2 QUOTES FOR THE WEEKEND
''Religion must, I think, have an intimate connection with the world in which
we live, and any religion that promotes other places - heaven and so on - in
favor of what we have in the physical world is a delusion, a mere control device
to allow us to be manipulated.''
- - Dr. Vine Deloria, Jr.
''Vine is an original thinker with the spirit of a warrior. He has been variously
described as an activist, a scholar and a religious philosopher. He is all
that and more... No writer has more clearly articulated the unspoken emotions,
dreams and lifeways of contemporary Native people''
- - Wilma
Mankiller (Former Principle Chief of The Cherokee Nation)
KNOW YOUR HISTORY -
January 15th, 1877 -- Ponca Chief Standing
Bear refuses to move to a reservation
because it's within lands already given to the Lakota. For more on Chief Luther
Standing Bear, check out: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f03/mathes.html
January 15th, 1929 -- American Civil Rights activist Martin
Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia. Thanks to Stevie Wonder & others, the U.S.
finally celebrates officially.
January 16th, 1893 -- Hawaii: Queen
Lilluokalani's regime is overthrown by
US pineapple tycoon Sanford
Dole & pro-annexation sugar interests. With
an amazing sense of timing, US troops just happen to land, "to protect
US interests." With support from US Minister John Stevens, Dole declares
himself Hawaii's president & lobbies for US annexation. It's manifestly
in the can.
January 16th, 1986 -- US: Energy Department announces 12 potential nuclear
waste sites in eastern U.S., including Penobscot site in Maine only re-granted
to the Penobscot Indian Nation six years before, along with four other tribal
sites. Why not Washington, D.C.??
RHINO SEZ:
I want to say thank you to the blog readers who responded
to the DreamCatchers effort to send our friend Kima Douglas to Sri Lanka hand
carrying injectable antibiotics. Kima & the medicine arrived safely & she's now working
with Dr. Daniel Susott & assessing the needs as they change there. DreamCatchers
will continue to support their efforts. If you'd like to help, send contributions
to "DreamCatchers" 23852 PCH #766, Malibu, CA 90265 or call (310)
457 1617.
The January 10th issue of Indian Country Today (ICT) contains an array
of articles honoring my friend (& Rhino's Blog Reader) Vine Deloria,
this on the occasion of the ICT editors announcement that they've chosen
Vine for this year's American Indian Visionary Award. The Ceremony will take
place March 2 at 6:00 p.m. at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The award honors leaders who display ''the highest qualities and attributes
of leadership in defending the foundations of American Indian freedom.''
The Rhino enthusiastically encourages you to digest the variety of thoughtful
essays summarizing Vine's body of work which are currently posted on the
ICT website.
http://www.IndianCountry.com
You'll find links below to many of them, including the "Editors Report," written
by ICT Senior Editor (& Rhino's Blog reader) Jose Barreiro, which is RHINO'S
WEEKEND BOTTOM LINE.
But first, consider this sampling of Dr. Vine Deloria Jr's works:
''Custer
Died for Your Sins'' (1969)
''We
Talk, You Listen: New Tribes, New Turf'' (1970)
''God
Is Red: A Native View of Religion'' (1973)
''Behind
the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence''
(1974)
''Indians
of the Pacific Northwest: From the Coming of the White Man to the Present Day'' (1977)
''American
Indians, American Justice'' (1983), co-written by Clifford Lytle
"American
Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century" (1985)
''Red
Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact''
(1995)
"Singing
For A Spirit" (2000)
''Evolution,
Creationism and Other Modern Myths'' (2002), Paperback (2004)
(o/)(o/)(o/)
Here's a fantastic link to the ICT "Perspectives" page offering
essays by many prominent Indian movers & shakers on the influence that
Vine has had on their life's work, including Suzan Shown Harjo, Rebecca Adams,
Wilma Mankiller, John Mohawk, Phillip Deloria (Vine's son), Norbert Hill, Steven
Newcomb and more:
Indian Country Today "Perspectives" on Vine
Deloria , Jr.
http://www.indiancountry.com/index.cfm?key=7
(o/)(o/)(o/)
Vine Deloria Jr.: A Moderate Radical
by: James May / Today Staff, January 10, 2005
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Vine Deloria Jr. is a man to whom problems are considered
challenges. In fact, he has made it his life's work to tackle difficult subjects
- the more complex or problematic the better. Accepted thinking on nearly any
academic subject, only raises more questions. The status quo, to Deloria, creates
opportunities to explore. It is perhaps not surprising that the son of a Christian
minister would attack accepted thinking with a near religious zeal. In fact,
accepted religious thinking has always been one of Deloria's favorite targets.
Fundamentalism and orthodoxy of all stripes has rubbed Deloria the wrong way.
Modern American Christianity is as much in Deloria's line of fire as are people
who take their tribal religions literally. In 1995 he wrote ''Red Earth, White
Lies'', in which he finally launched a full-scale criticism of the Bering Strait
theory. In that book, he offered an alternate view of the peopling of the Americas
which also incorporated Indian oral traditions and has garnered mainstream
acceptance from some important quarters, while, of course garnering equal amounts
of criticism.
MORE AT: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410125
(o/)(o/)(o/)
Vine Deloria Jr.: Clearing space for cultural and policy alternatives
by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today, January 10, 2005
...Among the many things the author, scholar and activist is known for is
an uncompromising insistence that words like ''religion'' and ''religious''
don't describe the realm of activities Indians historically held to be sacred.
Likewise, a word like ''policy'' probably doesn't capture the impact Deloria
has had on public policy toward tribes in the past four decades. Deloria has
certainly played a role in changing several specific policies for the better.
His early successes, seen in practical contributions to the Indian Capital
Conference on Indian Poverty that brought about an Indian presence in the Office
of Economic Opportunity in the early and mid-1960s, and to the pan-Indian Trail
of Broken Treaties that ended in the American Indian Movement-inspired occupation
of BIA headquarters in 1972, are evidence enough of his engagement in the great
policy issues of his time. His publications have been helpful too in encouraging
the course of tribal self-determination as federal policy; and his ringing
denunciations of past federal policies, such as termination and the damming
of the Missouri River, have enlightened many - and increased the difficulty
at least of those politicians hopeful for a return to paternalism toward tribes...
MORE AT: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410124
8:48:23 AM 
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