tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76726194385592889142024-03-05T01:38:44.494-08:00Michael AuldYamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-50444372404639126572018-11-14T20:11:00.001-08:002018-11-14T20:30:24.379-08:00<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #313131; font-family: -apple-system, HelveticaNeue; font-size: 16px; word-spacing: 1px;">
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<span class="m_-5764865715110818486s1" data-originalcomputedfontsize="16" data-removefontsize="true" style="font-size: 1rem;">THE POWHATAN MUSEUM </span><span class="m_-5764865715110818486s2" data-originalcomputedfontsize="16" data-removefontsize="true" style="font-size: 1rem;">(<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://powhatanmuseum.com&source=gmail&ust=1542327574328000&usg=AFQjCNGTtA2yem1dXkATSL4BUPsEV4PQJg" href="http://powhatanmuseum.com/" style="color: #4285f4;" target="_blank"><span class="m_-5764865715110818486s3" data-originalcomputedfontsize="16" data-removefontsize="true" style="font-size: 1rem;">powhatanmuseum.com</span></a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 1rem;">PROUDLY HONORS TWO NATIVE CONGRESSWOMEN</span><span class="m_-5764865715110818486Apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 1rem;"> </span></div>
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<span class="m_-5764865715110818486s4" data-originalcomputedfontsize="16" data-removefontsize="true" style="font-size: 1rem;">During this auspicious National Native American Month. May your stay in our historic *</span><span class="m_-5764865715110818486s5" data-originalcomputedfontsize="16" data-removefontsize="true" style="font-size: 1rem;">Attan Akamik</span><span class="m_-5764865715110818486s6"> </span><span class="m_-5764865715110818486s4" data-originalcomputedfontsize="16" data-removefontsize="true" style="font-size: 1rem;">(</span><span class="m_-5764865715110818486s6" data-originalcomputedfontsize="16" data-removefontsize="true" style="font-size: 1rem;">Powhatan Confederacy Territory, a.k.a. “Washington, DC”</span><span class="m_-5764865715110818486s4" data-originalcomputedfontsize="16" data-removefontsize="true" style="font-size: 1rem;">) where Powhatan II presided over the earliest-known meetings that they called a “caucus”. May your future caucuses be as successful as his.</span></div>
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Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-40024191730992114402017-03-13T00:40:00.001-07:002017-03-13T18:40:56.855-07:00Anacaona: Queen of Xaragua <blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<i><b>Xaragua</b> (Ha-rag-wah) was one of the Taíno provinces in which Kiskeya (Hispaniola) was divided.</i> <i>Located on the Haitian side of the island. </i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[Thanks to Rose Powhatan (Pamunkey/Tauxenent) for her invaluable Native inclusions and editorial skills-- <i>Michael Auld</i>]</span></blockquote>
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How has Anacaona been portrayed? Notice how she is uniquely idealized differently by each artist.</h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN4ITCv5XGgyPwGNSb4vTgWAyrtCip0gFzd_BKMY-TiLr-_5x13yFOC7oM1EVMcnAo221IExiNyVzqiTZEy6BdRkwEzKrThq0YEJCtCnTkyEMQEgnXUh7203CL0Z7bWmMj__2nwvw-2MKI/s1600/Anacaona_closeup_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN4ITCv5XGgyPwGNSb4vTgWAyrtCip0gFzd_BKMY-TiLr-_5x13yFOC7oM1EVMcnAo221IExiNyVzqiTZEy6BdRkwEzKrThq0YEJCtCnTkyEMQEgnXUh7203CL0Z7bWmMj__2nwvw-2MKI/s400/Anacaona_closeup_edited-1.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"<b>Anacaona</b>", mixed media sculptural enlargements by the author. She was described as being very beautiful. The sculpture's face was modeled after Jennifer Lopez's Puerto Rican Taíno facial characteristics.(2004)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj85qwNazv3HDHGLv_8MTcySnAPGXSsl6DzshZBU1zKV3CojujqTvIwk8OKInTUZ4zG7PtwOt6W72xcHT8ZO36WieV8ZvCfkInHT9KGF2Sosh46pvo1qapjc-Yrh1fFRgRsxcDqBxMAiZ-0/s1600/Anacaona+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj85qwNazv3HDHGLv_8MTcySnAPGXSsl6DzshZBU1zKV3CojujqTvIwk8OKInTUZ4zG7PtwOt6W72xcHT8ZO36WieV8ZvCfkInHT9KGF2Sosh46pvo1qapjc-Yrh1fFRgRsxcDqBxMAiZ-0/s640/Anacaona+2.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1851 interpretive engraving of Anacaona. The artist idealized her with the prevailing European ideals of royals and subjects.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh1g8-Byp3ElPDSlDUbrpygnsYb4vLwmGsBu0RFv5bFGeRRZb-FypYyXFe98FDPiBQRePSVxDZa5z0imYH9l6PTUxQ-jrIRIBbDesxP0hGC0EbkP0oyNmc02alj3bYcjrppsVqXyTfSiD1/s1600/Anacaona+sramp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh1g8-Byp3ElPDSlDUbrpygnsYb4vLwmGsBu0RFv5bFGeRRZb-FypYyXFe98FDPiBQRePSVxDZa5z0imYH9l6PTUxQ-jrIRIBbDesxP0hGC0EbkP0oyNmc02alj3bYcjrppsVqXyTfSiD1/s400/Anacaona+sramp.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cuba's Anacaona postal stamp. A local model with Taíno DNA was probably used for the illustration.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Q1-cOv8OgJ4E2uD9wJArZMGw4AUq5zG4H5l9s28tx-_IaFDX1pCMKPSXiF5-8c86WcjcjdQQsaqxJFEFp8LJIda8waHO2euw47PIZm-r1gbA81yxKF7e6Lm6x15E1tkaP7Zho-1RUM0q/s1600/Anacaona+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Q1-cOv8OgJ4E2uD9wJArZMGw4AUq5zG4H5l9s28tx-_IaFDX1pCMKPSXiF5-8c86WcjcjdQQsaqxJFEFp8LJIda8waHO2euw47PIZm-r1gbA81yxKF7e6Lm6x15E1tkaP7Zho-1RUM0q/s400/Anacaona+book.jpg" width="265" /></a><br />
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<b>"Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490"</b></div>
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Book by Edwidge Danticat, the award-winning, best-selling Haitian author (2005). The book has an idealized cover design incorporating the yellow hibiscus in the illustration. The hibiscus is Haiti's national flower.</div>
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<i><b>Born</b>: 1474, Yaguana, Jaragua, Haiti<br /><b>Died</b>: c. 1503, Hispaniola (Haiti)<br /><b>Nationality</b>: Taíno<br /><b>Occupation</b>: Cacika (female chief)<br /><b>Known for</b>: being one of two Taíno female cacikes (chiefs) along with Yuisa from where is now called Loíza, Puerto Rico.<br /><b>Spouse</b>: Caonabo--Wikipedia</i></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">There are</span></b> illustrated renderings of ancient Mezoamerican manuscripts, murals and ceramics that depict Amerindian women of power. One recorded woman leader of note in the early Spanish encounter period in the Americas was a ruler named Anacaona. She, along with her brother, Behichío, ruled over Xaragua, one of the five major large regions of Kiskeya. Kiskeya was also known as Ayti Bohio ("High Mountain Home"), then changed to Hispaniola, by the Spanish invaders. It was later divided into French Haiti and the Spanish Dominican Republic. Although Anacaona was assassinated at the age of 27 or 29, her short life has immortalized her as a shrewd leader, diplomat, and a beautiful poet (who recited historic ballads called areítos). She is memorialized in Cuban and Puerto Rican songs, in a sexist and paternalistic poem by Alfred Lloyd Tennyson and in a well received novel by her fellow Haitian, Edwidge Danticat. Anacaona is a pivotal founding figure in Haitian history of the Americas.<br />
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Anacaona is known today as a fearless, dignified Caribbean icon and symbol of resistance against tyranny. --Kristen Majewski, Modern Notion</blockquote>
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If Conquistadors had been more interested in the people whom they encountered upon their arrival in the America's Caribbean in 1492, we would all have been taught about Anacaona. Her name translates as "Ana" = flower, plus "caona" = gold. She later married Caonabo, cacike of the neighboring province. (He also had "gold" in his name, plus the important suffix "bo".) When both Anacaona's husband and brother died, she returned to Xaragua to become cacike. Due to the Spanish encounter period, the Caribbean Taino experienced extremely chaotic times after having lived in relative peace for over 1,000 years. The initial Taíno/Spanish relationship began as a subtle encounter but later turned into a brutal invasion based on capitalistic exploitation.<br />
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Trouble between the Taino and Spanish was evident less than a year after the Europeans had arrived. Both Bohechío and Anacaona met Christopher Columbus in 1494. They had entertained him, and traveled on his caravel in the bay off the coast of Xaragua. Previously in 1492, Columbus left his crew from one of his sunken ships on the island and returned to Spain. He announced the news of his "discovery" in the royal courts of Spain. Upon Columbus' return to Hispaniola with 17 ships of adventurers, he discovered that all of the men he had left behind had been killed by the neighboring cacike, Caonabo in a "scorch earth" attack of retribution. The stranded Spanish sailors had disrespectfully demanded more food and women from their Taíno hosts. Caonabo was ultimately captured and sent on board a ship set for Spain. He died in the voyage's shipwreck before being enslaved. Anacaona then a widow, had returned to Xaragua upon the death of her brother Bohechío. There she assumed the role of cacike.<br />
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Because the Columbus family was considered to be made up of ineffective conquerors, a new radical governor, Nicolás de Ovando was sent to Hispaniola to replace Columbus and his successors. The Taíno of Kiskeya were in revolt and starvation was rampant because their economy was disrupted by demands of gold hungry Iberians. Taíno populations near the Spanish fort burned their villages and destroyed their provision grounds to retreat into the mountains as Cimarrones, the forerunners of Maroons. The intention was to starve the intruders out.<br />
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Columbus, who had been stranded in Jamaica when his ship sank, was despised by Ovando who left him there for a year to rot. He was sent home to Spain in chains. Unable to corral the rebellious Taíno, Columbus (the "Admiral") was seen as a poor government administrator who had acquired insufficient gold by way of extortion and enslavement.<br />
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Anacaona, who was also reputed for accepting enslaved Taíno runaways and rebels inherited a chaotic, politically driven conflict. With the arrival of Ovando, she diplomatically invited the him to a welcome reception. Upon his arrival to her large bohio (roundhouse) he immediately ordered his men to remove Anacaona and barricade the door. The bohio was then set on fire. Over 80 of her sub-chiefs inside either burned or were shot by crossbow. After being taken from the bohio, Anacaona was given the opportunity to capitulate and become a concubine to one of the Spanish men. She refused to betray her beloved people and was hanged on the spot.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjREUDpCW3QMIi58V_uiKsxQs6mf59RkwN_0WJZiViltAYUZ2Pv9zdJ3ZzrLfMPzHv_w5XxX-vMui9MIULJ9Ru0pHuQ9eTz1VKUsuhSJY3M8bchknkWwWpSfcNMsi3EigMKvUnGfxfB3-gU/s1600/Ovando.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjREUDpCW3QMIi58V_uiKsxQs6mf59RkwN_0WJZiViltAYUZ2Pv9zdJ3ZzrLfMPzHv_w5XxX-vMui9MIULJ9Ru0pHuQ9eTz1VKUsuhSJY3M8bchknkWwWpSfcNMsi3EigMKvUnGfxfB3-gU/s400/Ovando.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Nicolás de Ovando</b>, (born c. 1451, Brozas, Castile [Spain]—died c. 1511), Spanish military leader and first royal governor of the West Indies. He was the first to apply the encomienda system of Indian forced labour, which became widespread in Spanish America, and he founded a stable Spanish community in Santo Domingo that became a base and model for later settlement.--<i>Encyclopedia Britannica</i></td></tr>
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*<b>Ovando</b> had also eliminated another bohio filled with Taíno leaders, all of whom he had his men knife to death. Their bodies were hauled out to the village square and displayed as a lesson. His successful plot was to eliminate the Taíno leadership. He was recalled to Spain by embarrassed royals, where he died nine years later.<br />
* <b>Encomienda</b>: A paternalistic system originally used in Spain against the Jews and Muslim after the Conquest. Applied next in Hispaniola, intended to offer the Taíno Indians "protection and elements of Christian civilization" in exchange for their labour, it quickly became a means for outright, brutal exploitation. This practice was later introduced to mainland America.--<i>ibid</i></blockquote>
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<b>Anacaona is the name of an all-girl orchestra</b>, founded in 1930s Havana by Cuchito Castro and her sisters. Eventually, all 11 sisters joined the band. <i>Wikipedia</i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU-voK_o3is">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU-voK_o3is</a></div>
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* "<b>Anacaona" song: by Cheo Feliciano </b>(on YouTube) <a href="https://youtu.be/pRhKY1jVJwE">https://youtu.be/pRhKY1jVJwE</a><br />
José Luis Feliciano (July 3, 1935 – April 17, 2014), better known as Cheo Feliciano, was a Puerto Rican composer and singer of salsa and bolero music.<br />
<b>Note</b>: Although Anacaona was a full bloodied Amerindian, Cheo's version of the song misidentified her as "negro" or black. The lyrics also reveals how the indigenous Taíno were viewed by some Caribbean people.</blockquote>
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<b>Cheo's lyrics literal translated into English:</b></blockquote>
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<b>Anacaona</b><br />
Indian captive race Anacaona, from the primitive region.<br />
Anacaona, Indian captive race Anacaona, from the primitive region.<br />
Anacaona I heard your voice, as I cried when I groaned Anacaona I heard the voice of your anguished heart<br />
Your freedom never arrived, and Le le le le le la la.<br />
Anacaona, Indian captive race Anacaona, from the primitive region.<br />
Anacaona, Indian, captive Indian and Anacaona, from the primitive region.<br />
Chorus: Anacaona, Areito de Anacaona. India of captive race, soul of white dove ...Anacaona.<br />
But Indian who dies crying, dies but does not forgive, does not forgive.<br />
That black black woman who is noble and dejected but who was brave Anacaona!<br />
Listen, according to the story it says that it went to the cannon [something significant?], Anacaona.<br />
The whole tribe cries because she was a good black woman.<br />
And remembering, remembering what happened... the tribe is already very angry.</blockquote>
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Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-41476299404243602132017-02-12T19:14:00.000-08:002017-02-12T19:39:52.343-08:00Cocoa/Cacao/Chocolate: For Lovers<span style="font-size: large;">Happy Xocolātl Day!!!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Earliest Love Potion</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMm1kRAWd1oBr4_thyphenhyphenHLwoV52ctgzIzlvnMOGcTjpJWMMA-vU7ptvXhR8mCaQlToA8VdC0EyvPAc1zYJBeGM_sL1igVeOqnZl5H5B1f0oafEyke-IsMCqCmOVLBmVhKsl7u5xBC9qaUkio/s1600/Chocolate+%2528Ancient%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMm1kRAWd1oBr4_thyphenhyphenHLwoV52ctgzIzlvnMOGcTjpJWMMA-vU7ptvXhR8mCaQlToA8VdC0EyvPAc1zYJBeGM_sL1igVeOqnZl5H5B1f0oafEyke-IsMCqCmOVLBmVhKsl7u5xBC9qaUkio/s320/Chocolate+%2528Ancient%2529.jpg" width="301" /></a><br />
<b>The earliest</b> <b>known</b> potion associated with love was <i><b>xocolātl</b></i> or <i>chocolate</i> used by the Maya of Central America. Since the 19th century, February 14th has been popularized (beginning in England) with chocolate as an addition with a handmade card for St. Valentine's Day. The earliest Valentine was a Christian martyred by the Romans. After the 2nd Century AD, there were various revered male Valentines, some who gained sainthood.<br />
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<b>Xocolātl </b>(pronounced “<b>shock-o-lat</b>”), a Nahuatl word from the <i>Mexica </i>(Mé-she-kah or Aztec) of Mexico, meaning “bitter water”. <i><b>Cocoa </b></i>(ko-ko) <b>1</b>. From the <i>Nahuat </i>(Aztec) word <i>cacahuat </i>or <i>cacao </i>seeds. 2. From the Mayan word <i>cacahuaqucht </i>the “cacao tree”. 3. A variant of cacao. 4. A small tropical American evergreen tree cultivated for its seeds, the source of cocoa and chocolate. 5. The fruit or seeds of this tree. 6. A powder made from dried, roasted and ground seeds. 7. A color.<br />
<i><b>Chocolate </b></i>(chok-ko-late) 1. From the Nahuat word <i>tchocoat </i>“bitter water”. 2. A food prepared from the roasted, ground cacao beans. 3. A blood-red Aztec beverage made with ground cocoa beans, water, peppers, musk, honey, vanilla, and <i>annato</i>./<i>achiote </i> 4. A beverage of chocolate boiled in sugar-sweetened water, with milk or coconut milk added. 5. A candy or sweet with chocolate coating.Also: 6. A brownish gray color</blockquote>
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The cocoa or cacao tree originated in the South American homeland of the ancestors of the Taino, the Amazon or Orinoco basins. The plant also grew wild in the rain forest of the Yucatan Peninsula of Central America. Its benefits have been appreciated for over 4,000 years also by the Maya who cleared land to establish the first known cocoa plantations. The Maya considered it an important item in their society. Cocoa beans were given as gifts at a child’s comming of age observance and in religeous ceremomies. Cocoa beans were used as food and money. For example, the rate of exchange of goods were as follows: A pumpkin was worth 4 cocoa beans, 10 for a rabbit, 12 for a courtisan and 100 for a slave. Maya merchants traded cloth, jade and ceremonial feathers for cocoa beans. The Maya considered cacahuaqucht (the cacao plant) to be the tree of the gods. [1] “Ek Chuah, the mercghant god, was closely linked with cocoa and the fruits were used in festivals in honor of this god”. Their reverence for cocoa was passed on to the Toltecs and Mexica (Mé-she-kah, or Aztecs).<br />
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In Mexica mythology the god Quetzelcoat, the Feathered Serpent, was the creator of the forest and the sacred cocoa tree. Cocoa beans were considered an aphrodisiac (a concept still ascribed to chocolate) and the tree was believed to bring fortune and strength. In Mexico , Hernan Cortez was greeted with mountains of cocoa beans instead of gold. Cocoa was ceremoniously used by the Mexica (Aztecs) and it was given as a drink by the Emperor Motezhuma’s servants to Cortez in 1519. Because of a Mexica prophecy which coensided with Cortes’s arrival, Motezhuma mistakenly thought that the Spaniard might have been the returning creator of the cacao, the god Quetzalcoat. Tchocoat, from which the word “chocolate” came, was a prized drink made from the dried and crushed cacao beans mixed with [2] chili pepper, musk, honey, vanilla and annato or achiote (which made the thick drink a spiritually significant blood-red color). Hernan Cortez, who was not fond of the Maxica recipe, saw the commercial value of the cocoa bean and took a large amount to Spain. In Spain chocolate was combined with pepper, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon or mixed with beer or wine. Other Europeans used this Mexica recipe of vanilla mixed with cacoa but added sugar and cream to suit their tastebuds.<br />
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Although Columbus recorded seeing the beans in the Caribbean and took some back with him, not much was made of cocoa in Spain until Hernan Cortez re-introduced it into that country in 1527. This was eight years after Cortez took his armed force to the heartland of the Mexica.<br />
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In 1502 on a voyage in the Caribbean , which took him to the coastline of Central America, Columbus came across a large trading canoe off the coast of today’s Honduras . The canoe was loaded with copper axes and bells and great quantities of cocoa. Maya trade routes by sea took them further distances along the Yucatan’s Caribbean coast than the short distance across to the Taino island of Cuba . Although historians stated [3] that cocoa was grown in the southern Caribbean island of Trinidad during precolumbian times it is not yet certain if the Island Caribs or the Orinoco basin ancestors of the Tainos brought the plant to the other northern islands. The Tainos played the Central American rubber ball games which, like the cocoa bean, had ceremonial and religeous significance. It is likely that they were also very fameliar with cocoa.<br />
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The cocoa tree is a Tropical American plant which only grows in humid climates along the equatorial belt. The tree reaches a hight of 26 feet. Its foot long leaves start out as light rose colored and mature to a shiney, leathery gark green. The plant flowers continually and produces more abundant buds twice each year. An unusual aspect of the cocoa tree is that its flowers grow in clusters directly on the trunk and lower branches. The flowers vary in color from bright red to pink, white, and orange with pink. Each tree produces 30 to 40 pod-like fruits each year. The American football shaped pods attain a size of one foot in length and 2 ½ to 5 inches in width when mature. The smooth or lumpy surface of the pod hardens and may become scarlet, yellow or various shades of green. When opened the pod contains a sticky, tangy to the taste, pink colored pulp which envelopes 30 to 40 pink or light purple seeds called beans. When harvested the cocoa beans must go through a series of processes before it can be turned into edible cocoa or chocolate.<br />
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There are about 20 varieties of cocoa trees which are divided into two classes. South America sill produces one class of fruit which is the best quality of cocoa beans. “Fine flavor” cocoas are produced by Ecuador, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago , Grenada , Jamaica, Siri Lanka, Indonesia and Samoa. A second lower quality of cocoa, which was transported to Africa, is produced there mainly for commercial purposes.<br />
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Cocoa processing follows prescribed sequences. The seed coat and germ are removed from the edible segment called the “nib”. The bean must be fermented for 5 to 6 days, sun-dried, sorted, roasted, cracked (to remove the shell) before it is ground. The shell is sometimes used as a fertilizer, cattle feed or a substitute for coffee. The roasting process removes the bitter tasting tannin and determines the color and flavor of the bean. The use of the bean for cocoa powder or chocolate determines the length of the roasting time. The roasted bean is then ground into a sticky paste called chocolate mass or chocolate.<br />
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Footnotes<br />
[1] Cadbury's Chocolate History and the Growing of Cocoa, http://www. cadbury.co.uk/facts/html/cocoa2.htm<br />
[1] The Visual Food Encyclopedia, p. 640<br />
[1] The Indigenous People of the Caribbean ,1997<br />
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<br />Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-8871975886895909312017-01-30T22:40:00.000-08:002017-01-31T00:55:42.448-08:00Iguana: A god as food<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Rock Iguana</span></b> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>(Cyclura collei)</i></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span>here is<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;"> primarily </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbivorous" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080;" title="Herbivorous">herbivorous</a></span> and was both a god and a source of food for the Yamaye, Jamaica's indigenous Taino people. Probably fixed on a <i>barbecoa </i>(source word of barbecue) with habanero pepper, allspice (pimento), other endemic spices, and sea salt. (According to one source, the Taino of Turks and Caicos Islands produced salt for trade with the Maya). Today, the iguana has been replaced in the wild diet by introduced chickens and often domesticated or feral pigs prepared as "<i>jerk</i>", a Maya source word linked to "<i>jerky</i>". Eaten in those areas of the Caribbean and other parts of the Americas, the flesh of this large lizard is said to "taste like chicken" (Anthony Bourdain?). As an important source of protein, it was hunted into near extinction on some Caribbean territories.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"The Jamaican Iguana declined dramatically during the second half of the 19th century, probably due to the introduction of the Indian Mongoose (</span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Herpestes javanicus</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> [=</span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">auropunctatus</em><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">])"-<i>I<u>UCN Red List of Threatened Species</u></i></span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><b><i> Rare <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/science/jamaican-iguanas-goat-islands.html?_r=0">Jamaican Rock Iguana</a></i></b> -- Hope Gardens Zoo, St. Andrew, Jamaica. (1994)<br />
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(<b>About</b>): The Hope Gardens Zoo was named for a large estate once owned by the family who also possessed the infamous (cursed) <i>Hope Diamond</i>, now in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. The iguana, once plentiful throughout the island, was thought hunted into extinction. This one was part of a clutch with eggs found in the Hellshire Hills, in the parish of St. Catherine. The Jamaican iguana was discovered in the early 1990s in the Hellshire's dry forest that became a sanctuary. The area also has an important Yamaye petroglyph inscribed Taino cave with a clearwater spring at the base of a limestone cenote-like pit. The area is strewn with thorn or <i>maka </i>bushes (<i>maka</i>--from maccaw or makafat palm, a favorite fruit of the now extinct bird) and a variety of exotic cacti. --<i>Photography and artwork copyrighted by <a href="http://www.powhatanmuseum.com/Taino_Gallery.html">Michael Auld</a></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As a god</span>, the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Jamaican+Rock+Iguana&tbm=isch&imgil=7AYTXAgbUFOmEM%253A%253ByG-aG0xCgIKftM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.arkive.org%25252Fjamaican-ground-iguana%25252Fcyclura-collei%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=7AYTXAgbUFOmEM%253A%252CyG-aG0xCgIKftM%252C_&usg=__ttO4m-JtA9gggwIDCX6Ttn5gGWU%3D&biw=1118&bih=874&ved=0ahUKEwjO1fzZ0-vRAhUDKCYKHavZBssQyjcIVw&ei=-yCQWI7sBIPQmAGrs5vYDA#imgrc=fY5W1QL7CoIiIM%3A">large lizard</a> was revered as a representative of the sun. Also appearing as a Jamaican schoolboy's best pal in the story, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01MRT1UKW/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb"><b><i><span id="goog_471010241"></span>Ticky-Ticky's Quest<span id="goog_471010242"></span>,</i></b> </a> <span style="font-family: "garamondpremrpro"; font-size: 16px;">(</span><span style="font-family: "garamondpremrpro"; font-size: 16px;"><i>Illustration below: The spider-boy, Ticky-Ticky sits next to his best friend Iggy Iguana as a busted Duppy balloon's seeds float around them like snowflakes.</i></span><span style="font-family: "garamondpremrpro"; font-size: 16px;">). </span>The the hero, Ticky-Ticky, grapples with the concept of "eating a god". He asks his friend, Iggy Iguana, who answers in the island's informal patois;<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "garamondpremrpro"; font-size: 12pt;">"Iguanas love de sun, so we sit on rocks soakin' up its life-givin'
ultraviolet rays," Iggi said, using more big words that he had
learned in biology class. "De iguana's back is like de rays of de sun.
