Hierarchy

Before the arrival of Europeans with the imposition of their own cultural values upon the peoples that they conquered, there were very few native American peoples that experimented with hierarchical social-political structures or thinking. Leadership roles among Indigenous communities fell to a broad range of persons who happened to possess (or express) certain expertise and/or strong emotional attachment to very specific activities and behavior patterns. It bears repetition that, in the Native American mind, everybody and every thing was believed to have a place, a value, a significance to the great circle of life, to the Great Spirit's master plan and, thus, everybody was treated with enough respect and at least tolerance for their "special" role in the community that they could feel involved and included. With the insidious and unavoidable encroachment of European colonists, the Native Americans' somewhat harmonious, though often brutal and remorseless, behavior patterns began to see breakdowns and erosion. As with the forced adoption of the use of things like money, "property," contracts and treaties, and "ownership," hierarchy was a concept that was pushed upon the indigenous peoples of the New World so that the White Peoples could justify their crimes and aggressions by saying that these were done with the same "respect" and systems that they themselves would use with one another.

     My point is that these concepts and values were not natural, much less present, among Native American social practices. They were resisted, forced upon them, and eventually, like the aforementioned concept and practice of designating "chiefs" and "tribal" affiliations, infiltrated through the subversive means of acculturating second and third generation offspring of interbreeding. Those born into a family bridging the two worlds (White/European/Colonizer and Indigenous/Native American) were better suited to understand both ways and were often found to be easier targets for the far-more-aggessive inculcation tactics of the European systems. Despite the new breed of Europeanized Natives, the core of full-blood Indians were most often vehemently opposed to the use and/or honoring of European customs, rules, laws, and structures--which made them a constant source of resistance, opposition, and outright rebellion. Which is why the White Man decided that it had to exterminate them.

     To this day any Native person working within the White Man's systems--especially those who've climbed the ladders to positions of close liaison with the White Man's leaders and laws--is regarded with wariness and suspicion. In order to survive within the White Man's World, today's remnants of the New World's indigenous communities had to learn to play within the rules of the White Man's "game." As much as it cut to the very soul and meaning of life for these proud peoples, such an ignoble sacrifice was the only means to avoid extermination and, thereby, extend hope for a the possibility of a better, more "sane" world.