350 Roaring Fork and Roaring Fork Valley Circle are partnering to screen the documentary “The Condor and the Eagle” in conjunction with Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday, Oct. 12. The invitation reads:

“According to the prophecy of the condor and the eagle, when, after hundreds of years of separation, the condor (the heart and intuitive knowledge of South America) and the eagle (the rational and technological mind of North America) reunite, the world will have an opportunity to re-enter a new era of peace and higher consciousness. This hopeful outcome is not guaranteed, but can be brought about with the assistance of humankind.”

If only the Europeans had learned from the Native Americans rather than wiping them out. The Native Americans recognized themselves as being part of Mother Nature, not lording over her and attempting to defeat her. They’d never dream of puncturing the Earth Mother’s skin with drills, plow shears or backhoes.

Not that Indigenous peoples didn’t contribute to agriculture. Where do you think corn and potatoes came from? Corn was first cultivated by Mesoamericans in southwest Mexico and potatoes in South America — both about 10,000 years ago. Out of respect for the Earth Mother, seeds were placed gently under the soil. 

Native Americans have been characterized as nomadic hunters and gatherers, rather than farmers, but for many tribes, that’s only because they were chased off their farms by the whites. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act that sent the Cherokee off their homes in many southeastern states on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

Drilling into the ground and sucking out Earth Mother’s precious bodily fluids, like oil and gas, was unthinkable to the Native Americans.

The very idea of private property is blasphemous to Indigenous peoples. You can’t pay money for a piece of the Earth Mother and think that you own her like she was some kind of prostitute. It’s a reciprocal arrangement. You reside on the Earth Mother, receive her gifts and take care of her. 

As for money, the root of all evil, many original Native Americans had no use for it. They had a barter system. If your neighbor needed a tomahawk that you had and they had a piece of pottery that you coveted, a trade was negotiated.

The conditions white Europeans have left for Indigenous people are horrible. I have visited the White Earth Ojibwe Nation in Minnesota, where unemployment is at 30% to 40% and illiteracy and alcoholism are high. 

On the Navajo Nation in the Southwest, trailers have replaced the hogans of the past, but living conditions aren’t much better. For four years in the 1970s, I lived on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho, where the Indigenous are somewhat better off, owning fractional interests of rich farmland, but the abuses of the past live on.

And the abuses continue. Native American women are being murdered and going missing in alarming numbers. The Navajo Nation experienced some of the highest rates of fatalities from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Native Americans must laugh when they hear the European whites complain about immigration. To Indigenous peoples, the Europeans are all immigrants. For the most part, Native Americans welcomed the Europeans to their shores and the pale faces weren’t very gracious guests.

Perhaps it was the Doctrine of Discovery, a series of 15th-century papal bulls declaring Christians should claim, conquer and colonize newly discovered lands and enslave or kill non-Christians. In a visit to Canada in 2022, Pope Francis repudiated that doctrine and apologized for the harm the Church has brought on the Native community, but it was about six centuries too late.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day was recognized as an alternative to Columbus Day in 2021 under President Joe Biden. In keeping with the Doctrine of Discovery, Columbus killed or enslaved many of the Native Americans he encountered. Columbus didn’t discover anything, anyway. Native Americans crossed the land bridge 30,000 years ago.

Join 350 Roaring Fork and the Roaring Fork Valley Circle as it celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day at Sopris Park on Monday, Oct. 12 at 3:30pm. A potluck at the Third Street Center will follow at 6pm, then a screening