When dey eat us, de Taíno tek in all de energy from de sun dat is
in our flesh," Iggi explained.</span></li>
<li>"Woi! Yu don't hate dem for that? I mean, bein' hunted by
dem an' all," Ticky-Ticky asked.</li>
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<span style="font-family: "garamondpremrpro"; font-size: 12pt;">"Mí gran-fadah say dat dese are de laws of nature dat we mus'
follow," Iggy explained. "Him say humans 'unt us, an' dis is how
nature is. Him say dat we iguanas eat plants, an' dat's de plant's
destiny. My fadah tol' me dat humans, other animals, de plants,
de sea, de universe... every t'ing mus' follow dese laws. But de
Taíno believe dat they should neva eat de young. If a 'unter turn a
young animal into a orphan, de 'unter had to adopt an' tek care of
de orphan.</span><br />
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<h3>
The Twins: Iguanaboina</h3>
As <b><i>Iguana-Boina</i>,</b> the god was equal to sun deities around the world and a major half of the concept of "the source of life".<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Right: <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b><i>Boinayel</i></b>.</span></span></span><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"><u> </u><b>mboi</b></span></span><span style="line-height: 17px; text-align: start;"><b> </b>= serpent. </span><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b>una</b></span></span><span style="line-height: 17px; text-align: start;"><b> </b>= dark. His name <br soft="" />means Son (<b>el</b>) of the <i>Dark Cloud-Serpent</i> (</span><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b>boina</b></span></span><span style="line-height: 17px; text-align: start;">)</span></span></span></td></tr>
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Left: <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b><i>Marohu</i></b></span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> (</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b>ma</b></span><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b> </b>= without. </span><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b>aro</b></span><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b> </b>= clouds). <i>Boinayel's</i> twin brother is the </span><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b>iguana</b></span><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b> </b>lizard whose serrated dorsal crest suggests the rays of the sun.</span> </span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghCQiFs8ebnKO_vxOL3LZoPLEhUgDKCn4W8ttLDm7i3XaGn7MTsSyxap_5GJdKcJOFOyEUk8wI9E2C8Q-Aw8OdqBnu16qEOJMsS0xmC2zdeFs4miZzXaIaFILQDenOmUaFYBCH2G0ZY0t/s1600/Iguanaboina_+metal+%2526+plexiglass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghCQiFs8ebnKO_vxOL3LZoPLEhUgDKCn4W8ttLDm7i3XaGn7MTsSyxap_5GJdKcJOFOyEUk8wI9E2C8Q-Aw8OdqBnu16qEOJMsS0xmC2zdeFs4miZzXaIaFILQDenOmUaFYBCH2G0ZY0t/s640/Iguanaboina_+metal+%2526+plexiglass.jpg" width="412" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Above: Sculpture of the <b style="text-align: start;"><i>Iguana-Boina</i></b></span><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (<b>a</b>) Plexiglass and welded steel; 9 feet tall);</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaEEBksxxy6S3n7sSFphP6GUJKNfmunvNM1X7Y9nvU9BK4AGNlYsiJEZpTYQGgyPMrUyprvgnu3I94nTCz1sgir8LlUp_8BZSKLEpUOyvJiyD1YZ4PYd8jdRcjnt5eHzBqcRzC1YCkpZYz/s1600/IguanaBoina+1_Bohio+installation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaEEBksxxy6S3n7sSFphP6GUJKNfmunvNM1X7Y9nvU9BK4AGNlYsiJEZpTYQGgyPMrUyprvgnu3I94nTCz1sgir8LlUp_8BZSKLEpUOyvJiyD1YZ4PYd8jdRcjnt5eHzBqcRzC1YCkpZYz/s400/IguanaBoina+1_Bohio+installation.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> (<b>c</b>) Iguana-Boina intersect as support of a house, <br />
the visualization of an agricultural <br />
people who believed that the sun and <br />
rainfall were the twin sources of life.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6z0KF7muhtYZ2dItC0xzYSioylVntCffuHBWhozOUAfpuhHfJy_e6NB8EBADqfZj7Fg75G2fhZyYoJ94S3KIc3GKkzrzqG8HTJiY7jTkwVGVH5ZloSidhXXghSJUHxPprjihdqiVZAONN/s1600/IguanaBoina_Bohio+installation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6z0KF7muhtYZ2dItC0xzYSioylVntCffuHBWhozOUAfpuhHfJy_e6NB8EBADqfZj7Fg75G2fhZyYoJ94S3KIc3GKkzrzqG8HTJiY7jTkwVGVH5ZloSidhXXghSJUHxPprjihdqiVZAONN/s400/IguanaBoina_Bohio+installation.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(<b>b</b>) Detail of a wooden upright of a <b style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;"><i>bohio</i></b><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"> or <br />roundhouse.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-89129989855884319062017-01-24T16:52:00.002-08:002017-01-24T16:52:56.024-08:00Make America Native Again<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgeWHlApWqB7kZNxpOJ28BT8PxlLSRvxHmaqqbQ5zR0k-yL1EfHyRppycfcBcoUGYQ_JZwb-W23c8n8LMYcMgspXAlRLB1GM4ijtkY1iy4GJ0uiDuqlouU_rEMm1dMSTuxJutfnAaKzM0M/s1600/Make+America+Native+again.T-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgeWHlApWqB7kZNxpOJ28BT8PxlLSRvxHmaqqbQ5zR0k-yL1EfHyRppycfcBcoUGYQ_JZwb-W23c8n8LMYcMgspXAlRLB1GM4ijtkY1iy4GJ0uiDuqlouU_rEMm1dMSTuxJutfnAaKzM0M/s400/Make+America+Native+again.T-shirt.jpg" title="" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">This was America in 1585.-- </span><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">John White's portrait of a </i></div>
</div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Native woman in "The New Found Land of Virginia". </i></i></div>
</div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">that was to become the United States of America. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">The English colony did not survive</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpftQ-vGSEMNW48-BH5ztZ6r2rQCfI0QBH7qAR0X7U5GKLj4L_dlFbmGl0Oex_jcgilbPHz1I66wYc8r9QpQjqE095jOyDs_pFhUt56zY9X-I63bJ1yB_2Uwa4ddU6QZeOzCDfR7w_DYkt/s1600/Make+America+Native+again.%2528Male%2529+T-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpftQ-vGSEMNW48-BH5ztZ6r2rQCfI0QBH7qAR0X7U5GKLj4L_dlFbmGl0Oex_jcgilbPHz1I66wYc8r9QpQjqE095jOyDs_pFhUt56zY9X-I63bJ1yB_2Uwa4ddU6QZeOzCDfR7w_DYkt/s640/Make+America+Native+again.%2528Male%2529+T-shirt.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><h3>
<b>T-shirt Designs:</b></h3>
<i>Powhatan Confederacy</i>--This was America in 1607 when Capt. John Smith arrived in Wahunsennachaw's (Powhatan II) Attan Akamik (Our Fertile Country), a 32-34 nation Algonquian-speaking "kingdom" as the English called Princess Pocahontas' homeland. Helped by the diplomatic Powhatan II to survive, this location became the place "Where America Began".</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">The most recent</span> president of the United States, Trump, ran on a populist but divisive message to "Make America Great Again." The message was obvious to many as a not-so-masked reference of the term "great", meaning "white". The proposed placing of a Great Wall along the brown US border and not the white northern one, was added evidence of this expressed sentiment. The impending "Hispanic" (a.k.a. Amerindian DNA) majority predicted for America's future was obviously the campaign's cry to arms. Stop the retaking of America by Amerindians was implied. Trump's followers certainly understood these coded messages. Additionally, as a businessman accustomed to salesmanship, he applied this technique to his advertising slogans. Harking back to the pre-1960s, the reference painted a picture of the time when "America" was associated with the other popular <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocentrism">Eurocentric </a>phrase, "Free, white" and 21".<br />
<b>One</b> would think that this unconscious omission of the words "Native American" in casual American discourse indicates a desire to place indigenous people of North America in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Man">Invisible Man </a>category. President Obama was the exception to this practice since he often mentioned Native American in his speeches.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
In Obama's inclusive language he used the above term as opposed to the speech of most officials who seem to obliviously live in just a black & white world. Then, again President Obama grew up outside of the US where he was exposed to realistic outsider views of his homeland. Although a product of multicultural New York, the Trumps seemed to have developed a separatist view by some in that large city of divided cultural neighborhoods.<br />
<h3>
What if we adopted the slogan "Make America Native Again"?</h3>
<br />
Dominated by only languages (English, Spanish, French, Dutch) foreign to the hemisphere, was "the Americas" ever <b>not</b> Amerindian? The reality is that, if we go by DNA, most people of the Americas, like the rest of the planet's majority, are Asiatic. Regardless of 19th century racial labels, we actually live in an ethnically Asian hemisphere. Since 1492, even with the Amerindian holocaust, there were just not enough of non-Native genes to go around. Granted, millions of Natives died from imported human introduced diseases, murder and enslavement. Yet, their descendants survived as <i>full-bloods</i>, <i>Hispanic </i>(US), <i>mestizo </i>(Spanish America), <i>colored</i> (US), <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 14px;"><i>Métis</i><b> </b></span> </span>(Canada), <i>half-breed</i> (US) and <i>Negro</i> or <i>Black</i>.(US). They reflect a genetic relationship to the other side of the planet's hemisphere of Asia proper; the world's human majority of Ino-China, Asiatic-Europe, India and China. Within our generation, all of these areas are in the attainable position of world dominance. Does this notion scare you as it seemed to have many Americans who have temporarily benefitted from the results of the Electoral College?Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-14013691661173794632016-07-18T16:39:00.000-07:002016-07-18T16:53:18.748-07:00"MONUMENT TO A SHAMAN"<h1>
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">How
Caribbean Amerindians Influenced the History of the Americas</span></b></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">©
Michael Auld (Yamaye)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">-Artist/Author<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">powhatanmuseum.com <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today</span></b> we may find it hard
to believe in the reality of myths. Yet, beginning in 1492, an entire
hemisphere was explored and exploited by arriving Europeans many of whom were
primed by the belief that folklore was real. One seminal myth that drove the exploitative
greed of the Spanish was the Taíno epic of the <b><i>Travels of Guahayona</i></b> (the First Shaman). Amerindians paid with
their lives for the actions of the Spanish, due to the story of an Island of
Women and its twin, an Island of Gold. The myth was reworked and incessantly
perused by the Spanish search of the fabled Amerindian treasures.</div>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
First Shaman<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 18.0pt;">Guahayona</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> was believed to be the first shaman of
the Taíno. He originated in one of the two caves of creation, <i>Cacibajagua</i>,
along with the Noble People. He had been the one to bring sacred tobacco to the
people. (His name also meant "Our Pride"). Guahayona’s epic helped to
shape how Europeans perceived the Americas. The telling of his story by elders
was meant to warn women against the danger of pride. This tale influenced both literate
and illiterate Spanish seamen as factual evidence of Amazons and unimaginable amounts
of gold in the Indies. Over the years, many adventurers lost their lives or
gained riches in search of the fabled gold of the Indies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSab1qauKjdGuxrECnbOhrnk2tfDGW0HADgERLNtKYNZ6Le3jgq6AC0znlbMbpkrFLNu9e0FxsGCr97h0LuFXVEjVSXD08biU52B10XYd_9LXhHKqRuIxraq4HCN23Lq2OWFuDH5Qv3orc/s1600/Guahayona+in+Canoa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSab1qauKjdGuxrECnbOhrnk2tfDGW0HADgERLNtKYNZ6Le3jgq6AC0znlbMbpkrFLNu9e0FxsGCr97h0LuFXVEjVSXD08biU52B10XYd_9LXhHKqRuIxraq4HCN23Lq2OWFuDH5Qv3orc/s640/Guahayona+in+Canoa.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 10.0pt;"> (</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 10.0pt;">Above<i>:) The First Shaman of the
Taíno epic the "<b>Travels of
Guahayona</b>". The life sized wood <b>canoa </b>by the artist is in the shape of
a </i></span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 10.0pt;">barracuda<i> (usually
a solitary fish, </i>barracuda<i> is a
Cariban word that means "He Who Is Alone").—Sculpture by Michael Auld<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Mike/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2_3HqiVnFi9GFdinDaCb3mjdbE1_oaRD_DD-aikJNWCbNnEBSTFrmHIDlV8ZV7WbgyQwVxtIZe9syqoU9AccNW9R-AopW3XIsmPo41wy4-tzIX2_YnVBSTPIQqnFTohyJhyB0W7SkGx8S/s1600/Guahayona_Detail%25231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2_3HqiVnFi9GFdinDaCb3mjdbE1_oaRD_DD-aikJNWCbNnEBSTFrmHIDlV8ZV7WbgyQwVxtIZe9syqoU9AccNW9R-AopW3XIsmPo41wy4-tzIX2_YnVBSTPIQqnFTohyJhyB0W7SkGx8S/s320/Guahayona_Detail%25231.jpg" width="209" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvB1lho2IIHapVFoEN17pj7j1ekGEWs5rFrADIKBHYHindBDsKr31vcIZrheUObKubW-EgwVEF79-7ndUVp-SPyDe0Ra4unq2szH68R8y9WnjtWyLzvaQ4_cl6u7k8YcL6KvUg3VX5yT7/s1600/Guahayona.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvB1lho2IIHapVFoEN17pj7j1ekGEWs5rFrADIKBHYHindBDsKr31vcIZrheUObKubW-EgwVEF79-7ndUVp-SPyDe0Ra4unq2szH68R8y9WnjtWyLzvaQ4_cl6u7k8YcL6KvUg3VX5yT7/s320/Guahayona.jpg" width="216" /></a><i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 10.0pt;">.</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 10.0pt;">(</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 10.0pt;">Above-- Left<i>) </i></span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 13.3333px;">detail</span><i style="color: #454545; font-size: 13.3333px;">:</i><i style="color: #454545; font-size: 10pt;"> Guahayona was an integral part of the canoe culture of the seafaring Taíno</i></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="background-color: transparent; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 10.0pt;">(</span></i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #454545; font-size: 10pt; text-align: center;">Above-- Right<i>:) Guahayona, meaning “Our
Pride”, is an epic myth of the seduction of pride that was exhibited by the
first women. After the abduction, men were left without women who were taken
away to Matinino by the shaman. As the story continued, it told how some
feminine creatures without genitalia were made into wives with the help of a pecking
of a woodpecker.</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 10.0pt;">--Materials:
wood mask, vine, shell and macaw feathers.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 10.0pt;">by
Michael Auld</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 18.0pt;">Cristoforo Colombo</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> a.k.a. </span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Cristóbal
Colón</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">, the one we know as
Columbus, arrived in the Island of the sacred Iguana in 1492. <i>Guanahaní</i> (Iguana Island), as it was
called by the </span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-size: 12pt;">Lukku-Cairi</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Taíno, was named for a spiritual symbol of
the sun. On that day in 1492 in the Bahamas, the </span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Lukku-Cairi</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> (Small Island) Taíno oral tradition required them to entertain
the Italian captain and his Spanish seamen with an <b><i>areito,</i></b> a
part of an epic put to song and dance. Through sign language, the Taíno also
related the portion of their ancient heroic story when asked about the gold
jewelry (<i>yari</i>) that some of them wore. Columbus was told about <i>Matinin</i></span><i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "andalus" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ó</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">, an Island of Women and its twin <i>Guanin</i>, the Island of Gold to the south. Fragments of the
story stuck with Columbus who had now more than ever began the search for these
mythical islands. In addition to exotic spices, gold was at hand! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I was attentive and labored to know if they
had gold, and I saw that some of them wore a small piece hanging from a hole
which they have in the nose, and from some signs I was able to understand that,
going to the south or going around the island to the south, there was a king
who had large vessels of it and possessed much gold”—</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Journal of Columbus, p.26<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
“king” alluded to may have been Guahayona. Columbus’ journal had many
references to spices and gold whose source was south (in the geographic
direction of Martinique). Later, in Cuba, the Taíno came to believe that
"the Cristiano's God was Guanin (14k gold alloy)."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Cacique
Hatuey who had escaped the massacre of Anacaona on Ayti Bohio, had said,
"They love him so much. Even if you swallow him they will cut you open to
retrieve their God."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 18.0pt;">To</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> the direct south of the Bahamas were islands the Taíno called Cuba,
Kiskeya/Ayti Bohio, Boriken and Yamaye. On his Second Voyage, now entering the
Americas via the Eastern Caribbean (south of the Bahamas), Columbus thought
that he had found Matinin</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "andalus" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ó</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">. Today’s Martinique was that mythical isle,
only it was populated by the Island Carib, a warrior society. Columbus wrote that
he followed the direction (with this 2<sup>nd</sup> voyage of 17 ships) given
to him by a Taíno whom he had taken to Spain as evidence of reaching India. It
seems, according to Columbus' writing, the Taíno man on board ship had known a
shorter route between the Americas and Europe. This was the route used by
sailing ships from then on entering the Americas, until the invention of
steamships. The Taíno were seafaring agriculturalists who had daily navigated
the thousands of islands from the Orinoco River Basin to Florida over 1,000
years before. It was not until a few years later when Columbus had been made
governor of "Hispaniola" (Kiskeya/Ayti Bohio) that he learned the
entire story of Matinin</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">ó</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> and Guanin. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">On Columbus’
1<sup>st</sup> Voyage one of his ships sank off the coast of Ayti Bohio. His crew
was saved by the local cacique, Guacanagari, whose people had helped to salvage
everything from the wreck. The Spanish seamen were impressed with Taíno
honesty, since "not even a needle was lost." Columbus left from
the hastily constructed fortification of La Navidad, to sail back to Spain,
where he obtained 17 ships and financing. The crew that was left behind became
mutinous and greedy. They requested multiple women from their hosts. Another
nearby cacique had enough of the disrespect and launched a scorched earth
attack with pepper smoke grenades, disorienting the Spanish, and all of the
intruders were killed. Upon his return, Columbus meted out revenge, killing a
number of Taíno who had not left the area. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Taíno revolted. “The first American insurrection against colonialism was put
down in a bloody battle at the Vega Real [Hispaniola/Kiskeya/Ayti Bohio] on
March 27, 1495.” Amerindian warriors were
not the docile people that he had written about from his first impression in
the Bahamas. The shipment of a small amount of gold and exotic hardwoods was
not enough to repay the debts for the voyage. His fateful decision to pacify
the impatient Spanish Royals was to “fill the ships of Antonio de Torres with
Indios to be taken back to Spain and sold as slaves.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">As the
governor of Hispaniola, in 1495, he sent a Catal</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "andalus" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">á</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">n cleric
named Friar Ramon Pané who had become fluent in Taíno languages, to record
their beliefs and ways. For his own safety, Columbus decided to find out more
about the people that he had previously underestimated. It was at this juncture
that Pané recorded the following Taíno story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 24pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Guahayona said to the women, “Leave your
husbands and let us go to other lands and carry off much guyeö.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 24pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Leave your children and let us take only the
herb with us and later we shall return for them.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 24pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Guahayona, OUR PRIDE, left with all the women,
and went in search for other lands.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 24pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">He came to Matinin</span></i><i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">ó</span></i><i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">, NO
FATHERS, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 24pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where he soon left the women behind, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 24pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">and he went off to another region called
Guanin.—</span></i><b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Cave of the Jagua</span></b><i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">, Antonio M. Stevens-Arroyo, p.157<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Guyeö was a chewing tobacco made with green leaves
mixed with salty ashes from algae. As a cleric, </span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Pané recorded this story with some skepticism. However, vast
numbers of the Spanish, both literate and illiterate, believed it as Taíno
gospel. Taíno stories, when examined, were similar to the Adam and Eve biblical
tale intended as a guide for inappropriate behavior. “Women”, it meant, “don’t
be seduced by Guahayona/pride.” Abandoned on Matinin</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">ó</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">, the arriving Spanish wrote
about and searched for this “Island of Amazons/Women”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; break-after: avoid; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 24pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq1SGT-hMhXLvNmfKy7BjOrO3bwOzLXHZz84a4QwmpXpIxfaJQW6mAj4vN_pG4icLaqEZOiDKuguTpH_yd7dwEEzcHNRDWL0DyOWnpCip7aRSn4WKEOn37CUDj5-njyb4kyK4Em6Mr1OrQ/s1600/Island+of+Women_%2528print%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq1SGT-hMhXLvNmfKy7BjOrO3bwOzLXHZz84a4QwmpXpIxfaJQW6mAj4vN_pG4icLaqEZOiDKuguTpH_yd7dwEEzcHNRDWL0DyOWnpCip7aRSn4WKEOn37CUDj5-njyb4kyK4Em6Mr1OrQ/s400/Island+of+Women_%2528print%2529.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoCaption">
Figure <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>SEQ Figure \* ARABIC
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->1<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->: The artist’s 18” x 24” silk screen print of Guahayona's travel to Matininó, the
Island of Women. The female images are of Attabey, the virgin mother of the Supreme
Being, Yucahu. Her image is from a ballpark in Puerto Rico, dedication to honor
her and the rubber ball game, <i>batu</i>,
the ancient Mesoamerican game first seen by the Spanish in the Caribbean. She
is the goddess of childbirth and fresh water. Her body is depicted in the shape
of a frog that represents procreation while the woodpecker at her groin depicts
a part of the story of “How the Women Came to the Men.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; break-after: avoid; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 24pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"><!--[endif]--></span></i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUY2oFif6ZODqCKQVpouG5vgSyMciU9MiP5aotfBclJ-D0nyLj6_hescqQPXTwO3GdnpFO-DUkZZG-2VN9PfeF74LlG4VslqGVZIwCyZkWUO-a8bjXsOhsMKzklQRIZByJvrULQqQQwP6l/s1600/Guanin_+Island+of+Gold+%2528print%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUY2oFif6ZODqCKQVpouG5vgSyMciU9MiP5aotfBclJ-D0nyLj6_hescqQPXTwO3GdnpFO-DUkZZG-2VN9PfeF74LlG4VslqGVZIwCyZkWUO-a8bjXsOhsMKzklQRIZByJvrULQqQQwP6l/s400/Guanin_+Island+of+Gold+%2528print%2529.jpg" width="321" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoCaption">
Figure <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>SEQ Figure \* ARABIC
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->2<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]-->: Guahayona leaves Matinino and travels to Guanin,
the Island of Gold. The print includes a 16<sup>th</sup> century woodcut by Oviedo
y Valdéz who observed the Taíno method of panning for gold in Kiskeya. The
Spanish adopted this method of gold mining. The glittering feather of the
colibri (hummingbird) was their symbol for gold.<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<span style="color: windowtext;">Fifteen years after Ramon Pané
recorded Taíno myths in Hispaniola, a similar story with the same theme of
women and gold was published in a popular novel in Spain. <o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525; font-size: 10.5pt;">“Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called
California, very close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was
inhabited by black women without a single man among them, and they lived in the
manner of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Amazons<span style="color: #252525;">. They were robust of body with strong passionate hearts
and great virtue. The island itself is one of the wildest in the world on
account of the bold and craggy rocks.” --<i> Las Sergas de Esplandián</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(<i>The
Adventures of Esplandián</i>) by <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo,<span style="color: #252525;"> 1510</span> </span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 18.0pt;">During</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> this "Age of Discovery" a novel was published in
Madrid, Spain. It was the story titled <i>La California</i> an island
of Amazons filled with gold and pearls led by the black warrior queen Califia. The
epic continues to the point where this barbarous queen, who initially fights
with the Muslims against the Christians, is converted to Christianity. Queen Califia's
Amazons' weapons were made from gold, while man-eating Griffins (half eagle and
half lion) that flew overhead protected the women from encroaching men, ripping
them apart when trespassing on La California. This novel became one of the most
popular books of the time and was widely read. </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Hernán Cortés</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">, the touted "conqueror of the
Aztec" Triple Alliance, while in upper Mexico (later called Baja
California), believed that the high mountains seen in the distance was the
Island of La California, and named it so. In the novel, La California was
located next to the Terrestrial Paradise, one reference to the Caribbean. For
some time, California was illustrated on maps as an island. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">The use
of Amerindian themes in European writing after the “Discovery” can be seen in a
variety of published stories and plays. For example, William Shakespeare’s
character, Caliban in <i>The Tempest</i>, is
an Island Carib, mislabeled Caribales, Cannibales and cannibal by Columbus. In
the play, Caliban is a conniving savage, not unlike a current politician’s
characterizing “Pocahontas” slur. Set in the Caribbean, Daniel Defoe’s <i>Robinson </i>Crusoe’s companion Friday is a
Taíno hiding from “cannibalistic” Island Caribs. Based on a story of an actual
shipwreck in South America, this novel employs a Columbus inspired myth about
cannibals. “Carib cannibalism” appears in Disney movies and was earlier used by
Spain to justify the enslavement of “unfriendly” Indios, Carib or not. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
thread of Matinin</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">ó</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> and Guanin ran through the other areas of the
Americas. The Caribbean Taíno myth was sometimes combined with an old European
story of conflict with the Muslims. The Hopi territory became the mythical
location of Las Siete Ciudades de Oro. From a distance, gleaming pueblos
appeared to be golden in the sunlight. Las Siete Ciudades de Cibola, the Seven
Cities of Gold, referred to a tale describing the flight of monks from a
cathedral when the Muslims attacked. The belief was that the clergy escaped
with the gold ornaments that may have ended up in the direction of the Indies.
