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On the Mysterious 1831 Cherokee Manuscript or Jisdu Fixes John Locke's Two Treatises of Civil Government
BRIAN BURKHART
At the time that he read
John Locke's original manuscript, around the year of 1691, Jisdu did not know the weight those printed words would have on his
relatives, the Cherokee people (Anijalagi
Aniyuwiya). What Jisdu did know was
that Locke was upset with the printing of his words, that the printers had made
many mistakes. Jisdu was of the
opinion that such mistakes might explain what appeared to be quite a bit of
nonsense in the printed material that was before him. Since Locke appeared otherwise
to be reasonable and sensible, at least for a human, Jisdu concluded that the errors made by the printers might explain
what seemed like childish nonsense in the actual printed words he was reading. Jisdu had also thought of a more
sinister explanation for the bizarre nature of the book before him: it might be
a didahnesesgi (a conjuring text), as
these often "bear little resemblance to ordinary discourse"
The corrections that Jisdu
made with his own hand to his personal copy of Locke's original manuscript were
not set to type until 1831 when the Cherokee had a printing press and after
Chief Justice John Marshall's use of Locke's original ideas in the Cherokee
Trilogy of Supreme Court cases had set the stage for the Trail of Tears. It was
the confluence of those events that sent Jisdu
to my relative's cabin on a cold December night in 1830. Jisdu had just heard of the execution of Corn Tassel by Georgia, which Governor Gilmer had done with haste to
avoid a review from the highest court in the land—Marshall had just sent Georgia
a writ to appear before the court to defend their racist and imperial incursion
into the Cherokee homeland. Jisdu
believed, and there is indication that he was correct, that if his corrected
edition of Locke's original manuscript would have been published as a revised
edition anytime between 1689 and the present (1830), the horrific events that
were taking place in the Cherokee nation at the hands of the settlers of
Georgia might have been avoided, since these events were shaped by the settler
logic and perhaps even settler witchcraft that was at the core of that original
manuscript.
Part of this story is about Jisdu, the Cherokee rabbit trickster, and part is about my relative
James Dougherty, since it was Grandpa James who was given Jisdu's copy of Locke's manuscript and the instructions on setting
it to type in the winter of 1830. James Dougherty was born in Hightower on Oct,
17, 1785, a Chickamauga Cherokee village on the land of what is now Rome,
Georgia. He was born eight years to the day of the famous battle of Hightower
where Kingfisher was killed by the Tennesseans and the village of Hightower was
moved up the river to what is now Cartersville, Georgia. As an eight-year old,
James witnessed some of the conflict between Doublehead and The Ridge that
spilled out from that fateful day, fateful for both men and even for the
Cherokee Nation as a whole. I think those events of 1793 in his village helped set
him on the path to the Foreign Mission School of Cornwall, Connecticut in 1802.
The years that followed, under the benefactor Elias Cornelius, saw him study
the venerable John Locke and dine with Virginia statesmen Thomas Jefferson and
James Monroe—the same Jefferson who said that Locke was one of the "three
greatest men that ever lived, without exception"
Upon returning to his family in Cherokee Nation East, James
began working with other Christian educated Cherokees to translate the New
Testament into Cherokee using Sequoyah's syllabary. In 1828, He began working
with Boudinot and Worchester on the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper. It was at that
time that James encountered Jisdu,
and this mysterious manuscript was finally given printed life. In the story
that Grandpa James told, he spent several months, under the personalized
instruction of Jisdu, transcribing and
setting to type this manuscript from the hand-corrected version that Jisdu brought him. On March 18, 1831
(the day the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia Supreme Court decision was rendered),
he set the manuscript to type and printed it on the Phoenix press.
It is from James Dougherty, my many times great grandfather,
that this Jisdu formula/manuscript
comes to me. After producing it on the Cherokee printing press in early 1831,
he guarded it like one of the handwritten Cherokee formula books that families
kept and passed down for generations, as he perhaps hoped one day to bring this
manuscript to the wide circulation he believed it deserved, or maybe because
both Grandpa James and Jisdu
considered this manuscript to be one of the idigawesdi
(magically protective and transformative texts) that have power to change the world
and are inviolable and not to be knowingly altered by the descendants to whom
they are passed. Either way, it was so precious to Grandpa James that it became
one of the few items that made the journey with him to Indian Territory in
1838. It was passed down in the Dougherty-Langley family until it finally came
to me. I present it here for the first time because as Grandpa James said, "If
this manuscript could have been included in the printing of the original Two
Treatises, perhaps the horror of what is happening now with our removal might
have been avoided." What follows here is, first, my representation of the note
from the hand of James Dougherty that was included with the Jisdu manuscript and, second, the
original Jisdu manuscript printed in
1831 but never before published. Both are included here with very little
editing on my part. A caution to the
reader: Jisdu has been known at
times to manifest the ability to see the future as well as to speak to the
future. He then often speaks in a dialectical form that is foreign to his
contemporaries but well known to his future interlocuters. Thus, it can prove
rather difficult to situate Jisdu's
corrections to John Locke's original manuscript into a particular time and
space.
Author
January 20, 2017
Los Angeles, CA
§ Concerning this Manuscript and its Origin
Story §
To the Reader.
I have attached a letter to this manuscript because bearing
upon its face, it would appear to be more the offspring of an excited mind than
the sober dictate of political philosophy. What appear as misrepresentations
and illegal constructions of the writings of one John Locke, a philosopher and
physician, are rather the corrections of one Jisdu, a rabbit and trickster. The annihilating sarcasms of the new
editor of this revised edition, one rabbit trickster, to the performance of
which he appears strictly to have adhered, might give cause to apply the
epithet of calumniator upon him if it were not with highest spirit of
friendship, truth, and love that he set forth to make these corrections to the
manuscript of the man, whom he names as friend, John Locke. The faithful
followers of John Locke will surely conclude that they have never witnessed a
similar spirit of high resentment in the cause of one who names himself as
collaborator else, in turn, fall to the irresistible conclusion that this
edition strains completely the faculties of the human mind.
Only a hasty effort to establish conclusions to these
questions will originate such preposterous allegations. In the support of the
true position of original corrector and editor set forth by John Locke himself,
Jisdu is in a supreme and immutable
position, which it will test all the scrutiny of Philosophy to overthrow. So
far as virtue and ability are hand in hand, and accompanied by a strict regard
to consistency, again in so far as virtue and ability will allow, I testify
that this corrected edition of John Locke's Two
Treatises on Civil Government is the true and faithful heir of the original
manuscript set forth in the year 1689. Altho' some may proclaim an excessive
use of liberty on the part of the editor, Jisdu
has every authority and cause to claim that his version of Locke's text to be the
truer manuscript of all thus produced. If the reader has preference for the old
one, let him with industry gratify himself in the enjoyment of the unfit claim
of faithfulness to what is true and earnest from the start. Yet if there has
been no abandonment of the principle of faithfulness and a great disposition is
manifested to approach nearer to the true intention of the mind of the original
author and the great Philosophy to which his intention was directed, these
printed words will find root in that man and grow to hitherto unseen bounds. If
there are missteps and mislocutions in this edition of Locke's manuscript, let
it be unequivocally acknowledged to be an unintentional trespass and laid
squarely upon the shoulders of this human being.
