Alex called Gerald and Shannon at the crack of dawn to say he was coming by, but they didn’t have enough time to meet him here when he arrived. With some time to kill, we sat around and chatted about evil white people for an hour or so.
Alex refers to Gerald as his “little brother,” though if I had to guess, I’d say Alex looked about ten years younger. I was shocked when he mentioned that he was in his sixties; he was a big guy, very able bodied and active-looking, and a lot of muscle. His hair was still dark and his face showed only mild wrinkles that I would have placed on someone in his forties. He did point out that Indian people live healthier and longer lives because they use their minds to heal, not a bunch of medications.
Alex had no trouble carrying on the conversation. I think he really got a kick out of telling me stories of his tribe’s rituals and philosophy. He started by talking about how much the area had changed in his lifetime. When he was a kid, there wasn’t a single house around here other than his grandfather’s small home. Alex and Gerald grew up in the hills that surround us, and would eat nothing but cornmeal every day for a week. The next week, they would eat nothing but oatmeal. The week after that, nothing but rice, Then they’d start over with oatmeal again. Looking around the property, he claimed he could see about thirty different invasive grasses and weeds on what was once hills full of nothing but buffalo grass. “They’re taking over our land,” he said, “just like the white man.”
Alex and Gerald grew up speaking the Lakota language. Americans, according to Alex, were really missing out with because English words don’t have any meaning to them. I didn’t quite understand this, so he tried to explain it with the word love. Love, he said, doesn’t mean anything just to say it, but in Lakota the closest word for love implies a whole system of compassion that connects two people.
Alex & Gerlad Weasel... Lakota BrothersAlex went on to vent about white visitors who claim to be environmentalists. All “environmentalist” means to him is someone who raises awareness but doesn’t do anything himself. He really went on a rant talking about how much it irks him to hear these so-called environmentalists act as if they were so smart. “They think they’re better than the world around them because they have brains,” he said, “but a brain is nothing.” He then went on to say that Lakotas call what’s in your head a seed. Alex then spread his arm across the field and said that everything around us comes from a seed—every plant, every insect, every animal and every person. We’re all just seeds, and therefore all equal. To speak of the world around you as if you were a superior being, he said, was an entirely wrong idea.
Then he went off on Catholics. And man, does Alex hate Catholics. The Pope is the closest thing to Satan on earth as he could imagine. According to Alex, European explorers and settlers were told by the Pope that the tribes living in the New World did not count as human beings since they didn’t acknowledge Jesus Christ. Therefore, it was okay to kill them and take their land. He also went off on how ridiculous it was to pray to only one god since there are countless spirits all around us. He said white people can’t even tell when their ancestors are in the room, then added that we’d be having a very different conversation if there was a contrary spirit present.
A contrary spirit compels one to play devil’s advocate, so to speak. About five years ago, a group of bikers came through the reservation and were completely intrigued with the Lakota culture. They were welcome by the community and invited to a young man’s birthday party. At the party, the tribe summoned a contrary spirit, then passed a microphone around the room so everyone could speak. Alex spoke first, telling the boy that he hated him, wished he was never born and was good for nothing. The next person who took the microphone said similar things, as did the next and the next all the way down the line. Alex noticed the bikers getting angry and worked up at these words (not to mention a bit confused), so he sent someone to explain to them that, under the influence of the contrary spirit, they said the opposite of what they meant. The point of this was to create a balance; in a world where people often say nice things they don’t mean, this is a time when you know people have a good and loving meaning behind phony words. Alex said the bikers broke down in tears when they understood the ritual. One of them said he’d give a million dollars to be adopted by the Lakota tribe.
Incidentally, Alex hates the phrase “Native American.” He says he isn’t American at all since his people were there before that word existed. He prefers to think of himself and his tribe as “originals.”
Only at the end of these stories did Alex point out that when he referred to white people negatively that he didn’t meant for it to apply to me. I told him I didn’t mind and liked hearing his thoughts. Then he asked if I was Catholic.
I was happy to said no.
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