You Pious Indian Bastard

You pious Bastard!  I always thought pious referred to the Priests back home but now I see it can mean me as well. You kind of think about being when someone says to you, you're talking out of both sides of your arse.

I have deep deep conversations (if you can call them conversations and deep)on Facebook. Most of those conversations end up with someone calling me a jerk. Me? A jerk?  Go figure?  I guess maybe it  might because of those conversations I have with folk who are super Indians, the "more Traditional than you" Indians. The way they talk its like they walk on water just like... the man who walked on water.

You must know those Indians.  I went for a trip to Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana with a friend of mine. We went to visit and pick up Grandfathers - some lava rocks to bring back for the Sweat Lodge Ceremony. Anyway we were hosted by Alvin and his daughter. We stayed at their house, very nice people. When we finished our task of picking the lava rocks I said to my friend "let's go say goodbye to Alvin." He says to me "Indian don't say goodbye".  You pious Indian Bastard.

You see my friend is one those real Indians; jet black hair long braids deep brown skin fluent in Cree knows traditions an excellent craftsman can make all the traditional tools can sing the songs he is the whole Indian package and he knows there is no adios, sayonara, au revoir, arrivederci in Indian language. So the pious Indian bastard was schooling me.

Was answering this post on Facebook. Its funny people who ask questions really don't want to hear answers. Only if the answer agrees with them. Anyway... the question was about "asking for payment of Sacred Medicines."  The purpose of the question is really a segue to putting down Medicine people. People are strange. We want to bait all the time. I hear it in the questions of tv or radio interviews when they Race bait. In this case its baiting for Traditional Teachers. We don't mind the pious Tent shakers and holly rollers but let a Medicine person get some exposure and they are scum.

We want our Medicine people to walk on water. We want the Medicine people to fit a stereotypical or Hollywood caricature of what a Medicine is expected to be. Never mind she and he is a human being; prone to life's daily struggles. But hey, we want them to be able to talk to the wind, the animals, the birds, the water, the fire and to the Creator. I get that. I also get they have to live in a real world. The real world doesn't care if you can talk to the Creator as long as you can pay at the pump. Thing is we don't want that. We want our Medicine people to be beyond the dregs of society. Heaven forbid or god forbid the miscreant of a Medicine person who wishes to be given some gas money for their effort, expertise or knowledge. The Pious Indian Bastard will damn the Indian Medicine person to hell. The Medicine person will become the dregs of society in the eyes of the Pious Indian Bastard.

As one person said "If money is requested I will move on."  I think its safe to be wary of those seeking cash and I agree. Thing is most Medicine people don't seek pay. At the same time most people who seek out medicine don't offer payment in return. Reciprocity was and is in  some Indigenous societies a foundation for living. We seem to think its wrong now because cash has come into the equation which replaces the concept of having a favour or a good in exchange. So we become pious Indian Bastards and put down the life of  a Medicine person. We seem to believe it taints the medicine?  We are so pious it must be ugly and repugnant to even consider offering a woman or man anything other than a pinch of tobacco. The same tobacco which we purchased with cash at a local convenience store.  We are such a pious bunch of Indian Bastards.

The pious bastard has moved away from the Sunday church goer to our Sweat hog.