From the Printer and Translator
James Dougherty
New Echota, 1831
Two
T R E
A T I S E S
o f
Government
In the
Former,
The False Principles and Foundation
o f
Jani
Lagwi
And His
F o l l o w e r s,
A R E
Detected
and Overthrown.
The
Latter is an
FORMULA
FOR
The Originary
Manifestation
o f
Government
from the Land
BOOK I
AN ESSAY CONCERNING CERTAIN
FALSE PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER I
ON PROPERTY AND SELF-SOLITUDE
§1. The
concepts of Property and Political Power as they exist in the Settler State of
my future reader—that are as ubiquitous as the notion of the modern
nation state itself—are so Vile and Miserable and so directly opposite to
the dejadaligenvdisgesdi (responsibility
for one another) of anigaduwagi (the
people who come together as one) that tis hardly conceived that our author, Jani Lagwi, would plead for them. And
truly I should have taken this Treatise as persuading all Beings that the Land,
the Plants, and the Animals are all Natural Slaves, for Property and Sovereignty
(as the ubiquitous notions of power in the modern state) are nothing more than
concepts of Power and Domination over, firstly, elohi (the land) and secondly other aniyvwi (people) who are
variously called Savage and Heathen. The Settler Colonial Logic of Domination
that shapes these seemingly common sense concepts does not arise out of a State
of Nature, as our author claims, because this State of Nature conceptualized by
our author is nothing more than the mirror by which the Logic of Domination
conceives itself against a projected and imagined Inferior Other.
§2. I
cannot but confess myself mightily surprised at the Vacuous Locutions the
author presents as an Exercise of Wit. Rather than a Serious Discourse meant in
earnest, which the Manner of this author and the Presentation of his Manuscript
would require, this Treatise is mere Noise meant to Blind the People the better
to device them. Instead of providing a Bond of Kinship for all Human Kind, as the
author claims, this Treatise provides but an ayelisgi (imitation or disease). Ayelisgi is the Unmooring of Kinship from the ayeli, which is the center, the middle, or the nation. Ayeli is grounded in elohi. In other words, what Grounds the
Kinship of Humankind to the Center as a People is the Land. The Contrary Doctrine
of ayelisgi (of imitated kinship
through abstraction and domination) removes from Humankind even the possibility
of Kinship and founds the Being of Humankind in Self-Banishment or Solitude. In
this Solitude, Human Reason, Human Knowledge, and Human Power are also banished
with the Banishment of the Other. Where there is no Kinship, there is no
Knowledge, no Understanding, no human power that is not the imitation power of
domination.
CHAPTER II
ON THE KINLESS CONQUEROR AND ITS ORIGIN IN SELF-BANISHMENT
§3. The
Kinless Conqueror that defines the coming to be of Civilizing Power and Property,
in the mind of our author, is created in Solitude, but a Solitude that deceives
itself as Dominating Power. As the Roman Empire becomes the Christian Empire, and
as the Dominating Power of Imperial Conquering becomes the Dominating Power and
authority of Christendom, the Kinless Conqueror finds itself in a perpetual
state of questioning: If I know the supposed Heathen and Savage as she actually
is, do I lose the Unquestioning Power I have over her? If I move beyond the Self-Created
shell of my Dominating Power to actually touch and see the Other, do I lose my
Self-Created Power of Domination? These questions resolve to one: am I truly
King of all, or am I truly God on Earth? This is the First Skepticism. It is
the Skepticism of Christendom's Adawi
(Adam) and Kastadinv (Constantine)
but only reaches fruition in the Inquisition's Gwedinadv (Ferdinand) and Isadela
(Isabella) and the Valladolid's Segwvligeda
(Sépulveda). When the Inquisition asks who among the Converted are "stained by
ancestral heresies" or when the Valladolid asks "do Indians truly have souls," this
is not a Skepticism about the "enemy within," but a Methodological Skepticism
whose end is the Self-Creation of the Unquestionable Conqueror
§4. This
Methodological Skepticism is not directed toward the Settling of the Question
of the Savage and Heathen Other, but the Settling of the Doubt concerning
whether the Conqueror is truly God on Earth. In order to banish the Doubt
concerning whether the Conqueror is King, he creates a sphere in which he
becomes Unquestionable and Undoubtable in order to become an ayelisgi (imitation) God on Earth. The Conqueror
banishes the other from his Sphere of Being in order to banish the Doubt of the
Conqueror as truly God on Earth, to banish the Doubt of the Conqueror as King.
After banishing the Other from his Sphere of Being, he replaces the Other with
the Inverted Projection of the Conqueror himself, the Savage. The Conqueror
becomes what he is then, not through True Power, but through Complete Solitude.
All of Being and Knowing become a mirror for the Idiosyncratic Personalities
and Experiences of the Kinless Conqueror who has banished himself to his Own
Solitude. The supposed Enemy Within of the Savage and Heathen Other hides the
True Enemy Within of the Solipsistic Universe of his own Mind.
§5. The
Savage Other is manufactured, in part, for the purpose of creating a Conqueror who
can innocently save this ayelisgi
(imitation) Other. If the Savage Other violently resists the Conqueror's will,
then the Conqueror becomes the Victim of the Savage Other. Yet Civilizing the
Savage or Saving the Heathen does alter the Path of continued domination for
the Kinless Conqueror. After civilizing and saving, the Kinless Conqueror must
reveal the Bad Faith of his Mission to Civilize and Save the Savage Other in
the First Place. The Ceaseless Striving to Save the Savage Other even after she
has been Saved reveals the Conceptual and Structural Fallacy of the Mission as
one of Salvation at all since the States of being Unsaved, Uncivilized, and
Poor for the Savage Other are material and conceptual by-products of the States
of being Saved, Civilized, and Wealthy as created by the Forced Solitude of the
Kinless Conqueror. This Fallacy of the Creation of Value in absence of actual
Kinship by the Conqueror also reveals that the Freedom and Liberation the
Savage Other is supposed to find after being brought out of Darkness by the Salvatory
Conqueror is not a True Freedom or Liberation—as these Concepts must be borne
out by Reason or Experience—but rather the Freedom to be Shaped in the Image
of the Kinless Conqueror, which is of course not a Freedom at all, as our
author well knows, but a perpetual State of Bondage.
