Mexico, Dia de los Muertos, Alter to the Ancestors
Students study the importance of the Ancestors in tribal cultures such as those of Native America and Africa. We ponder the questions, "Have we lost touch with our ancestors? What is the role of our ancestors in our lives? And how are values passed on through family heritage?"
My Ancestors
"My ancestors are the ones who have taught the ones who taught me."
My People Lived
(This poem was written by a Brazilian-American soldier in Afghanistan who struggles with English syntax, yet writes with eloquent passion from some chthonic source beyond grammar. This was especially poignant because it was submitted, by coincidence, on Earth Day, 2010.)
My people lived happily, my people live in peace.
In these Fields I played with friends,
Making noise like birds in the cornfield.
We were strong as bulls, owners of our destinations.
All my friends died;
the white man brought was evil.
The white man came, bringing gifts,
talking about peace, talking about love,
... peace is over.
My people have not asked for it!
My people did not need it!
We were free as birds in the meadows ...
The white man killed the fish, trees, animals,
my friends and my ancestors.
All is quiet ... My spirit is sad.
Cry, cry in the wind, no one answers, I am just ...
I have no more home, I have no more land,
I no longer have language (...) I do not know who I am.
My heart cries, my people over.
There is no more river.
There is no more hunting! What a disgrace!
The birds no longer sing.
So much pain, SO much pain!
Cambou,
Ticuna, Macuxi, white man is like curare.
White man is like a bird of prey
comes slowly arrives quietly;
blind our eyes, it hurts our hearts,
Our take women by force, destroying our traditions.
Juma,
Yanomami Kranhacârore; cry
By our ancestors who have died.
For us who are dying,
for our children who were not born.
When I die, let my body
stand on this earth that was my people,
or throw my ashes in the bend of the river
to go to sea, and the light softly into the silence of the deep ocean.
When I understood this land of my ancestors were,
My people lived happily, my people lived in peace.
The white man came ... peace is over.
My people have not asked for it ...
Hum, hum, hum.
My people did not ask that.
My people was the first to arravied in Brazil.
Covenant With My Grandfather
Grandfather, Teacher of Medicine, Voice of Reason, My Rock.
You were there from the time of my birth. You loved and raised me as if I were your own.
I would chastise you for being contrary and starting arguments with Mom and Grandma.
Instead of turning your anger towards me, your face would relax into a smile...
And your anger would fade. Somehow in your emotional pain, you found comfort in my presence, and I in yours.
We would sit on the porch and discuss things for hours... from medicine to politics. We would debate, we would argue, we would laugh until we cried.
You taught me to question, to seek truth. I reminded you that you could still laugh and smile.
Losing you was one of the hardest things I have ever had to go through. It has left a deep hole
in my heart.
I will rejoice in your memory. Your warmth will enter my heart, and I will know that you
approve.
Memories of our time together will make me smile. And I will find comfort in your remembrance.
I will not forget you. I will tell all who will listen about your strength and wisdom.
I will share our story with my grandchildren, your great great grandchildren, so that they may pass on your memory.
In this way, I will keep you immortal. I will
keep your picture and your medical equipment in plain sight for all to see.
Every time I pass by them, I will offer up my thoughts to you, in hopes that you will hear them and once again smile.
Should I fail to keep my promises to you, the guilt and shame would be unbearable.
For if I can't keep your memory alive, then my grandchildren and great grandchildren are sure to forget me as well.
If I cannot keep my promises, I will surely feel your disappointment in my heart.
I will light a candle under your picture twice a year. Once on your birthday, and once
on the date of your passing.
I will gather my spouse, children, and future descendents around me and I will read this Covenant, my sacred promise to your memory.
I will frame this Covenant and hang it below your picture, as a sign that I miss you, and wish you were here with me.
Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle Leibniz, witness my covenant with a great man who has fallen,
just as you have.
Keep him in your presence, so that he may have others to speak with, as we used to do.