Although Estavanico the Moor was killed by the Hopi in the effort, the Hopi
suffered great losses of life over a golden myth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">El
Dorado and the Amazon</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">To the
south of the Caribbean, after the fall of the Inca Empire, Pizzaro's crazy
brother was sent off on a fateful search for more Amerindian gold. The
expedition fell apart. Many Amerindian porters died or deserted the Spanish at
the headwaters of the large river that was then to be named the Amazon. The
survivors built a boat to go downriver to find food. The cleric on board
recorded that the current of the river was too strong for their return and the
boat was shot up with arrows by women warriors, or "Amazons" on the
river's banks. "The boat appeared to be like porcupines," the cleric
wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Behind
every myth, there is some truth. Ironically, the myth of Amazons/ Matinin</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">ó</span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> the Island of Women and Guanin the Island of
Gold proved to have been partially right. Large deposits of gold were actually
"found" in the California Mountains. A related combined myth of the
gold of "El Dorado" was found in Columbia, comparatively close to the
“Amazons.” The Caribbean is a place where myths became real in the minds of
Europeans who also searched for the Fountain of Eternal Youth among the
youthful Taíno’s northern territory of Bimini (La Florida). Along with Greek
Amazons there was the belief that the Caribbean was the location of Atlantis.
So, our islands are called the Greater and Lesser Antilles and we border the
Atlantic Ocean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">_________________________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">About
the sculptures: </span></i></b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taíno
symbolism is key to these artworks. In doing research for these Amerindian
inspired sculptures the artist used the combined influence of both Mesoamerican
Art and Taíno aesthetics to illustrate the <b>Guahayona
Epic</b>. "If Taíno culture had not been disrupted by Columbus, our
continued works would exhibit Mesoamerican influences. In terms of stylistic
aesthetics, artistically these ancient Amerindian civilizations would have been
the Western Hemisphere's ancient Egypt, that other hemisphere's mother
civilization."</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">*<u>Taíno words</u>:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Iguana</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;"> (big lizard); <i>canoa</i> (source
of canoe); <i>cacique</i> (leader/chief); <i>colibre</i> (hummingbird); <i>barracuda</i> (solitary fish); <i>Anacaona</i> (Golden
Flower, -Spanish assassinated Queen of Xaragua, Ayti Bohio); <i>bohio</i> (roundhouse); <i>macaw</i> (talkative
parrot); <i>guanin</i> (14k gold alloy made with <i>caona</i>--pure
gold); <i>yari</i> (gold jewelry); </span><i>Lukku-Cairi</i> (small islanders of the Bahamas. <i>Cairi </i>became <i>cayo</i> in
Spanish, <i>cay</i> and <i>key</i> in English);<i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Cuba (</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">Coabana. <i>Coa</i> = site, <i>bana</i> = large<i>)</i></span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">; <i>Kiskeya/Ayti Bohio—“High Mountain Home”--</i> (the
Dominican Republic and Haiti renamed Hispaniola, both the center of the Taíno
civilization and later the fledgling Spanish American Empire); <i>Boriken</i> (Puerto
Rico); <i>Yamaye</i> (Jamaica). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are monuments to the Taíno heroes Hatuey and Anacaona;<i> Hatuey</i> (cacique
and hero who fled to Cuba. He was late to Anacaona's diplomatic celebration put
on for the new Governor Ovando. At the
celebration, Ovando massacred over one hundred of her caciques in attendance,
and hanged her. Hatuey was hunted down by the Spanish and burned at the stake.
When asked at the stake if he would convert to Christianity so that he could “go
to Heaven,” Hatuey asked the priest, "Are there Cristianos in
Heaven?" "Yes", the priest answered. "Then I do not want to
go there." So, they burned him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-27687821955785290842015-09-19T15:42:00.001-07:002015-09-22T12:58:14.690-07:00State vs Federal Recognition: One Scenario<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; text-align: start;">"There are 566 federally recognized American Indian tribes in the U.S" at this writing. Additionally, there are also </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; text-align: start;">Non-Acknowledged Tribes that are tribes which have no federal designation as sovereign entities but may be state recognized. To be recognized as a sovereign entity, tribes must meet certain criteria as "Indians". As of 1978 there were "33 separate definitions of 'Indian' used in federal legislation."--<i>Wikipedia</i> </span></div>
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<div>
Because of sovereignty and self determination status, along with tax, health, educational and social benefits, one of the most prized possessions in American Indian life is recognition. Next to tribal identity, to belong to a recognized tribe is the most coveted state of American citizenship. To gain state or federal recognition as an indigenous tribe of the United States, among other requirements, applicants must provide evidence of unbroken descent from a historic Amerindian group. </div>
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Although proving continuity with cultural practices can be daunting, both state and federal recognition processes are dissimilar. The Federal recognition process is exceedingly more invasive. Not all tribes can successfully survive the gauntlet of scrutiny. It is not unusual for some folks to borrow traditions or fabricate immaculate revelations as part of "an ancient ancestral practice". At stake may be a mythical golden self sufficient road to gleaming casinos that often rise out of the skyline like a Disney mirage. This goal, however, is even more difficult than current gambling concerns think since an established reservation or land held in trust may be a part of the federal requirements. For some, gambling is an acceptable device. After all, wasn't Jamestown, (and by default, America) started by the Great Virginia gambling Lotteries of 17th century London?</div>
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<div>
The irony not missed by many Natives is that some governmental bureaucrats, often the beneficiaries of conquest, must decide weather or not you are what you say that you are genetically. Private citizens may identify with whomever they please. However, traditionally, you can only be "Indian" in the eyes of the law if some state appointed commission approves your tribe's petition. Although states may call upon an appointed body of commissioners as part of the recognition process, the most prized or elite recognition is processed by the Beaureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Successful applicants to the BIA are called "Feddies". Members of these lucky tribes act like the upper class of American Indian society. Some Feddies, having gained the prized BIA blessings, often look down on both state recognized and un-recognized Indians as "wannabes". One of their favorite slights. "Heinz-57" is another term describing mixed bloods.</div>
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I had the fortune to be a private citizen and extended observer at some of these very contentious recognition hearings. Observed was a case where one unhinged tribal applicant almost physically attacked a female state appointed commissioner with whom he disagreed.</div>
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Here below is a composite dramatized animal story of one process of recognition pursued by a fictional group. Resemblance to any human persons is coincidental.<br />
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<b><u>The Eagle & the Crow</u></b></h2>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 15px; text-align: center;">"This still does't make you an Eagle."</td></tr>
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<b>The Caucus Room</b><br />
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<b>Once</b> upon a time, Chief Bald Eagle, a full blood, headed a large nest of American Eagles. He called a meeting that included Crow and Chickadee.<br />
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<i><b>Chief Eagle</b></i>: "Get Crow in here!"</div>
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<i><b>Chickadee</b></i>: "Yes, Boss."</div>
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<b><i>Crow</i></b>: "Sent for me sir?"</div>
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<b><i>Chief Eagle</i></b>: "What the hell is this? Some civilian says here you are not an Eagle! You a Dodo, Crow? I don't know of any crow-Eagles."</div>
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Hands Crow a letter.</div>
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Crow reads the letter. Face feathers turn pink.</div>
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<b><i>Crow</i></b>: "My mother wasn't an Eagle... But I am a Spiritualist Eagle."</div>
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<b><i>Chief Eagle</i></b>: "Christ! That makes you a crow, Crow. Nothing to be ashamed of. Don't make us look stupid, asshole! Get DNA.</div>
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... Take care of this!" </div>
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Chief Eagle hands Crow the letter to investigate himself.</div>
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Unable to definitively provide proof of Eagle DNA kinship to raptors within a 500 mile area from his believed homeland, Crow reverted to the Eagle's Adam & Eve scenario. </div>
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Crows had a history of migrating from other continents. Their Eagle pedigree was fictional. However, in Crow's case, <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Adam was an albino Hawk and Eve was a Blackbird, but this still didn't make him an Eagle. Besides, officials at the Bureau of Eagle Affairs (BEA) determined that Crow's petition to be an eagle was invalid since "most of the members of the applicant's tribe had no more 'Raptor blood' in them than the average bird in the state." Since the time of The Great Invasion, confusion abounded. Birds either flew away, or in the case of the flightless Dodo, walked off never to return. Laying eggs </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">in other bird's nests became epidemic and the BEA had to separate the eagle chicks from the chumps. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The campaign was called "Chicks for Chumps".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The above scenario is not common to all petitioners. Most birds who pass BEA muster have proof of unbroken lineage to recognized historic Eagle nests. Even if as eggs, they may have mistakenly ended up in the wrong nest since crows sometimes lay eggs in other bird's nests. Crow's "proof" of <i>Eagleness</i> was, however, more</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Biblical than actual. Not what the BEA looks for since wearing sacred eagle feathers doesn't necessarily make a crow an eagle.</span></div>
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<b><i>Crow</i></b>: Mumbling to himself. "DNA? &$@FK!!! Oh, copulate me!" </div>
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Beads of sweat begin to undo Crow's processed feathers. The crow took the letter and begins to plot a witch-hunt. A kinky lock fell from a balding yellow forehead, cutting across blue Mongoloid crow's eyes. </div>
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"Got to get the heat off me. How the 'FK' do I redirect? Who can I scapegoat?"</div>
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Crow paused then jumped for joy... "Those bastards on the Eagle Commission, Duck and Cohonk, voted for my dim witted cousins to be the first recognized Eagle tribe in our state. I bet the governor will approve recognition. Bovine excrement! They are just a bunch of gigaboos posing as Eagles. I will <b>out </b>those uncircumcised Eagle Commissioners!</div>
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"Wait. I am a <b>government employee</b> and I can't go after the public for tribal gain. Ahah! I will get my rabid cousin, Coony to do it. That alki owes me one."</div>
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<u><b>T</b></u><b><u>he Witch Hunt</u></b></div>
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Crow's cousin, Coony Auraccoon organized two carloads of his mutant blackbird relatives and headed for BEA Commissioner Cohonk's tribal center 400 miles away. Cohonk was chosen as the easy target since Commissioner Duck had cited connections to an extinct tribal group. Arriving in a cloud of dust, Coony knocked on the door of a trailer scrawled with a sign, "<i>Eagle Trading Post</i>".</div>
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<b><i>Coony</i></b>: "Is the chief in?" </div>
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<b><i>Possum #1</i></b>: From behind a squeaky screen door. "No. Gone to New Jersey."</div>
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<b><i>Coony</i></b>: "Is the asss-istant chief in?" He stuttered.</div>
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<b><i>Possum #1</i></b>: Assistant Chief Muskrat is down by the fishing hole." </div>
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Door slams. </div>
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"What the hell these blackbirds want?" She murmured to herself with a suspicious air.</div>
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<b><i>Coony</i></b>: Stumbling down the step he mumbled to his posse. "Bastard. Don't recognize a chief when she sees one? Black feathers must have turned her off. See how she looked at us? Must-a thought I was Blacula... fangs an' all! Got to get these coon rings from around my eyes."</div>
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At the riverside, the troop of coon morons with out-a-town tags found a Muskrat fishing from the river bank.</div>
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<b><i>Coony</i></b>: "Hey, fellow. You de <b>Asss</b>-istant chief?"</div>
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<b><i>Muskrat</i></b>: "Nope. Tribal Councillor. Ass went to the crapper. I'm his cousin. But for the right price I could be him." Flashing a broken incisor tooth grin. "What you fellers want?"</div>
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<b><i>Coony</i></b>: "Don't get much work around here, I expect? Can I buy a letter off you?" A crooked grin curled across a yellow pecker-like beak.</div>
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<b><i>Muskrat</i></b>: "You think this is Sesame Street?"</div>
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<b><i>Coony</i></b>: "No, no. I want a letter from your chief. I collect autographs." He lied.</div>
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<b><i>Muskrat</i></b>: Smiles at the opportunity. "Meet me over yonder at that there boat house in five." </div>
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Scurrying back to the tribal office, the accomplice enters the chief's room, grabs a few of the chief's signed letterheads and heads for the boat house. </div>
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<b><i>Coony</i></b>: "Yeah! I like the chief's signature! I will dictate."</div>
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<b>The Letter</b></div>
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The forged letter stating that the BEA Commissioner, Cohonk, was not an Eagle and should be disqualified from the Commission, mysteriously found itself in the hands of Chief Bald Eagle, the staff of the Eagle's nest,<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> the BEA Commission and anyone interested in gossip</span>. The bogus letter was even widely published on the Animalnet.</div>
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In spite of missing DNA and flunking the eyeball test, Crow's peeps were accepted as Eagles. Their wings now cast a shadow along the eastern corner of the continent <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">spreading pedigree myths while</span> claiming territory everywhere crows have passed urine. </div>
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<b>Morals</b>: <i>Who said life is fair? Not all that glitters is gold</i>.</div>
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In spite of Crow and Coony's under-the-radar approach to recognition, they became honorary Eagles. Not because they cheated, but because their cousin Raven, as questionable as the state's recognition methods were, did provide proof of prehistoric "tri-racial raptor descent". Crow and Coony came into the Eagle fold on Raven's tail feathers.</div>
Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-1820886752585877212015-09-11T16:32:00.000-07:002015-09-11T16:32:14.321-07:00An Artist's Dilemma: How to portray a Native American<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0in 19.45pt 0in 24pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A</span></b>n artist must be able to portray phenotypes in portraiture, especially in sculpture, painting, illustration and caricature. Since this is my profession, I have been a keen observer of nuances in facial structures, body types and skin colors. Similar to a dentist who observes teeth upon a first encounters; I notice facial bone structure, eye and mouth shape, skin texture and color. However, Amerindian identity is so mired in mythology that accurate phonotypical portrayal in the visual arts is problematic. More confusion to the issue of Native identity was added by the Federal Government’s “blood quantum” rule in <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">1934</span>. This rule was inspired by the racist <span style="font-size: 11pt;">“<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #252525;">1705 [English law] when<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Virginia<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #252525;"> </span></span><span style="color: #252525;">adopted laws that limited colonial civil rights of Native Americans and persons of half or more Native American ancestry”. -- </span></span><span style="color: #252525;">Professor Jack D. Forbes (2008).<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span>"THE BLOOD GROWS THINNER: BLOOD QUANTUM, PART 2"<span style="color: #252525;">.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California" style="color: #de7008;" title="University of California"><span style="color: #0b0080;">University of California-Davis</span></a><span class="reference-accessdate"><span style="color: #252525;">.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #252525;"> </span></span></span></div>
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Five hundred years of racial mixing in this hemisphere has created a category of human beings that have varying physical features some of whom choose to accept or ignore their Amerindian genes. Throughout the Americas, identifying with the indigenous has continued to be controversial. Peoples of the Americas are often ignorant about Amerindian cultural and historical achievements. Little is taught about the hemisphere that produced pyramids, large cities, empires, multitude of medicines and is the source of 60% of what humans eat. Yet, against some remaining obstacles, there has been resurgence in Native pride. Compounding the problem of identity are the labels Mestizo,<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #252525;">Métis</span>, Latino, Hispanic, Chicano, Black Indian, etc. </div>
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Some newly formed tribes handle the issue of resurgence well, while others create havoc in trying to be “more Indian” than the rest. One example of this extremism is the group’s attempt at historical revisionism by usually stating that “We are the Indians” of a geographical location on which their tribal name never historically appeared. This con-game was also played out by the late Italian-American actor “Iron Eyes Cody”. Hollywood Westerns of an earlier period played a pivotal role in this confusing sham by casting Italian, Middle Easterner, English and Irish actors as Indians.</div>
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Notwithstanding Columbus’ confusion; the answer to who is “Native” is not cast in stone. For example, a Mexican (even with a high percentage of Amerindian DNA) would say that unless you speak your language, you are not Indio. In North America the answer to this question is more fluid. </div>
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<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwknh4zK_sr1xmHkqh_COg7N0MG7Lzl3w0mWDeBTtaFd_yuTJcPsay0EpH5DBfloGBMzkxQJCCb8sJVQMquXe_xKaDV8HhUFe4ta87IOF-fqxTkYzutMDWnJ3mw4o3hTH_ddu_qnJKm-_9/s1600/Who+is+Native.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #de7008; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="443" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwknh4zK_sr1xmHkqh_COg7N0MG7Lzl3w0mWDeBTtaFd_yuTJcPsay0EpH5DBfloGBMzkxQJCCb8sJVQMquXe_xKaDV8HhUFe4ta87IOF-fqxTkYzutMDWnJ3mw4o3hTH_ddu_qnJKm-_9/s640/Who+is+Native.jpg" style="border-width: 0px;" width="640" /></a></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Top Row:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (<b>1</b>) Tecumseh, leader of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawnee" style="color: #de7008;" title="Shawnee"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Shawnee</span></a>. (<b>2</b>) Chief Joseph, Nez Perce [Nimíipuu is their name for themselves].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (<b>3</b>) Charles Curtis, 31<sup>st</sup> Vice President of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> who had maternal grandparents on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaw_%28tribe%29" style="color: #de7008;" title="Kaw (tribe)"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Kaw</span></a> reservation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">(<b>4</b>) Noted sculptor Edmonia Lewis whose father was black and mother an Ojibwa Indian who named her Wildfire. She grew up with her mother’s family of basket makers on the reservation. Both African and Native Americans claim her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Bottom Row: </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(<b>1</b>) Italian-American actor <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #252525;">Iron Eyes Cody</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #252525;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #252525;">(born<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Espera Oscar de Corti<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999). He impersonated<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Native Americans<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #252525;"> </span></span><span style="color: #252525;">in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Hollywood<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #252525;"> </span></span><span style="color: #252525;">films.</span></span> (<b>2</b>) Astronaut John Herrington, an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. (<b>3</b>) & (<b>4</b>) Irish-American actor Burt Lancaster who played Massai, an Apache leader in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:city></st1:place>’s <b><i>Apache</i></b> (1954).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Native American</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> <i>n</i>. (<b>1</b>) <b><i>Aboriginal American</i></b>. a member of the indigenous people of the Americas, belonging to the Mongoloid group of peoples. (<b>2</b>) <i>adj</i>. relating to any of the indigenous American peoples, their languages, or their cultures. <i><u>Encarta World English Dictionary</u></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">full blooded </span></b><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">adj</span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. thoroughbred of unmixed breed. <i><u>Encarta World English Dictionary</u></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">half breed</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> <i>n</i>. an offensive term referring to a person of mixed racial parentage, especially Native American and Caucasian. <i><u>Encarta World English Dictionary</u></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Mestizo</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> <i>n</i>. American Spanish. A combination between Indio (Amerindian) and Spaniard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Pardo</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> <i>n</i>. American Spanish. A person who is mixed with Amerindian, European and African.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">E</span></b>xcept for the last two pictures of Burt Lancaster and Iron Eyes Cody, the above images are of people whom some Indian tribes would call Native Americans today. Although, in the United States, we often reserve the term Native American for only the indigenous people of the mainland USA. This attitude has caused many legal and “illegal aliens” from south of the border to insist that they too are Native Americans. According to some anthropologists, we can evaluate the survival of indigenous populations in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Americas</st1:country-region> since 1492 in two ways. <i>Either</i>, (1) Disease and genocide drastically reduced the Americas’ multimillion indigenous populations. <i>Or</i>, (2) Racial mixing has greatly increased the numbers of indigenous people within the <st1:place w:st="on">Americas</st1:place>since 1492. </div>
