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Post by moses on Aug 28, 2014 11:49:19 GMT -5
Greetings All
I am new to this forum and look forward to learning as much as I can and contributing what I know. I live in Alaska and am a Special Collections Librarian in a Historical Library. I am of Alaska Native (Tlingit and Athabaskan)/Ashkenazim/Huguenot ancestry (and no, I am not a Zionist, my experience as an Alaska Native person has informed my total disdain for all forms of Settler Colonialism). My Alaska Native family is largely Eastern Orthodox, but I myself profess no real religious affiliation. As a Youth, I was formed in the Twelve Tribes of Israel House of Rastafari, and I must say that those formative years have left a lasting impression on my views of Race and the Ancient World. Lastly, is it just me, or does ES-R seem like a much more civil place that ES? I have been reading ES for years and it seems to attract a lot of Neo-Nazi types (?) The hostility on there seems horrifying at times. Anyhow, I extend the open hands of peace and friendship to you all (in my Tlingit tradition!)
M.
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Post by anansi on Aug 28, 2014 21:10:02 GMT -5
Greetings All I am new to this forum and look forward to learning as much as I can and contributing what I know. I live in Alaska and am a Special Collections Librarian in a Historical Library. I am of Alaska Native (Tlingit and Athabaskan)/Ashkenazim/Huguenot ancestry (and no, I am not a Zionist, my experience as an Alaska Native person has informed my total disdain for all forms of Settler Colonialism). My Alaska Native family is largely Eastern Orthodox, but I myself profess no real religious affiliation. As a Youth, I was formed in the Twelve Tribes of Israel House of Rastafari, and I must say that those formative years have left a lasting impression on my views of Race and the Ancient World. Lastly, is it just me, or does ES-R seem like a much more civil place that ES? I have been reading ES for years and it seems to attract a lot of Neo-Nazi types (?) The hostility on there seems horrifying at times. Anyhow, I extend the open hands of peace and friendship to you all (in my Tlingit tradition!) M. Welcome Moses thank you for signing up hope you can share some cultural and historic insights generally not known to us here.
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Post by truthteacher2007 on Aug 29, 2014 7:30:21 GMT -5
Welcome to the club. I find the Eastern Orthodox affiliation interesting. Did that come in from connections with Russia. If I remember correctly didn't Russia control Alaska before the USA took control of it? Have always been curious about the relationship between Russians and Native folk in comparison to that of Americans.
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Post by moses on Aug 29, 2014 12:14:25 GMT -5
Thank you for your warm welcome; The relationship with the Russians varied from region to region in Alaska. The Russians were very brutal in their treatment of the Aleuts and Alutiq people in the SW island region; it was a truly genocidal assault physically, culturally, and spiritually. Here in Tlingit country, we had greater numbers, even after the epidemics and a very well developed martial culture that kept the Russians in check. We defeated them in Sitka in 1802, but lost in 1804 when they came back with Aleut slave-soldiers that were conscripted by force. Still, there were never more 900 Russians here in Alaska at any given time, so their claim of ownership, was, from our point of view, dubious at best. It was all based on the usual European "doctrine of discovery" based as it is in attitudes of White, Christian supremacy. Many of us continue to dispute the so-called sale of Alaska to the US to this day. Also, the Tlingit continued to have a certain amount of autonomy, even under Russian rule that we lost completely when the Americans came in. Under American rule, we really did lose everything, as the Americans undertook a full scale of campaign of ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide within the matrix of a hand in glove relationship between the US Military (so-called Gunboat Diplomacy) and various militant Protestant denominations. Our relationship with Russian Orthodoxy has always been complex; it was (and still is in many ways, in my opinion) a colonial religion, but it has been "indigenized" completely and merged with many of our traditional spiritual beliefs, as much as possible. I still personally find it to have way too many colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist tendencies (Tlingit culture was/is Matrilineal) for my tastes, and really, Orthodox Christianity does not stand up to the historical claims it makes. The Russian church was open to bi-lingual education, whereas the American Protestants were interested in wiping out our languages, and pretty much did, that was one difference. Of course, the "education" the Russians were pursuing was to replace our culture with theirs, including the belief in the deity of a Jewish rabble-rouser from 1st century Palestine! Needless to say, while I respect my (mostly elder) relatives and their beliefs, I broke camp with the Orthodox Church over a decade ago and try not to look back.
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Post by anastasiaescrava on Aug 29, 2014 17:29:00 GMT -5
How did you become interested in Africa/African diasporic history/genetics/culture?
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Post by moses on Aug 29, 2014 21:26:21 GMT -5
Honestly, it was two factors: One, as a person of partial European Jewish ancestry, I knew I wasn't getting the whole story from my family/tradition. I read the Bible and looked at maps of where these stories were supposed to be taking place and then looked at my Jewish family members with their light skin and largely European features and knew something was missing. It just didn't add up completely. Secondly: The Rastafari Movement/Faith; as a very young man, I began to find partial answers to my questions when I began to hang around and reason with Rastafari People. Like any movement of human beings, it has its flaws, but there were some rock-solid truths that I began to get from the Rastfari about the peoples, civilizations, and cultures from those parts of the World. All of the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place for me, so to speak. The friendships and knowledge I gained from those relationships are still precious to me. I have an undergraduate degree in Anthropology as well, so that has always kept me interested in the human mosaic in all of its complexity.
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