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Tired of viewing Fourth of July rituals -- and General Petraeus -- I hunted around the tube late yesterday afternoon for a respite. I found it via the IFC channel in an old film that I'd somehow missed: Southern Comfort [1981.] Set in the swamp country of Louisiana, and placed in the early '70s, the basic plot is simple: A small contingent of Louisiana National Guardsmen, on weekend maneuvers in Cajun country, antagonizes the latter and the Guardsmen decide to "get" the Cajuns. In guerilla fashion, the Cajuns resist -- guns, impressive booby traps, and other innovative approaches. This takes a lethal toll on the Guardsmen who, in turn, fall apart military discipline-wise and occasionally attack each other. In the end, two Guardsmen survive and wind up in what I described to Maria when I beckoned her over, in a wild festive Cajun pow-wow. [All is well for a bit in that setting but the Cajun adversaries enter the situation and the two survivors are finally rescued by a US helicopter.] For me,however, the Cajun celebration of life is the high point of the film. Obviously done on location in the swamps and bayous, the Festive Affair is clearly comprised mostly of local Cajuns "doing their thing." Native American ceremonials are, of course, pervasively theological. Native social pow-wows always have some implied religious dimensions. This Cajun social affair had no visible signs [other than a few holy medals] of that. But it did feature, usually in simultaneous fashion, excellent fiddle work, fine accordianship, wonderful singing and wild dancing. Splendid food. I loved the whole scene and so did Maria. The Cajuns, of course, are a distinctive -- officially recognized -- ethnic grouping. Their origins come from the French Acadians deported from the Maritimes at the end of the "French and Indian War." Their version of French is unique as is their mode of English speech. I have had only a little direct contact with Cajun people. Just before midnight, August 31 1961, Eldri and I passed through the far northern edge of Cajun country on our initial trip into Mississippi. We stopped at a rural gas station and store -- full of visiting people. We could understand little or nothing of the rapid speech, even when it was in English. But, long ago -- even before I encountered Justice William O. Douglas' comments about, as he put it, "Strange Lands and Friendly People," I learned that a broad smile can work great wonders in most situations. [Sometimes.] And it did in that one. [Now and then I follow the example of the Navajo who either knows no English or doesn't wish to speak it, by simply pointing a finger at my mouth and slowly shaking my head [usually smiling as well.] I have seen, directly, festive occasions that incorporated many of the cultural ingredients of the social affair in Southern Comfort. I've seen these with the Turtle Mountain Chippewa [Ojibway] in northeast central North Dakota [and via Canadian Natives as well.] The Turtle Mountain people -- and I taught a few thousand from the Nation [as well as from other tribes] at University of North Dakota -- are a mix of Ojibway and Cree, with a little Sioux -- and many, while Native to the core, are part French [and Scottish] and French cultural influence is more than just discernible at Turtle Mountain..There is certainly fiddling and accordions, spirited dancing and singing, and fine [albeit mostly North Plains] food. [Eldri has a few cousins in the tribe.] A great many of the Turtle Mountain people are direct descendants of refugees from the valiant Métis Rebellion led mainly by Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont in 1885 in the Central Provinces. Dumont escaped into the 'States but Riel was hanged by Canada which, decades later, issued a postage stamp in his honor. [The Métis are still about as economically poor as ever.] Many of the Cajuns and others in the coastal sections of Louisiana, including the Native people, are obviously in the midst of horrific calamity that defies words in any language. But, like all of the "exceptional" societies and cultures -- and I use the term exceptional with a little sarcastic bitterness directed at the mainstream society -- that have so excellently resisted the great American and Canadian assimilation machines, they-all will certainly survive, enhancing themselves [and empathetic others] in their own unique ways, now and forever. Hunter Bear 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' Our Hunterbear website is now more than ten years old. It contains a vast amount of social justice material -- including grassroots activist organizing. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See Personal Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm And See: Hunter Bear's Movement Life Interview: http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm See: The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father] and its accompanying essay on Minority Adoptions and Native Land and Resources: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
