Rasa Analyses: Dakota 38

I watch this movie & it’s sympathetic toward American Indians, everyone agrees, all kinds of people come together - Indians, non Indians, all races & nationalities, all in favor of the Cause. I agree whole heartedly because the Indian are a defeated people – decimated – there were once millions, now only like 237,000 left – what happened? We know how cruel the Americans were when they put Indian children into boarding schools, took away their culture, religion, dances, rituals, language – stripped them of their identity. Forced them to speak only English, wear white man’s clothes, etc.

Then there were all the broken treaties – over 400 of them, white man stole all the land, put them into reservations, some of which we can see today is just desert – no woods, bad soil, little to no water in SOME of the reservations. Turned them into farmers, with 160 acres each, a conspiracy to separate them from a tribe, turn them into individuals like the whites. No solidarity makes them less dangerous than they were before, with warriors on horseback, leading gangs of men to attack whites.

Now we take a closer look. Were the Indians without fault? This is war. Did they also create atrocities?

In this very video is the story told of a German man, whose family the Indians attacked. His wife very much pregnant, they cut the baby out of her womb & throw it against a tree.

I recall the Donner party. Indians attacked, took all they had, most of them froze to death there in the wilderness - they actually ate the burlap the wagons were covered in, they slept under snow. Slow agonizing death.  And I know from accounts many such pioneers were attacked by Indians, all killed, if not all killed then all they had taken, they left to die. Sometimes they stole the children - girls – as men frequently do in wars from ancient times – read the accounts in the bible where “God told them” to kill everyone in the community but they kept the virgins – “God was mad.”

And so, once again we see the fallen nature of human men – once they separated from the authority of women – how they gave into the demonic within their nature - the lower self at its worst.

And no one examines the logic of this man Jim Miller, a spiritual leader & Viet Nam Vet. This is his story.

In Viet Nam he killed 38 men {innocent victims as this war should never have been. But he enlisted & he killed.}

Now he has a dream. He’s looking into a fire & his Mom appears.  He was riding an ancient route his people {Sioux, Lakota} took - & he ends up at the largest mass execution in America – 38 Indian warriors hanged on Dec. 26, 1862.  And his Mom tells him from the fire something like {words approximate – it’s the idea I’m putting into words}:

“Organize a ride which goes 330 miles from S Dakota, to Minnesota, with riders honoring the executed warriors – this will make up for your crime of the 38 men.”

Now back to the video. We see a large group of men & we applaud. It’s a harrowing ride for horses & men – they hit a blizzard – below zero – icicles hanging off the poor horses. {I see some large animal-holding trailers. I imagine they put the horses in there at night. Hopefully their body heat helps keep them from freezing during the arctic weather.} The local citizenry provides food & housing for the men each night {I think they took a day or too off during the blizzard} - the local folk have been informed ahead of time – they rally forth, all are enthusiastic & there’s tremendous camaraderie.

But now the logic. Why did Jim’s Mom tell him to do this? Psychologically, what does his honoring these 38 dead have to do with the 38 Vietnamese he killed?

What the Mom is doing is saving him from his guilt. {Guilt is a form of self hate & destructive to oneself} Instead of Jim harboring this darkness within, blaming himself – she tells him to focus on the white man’s action, who executed those 38 warriors, thereby his guilt is TRANSFERRED to the white man. This is called SCAPEGOATING – where in ancient days the Jews put all their sins on a goat, then threw him off a cliff. In families I was told by a social worker, they sometimes choose one child as a scapegoat, put their “sins” on him or her, which means they are unburdened & relieved. {What happens to the child doesn’t matter – they can go to Hell or fall off the cliff, the rest of the family is relieved of their burdens.}

In reality why didn’t Jim Miller get on a horse & ride by himself with a pamphlet explaining his guilt & sin, distributing this for the Viet Nam men he killed – making restitution– or some such act. It was TRANSFERENCE of guilt, you see? A clever psychological trick of his Mom who wants to save her son.

Now to go on with the big picture of war & things related, in men’s wars, there’s always atrocities on both sides. Read “Against Our Will – Men, women & Rape” by Susan Brownmiller, which documents these atrocities. She said she never looked at men the same way again.

To say that all Indians were innocent victims is a lie. The men also did heinous acts that were not necessary for defense. Yes, you must defend yourself but what is a war crime? Certainly cutting out that woman’ baby & throwing it against a tree is one. And robbing & killing innocent pioneers – men, women & children, is a crime.  Scalping innocent people {scalping is some of the skin & flesh is cut off along with the hair} who never hurt anyone is a crime. And mind you it was not women who did these crimes on both sides, it was men – as usual.

Now the Indians were the losers & the whites were the winners, so the Indians were victimized brutally. But the men warriors were not innocent, they did their share. And many of their acts were NOT justified as defense.

My final word on this. Do you want to end atrocities? Do you want to end violence, terrorism & war? Then fight to bring back Matriarchy, rule of the Mother, & end Patriarchy, rule of the man. The man by his nature will always bring the negative to the world – he must be under the dominance & authority of the female. He must follow her zeitgeist, not his, & that is the only way we will once again have Peace.    Rasa Von Werder