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On Behalf of the
Wolf and the First Peoples Essays by Joseph Marshall III Provocative essays providing insight on
being a Native American in a white man's world -- which was once a Native
American world |
|
Joseph Marshall III was born on the Rosebud Sioux (Sicangu Lakota) Indian Reservation in what is now south-central South Dakota. Raised by his maternal grandparents, Marshall received knowledge and training in primitive Lakota archery and the hunter-warrior philosophy of his people. His first language is Lakota. A free-lance writer, Marshall has published numerous articles in addition to coauthoring the book Soldiers Falling into Camp. He has been a technical advisor and actor in television movies, including Return to Lonesome Dove. Marshall has taught at both high school and college levels and is a cofounder of Sinte Gleska University in Rosebud, South Dakota. BOOK EXCERPT: The first peoples understood that while they could emulate the wolf and be like wolf in some or many ways, they would never actually occupy the place wolf had. Furthermore, they understood that they had a power to understand and that this capacity set them apart from other species. Likewise, they knew that other species had at least one ability or characteristic that set each of them apart from other species, enhancing their chances of survival. The deer had keen senses of smell and hearing, the skunk had his scent, the porcupine had quills, the rattlesnake had poison, the owl could fly noiselessly, the bear had size and strength, the antelope had speed, and so on. In other words, the first peoples did not see their ability to reason or understand as anything that made them superior; instead, it was simply their key to survival. The first peoples not only survived, they thrived. They thrived because they did not seek to dominate....They perceived that dominance was not a natural part of the reality of the shared physical world. To attempt to dominate other species would be the same as moving against the flow and not with it. So the first peoples, like the wolf, took their places and never overstepped them. They learned to dance in step, in unison, with everything around them. |
In these essay, Marshall discusses parallels between
the 
treatment of wolves and the treatment
of Indians in this country; the definition of "Indian art" and
the stereotypical Indian portrayed in film; issues dealing with contradictions
between the ancestral and the prevailing cultures; and the crafting techniques
used to make a weapon as well as the spiritual connections that the bow
had with life and the natural environment which produced the raw materials.
Also available by Joseph Marshall III
Winter of the Holy Iron
$19.95 paper, 1-878610-44-9
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