Reuben Fast Horse and family, Native Americans of the Lakota (Sioux) tribe, entertained and informed a crowd of kids from the Francis Child Development Institute on Tuesday, November 21, in Penn Valley's Science and Technology Building, room 101. A lucky handful of Penn Valley students and staff also attended.
There were no war-painted braves riding bareback on mustangs, and no gun or arrow sharpshooting, as American culture often expects to see Indians on display. Instead, the Fast Horse family is on a nationwide tour to show how profound and vital Native American wisdom has been, and still should be, to us settlers.
Accompanied by his wife and two children, Fast Horse, powerful speaker and artful singer and dancer, educated the audience in an engaging Native American-style storytelling performance.
The tour is financed by CD and merchandise sales. These items and a few cultural artifacts were displayed on short tables toward the back of the stage, before Fast Horse and family appeared.
 Fast Horse |
Eventually, Reuben and Ash (his wife) Fast Horse entered from stage left, singing and playing on small drums. Ash Fast Horse faced the audience, holding one son, while the other roamed free-range, assisting his parents as needed.
Reuben Fast Horse immediately forged a bond with the Academy scholars, most of whom said they were four years old. "And you're all in college?" he asked.
"No!" came the swift reply, but a few looked around and shouted "Yes!" since, literally, they were.
Fast Horse explained that Native Americans, also rightly called Indians, are similarly set apart from modern American culture, yet an integral part of it. For example, most Americans have some Indian blood in their genetic heritage.
"It's only been about 150 years since teepees were camped near Kansas City," Fast Horse noted.
Built like Jackie Chan and equally agile, Fast Horse gestured evocatively as he spoke. He said that Native American culture is based on respect for the Earth and its nurturing. To celebrate Earth's seasonal solstices, he sang and played a flute while performing a traditional dance.
Fast Horse said that over 2200 words in English usage are derived from Indian languages, and that many foods, such as chocolate and corn, were originally Indian staples.
He said the shamans of nearly every Native American tribe had foretold the coming of the white man, but had been divided on whether to fight him as an invader or accept him as a brother.
What puzzled Native Americans most, he said, was the European emphasis on men in power, even in religion. Most tribes were matrilineal, with women as property owners and dominating in matters of home and family. In contrast, white males considered themselves supreme, above women, and superior to savages who made women equals.
Yet, he said, the female is often the deciding force in nature. He described how a female eagle chooses her mate by dropping small sticks from high altitudes to see which male can swoop in and snag the smallest ones. When the female selects a mate, they unite and procreate during an 80mph freefall.
Donning ceremonial wings and blowing a small whistle, Fast Horse majestically danced the flight of an eagle to demonstrate Indian reverence for nature's ways, and his culture's vital relationship with the land and life of Earth.
Ash Fast Horse then stepped forward, twirling a "poi," a colorful kind of streamer attached to a cord and whipped around like a lariat. As if an atomic nucleus, she spun two red poi in all directions around herself, creating the blur of an electron shell.
"Circles are symbols of our humanity," said her husband. With his son applying one wooden hoop after another over and around his head, arms and legs, Fast Horse freed himself from one impossible entanglement after another.
He said that everyone goes through some kind of vision quest, and that our dreams help us to find what we seek and, ultimately, who we are.
"We're well-equipped," said Fast Horse, asserting that the answers to every mystery are contained within oneself. "Everything is included in the package," he said.
Before winding up, Fast Horse answered questions from the audience about his past and future. He said he had grown up on Pine Ridge, one of the poorest American Indian reservations. In 1998, he left his job as a schoolteacher and took off on a quest across America with his wife and children.
"Our nation needs now more than ever to remember the wisdom of its native peoples," he said earnestly.
"We believe in making choices and raise our children to choose for themselves," he said. "For example, I don't force them, but each kid is learning three languages, one of which is Lakota."
After MCC - Penn Valley, the Fast Horses were headed next to the Carolinas, then on to Canada and other points across the northern states, finally to return home, just north of Duluth, Minnesota.
"We do this because it's our conviction," Fast Horse said, smiling proudly as he and his family waved goodbye. "I stepped outside of my 25-mile home circle, and you can too!"
For more information, see http://www.thefasthorses.com/.
Copyright 2006 Metropolitan Community College