§6. One
world-leader of my future Readers, Jaji
Gwvsi (George W. Bush) will propose to save a Desert Tribe in a Foreign
Land by forcing upon them the So-Called Freedom of Free Enterprise or what is rather
the Bondage of Global Capitalism as they will come to Know it. The Real Meaning
of being Savage, Uncivilized, Unfree, and so on, is then determined by the
Kinless Conqueror, but not on the foundation of any Principle of Reason or
Experience but simply on the foundation of the Idiosyncratic Being of the
Kinless Conqueror himself. All the Savage Other must do in order to continue to
be Savage is to lie outside of the Sphere of Power the Kinless Conqueror has
created for his Purpose (for my Future Reader this Sphere of Power manifests
itself, in part, as Global Capitalism). The so-called Reason of the Kinless
Conqueror becomes the Epistemological Perspective of Future Philosophy. But is
not an Epistemological Perspective of the Kinless Conqueror brought to bare on
the Savage Other; the Kinless Conqueror is
the Epistemological Perspective. There is no Reason or Epistemological
Perspective to bring to bare for there is no Reason or Epistemological Perspect
ive at all Save the Kinless Conqueror himself in his Solitude. Segwvligeda puts it most directly in the
Valladolid when he claims that it would be Wrong to exercise Violence against
the Savage Other if she were found to worship "the true God," who of course is
None Other than the God of the Kinless Conqueror himself.
CHAPTER III
THE KINLESS CONQUEROR BECOMES THE KINLESS KNOWER OR THE
SECOND SKEPTICISM
§7. When
Degatisdi (Descartes) gives Birth to
the Kinless Knower (I think; therefore, I am) over Five Decades before the
Words of Our Author, this birth is a Second Birth of the Kinless Conqueror. The
Doubt that seemingly arises out of the Ether in the Mind of Degatisdi while watching the Candle Wax
melt in his Study is not a True Doubt as he himself admits. His Methodological
Doubt and Methodological Skepticism arise from the same Fear of the Conqueror
being found Questionable. But rather than facing the Other only to find himself
wanting, The Conqueror faces Knowing the Other, the World itself here, by
attempting to defeat the Doubt that his Knowledge is King of All, that his Knowledge
is Unquestionable, that he is God on Earth. This is the Second Skepticism. The
Kinless Knower rises above the Skepticism of his Unquestionable Knowledge,
following the Manner of the Kinless Conqueror, by Banishing the Other, the
Body, the World. The Kinless Knower knows his own mind in its Solitude and the
Other, the Body, the World is imagined as mere Form or Shape that can only be
Measured by Geometry. Just as the Kinless Conqueror creates the Illusion of
Power over the Other by banishing her from his Sphere of Kinship and into the
Imagined Realm of Savagery, so the Kinless Knower creates the Illusion of
Knowledge of the Other, the World, by banishing her from his Sphere of Kinship
and into the Imagined Realm of mere Body, mere Form, mere Shape, mere Emotion,
mere Desire (these are also variously called Savage and Heathen, but also
Female and Natural). The World of Knowledge, Reason, Power, Agency exists alone
in the Mind and Personalities of the Kinless Knower in his Solitude. These
Exist in him by Definition and not by Reason lest the very Question should be
Begged: By Whose Lights do You Confirm in Yourself Alone all that is Good,
True, and Powerful. This Question cannot be Asked of the Kinless Knower because
he is both the Light that Shines and the Seer of that Light.
§8. The
Mind of the Kinless Knower over against the Imagined Mere Form and Body of the
Other as World is a mirror for the Idiosyncratic Personalities and Experiences
of the Kinless Knower who has banished himself to his Own Solitude. A ten year-old
Degatisdi entered the Jesuit school
of La Flèche in 1606. In this school, he received a "modern" education that
focused on the "rationalization" of practices of the Catholic Church. In this
training, "each Jesuit constituted a singular, independent, and modern
subjectivity, performing daily an individual 'examination of conscience,'
without communal choral hymns or prayers as was the case with medieval Benedictine
monks." Degatisdi was required to "withdraw
into silence three times a day, to reflect on his own subjectivity and
'examine' with extreme self-consciousness and clarity the intention and content
of every action, the actions carried out hour-by-hour, judging these actions
according to the criterion [of service to God]"
§9. The
Duality of Mind and Body by which the Kinless Knower attempts to Conqueror his
Doubt is also Grounded in very Particular and Idiosyncratic Practices of
Christendom. The Duality of the Soul and Body is a Foundational Tenet of
Christendom, even if from One Solitary spot on the Tree of Christendom. The
Soul is Saved but the Body is Resurrected as the Culmination of Salvation. The
Soul, like the Mind, is the Solitary Source of Being, Knowing and Salvation,
but only in Relation to an Imagined Inferior Other of the Body and World. During
the Peak of the Inquisition, the Body becomes "the basic object of repression,"
whereas the Soul becomes "almost separated from the intersubjective relations
at the interior of the Christian world"
§10. Walteli Miginolo (Walter Mignolo), an
author perhaps known to my future reader, will put the Relational Structure of
Manifesting Universality over what is an Idiosyncratic Culture Practice of
Christendom like this: "Secularization was able to detach God from Nature
(which was unthinkable among Indigenous and Sub Saharan Africans, for example;
and unknown among Jews and Muslims). The next step was to detach, consequently,
Nature from Man (e.g., Frances Bacon' Novum Organum, 1620). "Nature" became the
sphere of living organisms to be conquered and vanquished by Man"
CHAPTER IV
THE KINLESS CONQUEROR DOMINATES THE LAND BY CREATING THE
SAVAGE AND THE STATE OF NATURE
§11. Our
Author also describes Amayeli
(between the waters) or Amayagni
(America) as the context out of which Civilization comes to be. "In the
Beginning all the World was America," Jani
Lagwi (John Locke) beseeches his listener (II.49). Amayeli becomes the exemplar of the State of Nature. "America is
still a Pattern of the first Ages in Asia and Europe," he pontificates, and so
the Anijalagi (Cherokee) as well as
the Aniyonega (Europeans) who come in
contact with them "are perfectly in a State of Nature" (II.14). I do not think
our Author so little skill'd in reasoning that he would fall into the Trap of
the Kinless Conqueror, so I first supposed it but by Oversight that he comes to
this thought or it is again by way of the Banishment to Solitude that his Mind
is driven to this Place. The Reflections, for their part, as they occur in this
Text are not Reflections of Reason. Yet they do create an ayelisgi (imitation) of power that imagines a Justification on the
basis of Natural Law for the Appropriating without consent of the land of the Anijalagi by the Aniyonega as well as the Justification for the Denial of the
Sovereign Authority of the Jalagi Ayeli
(The Cherokee Nation) itself.
