COUNTING COUP

European “Discovery of America”, “Settlement of the West”, and finally “Assimilation of Native Children” (residential schools) are all part of one story, the inevitable clash of Civilized Society with Savages. From that dreadful day when Chris Columbus landed on this continent and claimed success in his quest to discover a new trade route to India (so that his investors would continue his funding) the saga of butchery and slavery has unfolded in the public eye. Virgin Nature in all her beauty and abundance has been cut down, dug up, burned, covered in pollutants, filled with poisons, stripped of wildlife and cordoned off into neat little packages to use in a giant Monopoly game. The Savages like to point at “Peace Treaties” and continue their destruction, but I think the time has come to acknowledge that no agreement is legally binding when it is signed under duress and coercion. I would say that firing rifles out of the windows of slow moving trains in order to rob peaceful families of their food shelter and warmth has to fall into that category! Nowadays, the “culture” here resembles an ant hive more than a village of equals.

All of the brutality that descended on this continent from Europe was brought by people who were fleeing the same situation in their countries of origin. What they didn’t recognize at the time, (and still are failing to see) is that they brought the madness with them, and taught it to their children. Now the race is to conquer “space” and “settle” other planets. The answer is to begin to learn FROM Nature and not treat Her as the enemy. This brings me to the amazing practice of “Counting Coup”.

I literally saw this video on Youtube. A herd of elephants was lumbering through a clearing in Africa when a large rhinoceros took offence. He felt threatened and began to paw the ground and issue challenges at the elephants. Now the rhinoceros is like the jungle’s pit bull – he never quits and he never loses a fight. One of the elephants stepped out from the herd and approached the rhino, but on his way, he pulled up a small tree out of the ground and held it on his forehead as he came closer. As the rhino charged, the elephant lowered the tree and threw it thirty feet to the side and stayed absolutely still, while the rhino broke his charge and turned to watch the tree land. The two combatants looked at each other, for a while, and the elephant turned and rejoined his family. No blood was shed, no lives were lost, but territorial issues were addressed and resolved.

I don’t know how many disputes were settled by warriors “counting coup”, but anything has to be better than the Europeans. Their method is to dress thousands upon thousands of strong healthy men in a uniform, then “face off” with thousands upon thousands of other young men, fire cannonballs into each group, then rifle bullets (as many as they can muster) and finally stick bayonets on their guns and charge, stabbing left, right and center until the last two “warriors” stab each other as they yell “you shouldn’t have messed with us!” At the same time as these battles were going on, “counting coup” was seen as the highest form of bravery in native tribes – to demonstrate your hunting abilities by sneaking up on your enemy and touching him with a stick.