| Subject: Re: sheep shearing |
Author:
Sharon
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Date Posted: 19:31:13 05/26/02 Sun
Author Host/IP: 205.188.200.33
In reply to:
rustywire
's message, "sheep shearing" on 19:47:27 12/04/00 Mon
Rusty, You are so clear on your subject when you write. Yes Mudrunner is a good man. He has devoloped a thick skin and can I say, I have too!
There is so much I want to write about my experiences in life and growing up but for now I will keep quite.
Mud needs to come back to your website and tell us of his Kayak and Hiking know-how, wisdom and inexperience..hehehe
>I read down the list and see I missed a discussion
>about something Mudrunner wrote. I wish I could have
>read it. I think an archive would be something I would
>like to see.
>
>On the other boards, I was questioned about what I had
>done for my people, rather in light of what I wrote
>under forgetfullness, that either I was a complainer,
>a watcher or a doer. I have received several responses
>by e-mail regarding the post and it is based on the
>climate of the boards.
>
>One thing that comes to me clearly is that in my
>family if anyone comes through our door they are
>welcome. As we live in a society where we can't be
>recluses and having felt the sting of discrimination a
>time or two, I have tried to struggle through it. When
>I was younger my anger was quick and I wouldn't allow
>things like mistreatment, apathy, or patronizing
>attitudes to go without making some issue of it.
>
>It was not so long ago and at times I still react in a
>vocal and poignant manner and though it raises some
>eyebrows. Other times the experience stung but I was
>not in a position to take issues due to the
>circumstances.
>
>I remember very clearly a youth of 14 who was advised
>by the Elks club boy scout troop that Indians were not
>allowed there, it was a long lonely walk home
>wondering why people were that way. I also remember
>not having the money or clothes to match the peers of
>my school where I had to hitchike to a dance and after
>midnight hitchiking home after everyone left, no one
>gave me a ride but I went to have a good time. I also
>remember eating crackers with tuna fish day after day
>when we had nothing else to eat, and a single ear of
>roasted corn. These things I remember we all go
>through them.
>
>The one thing that I hoped to learn as I went through
>these things was that when I was an adult that I might
>keep the mind and spirit of a child and try to treat
>kids in a similar situation, to make them feel at ease
>without making a fuss about it. In light of these
>things, children have come into our home, for a while
>we had different kids living with us, some stayed
>years. We didn't have them by foster care they came
>home with my kids. They stayed a night and kept
>staying. They are grown now, some have done well
>others have struggled with the effects of a broken
>home, drinking parents and poverty.
>
>It doesn't matter where we come from, the taste of
>earth put in your mouth to chew tastes the same
>wherever you are from. This brings me to Mudrunner. In
>all my association with him he has been forthright,
>concerned and taken a personal interest in the welfare
>of our people. I believe that we have a responsibility
>to ourselves to educate, welcome and provide a forum
>where we can learn and teach at times others who come
>to us. This medium is unique because the initial
>inquiry to get here is based on an inteterst in
>Navajos.
>
>Who are we, we are many, all shapes and sizes. We
>fight, struggle and go about our lives trying to
>survive. Shi kaah ahnilyed, I need help. When I say
>this I want someone to come forward, when I am wrong
>then I need to continue to learn how to act. My
>behavior is not good for myself, to you or to anyone.
>I should sleep with the sheep or dogs.
>
>I believe that for myself, I am not all knowing, but
>can say, Mudrunner is not Navajo, and he doesn't have
>to be. He comes from a place far from Dinetah, but he
>wants to learn and in doing so speaks his mind. Let
>him talk, if you like what he says, fine, if not then
>let it pass.
>
>I am so tired of the bickering, the closed society. I
>remember working in Window Rock and at the beginning
>of staff meetings, the older staff spoke only in
>Navajo, introductions were just in Navajo, where clans
>were given. There was a group of summer students who
>didn't speak Navajo, they were embarrassed and made
>fun of. When one young girl spoke she was told why
>even try to talk, if you can't speak don't say
>anything. I watched this happen and it was an ugly
>scene.
>
>I remember another young Navajo who took a
>pre-recorded Navajo message with him and learned to
>speak to the elders on his own, it took him years of
>effort, but he learned. His name was Ken White, he ran
>the Navajo Aging Program, he had the book learning but
>not the language. He had a tough skin but he made it.
>His family comes from White Cone area, and I knew his
>father and mother, they raised him in the right way. I
>would only hope that someone might say that about my
>sons someday. I hope Mudrunner has tough skin, it is
>like sheep shearing it takes a while to learn how to
>do it right, you have to sit in the corral, get all
>smelly and at times put up with the shit as well.
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