And the military of any nation? It is easier to train individuals who are in the mind to kill because the individuals have separated from their hearts. Our national leaders talk openly about killing the enemy. What message does this send to our young ones? Remember, the Elders say that nothing is created outside until it is created inside first. When we separate from the heart, we separate from ourselves. It is easier, then, to separate from others. The mind only thinks about itself, and is about “me” and “mine,” so we compete in school, in athletics, in the economy and everywhere individualism is paramount. There are few opportunities to emphasize working for the good of the people through teamwork and cooperation.
Because we are separated from ourselves, we create things that are separated. Western science, called Cartesian-based science, is founded on the principle that we must have separation of the observed and the observer. This science is based on specialization, composed, for example, of the marine mammal, fish, land, water, and atmospheric disciplines. The systems encourage the specializations to the point that data cannot be correlated with other disciplines that may be connected. Most sciences are struggling to develop collaborations with other disciplines now that we know “everything is connected.” Interdisciplinary efforts are only in their fetal stages of development, and a long way from trans-disciplinary science, which will bring us closer to understanding how nature works. We don’t see that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts in nature, because the parts act synergistically. Every discipline that we deal with in our society, be it social, political, economic, and biological is based on specialization. We can’t solve the problems with the same consciousness that created the problems.
The Elders ask, “What are we choosing to focus on? Are we choosing to focus on the ‘problem,’ or are we choosing to focus on the vision and dream we want to create in the world?” The Elders understand that what we choose to focus on becomes our reality. More organizations and people today are trying to create a more just and fair world and improving how we interact with nature than any time in human history, yet it seems the conditions are far worse than when they began. The same goes for efforts to stop suicides, murders, domestic violence, substance abuse, illnesses, and anything else that we feel is not good for humankind. Why? The answer, according to the Elders, is in the answer to their question.
We are choosing to focus on the problems. This may be difficult for people to understand, but we are focused on trying to stop something and are emotionally tied up in this focus rather than following a vision or a dream we may have. The Elders understand that a focus on the negative, no matter how well intended the person is, only compounds the problems. So, for example, a person or organization invests so much energy to stop the timber industry from cutting the trees to protect the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest, they “win” the battle, take their credit, and move on to the next battle. The timber industry takes their licks and decides to move to Canada and clear-cut more trees than they ever had in the past. The challenge lies with the attitude that “we are in a battle” against this or that. The battle becomes the focus emotionally, and it is reactionary and not proactive. What we must do, according to these Elders, is emotionally detach from the issue, stop thinking it is a battle, then act. The action must not have an emotional edge. Doing it because you feel it is in harmony with the Earth, and without judgment of those who do otherwise, is not the main focus for action. The main focus must be on the vision, the dream of what we want the world to be. What are we choosing to focus on?
And then there are those who choose not to focus, because they feel powerless to affect real change they know is needed. Why do they feel powerless to do anything? According to the Elders, it is because we are all schooled in accepting someone else’s authority from the time we are born until we die. It discourages thinking on your own, outside the box. And, we are so immersed in hearing negative things that we have to shut it all out because it is too much—global climate change, destruction of the forests, extinction of animals, violence, pollution, injustice, the list goes on and on. We know them well. We may say, “Someone else is taking care of this” or “It is too big for me to make a dent in anything that matters,” or both. We say the first because we are indoctrinated into giving away our personal authority to others. We say the second because we forgot how to listen to our hearts. Our hearts will tell us what to do in any circumstance that matters to us, including what really matters. It never lies to us, but our minds lie and deceive us all the time. We must be able to distinguish what is only of the mind and what is of the heart. We are so used to having the mind tell us what to do that many of us cannot distinguish between the two. When we are “confused,” we know the mind is speaking to us, not the heart. The heart does not equivocate. When we are sure beyond a shadow of a doubt, we are likely listening to our hearts if we are present in the moment. The heart speaks to us when we are present. The messages become muted when the mind interferes.
Rita Blumenstein, a revered Yupik Elder, says that “we must unburden our hearts in order to think clearly.” She is speaking of listening to an unburdened heart to see the truths. And when we heal from the things taught by this reverse society, we can have a real discourse with others about issues of concern. And this discourse does not use the violence of attacking or putting someone on the defensive. It recognizes that everyone has his or her own truth, and that truth is equally valid as one’s own. After everyone has spoken in a council or meeting, a consensus about what needs to be done is reached. This way, they demonstrate being present and speaking their truth from the heart. It is a civilized way of the real human being. If we are to deal with any issue personally or otherwise, we would do well to emulate the Elders. To do otherwise means that we are stuck in the matrix that speaks only from the mind. And we all know where that has gotten us today. Rita Blumenstein also says, “We don’t do the world any favors by thinking small.” When we recover our “real human being–ness,” we will find our center to connect with all that is. When we do, we will know what to do personally and collectively.