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The second theory, however, has contributed to a Native American identity dilemma for people without and within those ethnic groupings. It is also difficult to identify Native American phenotypes especially in states with a high percentage of American Indians and Mexicans. For example in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Albuquerque</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:state></st1:place>, I found it hard to make a visual distinction between both populations. Although most Mexicans are from the same indigenous genetic pool as other Native Americans, in <st1:city w:st="on">Albuquerque</st1:city> there were incidents of animosity between both groups. This dilemma caused a prominent Native American artist in another locale whose son had been beaten up by Mexican youths, to state, “Why would they beat up my son? Don’t they know that Mexicans are also Indians?” East of the <st1:place w:st="on">Mississippi River</st1:place>, the ability to identify who is an Indian is even more difficult.</div>
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The Native American identity problem began after 1492 when Columbus believed that the Caribbean’s Taíno and Island Carib were the Indians from Asia’s subcontinent. Although there is documentation that indigenous Americans had been arriving on European shores at least since the <st1:place w:st="on">Roman Empire</st1:place>, their sustained impact on the rest of the world began in earnest in 1492. According to Dr. Jack D. Forbes, author of <b><i>The American Discovery of Europe</i></b>, “What we do know is that two or more Americans, at least a man and a woman, reached Galway Bay, Ireland, [in two dugout logs] and there seen by Christoforo Colomb (Columbus) long prior [around 1477] to his famous voyage of 1492.” Dugout canoes are from the east coast North America, South America and the <st1:place w:st="on">Caribbean</st1:place> so it is unclear exactly from whence these Americans came. It is believed that indigenous Americans either came east to <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> at varying times via their own volition and/or were hijacked by Atlantic storms. Oceanic tempests and Atlantic currents had floated American trees into <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Galway</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype></st1:place> where there was once a local business in American driftwood lumber. Today, heavy Atlantic shipwrecks still end up on <st1:country-region w:st="on">Ireland</st1:country-region>’s coast. Descriptions of people arriving at various times from the west going eastward, both dead and alive, matched the phenotypes of various indigenous Americans. At that time, it was very unlikely for people from Asia to have been blown ashore on Western Europe and the <st1:place w:st="on">Azores</st1:place>. In Europe, they were mistaken for people from “Catayo” or Cathay (meaning <st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region>), and <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>. Later, Columbus’ encounter with the people of the Lucaya Bahamas convinced him that they were Indians from Asia’s subcontinent.<br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Were ancient American phenotypes similar?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is obvious to the casual observer that the Inuit (“Eskimo”) are decidedly different in appearance from the Olmec and Maya of the Yucatan, or the Cherokee, Iroquois and Algonquians of North America’s Eastern Woodlands. The pre-</span>Columbian <span style="font-size: 12pt;"> diversity in skin color, hair texture, facial and physical composition varied greatly among peoples of the Americas. Even in two isolated and recently contacted Amazon tribes phenotype decidedly differed. One group was tall, slender and yellowish (the</span></span><b><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Zo'e) wearing lip plugs; while the other was shorter, muscular, brown skinned and</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> seemed not knowing how to make fire. Although many people believe that Native Americans belong to one monolithic “race”, DNA studies tell us differently. Geneticists trace all indigenous Americans back to six “original mothers”.</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">A study released on March 12, 2008 “identifies the six surviving Native American mtDNA lineages that are dated to approximately 20,000 years ago, designated as A2, B2, C1b, C1c, C1d and D1. Today's study also confirms the presence of five more rare, less known and geographically limited genetic groups: X2a, D2, D3, C4c and D4h3.”</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Who or what is a Native American? Can the average American identify a Native American? The influx of European, African, Asian and “Hispanic” admixtures has made the answer more complex. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b>Who is a Native?</b><br />
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The answer to this question lies in how the sovereign tribes of the <st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place> and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) define a Native American. First, tribes have varying criteria for membership that range from ½ to 1/16 “Indian blood” (See the July 22 blog article on “Blood Quantum”). Tribes themselves define who is eligible for membership in the Native American family. Similar to loosing American citizenship, tribes can excommunicate blood members for reasons that go against the American Constitution. Federally recognized tribes are sovereign nations. </div>
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Second, in a case brought before the BIA, a man in North Carolina tried to discredit his wife who identified herself as a Native American by calling her a Negro (since she was mixed). The federal agency replied to his charge. In their response, the BIA stated in essence that they did not care about the other racial composition of a Native American. Although many Americans harp on the notion of the authenticity of “full bloods”, there are both tribal and federal acceptances of the multiracial composition of individuals who call themselves Native Americans. This self-identification factor in sovereign “Indian Country” confuses the average American. <st1:city w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:city> further muddied the issue by painting Italian, Irish and Jewish actors brown (such as Jeff Chandler, Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Paul Newman and others) while casting them in leading roles as either Native American full bloods or “half breeds”. A founding member of a District of Columbian indigenous American organization once told me that a person who wants to identify as a Native American, regardless of blood quantum, must be publicly acknowledged as a Native American by members of both the Indian and non-Indian community. </div>
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<b>The Crossover<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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From the time of 17<sup>th</sup> century <st1:city w:st="on">Jamestown</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Virginia</st1:state> up to today’s Vice-Presidential nominee Governor Palin’s <st1:state w:st="on">Alaska</st1:state>, Native Americans populations continue to be both hated and expendable. The English from <st1:city w:st="on">Jamestown</st1:city> went out twice yearly to kill Powhatan men, women and children in attempts of early ethnic cleansing. This practice caused some Virginia Indian families to go underground and as they say, “hide in plain sight”. Also, societal, economic and peer pressures have caused many Native Americans to identify themselves as black or white. In spite of gaming windfalls, Native Americans are still on the lowest end of the American society’s economic and health ladder. In some parts of Virginia and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Washington</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">DC</st1:state></st1:place>, Indians were forced to be reclassified as colored, mulatto, Negro, and later black. They were threatened with physical violence or loss of their jobs if they publicly acknowledged their Indian heritage. Some lighter skinned descendants of these Native American families moved out West into the Sun Belt to pass as tanned whites. Since it has become safer to identify with one’s Native roots in recent years, some of these family members have now enrolled in Native American tribes. Historically, many Native American families from the times of the Southern plantation system could only live in black neighborhoods. Dr. Walter Plecker, an avowed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_supremacy" style="color: #de7008;" title="White supremacy"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">white supremacist</span></a> and advocate of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics" style="color: #de7008;" title="Eugenics"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">eugenics</span></a> compounded the case against Native American identity by fiercely recommending the enforcement (by incarceration) of <st1:state w:st="on">Virginia</st1:state>’s<i> Racial Integrity Act</i> of March 20, 1924. </div>
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A Washingtonian relative in her 80s told me of the case of Sacagawea H. a Delaware Indian childhood friend whose family owned a store in D.C.’s <st1:place w:st="on">Georgetown</st1:place>, who committed suicide. Attempts to identify herself as a Native American in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Washington</st1:city>,<st1:state w:st="on">D.C.</st1:state></st1:place> met with typical skepticism. My source said that as proof of her Native American ancestry, “The chief of a <st1:state w:st="on">Delaware</st1:state> tribe attended her funeral.” Another story is of a <st1:place w:st="on">Mattaponi</st1:place> woman who was denied a federal job for “lying” on an employment form by stating in the “Race” category that she was an Indian. Also, consider the case of a prominent <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state> gallery owner who identifies herself as black. Her full-blooded Indian parents had escaped with their lives from the persecution of Cherokees in the South. They were spirited away to the North by a sympathetic sea captain. They could only live in an African-American community in <st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city>. Or the saga of prominent sisters from the Cherokee Reservation in <st1:state w:st="on">North Carolina</st1:state> who were misidentified as attractive “Negroes” in black entrepreneurial <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Washington</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">D.C.</st1:state></st1:place>’s early <st1:street w:st="on">U Street</st1:street>corridor. Maybe someone should write an Oscar awarding song titled “<b>It is hard out here to be an Indian</b>.”</div>
Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-50028959922542218902014-11-05T22:21:00.000-08:002014-11-10T21:24:23.001-08:00Cultural Revival: The Taíno<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt;">I can</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> still hear the lesson taught to me by a late
sculpture professor, mentor and friend, Ed Love. Upon a visit to my home in
Washington, DC, he commented on my sculptures. At that time, I worked mainly in
welded steel inlaid with etched and color embellished Plexiglas panels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">He said, “Always describe your own work. Don’t
leave its interpretation up to anyone else. No one else can accurately explain
its meanings.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">I took this advice. It is now associated with two pieces of
artwork , presented to the 2014 Jamaica Biennial judges, that is part of a
cultural revival of Taíno aesthetics. One is an assemblage sculpture titled “<i>Inriri</i>: <i>Yamaye Bird-man</i>” and a silkscreen print, “<i>Deminan of the 4 Twins</i>”. Both are part of the Creation epic of
the Caribbean’s Amerindian people, the Taino.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Usually an art historian or critic takes on the
task of catering to his own experiences or taste. During some critiques, the term “in the style
of” is often evoked. For example, “in the style of Picasso, or Rembrandt.” They
never say in the style of a non European “master”. What if I choose to emulate
unknown artists from an indigenous Amerindian culture such as the Taíno? The
viewer may be unfamiliar with indigenous Caribbean cultural aesthetics, but
should not avoid a Caribbean model for visual expression. I see my artwork as
an extension of an ongoing cultural revival of the indigenous people of the
Caribbean. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Research in a number of scholarly fields
continues to reveal more about the once-believed “extinct” people, of the
Caribbean, as newly discovered revelations about Amerindians survival are
constantly being made. The impact of over six million Taíno Amerindians is
Earth-shaking (Spanish Dominican friar </span><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bartolomé de las Casas</span><b> </b></span><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">was the source of this count).</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmoQBuhml0LXvW0VVoUhC4Y906JMbfqwm9gm3azuWBcCOD90xJu64viZfZ_W1U6Q2Zs1EtiCLGTV5GGIB0dSBxs4anVNPwsXRZNHyz7PwSautEEoF0m-deLusKkpMOnPEwvkDsr8Orj5RT/s1600/Cheif+Irvince+Auguiste_1992_+jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmoQBuhml0LXvW0VVoUhC4Y906JMbfqwm9gm3azuWBcCOD90xJu64viZfZ_W1U6Q2Zs1EtiCLGTV5GGIB0dSBxs4anVNPwsXRZNHyz7PwSautEEoF0m-deLusKkpMOnPEwvkDsr8Orj5RT/s1600/Cheif+Irvince+Auguiste_1992_+jpg.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chief
Irvince Auguist, Carib Reserve, Dominica 1992</span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The
Island Carib</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt;">The</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Island Carib who live in the Caribbean’s Lesser
Antilles and Central America, have a story of survival that differs from the
Taíno with whom their warriors had continued to intermarry. They, like the
Taíno had lived and navigated among 7,000 islands and the mainland Americas. To
say that these indigenous Caribbean people became extinct is a gross
misunderstanding of human survival </span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">after a holocaust. The rest of the planet, </span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">like the Amerindians never recovered from a form of culture shock that spread
as far east as Europe, Africa and Asia. World languages, cuisine and technology
are as peppered with the Taíno <i>aji</i>
(chili/capsicum) as Jamaican jerk (really Taíno <i>barbecoa</i>) with scotch bonnet and pimento (Taíno allspice). Over
time, Caribbean Amerindian influences so subtly melded into most world
languages and cultures that they are rarely identified as imports. Pizza,
curry, sweet potato and pumpkin pies, stir-fry (with bell and chili peppers),
fish & chips, and barbecue (called <i>barbie</i>
in Australia) although identified as part of local national customs all share
this common South American and Caribbean Amerindian source. Unknowingly, most
of the world’s people carry a little Amerindian in their stomachs. Those
millions who survive off Mainland (Central and South America) originated
corn/maize or cassava/yuca were introduced to these foodstuffs via the
Caribbean’s Amerindian cultures during a 28 year First Encounter period.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">According to Dr. Jose Barreiro (Cuban Taíno) of
the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in a 2013 discussion at Fondo
del Sol in DC, the Taíno survivors in Cuba still </span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">practice traditional
agriculture by the fazes of the moon. Not unlike the Island Carib canoe-maker
in Dominica who cut down the <i>gommier</i>
tree (”when the moon is finishing”) also by the moon’s position. “Unless a
researcher knows the right type of question to ask, or understands what they
are seeing,” Barriero stated, the incorrect assumption would be that these
capmecinos up in the mountains, don’t know much about Taíno culture. This wrong
assumption can lead to the common statement that the Taíno of the Caribbean
became extinct soon after the arrival of Columbus. Not only does the DNA
visibly survive in the populations of Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic,
Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but also in the diasporas living
outside of the Caribbean. There is no question of the Island Carib, for they
have a reservation on the Island of Dominica where they elect a chief every
four years. Their relatives, the Garifuna</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">population is
estimated to be around 600,000</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> who live along the “</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Caribbean Coast in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; text-decoration: none;">Belize</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; text-decoration: none;">Guatemala</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; text-decoration: none;">Nicaragua</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">, </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; text-decoration: none;">Honduras</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">including
the mainland, and on the island of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Roatán</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">”. They </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">also
survived with their African </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">kin via insurrections on St. Vincent, Martinique
and Guadeloupe and by way of a shipwreck of Africans not yet slaves, but bound
for enslavement. They did not go quietly into the night as some have thought.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Above:</i> “Dr Erica Neeganagwedgin, a Taino born in St Elizabeth [Jamaica] who attended Hampton School in the said parish, makes a point to Cacique Roberto 'Mucaro' Borrero, president of the</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">United Confederation of Taino People.”—</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Jamaica Gleaner, Saturday , July 5, 2014</i></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt;">An</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> example of Amerindian revival is being
spearheaded by Cacique Roberto Mucaro Borrero, director of the United
Confederation of Taíno People (UCTP) of which I am a member. Taíno
organizations both in the US and the islands are currently keeping alive both </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">the language and culture of their ancestors.
It is with this aim that the two works, a silkscreen print and an
assemblage sculpture were created. As a Jamaican artist, like most people in my
profession, I have gone through a series of self-examining style and content
changes in my career. From an island of mainly non-European people, having not been
taught about any other cultures that comprise my identity, was only natural to
fill in the gaps ignored by a colonial government. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">The question first to be
answered was, “Where am I?” The only real answer was, “In Amerindian
territory.” If so, were there any vestiges of indigenous cultures? A research
grant in 1992 led me to “Yes”, even though they were subtly hidden in practices
we consider to be Jamaican.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0__y0LG-fmxLkTbK264TYoDCF9FjcPTnEdCDrfUqf-w3TCfBF2JJodylDNNsji7q9sCud2wU0gBmuwoGjBx_Ja9_mBXBG6XMc6JN4_3mEq0NrF0eyj5A_TBElwtjT9J9GI1Go5IkGvmkn/s1600/Taino+of+Jamaica_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0__y0LG-fmxLkTbK264TYoDCF9FjcPTnEdCDrfUqf-w3TCfBF2JJodylDNNsji7q9sCud2wU0gBmuwoGjBx_Ja9_mBXBG6XMc6JN4_3mEq0NrF0eyj5A_TBElwtjT9J9GI1Go5IkGvmkn/s1600/Taino+of+Jamaica_.jpg" /></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Above</i>: ”Olive Moxam-Dennis (left) said though she always knew she was Taíno). But </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">never discussed. It was her daughter, Dr Erica Neeganagwedgin (right), who helped her to embrace her Taíno heritage”,-- Ibid.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">My</span></b> survival theory was recently realized by a
Jamaican newspaper article. Some Yamaye (Jamaican) Taíno descendants publicly
announced their lineage in 2014 at the
sixth </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Charles Town International Maroon Conference held in Portland, Jamaica.
Other Taíno representatives from the NY/Puerto Rican (Cacique Borrero) and
Connecticut/Dominican Republic areas were photographed with Jamaica’s indigenous
descendants. The original fear by the local Taíno, a common occurrence among
survivors, was public ridicule. For some inexplicable but not uncommon reason,
the general populace seemed shocked at the survival of people who went
underground or “blended in”. Having been on the Eastern Woodland Native
American powwow circuit for over 30 years, I often have been told similar
stories of Amerindian survival and the added burden of being a “hidden Indian”. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5MyY5LLjdztOTKYMKfyGh3O1NzqnMNtkCA47eRVPxYOgiXqTDR-NypbqxOgi1zm-K9-gdmQ5RMYtVF9cFGDWQTjGYwzzI_JxFUS7fQEJcPVkN1Ms5_NktMbgGJ9_ET1XCq32ZdVBNiICP/s1600/Taino+of+Jamaica_2_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5MyY5LLjdztOTKYMKfyGh3O1NzqnMNtkCA47eRVPxYOgiXqTDR-NypbqxOgi1zm-K9-gdmQ5RMYtVF9cFGDWQTjGYwzzI_JxFUS7fQEJcPVkN1Ms5_NktMbgGJ9_ET1XCq32ZdVBNiICP/s1600/Taino+of+Jamaica_2_edited-1.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Above:</i> “Jamaica-born Taíno, Olive Moxam-Dennis, chats with
Cacique Jorge Baracutey Estevez, Dominican Republic Taíno who lives in
Connecticut, USA, at the sixth Charles Town International Maroon Conference in
Portland recently.”-- Ibid</span><br />
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by the Jamaica Gleaner (http://jamaicagleaner.com/gleaner/20140705/lead/lead5.html)</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span><b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">There</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> was recently a call for entries for the 2014
Jamaica Biennial sponsored by the </span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ). I
submitted two Taíno-inspired pieces of art in an effort to include the missing Amerindian
portion of Jamaica’s cultural puzzle. From my observation Jamaica (similar to
the US in the 1960s) is rightfully going through its once denied Afro-centric
phase. I had been following the type of artwork that is promoted as competition
worthy. The current emphasis is on abstraction, some minimalism and “Intuitives”,
artists who are spiritually moved to create art without “formal” training. One NGJ
blog article also highlighted the works of some contemporary artists.
Abstraction is the norm. While
technically good; the subject matter exhibits the thinking of a nation working
towards artistic </span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">identity while mimicking artistic styles that have a genesis
in Europe and American Modernism. This begs the question; what is Jamaican art?
Is it a colonial shadow or, if given clues, would it be identified as uniquely
Jamaican? Only the Intuitive works could be compared favorably with similar but
distinctive Haitian painting styles.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Granted, Jamaica is a European creation in the
Amerindian Caribbean. Its current population is mostly ethnic African mixed
with European, Middle Eastern and Asian, built on Amerindian Taíno retentions.
Although many Caribbean artists have varying degrees of </span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">African DNA, one could
not easily tell by most of the artwork being created. Some artists seem to be
exploring their African roots; echoing an early 20<sup>th</sup> century
movement called the “Harlem Renaissance” (that included Jamaican poet Claude
McKay) which gave birth to African American “race pride” artists, such as those
members of the Africobra art collective (a Chicago-based group known for its “Wall
of Respect”. Africobra’s aim was to consciously express one’s self by going
against Mainstream Eurocentric styles by using African designs, imagery and
“Cool Aid” colors. The experimentation with American Indian aesthetics had </span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">taken hold in New York decades earlier ushering in the Modern Art Movement, a
style emulated by some Jamaican artists today. In the US this infusion of the
indigenous was necessary in order to create a truly new American style of
expression. Jamaican artists could take a page from this American Modernist
movement by researching those things that make them Jamaican and not European,
American or African. Truly “Jamaican” cultural heritage has a Taíno foundation.
