Indiginous People Around the World

As some of you know, I've been intrigued with Native American culture since hearing that my ancestor was George Guess, aka Sequoyah, claimed to be the inventor of the Cherokee writing system, and yes, the redwood was named after him. This dubious ancestry has since been proven false.

"Sequoyah," really a portrait of Thomas Maw. Sequoyah was branded on
the forehead and had his ears cut off by White Men.

By the way, the story you may have heard in elementary school of Sequoyah is totally made up by White Men. Please read the true and gruesomely tragic real story of Sogwili, also known as Tahlontisoge, Sequoyah, George Guess, and other names. It is a good view into how White Men made up stories to cover up their barbaric deeds.

http://www.ani-kutani.com/nativeamericanfacts/tahlontisoge.htm

I do have Cherokee ancestry on my mother's side, which I uncovered in my genealogical research. My great-grandmother was Cherokee and had possession of Native lands in Oklahoma. At least, that was HER story, as told by my grandfather. Other members of her family stodgily deny any Cherokee heritage and insist she was descended from a famous British captain. Considering many people during that time period tried to hide any indigenous roots, I doubt Great-grandma Sada was lying.

Despite all this confusion, my interest in indigenous cultures continues. I studied Native American Anthropology in college and fell in love with lithology. Studying the various styles of arrowheads and the way they were formed is my favorite, and my professor was extremely impressed with my collection. She even allowed me to borrow her special collection of stone utensils for photography records. Prof. Bogdan was awesome like that!

This interest is slowly expanding. First, due to a book I was writing, I became intrigued with Australian Aborigines and their concept of Dreamtime. Then I fell in love with Tuvan throat-singing and began studying them and the Inuits, with their unique katajjaq.

Tuvan throat-singer

From there, I read about the Ainu people of Japan and their sadly lost musical art form known as rekuhkara. This technique was lost over thirty years ago. It's a case of a dominate society forcing a minority to "integrate" by forbidding their heritage. This is a common theme amongst many indigenous groups.

Ainu have lighter skin and wavy hair. Their thick beards are a sign of beauty,
so that women tattooed mustaches on their lips.

I'm also looking into indigenous groups of Europe. That gets to be a little harder, as tribes wandered all over and conquests occurred frequently. For instance, the British Isles were cleared of inhabitants by the Ice Ages, but after the glaciers pulled back, the first inhabitants to enter the land were of the Aurignacian culture (yes, I am a British history buff). Gaelic culture is also intriguing, especially since my grandmother was Irish. According to Wikipedia (I had to make sure I was right in this), the Britons are considered the indigenous group of southern Great Britain, and even they replaced others.

Conquests and dominance, that is the history of our world.

The Basques especially intrigue me ever since I read Shibumi (a novel which influenced much of my writing, even though I'm not into spy novels really). I've also found myself reading many articles on the Sami people of Scandinavia. It's ironic that these "white natives" are discriminated against even by other indigenous people... until you hear them sing a joik. Google it, it is so beautiful!!!

Sami family, circa 1900

I'm not sure what I'm rambling about now. I suppose my point in all this is to expose people to other indigenous cultures. Perhaps when you hear "native" you think Cherokee, Lakota, Apache, and Sioux. Many Americans do. They ignore the fact that most Mexicans come from Aztec and Mayans people, making them as "Native American" as the Gabrielino (the Natives of the area that is now Orange County, my hometown), and the Clackamas (the Natives of the area I now live in Oregon).

No matter where you go in the world, these old traditions have been persecuted, the dominant race eager to stamp them out or "integrate" them. Be it Aborigines, Tuvan, the Ainu, Basques, or the Sami, these ancient cultures are being threatened, and many are lost to us. This is a sad cycle, repeated over and over, one tribe defeating another, one race pushing out another, one country dominating another. In the struggle for power, the small are lost, but I hope they are not completely forgotten.