Ever since living and working among members of Native American peoples in the Spring of 1978, I've felt that the greatest travesty (and crime) attached to the European Invasion (and colonization) of "New Worlds" (to include Africa, India, China, and Australasia) has been its arrogant attitude that conquest had to include conversion to a form of Christian religion--that in order to conquer (and convert) the "heathen" native populations their connection to their native traditions had to be severed. The term I was introduced in college history courses was "acculturation." Living among a population of Native Americans representing 24 tribes I became intensely aware of the fact that the Native individual was so imbued with the traditions and "religion" of their culture as to be living and breathing in an air of such; to try to erase and/or eradicate their religion and their culture was akin to trying to take away their air or their life blood. Their "religion" was, in fact, an essential ingredient to their very being: separating their religion from them was akin to taking away their skin or all of their internal organs.
As I've continued to study and imbue myself with information on the world's pre-European aboriginal cultures I've continued to imbue myself with an increased perspective of empathy toward these peoples (as well as deepen my grip on that which motivates conquering/colonizing Europeans to think and behave as they have [and still do]). While my ability to identify with the core perspective of any aboriginal culture has risen to perhaps one percent of their own being, it is enough to recognize the supreme hubris and arrogance that both Christianity and European whiteness has imbued within the collective unconscious of my own race and culture. I have grown to deeply love and admire the way that many aboriginal cultures grew and developed within a more humble collective mindset of inclusion and participation within the "Circle of Life"--identifying themselves as members within the totality of Nature, natural things, a Natural order, not separate or above it (as we Euro-Christian White people tend to do). Having attained a more-detached spiritual perspective of Life, humans, and the role that planet Earth and an Earth-based life span has in the Grand Scheme of Things, I have learned to recognize, admire, and truly revere the beauty and healthiness of the Native American perspectives and beliefs. I wish to my core that White people could wake up and stop trying to make every other person think, act, dress, speak, worship, and behave like they do.
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