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COAIM BLOG CO AIM LATEST NEWS MEDIA
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June 06, 1992 Chuck Greene Editor, Dear Editor: Ken Hamblin's June 8 attack on two leaders of the American lndian Movement (AIM) of Colorado (Russell Means and Glenn Morris) cannot pass unaddressed. How a man so entirely ignorant of the basics of American lndian society and culture is allowed to spew his ignorance in a regular column in a major metropolitan newspaper is beyond our understanding. His malicious and racist generalizations about indigenous spirituality and medicine make it clear that Hamblin knows as much about American Indians, our ways and our people as he knows about quantum physics - nothing. Hamblin is a racist (and yes, he can be a racist even though he is a step'n fetchit negro), not because he disagrees with Morris or others who have respect for traditional lndian medicine; he is a racist because he couples his racial prejudices against American lndians with the power of his newspaper column and radio talk show. Through the use of that power he perpetuates stereotypes that cause actual harm to us as indigenous peoples. He claims that traditional lndian medicine is nothing but hocus-pocus and superstition. This assertion not only reflects Hamblin's embarrassing unintelligence about matters outside his own limited experience, but it reveals his own deafness when it comes to his own education. During the radio program, Morris asked if Hamblin had ever taken aspirin, or if he had ever used anti-malarial medications. Hamblin replied yes. Morris then asked Hamblin where he thoughi those medicines were developed. Without responding, Hamblin began to rail about how the audience was now going to be treated to a revisionist history lesson. Never mind the truth that over 225 medicines (such as aspirin and quinine) currently listed in the Pharmacopia of the United States were originally developed by American Indians, including ipecac for poisoning, numerous anesthetics now used in surgery, contraceptives, fever medication, and a host of other treatments. Only now, are ethno-botanists discovering the wealth of medical knowledge that has developed within traditional indigenous medicine over millenia, some of which might very well save Ken Hamblin's life. Also, Morris never made the assertion, as Hamblin implies, that indigenous medicine is always better than European-derived medicine. In fact, what Morris did say, but Hamblin in his arrogance refused to hear, was that unlike most western doctors, traditional indigenous medicine people do not claim omniscience or omnipotence. They do not claim to be deities of the new civil religion called science and technology, giving them all of the answers - especially to the legion of maladies that were never seen or heard of in this hemisphere before the arrival of Europeans. What medicine people try to do is to help their people, using the knowledge and wisdom that has been developed after millenia in this part of the world. What is worse about Hamblin's racist maligning of people he knows nothing about (oh, excuse us, he did admit that he had driven through a reservation and had purchased some tourist items - of course, making him an instant "lndian expert") is that he entirely ignores a colonizing history that dismantled, and sometimes entirely destroyed, the institutions of our indigenous nations. His offhand comparison of the current malady in and around the Navajo Nation with smallpox infection is a case in point. He ignores the fact that smallpox was deliberately introduced into lndian nations, as a form of biological warfare, specifically because the military officials knew that the traditional medicine people were unfamiliar with it. The result was genocidal, but one that Hamblin presumably would blame the lndians for because they had not vaccinated themselves against the calculating invaders. Hamblin resembles those missionaries or government bureaucrats who sought to destroy and outlaw our religions, our governments and our social systems. Just as Hamblin, they too believed that they knew what was best for lndians - Christiantiy over our traditional spirituality, hierarchy over participation, greed over sharing, and unbridled development over love for the Earth. lndians have learned to be very suspicious of people, government officials especially, who arrive chanting the mantra "We're your friends, and we're here to help you." It is little wonder that around lndian country it was commonly heard that the current illness afflicting the Navajo Nation might somehow have been government-induced -- similar to syphilis experiments in the South or sterilization programs against lndian women in the 1960's and 1970's. Nothing surprises lndians anymore. Hamblin, in his myopic vision, should remember that indigenous societies were here and doing quite well for tens of thousands of years before he and his puppetmasters arrived. They should be reminded that in the grand scheme of things, their little western, industrial experiment is very young. On the sustainability of the culture and lifestyle that Hamblin so heartily embraces, the jury remains out. Those "superstitious, backward and primitive" medicine people, just might have some of the keys to understanding how to live in this part of the planet. If The Emerald City collapses around their ears, Hamblin and company might rue the day that they so readily dismissed the medicine people of the Dineh (Navajo) and other indigenous nations. If Hamblin cannot speak about lndian people with a modicum of respect and knowledge, he would be well-served to leave us off of his list of topics for discussion. Short of that, he could educate himself (he can read, can't he?) by perusing Vine Deloria, Jr., Angie Debo, or Virgil Vogel's works. It's not that we lndians do not like being discussed; it's just that we do not like being lied about. For all our relations, The American lndian Movement of Colorado |
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denveraim@coloradoaim.org or
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