Respecting Elders...

Today, I'd like to talk about the Native tradition of Respecting Elders.

If there ever was a time when I needed to understand something about my people, I would probably ask an Elder about the first. Some of the things I'm learning, let me correct myself … most of everything about what I am learning about my culture are from elders. And what I learned from them is the old way of learning by watching them doing it. You don't do everything that tribal Cahuilla Indians do, you just do what you're told to for that day. What I learned from them there's usually no written directions about what you learning. One of the basics has always been to be smart enough to pick up on what they're doing, and it's just like the way they and their group are doing it.

 Are you gifted to sing? If you are, You’ll be accepted very quickly and thrown right into bird and performing by the elders in the group you're singing with.

Another thing is to be conscious about is that you as an outsider will never be someone as experienced in the native ways as someone tribal and born into it. Although elders may have picked up that you could sing very well, you're still NOT in the group like the others have been all their lives. So you have to respect that. When the elder makes a decision for the group, everyone follows it without question.

I learned from the elders from the outside and inside the native world, I've lived this way for over a 45 years and I understand the difference. I have also believed that some of those elders and Indian people that know me have known that I do come from the city and have learned how to remain an Indian on my own without being absorbed into the Latino culture. I don't even speak Spanish very well and I come from East Los Angeles, where all the chicanos are. That says I have a lot of strength to keep the Indian in me from being taken out.

There is a story of how my family got here, but that's a story for another time.

One of the elders that told me that they can see the Indian in the person, they can see the Cahuilla  Indian in a person Back then so you didn't need a DNA test to know what you were. That's kind of the way I've been accepted into the bird world out here. If you take a look at me you know I'm an Indian.

I always thought that I would be hit up a lot, since I'm used to from the streets of where I'm from. When I started to learn and sing bird, is when I've been asked politely and respectfully.

Not just anyone from the outside gets to do what I have done and what I've been doing as an outsider coming back in.

There are people that try to diminish your cause / Spirit by trying to stall or disrupt your path you are on with the elders that chose you, of course you knew this is just jealousy and you take it with a grain of salt.

One good thing I may suggest is to keep a lot of things to yourself. It's easier that way you’re not to share a road map on how to derail your project by your own big mouth.

 It's kind of hard to do that when you have a production company that puts out videos and photographs to the masses … but it's something you have to do during the creative process.

I had One young person feel threatened for some reason, he did not handle things well and disrespected the elders I was working with along with his own elder by saying he didn't agree with their decisions they made with me, and were not good enough for him and he needed to change things that they told me that I can do after it was done.

The part that really got me was how this person was going to tell my elders “his ways” that they should follow and already know about. That really upset me that This person don't care about all the other relationships that are between us...and just Broke Wind with comments of his disapproval.

I've never heard of such a thing and it surprised the hell out of me.

Well if someone thought that elders already knew about it, then commonsense would say they probably didn't think it was important to tell that someone that they made a decision, Their decision. And by making it without that SOMEONE, it probably didn't require that some one's exclusive approval.

I know Elders usually do that, they don't usually ask younger people what they should do.

What I would've done, is the right thing …by talking to that person that you feel threatened from FACE to FACE. Not in social media.

Some other things not to do…

Using laundry list of experiences and duties about how Native you are and how you do Funerals and Wakes and Memorials, sort of bragging about your traditional duties are only an indicator that something is threatening your Indian political positioning and nothing to do with real-time reality.

Using Social media after stating how Extremely TRADITIONAL you are.  

Using other people's grief to make a point, is very ghoulish of someone to do. I've never seen anyone do it up until just recently and it's sad.

Another experience I had while gathering data on the birds, was how elders and Indian people hold other Indian people to the words. Some people have told an “elder not to sing their songs” while they're singing. That elder was still alive at the time when the young one told him that. I was appalled when I heard this news. This person was not only someone I respected, but also one I had told I no longer respect because of his comment to that elder that passed away shortly after he told him not to sing his (the young one)Songs.

Everyone knows about this guy and his words to the elder that He said disrespectfully. It has affected his presence in the bird singing world to a minimum presence that is just tolerated.  This same bird singer said to me "All the real bird singers are all dead", after I told him I was no longer a supporter of this style of disrespect for elders. I believe he was upset when he said it... and I guess that's how he handled it.

Where does this style of traditional respect come from? Was this passed down to them? Did they make it up? Why do these young people think they can just act disrespectfully without a reaction?

One of the things that I'm finding out in bird is that you, and your actions are related to others in bird singing. Whether it be the dancers and singers in your group, or others in other groups... what you do affects other people in a variety of ways.

Say for instance if you shoot off your mouth to a person that you may not like, but that may be one of the friends of the people that like you … So you involve your friends and perhaps their family too when you do something both positive and negative. It could be really uncomfortable for all three of you if things don't go well.

 So the status quo in the group, just like with any other group is not to create trouble within the circle. Handling it well and respectfully is traditional. Giving time to ask about something that you disagree about is something that is traditionally taught to many indigenous people. Sort of a cooling off time for both parties so that nothing is misinterpreted.

Express yourself in so much detail only magnifies a message of wanting to be understood because of a person's misinterpretation of who you might be to the eyes only. Understanding that may be the reason for so much explanation although it's not necessary.

 Some people only see people for their actions and not what they say they are. Reputation is everything and some people will defend it in a non-rational fashion when they don't have all the facts and are going off assumptions that their ego has jumped to.

What my elders have taught me during this immersion process back into my California Indian traditions, Is just a very small part of what they know and have experienced. I have the confidence that what they're teaching me is a right way, and I don't need any other young people to share their opinions about their disapproval of my elders decisions of how they want me to learn about bird and their traditional ways they decided to share and pass on to me.

Respect elders, don't question elders, and wait till you are an elder… What's the rush? Let the elders have their turn, and wait for yours.

Albert Chacon.