I’m writing this in July, 2018.
About 45 years ago, when I was about 20, I met a local Mexican girl, here in southwestern Oklahoma. I made a mistake, unknowingly. I mentioned I thought she looked “Indian”. She got pretty upset at me, and said, “I’m SPANISH! Not Indian!” Time passed, and I left southwestern Oklahoma, only to return in the 1990s.
I got a job about a decade ago driving a van sometimes, and a bus sometimes. Some days I was scheduled to drive a bus to pick up head start children. We picked up children from 2 to 4 years of age. Later in the day, we would take them home. On the first day and sometimes for the first two weeks or so, some of the children were away from their mother for the first time in their lives for any extended period of time. Some of them, of all races and mixes, would get scared and cry. Some of the children were Hispanic, mostly Mexican. I learned very quickly to say, “No llores, por favor”. That means “Please don’t cry”. Since they’d never been away from mama, they got scared very easily. For some reason, I was thinking about that recently.
One of the head start teachers was this young girl from Del Rio, Texas, which is right on the Texas/Mexican border. She spoke perfect Spanish and fluent English both, and I got to know her pretty well. She could be blunt. She asked me “Why do people here call me Spanish? I’m not Spanish.” And she went on to say she was Native American and was proud of her heritage. I thought to myself how some attitudes had changed in the last four decades. Some people had gone from being ashamed of their native heritage to embracing it in both nations, Mexico and the United States.
I started thinking about other things. One thing led to another, and as the gestalt of all these things came together, I started to think about putting up another blog entry. Here goes. Have current events led us to see the fulfillment of Wovoka's prophesy? NO!! But the shoe does seem to fit the size of the foot. And what was his prophesy?
About 45 years ago, when I was about 20, I met a local Mexican girl, here in southwestern Oklahoma. I made a mistake, unknowingly. I mentioned I thought she looked “Indian”. She got pretty upset at me, and said, “I’m SPANISH! Not Indian!” Time passed, and I left southwestern Oklahoma, only to return in the 1990s.
I got a job about a decade ago driving a van sometimes, and a bus sometimes. Some days I was scheduled to drive a bus to pick up head start children. We picked up children from 2 to 4 years of age. Later in the day, we would take them home. On the first day and sometimes for the first two weeks or so, some of the children were away from their mother for the first time in their lives for any extended period of time. Some of them, of all races and mixes, would get scared and cry. Some of the children were Hispanic, mostly Mexican. I learned very quickly to say, “No llores, por favor”. That means “Please don’t cry”. Since they’d never been away from mama, they got scared very easily. For some reason, I was thinking about that recently.
One of the head start teachers was this young girl from Del Rio, Texas, which is right on the Texas/Mexican border. She spoke perfect Spanish and fluent English both, and I got to know her pretty well. She could be blunt. She asked me “Why do people here call me Spanish? I’m not Spanish.” And she went on to say she was Native American and was proud of her heritage. I thought to myself how some attitudes had changed in the last four decades. Some people had gone from being ashamed of their native heritage to embracing it in both nations, Mexico and the United States.
I started thinking about other things. One thing led to another, and as the gestalt of all these things came together, I started to think about putting up another blog entry. Here goes. Have current events led us to see the fulfillment of Wovoka's prophesy? NO!! But the shoe does seem to fit the size of the foot. And what was his prophesy?
The Ghost
Dance Prophesy
When I was younger I remember
reading about “the Ghost Dance” and a prophesy that went with it. I don’t
remember the details. It went something like the Old Indians would return to
North America. And I was thinking of the recent Mexican and Central American
migration up here. Are they the return of the “old people”? Are they the
fulfillment of the prophesy? Well I want to look it up online. What does it say
online about the “Ghost Dance”? Are the
return of Mexican and Central American Indian mixed-race people the fulfillment
of this prophesy? What do you think? Please note I am asking this question myself. Maybe it is nonsense, I don’t know.
“His teachings
followed a previous Paiute tradition predicting a Paiute renaissance. . . He
also told them to remain peaceful and keep the reason for the dance secret from
the Whites. Wovoka’s message spread quickly to other Native American peoples
and soon many of them were fully dedicated to the movement. Representatives
from tribes all over the nation came to Nevada to meet with Wovoka and learn to
dance the Ghost Dance and to sing Ghost Dance songs.” Here is a photo of
Wovoka (1856-1932).