§12. In
Nature, according to our Author, "All men are naturally in a state of Perfect
Freedom to order their Actions, and dispose of their Possessions and Persons as
they think fit, within the bounds of the Law of Nature, without asking Leave or
depending upon the Will of any other Man" (II.4). Thus, when the Jalagi Ayeli (the Cherokee Nation)
simply defends its lands and people from the ayelisgi of domination by the Yoneg,
as they are defined as in a perfect State of Nature, the Jalagi are Offenders of natural law and as such are "wild Savage
Beasts" who "may be destroyed as a Lyon or a Tyger" (II.16). The Jalagi are Offenders of Natural Law in
defending their People and Land because as existing on a land that is Yet in a
State of Nature, the Jalagi have no
People or Land as they have no possibility of Gover'ment or Property. The force
of these words are Great for our Author, since, during the Time of the Setting
of these Words to type, he served as secretary to the Lords Proprietors of
Carolina, secretary to the Council of Trade and Plantations, and as a member of
the Board of Trade. He was one of a handful of men who helped to shape the old
colonial system of Amayeli during the
Restoration, and on that basis felt the weight of the ayelisgi of Settler Domination. His part, in trying to lift this
pretense, was a manufactured absence of a government and property system on the
part of the aniyvwi of Amayeli (people of America). My future
readers may know that Jemi Duli
(James Tully), a scholar of Jani Lagwi,
says of our Author's pretense: "Locke's concepts [of government and property]...
are inadequate..." because "Locke constructed them in contrast to Amerindian
forms of nationhood and property in such a way that they obscure and downgrade
the distinctive features of Amerindian polity and property"
§13. The
result of the Self-Banishment of our Author from Amayeli, in order to hide from the True Other (the anijalagi as well as all the other aniyvwiya of Amayeli) while maintaining an ayelisgi
(Imitation) Other of the Savage, is a manufactured State of Nature for Amayagni. In this manufactured State of
Nature, anijalagi (The Cherokee) have
no government or law and no private property, as is required in Nature. The yvwi of Amayeli (the people of this land) have no Law but the Law of Nature
and no Authority but the singularity of each Individual Will. The Law of Nature
is all that "restrain men from invading other's Rights," and "the Execution of
the Law of Nature is... put into every Man's hands, whereby everyone has a right
to punish" offenders of Natural Law (II.7). In Nature, says our author, it is
the individual who perceives what is right according to Natural Law, and it is
the individual who is Judge over controvers's betwine himself and others, and
executes Punishments proportionate to the Transgression of these Natural Laws. Human
Beings in Nature, says our author, are free to order their Lives in Accordance
with Natural Law and are equal in the "Power and Jurisdiction" to govern the
Transgressions of this Law. All Human Beings are then Laws unto themselves in
Nature until such time that they freely release their "Natural Power" with the
expressed intention of declaring "a common establish'd Law and Judicature to
appeal to, with Authority to decide Controversies between them, and punish
Offenders" (169).
§14. Likewise,
there is no Property in the State of Nature because in Nature "God hath given
the World to Men in Common" to "make use of the best advantage of Life and
convenience." "The Earth and all that is therein is given to Men for the
Support and Comfort of their being" (II.26). "All the Fruits and Beasts belong
to Mankind in Common," which is an Idea that I, Jusdi, find so Childish that it comes only with a Giggle that I can
even Quote such nonsense on the part of our Author since it portends that these
"Common Men" own us Rabbits as well as the Grass we eat. Rubbish! A particular
person can only come to Own a particular Rabbit (Balderdash!) from out of the
Commons by Appropriation. "The Fruit or Venison which nourish's the Wild
Indian, who knows no enclosure, and is still a tenant in common" comes to
belong to the so-called Savage when she "hath mixed [her] labour with it, and
joined to It something that is [her] own, which is the "work of [her] hands"
(II.27). Once the Savage removes the Fruit and Venison from what is Common to
all, then that and only that which she Removes becomes her own. When she is
"Nourished by the Acorns" she gathers from "Under the Oak," she is making those
and only those particular Acorns that she gathers and eats her own property. But
though her labour remove these Acorns from the Commons, she can only take for
her own as many Acorns as that will not turn to Rot. The Savage in the State of
Nature can never possess the Oak 'fore she can never Appropriate the Wood nor
the Deer that Feed upon it, except in what she killeth and only that, from the
Commons as long as she is in the Savage State of Nature whereupon there is no
Power or Law to Bind all. Until the Savage gives up the "Natural Power" to
establish Laws that govern enclosed Space removed from the Commons, she has no
Property but what she Now possess with her Hands. Until such time that Natural
Power is given up and a common establish'd Law is made over Amayeli (this land), in Amayagni
"there could be no doubt of Right, no room for quarrel," and "no reason of
quarrelling about Title, nor any doubt about the largeness of the Possession it
gave" (II.51).
CHAPTER V
THE KINLESS CONQUEROR BANISHES HIMSELF FROM THE LAND IN
ORDER TO MANUFACTURE THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY
§15. This
manufactured Savage, who has no government, law, or land and who only comes
into being through the Self-Banishment of the Kinless Conqueror, brings with it
an ayelisgi of Justification for her
Domination and for the Free Appropriation of her land and what is of her Land:
The Acorn, the Deer, and the Gold. As Lagwi
puts it, predicting the Future General Long Hair's expedition into the Black
Hills with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in 1874 to Freely Appropriate the
Gold of the Lakota aniyvwi, "the Ore
that I have digg'd in any place, where I have a right in Common with others
becomes mine" (II.28). But our Author is in conflict with One of the Oldest and
Most Fundamental Principles of Yoneg
(Western) Law as spoken in the Ritual incantations of Latin Thusly: Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari et
aprobari debet (What Toucheth all Must be Approved by all). This Yoneg Principle of Law does not provide
Room for Appropriation without Consent. Consent is, in the Oldest of Legal
Principles, the Principle of Law itself. As far as establish'd property Law at
the time of Lagwi's writing and back
into Time Immemorial for the Yoneg
People, settlement and Defense of that Settlement were understood by all to
constitute occupation, and it was Occupation, in this sense, along with Long
Use that were the oldest and most settled principles of legal land title.