A country that prides itself on <i>jerk</i>
foods, a Taíno based cuisine that uses a Maya word for its technique should know
more about its indigenous roots.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Amerindian acknowledgement</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Below:</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Three views of </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">“<b>Inriri: Yamaye Bird-man”</b></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Assemblage
sculpture. Materials: Maple and plumb wood, macaw and wild turkey feathers, abalone and cowrie shells. (2014) by Michael Auld.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1klu7qyY4jCNd1EhRliTTFQPQ7H0AMBqOYNc4x9KQxIn9iTJHf6VWoa7NpLDLe4ZwW2s7mNbVK1WptkZbTBajc2E0NEGUwwSUF-KNZUn8Xk2nMVXWn-aAjwD7YeI8lzrbEQ8F3m4t4BZB/s1600/Inriri_Bird-man+(front).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1klu7qyY4jCNd1EhRliTTFQPQ7H0AMBqOYNc4x9KQxIn9iTJHf6VWoa7NpLDLe4ZwW2s7mNbVK1WptkZbTBajc2E0NEGUwwSUF-KNZUn8Xk2nMVXWn-aAjwD7YeI8lzrbEQ8F3m4t4BZB/s1600/Inriri_Bird-man+(front).jpg" height="400" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front view</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0l79ItLwKrvGCiLRPSmwFkRn3YzFM3fQWEA-lFRGC9vkhPXPjH9jHcZCKzDF6RFZs-tmkdSM48ROqv05SdC3wvd8p4Q90zSJwBPJ8ZqNUz8cLRRVdij6MMhJEUZPpvdwQUherF3k_LbT/s1600/Inriri_Bird-man+(semi-profile).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0l79ItLwKrvGCiLRPSmwFkRn3YzFM3fQWEA-lFRGC9vkhPXPjH9jHcZCKzDF6RFZs-tmkdSM48ROqv05SdC3wvd8p4Q90zSJwBPJ8ZqNUz8cLRRVdij6MMhJEUZPpvdwQUherF3k_LbT/s1600/Inriri_Bird-man+(semi-profile).jpg" height="400" width="295" /></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Semi profile</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO0uBlO2WF6ENqtARjNVOQ47LQqhg7mugNkC_LlwdG2QTP1bIJiKblPAXJYzUGAc1otBMmCPaoaM-LfTKeXcEjI47szKPUKeXoagRBzrLLpqaRBPIdeaQ7sbjwpwr6TtQUPOVEB5rpBa3E/s1600/Inriri_Bird-man+(profile).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO0uBlO2WF6ENqtARjNVOQ47LQqhg7mugNkC_LlwdG2QTP1bIJiKblPAXJYzUGAc1otBMmCPaoaM-LfTKeXcEjI47szKPUKeXoagRBzrLLpqaRBPIdeaQ7sbjwpwr6TtQUPOVEB5rpBa3E/s1600/Inriri_Bird-man+(profile).jpg" height="320" width="190" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Profile</td></tr>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The</b></span> Amerindian acknowledgement phase in Jamaica is
just beginning. My e-mailed photographs and explanation along with an entry
form for the Jamaica Biennial read: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">“My two works titled "<i>Deminan of the 4 Twins</i>" and "<i>Inriri: Yamaye Bird-man</i>" are based on contemporary </span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">interpretations of stories and aesthetics from the indigenous ancestors of
Jamaica, the Yamaye Taíno. Deminan, is one of the four sons of Itiba Cahubaba
the Fifth Earth Mother of the Taíno Creation epic. <i>Inriri</i> is a part of the
bird-man category of beings, one found in Jamaica's Carpenter Mountains in the
1700s, and is also associated with the bird (Cahubabael) that is related to the
woodpecker's finding a woman's "honey spot". Duality is important to
the Taíno belief system, so the twin "Inriri" imagery represents
"the crucifixion of Taíno culture."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In</b> the Taíno Creation story, <i>Deminan Caracacoal</i> and his three brothers, called the “4 </span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Twins”,
were born to Itiba Cahubaba, the Fifth Earth Mother. They mate with Turtle
Mother to produce the world’s people. The Taíno are from Deminan, so only he is
named. In my print, they are set in a cave-like </span><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">womb surrounded by pictographs.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilip_ENqCclt1I-fOxHMeG_Qy_2GjnPCg5ZFLELHaZ7TX37I1jm16uaasX0gLipOtzXsWMv4IFgx4RC7l3aZHtvMpqJZvo_bcgG_utrUuThWNobGlFtWC9nYSi82h5ZH9p5d8ipSrm095L/s1600/Deminan+of+the+4+Twins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilip_ENqCclt1I-fOxHMeG_Qy_2GjnPCg5ZFLELHaZ7TX37I1jm16uaasX0gLipOtzXsWMv4IFgx4RC7l3aZHtvMpqJZvo_bcgG_utrUuThWNobGlFtWC9nYSi82h5ZH9p5d8ipSrm095L/s1600/Deminan+of+the+4+Twins.jpg" height="381" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“<i><b>Deminan of the
4 Twins</b></i>”, silkscreen print, (2013 ) by Michael Auld</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">T</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">his story, a part of the island’s </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">history, should be told as </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">effortlessly as the Anansi the </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spider-man folkloric tales.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"> All creation stories are valid parts
of cultures, not unlike “Adam & Eve” of the Hebrews or Michabo the Great
Hare of the Algonquians. After all, although many roots are in the Eastern Hemisphere,
we do live in the Western Hemisphere.</span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Post
script</b></span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">: Not surprisingly, my submissions were quickly rejected. As
a designer my modus operandi (MO) has instinctively been to be ahead of the
game.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are the sources for the above artworks.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbrXCsxAI4ULU1SrDkh89sJVOAzUtDffM8Znkl_tKfdxvq45yEqpaAqEcpLHDkNpoQoa1Ds_BgmSvSpfKFxaAaxRwMHQVXEqXzzB_S9RGwNRopYEvmwoAeE1x-7HkiF8EU4VEXIrqx4582/s1600/Taino+birdman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbrXCsxAI4ULU1SrDkh89sJVOAzUtDffM8Znkl_tKfdxvq45yEqpaAqEcpLHDkNpoQoa1Ds_BgmSvSpfKFxaAaxRwMHQVXEqXzzB_S9RGwNRopYEvmwoAeE1x-7HkiF8EU4VEXIrqx4582/s1600/Taino+birdman.jpg" height="320" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Above</b>: </i>Precolumbian(?) "<i><b>Taíno </b></i></span><i><b>bird-man</b></i>". This wood sculpture, probably <i>Inriri </i>(the woodpecker who is featured in the </span><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">Taíno's Guahayona story about the women who were taken from their husbands to the Island of Women</span><span style="font-size: small;">) was found in a cave in Jamaica's Carpenter Mountains in the 1700s. It was the inspiration for my assemblage wall sculpture above. The iconic Bird-man loaned itself to a cross-like image and a contemporary statement of crucifixion, a method of torture implemented by the ancient Romans. To me, it represented a cultural crucifixion. My sculpture's analogy alluded to the premature "death" and current resurrection of </span><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">Taíno culture in Jamaica.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJ2rxQG7AeYAdGr0pqWJs3n88qOXaX6uJGsMqem7CZm_GRRWV7qFmgowgs1tixMcXnEyMx9cDm5M4ZjvJXinXdlYYLh2qFduD2Q2RWcSw7ZL1KXks96yWYYEM5TLYLZ9ivGy8hnstTs7I/s1600/Itiba+Cahubaba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJ2rxQG7AeYAdGr0pqWJs3n88qOXaX6uJGsMqem7CZm_GRRWV7qFmgowgs1tixMcXnEyMx9cDm5M4ZjvJXinXdlYYLh2qFduD2Q2RWcSw7ZL1KXks96yWYYEM5TLYLZ9ivGy8hnstTs7I/s1600/Itiba+Cahubaba.jpg" height="262" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vih1Y06mueMujENXk8PsmKytrnBVyo27zHUcFor7RlXKJhQNa5StA9T0EraRiaRwhCjN2ek5dFxJbXysx_cP53l53sqeyXiSuyYplh5ILRo-_l9SgKJ-MLOv88KdwU7JihE9QQx42HDb/s1600/Itiba+Cahubaba_(detail%2Bof%2Bface).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vih1Y06mueMujENXk8PsmKytrnBVyo27zHUcFor7RlXKJhQNa5StA9T0EraRiaRwhCjN2ek5dFxJbXysx_cP53l53sqeyXiSuyYplh5ILRo-_l9SgKJ-MLOv88KdwU7JihE9QQx42HDb/s1600/Itiba+Cahubaba_(detail%2Bof%2Bface).jpg" height="207" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyVUffESHnjARJFZruZyI5msUeS5vP1prP6cXxUTFilxyXxf8O2vmdp2jaoXn71c_LO9JHOZdDU4p_bQ2Fc3MPIR920GqqbHO8bt8toEzWrMaIfsRA7sn8ES92jrSBrvDrdYSPodrbG18Z/s1600/Itiba+Cahubaba_(detail%2Bof%2Bwoumb-cave).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyVUffESHnjARJFZruZyI5msUeS5vP1prP6cXxUTFilxyXxf8O2vmdp2jaoXn71c_LO9JHOZdDU4p_bQ2Fc3MPIR920GqqbHO8bt8toEzWrMaIfsRA7sn8ES92jrSBrvDrdYSPodrbG18Z/s1600/Itiba+Cahubaba_(detail%2Bof%2Bwoumb-cave).jpg" height="400" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Above three photographs:</b></i> My silkscreen print above, titled "<i>Deminan of the 4 Twins</i>", was inspired by my life-sized sculpture of <i><b>Itiba Cahubaba</b></i> the Fifth Earth Mother of the </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Taíno. (Seen here in close-up details). Materials: composite wood, vines, shell, clay and paint. <br /><br />In the epic about her, she died after giving birth by Cesarean section to four "twins". The twins are set in a cave-like womb since caves (sometimes with pictograph drawings) were considered sacred by the </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">Taíno. The cave was the womb of Mother Earth, from where we came into this reality.</span></td></tr>
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Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-240011474097000882014-07-24T13:40:00.000-07:002014-07-25T10:14:56.599-07:00Payback or jelentései? <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2oqbvJweWR6UHP5OVMSl1LZyJ48LhPOWzBWb2gSxTTRnX6FVXgvC5pNZRYeUec4VxQLU2R2Rho2Vo8uM0dfEFL-uet7_uSu_2f7-O0h0H6lgGGRgrWOk9JP4Xx_fZOkcfOC4tS85XY6TZ/s1600/Karma-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2oqbvJweWR6UHP5OVMSl1LZyJ48LhPOWzBWb2gSxTTRnX6FVXgvC5pNZRYeUec4VxQLU2R2Rho2Vo8uM0dfEFL-uet7_uSu_2f7-O0h0H6lgGGRgrWOk9JP4Xx_fZOkcfOC4tS85XY6TZ/s1600/Karma-1.jpg" height="640" width="498" /></a></td></tr>
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Kicking Native Americans out of their homeland was first tried in North America by the English colonists. Pequots were “deported” to Bermuda after King Phillip’s War. Carolina Amerindians were exported to the Caribbean for slave labor there so that the “settlers” could take their fertile lands. “Indian Territory” was set up by the Americans in Oklahoma as a form of Eastern US ethnic cleansing. (Notice the visible low populations of the Native presence in the East as opposed to Oklahoma, New Mexico, etc.).</div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">jelentései </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">/yel-en-tey-say/ (<i>nasal</i>) </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">n.</i><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">The Algonquian word for destiny/karma</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="background: rgb(255, 227, 197); color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">destiny, fate, fortune, kismat, kismet</span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">karma</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">/ˈkärmə/. <i>n.</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">(in Hinduism and
Buddhism) the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of
existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.</span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Informal</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">: destiny or fate,
following as effect from cause.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">It</span></b> is interesting to see the Texas border issue play out
between the mostly Amerindian (and some “Mestizo”) child refugees and angry
Anglo protesters intent on sending these minors back to El Salvador, Guatemala
and Honduras. The unfolding issue has highlighted a number of observations.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">(1) Now that the shoe is on the other foot, do
the protesters finally understand how it felt to be a Native American who had
to watch the first "illegals" arrive on their shores and cross
Amerindian territorial borders, beginning in 1607? The 17<sup>th</sup>
century “European Invasion” started the takeover of North America by outsiders.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">(2) Who belongs in the USA? What would Native
American forefathers think about the current "border crisis"? Surely
not in the same way the immigrant poem below idealistically proposed. Anti-immigrant
protests by earlier European arrivals showed fear of takeover by later arriving
"huddled masses" from Europe.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The concept of "finders, keepers" is
reminiscent of an English naval officer's quip after the English took the
island of Jamaica away from the Spanish in 1655. The Naval officer said in so
many words, "What is their problem? They took it away from the Indians.
Now we are taking it away from them (the Spanish)."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Heading1Char"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The New Colossus</span></span><br />
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<b><i><span style="background: white;">Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">With conquering limbs astride from land to land;</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">"Keep ancient lands, your storied
pomp!" cries she</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your
poor,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"</span><br />
</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">The statue beneath which this poem appears represents <i>Libertas</i> the Roman goddess of liberty.
It is evident that this poem by Emma Lazarus, graven on a tablet within the
pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands, at the time only applied to a
chosen few. It represented freedom and democracy that did not apply to
Amerindians or descendants of enslaved Africans who were already here. Today,
the sentiment does not apply to those dogged Amerindian children crossing our
border into Texas, fleeing for their lives. The statue was placed at the
entrance to the New York harbor on Liberty Island and it obviously only applied
to masses coming across the Atlantic not the Rio Grande.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Maybe the new Texas border fence should have a
plaque that paraphrases the one below the Statue of Liberty with:</span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="background: white;">"Keep
out your tired, your poor,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The wretched refuse of your teeming hoard."</span></i><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The irony is that the Anglo “settler”
descendants/beneficiaries who took Indian lands by force and disease want to
send all the little Amerindian refugees back south to that other portion of
“Indian Territory”, South and Central America. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="background: white; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The history of unwanted migration began earlier north of the border
beginning in 1607. "Free" Powhatan Indian lands that still belonged
to the displaced and disenfranchised Native Americans had been offered to Englishmen
for the taking. Euphemisms like "virgin territory", "wide open
spaces" and "wilderness", were applied to territories
already populated and owned by the indigenous Amerindians. It was taken by
force for sole ownership by foreign "settlers" in a hemisphere already
inhabited and managed by early Amerindians [Read the book "1491: New
Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" by Charles C. Mann]. In
effect, our huddled non-Amerindian masses were invited in to share stolen booty
while the original owners were corralled on reservations. (The Treaty of 1677
between the King of England and the Queen of Pamunkey, was clear on who could
and could not even visit the Virginia reservations without a pass from an
Englishman.)</span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">So it was with generations of those who
clandestinely inherited stolen Native goods. The children from Central American
countries are perfectly described on the Statue of Liberty's pedestal. The only
problem? They are the young southern Amerindian cousins of indigenous Americans
living in the United States. By both historic and scientific definition they
are not recent immigrants like the folks who seek to keep them out. Amerindians
coming back North is an ancient practice as can be seen by reported Maya DNA
markers found in some South Eastern Woodland people. Both mound-building and corn had
already arrived from the south thousands of years before Europeans. The Central
American children are survivors of a 500 year holocaust escaping yet another
form of genocide from imported guns and bullets, crossing the border to help
replenish the DNA of their northern Amerindian cousins. The only main things
that divide them are the foreign languages (English and Spanish) of the European
"settlers".</span></span>
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<!--[endif]--></span>Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-60867204092599358582014-06-22T22:00:00.000-07:002014-06-22T23:26:27.925-07:00Football: Is it American? What role did the Olmec play in this international game?<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<b><i><span style="background: white;">The
Olmec,</span></i></b><i><span style="background: white;"> “the mother civilization of Mesoamerica, flourished
in the present-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico from around 1500 BCE.
The name "Olmec" comes from the Nahuatl word for the Olmecs: Ōlmēcatl
[o</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ː</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">l</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ˈ</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">me</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ː</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">kat</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">͡ɬ</span><span style="background: white;">] (singular) or Ōlmēcah [o</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ː</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">l</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ˈ</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">me</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ː</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">ka</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ʔ</span><span style="background: white;">] (plural). This word is composed of the two words
ōlli [</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ˈ</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">o</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ː</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">l</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ː</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">i], meaning "rubber", and mēcatl [</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ˈ</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">me</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">ː</span></i><i><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">kat</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">͡ɬ</span><span style="background: white;">], meaning
"rope", so the word means "rubber line or lineage"-Wikipedia</span></i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5dHcq4bgUpF65z19LNRB4_GgvTMs571f1ecETZiVTKixTPiRTFGcTQHuvrWbKFOvIGsM4SNloL36cBX3s_rmDacw7bUIPR1a62CvSSHXzVoMojwgglTq7TneQltQBI_dSHp9aK73e-Cq2/s1600/Rubber+collection+&+the+Olmec.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5dHcq4bgUpF65z19LNRB4_GgvTMs571f1ecETZiVTKixTPiRTFGcTQHuvrWbKFOvIGsM4SNloL36cBX3s_rmDacw7bUIPR1a62CvSSHXzVoMojwgglTq7TneQltQBI_dSHp9aK73e-Cq2/s1600/Rubber+collection+&+the+Olmec.jpg" height="416" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="background: white;">So, What About Soccer?</span></b></h2>
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The
FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil is continuing the traditional international
fervor for ball games. The World Cup started in 1930, Brazil has won the most
times, fittingly with five wins under her belt. Next to the Olympics, this is
the most watched and celebrated sport event in the world. The rubber ball game
began in the Americas, so, why has it been so hard to chronicle ALL of
football, or "soccer's" contributory beginnings? Especially when the
people who invented rubber from a tree sap named themselves after their
world-changing invention. The product took over a thousand years to hit the
world market.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">When I
was a lad growing up in the Caribbean we played football, the game that
actually describes how it is played. When I arrived at Howard University in
1962 the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">game that Americans called
soccer was dominated by the foreign students from the Caribbean and Africa. The
ball that I played with was made from sewn strips of leather, a lace to close
the innards, and a tube or bladder made from an ancient Amerindian invention,
rubber. It was this borrowed indigenous sap or blood of a Tropical American
tree, <i>Hevea brasiliensis</i>, that made
soccer/football possible. Without this vulcanized invention we would be left
with how the game originated, kicking a stuffed leather or grass ball. With
that dead trajectory, we might as well be playing rugby. It is doubtful that
football would have gotten off the ground to become a World Cup event. I am
still trying to find mention of the Olmec genius who figured out how to bleed a
tree and, through the process of vulcanization, produced a bouncing ball,
waterproof capes and shoes, body hair remover, bungee straps, and toys. It was not
until the 19th century that this Amerindian invention was exploited (as most other
indigenous goods were) taken out of the
Americas only to return to the Amazon jungles with world-wide fixated
attention. Even the Latin name for the tree is “Brazil”. The only more
appropriate homecoming for the ballgame, would have been Mexico.</span></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="background: white;">Hevea brasiliensis</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Maybe
latex is in the blood of Brazilians, Mexicans and others who have dominated the
rubber ball game for centuries while other people were kicking around tufts of
grass or the skin of an animal. Do I expect Mexico's Olmec, who invented the
rubber ball and one of the world's earliest team sports, or the Caribbean's
Taino civilization, who introduced the magical sphere to World Cup football to
get credit at all? What about the offshoots, basketball, volleyball, tennis or
any game played with a bouncy ball? Not really. After all, it is only rubber on
the tip of a pencil or as a condom, right? I often muse at the arrogance of the
invaders in citing Amerindian accomplishments. "They did not develop the
wheel", is the common refrain. Yeah. Only for toys. On the other hand, the
wooden and steel wheels were dragging along in an Eastern Hemisphere wasteland
for centuries, until Olmec rubber revolutionized the wheel, often mentioned as
a benchmark of "civilization". With Amerindian rubber, the cart or
carriage became an automobile, truck and aircraft only by the grace of the
Olmec. Try driving one of those around on steel rims! The ungrateful benefactor
generations that inherited the Olmec legacy have never been taught this
Amerindian lesson. What do they know of the other treasures, precious metals,
stones, pearls horticultural products and Amerindian technologies that enriched
their "First World" homelands? It is summer, so, just whip out the
Amerindian hammock and throw a shrimp on the Taino barbie! Don't forget the
Mexican invented corn.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Early
soccer/football was like a three legged dog. It could function, but could it
run at Greyhound speed without a fourth appendage? So too is the fast-moving
composite game called soccer. In the book by David Goldblat titled "The
Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer" the author chronicles the
history of the game that the world calls football. He stated that cultures like
the Australian Aborigines, Chinese, Native Americans [the Powhatan Confederacy
of Virginia], Egyptians, Japanese and other SE Asians, all played a type of
football. The Chinese want to take credit for its invention... But hold on!
