elfs | "Culture day."

So, since Der Ex would be spending her time at the Grind, it was my chance to get a look at what Yamaarashi-chan's school is like from the inside on "culture night," which is a voluntary, school-organized activity night where kids come to learn about "the culture of her school."

Apparently, despite her origins with American parents of Danish, German, Italian, and English descent, my daughter's culture has nothing to do with Europeans. Her school, a public school I must say, is deeply steeped in Native American traditions-- to an extent I found offensive. We walked into what Yamaarashi-chan called "The Culture Room," which was laden floor-to-ceiling with pseudo-aboriginal art; button blankets done by former classes, a wolf's skin, and a bear's skin. When I asked Yamaarashi-chan about the skins, she said, "They're Bear and Wolf. When we feel frightened, Bear reminds us to be strong. When we feel like we can't go on, Wolf reminds us that we can."

To quote Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now, "That's goddamn pagan idolatry!"

I asked another parent about it. I pointed out to her that it's impossible-- not to mention offensive-- to try and separate Native American "culture" with Native American "religion"; the concept of separate spheres of responsibility, one secular, one God's, is a uniquely Western, indeed Christian concept-- it was only Augustine that first formulated the whole notion, and no belief system before or since has successfully implemented it the way Christianity did. (I didn't use all of those with her.)

Her responese? "Well, y'know, I think it's good that the kids get a little spirituality at school. They don't get it at home."

I asked her if she would be worried about a Catholic Mass, or a Jewish Mitzvah. She thought about it for a moment then said, "I don't know. Maybe."

So why do they tolerate Native American rituals? I can think of a few reasons: Nobody takes them seriously. They're just myths, not "real." Asking "Bear" for strength is diffrent from asking "Jesus" for strength because only one is "real." Well, I hate to break it to people but there is no difference: Yeshuah ben Yosef has been dead for two thousand years and no number saying otherwise make it so.

Or, perhaps they just don't know any better. They think that it's a "good thing" that "other kids," the ones who don't have a spiritual life at home, get "something," even if it's what the school delivers. Y'know, kinda like the way schools chose to start doing sex education because parents weren't doing that, either-- or so the school system became convinced in the 1960's.

While Yamaarashi-chan and I were there, we played with clay. I worried about Yamaarashi-chan; without any direction, she just sat there molding the clay into little balls and attacking it with a plastic knife. She was very happy to have my undivided attention for the time we were there (and I was very happy to have a chance to give it to her) but unless I made suggestions she was pretty passive about the whole thing.

I was happy to see how well she got along with her friends. She hugged them and they played and had a great time together.

For about half an hour, a very obviously native man led a drum circle in the center of the cafeteria. I wondered how he felt about the whole thing-- grateful for a chance to perform his ritual if only for a bunch of non-native kids? What's it like, I wonder, to be watched, "tolerantly," by parents who are just humoring your deeply held religious beliefs because they all know, one way or another, that you'll never have the power to express political will and real control over your own destiny?

I also wonder-- who granted the administrators at this school the power to decide which Native American tribe is "the least loser?" I mean, think about it: one tribe is being granted the power to express its unique rituals and forms at the school, and no other tribe. This tribe is granted the right to perpetuate its rituals and rites. Who are we to make that decision?

And, y'know, I hate to break it to the parents who send their kids to this place on the grounds that the Native American stuff is touchy-feely earthy good environmental stuff. That's crap. It always has been crap. The Native Americans used their environment to their utmost, they exploited the land, they farmed, they cultivated, they did everything they could to ensure they had enough food and water-- and they were no different in either outlook or objective from the Europeans. The Europeans just had better tech with which to do it.

They also fought among each other-- violently, and with murder as the objective-- when environmental pressures drove them to do so. Again, the Europeans just had better tech with which to do it.

Am I too sensitive to this? I mean, I'm offended by the whole thing: by tax money going to pay for religious rituals in a public school setting. By us non-native people getting to pick and choose which tribe gets to teach its traditions. By the whole sight of non-native kids aping and perhaps even mocking native traditions.

And by the indoctrination of my child into traditions that aren't hers, replete with the implicit denigration of her own. "You don't want to learn about Shakespeare, Augustine, and Socrates. This stuff here is much better."