§16. One
of the examples of Self-Banishment that our author then tries to turn into a
Principle (which is of course, as a Principle based in Solitude and not in
Reason is not a Principle at all) is that what shews where once a Law is
establish'd in Europe there could be no Appropriation without Consent is that
in these Lands there is "Controversie about... Title' and the "Incroachment on
the Right of Others" and individuals are "Quarrelsom and Contentious", driven
by "Covetousness" as it regards possible Land claims (II.36, II.51, II.34). But
in Amayagni, by contrast (as it is he
supposed in a State of Nature), our author claims of any Yoneg, "let him plant in some in-land place" where there are not
current plants in the ground, that such would not give "the rest of Mankind"
any "reason to complain, or think themselves injured by this Man's
Incroachment" (II.36). This result of this pretense by our author is the ayelisgi conclusion that where no foot
of an actual yvwi (person) now
standing is terra nullius or vacant
land. This ayelisgi conclusion
creates justification for the further ayelisgi
conclusion that for any Yoneg who
comes upon the shores of Amayeli that
by the mere placing of his foot upon soil where there currently is no foot is establish'd
a Natural property right to that soil. Under the accepted principles of
occupation and long use (that are ironically denied to the yvwi of Amayeli) is establish'd
Yoneg legal title to this soil under
accepted Yoneg principles of land
title. By the early 1600s (and many years before our author puts these words to
type) this so-call Doctrine of Discovery gave an ayelisgi justification of the assertion of Sovereignty and Property
rights by any Yoneg if the discovery,
occupation, and defense of any part of Amayeli
was not already discovered by another Monarch of Christendom or warranted by a
charter or grant from a King of Christendom, such as the John Cabot charter
from King Henry VII for Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, which included
the right "to subdue, occupy and possess" the yvwi of Amayeli, "getting
unto us the rule, title, and jurisdiction" of their land
§17. Chief
Justice Jani Malsgwali (John
Marshall) of the Yoneg Supreme Court
in Amayagni is currently ruling on
issues of this so-called Doctrine in the Jaligi
case against the State of Georgia, but he is no stranger to ruling with the
Self-Banishment of Reason that our Author transforms from the mere Solitude of
the Kinless Conqueror to an ayelisgi
of Justification for the Domination over ayeli
dunadotlvsv (Nations) of Amayeli (this land) and Appropriation of
their lands without Consent. In the recent (1823) Yoneg court case regarding Appropriation without consent of the
lands of ayeli dunadotlvsv of Amayeli, Malsgwali judges that the yvwi
of Amayeli are incapable of owning
their lands and territories because they are what he calls "savage tribes." The
Yoneg upon discovery of these "savage
tribes" obtain "the exclusive right to appropriate [their] lands"
CHAPTER VI
THE SELF-BANISHMENT OF PRINCIPLE IN THE CONCEPTS OF CIVIL
GOVERNMENT AND PROPERTY
§18. And
Yet the Jalagi in part and the yvwi of Amayeli in whole did not consent to these pretenses on their
sovereignty and property. The yvwi of
Amayeli do feel injured by "this
Man's Incroachment" onto their Land and Territories as the daily Proclamations
in the Jsalagi Jsulehisanvhi
(Cherokee Phoenix) will attest. The yvwi
of Amayeli did more than feel injured
by the Yoneg Incroachment, our author
knows. In stark contrast to the claimed lack of "No Controversie about... Title"
and the "Incroachment on the Right of Others" in a State of Nature, the yvwi of Amayeli (including the Jalagi
in the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia case that is before Malsgwali and the highest Yoneg
court in these lands) have presented legal challenges to every kind of
Incroachment on their Rights and Land as has been available to them. This
contrast alone should render our author's Claims regarding a State of Nature
for Amayeli as Reasonless and without
Principle since in a State of Nature it is necessary that there be no such Controversie.
The Yoneg, for their part, shewed the
pretense of their reason when they went to War with the Pequot in 1636 over
Innumerable land disputes with these yvwi
of Amayeli. The Mohegan, for their
part, Appealed to the Privy Council in London in 1670 against the colony of
Connecticut for their appropriating of Mohegan Land without consent. The
Mohegan continued their legal battles with Connecticut for nearly 100 years. The
actions of both Yoneg, Jalagi, Mohegan, and many others alike shew the Self-Banishment of Reason that
appears as an Principle of Truth in Arguments of our author on these Accounts.
§19. Lagwi, himself, shows with Great
Regularity, most often from his own words, the Self-Banishment of his Reason.
The fact that our author thinks one can only have Settled Legal Property when
one is "Quarrelsom and Contentious", driven by "Covetousness" alone threatens
to shew the Self-Banishment of the so-called Principles he espouses. Lagwi also thinks that the Jalagi Ayeli as well as other ayeli
dunadotlvsv of Amayeli (Nations of this Land) do not rise to the level of Nations
with accompanying Sovereignty because the Authority by which the Leaders of these
ayeli dunadotlvsv (Nations) operated was not Absolute. He claims that
although these "nations" were "ruled by elected Kings," these so-called Kings
have "very little Dominion, and have but a very moderate Sovereignty" (I. 131).
The ayeli dunadotlvsv of Amayeli
lacked both the very particular Moral qualities of the Yoneg, such as being Covetous, as well as the particular Yoneg institutions, such as absolute or
majority rule rather than consensus. Rather than allowing for a Kinship to a
True Other, Lagwi banishes the
possibility of Kinship by claiming that these differences in Values and
Institutions are not Real Differences. The ayeli
dunadotlvsv of Amayeli (Nations of this Land) have no need for these Values and
Institutions because, our author claims, they have "few Trespasses, and few
Offenders, and "little matter for Covetousness and Ambition," and so no "need
of laws" (II.107). The Reason the so-called Savages have few Trespasses and few
Offenders is that, according to our author, they have little property because
their desires were confined "within the narrow bounds of each mans small propertie"
(Ibid). Their "want of money" gave them "no Temptation to enlarge their
Possessions of Land, or contest for wider extent of Ground" (II.108). The idea
is simply put thus: Greed leads to money, and money leads to more Greed and
only on the basis of this unlimited desire to ever enlarge "their Possessions
of Land" do Individuals put themselves into the Proper situation for creating a
Civil Society. Rather than being a Function of the most Idiosyncratic
personalities of the Yoneg, Lagwi defines these idiosyncratic
personalities as Universal and even Necessary for the very possibility of Civil
Society, Real Government, and True Sovereignty. This is the work of the Kinless
Conqueror in all of its true Splendor: the Creation of an Entire Universe of
Truth out of the single act of Self-Banishment.
§20. This
Self-Banishment work of the Kinless Conqueror as an ayelisgi Justification of the Operations of Manifest Destiny on Amayeli was not new to the work of our
author. Lagwi merely adds
philosophical clarity to this line of Self-banished Reason in its Operation on
the land of Amayagni. Jani Witlodi
(John Winthrop), the Puritan lawyer from England who helped establish the
second major Incroachment onto these Lands and Territories (Massachusetts Bay
Colony founded in 1630), argued that the yvwi
of Amayeli could only possess what
they were currently cultivating (even leaving their fields seasonally for the Clam
beds was enough to lose Possession under his version of the Kinless Conqueror's
State of Nature). He rejected the claim that ayeli dunadotlvsv of Amayeli (Nations of this land) held
ownership of their lands and territories so that it would be illegal to "enter
upon the land which hath beene soe longe possessed by others." His ayelisgi Justification for this
Rejection is the claim that Amayeli is
in a State of Nature, under which "that which lies common, and that has neuer
been replenished or subdued is free to any that possesse and improue it"
§21. The
words of Witlodi, Lagwi, and Malsgwali that claim ownership over Amayeli (this land) through the Creation of the Kinless Conqueror
in his Solitude are meant to be the Actions of an didahnesesgi (putter-in and drawer-out of them), which is the worst
and most powerful of evil conjurers. The repetition of these seemingly nonsense
words are the practices of an uya
igawasti (a Speaker of destructive utterances that are meant to destroy the
life-force of those conjurered over). The strangeness of Logi's text is perhaps not that strange at all, as didahnesesgi and uya igawasti formulas bear as little resemblance to ordinary
discourse "as Chaucer's Old English does to the writings of James Joyce"
BOOK II
ON THE ORIGIN OF JALAGI
GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE LAND OR THE FORMULA FOR PROTECTION FROM THE INCANTATIONS
OF THE KINLESS CONQUEROR
CHAPTER I
ON THE
SUPPOSED STATE OF NATURE AND SUPPOSEDLY RISING ABOVE IT OR THE FORMULA FOR
TELLING THE WAY IT IS
Gha! (Listen!)
