"THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND US"

An intercultural study of the meeting between indigenous peoples and the West

In this article I will concern myself with the question why indigenous peoples have difficulties being understood and are still being treated badly by the western world. It is also the case that indigenous peoples do not understand the western train of thought. This theme I have run into since I began working with supporting these peoples in their strivings. I will not satisfy myself with rational explanations that it is economic interests and increase in population that make the politics. A Native American has said: "The whites do much for us but they do not understand us". This statement confirms my belief that factors other than objective political reasoning affect the course of action. It is no new idea that different mentalities clash, but I believe that rendering the understanding of the other is only possible through an annulling of dualism. I will here approach these questions on the basis of a scheme.

DESCRIBING THE PROBLEM

I do not want to say that all of life's areas are marked by non-understanding. In Finland the Sami are autonomous in regards to cultural and lingual issues but the laws are legislated by the government in southern Finland. The Sami were (and still are) victims of a conscious colonization of the northern states in Europe. They now reside in four states: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. The Sami parliament's president Pekka Aikio said, while we were discussing the Sami need for unrestricted use of pastures for their reindeer, "I have been trying to explain this for 30 years now but we are getting nowhere". According to Aikio the only way of guaranteeing the unrestricted use of these areas is that the Sami would own them all.

The pastures intended for reindeer are used for numerous other purposes such as the clear cutting of the forests, power plants, the building of roads etc. The right to land is a burning and much discussed question that will finally be decided in 2005. An official I talked to said that the issue around the Samis' right to land and water is an open wound as long as we lack a settlement that can be accepted both by the Government and the Sami parliament. I think that the dominant population that make the laws does not really understand the whole significance and meaning of land for the Sami.

Another example that decisions are not based upon the wishes or needs of the indigenous peoples is the situation in the USA, where the dominating populace is making suggestions how to - from their view - improve the situation for the Native American. Usually the members of the government make their decisions based upon what they think would be good for the native. When such proposals fail, the Indians are seen as ungrateful and troublesome; "we don't understand how they tick". The other extreme is that the Indian is idealized and exoticized, which has lead to that their culture is being exploited for tourism. Indian religion is viewed by most westerners as superstition, but at more and more people are now seeking the aid of Medicine men for mental problems and in finding a meaning in life, which has lead to widespread fraud that is now battled by the Indians themselves.

The main point of this non understanding is that different mentalities and worldviews clash; westerners dismiss or idealize the Other. One discuss for hundreds of years without understanding what the other is saying. I believe that it is a problem on two levels. One level is the result of lingual ambiguity. We use different words in different cultures for general occurences. One person is talking about spirits, the other about angels, but it is still the same basic spiritual structure. Both are talking about spiritual beings. The second level of the problem is something I will here delve deeper into, namely, that a dualistic mentality meets with a whole-embracing worldview, leading to one cultural clash after after the other which culminates in culture shocks which in their turn can lead to ethnocide.

THAT'S THE SNAG

In my quest for the reason behind these cultural showdowns I found an example in literature. James Mooney describes the vision of the prophet Wovoka (Paiute) in his book "The Ghost-Dance Religion...". He had given the Ghost-Dance to his people about four years before, but he had received great revelation two years previously. On this occasion "the sun died" (was eclipsed) and he fell asleep in the daytime and he was taken up to the other world. Here he saw God that told him to tell the people to be good to each other and that they should love one another, not make war but live in harmony with the white man. If they would faithfully follow this message they would be reunited with their friends in this other world. The whites would perish and the Indians would be saved. Wovoka received the Ghost Dance which he was to relay to his people.

When I read this I thought Mooney provided a good picture of the Indian world- perception, but then he ventures to explain Wovoka`s experience, and therein lies the rift in the communication between Indians and whites. The scientist in him doubted whether this was the whole truth, since he knew that Indians do not usually provide precise information about their religion to the whites. Mooney found out from a neighbour that Wovoka had suffered a severe fever. He knew that solar eclipses induce dismay in natives, because the sun is in their world a living creature with enormous power; such an occurrence could cause an eternal night (Mooney 1995).

XYZQWTYX…!? Cultural clash!