And finally, the Hopi Elders say, “Seek not to fight evil, let goodness take its place.” This is profound wisdom in simplicity. Far too often we seek to “fight” evil, but as the Elders know, when we fight, we add to the atmosphere of negativity surrounding the evil. We may have temporary victories, which are satisfying to the ego, but we lose in the long run because the actions we take to solve something are based on fighting, ensuring the coming generations have the same battle in a different form. When we let “goodness take its place,” we are focused on the dream or vision. It is not in reaction to something, but proactive and positive. We do not acquiesce to the dictates of our egos, which like short-term victories that keep us in illusion. We fail to look at the multi-generational consequences of our actions and words when we do not look at what we have wrought by winning at any cost.
We are all capable of applying the lessons from the Elders. It only takes going into the heart and following what it says. Yes, it takes courage, but unless we do this, we cannot build, let alone live in, peace and harmony with self and with the rest of Creation.
Chapter 33
Contemplating and Questioning Everything
As the Jews survived their holocaust, my people, the Unangan people, survived the near decimation of their population and of their culture. Like the Japanese-Americans, the Unangan people experienced the dislocation, isolation, and cruel restrictions of living in an internment camp. And, like the African-Americans, the Unangan people endured the atrocities of slavery. Yet Unangan people still live along the Aleutian Chain and the Pribilof Islands. Ours is a remarkable and colorful history filled with joy, pain, confusion, courage, doubt, agony, grief, and persistence. There is no doubt in my mind that the wisdom of the people is what made them resilient against all odds. I was blessed to have much of this wisdom imparted to me. My people and ancestors were my original teachers. They taught me, above all else, to retain m
y personal authority, the innocence of the child, and the wisdom of the Elders. Their teachings live in my heart, and for that I will be eternally grateful. Elders from many different traditions shared their insights and wisdom with me to build upon this wisdom that I inherited. It is this collective wisdom that the world needs now as we experience challenges to human survival on Mother Earth.
It is not a question of whether or not Mother Earth will survive. She will. After all, she has been in existence for billions of years. It is a question of whether or not we will survive. If we continue to use paradigms for living that are borne of a masculine imbalance and destroy or minimize all the sacred feminine—including Mother Earth–based cultures, women healers, goddess cultures, women in general, and Mother Earth herself—we will all perish. I am convinced of this and you should be too. I learned to question everything I have taken for granted because of the wisdom of the ages.
Now I have time to reflect and do some soul searching. There are many questions, and some answers about Unangan people and northern fur seals. For example, why did the animal rights groups focus on saving the seals and not give any thought to the Unangan people? Why did the American public respond so strongly to their message? Why didn’t anyone understand our need to eat seal for food? Why didn’t anyone listen when we flagged the growing ecosystem problems in the Bering Sea? Why do the scientists and resource managers still not know what is causing the wildlife declines in the Bering Sea? Why did we, as a community, allow chaos and despair to reach such tragic proportions before we acted? Why did we succeed in our goals beyond our expectations?
There are answers to some of these questions, and I have learned that the spiritual healing of each individual is central to the healing of the whole community and the elimination of conflict.
The Hopi and Maori wisdom keepers say we are entering the World of the Fifth Hoop, which is a time of reconnection among the four sacred colors—red, black, white, and yellow—and that this reconnection is necessary to reestablish balance on Mother Earth. It requires healing.
The healing the wisdom keepers talk about is the process of reconnecting to the sacred within each of us. They understand that the underlying cause for personal and external conflict, violence, greed, thirst for power, fear, depression, and addictive behaviors is our disconnection from what is sacred within ourselves and thus sacred in all things. The fundamental cause of this disconnection stems from experiences of violence or abuse that wounded our souls.
Consider what we are doing today. Our cities are sanitized to eliminate our fear of the natural world. We put lights everywhere—even in small rural Alaskan villages—and we can no longer see the stars for our fear of the dark. We send our deceased loved ones to funeral homes and our pets to euthanasia centers out of our fear of death. Our children walk around detached from the present moment with headsets, listening to harshly loud music, or immerse themselves in video games—anything to disconnect from the present moment. We watch TV not for entertainment, but to escape from whatever troubles us at the moment. Our organizations are structured to control human behavior because we so greatly fear losing control. We create borders around our homes and our land out of fear of others. We create distinctions between races, cultures, religions, and beliefs because we are afraid of those things we do not understand. We think only of ourselves today and not future generations, in total selfishness. No one is untouched by this legacy of spiritual sickness.
