Words of wisdom...

[280plus]

"A friend who's face is turned from you often bears a bloodier mind than the enemy who seeks your scalp."

James Fennimore Cooper "The Last of the Mohicans"

Good book. It's a little wierd reading for me because I have read ~ 50 books on or involving the Australian Aborigine in the past few years and now this one is the first I've read that is historically factual in terms of the North American natives. I'm finding the traits and customs of the Native American people of the Northeast are eerily similar to those of the Aussie Abo.

I know there's about maybe 3 of you who could give the faintest crap about all that but hey, noone else is posting much so you'll just have to put up with me.

[Stand_watie]

"A friend who's face is turned from you often bears a bloodier mind than the enemy who seeks your scalp."

James Fennimore Cooper "The Last of the Mohicans"

Good book. It's a little wierd reading for me because I have read ~ 50 books on or involving the Australian Aborigine in the past few years and now this one is the first I've read that is historically factual in terms of the North American natives. I'm finding the traits and customs of the Native American people of the Northeast are eerily similar to those of the Aussie Abo.

I know there's about maybe 3 of you who could give the faintest crap about all that but hey, noone else is posting much so you'll just have to put up with me.

A contemporary author of fiction that I think does an excellent job on the subject of American Indians (particularly in the sense of treating them like people, rather than a mystical, mythical subject) is Larry McMurtry, a fellow Texan. He was first recommended to me by a friend/co-worker who is Mexican/Apache ethnically speaking (all American culturally speaking - retired gunny sgt USMC).

This book is not just a lovely read from a cultural perspective, if you have a sense of humor like mine you'll laugh almost to the point of puking.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/0743230175

[280plus]

Thanks, I'll put him on the list!

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Have you read any of Allan Eckert's narrative histories?

[280plus]

Why does my post disappear sometimes when I hit "Submit"? Sigh...

Take 2:

Funny you should mention him because a friend of mine did too ("The Frontiersman") in an email exchange we had on the subject. My friend lives in upstate NY very close to where "Mohicans" is set. He's an avid history buff and works for the National Park System in Seneca as a historical interpreter up there. I was totally unaware of the Massacre at William Henry until I read this. Came as kind of a shocker so I looked it up online and sure enough it happened. Bloody lot those Injuns! But, according to what Cooper says, they weren't like that before the white man arrived. VERY similar situation with the Aussies.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

The Frontiersmen is definitely a must-read.  Eckert wrote several books on the colonization of upstate New York.  I haven't read any of those, but if you're interested in the Mohicans I bet you'd enjoy those.

[Art Eatman]

I ran across a round-table discussion by some anthropologists who stated that besides the types of decoration (tattoos, other forms of artwork) and languages, stone-age primitive cultures are pretty much the same, worldwide.  All the legends are similar, with different animals "creating the earth" as a function of the species local to an area.  

Farming and learning the use of metals started the differentiations at different times here and there around the world.

IOW, you can find the same "words of wisdom" from any continent, from any ethnic group of a common degree of primitivism.

Art

[280plus]

Damn, I hate it when somebody's already on to my revelations...

That actually helps though because I plan to use these facts in presenting another revelation I've had through my reading. At least I know I'm not making this stuff up, or if I am, at least I'm on the right track!