Wisdom Keeper by Ilarion Merculieff

Author:Ilarion Merculieff [Merculieff, Ilarion]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS028000 History / Native American, POL045000 Political Science / Colonialism & Post-colonialism
ISBN: 978-1-62317-050-9
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: 2016-05-06T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Homer Gone

“We propose that we declare war on the United States government and secede from the Union!” stated a nervous young man. He was part of a delegation of young men, ranging in age from seventeen to twenty-seven, who demanded an audience at a critical last-minute meeting of community leaders and Elders I had called. He was the oldest of the group.

Officials from Washington, DC, were about to follow through with their intention to abandon the Pribilof Island communities of Saint Paul and Saint George, as announced one year before. The government had offered no solutions as to how our villages would survive after it left, leaving it up to us alone to figure out how we would survive as Unangan communities. It was a desperate time.

Deep within me I felt that we were being guided by unseen forces—that whatever would transpire after this moment in time was necessary for us to move to the next phase of our lives and spiritual journey. We had tried everything to stop this day from occurring, but no time-tested skills, abilities, commitment to our people, and persistence could stem the tide of the unseen forces. It seemed that a great weaver was creating this fabric of human drama in such a way that we could only hold on for the ride.

On the eve of the official withdrawal, all the village leaders of Saint Paul Island gathered in City Hall to plan. We wanted to avoid community-wide panic over the drastic changes and try to find a way to restore hope in a community that felt hopeless. We had no idea what was happening on Saint George, but it had to be similar.

Now we faced the mirror of desperation and anger in the community, reflected by these young men. By their grim demeanor, it was clear that they were very serious. As chair of the meeting, I told them that they had just as much stake in these decisions as anyone, so they could speak their mind.

“Our plan is to declare war against the United States, bulldoze across the runway so no planes can land, station armed guards around the island, and take over the U.S. Coast Guard station by force! We want your support!”

Stunned by this proposal, the entire gathering of Elders, organizational heads, and spiritual leaders held its silence. I knew we were all thinking the same thing—if this is not handled properly, we would have an even greater disaster on our hands than the one we had gathered to discuss.

I felt it was my place to guide the discussion—but for the first time in my life I was at a complete loss as to what to do or to say. The slightest mistake could provoke serious trouble in our village. Like most of our community leaders, I was already exhausted and stressed, almost beyond the point of human endurance. At the time of our meeting, the entire community had struggled through a year of unfathomable grief, pain, violence, and death, while living in a state of deep depression and widespread panic.

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