The Unangan people of the Pribilof Islands have experienced anxiety, depression, fear, suicide, murder, and other violence because we are the offspring of our holocaust survivors who left us this legacy of spiritual sickness. Animal rights groups fought for the seals without regard to future consequences, thinking only of today, because they too are children of survivors. The people in Congress were only able to listen to their constituents because they were afraid; they too are suffering from this legacy.
The foundation for all conflict lies in our disconnection with the sacred within ourselves. It causes us to feel separate from others and all Creation. The key to dealing with conflict, personal or otherwise, is to focus on process rather than goal, loving who we are as imperfect beings, loving those or that which we may hate. That is the reason these Elders have all said, “We must seek not to fight evil, let goodness take its place.” Modern techniques for conflict resolution provide only a short-term and quick fix because they do not address the underlying causes of conflict. Remember the question of the Elders: What are we choosing to focus on? Are we choosing to focus on the “problem or issue,” or are we choosing to focus on our vision and dreams? Because that which we are choosing to focus on, no matter how good the intention, becomes our reality.
The lesson of the Pribilofs is to listen to the wisdom of the Elders. And to reconnect within.
Notes
1 Doing things without thought may be a difficult concept for Western-trained minds to understand since the mind is perceived as the center of intelligence, whereas Indigenous people know that true intelligence comes as a result of suspending thought.
2 The U.S. government needed seal oil for use in the war effort.
3 Alexander Galanin from Saint George Island and Arteme Hapoff of Saint Paul received Bronze Stars for valor in the Aleutian campaign.
4 In my youth, the federal government allowed Unangan to take seal meat for food from the “killing fields” during the government-sponsored slaughter of seals from June through August each year. The penalty for killing a seal outside the government-supervised take is a ten thousand-dollar fine, ten years in jail, or both. The law still exists.
5 Nine-thousand-year-old midden sites (refuse deposits that indicate human settlement) along the Aleutian Chain and on the Pribilof Islands contain large amounts of fur seal bones, indicating that, for millennia, our people depended heavily on the fur seal.
6 Civil service was instituted on the Pribilofs in the 1950s, but it was modified to pay fifty cents per hour, far below the standard rate, until the early 1960s.
7 The recounting of this story is by my own recollection. Various details may be different in small degrees. Except for those I acknowledge, this writer has applied fictitious names to some individuals involved so as not to offend anyone living today.
8 The names Merculieff and Merculief are designations of where we were born. It is the Unangan zip code forced on the Unangan people of the Pribilofs because there were so many identical names between Saint Paul and Saint George populations. As a result, catalogue orders were misdelivered by the government vessel. To eliminate the confusion, the government proclaimed that all born on Saint George would have one “f” in their name.
9 Turtle Island is a term used by Indigenous peoples to refer to the western hemisphere.
10 Intermediaries are usually involved in providing guidance about the community and culture and are usually people from the region and/or community.
11 The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is the domestic federal agency responsible for ensuring compliance with the international treaty and regulates fisheries in federal waters in the North Pacific.
12 The link between the experienced, older hunters and the young men would be severed if the ability to hunt and fish for traditional foods is lost. The link between the older women and the younger would also be severed if the ability to gather wild foods is lost. It is in the “subsistence camp” that the younger have extended contact with the older to learn their language, in the actual context of real-life experience from which the language was born, and the ethics and values of being a real human being, such as how to cooperate as a group, how to share foods with others, how to respect and have reverence for fish and wildlife, and how to demonstrate respect for Elders, the lands, fish and wildlife, and the waters. These ways of living are far more important than most non-Natives realize, and they are constantly being challenged by uniformed federal and state administrators and by segments of the public that do not see why these ways should be protected.
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br /> 13 “Thich Nhat Hanh,” Famous Quote From, www.famousquotefrom.com/thich-nhat-hanh/.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ILARION MERCULIEFF had a traditional upbringing and a Western education, earning a BA from the University of Washington. He has served as chair of the indigenous knowledge sessions of the Global Summit of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change, as cofounder of the Indigenous Peoples’ Council for Marine Mammals, the Alaska Forum for the Environment, the International Bering Sea Forum, and the Alaska Oceans Network. He is currently the president of the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways.
Ilarion Merculieff is available for readings and lectures. To inquire about a possible appearance, please contact the author at [email protected] or visit his website www.gcill.com
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