Dear Learners
I have been asked to think upon matters of waste in the living learning
company. In my researches I came upon the following and so it will not be
thought entirely useless if I dedicate it for the inter-est and amusement
of Ray Evans Harrell.
Ray, I understand there are things called 'aeroplanes' that, like great
silver birds fly people through the skies, I have often seen them from the
fields and wondered at what they might be and where they come from and go
to as they emit smoky trails from the wings. It seems that one day I may
even fly inside one of these creatures to visit you, and stepping off the
plane it would be good to be greeted by you and maybe we shall go
straightaway to the 'reservations' and we shall dialogue with the elders
and we shall seek their wise guidance on how we shall outlast the next
generational span and for this we must commission them for the making of a
'generational song' because I have begun to see the 'silver skies' and I
am disturbed by it.
Citation.
By 1744 the American colonies had three degree-awarding colleges, Harvard,
William and Mary, and Yale. These were based on English university colleges,
teaching young gentlemen Greek and Latin grammar, rhetoric, mathematics and
philosophy. In June 1744, after the commissioners of Maryland and Virginia
had negotiated a treaty with the Indians of the Six Nations at Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, they cordially invited them to send some of their sons to
William and Mary College to enjoy the benefits of a classical education.
The Indians considered the invitation. This was their reply:
"We know that you highly esteem the kind of Learning taught in those
Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men, while with you, would
be very expensive to you. We are convinc'd, therefore, that you mean to do
us Good by your Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are
wise, must know that different Nations have different Conceptions of
things; and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our Ideas of this
kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some
Experience of it. Several of our young People were formerly brought up at
the Colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your
Sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant
of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or
Hunger, knew neither how to build a Cabin, take a Deer, or kill an Enemy,
spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters,
Warriors, nor Counsellors, they were totally good for nothing. We are,
however, not the less oblig'd by your kind Offer, tho' we decline
accepting it; and, to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of
Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take Care of their
Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them.
Quoted in "Biography and History of the Indians of North America", Ed.
Samuel G. Drake. Boston. Second edition,
End citation.
Here is some real time acausal information.~~~~~~~
In the forward to an exhibition of North American Native artifacts from
the Canadian Museum of Civilisation, Quebec Gerald McMaster chose among
the million artifacts to present a set of shoes, "In Someone Else's Shoes"
almost a cliche;-) or rightly "Moccasin" from the Cree or Algonquian,
"maskisina". A generic term. The phrase, -To walk a mile in another man's
shoes came to life when it was discovered that the entire collection if
each was representing a literal foot as man and actual measure would if
exhibited end to end become almost a one mile long chain.
Po-wa-ha. "water-wind-breath"
Andrew Campbell
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