Unehlanvhi galvladi
(Provider
above)
Nigvnadv higolodisgi
(The
One Who Sees Everywhere)
. . . .
. . .
Doyugwudv dijanoja jadi
(You
tell the Truth)
. . . .
. . .
Degvyadhvdhaniga
(I have
just come to question you)
. . . .
. . .
Usinuliyu sgwadvgohlaniga
(Very
quickly, you have just come to let me know)
§22. Let
me begin to fix the words of this text that I have long suffered but have come
to have some pity upon that may even raise to a slight affection. I, Jisdu,
will fix these Words with some Stories of my own, some Stories that reveal a
bit about anijalagi aniyvwi ale jalagi
ayeli (the Cherokee people and the Cherokee Nation). The lack of the
Idiosyncratic personalities of the Kinless Conqueror (which include a
Quarrelsome and Greedy disposition, the desire to enclose and subdue the land
(even requiring the placing of waga (Cows)
upon it), and even, I gather, a distaste for Clams) do not remove the Jalagi from having a meaningful civil
society and a meaningful relationship to their land and territories. As we have
seen from Segwvligeda to Degatisdi to Jani Lagwi, the ground
upon which the notions of Civil Government and Private Property are based are settled
in the Kinless Conqueror and his Self-Banishment from Reason and into Solitude.
The Kinless Conqueror shapes the Ontological foundation of the concepts of
Being, Land, Meaning and so on. The Kinless Conqueror shapes the fundamental
conception of human being as a Subjectivity that Conquers its Other. The
Kinless Conqueror shapes the contours of all Yoneg thought from Jani Lagwi to the present of my Reader: the
mind is set over and against the Other of Body, Humans are set over and against
the Other of Nature, the Civilized are set over and against the Other of the Savage,
Reason is set over and against Emotion, Man is set over and against Woman, and
so on. Human beings are taken out of the land and abstracted into concepts of
planetary evolution, history, anthropology, and so on. This Kinless Conqueror
becomes a Dominating force that by being Removed from the Land is able to
Operate from Above on the Other, including the Land itself. The Land becomes Conceptualized
as an Abstract Object of Domination. Jani
Lagwi defines Property as existing
only over Land that one has Enclosed, made Private and exercised Dominion and
control over. My Future reader can follow the line of the Kinless Conqueror
through all the Yoneg concepts of
Power as an abstracted or Kinless power (removed from the land) that comes down
from Above. Take the Classic Yoneg
concept of Poltical power: sovereignty. In Latin, "sover" is over or coming from above, while "reign" is to have dominating power over. Sovereignty is then Coming
from Above to exercise Dominating power over. The very Nature of Power of
Sovereignty is being removed from the Land in order to operate Abstractly on it
or over it through Self-Banishment and Solitude.
CHAPTER II
ON NATURE AND PROPERTY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SELU, THE
CORN MOTHER OR A FORMULA FOR REMOVING A FOREIGN OBJECT INTRODUCED BY A KINLESS CONJUROR
Gha!
(Listen!)
Jisgili gvhnagei svnoyu
(Black
Owl of Night)
Janaqwi uhyoha
(Your
heart it hunts)
Unvdodi dihahnesesgi hia
(Conjurors
do this)
Halvgidiga ehlawe
(You
have just come to unquietly untie)
Nuvtanvda dudanvdhelidolvhi
(The
Thinker before he goes away)
§23. Jani Lagwi, all his protestations to the
contrary, hasn't the faintest notion of Nature, even in the Darkest recesses of
his already Clouded and Shadowed mind. He proclaims that as the "workmanship of
one Omnipotent and Infinitely wise Maker" and "servants of one sovereign Master,"
"all men are naturally in... a state of perfect freedom to order their actions,
and dispose of their possessions and persons" (II. 4). This Freedom for all Human
beings comes from their "sharing all in one community of Nature," which is a Result
of Human beings not being "made for one another's uses" in contrast to What our
author calls "inferior ranks of creatures" such as yours truly, Jisdu who are Supposedly
made specifically for these Human Beings and for whatever purposes they see fit
(II.6). But Nature doeth not Place the Human in such High regard. Human beings
do not have Dominion over elohi (the
earth) and the animal spirits/powers who live in Galvladi (above everything) at galagwogi
(the seventh height). There is no State of Nature where Human beings are free
to treat elohi and the Animals as
inferior property and so only order their Actions in relation to what Lagwi calls Natural Reason, which only
takes Regard for the Mutual Wellbeing of humans in their shared space of
Nature. The Animals of elohi have great
Powers, and these Powers exist Above Everything in the sacred stone vault. Humans
come into the Space of elohi with
unresolvable Tension and Conflict. The humans must Track and Slay the animals
of elohi in order to survive. This
disruption to the Lifeways and the Life-force of the animals brings the Anger and
Antagonism on the part of the animals and the animal spirits/Power down upon
the human Beings as they try to live upon elohi.
The Animal spirit/power brings sickness upon the Human beings for the eating of
their Flesh and the wearing of their Skin as clothing. The Bear, the Deer, the
Fishes, the Snakes, the Birds, the Insects, and many smaller animals each bring
Different Punishments upon the humans for their Offense. But when the Plants of
elohi hear about the suffering the
animal spirit/powers have placed upon the Humans, they feel great Compassion
for them as they understand that the Human beings are also trying to simply Sustain
their lives. They agree to "help man when he calls upon [them] in his need" (Mooney
1891 319-321). The Plants become mediators for this unresolvable tension
between human beings and animals.