Mooney understood Wovoka`s experience thus: This, for the natives alarming situation, together with delirium resulting from the fever, made him imagine himself stepping through the gates of heaven. Wovoka`s repeated trance-like states, as so many other peoples ecstatic religious conditions, meant to Mooney that Wovoka suffered from cataleptic attacks, that is, a conditions of psychic illness. I find this to be a cold, "scientific" and matter of fact interpretation, characterizied of ethnocentrism (a view whereby one judges other peoples based on one's own culture). This is a typical scientifically objective attitude that stems from reason; here is no room for experience, not for emotional or spiritual dimensions.

What happens to the dynamic in this experience? Wovoka was as a spiritual leader the victim to the white mans increasing claims on land and was filled with deep concerns for the fate of his people and its severe spiritual need. His experience was marked by a message on a collective level and had a mediating function for the whole people. Why do so many westerners believe Jesus spiritual experiences to be the true religion yet view Wovoka`s experience only as a hallucination?

The Sami shaman Ailo Gaup writes in his article "shamanism", about the relation of shamanism to western psychological methods of understanding: …"this method of explanation is based on the western school of thought which appoints man as the master of creation without providing room for other forms of existence such as soul or consciousness. The spiritual world's reality exists alongside the everyday world's reality. The Shaman, who believes that everything created has a soul, also believes it is possible to communicate with these ethereal essences and that one can cross the boundaries of time and space as well as those of the senses" (Gaup 2004).

THE CRUX OF THE MATTER

With the following diagram I wish to clarify the questioning by explaining two differing psychological types (figure 1 and 2) in simplified form, as symbols, as it is not possible to explain this transverbal phenomenon with words. I want to stress that this is merely a picture of the psyche in the same way as a photograph of a human being is not the human being themselves.

Figure 1: The psyche of the western man is marked by dualism: the self (the subject) is perceived as separate from the surrounding world (the objects):

The self:
The surrounding world:

Figure 2: Indigenous peoples perceive themselves as part of the surrounding world, as a unity and as belonging to a meaningful context.

Figure 3: Most people are a mix of the two types and different degrees of understanding are possible:

Figure 1: The subject, the person, perceives itself as separate from the surrounding world: body and soul are seen as two separate entities. The inner world is held as foreign and as a threat. Experiences on higher states of consciousness are discarded as superstition and figments of the imagination. This type is marked by an individual outlook, with the self as the centre.

Figure 1 and 2

Figure 2: The self (the subject) is a part of the surrounding world (the objects). The indigenous peoples perceive body and soul as a whole. The inner world is perceived as rich and higher states of consciousness as a reality. This outlook is marked by a sense of "we" and the interests of the group, respectively the family, come first.

Figure 3: Most people are a mix of the two types and this involves various degrees of understanding of the two extremes of 1 and 2. In his article "Our soul can fly", Marco Bischof discusses this situation of me and you as a chance to enrich and complement each other in a dialogue between different cultures (Bischof 2000).

The diagram makes it clear that such basically different attitudes cannot understand one and other. Carl G. Jung has explained these types in depth in his book "Psychological Types". He talks about extrovert personalities in the cases were the subject is separate from the object and about introvert personalities when the subject is a part of the object. Jung stresses that these two types dismiss each other (Jung 1995:9, 85,314,480). In his book "Native American Postcolonial Psychology" Eduardo Duran (Pueblo and Apache) writes that he is utilizing the teachings of Jung. He also is of the opinion that the Indians are introverted and the western man extroverted. Duran states that it is impossible for the western man to understand the thoughts and feelings of the Indians becouse of the separate worldviews (Duran 1995, s.13-23, 72).

Marco Bischof mentions that an individual who identifies himself with surface states of consciousness will suffer a panic-like fear of extinction when about to cross over into a deeper level.That is why thoughts around death, mysticism and ecstasy are made taboo (Bischof 2000). This is regarding the average individual in western society.

I believe that research according to the model of natural sciences is an example of the western relation to the object. I am of the view that it is not possible for a researcher to understand for example religious experiences based on an objective perspective. Rather is it essential that one participates in the process. It is said that by doing so the researcher loses their scientific hold, but I believe that he/she does not have to be the subject at all times and can compare their experience with that of others in their continued work. Within shamanistic research scientists describe the equipment of the shaman, methods of working and so on; but they never find out what it is all about, unless they themselves become a subject and take part in a shamanistic trip.

THE DRAMA: THE ASSOCIATING WITH INSULTS

A factor which fortifies the idea of the Other as hard to understand is the association with insults, prejudice, stereotypes, and in extreme cases, racism, which I will at this point merely mention without further delving into such attitudes.

