Neither Wolf Nor Dog

 

'" I don't like white people much." he said. He was looking straight at me.'

This is a quote from a book that I'm reading titled- Neither Wolf Nor Dog, by author Kent Nerburn. I haven't finished it yet. In fact I'm only about a third of the way through it, but before I forget where certain passages are or the content of a chapter, I wanted to share just a bit.

The book is non-fiction and is a startling look inside the mind of a Lakota elder. Nerburn is a white man from Minnesota who had written a book about the natives of that state and it caught the attention of Dan, the Lakota elder who wanted to set the record straight about natives. He invites Nerburn to the reservation to put together a book that white people can understand.

I spent over forty years living and working among the Tlingit Indians of Southeast Alaska. I thought I knew them. I worked alongside the elderly native ladies, sliming salmon in wet, cold conditions inside the dark cold storage, standing ankle deep in fish guts and slime. We laughed and joked together. They taught me Tlingit insults. Periodically one would glance at me and smile and turn to the other ladies, speaking their native tongue. There would be an outburst of laughter, a joke at my expense, but nonetheless, I felt welcomed.

I've fished alongside the native fishermen, cheered their kids at school basketball games, taught their children, attended church with them. Though after so long a time I wasn't an outsider, I nonetheless didn't really know them. I've always felt there was a schism between us. Something unspoken that I couldn't make right. As I read this book, I'm starting to understand.

The author speaks of passing by broken down cars on blocks, junk laying out in yards and broken windows covered with blankets. Like me, he looks at these things and thinks that it would be easy to rectify if only the natives weren't so lazy. The elder informs him that the native way has always been to use something, and when you didn't need it anymore, you left it. He points out that the white man puts a lot of value on possessions. The ads on TV all try to get us to buy more and more. Of course as you have more, you need more room to store it. More cupboards and shelves, garages and storage facilities; bigger homes and more land for those homes.

Dan, the elder, speaks of the land. Before the coming of the Europeans, the natives traveled from place to place, hunting the buffalo, visiting summer camps where their ponies could graze and staying in winter camps where there was some protection from the elements. The idea of owning the land was foreign to them. The earth was their mother. It wasn't until the whites arrived that the concept of property ownership was introduced to them. Of course all the good land was taken from them and they got crowded into smaller and smaller areas.

Many natives are insulted by whites wanting to be native. They show up at pow wows wearing beads and buckskin, sporting pony tails and beating drums. Dan is afraid the natives will lose their identity and instead become watered down, portrayed like the Indians of sport franchises. He points out that many Caucasians claim to be part native; usually Cherokee, from a grandmother or great-grandmother. He wonders why no one identifies as a Potawatami or a Chiracahua or a Tlingit. As he mentions, for many years America wanted to destroy the Indians, now they want to be them. I believe he's speaking the truth.

I remember my friend Paul Dybdahl telling me of being a boy in Juneau. His father was Norwegian, his mom was Tlingit. The native genes were dominant, so he had darker skin and black hair. One of the local hardware stores had gotten a TV and had set it up in the front window to display it. Paul and a bunch of his friends were gathered outside the store watching the TV when the owner stepped up to the window an pulled the blind. It was his first encounter with discrimination.

Others have spoken of being taken from their families and sent to boarding schools far away from their homes and families. They were punished if they spoke their native language and were taught that the native ways were wrong. It left many confused and angry. This happened not only to the Tlingit, but to a number of natives across the country. You can imagine how you would feel if you were subjected to the same treatment.

In the seventies, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was introduced. The various tribes were awarded vast sums of land. Members of the tribes were given yearly dividends, sometimes amounting to many thousands of dollars. All of a sudden, the people who didn't want to be considered natives were once again claiming their heritage. Human nature I guess.

From what I can gather from this book, the native people are struggling to find their way in this world. Whichever way they lean, there will be one group or another cursing them. They are trying to live in two different cultures. Many of the younger people have gravitated to the modern way of thinking, wanting TVs and computers and games. The elders that still remember the old ways are trying to hang on to the past and hope that they won't be forgotten.

I'm hoping when I'm finished with this book, I'll have a better understanding of the native people. I believe I'll have a greater amount of respect. I'm not going to apologize for who I am. I had nothing to do with the race I was born into, and what my ancestors may or may not have done is on them, not me. I hope that I approach all people with a little less judgement, and a little more compassion.
 

Unfortunately, I can't do this book justice. There are many noteworthy passages that I would love to quote, but I don't think that I should. I would encourage anyone who has an interest in native American culture to check out this book. It's truly eye- opening.