recycle, run environmental action websites - and
rn0&+&C-d Nose-to-the-Wind, Uktena No-Moon, ponders: It’s adilemma, isn’t it? I mean, we want our Kinfolk to have the best, right? Happy, prosperous, connected the American Dream. How do they get there? By buying into the system, the system that oppressed their ancestors, the system that stripped them of their culture in the first place. The Indians who were whipped if they spoke their native language, the Africans who were half a world from the birthplace of their forebears, the Aztecs who learned their rosaries at the point of a sword.. . all lost much or all of their cultures. Those we counted as Kinfolk managed to retain their people’s lore, or at least fragments of it, even if it was hidden under a veneer of their conqueror’s civilization.
These days it’s hip to be an American Indian, and a voodoo practitioner has a cool mystique, but they’re still on the margin of mainstream society. You won’t find hogans in the suburbs, and practicing ritual blood sacrifice will get the police, ASPCA and probably some fundamentalists on your case. When exposed to pop music and console games, kids will find the old stories as irrelevant as the elders who tell them. The middleclass lifestyle beckons the nations away from the life of balance in Gaia. By accepting the lure of material wealth and comfort, they join the mainstream culture that bleeds the Mother dry and fouls the earth. And in the process, they forget the wisdom unique to the old nations, knowledge that can only thrive in deserts or forests beyond the Weaver’s reachthe lore that drew the Uktena’s interest in the first place. The system tried to assimilate them by force, and now our Kin want to finish the job. So what do we do?Encourage our Kinfolk to join the First World and hope they can vote green, recycle, run environmental action websites - and believe in their grandmother’s wisdom? Or do we keep them close to the earth, on a harder edge of survival, living as their fathers taught them and hoping Civilization doesn’t trample them?
Do we have a choice anymore?
The hearing finished, Cows-the-Gator, Erishka and Jolon were sent from the hut. The latter two huddled close to the fire in hopes of discouraging the cloud of mosquitoes that hovered all around. Cows had too much nervous energy to remain still - or to stay quiet.
“Tide-Borne said if I passed the challenge he’d let me go with him to the next Great Counci1,”he said to the two with pride. The measured speaking voice had fallen away, replaced by the everyday sounds that were more familiar to the Half-Moon’s ears. “I’ll hear the arguments, all that the septs are doing and talking about. I won’t have to wait for word to come back to the sept.” He looked down almost pityingly at Erishka. His empathy lasted only a glance, and he was once again caught up in expectation. “And there’s so much going on right now. Like finding out if there really is a perfect metis, and what it would mean for us.”
“You mean a metis with no deformities? How can that be?” asked Erishka.
“That’s what they’re talking about. Also, what is the Wyrm’s Eye? Yeah, the red star that shines in the Umbra now.
The Uktena have sent packs into the Aetherial Realm to find out what it is, and all the gray-furred elders are wracking their brains for any old prophesy that refers to the star.” At this, he paused and glanced towards the hut. Cows picked up the last unburned log, crouched between the other two and lay the wood on the fire. Remaining where he was, he spoke low into Erishka’sear. “This isbetweenus.Youowemeasecret,got it?”
The girl nodded, and he continued. “After the last Great Council, I overheard Tide-Borne and the other elders talking.
Seems there were some Bane Tenders there. You know how they get everybody’s attention just by showing up. Well, they said that since the Red Star showed up, they’ve all felt the Great Banes stirring, and they’ve been working harder to keep the bindings from slipping.
The thing is, youstill have all those Banes under thecaerns the Wyrmcomers stole. We can’t very well walk up to those septs and say, ‘Hi, thought you should know, but there’s an unkillable Bane under your caem and he’s waking up.”’ He grinned smugly at Erishka’s expression. “That’s right. Hell’s gonna break loose soon. So this next meeting, they’re talking about establishing some ties with the other septs, trying to get our folks where they can sniff around the lost caems. Maybe we can teach them to trust us real quick, ‘cause I guaran-damn-tee you every one of those septs will bite the dust if they don’t let us help. And if they all go, we’re screwed.” He rose and resumed his pacing, one eye on the hut. “That’ll give you something to chew on. But don’t tell anyone,” he added nervously.
Erishka’s Notebook “Don’t tell anybody,” he said. Like who? It’s obvious he didn’t want the Kinfolk to hear, and 1 suppose I understand that.
I guess he’d get in trouble if he told that one. Unless he’s pulling my leg. Do these guys do that? He seemed pretty serious. And pretty fd of himself, especially since the elders made him a Fostern. If it’s true, we do have some secrets, big secrets. And mybe its time we found somebody who needs to hear them.
Below are just a few selected dates that are relevant to Uktena history. For more detail, dig through the sources listed at the end of Chapter Three. c 40,000 - 10,500 BCE Hunter-gatherer peoples cross from Asia into North America. The Three Brothers cross over at the latter part of this range.
Dog domesticated in North America.
Adena mound-building culture in Ohio Valley. Culture collapses when Croatan attack Wym-Tainted and non-Tainted alike.
Mesoamerica’s classic period.
Bow largely replaces atlatl in North America.
Mississippian (temple mound building) culture.
Vikings visit and later establish settlements in North America.
Enemy Heart Eaters are brought down by fellow Uktena.
Christopher Columbus lands in San Salvador. Thinking he is in India, he calls the natives Indians. O n a subsequent voyage two years later, he captures 500 Indians to be slaves in Spain.
The Cabots of England explore northern Atlantic coast, kidnap Indians.
Colony of New Spain founded; landowners given the right to enslave local Indians.