AN OPPORTUNITY: TO ANNUL DUALISM?

The western man experiences feelings of emptiness, meaninglessness and loneliness, and turns to other cultures for wisdom and knowledge. There exists an increased interest in the worldview of indigenous peoples, which I see as an attempt to reach a balance in the polarization, and to overcome dualism. My opinion is that only a spiritual experience will be able to annul the dualistic state. Only such an experience will lead to that the subject will be integrated in the object so that a unity is reached together with an understanding of the whole-embracing mentality. This state is experienced as holy, which is a reference to the word whole: one experiences oneself as whole and happy.

The Western man looks for ways to achieve this, also becouse the Christian religion providing too few possibilities of spiritual experience; if one is not concerned with it in a more intense way. I mean that the traditional shaman is capable of annulling dualism by connecting the lower world with the higher one, earth and sky, which is also possible through, for instance, Buddhistic meditation.

If western man overcomes the dualistic state of mind, he can then put himself in the position of, and understand the mentality of, the indigenous peoples in a completely new way.

Complete understanding, however, can never be achieved between different people. One can realize that differences also contain an opportunity for diversity in a world characterized by uniformity and the policy not to disparage the Other, as well as to realize that one can learn from each other by expanding one's world of experience. This can mean to respect and approve of a view even if one may not fully understand it, for instance that the authorities abstain from building a ski resort on a holy mountain even if they cannot come to terms with what a holy mountain is.

SOURCES:

Bischof, Marco: Unsere Seele kann fliegen (Our soul can fly). Article: Transpersonale Perspektiven. Vol.6-2000. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Transpersonalen Gesellschaft e. V. Berlin, Germany

Duran, Eduardo & Bonnie: Native American Postcolonial Psychology. State University of New York Press, Albany 1995

Gaup, Ailo: Sjamanisme (Shamanism). Article from Gaup`s webpage:

Ailo Gaup

Homepage

Jung, Carl G.: Psychologische Typen. Clausen & 6 Bosse, Leck 1995

Mooney, James: THE GHOST DANCE and the SIOUX OUTBREAK OF 1890.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London 1995

"They don'tunderstand us"/Fourth World Journal/2005

Nina Michael
Franz-Schubert-Str.4a
D-85540 Haar/München
Germany
Telephone: 0049 (0)89 460 51 17
eMail: Nina Michael or

Nina Michael

Nina Michael Nina Michael is a German National who has a sincere interest in American Indian history and issues. She recently spent time with the Sami People, Indigenous people of Europe and has and remains involved with groups in Europe which are making an attempt to educate the European people about the frauds and fakes that misrepresent themselves as being American Indian as well as to understand the issues facing American Indians in the United States.

These are many people in Europe who hold Sacred Ceremonies and are charging costly fees to do so.
Ms. Michael worked closely with the group who sponsored Al Carroll’s European speaking tour, the main topic being Indian Frauds in Europe.
A recent article, in this Two Bead’s issue provides background to German individuals who get together and are called hobbyist Indians and others, who believe we, the people of many American Indian nations, no longer exist, except perhaps, for some Plains Tribes. Read the article:

Old West Kept Alive

Nina had this to share about herself, her view and thoughts:

I write to you because I have written two articles and I would want to share them with Native Americans. Because I feel that I have got a message I would want to publish them in a journal or a newspaper where I reach Americans, too. I am originally from Finland in Europe, but I am living in Germany since 1977. I am retired now, and I am working for supporting an indigenous people in Europe, the Sámi, and I belong to a political support group for Native Americans in North America and for Tibet. I have been asked to write articles about the situation of the Sámi by their parliament, because the majority does not listen to them.

For this purpose I have studied the subject intercultural communication and cultures.

I do this thing because I mean that the Europeans have made so much wrong against the Native Americans more than 500 years. My special interest is the communication as I think that the reasons for the bad treatment of Natives by the majority are prejudices, stereotypes and racism. I don't believe that the main reason is the profit, anyhow not the only one. I do believe that these attitudes arise because of the different world view and mentality between these peoples. I talked today to a lawyer of the Sámi parliament in Finland and he said that he also feels that the main reason for the political difficulties is the negative attitude of the majority.

To reach Nina Michael write to her at the email address listed above or through the other contact information she has provided.