From
the webpage above – “Wovoka was born
about 1856 in Smith Valley or Mason Valley, Nevada, as one of four sons of
Tavid, also known as Numo-tibo's, a well-known medicine man. (A link of
Wovoka's father to an earlier Ghost Dance of 1870 in the region is unclear.)
Both of Wovoka's parents survived into the twentieth Century. At about the age
of fourteen Wovoka was sent to live with and work for the Scotch-English family
of David Wilson. During this period he acquired the names Jack Wilson and
Wovoka, meaning "Wood Cutter."
“The
religious influences upon Wovoka were diverse. Wovoka was clearly affected by
the religious values of the pious United Presbyterian family; Mr. Wilson read
the Bible each day before work. He lived in a region where traveling preachers
were common and Mormonism prevalent. There is a possibility that Wovoka
traveled to California and the Pacific Northwest, where he may have had contact
with reservation prophets Smohalla and John Slocum.
“At
about the age of twenty he married Tumm, also known as Mary Wilson. They raised
three daughters. At least two other children died.” End of direct
quote. I don’t know who these two prophets were.
Quote --“The turning point in Wovoka's life came in the late 1880's. In
December of 1888 Wovoka may have been suffering from scarlet fever. He went
into a coma for a period of two days. Observer Ed Dyer said, "His body was
as stiff as a board." Because Wovoka's recovery had corresponded with the
total eclipse of the sun on January 1, 1889, he was credited by the Numu’s for
bringing back the sun, and thereby saving the universe.
“After
this apparent near death experience, Wovoka proclaimed that he had a spiritual
vision with personal contact with God who gave him specific instructions to
those still on earth. According to Wovoka, God told him of a transformation by
the spring of 1891 when the deceased would again be alive, the game would again
flourish, and the whites would vanish from the earth. He had also been
instructed to share power with the President of the East, Benjamin Harrison.
Until the time of the apocalypse, Wovoka counselled the living to work for the
dominant population and attempt to live a morally pure life. The plan for the
future could only be assured if believers followed the special patterns and
messages of the Ghost Dance, which Wovoka taught his followers.” End of quote.
Were his words recorded exactly? Is there
any room for leeway? Is it 100% literal? Is it figurative? I don’t know. His
prophesies scared some people. Wovoka himself told the people not to tell the
white people about his prophesy. Therefore any knowledge of it found online
might be a corruption of it. And that includes every word I write about it.
The
Wounded Knee Massacre
In 1890 a Paiute named Wovoka became
father of a movement known as the “Ghost Dance”. This dance promised a great
resurrection of cultures and peoples the U. S. government sought to eradicate,
those cultures on this continent that predated European conquests. Many western
tribes sought to cling to any hope that their entire way of life might not
disappear forever. Wovoka’s prophesy was a means to cling to that hope. One great
tribe of many bands were the Sioux of the Dakota Territories. The Ghost Dance became
popular amongst some of them.
The people would dance until they grew
tired, and some fainted. This was repeated over and over. The government became
scared of the dancers, and thought it was the beginning of an uprising. The
government didn’t know what was going on, and let their imaginations run wild.
They thought surely Sitting Bull had something to do with it. On December 15th,
1890 government men tried to arrest Sitting Bull, but they allowed themselves
to get spooked and killed him instead.
On the 29th day of December, a
group of Lakota Sioux under Big Foot were doing the Ghost Dance near Wounded
Knee Creek when soldiers came upon them. The article I read said no one knows who started shooting
first, but since all of the Lakota were killed, we don’t know their side of the
story. I think there's a high probability that the soldiers fired both first, and last. It was said 150 were massacred by the soldiers with half of than number being women and children. Estimates of up to twice that number are mentioned.
The Ghost Dance didn’t appear to be
working, in 1890. At this time, many tribes had become extinct, while for
others only mixed race people were left to represent them. In every generation
there appeared more and more Caucasian, and in every generation there appeared fewer and fewer Native Americans. The government hoped it was just a
matter of time until the people all vanished. Could the Ghost Dance stop this trend, or was it a hoax?
Texas
War of Independence and the War with Mexico
Here is a little history of the land of the Paiute that led up to the time of the Ghost Dance. Spain claimed the land of the Paiute. Mexico broke away from Spain. At the time
Mexico included all the regions between Texas and California in the North of
that country, including the land of the Paiute. At the same time the United States was expanding westwards.
