Indian Comics Irregular #124

According to the creators of CLOVERLEAF (ICI #117), the key question
is whether modern-day civilization equals progress. That's also the
key question of PEACE PARTY. Comparing traditional Native cultures to
mainstream American society is a prime reason for doing Indian comic
books.

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were among those who questioned
the tenets of civilization--at least the European model of
civilization. They put their ideas into the founding documents,
starting with the Declaration of Independence. As Bruce E. Johansen
wrote in his book "Forgotten Founders":

There were few ideas in the declaration (outside of the long list
of wrongs committed by the Crown) that did not owe more than a
little to Franklin's and Jefferson's views of American Indian
societies. In drawing sanction for independence from the laws of
nature, Jefferson was also drawing from the peoples beyond the
frontiers of the new nation who lived in what late
eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinkers believed to be a state
of nature. The "pursuit of happiness" and the "consent of the
governed" were exemplified in Indian polities to which Jefferson
(like Franklin) often referred in his writings. The Indian in
Jefferson's mind (as in Franklin's) served as a metaphor for
liberty.

Jefferson made his views clear in a letter to Edward Carrington,
written in 1787:

I am convinced that those societies [as the Indians] which live
without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely
greater degree of happiness than those who live under European
governments.

Thomas Paine was another founder who became fascinated with Indians.
He attended an Iroquois treaty council and learned enough of their
language to converse without an interpreter. Later he wrote:

To understand what the state of society ought to be, it is
necessary to have some idea of the natural and primitive state of
man; such as it is at this day among the Indians of North America.
There is not, in that state, any of those spectacles of human
misery which poverty and want present to our eyes in all the towns
and streets of Europe.

It Takes a Village

Native cultures offer a corrective on the individual as well as the
societal level. Consider the Red Lake shooting tragedy, for example.
In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (3/27/05), Gabrielle Strong explains
how her culture might have helped Jeffrey Weise:

Dakota teachings instruct us to be medicine for one another. That
means supporting each other, talking with someone in need of
guidance, praying with someone, or simply listening. Sometimes it
means just being present, or greeting someone with a handshake and
a smile. These kinship connections are intrinsic to our health and
well-being.

Obviously, Native cultures have a lot of pain, loss, and suffering to overcome.
But Strong thinks they can manage:

There are places where indigenous people with similar histories of
colonization are preparing youth who are strong in their tribal
identities; who grow up to become bold, durable citizens who are
academically, politically, economically and spiritually empowered.
There are schools where the indigenous worldview, language and
kinship connections are validated each day; where the entire school
faculty stands at the entrance and sings a welcome song to the
children each morning. Those models are a far cry from the police
cars and metal detectors at many schools today.

For more on the Founding Fathers and Indians, visit
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/july4th.htm . For more on Red Lake,
visit http://www.bluecorncomics.com/redlake.htm .

Rob Schmidt
Blue Corn Comics