Their balls were made from straw, others from rattan or stuffed leather. During
the "founding of America", Virginia Governor William Strachey, described
how Powhatan Indians played a fast ballgame with their feet or with a bat. He
failed to be mention that the Amerindian, specifically the Olmec of Mexico discovered
how to use latex from the sap of the <i>Hevea
brasiliensis</i> tree. Their use of
rubber completely revolutionized the ball and how the contemporary game of
football/soccer is played. The Maya, who built impressively large ball stadiums from stone, were successors to the Olmec, whose name translated loosely to
"People of the Rubber". This lack of credit to Amerindians by some
writers is typical. The World Cup football contests are being played out in the
homeland of latex rubber, and yet it is made to seem like an import to the
Brazilian Amazon from of all places, 19th century Europe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br />
<span style="background: white;">When
the Spanish arrived in the Caribbean with Columbus in 1492, the rubber ball
game was already more than one millennium old. The Spanish marveled at the
bounce of the Taíno <i>batu</i>, calling the
elasticity of the bounce witchcraft. </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfV49bZclp_QvMIhkMTUcKEkkE6ybXkrcVvaje_LtG0ANK1GgOazQ86S-ZRAT8oH5tGlSK1FO4dknsTrcluOBsGAslRod3tTCXW5qBz_Zo3XG7lavpJdJJbrjubLOiXLnFmcbmpezwJ73/s1600/Taino+Ballplayer_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfV49bZclp_QvMIhkMTUcKEkkE6ybXkrcVvaje_LtG0ANK1GgOazQ86S-ZRAT8oH5tGlSK1FO4dknsTrcluOBsGAslRod3tTCXW5qBz_Zo3XG7lavpJdJJbrjubLOiXLnFmcbmpezwJ73/s1600/Taino+Ballplayer_2.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Above</b>: A Taino <i>batu</i> or rubber ball player was the first </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
in the Americas to impress the arriving Spanish.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The Spanish took Amerindian teams back to Spain for </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
an exhibition match at the court of the king where the </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Portuguese ambassador was also introduced to the game. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It took Europeans centuries to create their own versions of</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
the rubber ball game. The bounce of the soccer/football below </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
the figure was originally made possible with an Amerindian </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
rubber bladder, pumped with air. Today, balls are made from</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
synthetic materials developed by the Germans in WWII.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background: white;"></span><br />
<span style="background: white;"></span>
<span style="background: white;">Male Taino ball players used their hips to
keep the ball airborne. No sissy stuff with the hands or feet. Women either did
the same or kicked it or swatted it with a bat. They played on a clay court
using two teams. When the ball hit the ground, it was considered dead and a
point would be awarded. One can still visit these ball courts or <i>batey</i> in Puerto Rico. The rubber ball
game was found as far north as Arizona. During rough times, the Mexica (Aztec)
imported increasing number of rubber balls from the Yucatan provinces to
placate the people. In Central America where the ballgame was invented, the
emperors built walled stadia with two carved stone circles, protruding from the
East and West walls, with a hole in the center, just large enough for the sold,
bone-breaking latex ball to pass through. Sounds like basketball doesn't it?</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvRRAipqk6DgTUTyQh7-2gSasltBrADuK6jfM25-Iv35h3cIqbnH8WlhGnu3fmKF5O44zdkpMK-NHtieSgPPVNvCw0TpoffW7d9mKJuxXB5HiYVM7lk7WjSkQ-5ss-_nqp7bVyGimpcxQs/s1600/Maya+ballplayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvRRAipqk6DgTUTyQh7-2gSasltBrADuK6jfM25-Iv35h3cIqbnH8WlhGnu3fmKF5O44zdkpMK-NHtieSgPPVNvCw0TpoffW7d9mKJuxXB5HiYVM7lk7WjSkQ-5ss-_nqp7bVyGimpcxQs/s1600/Maya+ballplayer.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">An airborne Maya rubber ball player striking the solid ball<br />
with his hip through a carved stone hoop. Fast-moving, agile<br />
players dived like a volleyball player to save the ball from<br />
hitting the ground. In Mesoamerica the ballgame took on<br />
spiritual, life and death, or ominous significance. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvRRAipqk6DgTUTyQh7-2gSasltBrADuK6jfM25-Iv35h3cIqbnH8WlhGnu3fmKF5O44zdkpMK-NHtieSgPPVNvCw0TpoffW7d9mKJuxXB5HiYVM7lk7WjSkQ-5ss-_nqp7bVyGimpcxQs/s1600/Maya+ballplayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white;">There, both teams were warriors intent on playing a spiritual game, the outcome
of which involved the gods and fate. Gambling kingdoms away were sometimes at
stake and the building of stadiums increased when strife threatened the Mexica
(Aztec) Empire. In some versions of the </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">game, warrior-players were prepared to
die, some as honored sacrificial messengers to the gods; others as losers. </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The movement of the ball in the air could represent the all important movement
of the sun, whose fate was in the hips of the ball player. Teams could
represent light or dark.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With the fall of Mesoamerican empires and Spanish intervention both in the Caribbean and
Mainland Central America, the rubber ball game almost disappeared. Although it
is still played in villages in Mexico, it was replaced by football. Not much is
different between the ancient spectator ballgame and other rubber ball games
that took its place. While <i>batey</i> was
played as a social game in the Caribbean (you know us; we like sun and fun),
gambling was prevalent among the Amerindians of both the Caribbean and
Mesoamerica. Like the Catholic practice of a bloodied, sacrificed Son of God
that replaced blood sacrifice in Central America (not to mention the introduced
Christian practice of ritually drinking the blood of Christ and eating his
body), football replaced the need for dispatching warrior players as messengers
to the gods. However, the brutality that follows some European fans (especially
in stiff upper lipped England) still seems to call for spilled blood. Not from
the players, but from their beer crazed fans.</span></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvIjmPBsx9Jd0hr67L-OgU4fRe2TZTt1ZJJYqYuIXJfL7z2J-YJ8b2V2Xk2IzClSnl-1yU0MmrBTiWMeI6D0mP0A1US68iI_J4RT9eUsUzmvLoUxiyqeokO4mSAZvlBRf-Us-gI-DxBNDZ/s1600/Mesoamerican_BallCourt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvIjmPBsx9Jd0hr67L-OgU4fRe2TZTt1ZJJYqYuIXJfL7z2J-YJ8b2V2Xk2IzClSnl-1yU0MmrBTiWMeI6D0mP0A1US68iI_J4RT9eUsUzmvLoUxiyqeokO4mSAZvlBRf-Us-gI-DxBNDZ/s1600/Mesoamerican_BallCourt.jpg" height="640" width="614" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Top</i></b>: (<b>a</b>), The ruins of a Maya ball court in 2008, the Yucatan, Mexico from the position of the North end of the "I" shaped field. One of the stone hoops appears in the wall to the left.<br />
(<b>b</b>) Effigy of a Maya ball player.<br />
(<b>c</b>) A detached, carved stone hoop.<br />
<b>(d) </b>Codex illustration of the configuration of a ball court. Only two players show their positioning,<br />
<br />
Originating over 3,700 years ago the ballgame was very popular. There have been an estimated 1,300 ball courts found in Mesoamerica. The gigantic Olmec stone heads show leaders wearing what is described as a ballplayer's headgear. The Maya and Aztec left records showing that the ballgame was also used to solve hereditary issues, wars, to foretell the future and help in political issues. The Classic Maya origin story told in the Popol Vuh describes the ballgame as a contest between humans and underworld deities, with the ballcourt representing a portal to the underworld. -- Archaeology.about.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background: white;">(I
think that with the advent of the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament, this article
was worth reviving.)</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-17611383181342075542013-05-15T12:02:00.001-07:002014-12-23T15:19:23.300-08:00Who owns slavery?<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Slavery: Who owns up to it? </h2>
<div style="text-align: center;">
© by Michael Auld,Jamaican-born writer/artist <br />
(<a href="http://powhatanmuseum.com/">powhatanmuseum.com</a> and <a href="http://anansistories.com/">anansistories.com</a>)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b> </b> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Older blogs:<b> </b><a href="http://yamaye-mike.blogspot.com/">http://yamaye-mike.blogspot.com/</a><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Some</b></span> humans refuse to own up to slavery. Yet, older than the Bible, the ownership of human beings continues today in one form or another. For example, according to English law, a man's wife was his property. This point is even more poignant as was demonstrated during an incident in the history of early America with an encounter between an Englishwoman and a Native American woman. The Englishwoman was appalled when she saw a Native American woman giving a horse away. Accustomed to her husband's rights of ownership, even of all animals, the Englishwoman asked, "How can <b>you </b>give the horse away?" The Native woman replied, "This is <b>my </b>horse!"</div>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0uoO1CLIMhWsk35zbVLGk5sldFh3BvLlqysmISeqk6QUQ_VIKwpiH00gOi29rAfKqwkfOBSEr3lE3hYB6ZQ4ju9myBT9AobG-kFsk-qaqjE8kp8Gl3hM6lMYdhu31f71mZi6DsCOQ10lg/s1600/Arab-Slave-Market-1884.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0uoO1CLIMhWsk35zbVLGk5sldFh3BvLlqysmISeqk6QUQ_VIKwpiH00gOi29rAfKqwkfOBSEr3lE3hYB6ZQ4ju9myBT9AobG-kFsk-qaqjE8kp8Gl3hM6lMYdhu31f71mZi6DsCOQ10lg/s640/Arab-Slave-Market-1884.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>s</b><i><b>lave</b></i></span>
(<b>Slav</b>), <i>n</i>. -- from <b><i>Slav</i></b>, one of a group of eastern, southeastern and
central Europe, including Russia -- <b>1</b>. a person who is the property
of and wholly subject to another, also a <b>bond servant</b>.-- <i>Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language</i><br />
(<i><b>Above</b></i>): Painting of a 19th Century Arab slave market. Notice the ethnicity of each person. This ancient Arab slave trade scene was typical of the period, and has continued today. E.g. an Ethiopian artist/friend, as a young victim, was hoodwinked and sold in Aden where he later impregnated his master's daughter and had to escape and flee back home.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTbO959Si9YbAL2FdjT3VGssdzQCIyZamm-Qrj4MTw0T1w3DQyZLLlRXKEF07i2VHdHvtEKiCwgErg1AMmtYOr5bcaTR0ggraz86MSvp_XElK9dNjlWadbtjc6X4pH8TfV646e9dtEOr1/s1600/European+serfs.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTbO959Si9YbAL2FdjT3VGssdzQCIyZamm-Qrj4MTw0T1w3DQyZLLlRXKEF07i2VHdHvtEKiCwgErg1AMmtYOr5bcaTR0ggraz86MSvp_XElK9dNjlWadbtjc6X4pH8TfV646e9dtEOr1/s400/European+serfs.jpg" height="231" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>serf</b></i> </span>
(surf), <i>n</i>. <b>1</b>. a person in the condition of servitude, required to
render services to a lord, commonly attached to the lord's land and
transferable with it from one owner to another. -- <i>ibid</i><br />
(<i><b>Above</b></i>): Illustration of a European master with his serfs. A scene similar to this European one could easily be found in Asia, Africa or the Americas. This English practice was the forerunner of slavery in America. In Jamestown, Virginia they began with indenture, i.e. a <b>bond servant.</b> Englishmen were the first indentures there after 1607. Africans, introduced to Jamestown in 1619 were saved from slavery to work as indentures at this place that some refer to as "Where America began." The next group up for servitude in Virginia was prostitutes brought to the colony, intended as "wives" for the indentured. The theory behind this introduction of matrimony for Englishmen was that they needed English wives since these wild, gold-hunting men would only settle down and establish a colony if they were married.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li>Slavery was one of the planet's first "equal opportunity" institutions, since almost all nationalities had the misfortune of being counted among the enslaved.</li>
<li>"Historically, slavery was institutionally recognized by many societies;
in more recent times slavery has been outlawed in <b>most</b> [my emphasis] societies but
continues through the practices of debt bondage, indentured servitude, serfdom, domestic servants kept in captivity, certain adoptions in which children are forced to work as slaves, child soldiers, and forced marriage.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-modernslavery_2-0"></sup>
There are more slaves in the early 21st century than at any previous
time but opponents hope slavery can be eradicated within 30 years."--<i>Slavery</i>, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery</li>
</ul>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>s</b> can be seen
above, both slave and serf can be synonymous. Human beings are hardwired
to survive at all costs, often by practicing denial. So, it is not
surprising that we have, and continue to, survive the shame attached to
the "peculiar institutions" of slavery and serfdom. But, should we
elevate these conditions to a badge of honor, that almost all human
societies have practiced? Name the country or the people and you
will find none that do not have descendants of slaves or serfs in
their history. <br />
<br />
On the first day he encountered the native people of
the Americas, Colon (Columbus) wrote in his journal: "They should be good
servants... I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of
my departure, six natives for your Highnesses." He also promised slaves "as many as they shall order to be shipped." Colon (originally Colombo), who came from slave/serf driven societies
of Spain and Italy immediately saw the indigenous Caribbean Taino people as potential slaves. Romans were notorious for having Greek slaves while
the Greeks had Ethiopian slaves and the Ethiopians had their own local slaves.
Africans were by no means the only enslaved people in the history of the practice. The very word "slave"
comes from the Slav, a favorite group of Asiatic-European people that
Arabs loved to enslave, especially blond female Slavs, among others. "Historian Robert C. Davis
estimated that between 1530 and 1780 1–1.25 million Europeans were
captured and taken as slaves to North Africa, principally Algiers,
Tunis, and Tripoli, but also Istanbul and Salé."-- (see Wikipedia's- "Barbary Pirates" for more extensive information on piracy/slavery in the Muslim world).<br />
<br />
In 1492, Columbus came into a hemisphere
where slavery was a very ancient institution. Human beings, it seems,
like free labor or love to use the labors of conquered people. Even the
Bible guides us on how to treat our slaves. (Remember the Biblical story of
Rachel who gave her slave girl, Bilhah, to Jacob, for the purpose of bearing children? Bilhah gave birth
to Dan and Naphtali, who were considered legal sons of Rachel.). The enslaved groups that are found in this sacred Christian
book are Moses' people, the Hebrews/Jews, and Ethiopians. Jews, however,
like Indigenous Americans, don't quickly mention or "promote" their
enslavement as Africans in the Americas do.<br />
<br />
There is currently,
an ongoing project to increase the knowledge of worldwide slavery and slave routes
as well as the Underground Railroad in the Americas. There are even current and proposed monuments
to this immorality. A UNESCO set of goals are:<br />
"The Project aims to--(i) break the silence about the slave trade and slavery in various regions of the world;<br />
(ii) shed light on its historical consequences, the many transformations and cultural interactions sparked by<br />
those forced encounters, which have brought forth the diversity characterizing contemporary societies;<br />
(iii) contribute to thinking on new issues and challenges that must be addressed by contemporary societies."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Many</b></span> people in the Americas are descendants of
slaves and/or serfs, yet African Americans, some Caribbean people as
well as those in Central and South America with similar stories of slavery, are constantly reminded
that the title "slave" solely belongs to them and their histories. For example, when Barack Obama became
president, white writers eagerly scrambled to find his "slave
ancestor". At first, frustrated by the effort, they switched to his
wife, Michelle, and then to his white mother. This phenomenon does not
happen to white presidents of the USA. No one writes
about their serf ancestry. Instead, researchers try to link white
presidents to European royalty. President Barack Obama, it was recently written,
is descended from a slave on his white mother's side of the family. Who
knew? His African (Kenyan) father did not come from slave stock. "Aw,
shucks!" white writers must have said, then, "Aha! His white mother is part
black. Gotcha!" Now these writers can sleep peacefully at night since
they "outed" another prominent African-American. I am simply tired of
seeing successful black Americans labeled as "a descendant of a slave"
while their white counterpart gets a pass by not being linked to their serf
ancestor. Rising above serfdom, an American or early European condition, should, in all fairness, be equally
touted as a "badge of honor" and automatically added to their biography.<br />
<br />
Although almost all human
societies, past and present, had slaves, the current label "slave" is
often synonymous to Negro, black or African American. A case in point: A beautiful, dark, brown-skinned African-American teacher at D.C.'s Eastern High School (whom I knew) who
visited Egypt a few years ago, overheard a word used to describe her in a Cairo marketplace.
When she asked what the Arabic word meant, she was told, "slave". So much for visiting Mother Africa.<br />
<br />
The
more accurate term used to describe some New World people's ancestry
should be "<b>en</b>slaved" +African (enslaved African), or +European (enslaved European), or +Native American (enslaved Native American), or +Asian (enslaved Asian), etc. Slavery is a condition associated with defeat. Although many "New World" people are descended from slaves, serfs,
conquers and the conquered, I refuse to think that term "slave" is a
badge of honor. For the sake of one's own self worth, personal history should not begin with defeat. By contrast, European-American history
usually begins at an early stage of life with princes and princesses.
Why, even serfs can marry a prince or kiss a frog-prince and marry him. In American lore, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is followed by Prince
Charming, Prince William, Queen Elizabeth and other royals. I have often
wondered why Americans are so enamored with the British Queen
Elizabeth, a person with whom, from personal experience, I identify
with colonial subjugation. Have they forgotten the American Revolution? In pre-independence Jamaica, every movie
theater began the show with a picture of a waving British flag, the
image of the queen, while we stood to the playing of "God Save The
Queen", a brainwashing melody uncannily sounding like an American national song.<br />
<br />
<h2>
How was slavery practiced in some of the world's cultures?</h2>
<h3>
(1) Early American Slavery</h3>
Slavery in North America did not start in 1619, as some writers seem to believe. A common practice among some Amerindians was to steal women from another tribe or, after a battle, take the vanquished warrior's wife and children and incorporate them into the victor's tribe. The earliest recorded Spanish evidence of this practice in the Americas was encountered by Columbus in the Virgin Island's St. Croix in 1493. After his ships returned to the Americas and his men went ashore, some Taíno women who were captives of the Carib of Ay-Ay (St, Croix) ran down to the beach and pleaded with Columbus to return them to Boriken (Puerto Rico). Columbus refused to get involved..<br />
<br />
In Amerindian North America the treatment of the enslaved took many forms. The Slave Killer object below is evidence that speaks for itself. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWUgzyNFmT74diFOZEd4MtVfl2exGMfeo4SLREKRHrXIJuopQUV7edFl8gygnBbIypC7SHUWxM5T3I3BsoyyJD7_eHZI6gtr9m39qqYMFuBu5UjtRE8ksoy6sz7yL9f1GF-ttqaE7FXSaw/s1600/Slaver+Killer_club_Pacific+Coast-Columbia+River.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWUgzyNFmT74diFOZEd4MtVfl2exGMfeo4SLREKRHrXIJuopQUV7edFl8gygnBbIypC7SHUWxM5T3I3BsoyyJD7_eHZI6gtr9m39qqYMFuBu5UjtRE8ksoy6sz7yL9f1GF-ttqaE7FXSaw/s640/Slaver+Killer_club_Pacific+Coast-Columbia+River.jpg" height="464" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">(<i><b>Above</b></i>): <b>The Slave Killer</b> -- http://www.anthroposgallery.com/gallery/killer.html<br />
Sculpture of a Columbia River prehistoric "Slave Killer" club represents a
stylized wolf carved in quartzite. Stone clubs from this region date to
the pre-contact period prior to the 18th Century, and may well have been
carved many hundreds of years before the earliest contact with
Europeans. It is not certain what the precise usage was, but the term
"Slave Killer" was used since the 18th Century to describe a club of
similar configuration which was used by chiefs of certain Pacific
Northwest Coast tribes to kill a slave at a ceremony, as a demonstration
of power and extravagance.--The club is inscribed with "Clatsop County,
Oregon."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
(2) <b>Egyptian Slavery</b></h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlwyL-XUV0ruC8GYdcaZLLUW62VGDj_iz-s36QYnB_YtxaDzyFZjNUqJU0KI2AuTDY8h2yLoQgRoBlf-P9RDHMBo-1cUpP5Xaw5wBGsRg6ZdOZHQr3EC3cP8_zGwXhxBBuqTV-Olb5oei/s1600/African+slaves+in+ancient+Egypt.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlwyL-XUV0ruC8GYdcaZLLUW62VGDj_iz-s36QYnB_YtxaDzyFZjNUqJU0KI2AuTDY8h2yLoQgRoBlf-P9RDHMBo-1cUpP5Xaw5wBGsRg6ZdOZHQr3EC3cP8_zGwXhxBBuqTV-Olb5oei/s640/African+slaves+in+ancient+Egypt.jpg" height="596" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">(<i><b>Above</b></i>): Egyptian wall relief showing Nubian captives. Egypt traded for gold, leopard skins, honey and ivory with their southern neighbors in Nubia (modern Ethiopia) The Nubian conquest of Egypt, then under the invading Hittites, restored pharaonic rule and culture to Egypt. Some of Egypt's great rulers were Nubian, who returned power to the Egyptians.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> T</span>here</b> is some controversy whether there was slavery at all in ancient
Egypt. The differences of opinion stem mostly from how slavery is
defined. Theory and practice of Egyptian slavery were, as far as we can
ascertain, quite different from those of Greece, Rome or the southern
states of the USA, where slaves were wholly at the mercy of their owners
with little protection from society, and more in line with the kind of
slavery practiced in the rest of Africa.<br />
<br />
"Hem" (Hm), generally
translated as 'slave' and originally meaning body, was seemingly a
person with lessened rights dedicated to a certain task such as the
service of a god (since the 1st dynasty) or the royal administration.
The hemu (pl. of hem) are mentioned in the context of private persons
only since the end of the Old Kingdom. <br />
Since the Middle Kingdom
foreign slaves mainly from Asia became increasingly numerous. They were
either prisoners of war or traded by slave merchants. Their period of
enslavement in Egypt was often limited. Debt slaves or prisoners of war
were at times set free after serving for a certain period. Some
of the slaves were personal servants of individuals. Others belonged to
estates of temples and noblemen. They were often taken during a military campaign
or bestowed by the king. But how is one to interpret the following Old
Kingdom inscription:<br />
"There were presented to him the things of his
father, the judge and scribe Anubisemonekh; there was no grain or
anything of the house, [but] there were people and small cattle."-- The
biography of Metjen, 3rd dynasty-- J.H.Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt
Part I § 171<br />
<br />
Were these people just tenants, free to move away
if they wanted to, or - as the context seems to suggest - more likely part
of the estate, perhaps with a social position similar to that of a
medieval serf? Such inscriptions, tying together land and labourer,
occur frequently throughout Egyptian history.<br />
For want of better
words slave and slavery are used on this website to refer to people with
significantly reduced rights and their social state.<br />
<br />
<h3>
(3). Mexica (<em>Me-she-kah</em>) or "Aztec" Slavery:</h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX6TXmvqhIa5hTXkgto_ufrI7vvqkg-t1AKyBf3IMczIP6SldfWsLvW6vuQcedU8Lvd3Jg5D7ouz3oQRxBBtcXWtR2BMNqlrWmFaorkLkC4HrLtt8vNqYN55JRoNisd9dTp3hf3eESM6jc/s1600/Aztec+slave.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX6TXmvqhIa5hTXkgto_ufrI7vvqkg-t1AKyBf3IMczIP6SldfWsLvW6vuQcedU8Lvd3Jg5D7ouz3oQRxBBtcXWtR2BMNqlrWmFaorkLkC4HrLtt8vNqYN55JRoNisd9dTp3hf3eESM6jc/s640/Aztec+slave.jpg" height="590" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">(<i><b>Above</b></i>): Codex illustration of a Mexica or "Aztec" prisoner or slave. Notice the collar that was used to retard his easy escape.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"<b>Slaves</b></span>
or <b><i>tlacotin</i></b> also constituted an important class in Mexico. Aztecs [or Mexica]
could become slaves because of debts, as a criminal punishment or as war
captives. A slave could have possessions and even own other slaves.
However, upon becoming a slave, all of the slave's animals and excess
money would go to his purchaser. Slaves could buy their liberty, and
slaves could be set free if they had children with or were married to
their masters. Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had
performed outstanding services were freed. The rest of the slaves were
passed on as part of an inheritance. [An uncanny similarity to
the European-American form of the same institution - George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson had similar provisions in their wills - Some planters
who fell in love with their slave/ concubines, left land, goods and
money to their common-law wives and their mixed race (they would be octoroons, quadroons, etc., or mulatto) offspring. There is a story of an American planter who had himself buried on a hill, sitting in a chair, watching over his widowed common-law wife's inherited property, so that, even in death, no one could reverse the bequeath to his beloved <b>soul</b>-mate].<br />
<br />
Enslaved Aztecs were employed as traveling merchants called
<strong><em>pochtecah. </em></strong>They were a small, but important class as they not only facilitated
commerce, but also communicated vital information across the empire and
beyond its borders. Some were often employed as spies. This slavery
was very different from what Europeans of the same period were to
establish in their colonies, although it had much in common with the
slaves of classical antiquity. [
Sahagún doubts the appropriateness even
of the term "slavery" for this Aztec institution. -- Bernardino de
Sahagún (1499 – October 23, 1590) was a Franciscan friar, missionary
priest and pioneering ethnographer who participated in the Catholic
evangelization of colonial New Spain (now Mexico). Born in Sahagún,
Spain, in 1499, he journeyed to New Spain in 1529, and spent more than
50 years in the study of Aztec beliefs, culture and history)] <br />
<br />
First,
as seen above, [Mexica/"Aztec"] slavery was personal, not hereditary: a
slave's children were free. A slave could have possessions and even own
other slaves. Another rather remarkable method for a slave to recover
liberty was described by Manuel Orozco y Berra in <b><i>"La civilizacion azteca"</i></b>
(1860): if, at the <i>tianquiztli</i> (marketplace; the word has survived into
modern-day Spanish as "<i>tianguis</i>"), a slave could escape the vigilance
of their master, run outside the walls of the market and step on a piece
of human excrement, and then present their case to the judges, who
would grant freedom. They would then be washed, provided with new
clothes not owned by the master, and declared free. Because a person who
was not a relative of the master could be declared a slave for trying
to prevent a slave's escape, people typically would not help the master
prevent the slave's escape.<br />
<br />
Orozco y Berra also reports that a
master could not sell a slave without the slave's consent, unless the
slave had been classified as incorrigible by an authority.
(Incorrigibility could be determined on the basis of repeated laziness,
attempts to run away, or general bad conduct.) Incorrigible slaves were
made to wear a wooden collar, affixed by rings at the back. The collar
was not merely a symbol of bad conduct: it was designed to make it
harder to run away through a crowd or through narrow spaces.<br />
<br />
When
buying a collared slave [see above illustration], one was informed of how many times that slave
had been sold. A slave who was sold four times as incorrigible could be
sold to be sacrificed; those slaves commanded a premium in price.
However, if a collared slave managed to present him- or herself in the
royal palace or in a temple, he or she would regain liberty. An Aztec
could become a slave as a punishment. A murderer sentenced to death
could instead, upon the request of the wife of his victim, be given to
her as a slave. A father could sell his son into slavery if the son was
declared incorrigible by an authority. Those who did not pay their debts
could also be sold as slaves.<br />
<br />
People could sell themselves as
slaves. They could stay free long enough to enjoy the price of their
liberty, about twenty blankets, usually enough for a year; after that
time they went to their new master. Usually this was the destiny of
gamblers and of old ahuini (courtesans or prostitutes). Motolinía
reports that some captives, future victims of sacrifice, were treated as
slaves with all the rights of an Aztec slave until the time of their
sacrifice, but it is not clear how they were kept from running away.
[Toribio of Benavente, O.F.M. (1482, Benavente, Spain-1568, Mexico City,
New Spain), also known as Motolinía, was a Franciscan missionary and
among the first 12 clerics to arrive in New Spain in May 1524.]<br />
<br />
The
children of poor [Mexica aka Aztec] parents could be sold, usually for
only a certain time period. Slaves could buy back their freedom. Slaves
that escaped and reached the royal palace without being caught were
given their freedom instantly." - <a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/azteculture.html" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1363039502856_2242" target="_blank">http://www.crystalinks.com/azteculture.html</a> -Aztec Culture and Society, (also from Wikipedia-"Slaves")<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>(4) The Spanish (in Jamaica)</b></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi61nn7s_H441zTg_hYddp7nEv5oPrZsTO0hT1wVHiYe_X2aLiV66eZmRxPJeHrf-BZnT6-QItmpLNdywGhzXmCX_PhNjn7tfuSpHdYk-P9dUPHuP8Bos1wZcxFtnzXKwlA8EJ7AIYi-eq/s1600/deBry_slavery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi61nn7s_H441zTg_hYddp7nEv5oPrZsTO0hT1wVHiYe_X2aLiV66eZmRxPJeHrf-BZnT6-QItmpLNdywGhzXmCX_PhNjn7tfuSpHdYk-P9dUPHuP8Bos1wZcxFtnzXKwlA8EJ7AIYi-eq/s640/deBry_slavery.jpg" height="449" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A print of the exploitation of indigenous American labor by Spaniards in Peru by Theodore de Bry, <em>America</em>. part 6. Frankfurt, 1596</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The</span></b> <b>first people </b>to be enslaved by the Spanish in the Americas, were the <b>i</b>ndigenous Taíno. Later, other participants in the endeavor were the Portuguese, English, Dutch and the French. At first, Jamaica was temporarily spared because of the Spanish lack of interest in that island and "relegated [it] to oblivion for a number of years" since, as Columbus reported, there was no gold there. The island only took on importance after the voyages of Alonso de Ojeda and his rival Diego de Nicuesa since Jamaica was the closest to the Continent which provided easier access for the conquest of Mainland America. In 1519, Hernán Cortés had used Cuba as the launching point to invade the Mexica in Central America. The mass introduction of Africans as slaves, came after 1517 when Frey Bartolomé de las Casas
pleaded with the Spanish crown to replace enslaved Tainos with
enslaved Africans. The dwindling supply of Lucayo Taino conch divers from the Bahamas forced into pearl diving off Venezuela's Margarita Island, was also cited by him as added cruelty towards the Indios. The Taino pearl divers, once known for their beautiful hair and smooth skin, appeared like "disheveled dogs covered with sores and dying from the bends. Some Spanish individuals, like the islands' Governors
and the churche's Abbots had personal enslaved Africans, and we can assume, Mulattoes. For example, the free blacks in Spanish Jamaica, called <i>horros</i>, belonged to a distinct strata of the island's society.
