the story line. The flashbacks were confusing and sometimes it is difficult to know which of the characters are the focalisators, because he does not use the characters’ name. The different stories in the novel were unclear to me at times. But as I said, it was an interesting novel but not really enjoyable.

Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas king.

1.I believe the ¡°I-figure¡± is doing this to explain the novel especially the creation myth (the old Indians). It is difficult for the readers to understand the creation myth, the ¡°I-figure¡± tells the creation myths to Coyote, but in fact he is explaining it to the readers.

2.The four old Indians escaped from a psychiatric clinic during their escape they are telling the creation myth to each other.

The four Indians are:1) First Woman = Lone Ranger

Object ¡æ marry Alberta, find a goal in life

End ¡æ he does not have a relationship with Alberta. But found a purpose, rebuild the cabin.

Object ¡æwants a baby, however no husband

Stimulus ¡æ she wants to be an independent woman, she is a feminist

End ¡æshe is pregnant without a husband

Object ¡æ to please the Indian and the ¡°white world¡±

Stimulus ¡æ he has connections (roots) in both ¡°worlds¡±

End ¡æ He decides to be more related, involved in the Indian world and to leave the ¡°white world¡±

Stimulus ¡æ explain the Indian culture to the tourists

Adversary ¡æ the tourists who do not agree with the dog meat

Object ¡æ she wants to preserve the Indian culture and she wants her children to be Indian

Stimulus ¡æ he does not understand it fully yet.

Helpers ¡æ ¡±I-figure¡±, Old Indians

Roles and responsibilities of the extended family

Norma feels responsible for her family, she wants them to remain Indians.

The ¡°I-figure¡± and the Old Indians try to tell the creation myth to Coyote (and to the readers)

Attitudes towards the surrounding white world.

There are some people who live in the Indian reservation and some live in the white world. The Indians preserve their own culture and try to keep it alive. The white world thinks their western modem civilization is supreme.

In the last part of the novel, they ridicule the Christian story of the Holy Virgin Maria. Her story is similar to Alberta¡¯s one in the end Coyote made Alberta pregnant.

Excerpt from “Green Grass, Running Water” page 456

¡°But I was helpful, too,¡± says Coyote. ¡°That woman who wanted a baby. Now, that was helpful.¡±

¡°Helpful!¡± said Robinson Crusoe. ¡°You remember the last time you did that?¡±

“GOD throws Eve and Ahdamn out of the Garden of Eden.”

This piece ridicules the strict and sometimes-unlogical Christian rules.

The book was really funny to read. It is a satire on the Christian belief.

Sometimes it was a bit confusing with the many characters in the novel. But later on, these characters were fully introduced and it became clear. The book also tells us a lot about the Indian culture and the creation myths, the way it was told was very clear, sometimes these myths are very complex to difficult grasp for the lay man. The author uses humor and modern aspects to clarify the myths. The mockery of the Christian belief did not strike me as disrespectfulness, because western world (especially Hollywood) created an unrealistic and hostile image of the Indian culture now the roles have changed. I think this novel is very appropriate for this course, it is much more readable and enjoyable than Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. It reveals many aspects of the Indian culture.

1.A) Ray Levoi: he is almost ashamed because he is a half Indian later on he accepts his heritage. He becomes more related and involved with the Indian culture. He wants to find out the truth.

B) Frank Coutelle: everything must be done his way, he does not respect the Indians and their culture. He represents the American government that wants to swindle the Indians.

C) Jimmy looks Twice: ARM-activist, murder suspect of Leo Fast Elk. Enemy of the United States.

D) Jack Milton: a corrupt tribal council leader, he is an enemy of ARM. He is in cahoots with Frank Coutelle.

E) Richard Yellow Hawk: a supposedly invalid, he is being used by the FBI (Frank Coutelle). He is the real killer of Leo Fast Elk.

F) Maggie Eagle Bear: is a schoolteacher in the reservation also ARM-activist, she dislikes the FBI except Ray Levoi. She wants to find out who killed Leo Fast Elk, unfortunately she is murdered in the process.

2.Traditionalists ¡æ the conservative Indians who cling on their language culture and want to live in peace without while involvement; Federal government.

Progressives ¡æ the ‘lackeys’ of the U.S. government, they do their bidding and Betray their own people. Mainly they think of themselves and the amount money they can make.

3.He has sympathy for Ray Levoi, because with the help of Crow Horse Ray realizes his roots. Crow helps him to develop his identity.

4.Crow Horse envies Ray, because he has a vision. Ray is a half-blood and has a vision. Crow Horse a full-blood does not have a vision. One has to be proud of his/her Indian heritage and who you are and of your culture and background.

5.Yes, the medicine man is a curer, a wise man. He is a respected member in the Indian community. He has great knowledge about herbal medicine and the Indian history.

The medicine man is also a spiritual lead, guide of the Indians. So the image the film projected was more or less similar to mine.

6.No, nothing was unclear in the film to me. I understood the plot the setting etc. there were no complications. It was a nice, exciting film.

Bibliography:

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Nato-North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Native Vs, Euros

Native American Voices, The book of Genesis V.S. The Cherokee creation myth.

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