Cultural Misunderstanding

An excerpt from my upcoming book, Twisted Tongues Vol. ll [Betrayal]. That Europeans and Native Americans did not get along would be a world record of understatement. But why? There must always be a basis for things to spiral out of control as they did in what is called the USA today.

Poetry and song are something akin to twins in native culture and spirituality. Europeans made no effort to understand Natives and their beliefs, preferring the easy route by just referring to them all with one word "savages."

Reality is of course perception. European thoughts of Natives were of "war parties, scalping and heathen dancing." Arriving at the conclusion that natives had no religion was easy — it was the answer of ignorance and dismissal.

For Native Americans their spirituality is nature based. A strong belief in "Mother Earth" and that spirits inhabit everything — making them basically the first environmentalists in this land.

To Natives, the Earth is our permanent home and there is no heaven, certainly not the western concept of heaven. Europeans teach their young original sin and that the Earth and their bodies are transitory.

European belief is that man is dominant over the Earth. Native Americans teach their young that they must live in harmony with the Earth, plants and animals.

That what occurred as a result of these two vastly different cultures coming together should be no surprise.

Watch for Twisted Tongues Vol. ll [Betrayal] release in early 2013.