Crazy Horse Weeps by Joseph M. Marshall

Author:Joseph M. Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
Published: 2019-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

That hand is not the same color as yours, but if I prick it, the blood will flow, and I shall feel the pain. The blood is the same color as yours. God made me, and I am a man.

The case is significant to all of Indian country because the simple fact that it was heard in a court of law changed a long-standing rule that Indians were only three-fifths of a person, and as such not entitled to standing in a court of competent jurisdiction. When Standing Bear became a man is how many characterize the case. A history-making precedent for Native people had been established, and for that all Native tribes owe a debt to Standing Bear.

Nevertheless, I have never read a statement more self-aggrandizing and, at the same time, utterly condescending toward Native people. Clearly, according to Judge Dundy, indigenous people in 1879 were at the bottom of the pit of humanity and white people were at the pinnacle. Therefore, the best we poor Natives could do was divest ourselves of all that we were and strive to be part of that “higher civilization.”

There are groups throughout the world who maintain a lifestyle that has not given in entirely to a modern technocratic existence. The Mongol reindeer herders, the Sami of Norway who also herd reindeer, the Bushmen of the Kalahari, a few indigenous tribes in the rain forests of Brazil, and even some of the Amish fit into that category. I mention this because there are people who not only survive but also thrive without the so-called advantages of modern technology. Some limit their use of it, and some consciously choose to shun it entirely. That lifestyle, the absence or limited use of technology, would likely not be included in the definition of civilization: “the stage of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced.” But who is the ultimate and unbiased judge to determine which nation or society fits that definition?

We Americans are quick to declare that we are the “greatest nation” on the planet, possibly the greatest ever. That is a judgment call, and we seem to be the only people making that case. Judge Dundy’s perception of American civilization is likewise an ethnocentric opinion. Furthermore, he not only summarily denigrates indigenous people of North America, he also devalues all other developed countries in the world. The Sami, the Bushmen, and the interior tribes of Brazil would likely not fit into Dundy’s biased perception of civilization simply because the interpretation of an “advanced” civilization seems largely based on industry, technology, religion, and skin color. Other factors such as human rights, family values, and social equality are not high on the list. Ironically, those factors were of higher priority among Standing Bear’s Ponca than they were in Judge Dundy’s America, and they are foundational pillars for the Sami, the Bushmen, and the tribes of the Amazon. That is how they survive and thrive, not by technology or modern industry.

In my estimation, Judge Dundy

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