The Red Road Today from Learning Journey on the Red Road
by Floyd Hand, Spiritual Interperter, Oglala Lakota
You know, I’ve been observing the schools and I’ve been observing people who are hurting – people who are spiritually bankrupt – and I think we’re headed right back to where we were twenty five years ago. Racism is starting to develop again. An altogether different generation is coming out on this Red Road – people who are trying to apply the philosophy of Christian beliefs to this Native way. But in my heart, I strongly feel that it’s not going to work. They’re confusing their everyday lives with the sincerity of this road. I see people wanting to take things. They want to learn overnight. It hurts me because it took me about forty years to attain the level I’m at today. And it hurts to see these things being desecrated.
People come to my home and demand to know things about my way of life. They come and they say they want power. I tell them “You are your own power. You have to understand yourself.” And they get very angry. It is because the Indian people have always been looked down upon. To this day, society is trained that way. People all over the world do not yet understand the Native way. Yet they want it. But when they find out that there is some grunt work involved – like learning the spiritual laws of the sweat lodge as a firekeeper – they get discouraged and angry.
This is why a lot of us spiritual interpreters get old, hurt and die – because, when we were young we were strong, so we thought we could handle everything. But we get beaten down. We get tired. When you use up these spiritual interpreters, where else are you going to get somebody to help? Where else are you going to get the teachings? Instead of doing all the listening, pack up and go learn the grunt work. Learn how crawl. Learn how to build a fire. Learn how do all of this so that you gain the valuable experience to on pass to your neighbor. Don’t take it home and keep it to yourself. This is what’s killing us.
