|
|
| Courtesy of Ryan Morton |
| Jacque Red Leaf Garneau explained
Cherokee culture last Tuesday. |
On Tuesday, September 16, the Native American
Council presented Native American storyteller Jacque Red Leaf Garneau
in the Multicultural Room of the Plemmons Student Union.
Garneau, a full-blooded Cherokee Choctaw, was wearing full Cherokee
regalia, a leather ceremonial dress that took her five months to
make. The buffalo hair ornamenting the regalia was from a buffalo
she killed herself.
A traditionalist, she lives in a two-room lodge in the mountains
of North Carolina. She is an elder in her tribe and hunts her own
food.
“I begin each day of my life with ceremony,” Garneau said.
Each morning at dawn, she goes to the river to perform a purification
ceremony.
“That begins my day with my recommitment to the spiritual path,”
she said.
Garneau said that wounding an animal but not killing it is disrespectful
and will bring great consequences spiritually.
She said when an animal is killed, every part of it is used; nothing
is wasted. The skulls are painted, each with their own spiritual
meaning.
She said she is also worried that the young Native Americans don’t
know about their heritage. “It is terrible in many ways that
we have forgotten the old ways, we have forgotten the teachings.”
“As an elder, it is my responsibility to teach these things,”
Garneau said.
She said that the Native American culture is a matriarchal society.
There is no glass ceiling for the women within the Native American
culture. She said Native American women are strong women.
In her culture, Garneau said, people learn that all things have
a connection. “The earth is like a spider web. If you touch
one corner, the entire thing trembles,” Garneau said.
“Like a stone being thrown across a pond, it has a ripple effect
on everything around it,” she said.
Native Americans, she said, have many ceremonies. A ceremony is
energy, Garneau said. “Like a tree falling in a forest, it
can heal, or it can kill.”
She said that in the Native American culture, stories are used to
teach and to discipline. They aren’t used for entertainment.
Garneau spoke at Appalachian State University as the first of many
events in store for the Native Amjerican Council this year. Native
American Council Advisor Dianne Sides said the club will have speakers,
film festivals, beading workshops, as well as many other activities.
Sides, who teaches Spanish, said she hopes to be able to take the
club to see the new Native American Museum in Washington, D.C. sometime
this year.
Right now, the club is looking for new members.
“We’re looking for good, interested people who are really
interested in Native American culture,” she said.
You don’t have to be a Native American to join, Sides said.
“We’re not exclusive by any means; we’re an all-inclusive
organization.”
Newly elected club president Sarah Wachacha, a Cherokee, is looking
forward to the coming year. “It’ll be interesting to see
what the club will be able to do on campus,” she said. |
