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The Tidewater People
| Article
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10342 |
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Section : |
Culture
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1986 |
6,693 Words |
| Author
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Merlinda Fournier
Merlinda Fournier is a free-lance author based in the
Washington, D.C., area. |
When man first emerged from the womb of the earth, he was very close to the Great Spirit. He had no voice to use. Man made only two sounds. One was the rhythmic sound of breathing; the other, the pulsating of the human heart. These two sounds put man in synchronization with the entire universe.
There was an opening on the top of man's head, a soft spot. And through this soft spot he could communicate with all of nature--the trees, birds, beasts, men, everything. When a child is born, he or she still has that soft spot. It is only as the child matures, becoming more man-like, that the soft spot closes up.
Eventually, man became sinful and chose to follow his own path, his own rabbit trail. He was not satisfied with what the Great Spirit had given him. Thus man fell from grace, and the opening on his head closed. Man had become more solid. So the Great Spirit was forced to give man a voice.
---Indian legend recited at Nanticoke Indian Powwow, September 6-7, 1986.
Today the Nanticoke Indians find themselves the ironic victims of this hardening of man's head. Cross-cultural ignorance, confused communication, and the resulting misunderstandings brought about the original conflicts between the Nanticoke Indians--the "tidewater people" of Maryland's Eastern Shore--and the Euro-American colonists. Today, this same ignorance overshadows the descendants of the Nanticokes, who live in Indian River, Delaware.
Attempting to describe present-day perceptions of his people, Charles C. Clark IV, son of Chief Red
... (1997 of 41499 Characters)
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