They made up one of the city's four groups of the island's militia. The island's combined mulatto and Yamaye Taíno made up another one of the four militias in
the city. Interestingly, another group, the creoles, i.e. those Africans born in the
island, were to be "given bows and arrows to help to protect the island
from" marauding Englishmen, et al. (<i>Spanish Jamaica</i> by Francisco Morales Padrón, p.156). Some enslaved Africans in Spanish Jamaica, gained their freedom while others whom the island's masters were ordered by the Crown to be replaced upon their deaths, only gained their freedom by dying.<br />
<br />
Slavery in Jamaica was complex both for the African, Taíno and mulatto. Spanish enslaved Africans in Jamaica were treated more cruelly than those in Santo Domingo, a fact cited by the author Padrón who stated that none in that larger island felt forced to escape to form Maroon settlements as was the practice in Jamaica. Treatment of enslaved Africans differed on both islands. However, when the other competing Europeans, like the English, attacked Jamaica, the Africans helped the Spanish to fight the external opportunists off from within their own fortified enclosures. These Afro-Spanish Jamaicans were feared by the marauding opportunists as formidable foes. The majority of enslaved Africans brought to the island then were a homogenous group that came from "the western sub-region of the Gulf of Guinea (Gold Coast, Slave Coast), with the Coromantis (Coromantyns, Koromantis) [i.e. Asante, Fanti and Akyem, a combined name "Coramantees"]. The Gold Coast of Africa, mainly supplied prisoners of war from the Akan people who were then vassals of the Denkyera --a powerful Gold Coast kingdom of Akan people, relatives to the Asante or Ashanti-- before the <i>Asantehene</i>, king, Osei Tutu <abbr>(</abbr><abbr title="circa">c.</abbr><span style="white-space: nowrap;"> 1695</span> – 1717), and his cousin, the priest Okomfo Anokye broke away from Denkyira/Dutch subjugation during the Asanti (Akan) War -- The Battle of Feyiase]. Some Angolans were also clandestinely sold to the Spanish against the Crown's edict, while 150 slaves (probably a mix of Taíno and African) were abandoned on the island's North Coast by marauding Frenchmen who had raided Santo Domingo (Haiti/Dominican Republic). The Crown had refused to grant licenses or <i>asientos </i>for the importation of Africans to Jamaica.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->"Up until 1665, the importance of [enslaved Africans] continued unchanged. Since the economy [sugar, cattle, agriculture] depended on them as its fundamental column." (ibid, p.157). It was during the ensuing five year Spanish vs. English struggle for the island history that the African Maroon societies expanded. During this period the Spanish Crown encouraged them in the struggle for Jamaica by awarding them with freedom with "full peace, comfort and rest."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>So</b></span>,
there! Maybe you are descended from a prince or princess, however, who
among us is not the descendant of a slave, serf, or criminal? Don't
believe me? Ask an Australian from that former British penal colony.
Maybe this information about an ancestor <b>should </b>be kept in the closet,
until outed by a writer/nosy-researcher, of course. Poor Barack Obama, he
remained salve-free during his first brief 15 minutes of fame .<br />
<br />Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-60729413930048337152013-03-18T18:56:00.000-07:002017-02-16T12:51:44.531-08:00Opechancanough : The first American hero<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b> © by Michael Auld,<span style="color: #0000ee;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span>(<a href="http://powhatanmuseum.com/">powhatanmuseum.com</a> and <a href="http://anansistories.com/">anansistories.com</a>)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Older blogs:<b> </b><a href="http://yamaye-mike.blogspot.com/">http://yamaye-mike.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>An Overlooked American Hero: For March 22nd</b></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg31V2LNLtZ1LVJPG8naa51jV1zOCBqpoKyXfZzV-7HKS3EWWqNNhhCGLmfW9QL95MwDFW2D6jTurQ77Z4wN34ZvlA526F4aCbxcLis8rb57EuW1jsAcumaZMT3efpFP3ktQOk8D9k38ipe/s1600/Opechcancanough.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg31V2LNLtZ1LVJPG8naa51jV1zOCBqpoKyXfZzV-7HKS3EWWqNNhhCGLmfW9QL95MwDFW2D6jTurQ77Z4wN34ZvlA526F4aCbxcLis8rb57EuW1jsAcumaZMT3efpFP3ktQOk8D9k38ipe/s640/Opechcancanough.jpg" width="531" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">(<i>Above</i>)</span>:</span> </span></b>This is a computer enhanced watercolor of how <b>Opechancanough
</b>may have appeared wearing the traditional turkey feather headdress, freshwater pearls and symbolic body paint. He was the Algonquian
leader (who succeeded his late brother Powhatan II) of a vast empire
whose territory included large areas in the states of North Carolina,
Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia-- <a href="http://powhatanmuseum.com/Powhatan_Map.html">http://powhatanmuseum.com/Powhatan_Map.html</a>--.<b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: small;">Like his older brother, he may have also visited Capitol Hill<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> </b>in Washington,<b> </b>DC.</span></span> The painting is based
on a watercolor illustration of an Algonquian man done by documentary artist
John White who accompanied the 1585 English exploratory voyage to the
"New Found Land Of Virginia". White later became governor of the failed
"settlement" of Roanoke.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">"</span>He began in 1610 what the American Revolutionaries<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: large;">achieved</span> </span>in 1776"</span></span></span>
</div>
<b><span style="font-size: 24pt;">I</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">t</span></b> would seem that this man should be the first Native
American to be called a hero and given those deserved rights and privileges,
like the Civil Rights heroine, Rosa Parks.<br />
Opechancanough was the architect of the<b> First Anglo-Powhatan War</b> that took place from 1610-13 in Virginia. <br />
Never one to claim defeat as long as he lived, he rebounded with the <b>Second Anglo-Powhatan War</b> that took place from 1622-32.
"In 1622 the English knew they were at war. On March 22 there was a
massive [coordinated] assault on the English plantations on the James River. English trading vessels in the York River basin,
and perhaps the Rappahannock area, were also
attacked. About one-fourth of the English living in Virginia on that day; at
least another fourth died within the year from Indian sniping, from the
famine caused by English inability to plant crops under Indian fire."--<i>
Powhatan Foreign Relations: 1500 - 1722</i>, Edited by Helen C. Rountree, Pp.
190<span style="font-size: small;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"> </span>During the <b>Third Anglo-Powhatan War </b>(1644-46), Opechancanough was
taken to the battlefront on a litter He was later captured and martyred when shot in the back by an
English colonist while imprisoned. <br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
His descendants are <b>Still Here</b>!</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Opechancano<span style="font-size: large;">ugh</span>'s Descendants</span></b><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">(<b><i>Top</i></b>): Photograph of one of
the youngest descendants of Opechancanough, <b>Naat'aani Opechan</b> with his
Dine (Navajo) mother, Ani. Next to her is a non-Native </span><span style="font-family: "arial";">Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro. Naat'aani's Pamunkey<b><i>/</i></b>Tauxenent
father</span><i><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt;">,</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> Kiros, is on the right.</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"> In Dine, <i>Naat'aani</i> means "Leader". (<b><i>Bottom</i></b>):
</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-family: "arial";">Family wisdom keeper and great-grandmother, </span>Georgia Mills Jessup (Pamunkey), is just one of the
many descendants of Opechancanough. </span></div>
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</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>n reality</span>, the territorial and
cultural histories of the United States of America began at Jamestown,
Virginia in 1607, with the establishment of the first successful permanent English
settlement in North America. The American Revolution and Opechancanough's Wars share a similar quest, to rid the
fledgling country of the English. The people who became "Americans"
(through acculturation) were distinct from the English and had done so
by first "going Native" and surviving off Powhatan II's generosity. During those early years, the English survived by trading or stealing Powhatan corn since they did not grow enough crops to feed themselves. The English were more interested in growing "brown gold" (tobacco) which was traded overseas as a major cash crop. Pocahontas' second husband, John Rolfe, previously had introduced a milder Taino tobacco to the American colony. The indigenous Caribbean Amerindian cash crop helped to finance the American Revolution. Americans became distinct from their colonial
master, the English, by adopting Native American lifestyles and customs. For example, "historians, including Donald Grinde of the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, have claimed that the democratic ideals of the <i>Gayanashagowa</i> [the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois] provided a significant inspiration to Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and other framers of the United States Constitution"--<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iroquois_Constitution.">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iroquois_Constitution.</a>). It seems fitting that the first hero of
this pivotal founding of a country was the Native American, and a man
named Opechcancanough (pronounced in English as Opi-can-canoe).<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho27_I8ny2hnIw5v0waYOqmKfgGJWLugX52695g0kmHrYaljpILN326PkE0B752e531eWp_vd1hDbxc6-eDdwx-HICweg0dWI0_aJWiBo4gG9Ge0-zys7KfTa5DHYpmZg8HvHapKGuDDz5/s1600/Powhatan's+mantle.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho27_I8ny2hnIw5v0waYOqmKfgGJWLugX52695g0kmHrYaljpILN326PkE0B752e531eWp_vd1hDbxc6-eDdwx-HICweg0dWI0_aJWiBo4gG9Ge0-zys7KfTa5DHYpmZg8HvHapKGuDDz5/s640/Powhatan's+mantle.jpg" width="462" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(<i><b>Top</b></i>): !980's photograph of Powhatan's Mantle viewed by Rose Powhatan (Pamunkey/Tauxenent)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>. </b></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(<i><b>Bottom</b></i>): </span></span>Photo of the mantle
showing a man between his two totems, a mountain lion and a deer.
Surrounding them are circles representing 32-34 Algonquian nations in
the kingdom<b>,</b><span style="font-size: small;"> approximately </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="text"><span style="line-height: 17px;">between 18,700 to 19,250 square miles.</span></span></span><b> </b></span></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>We</b></span> should make a commemorative statue to the American hero Opechancanough who was a younger brother of paramount chief <i><b>Wahunsenacawh</b></i>
(Powhatan II, the statesman who expanded the confederation of 8 Algonquian nations into one of 34 before he was 60 years old). As seen above, Opechancanough was primarily known as the nationalist war chief
who masterminded the inter-tribal Indian rebellion of 1622, and later
1644, until he was assassinated (shot in the back) while held in
captivity by the English colonists in Virginia in 1646. There are
many theories about the true identity of Opechancanough as well as
his rationale for instigating the ingeniously coordinated Virginia
Indian rebellions. <br />
<br />
Some believe that Opechancanough may have been the captured Indian youth, initially
taken to Mexico, where he was baptized and given the name "Don Luís" and educated by the Dominicans.
He was later taken to Spain. During his two years in Spain, he met King
Phillip II. While he was in Spain, he was generally assumed to be "the
son of a petty Chief". He eventually left Spain for Havana, Cuba, in the
company of Dominican missionaries. Don Luis carried on the Powhatan
tradition of being a great speaker, and seems to have mastered the art
of persuasion. He convinced the Dominicans to return with him to his
homeland, under the pretense of helping them in their quest to
"Christianize" his fellow tribesmen. Phillip II wanted to establish a
missionary settlement in the Tidewater region of Virginia (then known as
"Ajacan"). Some historians believe that Opechancanough was that unnamed
captive, and his experiences among the Spanish may have influenced his
deep distrust of European settlers in the "New World". He must have
known that their plans for colonization would result in the cultural
annihilation and displacement of his people by the Europeans.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg520Pw_GjuOfVH-Wo3HUJdlrXy7oScoavI1sv5QVtV-l_LcOe5EbvwPgsndlxJDYdHUKkvgPwFGehQj1UJnS5mb27Tz2lCE3zbabUn5yHfSSz2MyC5DgEl8xCnjOpPJofWa-2JOparlZm6/s1600/Opichancanough+taken+by+John+Smith.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg520Pw_GjuOfVH-Wo3HUJdlrXy7oScoavI1sv5QVtV-l_LcOe5EbvwPgsndlxJDYdHUKkvgPwFGehQj1UJnS5mb27Tz2lCE3zbabUn5yHfSSz2MyC5DgEl8xCnjOpPJofWa-2JOparlZm6/s640/Opichancanough+taken+by+John+Smith.jpg" width="462" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The above caption under the illustration exhibits the writer's (Rountree) misgivings. First, the English concept of royalty allowed them to recognize "kings" and "queens" among the Native American leadership, especially because of the expanse of Powhatan II's territory. Second, Algonquians, who the 17th century English met, were considered to be extremely tall (e.g. Powhatan II was described as over six feet tall). In comparison, the average height of late 16th century Englishmen was 5 feet 6 inches.</span></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span> </span></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>nother</span> theory about Opechancanough's distrust of Europeans can be
found in the writing of John Smith. Smith boasted of having shamed the
well-respected leader by holding a pistol to his breast while marching
him in front of his assembled tribesmen. Smith, as seen in his memoirs of the Pocahontas Story <i><span style="font-size: small;">(<span class="text"><span style="line-height: 22px;">Pocahontas:<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>Patron Saint of Colonial<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>Miscegenation? </span></span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="text"><span style="line-height: 22px;">by Kiros Auld --<a href="http://powhatanmuseum.com/Pocahontas.html">http://powhatanmuseum.com/Pocahontas.html</a>)</span></span></span>, tended to exaggerate his power and stature. The Pamunkey warriors laid
aside their weapons in an attempt to save the life of Opechancanough,
not out of cowardice, but in solidarity of their love for him.
Opechancanough was shown an egregious lack of respect by John Smith -- <i>ibid <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1019454438">http://powhatanmuseum.com/Opechancanough.html</a></i><a href="http://./">.</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span>n</b></span> <b>March 22nd</b>, some Eastern Woodlands Native Americans, in the know, will
quietly celebrate Opechancanough's strategic attempts to rid his territory of the increasing number of English interlopers.Why not join Virginia Natives by including in your meal for that day, turkey or venison (or any Virginia game animal, i.e. raccoon, muskrat, etc.), plus vegetarian <i>succotash </i>and corn bread or <i>pone </i>(two Powhatan Algonquian words). Or, as a learning assignment, you may want to practice a few of their following American words<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>:</b></span></span><span class="text" style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="text" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: large;">"</span><b><span style="font-size: large;">I</span>n</b> addition to other current Algonquian dialects and dictionaries, the Powhatan's language is not dead. Algonquian <span style="color: #0000ee;"><span style="font-size: small;">is</span></span> the language of the first indigenous Americans to intimately interact with the English. Their words below survive in the English language as<b> </b></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;">Caucus </span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;">--</span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> <span style="font-size: small;">f</span>rom </span><b><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">corcas</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 17px;">. <span style="font-size: small;">f</span>rom </span><b><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">caucauasu </span></i></b><span style="line-height: 17px;">or "counselor". First recorded by Captain John Smith. Today, it is a political meeting, especially on Powhatan II's old territory where, according to an English chronicler, he liked to caucus with surrounding tribes (on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC) to make decisions. The chronicler also stated that <span style="font-size: small;">'</span>Powhatan never left his territory'<span style="font-size: small;">;</span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Chipmunk </span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;">--</span> <span style="font-size: small;">f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">chitmunk</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">.</span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Hominy </span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;">-- c</span>orn<span style="font-size: small;">;</span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Honk</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;">-- f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">honck</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;"> or </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">cohonk, a</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Canadian goose. It is associated with the sound made by the bird, or associated with winter or a year. The Powhatans called the "Potomac" River "the River of the Cohonks" for the noise made by the yearly arrival of the geese there. To honk, honky, and honky tonk all come from cohonk<span style="font-size: small;"><b>;</b></span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Match coat</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;"> -- f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">matchcores</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">, skins or garment<span style="font-size: small;"><b>;</b></span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Maypop</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;"> --</span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;">f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">mahcawq</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">, a vine with purple and white flowers that has an edible yellow fruit<span style="font-size: small;">;</span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Moccasin </span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;">-- f</span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;">rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">mohkussin</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">, a shoe<span style="font-size: small;"><b>;</b></span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Muskrat<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;">-- from </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">mussascns</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><b>;</b></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Opossum</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> <span style="font-size: small;">-- a</span>lso </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">possum</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;">,</span> <span style="font-size: small;">f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">aposoum,</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;"> or "white beast"<span style="font-size: small;"><b>;</b></span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Papoose</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>-- <span style="font-size: small;">a</span>n infant or young child<span style="font-size: small;"><b>;</b></span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Pecan</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;"> --</span> <span style="font-size: small;">a</span> nut, from </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">paccan</span></i><b><span style="font-size: small;">;</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Persimmon</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> <span style="font-size: small;">-- a</span> fruit<b><span style="font-size: small;">;</span> </b></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;">Poke weed<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;">--</span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> </span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-size: small;">f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">pak</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">, or </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">pakon</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">, blood + weed<span style="font-size: small;"><b>;</b></span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Pone (Corn Pone)</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> <span style="font-size: small;">-- f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">apan</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">, "baked".</span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Powwow</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> --</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> <span style="font-size: small;">f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">pawwaw<span style="font-size: small;">, a</span></span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">n Algonquian medicine man. A dance ceremony used to invoke divine aid in hunting, battle, or against disease. Now used as a Pan-Indian word for a social dance festival<span style="font-size: small;">;</span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Racoon</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> <span style="font-size: small;">-- f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">aroughcun</span></i><b><span style="font-size: small;">;</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Susquehanna</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> <span style="font-size: small;">-- f</span>rom </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">suckahanna</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">, water<span style="font-size: small;">;<b> Squaw</b> -- a <span style="font-size: small;">vagina, associated with a <span style="font-size: small;">derogatory</span> <span style="font-size: small;">term for an Indian woman, now obsolete;</span></span></span></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Terrapin</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> <span style="font-size: small;">-- a</span> turtle, from </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">toolepeiwa</span></i><span style="font-size: small;">;</span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Tomahawk</span></b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> -- from </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">tamahaac</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">, </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">tamohake</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;">, a weapon. From </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">temah-</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;"> (to cut off by tool) + </span><i><span style="line-height: 17px;">aakan</span></i><span style="line-height: 17px;"> (a noun suffix)<b><span style="font-size: small;">;</span></b></span><b><span style="line-height: 17px;"> Tump</span></b></span><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (tump line)<span style="font-size: small;"> -- a</span> strap or string hung across the forehead or chest to support a load carried on the back. -- </span><a href="http://powhatanmuseum.com/Children_Corner.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://powhatanmuseum.com/Children_Corner.html</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: large;">"</span></span></span></span></span></span>Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7672619438559288914.post-53200485511820355622013-03-07T14:59:00.000-08:002015-02-22T19:50:10.317-08:00The Yamaye Taino ("Arawak") of Jamaica revisited<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The "Arawak". Were they Jamaican?</b><br />
<br />
© by Michael Auld,Jamaican-born writer/artist <br />
(<a href="http://powhatanmuseum.com/">powhatanmuseum.com</a> and <a href="http://anansistories.com/">anansistories.com</a>)<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b> </b> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Older blogs:<b> </b><a href="http://yamaye-mike.blogspot.com/">http://yamaye-mike.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NWxy5w63ZdCEBYCsmce8JRw6j9Od9-Uopo5lob5gdjOSEEyQIcSKC6OoanwCpXra-09n6W98cyloUYWRbp3fLyJCMC62oSFbE9chU6jiB-_G8plOibzXbAvg5pr6XYpFJsnwPJwJbMT0/s1600/Taino_Arawak+woman.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NWxy5w63ZdCEBYCsmce8JRw6j9Od9-Uopo5lob5gdjOSEEyQIcSKC6OoanwCpXra-09n6W98cyloUYWRbp3fLyJCMC62oSFbE9chU6jiB-_G8plOibzXbAvg5pr6XYpFJsnwPJwJbMT0/s640/Taino_Arawak+woman.jpg" height="640" width="355" /></a></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix28GZSGnO0Itgj_DbBjBc2GF_QmUnPu3llm1ad6ojKvwN6dJtAPYTshvbm4dQyJ8m6-LYfvFUYD-iRwwcsLGLqHO0mE2ZbwoRjmfwpUqygvb-jeGuhvUg0TxdF15q3fWE-ZNy3uO9_77N/s1600/Cuban+macaw.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLL1FGDXzLAsTNEXvA25wQm6T2pKdackLRdFK0t3qACwx_t_BvV6nGRHP9FuM7RrqWNY5uYLXoZbDwpv4TkLMf2jyOAfK1y-lKNbw0-c4auuxJSyoU-S3ZtNE6kAvkNMSKVT-FuB5X2ejU/s1600/Bammy_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<i><b>Above:</b></i> Etching of the image of the <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Taín</span>o ("Arawak"), one of the peoples indigenous to the Caribbean, along with the scientific term for the group. It is obvious that the artist never saw a <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Taíno woman since her body type, facial
features and hair style are not Amerindian. She wears a <b><i>nagua</i></b>, a clothing article worn by married women. She holds a bow and arrow,
weapons that an Island Carib woman used with deadly force against one of
Columbus' longboat-men chasing a canoe off the coast of St. Croix in
1493. She holds a macaw-like parrot, probably the kind endemic to the
Caribbean, now extinct. The last red macaw in the wild was shot, for its
feathers and meat, in Cuba in 1864. Jamaica's <b><i>Yamaye</i></b> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Taíno</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>were known as excellent bowmen.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiG6hmOIFWbuaUGLbqDMwUe-sAUqrJAf7WGApsIoK7AoERuT-awqg6cgXUeDk-ykUJnkDTfUv_5TaB1eteuEw9Q1lIOaCvbfFBkj20TNW9eBxl7uDygTHOvECswAs7NtyPV2bZ_Prk1yF/s1600/Cuban+macaw.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiG6hmOIFWbuaUGLbqDMwUe-sAUqrJAf7WGApsIoK7AoERuT-awqg6cgXUeDk-ykUJnkDTfUv_5TaB1eteuEw9Q1lIOaCvbfFBkj20TNW9eBxl7uDygTHOvECswAs7NtyPV2bZ_Prk1yF/s320/Cuban+macaw.jpg" height="400" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><i><b>Above: </b></i>Watercolor painting by Jacques Barraband <span style="color: black;"></span>(1800 approx) of an actual Cuban macaw. It was the smallest of the macaw family. This bird represents the last remaining example of a Caribbean macaw. They were captured for display in Europe and only a few of their skins remain today.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAHVGQTP9FbaohMoIpikndKfwQ_Jj-DTv_LZ4g4yfC0aQaLoxYibO4gxUV4MpV27KzAWuLHR7pVrWbeb1HGt57Wzb3OO0V-r7e_Zkucf6dpZJ2j0qb4KFDb8xSKpi3IbqUSYhjrHFYEhip/s1600/Ja.+Maroons_1865_Enlargement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx3sJLqthgWMeLQzi7NtJUxTsoLYc_ANeal4bNjEORaMuKORO0MSpqrp_HedeRx4OkyWq4MYF_dneLSIPdJc4XBDIyBOEYUr4KJtYyyv1mm6VuRwNR8bOxSfiCYrIYMDBxlQ4EMDDTg6wz/s1600/First+ball+game.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx3sJLqthgWMeLQzi7NtJUxTsoLYc_ANeal4bNjEORaMuKORO0MSpqrp_HedeRx4OkyWq4MYF_dneLSIPdJc4XBDIyBOEYUr4KJtYyyv1mm6VuRwNR8bOxSfiCYrIYMDBxlQ4EMDDTg6wz/s400/First+ball+game.jpg" height="400" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><i><b>Above</b></i><i><b>:</b></i> Illustration of a Taíno</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"> ballplayer wearing a carved stone belt, according to one researcher, used to change the body's center of gravity, making the player more agile. Puerto Rico has a number of excellent examples of these belts that were ornately carved from one piece of rock. Here, the player hits the heavy, solid rubber ball with his hip. Underneath the player are images of balls that bounce (originally with the aid of rubber) used in a number of contemporary games whose roots are in the Mesoamerican team sport invented by the Olmec civilization of Mexico's Yucatan. This illustration by Michael Auld was taken from one done in Madrid, Spain in the 1500s and reported by an ambassador to the Spanish Court. The game and rubber ball spread around the world<i><b> </b></i>in the guise of</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"> (<i><b>L-R)</b></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"> volleyball, soccer, basketball, American football and tennis.</span> </span></span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Y</b></span><b>amaye
</b> was a recorded name, at the time of Cristóbal Colón (Columbus), for the
island of Jamaica. Frey Bartolomé de las Casas estimated that there
were approximately six million Taino in the northern area of the
Caribbean at the arrival of Columbus in the Americas in 1492. Generally,
the islanders within the large<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span>Taino ethnic collective of Caribbean
Amerindians called themselves by the names for their islands. They were,
Yucayas or Lucayas (Bahamas), Caobana (Cuba), Kiskeya or Aytí (the
island of Hispaniola shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic),
Boriken (Puerto Rico) and Yamaye (Jamaica). <br />
<br />
There were earlier,
pre-Taino<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></span>inhabitants of<br />
the Caribbean who may have come from Belize,
the Yucatan, and Florida starting over 6,000 years ago. They were the
true human discoverers since they may have come into a pristine area of
their Western Hemisphere that the 15th century Spanish thought was the
biblical Paradise. (Some Europeans also thought that the Caribbean was
the fabled Greek "Atlantis", thus, the "Antilles"). This "D" shaped area
contained a vast sea and hundreds of islands and small "cayos", a<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span>Taino word from which "cay" and " key" were derived. The agriculturalist
ancestors of the <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Taíno</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"> </span></span>began to arrive at around the time of the birth
of Jesus the Christ, mainly from South America. <br />
<br />
The British term
"Arawak" for the Yamaye Taino people of Jamaica, has been incorrect and
is still mistakenly used by some Jamaicans and writers 50 years after
the island's independence, however, less frequently now. The Taino spoke
a distinctly different Arawakan language of which the other major
Caribbean branch, Cariban, is also a member. Technically, Arawaks are
the neighbors of the Mainland Carib in northern South America. They are
as distinctive on that continent as the Island Carib or Calinago of the
Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica. The Island Carib are also
different from their Carib relatives in the Guianas and Venezuela,
especially since they intermarried with the earlier occupants of their
islands, the Ortoiroid people. Although they have descendants in other
islands, the Island Carib is the only indigenous group in the Caribbean
to have a reservation, the Carib Territory, that elects chiefs and
council members every four years.<br />
<br />
Puerto Ricans, Dominicans
(D.R.) and Cubans, for example, have continued to use the name Taino for
their ancestors because Spanish speakers in the Caribbean acknowledged
continued contact with that extensive, sophisticated and complex
Precolumbian Caribbean society. Many of them exhibit strong Taino features and claim descent from their indigenous people. The Taino told
the European intruders who they were. In 1493, they told Columbus that
they were "Taino", meaning the "Good" or "Noble" people, differentiating
themselves from their captors on St. Croix, the Canib or Carib (Strong
Man), a warrior society dominated by men. The Taino, like some West
African societies, were matrilineal, so, when Spanish or Africans
intermarried with them, their children learned Taino cultural retentions
from their mother's knees. This may be one of the reasons why we have
incorporated many Taino gifts into Caribbean contemporary cultures. On
land, they were the major work force and woodsmen with intimate
knowledge of their territories. Intermarriage with the <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Taíno</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"> </span></span>was
encouraged by Spain, while Englishmen preferred to marry their own women
and continued to have children with the women of the subjugated.<br />
<br />
There
are many Jamaican genetic descendants of the Yamaye Taino. Other
additions to the Taino<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span>gene pool in Jamaica, survive in families who
came to the island as Cuban and Haitian immigrants. So, Taino genetic
retentions are more abundant than one may suspect. One example is of a
prominent Jamaica-Welch athlete/sports caster whose DNA results, in a
BBC survey, indicated 6% Taino ancestry. During Spanish occupation, the island was a destination point or refuge for many of the world's people,
some fleeing the Inquisition. Typically, this influx included Mores and
other Africans, Sephardi Jews, Celts, Portuguese and others. After the
English capture of Jamaica in 1655 other Amerindians came to the
island, although not in large numbers. For example, Miskito Indians of
Nicaragua/Honduras were used by the British to track down Maroons.
