Donald Francis Addison
In 1960, initially when I first heard the word "Baha'i", I dismissed it out of hand, without any knowledge of it, but later I did become open minded to it. I'll just say a few words about my own discoveries and maybe this will help answer some questions or help bring them into view. I often look past someone initially displaying no interest in "Baha'i" at first, since I did that originally. But I eventually discovered it was the one thing I had been searching for, my whole life.
I am a Choctaw Indian and 69 years old. Our people are one of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes of the SE, along with Chickasaw, Creek (Muskogee), Seminole and Cherokee (Tsalagi). Our traditional Choctaw language (we actually spell Chahta) is a member of the Muskogean Language Family. I'm now an elder in my tribe and I'm very devoted to my Indian life, culture, identity and community. I live in Eugene, Oregon, and we have an extraordinarily large number of First Nations peoples living here now. My tribe, the Choctaw, mostly live in either Mississippi or Oklahoma. My maternal grandmother was Choctaw and I loved my grandmother very much, but lost her at a very early age. When I was young, my mother made our clothes by hand, including (for me) a red, green and yellow grass dance outfit (with flowing yarn along the legs and arms) and after all these years, I still have that precious historic garment. My mom past a few years ago, and I still have her star quilt, her star shawl and even a huge table cloth she crosshayed entirely by hand over many many years.
I love being indigenous and yesterday we had a huge powwow at the local college where I teach American Indian Studies. Some 24 years ago I helped start this powwow which became an annual event which has grown and became a major cultural event of this Willamette Valley in Western Oregon. And it made my heart so happy to see so many Native American Baha'is also attending the powwow and we all enjoyed ourselves tremendously. A particularly large number of former and current students of mine, Indian and non-Indian, were also in attendance, which made my heart so happy, ehhhhhhhhhhh? (Only a Native American will understand this expression "EhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHH?"
For many years I've taught Native American languages and American Indian music in both the Indian community educational programs and activities, and at Lane Community College and the University of Oregon.
And Thursday I gave a class on powwow drumming with my powwow drum, and I taught the students 3 powwow songs in Lakota, Cree and Pima (which is now called Tohono O'odham).
So let me go back to when I was in the 12th grade, we here call a senior in high school, and I sat with a new friend in our World History course that year. The boy I sat by became my best friend, that was 50 years ago, and we are still in touch. He mentioned "Baha'i" one day, and I told him I was perfectly happy in my Christian Church and that I really wasn't interested in learning anything about his religion. But he handled my closemindedness very well-he'd share thoughts and ideas of the Baha'i teachings in short conversations, there after, any way, only rarely and never did he push it on me. So in time, I began to learn more about Baha'i and what he told me really did begin to interest me. He told me his parents raised him as a Baha'i and yet he seemed to respect Christ and know a lot about the Bible and I was amazed at him, and in time, I just felt compelled to search it out. I decided if I discovered it had been based upon erroneous ideas, I would prove it wrong and think about it no more.
I got an introductory book "Prescription for Living" from my friend, John Newport, and I never read it. It didn't seem to be the kind of thing I was used to. So I asked instead if he had a Baha'i book and Biblical evidence to support the Baha'i Faith and he recommended "Thief in the Night"---although he admitted he'd never read it. Well, up till then, I treated what little I knew about Baha'i as quaint, and no more of interest than any other world religion. But when I began reading "Thief in the Night", the most incredible spiritual inspiration began to develop inside my heart. I can still, 50 years later, recall that amazing feeling of awe and amazement each page of that book gave me. Now it was a good book for me to read because if I were to make up a decision about the Baha'i Faith, as either truth or not truth, I really needed to have all my questions answered. And "Thief in the Night" answered all my questions, and many more as well. By the time I completed reading "Thief in the Night" I had become a Baha'i in my heart, and I loved it. I was amazed "Why haven't I heard of this before now?" and John Newport said "You learned about it at the right time you were supposed to." And that made perfect spiritual sense to me.
After I learned and totally accepted Baha'u'llah as the Return of Christ, I next had questions about the relationship between Baha'i and Native American religions and cultures. Well, I found Baha'is who were also Native American and they told me that they loved the Baha'i Faith because it totally respected Native religions and indigenous cultures. I met Vinson Brown who wrote a lot of books with Native American Baha'is and they explored Native religions, but not revealing anything that they were not supposed to publish. They respected Native ways. I began to look into that and found all kinds of interesting things to read about Native American Baha'is and Baha'i activities on various Indian reservations in not only the USA but all throughout Turtle Island (the Western Hemisphere). I learned some members of the National government bodies or administrative committees of the Baha'i Faith of the USA, Canada, and Alaska were First Nations peoples. They still are in fact. Then a Navajo Baha'i visited Eugene and spoke to the Baha'is and I was utterly thrilled. So at this time, the Newports gave me a Baha'i prayerbook and this began to inspire my soul deeply. Baha'is said if I prayed in a Native American language or used a First Nations prayer, it was just as acceptable to God as it would be a prayer of other religions as well. The Baha'is didn't in any way look down on Indians, and they all accepted the validity of our Native American religions---but the Baha'is weren't trying to patronize Indians. Non Indian Baha'is were not "Shamans" and they weren't saying anything insulting about our religions and cultures. The Baha'i books never treated Indigenous religions or cultures with disrespect in any way. So I just had to become a Baha'i. It just gave me so much joy and incredible feelings of spiritual growth. I just KNEW that Baha'u'llah was the Promised One that we Indigenous peoples were waiting for, as well as the Return of Christ. It all made sense, and I've never, subsequently, discovered anything in the Baha'i Writings offensive or misleading about First Nations and our peoples or languages or beliefs.
It made me feel so happy as a Choctaw Indian to find the Baha'i Faith and to realize it respected my right to feel good about being an Indian. Baha'is honor our religions and history and cultures without patronizing them. And most of all, it is very refreshing to see that Baha'is who aren't Indians don't "try" to be Indian. The Baha'is are not a bunch of "Wanabees". (They don't "want-to-be" Indians, which hurts American Indians' feelings.) The Baha'i Writings are a vast ocean of insight AND I've written and published a couple of articles about Indians and the Baha'i Faith. Maybe you'd be interested in them sometime?
I hope some of this makes some sense and might bring up some questions if I can help with. Let me know.
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