Soon a clash between Spanish and English culture erupted between their
surrogates, the United States and Mexico.
Mexico decided to accept White immigration
in Texas, and poor farmers flooded over the Texas border becoming subjects of Mexico. Texans eventually
demanded independence from Mexico, which they won after a short war. In the
1840s a second war won great stretches of desert, prairie and mountains from
Mexico by the United States. The entire region to the Pacific Coast was ceded to the United States.
Here is a map showing the territory that changed hands in the Texas and Mexican wars. The Paiute people, who had been subjects of the Mexican Nation, became subjects of the United States.
The map above came from the following website;
-- https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOdqL0nQ0ex2g6qKWxUngGGx3025hCgVWa4Bgcr-GIM7AWxXYlWUmJurHYOHcYuoI6-pZY5mAykynH35rfZR394jPt5dO3wYTR1YOhayrJz1zF-uyLQNoCXRaGiwrGyfPAecuAjIK-yAzp/s1600/EEUU+Guerra+Mexico-EEUU.jpg
-- Land from Sacramento to Salt Lake City and Santa Fe had been part of Mexico.
This entire region became part of the United States after the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848.
The following year -- 1849 -- gold was discovered in California
and the original Spanish and Indian population of California was over run by
settlers hoping to cash in on “gold fever”. California’s Indian peoples
were virtually exterminated overnight by greedy 49ers. The original Spanish population of Texas
became a small minority, and her few remaining Indian peoples were shipped
North to Oklahoma by the time of the Civil War or shortly thereafter. In 1875 the
last Comanche warriors, Quanah’s band, were driven from their last stronghold,
Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle, and the last Indian peoples were
driven out of Texas.
It was after these events that Wovoka
delivered his prophesy. His tribe, the Paiute, were native to some of the lands
that changed hands in the Mexican War.
Tribes
Related to the Paiute
What if Wovoka’s prophesies were meant for
the Paiute and their close relatives? Per linguist’s, here is a list of the
tribes who speak a language closely related to Wovoka’s native language, the
language of the Paiute peoples. It includes the Ute, Comanche, Hopi and others
in the U. S., and the Aztecs and many others in Mexico, going as far south as
Panama. In fact almost half of Mexico once spoke a related language. I found a
list of languages related to the Paiute here -- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mesoamerican-Indian-languages#ref605206
.
Uto-Aztecan
Language Group
I.
Northern
Uto-Aztecan
Numic
Western Numic
Northern
Paiute (includes Paviotso, Bannock, and Snake)
Monache
(aka Mono)
Central Numic
Shoshone-Goshiute
Panamint
Comanche
Southern Numic
Southern Paiute
Ute
Chemehuevi
Kawaiisu
Tübatulabal
Takic
Serrano-Kitanemuk
Serrano
Kitanemuk
Cahuilla-Cupeño
Cahuilla
Cupeño
Luiseño-Juaneño
Luiseño
Juaneño
Gabrielino-Fernandeño
Gabrielino
Fernandeño
Hopi
II.
Southern
Uto-Aztecan
Piman
Pima-Papago (aka
O’odham)
Pima Bajo
Northern
Tepehuan–Southern Tepehuan
Northern
Tepehuan
Southern
Tepehuan
Tepecano
Taracahitic
Tarahumaran
Tarahumara
Guarijío
Tubar
Cahitan
Yaqui
Mayo
Cahita
Ópatan
Ópata
Eudeve
Corachol-Aztecan
Cora-Huichol
Cora
Huichol
Aztecan (aka
Nahuan)
Pochutec
(extinct)
Core
Nahua
Nahuatl
Pipil
(aka Nahuate, Nawat)
In addition to these languages, there is a
very long list of names identified in colonial and other early sources that are
generally thought to represent extinct Uto-Aztecan groups, most in northern
Mexico. No information has survived on most of these, and it is not certain
whether they represent independent groups with their own languages or just
alternative names for others already known.
Map Showing the Locations of the Uto-Aztecan Peoples at the Time of Conquest
Shades of gray on the map below are the locations where the Uto-Aztecan people traditionally were found. Of course in the modern era they have spread out over the countryside. The map below can also be found here online --
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christopher_Beekman
Shades of gray on the map below are the locations where the Uto-Aztecan people traditionally were found. Of course in the modern era they have spread out over the countryside. The map below can also be found here online --
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christopher_Beekman
World
War Two and the Bracero Program
Decades passed without much change. Then
in December 7th, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Butterfly
effect -- changes in one part of the world can cause changes in other parts that were never expected.