According to one source, Native Americans "from the Carolinas were sold
into slavery by the English to plantations in the Caribbean". This was
in addition to the deportation of the Pequot prisoners of war to Bermuda
after their war in Connecticut/New England .<br />
<br />
There are many Taino retentions on which Jamaica was built, from which the island
continue to profit. Many of what one calls "Jamaican" foods, fruits,
spices, medicines, etc., etc., are Amerindian in origin. Maroons still
weave Taino hammocks from the bark of the medicinal Yamaye trumpet tree, jerk pork on a Taino barbecoa with Yamaye spices (pimento and Scotch
bonnet peppers) while fishermen carve Tain<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">o canoas (</span></span>canoes) out of that
culture's sacred ceiba tree we call "cottonwood". Even this giant tree,
also sacred to the Maya, has the same spiritual connotations with
beings seen by Jamaicans as "duppies", probably from the Taino word,
"opia", a spirit of the dead. Jamaican bush medicines are mostly made
from endemic plants that the Yamaye introduced to the Spanish and their
African or mulatto (i.e. European-Yamaye or European-African mixed)
runaways. This escapee trend began with the indigenous Yamaye Taino who
fled to the mountains to avoid Spanish work camps/ranches to become <i>
cimarrones</i>, later called Maroons by the English. These independent
groups, the Eastern and Western Maroons, survive in Jamaica on a smaller
scale than they did in early Spanish and English-Jamaican histories.
Maroon groups were increasingly made up of a variety of ethnic Africans
with similar concepts of resistance. <br />
<br />
Akan-speakers from Ghana,
West Africa made a more dominant impact on African retentions in that
group. So, it was also among the larger multi-African Jamaican society
where the Akan folk hero, Anansi the spider-man dominated the island's
folkloric tradition. One explanation for the Jamaican accent, linguists
say, is "English spoken with Twi (Akan) intonation and not British
English."<br />
<br />
It took many years for the indigenous populations of
the Americas to become the minority and in some areas they remained the
majority. At least, their gene pool expanded to incorporate other
ethnicities. There were just not that many arriving foreigners to match
the teeming millions of indigenous Amerindians in a vast Western
Hemisphere. Not every Amerindian or their cultural traits "died out" or
became extinct. As it is with all epidemics, survivors become stronger.
The re-population of North America with its growing numbers of
"Hispanics" is proof that the indigenous Amerindian gene is rapidly
multiplying in that part of the continent. Most of the people who
illegally cross America's southern border have decidedly Amerindian
genes. Chicanos are often proud of this genetic/cultural heritage.
Salvadorians, Nicaraguans and South Americans make up the bulk of legal
immigrants in some major eastern cities and suburbs.<br />
<br />
Europeans,
Africans and other Asians (the <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Taíno</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"> </span></span>are an Asiatic people like the
island's Chinese and "East" Indians) all arrived only within a short 500
years ago into a very ancient highly complex and technologically
advanced Western Hemisphere. (Read the book "1491: New Revelations of
the Americas Before Columbus" to get a better understanding of our
hemisphere). Amerindian Empires rose and fell as they interacted via
conquest, amalgamation or far flung trade routes. For example,
archeologists found an ancient obsidian item in the Eastern Caribbean
that was mined in the Mexican mountains. The obsidian, a volcanic glass,
used in efficient tool-making or as ceremonial objects, also were used
as scalpels for doing successful cranial surgery in Mesoamerica. Some of
these surgeries were done to relieve life-threatening pressure
sometimes caused by blunt trauma. These operations were yet to be
successfully done in Europe hundreds of years later. This surgical tool,
the obsidian scalpel, under an electron microscope, is sharper than its
steel counterpart. The obsidian piece found in the Caribbean had
followed the route of the hemispheric spread of maize (from another<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Taíno </span></span></span>origin word, "maisi" the cereal crop seen by Columbus in the
Caribbean in 1492).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Early</b><span style="font-size: small;"> indigenous Mexicans</span></span> invented corn/maize from
cross-pollinating wild grasses<span style="font-size: small;"><b>...</b></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtYsnewWaX8xSzyqGh0FaRugH22RTyLdJ0eDP-xPG8ov9A9LhaRJY-y-g4Ytcp0o9zsOApb7iO8k3BeHL7tRhaXZE04XGG4H65eZn0EONPs4wBM4PiW-o_ynkb4uMRdqzeUCKA5l5mf9Yn/s1600/Corn_Teostine_2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtYsnewWaX8xSzyqGh0FaRugH22RTyLdJ0eDP-xPG8ov9A9LhaRJY-y-g4Ytcp0o9zsOApb7iO8k3BeHL7tRhaXZE04XGG4H65eZn0EONPs4wBM4PiW-o_ynkb4uMRdqzeUCKA5l5mf9Yn/s320/Corn_Teostine_2.jpg" height="320" width="184" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of <i>Teosinte</i>, the grass origin of maize/corn.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSWQvB6Is7fJiACmI03_4fryBWC-GdZwqbq-KkCr8TAHse7uyY5i6fxa88ugkrBXvyJliQyr3TExkzhHqLfQPwp9lQRi1tpegpi9S_lDnoqCKYh9hNGRSc6axuNnuH5E4l9sqmRqTbll8/s1600/corn+_doll+copy.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSWQvB6Is7fJiACmI03_4fryBWC-GdZwqbq-KkCr8TAHse7uyY5i6fxa88ugkrBXvyJliQyr3TExkzhHqLfQPwp9lQRi1tpegpi9S_lDnoqCKYh9hNGRSc6axuNnuH5E4l9sqmRqTbll8/s640/corn+_doll+copy.jpg" height="640" width="492" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Photograph of varieties of maize/corn and a corn husk doll with corn-silk hair (by Michael Auld). Native Americans in North America, like some Mesoamericans, have stories about a Maize god or Corn Mother and how the grain was first introduced to them. Early Mexicans created and developed a wide variety, sizes and colors of corn for almost any climate, soil and elevation. This is why the seed must be planted by humans. Today, there is ongoing controversy about "genetically enhanced" corn, an interesting scenario considering that this is how the grain was first created. China is today's larges producer of corn. <br />
<br />
According to <i>Britannica on Line</i>, <b><span class="srTitle">Corn Mother</span></b><b>,</b> also called <span class="alternate">Corn Maiden<b>,</b></span> mythological figure believed, among indigenous agricultural tribes in North America,
to be responsible for the origin of corn (maize). The story of the Corn
Mother is related in two main versions with many variations.: "In
the first version (the “immolation version”), the Corn Mother is
depicted as an old woman who succors a hungry tribe, frequently adopting
an orphan as a foster child. She secretly produces grains of corn by rubbing her body. When her secret is discovered, the people,
disgusted by her means of producing the food, accuse her of witchcraft.
Before being killed—by some accounts with her consent—she gives careful
instructions on how to treat her corpse. Corn sprouts from the places
over which her body is dragged or, by other accounts, from her corpse or
burial site.<br />
<br />
In the second version (the “flight version”), she is
depicted as a young, beautiful woman who marries a man whose tribe is
suffering from hunger. She secretly produces corn, also, in this
version, by means that are considered to be disgusting; she is
discovered and insulted by her in-laws. Fleeing the tribe, she returns
to her divine home; her husband follows her, and she gives him seed corn
and detailed instructions for its cultivation."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
... while Tropical Amerindians converted the
poisonous cyanotic yuca/cassava into cazabe, the mold-resistant bread
and the source of the word "cassava". Jamaica's popular bammy bread is
reshaped cazabe since th<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">e</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>Taino m</span></span>ade large tortilla-shaped bread. The
Spanish used Yamaye cazabe and their island for the staging of the
invasion of the mainland Americas. This was after they "borrowed" the
hammock and used woven Yamaye Taino <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">cotton </span></span>for sails on their ships. The
Yamaye were reputed cotton weavers and bowmen. (See Jamaica's Coat of
Arms). Columbus came from a wool-weaving family and Taino craftsmanship
did not elude his eyes.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLL1FGDXzLAsTNEXvA25wQm6T2pKdackLRdFK0t3qACwx_t_BvV6nGRHP9FuM7RrqWNY5uYLXoZbDwpv4TkLMf2jyOAfK1y-lKNbw0-c4auuxJSyoU-S3ZtNE6kAvkNMSKVT-FuB5X2ejU/s1600/Bammy_3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLL1FGDXzLAsTNEXvA25wQm6T2pKdackLRdFK0t3qACwx_t_BvV6nGRHP9FuM7RrqWNY5uYLXoZbDwpv4TkLMf2jyOAfK1y-lKNbw0-c4auuxJSyoU-S3ZtNE6kAvkNMSKVT-FuB5X2ejU/s320/Bammy_3.jpg" height="222" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Photograph of three of the Jamaican <i><b>bammy</b></i>, a bread made from the bitter cassava/yuca in a bammy presser or mold, next to a pencil for size contrast. The bitter cassava has a higher level of poison in its flesh. The toxic juice that is squeezed out to make meat tenderizing <i>casareep</i>, was once used by the <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Taíno</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>for suicide when the early Spanish began to destroy their civilization. The sweet cassava/yuca is sold in many stores in the USA and was used, along with sweet potato and a woman's saliva, by the <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Taíno</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>as a starter to make a fermented alcoholic beverage. The favorite bammy bread is best cooked in a skillet with coconut oil, however, it is sometimes baked to reduce the cholesterol level. Hot, sliced and with added butter, its flavor is like a sourdough bread. The cassava/yuca/manioc, the source of tapioca, began to be exported by the Portuguese and Spanish around the Eastern Hemisphere's tropical cultures, beginning in the16th century</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>So</b></span>, the next time you eat jerk, bammy,
festival, anything cornmeal for that matter
(porridge/pudding/dumplings/pone/blue drawers, i.e. dukanoo), naseberry,
susumber, chaineyroot, makafat, strong back, Irish moss, sour/sweet
sop, custard apple, genep, starapple, stinking toe, pumpkin, chocho,
corn, cassava, yampie, callaloo, Indian kale, peanut, sweet potato,
pepper pot, pineapple, beans/peas, pingwing; or smoke tobacco, play
football (from the Taino rubber ball game called "batey"), bounce a
rubber ball, use a latex glove, chew gum (from the sap of the naseberry
or "chicle" tree-- the source of a major chewing gum brand) or use a
rubber band, just think "Yamaye", <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">"</span></span>Taino" or "Amerindian". These are
but a few of the hundreds of items indigenous to the Americas. <br />
<br />
The Taino introduced Europeans to the Olmec civilization of the Yucatan's
invention of rubber (made from the vulcanized sap/"blood" of a Tropical
American tree), and the world's first team sport, the rubber ball game.
In the Americas, the love for soccer, football, tennis, volleyball and
especially basket ball has it roots in the ancient Amerindian sport,
first seen by Europeans as "batu", played on<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>Taino v</span></span>illage "bateys" or
clay-paved ball-courts. In the Caribbean, almost every village had one
while in Central America huge, ornately carved stone stadia were the
norm.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPYVRyN_CEVPwshl4yzPUtkz4vy1AedAV-OxKd0Hvi28BpCyu84wy-Mr-zNrlRLeUBPMWqLAIryhFvgZVy-W73_1jPjBgvzlaOhjzK5vWT1d3cF2siXm7TRX6Jg__jyG79uyfp51ak3ScI/s1600/Maya+contemporary+ballplayer_1.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPYVRyN_CEVPwshl4yzPUtkz4vy1AedAV-OxKd0Hvi28BpCyu84wy-Mr-zNrlRLeUBPMWqLAIryhFvgZVy-W73_1jPjBgvzlaOhjzK5vWT1d3cF2siXm7TRX6Jg__jyG79uyfp51ak3ScI/s400/Maya+contemporary+ballplayer_1.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">The Maya version of the Mesoamerican ballgame. The stone hoop to the right protrudes high from the left and right walls of a large stadium. The hole in the hoop is slightly larger than the ball that represented, in some cases, the sun's auspicious movement through the sky. In some of these games the winners or losers, possibly the captain of the team, was sacrificed, becoming an honored messenger to the gods. This game, still played in some Mexican villages, may have influenced the American inventor of basketball, a difference being that male players could not touch the ball with the hands. If the ball hit the ground it would be considered "dead" with the point going to the winning team. Hitting the ball through the hoop was more rare and would define the winning team. Betting was the norm in both the Caribbean and Central America, and the Mexica (Aztec) lords wagered cities during some games. Rubber balls were imported into Mexico City from the Yucatan forests where the rubber trees grew. It is said that the ball courts were built at greater frequency when there was strife in the empire. The game was used to reduce wars and bloodshed between cities of the Mexica Empire.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Central American ballgames were not for sissies, but for warriors
prepared to die, since the object was a struggle between positive and
negative with the ball representing the ominous movement of the sun
across the sky. The player's padded hip or forearm kept the ball, heavy
enough to break limbs, "alive" in the air. It was as agile a game as
volleyball, except there was not a net between the two teams. The <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Taíno</span></span></span> version was more social, however, with the same chance at gambling.<br />
<br />
The Taino language and genetic markers are as "extinct" as English is in
creole-speaking Jamaica, whose folks converse in a language made up of
Amerindian, European, African, Asian and Middle Eastern words. "Maka",
for thorn (related to the now extinct Caribbean "macaw" parrots and the
thorny trunk "makafat" tree), like "barracuda" for a fish, are Taino and
Cariban words. For example, "jerk" is from a Maya term used to describe
drying out and preserving meat, the same practice applied on the <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Taíno</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"> </span></span>berbecoa (for "barbecue"), a concrete platform that Jamaicans use to sun
dry coffee or cacao (coco/chocolate) beans.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAHVGQTP9FbaohMoIpikndKfwQ_Jj-DTv_LZ4g4yfC0aQaLoxYibO4gxUV4MpV27KzAWuLHR7pVrWbeb1HGt57Wzb3OO0V-r7e_Zkucf6dpZJ2j0qb4KFDb8xSKpi3IbqUSYhjrHFYEhip/s1600/Ja.+Maroons_1865_Enlargement.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAHVGQTP9FbaohMoIpikndKfwQ_Jj-DTv_LZ4g4yfC0aQaLoxYibO4gxUV4MpV27KzAWuLHR7pVrWbeb1HGt57Wzb3OO0V-r7e_Zkucf6dpZJ2j0qb4KFDb8xSKpi3IbqUSYhjrHFYEhip/s400/Ja.+Maroons_1865_Enlargement.jpg" height="308" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption">Enlargement from a 19th century photograph of two Jamaican Maroons after the Morant Bay Rebellion. They were required by a treaty with the British in the island to help to put down rebellions and to no longer accept runaways. The treaty, signed before the American Revolution, created enmity between the Maroons and enslaved Africans in the island, that led to the Second Maroon War. As seen here, facial bone structures, especially that of the man on the left, exhibit Amerindian features.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he Maroons</b>, who learned
jerk from the Yamaye<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Taino, call their wooden cooking platform a
"caban", the word that came from the Spanish "cabin". In Boston Bay,
Jamaica, jerk pork can be cooked on a pimento/allspice rack over a
pimento log fire, an unbroken <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Taíno</span></span>-Maroon (and Precolumbian) tradition
from the 16th century.<br />
<br />
The Yamaye, like their relatives in the
other large Caribbean Islands, had intricate governmental institutions.
Why not? They were seafaring expert agriculturalists whose islands were
divided into villages, districts and larger collections of "cacigazos"
governed by local and regional caciques and stratified governing groups
of sub-caciques, nobles (Nitaino) and spiritual advisers (bohuti) with
larger groups of "commoners" with a segment of people the Spanish called
"slaves". For example, the female cacique, Anacaona of Haiti, had over
100 caciques under her in the early 16th century. She was famous for her
traditional "areito" a historical Taino ballad or a saga presented in
the form of a song. Unfortunately, the Spanish governor, Nicolas de
Ovando who succeeded Columbus, hanged her after massacring most of her
100 caciques who were assembled in the governor's honor. One of her
caciques, Hatuey, escaped to Cuba where he later became a martyred folk
hero at the hands of the perusing Spanish. To discredit the notion of
the "docile Arawak", two incidents stand out;<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">(1) </span>Hatuey spoke against the Spanish and their worship
of their god whom he perceived to be "guanin", a 14 k gold alloy. When
he was about to be burned at the stake, a Spanish priest told Hatuey
that if he became a Christian his soul would go to heaven. "Are there
Cristianos in Heaven?" Hatuey asked. "Yes", said the priest. "Then, I do
not want to go there", Hatuey replied. So, they burned him.<br />
<br />
(2) According to the book <i><b>1493</b></i>, between 1492-93 some of Columbus' men were left on Hispaniola after one of the three ships sank. The erected fort called La Navidad (Christmas, the day of the first landing on Hispaniola) was attacked and wiped out by a Taino group of warriors (as retribution for rape, murder, and food-stealing) using blinding teargas "grenades", gourd-filled burning ash with crushed peppers, lobbed among the Spanish to disorient and blind them while Taino warriors, faces covered with bandannas, charged the confused Spanish through blinding smoke. Here is the first record of teargas and blinding pepper spray. Both La Navidad, the first Spanish settlement in the Americas, and the nearby Taino village were destroyed in a scorched-earth strategy.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Cuban</b></span>
and Jamaican Taino before and after Spanish arrival, continued to
interact with the Central American mainland empires of the Maya and the
Mexica ("Aztec"). Cortez met a Yamaye Taino woman in the Yucatan in 1519
while Columbus described the Yamaye of Jamaica's Bahia de Vaca (Cow
Bay) across the sea from the Gulf of Mexico in terms that portrayed
cultural sophistication. Their belief system, similar to Spanish
Catholicism, included a supreme being (Yucahu Bagua Marocoti, god of the
sea, and the yuca/cassava, without grandfathers) and lesser, often twin
gods similar to Christian saints. This belief in duality, i.e. the
balance of positive/negative, or good/evil, or night/day, is as Asiatic
as their practice of shamanism. As a Maya man spoke about Amerindian
philosophy, "life cannot exist without this balance.They need each
other." The Taino belief system was also based upon this ideal.<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Taino influences in the island are taken for granted and are so subtle that
their contributions to Jamaicanisms are often not recognized.Yamaye-mike.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04767360853086257210noreply@blogger.com5