The 10 Indian (Native american) commandments

This is a great code to live by:



Remain close to the Great Spirit.

Show great respect for your fellow beings.

Give assistance and kindness whenever needed.

Be truthful and honest at all times.

Do whatever you know to be right.

Look after the well-being of mind and body.

Treat the earth and all that dwell thereon with respect.

Take responsibility for your actions.

Dedicated a share of your efforts to the greater good.

Work together for the benefit of all mankind.

It shows you how spiritually evolve the Native Americans were, and how much we've stepped backwards from this. Here's hoping that by the end of 2012 this with thinking is more common than it is now.

We stepped backward because the Europeans espoused none of those things. Once they became Americans, it only got worse. Then America exported its disease to the rest of the world and here we are today.

Pair that with the Russian and Chinese cultural revolutions and you can see how the pollution of our kind has only deepened to untold filth.

Out with the putrid, in with purity.

Meaning no disrespect, but I've yet to find what individual, nation, tribe or band these commandments originated from. My wife who is also a native person seems to remember first reading these commandments in a Reader's Digest magazine some 40 years ago.

Excellent point. Sometime it really helps to know where the original source springs from...

Things written forty years ago sometimes take on a life of their own because no one goes far enough back to check the story. They just take the written word as fact when it never actually was. One drop of misinformation or even intentional disinformation goes a very long way and lasts for years.

Linda

Linda Brown said:

Excellent point. Sometime it really helps to know where the original source springs from...

Things written forty years ago sometimes take on a life of their own because no one goes far enough back to check the story. They just take the written word as fact when it never actually was. One drop of misinformation or even intentional disinformation goes a very long way and lasts for years.

Linda

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I can't disagree that these are good words, especially in troubled times when good words warm the heart, but as mentioned the origins are rather obscure to me and probably other NDN people as well. Personally I don't think these commandments were listed and observed by all nations, tribes and bands in the pre-European contact days.

First off, among all the many different nations, tribes and bands of what is now America there was no common native belief of a single deity known as the great spirit. Some of the people or tribes perhaps, but not all being mostly primitive animists.

Second? I can't imagine a Cheyenne or Lakota warrior of say 1833 having all that much respect for a Skidi Pawnee.

Third? A captured and wounded Susquehannock of say 1645 could expect little assistance or kindness from the Haudenosaunee who were all gathered to watch him or her slowly tortured to death. Yet upon the first night of entering the Haudenosaunee village, some captured warriors feasted and engaged in friendly conversation with his captors.

Forth? Many natives prided themselves in being great liars and thieves, but mostly outside of their own nation, tribe or band.

Fifth? Yes, especially when it involves the welfare of nation, tribe, band, family and friends.

Sixth? One would expect any clear thinking person regardless of who they are to look after both mind and body.

Seventh? Why yes as she is the mother. In the pre-contact days we had no concept of being disrespectful to the mother.

Eighth? I suppose, but know we are moved and swayed by the spirits as well as forces that are greater than us. Speaking from my own band.

Ninth? Yes but not for those considered as adversaries.

Tenth? Refer to the ninth. The greater good of say 18th century Comanche people would mean driving both the Lipan Apache and Mexican settlers out of what is now Texas, killing or capturing as many as they could in the process.

I base this information on various tribal oral traditions as well as historic accounts regarding a people who had no concept of a common set of commandments that for some reason equal in number to the biblical ten commandments.

NDNs are people too and we being from many nations, tribes and bands would probably follow those Native American 10 commandments as well as all the people from the various branches of Judeo-Christian faiths follow theirs.

Perhaps they were written by either a non-NDN person or else a more recent NDN who was blending spiritual beliefs, but if that’s the case this person’s identity still remains a mystery.

A magnificent post. Thank you so much for that.
I don't have much to add other than the thought that I would be suspicious of " 10 commandments" of ANY kind being attributed to any of the Indian nations actually because the whole idea of WRITTEN information is so wired to the European cultures.... From Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Arabic.... you pick any of them and most prided themselves on their WRITTEN words. To print out a group of concepts and then assign them to Indian tribes of this country just feels false to me. I always thought that most of the Indian tribes had longstanding oral histories instead... sort of their "human multigenerational libraries" ..... in their speach and especially in their dances.

In this part of the desert we have the " Bird Singers" who tell of the history of their people. Nothing is in writing.