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
young American males left their farms and cities in droves, enlisting in the
military. This led to serious problems. Many women had to work in factories and
offices at jobs previously held by men. But there were still jobs that needed
to be filled, and soon. Crops were maturing in the field in early 1942. Who
would be there to harvest them in the fall? The United States government and
the Mexican government got together, and the Bracero Program was begun. Bracero
means (per wikipedia) “one who works with his arms” in Spanish.
The Bracero Program operated as a joint
program under the State Department, the Department of Labor, and the
Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) in the Department of Justice.
Under this pact, the laborers were promised decent living conditions in labor
camps, such as adequate shelter, food and sanitation, as well as a minimum wage
pay of 30 cents an hour. This program was intended to fill the labor shortage
in agriculture brought on by World War Two. The program lasted 22 years and offered employment contracts to
5 million braceros in 24 U.S. states—becoming the largest foreign worker program
in U.S. history.
Here is a link to a song written by Woody Guthrie, "Deportee"; as recorded by "The Last Internationle that speaks of the Bracero Program
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRCyps1Lwyc
U.S Department of State urged the bracero program to counter the popularity of communism in Mexico. Furthermore, it was seen as a way for Mexico to be involved in the Allied war effort. The first braceros were admitted on September 27, 1942, for the sugar-beet harvest season. From 1948 to 1964, the U.S. imported on average 200,000 braceros per year.
Here is a link to a song written by Woody Guthrie, "Deportee"; as recorded by "The Last Internationle that speaks of the Bracero Program
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRCyps1Lwyc
U.S Department of State urged the bracero program to counter the popularity of communism in Mexico. Furthermore, it was seen as a way for Mexico to be involved in the Allied war effort. The first braceros were admitted on September 27, 1942, for the sugar-beet harvest season. From 1948 to 1964, the U.S. imported on average 200,000 braceros per year.
The Catholic Church in Mexico was opposed
to the Bracero program, objecting to the separation of husbands and wives and
the resulting disruption of family life. The Church objected to the exposure of migrants to vices
such as prostitution, alcoholism, and gambling that they found near their camps in the United States.
President Truman signed Public Law 78 in
July 1951. Soon after it was signed, United States negotiators met with Mexican
officials to prepare a new bilateral agreement. This agreement made it so that
the U.S. government were the guarantors of the contract, not U.S. employers . .
. The agreement set forth that all negotiations would be between the two
governments.
These programs were in effect until 1964.
During those years, (eyeballing the list) over four and a half million Mexican
citizens entered the United States legally for seasonal farm labor. Some over
stayed their work contracts and became illegal, sort of like the Whites who had
illegally intruded onto Indian lands a century or more earlier. So in a sense,
this was Indians returning to lands of their ancestors. Karma?
Mexican
and Central American Immigration
One thing rarely mentioned in the
migration arguments about Mexican and Central Americans returning to the United
States is that many of these people are Native American. The tribes many of the people belonged to settled on both sides of the border and originally spoke a language related to the language of Wovoko, Paiute prophet. Did he predict their return? Are they the
fulfillment of the Ghost Dance Prophesy? I don’t know. I’m not superstitious. It could easily be a coincidence. In
previous years, many immigrants came from Mexico, where many people are related
to the Paiute. More recently refugees from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador
have flooded to the border, hoping a nation of immigrants would have pity on
them in their time of need. But we see many people from these regions too spoke Uto-Aztecan languages. Due to gang violence, many of their lives are in
danger. It is interesting that many relatives of Wovoka are the very people
returning to the North in what could be considered, in a loose sense -- as a
fulfillment of his prophesy -- or as I said -- it could be a coincidence. hmmm . . . the prophesy has to be nonsense, right?
If we are TRULY a Christian nation and possess Christin passion we will
help the refugees! If our Christianity is as shallow as the swamp in the White House in Washington D.
C., we won’t. I don't know if these events are a fulfillment of prophesy or not.
But --
I am quite certain that the soul of America is being exposed. How will that go?
But --
I am quite certain that the soul of America is being exposed. How will that go?
