Free to Dance? NOT!

December 21, 2010 at 5:46 pm (art, culture, education, ethics, history, Indigenous People, Lakota, life, Native Americans, politics, random, religion)
Tags: 1890, america, art, culture, education, ethics, eva, First Amendment, ghost dance, history, Indigenous, Lakota, life, Native Americans, oppression, pen/ink, people, poltics, religion, religious freedom, Sumi-E, watercolors, We Will Dance, wojcik

We Will Dance! @evawojcik

In 1890 a religious concept called the “Ghost Dance” travelled from one Indian reservation to another to another.  I have no intention of discussing the merits of this religious exercise. Rather my focus is on the RIGHT to practice one’s religious beliefs in this place called “America.” In 189o this right was denied, and continued to be denied long thereafter, to Native Americans. First the right to freedom of religion was denied to Native Americans by every representative of  every white european religious doctrine that made its way onto the reservations in order to get a slice of the Native American population pie for conversion to its congregation.  This religious invasion was not about the saving of souls but the procurement of government school contracts–in other words, money.  Oh yes the all-powerful motivating force of money.  This is not to say that there were not some well-meaning compassionate people amidst these religious invaders. The point is the fact that the Indigenous First Peoples already had their own religious beliefs and those were not only not respected but were denied them. Hence, I find it no stretch of the imagination to comprehend why some would engage in a practice of “faith” in order to find some hope of relief from the ongoing destruction of their culture on all fronts.  So, “We Will Dance!” is a small effort at representing the will to defy overwhelming oppression via a view of  the Ghost Dance as defiance on the most fundamental spiritual level.