Lakota Wisdom: Why Native American Truths Can Heal the World
The word wisdom is used frequently every day, whether it is spoken and
heard or written and read. Yet it is debatable, in my opinion, if most
of us know what it is. In most dictionaries it is defined as "the
quality or state of being wise, sagacious, discerning and insightful."
There are wise people in the world from all walks of life, from many
nations and cultures. But there is one unalterable reality: No one who
is truly wise is young. By the same token there are many old cultures on
this planet of ours. Therefore, if we universally regard elders as
repositories of wisdom, than those old cultures would have much to
offer.
Many indigenous cultures were already populating every nook and cranny
of what came to be called North America when the migration of Europeans
began, roughly 500 years ago. Those peoples that greeted the newcomers
with varied degrees of curiosity and apprehension had, by then, lived on
and with this land for thousands upon thousands of years. Consequently
they had evolved societal values and ways that enabled them to not
merely survive, but thrive for all those millennia. Without going into
the sad and difficult details and consequences of the interaction
between Europeans and indigenous North Americans, it is important to
note that the indigenous people were deeply and traumatically impacted;
to the point where our cultures were diminished and, in some cases,
entirely lost. The good news is that some of us have survived: just over
480 ethnically identifiable native tribes or nations in the United
States.
