Re: [SycamoreCanyon] Chindee -- and thoughts about a not distant enough relative

Thoughtfully done -- and on target, Sam.  Thanks.

Recognizing, of course, that there are always exceptions to virtually everything:

Intra family oral traditions -- inter-generational historical story telling -- is, as I see it, a critically necessary art, always.  It's very strong among tribal people.  This is true even when their residence is in the urban/industrial context. [Most tribal people don't consider that setting a permanent home and, in any case, frequently visit their original socio-geographical setting. Elders remain close by and accessible.] 

In the case of non-tribal people, the oral tradition is strong among rural and small town people generally but appears to fade after a couple of generations or so in the big cities. In the urban industrial context especially, high geographical mobility and interpersonal alienation separate many families; and television and the Net take precedence over family history -- and significant social history.  Elders are packed away in retirement and/or nursing homes.

I'd be interested in the Jewish perspective on this -- since I sense at least some tribalism.

With education increasingly delegated to K-!2 and higher ed, I suppose one shouldn't be surprised that social struggle -- always implicitly "controversial" and sometimes explicitly so -- gets side-lined -- if it's even significantly mentioned at all.  As you have, I've always brought those dimensions in -- one way or another -- whatever the specific subject! [Hell, I even did it the one time I taught Marriage and the Family.]

Awhile back, I asked a large class at Idaho State, which included a fair number of  people from union families, how many had ever heard of the Western Federation of Miners and the class wars in the Coeur d'Alenes.

Zero.

So we just have to keep at it.

Solidarity,

Hunter
.


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ 
and Ohkwari' 
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm

For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial Introduction by me:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

Personal Background Narrative (with many links):
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm


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  Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 1:23 PM
  Subject: Re: [SycamoreCanyon] Chindee -- and thoughts about a not distant enough relative


    

  For some reason, this lovely post has started me thinking about Shakespeare and how many of his images and scenes were intimately wreathed with