Text 36780, 138 rader
Skriven 2016-09-21 18:33:00 av Allen Prunty (1:2320/100)
  Kommentar till text 36776 av Joe Delahaye (62814.fidonews)
Ärende: USA is maybe not so great any more?
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* In a message originally to Allen Prunty, Joe Delahaye said:

 JD> Let's go back to about the time that the white man arrived.  Where were
 JD> these
 JD> records kept.  Who had controld of them.  Most Natives were nomadic, so
 JD> there
 JD> was not much room to keep eons of records each time they moved to
 JD> another
 JD> location

Second to the Chief, the Medicine man kept the records... I will give
you that there was no "universal" written language, but the medicine
man did have records often written on animal skins, the better records
were kept on Birch Bark scrolls that were carried with the tribe and
often copied as tribes segmented as they grew.  Not only did they
record the lineage of the chief and they also had records of herbal
healing. The herbal records were very detailed and were studied by
many white doctors.  This knowledge is vast and even gave us modern
miracle drugs like Aspirn.

The Native American Iriquois Nation actually had a written
constitution pre 1750, it was written, again, on skins, birch or cedar
bark scrolls in the languages of the local tribes.  There were also
people who were "living" constitutions, members of the tribe who's
primary job was to study and recite the iriquois constutition and
laws.  These people usually were not the most physically capable
people in the tribe but were well taken care of.  Their memory could
recall it word for word with no paraphrasing or changes.  Much like
many Muslims memorize the Koran word for word and they have
"competitions" for their children to see who's recollection is the
most accurate.  There are also many people who were living Bibles who
memorized the Holy Bible word for word too.

Here is the Iriquois Constitution which has not changed much.

http://www.constitution.org/cons/iroquois.htm

Benjamin Franklin based the document that preceeded the constitution
of the United States on the Iriqois Nation's Constitution.

If you take the time to read it you will find that the Iriquois Nation
was very well organized... they defined property, they had laws
against Murder and punishment,  You will also find they not only had
ranks such as Chief among men they also had Chief Women.

   Benjamin Franklin on the Iroquois League,
   in a letter to James Parker, 1751

      In this letter, Benjamin Franklin, whose famous statement "Join
      or Die" later galvanized colonial union and the fight for
      independence from the British, states that his inspiration for
      this came from the six tribes of the Iroquois Nation, for whom
      union was also advantageous.


          It would be a strange thing if Six Nations of ignorant
          savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such an
          union, and be able to execute it in such a manner as that it
          has subsisted ages and appears indissoluble; and yet that a
          like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen
          English colonies, to whom it is more necessary and must be
          more advantageous, and who cannot be supposed to want an
          equal understanding of their interests.

Credit: Benjamin Franklin on the Iroquois League, in a letter to James
Parker, 1751.

The Iriquois Constitution and many other Native Tribes inspired much
of the laws in the early colonial times.  Since the Natives numbers
were so great the early colonies got along well with the Natives.

Then many of the Great Chiefs actually learned English, and how to
read, write, and speak eloquently to the colonies.

This is an actual speech given by Chief Powhatan in 1609 as a written
record by Captain John Smith...

         Why will you take by force what you may obtain by love? Why
         will you destroy us who supply you with food? What can you
         get by war? . . . We are unarmed, and willing to give you
         what you ask, if you come in a friendly manner. . . .

         I am not so simple as not to know it is better to eat good
         meat, sleep comfortably, live quietly with my women and
         children, laugh and be merry with the English, and being
         their friend, trade for their copper and hatchets, than to
         run away from them. . . .

         Take away your guns and swords, the cause of all your
         jealousy, or you may die in the same manner.

--------------

To attest of their civilization this is a statement from a minister
and missionary, Thomas Morton who comments on the "savages" civility,
reverance to the old, their fairness in trade, and how content they
are.

http://tinyurl.com/h2z7l28

--------------

When I feel you are being "racist" maybe that isn't the best term, but
you definately haven't studied the contributions that the Native
Americans have given to our modern community.  I do find it very
saddening that you think that they had no "written records" and have
only mere stories.

The Bible would not have been taught if it wasn't for monks who's sole
life purpose was to memorize and hand-write copies of the bible before
the printing press was invented.

The Anishinaabe tribe has records, stored in the Smithsonian, that go
back more than 2000 years written on birch bark scrolls known as the
Wiigwaashabakoon that chronicles their migrations, languages, stories,
history, and medicines.  They even chronicle advanced sciences like
Astronomy, the passing of the stars, and many other geological changes
in the earth.

The Asnihinaabe elders actually recopied and memorized these birch
bark scrolls to make sure their cultre and records were preserved.  No
one knows how old the records exactly date back to, but they are very
old... and definately not cave drawings.  These records date back to
circa 1550 and that's the oldest one they have found so far.  That's
the date it was written not the dates of the records that go back
several centuries beyond that, if not more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiigwaasabak

To say that the Native American's had no written records really is
insulting to someone who is Native.  I know some would would be way
more offended than I was.

Allen


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