About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

2 NARF Legal Rev. 1 (1973)

handle is hein.journals/narf2 and id is 1 raw text is: January February 1973 It Is Not Necessary For Eagles To Be Crows - Law And The Preservation Of Indian Culture Some races of men seem molded in wax, soft and melting, at once plastic and feeble. Some races, like some metals, combine the greatest flexibility with the greatest strength. But the Indian is hewn out of rock. You cannot change the form without destruction of the substance. Such, at least, has too often proved the case. Races of inferior energy have possessed a power of expansion and assimilation to which he is a stranger; and it is this fixed and rigid quality which has proved his ruin. He will not learn the arts of civilization, and he and his forest must perish together. Francis Parkman, 1851. In remembering how much has perished through the sickening record of the European conquest of Native Americans, it may be hard for some to recognize that what does remain is not only an extraordinary affirmation of the Indian's passion and power to live, but that it is due to his un- # mmon ability to put the over- helming demands of a foreign and triumphant culture in abeyance while continuing with his own traditions. Some tribes have held on to their native experience through the process of conquest more successfully than others. The geographical situation of most of the eastern and California tribes left them so vulnerable that they suffered physical, if not, cultural genocide. The Cherokees - who put on white men's clothes, sent their sons to white men's schools, became farmers and cattle raisers like their white neighbors, and generally made herculean adjustments to the dominant society - found that they had sacrified their traditions for nothing. By resisting total in- tegration and the jurisdiction of the State of Georgia, they were removed to Oklahoma in the now famous Trail of Tears. Many of the tribes of the South- west have remained nearly intact not only because of their relative inaccessibility but because of the great depth and the intensity of their tribalism. Out of necessity others borrowed and absorbed the techniques and traits of their conquerors - both the horses and the gods - and still maintained their own integrity. The military conquests of the Spanish, British, French and finally the Confederation and the United States are over, but the common cultural drives for land, wealth and power of most non- Indian citizens are not. Indians now see these drives disguised in efforts toward political integration and cultural assi- milation. They are justifiably suspicious and hesitant to par- ticipate in any process that would further destroy their substance, and their current plights have much to do with their abeyance mechanism. That is, the degree of suffering experienced by in- dividual members of a tribe is in direct proportion to that tribe's ability to hold onto its native experience and structure while being propelled through the cycles of conquest. Cherokees Volume 2, No. 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most