Linda

Linda Brown said:

A magnificent post. Thank you so much for that.
I don't have much to add other than the thought that I would be suspicious of " 10 commandments" of ANY kind being attributed to any of the Indian nations actually because the whole idea of WRITTEN information is so wired to the European cultures.... From Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Arabic.... you pick any of them and most prided themselves on their WRITTEN words. To print out a group of concepts and then assign them to Indian tribes of this country just feels false to me. I always thought that most of the Indian tribes had longstanding oral histories instead... sort of their "human multigenerational libraries" ..... in their speach and especially in their dances.

In this part of the desert we have the " Bird Singers" who tell of the history of their people. Nothing is in writing.

Linda

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Perhaps it’s a method applied in the cultural genocide process. Here in America, because of religious freedom ‘they’ now have more difficulty keeping traditional ingenious people from practicing our beliefs, but that only opens the doors to other creative methods. I came across these words regarding such -

"The process is ultimately intended to supplant Indians, even in areas of their own customs and spirituality. In the end, non-Indians will have complete power to define what is and is not Indian, even for Indians. When this happens, the last vestiges of real Indian society and Indian rights will disappear. Non-Indians will then "own" our heritage and ideas as thoroughly as they now claim to own our land and resources."

~Russell Means, Oglala Lakota

Misinformation such as these Native American commandments is made available then spreads out through venues of communication where the people, many who are unfamiliar with our many diverse cultures not only hear or read it, but accept it as the truth. Sadly enough there are some NDN people pushing this kind of misinformation as well.

Be it passed by way of the innocent and oblivious or intentionally applied, it is still misinformation.

It's not so much I'm throwing mud at these 10 commandments, only another person offering an individual perspective to a thread where others have also replied.

Perhaps the Native peoples are being presented with opportunities never dreamed of before.

Perhaps it may finally be the time for them to see that Roads can be travelled in two directions... and now instead of being forced to give up their beliefs... perhaps this is the opportunity for the " white/European/Indo" children to discover that path themselves? Not to "OWN" it... but simply to share it.....

This may be an individual and personal challenge for each human.....

Perhaps the modern Native Americans will discover that they are being shown an opportunity to travel that path AGAIN. .....Perhaps the challenge will not only be to remember their own as much as to recognize the idea that there may now be others, strangers from all over the world, discovering that path and beginning to walk it with them.

Instead of being barred from travelling on it themselves.... perhaps they will be joined by those others?..... Its a new way of looking at the future.... where no one organized force can control what comes directly into the spirit of each individual human. And the path is open.

Linda

“Perhaps the Native peoples are being presented with opportunities never dreamed of before.”

An ongoing presentation of opportunities which started in 1492.

“Perhaps it may finally be the time for them to see that Roads can be travelled in two directions... and now instead of being forced to give up their beliefs... perhaps this is the opportunity for the " white/European/Indo" children to discover that path themselves? Not to "OWN" it... but simply to share it..…”

Nothing wrong with sharing in a friendly manner, but we have long had that other direction forcefully imposed upon us.

“This may be an individual and personal challenge for each human..…”

Personal challenges thrust upon others instead of freely chosen.

“Perhaps the modern Native Americans will discover that they are being shown an opportunity to travel that path AGAIN. .....Perhaps the challenge will not only be to remember their own as much as to recognize the idea that there may now be others, strangers from all over the world, discovering that path and beginning to walk it with them.”*

Perhaps some NDN people NEVER forgotten or left our paths in spite of everything that has been imposed upon us. Quite unlike others who left or were forced from such paths long ago and seek not only to re-create their paths, but those of others as well.

“Instead of being barred from travelling on it themselves.... perhaps they will be joined by those others?..... Its a new way of looking at the future.... where no one organized force can control what comes directly into the spirit of each individual human. And the path is open.”

That remains to be clearly seen.

And I don't blame you at all for wanting to see it happening before believing it. Long term. Maybe generations. But I hope that the changes are manifesting themselves NOW.

Linda

Linda Brown said:

And I don't blame you at all for wanting to see it happening before believing it. Long term. Maybe generations. But I hope that the changes are manifesting themselves NOW.

Linda

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Why do you suppose most natives remained unchanged in our stone age cultures until the Europeans arrived?

Because they were not faced with a threat. They didn't have to respond to an outside force nor adapt to the way that the outside force was actively moving against ( or toward ) them. They could progress in their own way, in their own time....

What is the difference between the Native Americans THEN before the white sails appeared on their horizon and all of us now.... globally.... waiting for the same type of thing.....from another dimension or another part of deep space?

Before all of that.... FIRE was the biggest new development.

I had someone tell me and a group of my associates that we are all standing on the moment.... which will be as important to our evolution as the discovery of FIRE was to our ancestors.

Its important that we all talk about this before we come face to face with the challenge.

Linda

Faced with a threat?