Program 201: Elder Wisdom

Dark Rain Thom

with Brian Bull

[audio:https://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/s2_progs/201_ew.mp3]

Arlie Neskahi:
Lewis and Clark may have started their voyage from St. Louis, Missouri, but their education about native people began in the woodlands of Missouri and Illinois. Some of their advisors were of the Shawnee tribe.

Dark Rain Thom is a Shawnee Indian from ohio, whose ancestral path straddles a variety of cultures. Thom shares ancestral spirituality with youth as a way to reverse some of the modern problems such as low self-esteem and materialism. Brian Bull has more:

Brian Bull:
You could say Dark Rain Thom lives in the past and future. Her rustic Indiana home, sheltered by an ancient copse of trees, is inhabited by artifacts, some centuries old. She says it is a far cry from where she grew up.

Dark Rain Thom:
We were dirt poor. Dirt poor means you had a dirt floor. We had nothing. But we did have an understanding that if we were hungry, Creator has got something to provide for us that is nutritional. Part of that comes from the cooperation of the other pieces of nature who were given their instructions when they were created that they were there to take care of us pitiful ones.

Bull:
Thom’s grandchildren from the city often visit. She sits by a rumbling fire and contemplates her obligation as an elder – namely, to be happy:

Thom:
Because exposing your grandchildren to happiness is also part of what grandparents are for, not just for showing the seriousness of things, but the joy of life when we live it as Creator intended for us to live it. I have mixed blood. If you’re looking at me, I have blue eyes from an Irishman from the 1730’s. I have absolutely no qualms about who I am or where I stack up in the stratosphere of tribal people, because I know the culture I was taught. I know the religion I was taught.

The first time my grandchildren came here they were eight years old, each of them. And we make a list of things they have never seen or done before. And one child went home with a list of 138 things they had never seen before: a creek, a river, a waterfall, a lightning bug, cornfields, cows, horses. Is this the kind of legacy we really want to leave our grandchildren?

Bull:
Thom says there’s much to be learned from an elder, and says her grandparents passed on the values and history of the Shawnee people to her, through simple yet intimate teachings:

Thom:
M y grandmother, everything she would see me, she would say ‘come with me. Take a walk.’ I have to show you this. And she would show me something she had brought out of the woods to have in her garden, which was a medicine plant, or she would take me into the woods and show me the herbs, the trees, the plants and tell me how she used them.

I am considered an elder by my people now. It isn’t just because of my personal journey towards age. But those are the treasures; the things that last through decades, through generations that are treasures. The other things are fads that come and go and just cause us to waste our energies, our spirit, our life, our opportunities.

Bull:
Thom says it’s taken some effort to distance herself from the excesses of modern life, and embrace the enduring and old. She says she likes to spend time at a spot near an ancient tree down from her house, which she considers sacred since it’s on the traditional land of the Shawnee nation.

Thom often contrasts her knowledge of Shawnee customs against the attitudes of “contemporary” American society. For example, she recalls how prevalent women were in the decision-making for the tribe, something that is largely lacking in today’s government. Thom says a woman’s perspective was respected, in times of peace and especially war:

Thom:
If any women in our community had a vision or dream or a feeling that she had been in this battle, they always asked her to lead. And so sometimes we had women leading into battle. There are oral traditions of having a squad of women in front on the battlefield. And of course, we went naked into war. It is less for your enemy to grab onto. So that was very disconcerting to our enemies at the time and they just couldn’t fathom fighting naked women, so they fled the field.

The one instance I will mention now is the women that were born by the name Nonhemlina, she had several names. She was the older sister to Chief Cornstalk of the revolutionary war period. Her village was three times as big as his. She had the council house where tribal business was done. She had the great house, where the religious ceremonies were held. She also had the burning grounds, where when they captured prisoners and burned them at the stake. For decades, she was an extremely powerful woman, and the Americans used her to bring the other Shawnee chiefs to treaty table, peace tables or treaty talks. So she was extremely influential.

And the Shawnee men would always say “the women know things that we men do not. And so we must ask their advice. And we must listen to them, because they are wise.”

Bull:
At a time when women are still fighting for equal representation in the workplace and politics, Thom’s recollections paint a culture that did not discount anyone’s view simply on the merits of gender, age, or ability. Thom says even the voices of the unborn played a part when it came to matters of war and peace, life and death:

Thom:
So if it is going to be a very contentious conflict and the men are considering going against a very formidable enemy and you had eight or ten women who were pregnant, the women would say, “This is not a good time because we would have too many widows or orphans, and we cannot risk our men at this time.”

The early white settlers and white military people would refuse to deal with women. They would say, bring me your chief man. In every community, every chief would have a person whose title was chief’s man. He would function like the administrative assistant, like an ambassador.

My husband has written this book on James Droulliard who was on that Lewis and Clark expedition. And this is truly what Droulliard was doing. He was functioning like Lewis and Clark’s chief’s man. He would be the front man. He would go in to the villages or into the communities and allow himself to be discovered in a peaceful way, and say “I need to speak with your head chief or village elders, or whoever, because I have news for them of visitors.”

Bull:
Today, Dark Rain Thom lives a quiet life with her husband, James, in a wooded area outside of Bloomington, Indiana. Her energies are spent sharing stories of the Shawnee elders with her children and grandchildren and the young people of her clan.

Another way Thom keeps the culture alive and relevant is by practicing ceremonies with other Shawnee traditionalists. She says among the events important to her people, are the Spring Bread Dance, the Green Corn Dance, the fFeast of the Dead, and naming and marriage ceremonies.

Thom:
We are very cognizant of the need for Spring Bread Dance, where we thank Creator for giving us enough to survive the winter and giving us enough leftover so we can plant so we can have a new crop for the year. It is also called the New Fire, where all the fires in the village are put out except the sacred fire and everyone starts their fire for the year from that, so it is a renewal of the fire.

Our schedule is on a lunar schedule. We also follow the Mayan calendar because our migration story says we originated in Mexico. In January, we get together because we hold a Feast of the Dead, where we honor those ancestors that have crossed over the year before. So we have those ceremonies, we have our naming ceremonies. We have our marriage ceremonies.

Bull:
Thom says the teachings of the past are a means to live well in the present. And living well today means helping future generations live well too.

Thom:
In the great house where we hold our religious ceremonies, this is a place of great joy. This is the joyous interaction with our creator. He is seeing us healthy. He’s seeing us keep the laws that he gave us and honoring him in the ways, and our ancestors in the ways that we were told to do in the beginning.

Bull:
For Wisdom of the Elders, I’m Brian Bull.