(Ricardo Matelstreet)
Father
"Currently, I am deployed to B---- Air Base in Iraq. This is my third tour to Iraq and I am in the fifth month of my current 15 month tour. I was raised on a ranch in central Montana until joining the Army in 1999. Honesty, hard work, dedication, pride and belief in God; these are truly the values that I was raised on and they are what guide me through everyday life to this day. These values were always applied, whether in school, working on the ranch, or serving my country…
"My father was and still is my rock. He always told me not to forget where you come from and never think that you are better than anyone else. Here are the words that my father said to me before I left for overseas duty. “Son, now you aren’t chasing cows or picking hay bales, but don’t forget about the hard work, dedication, pride and honesty it took to do those things. If you approach serving your country with the same frame of mind, you can’t go wrong.” To this day, he hasn’t been wrong."
My Cherokee Grandfather
"I am going to discuss the theory of Animism, and how it relates to me. I come from a long line of Native Americans. We tend to believe that the woods are alive with many spirits and we feel that we can communicate with them. My grandfather, a Cherokee Indian, always believed that the woods, water and air talked to him. He would take my brother and me in the woods and always stopped just a few feet into the wood line, and there he would tell us to listen to “her”. He always believed that everything had a spirit and sometimes people would see him in the woods talking. Not until his passing did I understand....
"I believe in God, and I feel that there is only one God, but I also believe in what my Grandfather taught me. Being so far from home, and my grandpa gone, I still feel his presence. I even smell him at times. While hunting here in Alaska, where I am stationed now, I was drawn to a certain area to hunt, but something “pushed” me out of there. I felt my grandpa’s presence. Later I found out that a bear charged another hunter in that woods."
Grandmother
"As in most African American families, My grandmother held the family together with the love she spread and the dynamics of her being a nurturer, a provider for the thirteen children she had. If I had to say there was a spiritual leader in our lives, I would definitely have to say it was her. She was a woman that knew who God was. She made sure we were spiritually fed by taking us to church. It was a whole lot I didn't understand back then, but I surely understand now. She left a spiritual inheritance in this world for our family, still blessing me even until this day. She was a praying woman, one who knew how to intercede on our behalf to God the Father. So in essence she was a spiritual leader, an true ancestor, sacrificing her life for us."
I Pray to Her When Times Get Hard
"Ancestors are prayed to in my religion for guidance sometimes. My grandmother is the one I normally pray to. She is a wonderful woman with great wisdom. She had four kids and raised my eldest cousin on her own. She was like a superwoman to me. For some reason she always had the right answers to all your problems. When I hit puberty I sat in on my first sweat (lodge) with her. She gave me my native American name a couple of days later. The name given to me was Morning Butterfly. I never understood this name when I was growing up because I was not much of a morning person and I did not understand why she picked a butterfly. Now that I am older and she has passed away I have had a lot of obstacles in my life. I pray to her when times get hard. I know now why she picked that name. She knew I would grow up to be an independent person much like a butterfly. "
An American's Ancestry Is Pretty Irrelevant...
"I've been told that my family is of English and Irish descent, but that never really meant much to me. I'm an American, and my ancestry is pretty irrelevant. My accent isn't Irish or English, it's Mid-Western. I have no intimate memories of Dublin or London, though I can tell you all about St. Louis style pizza....
"Yet I do have a living breathing ancestor. My Grandfather is a Baptist minister, and, while failing in age now, he never seems to lose that unyielding faith that he wields so tenaciously. While our opinions differ greatly on matters of the spirit, I always seem to get a sense that his opinions are more than just opinions; his beliefs are facts in faith, while mine are simply opinions.
"Another thing that furthers my Grandfather's influence on me is his intelligence. It would be easy for me to dismiss his sermons as simply the rantings of a fire-breather, but he has never failed to answer any of my questions honestly and eloquently. His wit is dry, biting, and always funny; his mannerisms and elocution are both developed and beyond reproach; and his eyes, which will never fail to meet yours during a conversation, are sharp and aware.
"And so, while I doubt that I will ever follow directly in his footsteps, or accept his doctrines totally, I can't help but admire his devotion and faith; and, if I have any aspirations in life, the most important of all is to find a purpose as fulfilling as his."
