By Peter Molenaar
Just as the “Raise Your Voice” column appears once a month inside the back cover of “The Alley” so does Ricey Wild”'s “It Ain”'t Easy Being Indian” appear monthly in “The Circle”. Both columns should be regularly read.
Admittedly though, for insightful truths elevated to the level of a belly laugh, Ricey is the one. In the April issue, the after-life is pondered via her childhood encounter with an evangelistic revival. She wryly states: “Until then I didn”'t know I was supposed to want eternal life”¦at the time mine was okay except for school and chores.”
She goes on:
“If I only knew then what I know now! GRRR! I could have been so mean, bad”¦freely hated, had B2 bombers full of cold cash, shoes and Ferraris to crash, and still in the end hang out in Heaven. Because I was saved!
Yet, regarding the “straight and narrow”, Ricey says: “It is my Gramma”'s face that has kept me out of the worst of it, just the thought of her looking at me with disappointment makes me cringe and stay strong.” This is interesting. It was my father”'s face (Freud”'s super-ego civilizing agent) which prevented me from chasing the easy girls. Yet it seems, in Ricey”'s case, the ancient matriarchal spirit has prevailed.
April 3”¦
A mixed gathering convened at the East Phillips Park Cultural and Community Center to
help energize a revival of the Lakota matriarchy. The documentary “Red Cry” revealed the social degradation and veritable genocide which continues to exist on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Neighborhood leaders were seen shaking their heads in disbelief.
Let”'s not forget”¦
All peoples, without exception, have passed through the stage of matriarchal social formation. In the beginning, the female owned the dwelling. It was her sacred space which no man entered without permission. In fact, moral deliberation was largely women”'s work. Oh yes, grandmothers prevailed in camp circles while men hunted.
My mother”'s mother was born 1900. In 1890, 250 Indian People were massacred at Wounded Knee. Not so long ago, UNICEF estimated that 5,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 died every month from the economic sanctions we imposed”¦for a total of one million before the G.W. Bush Shock and Awe Bombing commenced .
Stop all the bombing, please.
