Any 19th Century Native American history buffs here?

[dwckabal]

I'm asking, because as I was reading What's The Matter With Kansas, by Thomas Frank, he tells of how the worse things get, "depopulation, the rise of the food trust, the general reorganization of life to favor the wealthy," the more Kansans take up arms—against the very Populist traditions that prevented the very thing that is currently happening.

"Kansans just don't care about economic issues, gloats republican senator Sam Brownback, a man who believes the cause of poverty is spiritual rather than "mechanistic." Kansans have set their sights on grander things, like the purity of the nation."

This struck a chord with me, reminding me of the Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa, who wielded enormous influence at a time when the Shawnee tribe was at a low point (game animals non-existent, crops poorly tended, and settlers taking their land with the help of the US military). It also reminded me of the Ghost Dance movement among the Paiute of Nevada, who were in roughly the same boat as the Shawnee. In this case, the leader, Wovoka, told his people that if they wore special clothing, they would be impervious to bullets, or weapons of any kind.

Are we at a similar juncture in the US today? Have people become so forlorn, that they have instead put their trust and faith in the religious "prophets" of our time, and by default, the right-wing American Taliban, i.e. the Republican party—in fact, the very agent of their destruction? Why care about the economy, or Iraq, when our very souls are at stake?

Is this a valid comparison? I know that there are other examples throughout history, but I found it interesting that Frank focuses on Kansas, and both examples I've mentioned also take place in (mostly) the Midwest—the Shawnee in Ohio, and the Paiute in Nevada. Opinion?

[DemBones DemBones]

1. That's a very interesting conjecture. I'm not sure, though,

that that many people are forlorn in this country today (Democrats excepted!)


(Disclaimers: I haven't read "What's the Matter with Kansas" and it's been some time since I've read about the Ghost Dancers. But the comparison intrigued me so I've been thinking about it and will share my thoughts, whatever they may be worth.)


Seriously, I think the religious right are insistent upon "the purity of the nation" because they have been able to become comfortable in their puritanical lives. They are comfortable enough to have the leisure to analyze society's ills, and willing to shoot themselves in the foot, economically speaking, because their leaders tell them liberals and Democrats are evil.

I do see the similarity in the religious right looking upon themselves as victims being displaced by "strangers in the land" (and even strangers in other lands, due to outsourcing), just as the native Americans were victims displaced by European immigrants. We're all being victimized by corporate interests to some extent, but many mistakenly blame it on Mexicans and other immigrants, not on those who do the hiring. The native Americans, I think, had a better understanding of who was displacing them, partly because no one was providing them with diversions or scapegoats.

I also think that most of the religious right view the nation's impurity as someone else's fault, rather than blaming themselves. Didn't the Ghost Dancers believe that they themselves had offended in some way and must dance to be forgiven?

Compare the contemporary attitude of "These other people need to stop sinning" to these words from Clement of Alexandria, who died in 214 a.d.

"If your neighbor sins, then you also sin. For if you had kept yourself as the Word demands, your neighbor would have been so ashamed on seeing how you live that he would not have sinned."

Early Christianity demanded more than lip service.


All that said, it's an interesting idea to explore further. Do people join the fundamentalist churches because of fears similar to those the Ghost Dancers experienced?

[othermeans]

2. Anthropolgists call movements like the Ghost Dance revivalist messianic

movements. There have been a number of them throughout history. An argument could be made that Christianity itself could be the offshoot of a revivalist messianic movement.

Although I'm sure some would argue this point; I don't think even the religious right would consider Bush the messiah.

The URL gives an interesting comparison of the Canadian and American messianic movements.

http://www.unl.edu/rcplains/seminars/Kaye.htm