§24. But
the Plants must also Sacrifice their Flesh and Bones in giving this Help to the
Human Beings, for all aniyvwi
(persons) have Flesh and Bones. There are, in fact, four Spirits in aniyvwi, even the Plants. There is one
Spirit in the Head or Throat that is a Spirit of Thought and Speech. This
Spirit materializes as saliva. There is another Spirit in the liver, another
Spirit in the Flesh that is materialized as Blood, and finally a Spirit in the
bones that can materialize as semen. The most important Plant for anijalagi is Selu, and she is Flesh and Bones. Selu is the word for the corn, the corn Plant but also the Corn
Mother. Her two sons are Aniyvdagwalosgi
(The Thunder People). One of these Sons was born from Selu and Kana'ti but the
Other is Wild Boy who was spawned from the Blood or the Flesh Spirits of the
Animals that the Family killed and cleaned in the River, for it was from that
very spot in the River that Wild Boy came to be. The two Boys set free all the
animals from the trap of Kana'ti,
their father, and so it came to be that they Approached their Mother, Selu, with their Hunger. She told her
Boys that even though there was no Meat that if they waited she would Return
with something for them. Selu took a taluja (basket) and went to the
storehouse. The Storehouse was high off the ground and required Selu to climb a ladder to reach. Selu climbed into the storehouse with an
empty taluja and returned with a taluja full of selu (corn) and tuya
(beans). The Two Boys wondered where all this selu and tuya came from
so the next day when Selu went to the
Storehouse, they followed her and watch through a hole in the log and clay
wall. What they saw astounded and frightened them. Selu stood in the middle of the room with her empty taluja. As she leaned over the empty
basket, she rubbed her stomach. The taluja
began to fill with selu. She then
rubbed her armpits, and the taluja
began to fill with tuya. The Boys
were terrified. They decided that their Mother was a powerful didahnesesgi who was trying to Poison
them with this ayelisgi food, and so they
must kill her for their own Safety. Selu
could hear their thoughts though and told them they were planning to kill her. She
told them "when you have killed me, clear a large piece of ground in front of
the house and drag my body seven times around the circle. Then drag me seven
times over the ground inside the circle, and stay up all night and watch, and
in the morning you will have plenty of corn" (Mooney 245). The Boys killed
their Mother with their clubs and placed her Decapitated head on the roof of
the House with her Face looking toward the West. The Boys began to clear the
Ground in front of the House, but did not follow their Mother's instructions,
and cleared only seven tiny Spots rather than the whole ground. They dragged
their Mother's Body around the Circle and, just as she had predicted, wherever
her Blood (the manifestation of her Flesh Spirit) spilled onto the Ground, selu began to spring up. The Boys sat
and watched the selu through the Night,
and by morning, it was fully grown and ready to harvest.
§25. The
Hunter must try to Balance the contradiction of trying to respectfully Kill and
Eat the Animals that are needed to Sustain life but in such a way that does not
increase the Ire of the animals and animal spirit/powers so as not to have the
sustained Life and Life-force later taken away by some Sickness brought on by
animal revenge. The Jalagi must
balance this contradiction with their Corn Mother as well. Just like with
Animals they Hunt and Eat, yvwi must
try to respectfully Kill and Eat Selu,
the Corn Mother. Selu is their Mother,
though, and so her role in the current and future material and spiritual
life-force of anijalagi is most
fundamental. The Nature of Kinship with Selu
is paramount to the life sustaining or life force milieu of elohi (the preconceptual intertwining of
being and the land), because if the yvwi
do not eat Selu they physically die,
or conceptually die in the sense of being out of balance with the preconceptual
intertwining of people and land as elohi.
The manner in which aniyvwi (people)
continue to kill Selu and drag her
body across the earth so that when her blood pours onto the ground determines
whether there is more corn and aniyvwi
continue to live. As aniyvwi continue
to kill Selu, they take the ears of
corn, they grind kernels and plant some kernels back in the ground so that Selu will come back each time that they
kill her and eat her. The process of killing and eating Selu while returning some of her bones (the kernels) to the ground
is hardly a simple material process. Firstly, the separation of aniyvwi from elohi in the construction of a concept of material processes that
are separate from social and spiritual relationships is a creation of the
Kinless Conqueror. Secondly, in the context of elohi, aniyvwi take the
flesh and blood spirit of Selu and
mix it with their Saliva spirit in the eating and digesting of the Flesh and
Blood and Flesh and Blood spirit of their Mother. They also Grind the Kernels (the
bone spirit) and place some of the Bones back in the ground, which returns part
of her Regenerative or fertility Spirit to elohi
so that Selu will regenerate. All the
different Spirits of the aniyvwi and
their interactions with the Spirits of Selu
are part of the Normative structure of this foundational Kinship for elohi (people and the land). Not paying
proper attention to any part of this normative kinship dynamic can create
illness for the Jalagi and disrupt
the deepest life-force context for humans, plants, and animals on the land: elohi.
§26. A Jalagi was overheard some years back as
he chastised his Fellow anijalagi for
their mistreatment of their mother Selu,
which he pointed to as the cause of their current Suffering and Misery: the
disruption to their Lifeways and the Incroachment of aniyonega on to their lands and territories. It was 1811, some
Twenty years ago, at Springplace, the Monrovian mission of John and Anna Gambold,
establish'd in the Jalagi Ayeli in 1801. This Jalagi rebuked his aniyvwi
(people) for planting the Yoneg corn
on elohi and for grinding Selu's bones in the Yoneg grinding mills. He proclaimed to them that "the mother of the
nation has left you because all of her bones are being broken through the
milling." Get rid of the White man's corn, he says, and "Plant the Indian
corn and pound it according to your ancestor's ways. She will return if you
return to your former way of life." He continues his rebuke, "[w]e are made
from red earth but they are made from white sand. You may be good neighbors
with them but you must get your beloved towns back from them. Your mother is
displeased"
§27. The
land is also Selu—Not the earth
in the abstract planetary sense but earth as elohi in the specific Jalagi
aniyvwi relationship to Jalagi elohi, which includes land, history, and kinship. Jalagi elohi is often Conceptualized in relationship to Selu or her Sister plants. Cherokee
place names and Cherokee towns are often named through correlates of Selu. Ajigvhnagesdhvyi (Black Cedar Place), gidhayohi (Cherry Tree Place), Mulberry Tree Place, and
Honey-Locust Place are some common Cherokee place names. Selu is then both extended into the land and an extension of the
land. The Mulberry Grove is an extension of Selu
but Selu is also an extension of elohi
as the intertwining of being and the land. This gives cause to our Jalagi lecturer to say that anijalagi need to get their Beloved
towns back. The returning of these Beloved towns is not another topic for our Jalagi
lecturer since the Beloved towns are Selu
and Selu is the Beloved towns. The
Beloved towns are an extension of Selu
and the aniyvwi relationship to Selu and the land as elohi, which is to say like Selu these Beloved towns are like an umbilical
cord that maintains the life-force connection of elohi in the context of the intertwining of being and the land for anijalagi (the Cherokee people). The
Property of Beloved towns for the Jalagi
ayeli (the Cherokee Nation) only
exists because anijalagi belong to elohi. The Jalagi, Selu, and the
Land are all intertwined in the context of elohi. Property is then both
originally and continually a matter of Kinship and when Property becomes a
matter of Domination, as in the words of our author, then Kinship is destroy'd
and then so goes the capacity of Land to maintain the life-force connection
that exists in the Kinship intertwining of being and the land that is Selu and elohi.
CHAPTER
III
ON THE
NATURE OF POLITICAL POWER AND SOVEREIGNTY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF YVWI G, THE
RIVER OR A FORMULA FOR GOING TO WATER
Ka!
(Ka!)
Sge!
(Listen!)
.
. . . . . .
Yvwi ganvhidu jsahlidhohisdi
(Long
Person, you are in repose)
Gohusdi halisdisgi nigesvna
(Nothing
can overpower you)
.
. . . . . .
Ha! gvwadonvdisesdi
(Ha!
