Pow-wow on how the West can be won

By Laurence McKeown

I wonder how many of you remember the days when you used to run around in your cowboy outfits chasing the Indians who, of course, were always caught. I suppose this query is directed primarily at the male readers of this column as, apart from Deirdre, I personally know of no girl who sported a cowboy outfit (she has the photo to prove it). Probably if girls were allowed to participate in such war-games they would have been the Indians.

Those games were totally ideologically unsound of course, but sure we didn't know that in those days. It was only later in prison that I came to learn the real story of how the West was won, or how the native tribes of north America were slaughtered to make way for white civilisations.

I cringed when I thought of cheering on John Wayne as he saved the wagon train from the marauding savages. I was even more ashamed to discover that many Irish people who had fled the Famine and persecution in their own country participated in the atrocities against the native north American people. Through a friend, a priest who worked amongst them, I ended up corresponding with several elders of the White Mountain Apache tribe in Arizona and found a close affinity with their culture and social customs. I discovered of course that they weren't warlike at all and that their society was a very open and democratic one.

I came to thinking about this subject the other day when I overheard someone remark bitterly, ``There's too many chiefs and not enough Indians''. My attention was immediately drawn to the conversation. I discovered that at a particular gathering this person had attended there were nine (what I assumed he was referring to as chiefs) on the platform and only six (Indians) who, from the tone of the conversation, I took it were there to be spoken to rather than to speak.

Now by anyone's standards that's a bit top-heavy, don't you think? And anyhow, what's this about platforms and then everyone else? Surely 15 people together can exchange information, ideas and experience better if they sit round in a circle rather than creating this notion of a platform and floor. Though isn't it amazing how personalities can change by virtue of the seating arrangement? It would appear that some believe there is a direct correlation between elevation in vertical terms and elevation in knowledge, experience, wisdom and capacity to provide leadership.

Compare that with the culture of the native north American tribes where leadership was bestowed upon those considered best suited for the purpose at hand, be that hunting, moving from old to new camp-sites, or war. Being courageous in battle didn't mean you were the best person to hunt buffaloes and a hungry tribe would soon differentiate between the two.

I suppose in a sense you can say that election campaigns can be viewed as war. Certainly they are battles to be fought and hopefully won and again, if we are to take a lesson from the north American Indians, I think it should be that battles are collective efforts even if on the day there is only one overall leader. A pow-wow beforehand with all of those prepared to engage in battle sounds like a good idea. But in pow-wows there are no chiefs and Indians, just Indians, some with more experience than others of course, some more worldly wise, some more skilled in various tasks but all just Indians nevertheless. At times some of those Indians have to take on specific roles according to their abilities, and occasionally that will mean positions of authority and leadership; chiefs, for want of a better word.

But, as I said, the concept of leadership in the culture of the north American Indians was defined much differently from what we generally understand it to be. I suppose, to take a stark comparison, we could point to the example of British army officers in the First Worst War who shot transcripts for refusing to leave the trenches and make suicidal charges against the enemy. Not much discussion there about tactics and strategy. ``Sir, I think possibly it's not such a good idea to charge these machine gun posts in broad daylight, if you see what I mean...'' Bang. ``No I don't. Next.''

I don't think my friend saw things quite so bleakly or feared that one of the multitude of election directors would resort to such drastic measures but I think he does have a point. I mean, out of all the cowboy and Indian films you watched, did you ever see a platform among the wigwams?