Call for Change: The Medicine Way of American Indian History, Ethos, and Reality

7. Oral Tradition and Language

129 7 Oral Tradition and Language Originally from the Southeast, the Muscogee Creeks tell a creation story of the people coming out of or emerging from Mother Earth (Ekv nv). According to the story, the Muscogee Creeks were within the earth or underground in the dark and cold. They wandered blindly , hearing only their own voices. They were lost and confused because they had no light, for it had not yet been created. They were cold, for the sacred fire had not yet been given to them. The Muscogee people huddled together for warmth and to console one another as the darkness imprisoned them under the earth. At some point without knowledge of time, the opportunity of human creation by emerging into the natural environment occurred. The Muscogee people felt a sudden draft of air. Surrounded by darkness, without the gift of sight, they used their sense of touch to wander in the direction from which the air was coming. As they emerged from a cave or hole in the ground, they stepped into the darkness and felt the earth of their mother. Still unable to see, as more Muscogees emerged from the ground, they frantically asked their leaders what was happening ? A veil of mist blinded them, then ho tv le (ho doe le)—the Wind— came and swept the mist away, so that the people could see for the first time. The first people to see became known as the Wind clan. As the rest of the people saw the creation of animals and plants, they took the names of the animals upon realizing the strengths and powers of these strange beings. The people became the Bear, Tiger (Panther), Alligator, and Deer clans and so forth. The Muscogees 130 Oral Tradition and Language learned that all living things that breathed the air called ho tv le were a part of Mother Earth and that a Great Power called Hesaketvmese breathed ho tv le into all that lived. Hesaketvmese was the “Master of Breath.”1 For traditional Indians, history as collective experiences exists as a natural combination of oral traditions and community history. In the Medicine Way, oral traditions and community histories accomplish much more than just accounting for the past as a record of history . Rather than merely as an interpretation of the past, like academic history, indigenous societies accept the history of their people in a much larger way that includes accounts of interaction with the natural environment. History and oral accounts help to explain the heritages of all peoples and their identities. Yet Indian history is the inclusion of all things and it is expressed via oral traditions and seen as collective experiences of the community. Elders’ memories store the oral accounts as they are the keepers of this knowledge. Within the indigenous world of Natural Democracy, oral tradition has been and continues to be a life force that holds a community together . In addition, oral tradition, belief in the Medicine Way of metaphysics, and the spirituality of humanization bond tribal communities internally (see figure 8). The Medicine Way of indigenous history rests on the other side of the cross-cultural bridge in the Third Dimension. This realm is Native life full of stories, some good ones and others not so good, but they are indigenous oriented, according to the people living in the natural environment. Some stories are so humorous that they provoke big belly laughs, causing streams of joy to roll down a person’s cheeks. Humor is a vital part of being Indian, especially since there has been so much pain and suffering throughout Native history. The oral tradition has its place even in academic history, but I hope its status improves and that it is taken more seriously. The Native usage of oral traditions is part of how academic historians should interpret the Indian past. Why do professional historians consider oral traditions and oral history to be outside academic history? Why is American Indian history less recognized by mainstream histori- Oral Tradition and Language 131 ans? Some major colleges and universities still do not have an Indian historian in their history departments.2 Part of the problem is that oral tradition is not respected by the majority of mainstream academics, who emphasize the significance of empirical data. Furthermore, academic historians have argued that oral history and academic history are far apart and that the former is not an accurate source...