He will be able to do it)
§28. The
stories of Selu and elohi teach us that Human beings cannot
meaningfully remove Themselves from the conflictual Intertwining of humans with
Plants and Animals. One way that this conflictual Intertwining manifests itself
is in the particular conflictual Intertwining of Life and Death (of needing to
take Life in order to sustain Life or in general that for some things to Live
other things must Die). But much more than this, the Stories tell aniyvwi that they cannot Meaningfully
remove themselves from the Deeper intertwining of Being and the Land that is
the foundation what is the Material Intertwining of Life and Death as well as the
Material Intertwining of humans with plants and animals. The Material sense of
the intertwining of Life and Death and humans with plants and animals are
particular Manifestations of elohi,
which is the deeper Preconceptual intertwining of Being and Land. Human beings
are, as Manifestations of elohi, in
inextricable Kinship with the land. Only through Self-Banishment or a Solitude
of Pretense can a Human float free from the land as our author attempts through
the imagination of the Kinless Conqueror. Knowledge is always a form of Kinship.
Knowledge is an Intimate knowing relationship. Knowledge requires Kinship and
Kinship not as an afterthought, but as Fundamental and intimate aspect of all Human
being and knowing. In order to Reach out and Touch the other, in order to come
to know Her, in contrast to the Self-Banishment of the Kinless Conqueror, the
possible Knower must understand how she is already intertwining in intimate
Kinship relations with the Other (either as People or Land) she is trying to
Know. In order to know the Other, the possible Knower must first understand how
she is related, and it is this Kinship that is always the foundation and
continual intimate manifestation of Knowledge in the context of elohi as an intimate knowing
relationship.
§29. Nature
is not a background out of which Civil Society and Governments arise as a Julehisanvhi (Phoenix) out of the ashes of
Conquered Nature that the Human takes dominion over. Nature is not a Place of
perfect Freedom nor a place of never-ending violence and Chaos. Nature is elohi and so the meaning of the concepts
of Government and Property are both originary and continual manifestation out of
the land as elohi. The land as elohi is the space where the Jalagi people and the Jalagi land are intertwined. This space
is not merely Historical or Mythical, however, as it is both the original and
continual source of life in all the material, spiritual, and social contexts. Anijalagi, in contrast to Lagwi's founding of Government and
Property in the attempted domination of the Other and the Land through the Act
of Self-Banishment by the Kinless Conqueror, ground and continue their notions
of Government, Law, and Property in the intimate knowing relationship with the
Land as elohi. The concept of
Political Power as Sovereignty in the Latin sense of Removing oneself from the
Land in order to come down from above and have dominion over the Other (both people
and land) will not do. The ayelisgi
Power of the Kinless Conqueror operates, from the start, through the Conceptual
Separating of humans from land. This Conceptual Separation opens a Space for
the Conception of an Abstract Human Subjectivity that comes to be through the
conquering of the Savage Other. The Idiosyncratic personalities and experiences
of the Yoneg cum Kinless Conqueror are
then built into the very notions of the now Universalized Human Being in such a
way as to allow the Yoneg cum Kinless
Conqueror to interject his very particular identity and experiences from
his being in the land of Europe into the space between the Jalagi people and the Jalagi
land that has been vacated by Conceptualization of humans as separate from the
land. The key to removing the sickness or ulsgedv
(intruder) from elohi, which arises
from an ayelisgi (imitation disease),
is in addressing directly the Kinless Conqueror or the idea that humans are
separable from the land. The first step in removing this ulsgedv from elohi is to reground
the concepts of being, meaning, and even the land itself to elohi as the source of all Power and
Life. Political Power as an original and continual manifestation out of the
land will carry a force of power that does not serve to remove people from
land, either as conceptual or physical acts. The Political Power that arises from
a reconceptualization of power out of elohi
will not have the force of domination but will carry with it an understanding
of how a people can maintain a positive or non-dominating relation with their
land or territory as a people and a positive or non-dominating relationship to
other land and other people. Political Power in the context of elohi will be conceptualized as an
original and continual manifestation out of the land in a material, spiritual,
social, and philosophical sense.
§30. One
place to begin an elohi concept of
Political Power is with the yvwi ganvhida (Long Person), which is the
river. A river is a yvwi ganvhida (long person) moving through
the land. The yvwi ganvhida exercises Power on the Land but
does not carry that Power as an ungrounded, delocalized force of Domination
over the land but as a Power that literally comes from and moves through the land.
The yvwi ganvhida is not a Kinless Conqueror in the operations of his Power
in relation to the Land around him. The yvwi
ganvhida carves his way through the
Mountains, creating ridges and Valleys, but without ever separating Himself or
imagining his Being as rising above or floating Free from the land. It is not
strange then that ama, the word for Water,
can also be ama as a Valley. From Kinship
with yvwi ganvhida in the context of elohi, as an intimate knowing
relationship, Humans can learn to exercise Power or sovereignty through the
land. Just as yvwi ganvhida, in every step of its Movement
or exercising of Power, remains in contact with the land—literally
touching deeply and intimately the land as it goes—human Beings must stay
in intimate contact with the Land as they exercise or Articulate human Power. I,
Jisdu, think that it is an
understanding of this power that has the yvwi
of Amayeli (people of this land) walking
everywhere. This is a sacred way of moving on the land for yvwi of Amayeli, for
exercising power, for connecting to power, for channeling power into a
ceremony. The processions of yvwi of Amayeli walking with their feet
literally on the ground (sometimes barefoot on the ground, moving through the
Four directions, or from one place to another place) is not an accident or just
some abstract ritual movement. This movement comes from a deep understanding of
the nature of being and land where any understanding of Nature, Land, and Being
are Originary and Continual manifestations of elohi. My Future reader will know that even after the invention of cars
the yvwi of Amayeli will get out of their cars and walk over ceremonial ground.
That movement of placing your feet on the ground with every step is making
yourself like that river or even like Selu herself, Root'd in the ground, but
not Root'd in the way Lagwi
conceptualizes Political Power coming out of an original state of Nature that
no longer exists and necessarily no longer exists in order for that Power to
first come to be. The Manner of Being Root'd in the Ground that yvwi ganvhida
teaches through his intimate knowing relationship with Humans is not a
delocalized abstraction but a material and spiritual grounding in the land that
is both ancient and new and covering every moment between. The Manner of Being Root'd
in the Ground that yvwi ganvhida teaches is a Manner of Being
that comes out of the ground but is still always there in the ground as well. The
people plant their feet as firmly in the ground as Selu is firmly planted in the ayeli
(center) of elohi. That's how anijalagi have power; that's how the
river has power, that's how Selu has
power. What the aniyvwi of Amayeli learn from the river is that they
must stay in place even as they move across the land. And that is one of the
foundational teachings from elohi
about what Nature is, about who Human Beings are, about what land is, about what
Political Power is: All True Power, Knowledge, and Being only exist out of and
in inseparable Kinship with the Land.
. . . .
. . .
Yvwi ganvhidv
(Long
Person)
Hidawehiyu
(Great
Wizard!)
Agwadanadhogi dodasgwalehisodaneli
(You
are now going to elevate my soul)
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