Vasco Balboa crosses Central America. Ponce de Le6n in Florida (dies from wounds in 1521).
Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica. HemAn CortCs conquers Aztecs. Shadow Lords meet with, then attack local Uktena.
Shadow Lords slay the last Camuzotz, whose cry echoes throughout the Umbra French explorer Jacques Cartier explores along St. Lawrence River. Fur trade begins.
Hemando de Soto claims Florida, expedition explores up to Mississippi River. He dies Francisco de Coronado explores the Southwest. Horses introduced to North America.
Francis Drake explores California coast.
Sir Walter Raleigh organizes an expedition and two colonizing voyages to the Outer Banks.
The Croatan sacrifice themselves to drive the Eater-of-Souls into the outer darkness.
Sheep introduced to North America by Spanish.
First shipload of African slaves arrives in British colony of Virginia.
First formal treaty between Indians andEuropeans. Pilgrims celebrate first Thanksgiving.
A band of the Lenni Lenape sells Manhattan Island (which is held by a different band) to the Dutch for 60 guilders worth of goods.
The “Body of Liberties” for the colony of Massachusetts recognizes and regulates the practice of keeping Indians as slaves.
First documented use of horses by Indians (a Navajo raid).
A series of four wars between France and England and their respective Indian allies.
British offer 40 pounds for the scalps of enemy Indians.
Declaration of Independence cites the use of Indian allies against the colonies as the last in a long list of indictments against King George 111.
Congress bans the importation of slaves.
Shawnee Chief Tecumseh attempts to unite tribes east of the Mississippi against the United States. Tecumseh later dies aiding British in 1813.
Sequoyah invents Tsalagi alphabet to match the Cherokee language.
Great Council opens Kinship to non-Europeans . c. 1500 BCE c. 300 BCE - 200 AD c. 100 BCE - 1300 AD Hisatsinom (Anasazi) culture in Southeast.
C. 300-900 c. 500 C. 700-1550 C. 1000-1015 c. 1300 1492 519-2 1534 in 1541. 1539-43 1540-42 1578-79 1584-87 1589 C 1600 1619 1621 1626 1641 1659 1689-1763 1755 1776 1808 1809-11 1809-21 1819 Bureau of Indian Affairs created.
Indian Removal Act passed; Five Civilized Tribes relocated west of the Mississippi.
Storm Eater released.
First Uktena arrive in Australia.
Chinese immigrants begin arriving in California. More than 5,000 Hawai’ians died from smallpox. First packs arrive and establish a sept in Hawai’i.
Federal Indian policy reclassifies Indian nations as “wards of the government.”
The Emancipation Proclamation declares the freedom of all slaves in the rebelling states, but not those in the slaveholding states, which remained loyal to the Union.
More than 300 Indians killed in Colorado’s Sand Creek Massacre. 13th Amendment to the Constitution frees all slaves in the United States (some four million), but did little to change conditions for minorities in the United States. Proimmigrant politicians begin to replace earlier anti-immigrant policies.
First transcontinental railroad.
Wholesale slaughter of buffalo by Intruders commences; southern herd all but gone by Western Indians forbidden to leave reservations without permission.
Apache resistance under Victorio and later Geronimo.
“Friends of the Indians” groups encourage bringing native peoples into mainstream American life.
Dawes Act divides Indian land into private tracts, with “surplus)’ land sold.
Oklahoma land rush. A solar eclipse on January 1 inspires the Paiute prophet Wovoka to found the second Ghost Dance Movement.
Thirteen legendary werewolves, one fiom each of the tribes present in North America, sacrifice themselves in a mighty rite to bind the Storm-Eater. The government suppresses the Ghost Dance. More than 150 Indians are killed in the Wounded Knee Massacre.
The Indian Wars are over. Federal Census Bureau declares the frontier closed.
Lowest Indian Population in the United States (< 250,000).
President Roosevelt transfers 2.5 million acres of reservation land to national forests.
World War I. Many Indians enlist. Choctaw use native language as code.
Native American Church incorporated.
Suspicion of foreigners during WWI leads to a series of laws limiting immigration.
War of Tears results in the annihilation ofthe Bunyip. The Great Depression results in few immigrants to the United States, and hundreds of thousands of recent immigrants return (willingly or forcibly) to their native lands.
Navajo alphabet invented.
World War 11. Tens of thousands of Indians enlist. Several tribes use native language as a code.
Social unrest marks the decade with protests, riots, and racially-motivated murders.
The strongest Civil Rights Act in US. history is passed.
New immigration laws no longer favor Western European immigration, resulting in a surge in Asian immigration (particularly of refugees).
American Indian Civil Rights Act. American Indian Movement founded.
U.S. government begins a series of cutbacks resulting in nearly 40 percent loss of funds for Indian social programs.
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act requires federally funded museums and federal agencies to return sacred objects and human remains to the nations to which they belong. Native American Language Act officially reverses the government’s policy of suppressing American Indian culture and language. 1824 1830-39 1830’s 1840s 1850s 1862 1863 1864 87 1 880. 880’s 877-86 1887 1889 1890 c. 1910 1909 1914-18 1918 1920s 193 Os C. 1935-40 1939-45 1960s 1964 1965 1968 1981 1990 Amendment of the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act protects the use of peyote for religious purposes.
The Red Star appears in the Umbral skies; a cub is born of two metis parents.
Call goes out for great council of Uktena to meet to discuss portents such as the Red Star and the tribe’s response to omens of disaster. 1994 1999 2002 I I I