Description
Book SynopsisTo recreate a whole and sacred America, it is important to piece together the forgotten fragments of history that are currently keeping the country divided. Just as a traditional Native American potter begins a new pot with shards of old pots—honoring the ancestors, bringing the energies of the past into the present—Original Politics re-constellates the nation as a whole out of the seemingly disparate shards from our origins. The most significant forgotten piece is the profound effect Native America had on the founding values of this nation. Original Politics convincingly demonstrates how the best aspects of the founding vision of America were inspired, or directly appropriated, from living, Native American cultures: concepts such as natural rights, liberty, and egalitarian justice. Further, Parry traces the influence of Native America not only on the founding fathers, but on the ‘founding mothers’ of the 19th century women’s movement; as well as the 19th century abolitionist and modern ecological movements. Native America has inspired what Parry sees as the sacred purpose of the nation: bringing all the world’s peoples together on one soil in a harmonious cultural mosaic of unity in diversity. While there have been periodic setbacks (devolution) in our nation’s history, including today, these only serve as catalysts reigniting our sacred purpose. America is creating a new melting pot, and like the original vision, it will be a creation from the many into the one—only this time it must not leave anyone out. This includes the natural world. Original Politics is ultimately about respecting all forms of life and all forms of political expression as different aspects of one whole. It is a reclamation project that brings people, land, and nation together as one. The overall effect of the book is profoundly healing.
Trade Review"For peace and harmony to prevail, the truth must be told. We are instructed never to take hope from the people." Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation Author of Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations, and the US Constitution
"Parry's richly-textured book holds out hope and guidance for this moment of political conflict over diversity amid fear for the continuation of life on the planet. Inviting us to see how this challenge is the stimulus to transform the conflict into unity of purpose, the author provides us with a roadmap for how to do it through a new worldview that reestablishes an Indigenous connection with the natural world. This worldview privileges place over time, relationship over product, and revalues the feminine, enabling us to rebalance culturally and ensure the survival of life on the planet."Sally Roesch Wagner, Founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation Author of Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee Influence on Early American Feminists and The Women's Suffrage Movement
"Thank you, thank you, Niawen (in Mohawk), K'olabal (in Maya Tzotzil), muchas gracias, merci beaucoup, to you. If all 'white' people held such a deep consciousness for Natives as you do, the world would already be truly blessed and sacred. There is no way one can stay neutral when reading you, I'm crying, I'm touched, shaking and totally stirred up!!! This is all so good in spirit." Ohki Simine Forest (Canadian Mohawk), Author of Dreaming the Council Ways , is a vision-holder and spiritual teacher
"Some people are aware of the impact Native cultures had on the development of the US. The vast majority are not. Original Politics finds a unique way of telling the true story." Harlan McKosato(Sac and Fox Nation), Former long-time host of the nationally syndicated radio show Native America Calling
"In a fractured time when a rude politics of nationalism rides in the high saddle as the climate crisis and many other environmental problems demand effective international co-operation, the world needs Glenn Aparicio Parry's Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again . Engagingly written, mixing the best of the past and present, the indigenous and immigrant, appreciating everyone's beauty: that is how we forge a sustainable future. Parry traces a path. Life on Earth will be better if everyone everyone , regardless of race, religion, and classre-learns what many indigenous ancestors call "the original instructions." Read this book, enjoy it, and pass the word: we cooperate, or we face a hot, miserable future world squabbling over toxic crumbs." Bruce E. Johansen, Author of Forgotten Founders: How the American Indian Helped Shape Democracy and The Iroquois: The History and Culture of Native Americans
"In a brilliant historical retelling, Original Politics makes clear that America's sacred legacywhile appearing to have fallen in the ditch of a crude and phony populismis destined to be a thriving pluralistic democracy and a sanctuary of ecological values." James O'Dea, Former president of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, author of Cultivating Peace and The Conscious Activist
" Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again is an important and timely book for helping the United States move beyond its current crisis. Parry's writing flows beautifully and thoughtfully, as he shows how returning to the nation's mix of Native and European roots can effectively meet its current problems and heal its divisions." Stephen Sachs, Author of Honoring the Circle: Ongoing Learning from American Indians on Politics and Society , with Bruce Johansen, Betty Booth Donohue, Donald Grinde, et al.
"In Original Politics , Parry draws on his lifetime of work in association with Native scholars and teachers as the lens through which he considers both the current polarized and dysfunctional American political situation and the coming global environmental catastrophe. Parry gently suggests that our public business, our politics, can only change when we return to the spiritual, caring values that characterize the way Native people see their purpose in life regarding nature: as guardians and caretakers, not as masters, users or exploiters. These concepts were inherent in the principles the founding fathers appropriated from Native American tribes whom they lived and worked with . . . principles from which we have allowed ourselves to stray from at our peril." Senator GeraldP. "Jerry" Ortiz y Pino, New Mexico Legislature
