I\u2019m going to reclaim fucking everything.
\nGoing to bring up everything that meant anything.
\nDigging in the dirt.<\/p>\n
Lakota, Celt, Saxon, Christian, Jew, oh, the books, zen, Buddhism,\u2026 My spirit, my gods, my eyes.<\/p>\n
Football, hunting, weeding and planting, martial arts, D&D,\u00a0 playing mindless computer games, books,<\/p>\n
The first dance, the first kiss, the first song.<\/p>\n
Nothing gets glossed over by the current, the powerful.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to reclaim the earth – First water, then more- by taking science and passion and building a wall between destruction and the web of grounded life.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s reclaiming to me: getting, and keeping, what was lost;<\/p>\n
Honoring those parts that lift us up; checking the hurtful.<\/p>\n
Where the anger comes up. Yeah, it does.<\/p>\n
From somewhere near those \u201cbefore\u201d gods. From any gods that gave me this lonesome life,<\/p>\n
Even if they\u2019re only in me.<\/p>\n
The demand has to be \u201cwhat? Why?\u201d and not just me, but all those hurt and abandoned.<\/p>\n
If I can\u2019t be that honest with the gods, I\u2019ve only given in.<\/p>\n
A medicine man asked me if I knew my mom was a tribal judge.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I knew. And I knew I belonged. No matter the voices that tried to push me out.<\/p>\n
And I knew my other grandmother was a red headed Irish women, a Kelly. And others, Scott, English, they go. My blood\u2019s code. Yet, cast out, I go where I want.<\/p>\n
This is what I call reclaiming. There\u2019s a lot of legacy and history out there to the reclaiming movement, but I\u2019m not going to refer here. I\u2019m just going to say it, then reconcile later. I believe we need to reclaim the old spiritual paths in order to find the gods, or goddesses. I believe the latest religions, especially the religions of the book, are just viral memes, that, while while holding all kinds of truth, are just the latest. I believe the job is to learn enough of them to help us with the here and now, with our gods. And I believe we are always with our gods. Not someone else’s.<\/p>\n
If I broke my ancestral creds down like people, I could say some are family, some are friends, some are lovers. I would say this from the standpoint of how they affect me, not with any judgment of comparative value.<\/p>\n
For the work I have to do, these are the badges that will allow me to talk with tradition.<\/p>\n
I recently read a rant by someone who didn\u2019t like their history, ritual, or symbols used inaccurately by others. And, make no mistake, it was a rant. Hit me like that. Kind of \u201cit\u2019s mine!\u201d reaction.<\/p>\n
If I was the culprit, I could see myself apologizing. Maybe apologizing if my acts were portrayed in any way as being that person\u2019s ways, that authentic thing. But if not, if I was just painting my face (and I think that\u2019s what it was) because I thought it looked cool. Even if I wanted to use it in my own ritual. If that was my intent, I would never apologize.<\/p>\n
When I was young I had horses. They taught me so much. I don\u2019t believe there is much comparison to the type of bond that can be experienced between horse and human. I appreciate the care that needs to be established for their welfare, the offering of their bodies. I was with them, and I was human. In so much of my Lakota heritage, horses rule. We are there together.<\/p>\n
But horses are not indigenous in the Americas. I\u2019m not saying this out of some oversized gratitude towards white or western culture. I\u2019m saying this out of a gratitude towards my indigenous ancestors. You see. Here\u2019s an important part of our Lakota heritage. We take what we need.<\/p>\n
There was no honoring of Europe for the horse. In fact, stealing horses was a skill very much appreciated. Steal a horse, take coup, steal a wife. Ownership is such a construct. Maybe why I like trickster gods. These aren\u2019t things uncommon in my heritage from that side. But neither are caring for children and elders, or love, responsibility, or spirit.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s human.<\/p>\n
I wonder if an unquestioned guarding against appropriation is a colonial reaction, a side of guilt. And I am saying, just the unquestioned part, the policing against walking down those paths, needs to be done carefully. All our gods are only ours. Call them what you want. Those bonds are for no human to judge.<\/p>\n
The tribes are putting themselves together\u00a0 They\u2019re beginning to resurface in the world\u2019s mix of culture. They need all the support and respect we can bring to do that, to honor their sovereignty. Culturally, that\u2019s important. We need to help draw those lines. But I won\u2019t throw my lot in with selfish gods.<\/p>\n
See, there\u2019s another part of Sioux heritage. It goes like this: We are all related.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m going to reclaim fucking everything. Going to bring up everything that meant anything. Digging in the dirt. Lakota, Celt, Saxon, Christian, Jew, oh, the books, zen, Buddhism,\u2026 My spirit, my gods, my eyes. Football, hunting, weeding and planting, martial arts, D&D,\u00a0 playing mindless computer games, books, The first dance, the first kiss, the first … Continue reading “Creds”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[5,4],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3UYCu-creds","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42,"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dabreez.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}