Wednesday, December 6, 2017



IRISH – NATIVE AMERICAN PARALLELS
VALIDATED IN NOVEL
PARALLEL
IRISH
NATIVE AMERICAN
1. Constant foreign invasions
Gauls, Milesians, Galacians , Norsemen, Normans, English Saxons
Spanish, French, English, Dutch
2. Land stolen by Imperial Europeans
Vikings took over coastal areas for ports.  Normans bargained for it.  English rewarded soldiers and investors with Irish land.
Expatriates and explorers from Europe “discovered” the new world and took it by force or treachery.  Called it “Manifest Destiny”
3. Defeat by superior weaponry
Norman knights in armor. Tudor navy.  Parliamentarian siege guns
Guns, cannons, swords, later repeating rifles
4. Invaders brought disease
Dysentery, flu
Typhoid, measles, alcoholism
5. Slavery
Sold to West Indies sugar plantations
Same (Pequods) Caribes enslaved in Jamestown.
6. Native language forbidden
Forced to speak the language of the invaders
Same
7.Family names Anglicized
Eg. Gráinne Ní Mháille to Grace O’Malley
Metacomet to Phillip
8. Place names changes
e.g. Cloneen to Manor Hamilton, Learga to Blacklion
Arbitrarily named land based on where invaders came from, New York, Jersey, Hampshire, or named it after royalty, Maryland, Virginia
9. Lacked unity
Old clan rivalries impeded ability to fend off invaders
Ancient differences between tribes blocked any unity to stand together
10. Assimilated invaders into culture
Norseman and Normans slowly became “new” Irish.
The opposite, native peoples were ‘civilized’, but never assimilated, except by intermarrying.
11. Duality beliefs
Druidic influence about separation of physical and spiritual lives.
Shamanic influence about dream state and physical state
12. Sanctity of trees / wood
Oaks held ancestors ghosts and rowan had mystical protective powers.  Walking sticks and shillelaghs and St. Patrick’s staff.  Druid practice of raising staff to speak at gatherings
Coup stick of northern plains, and talking sticks to maintain order at meetings.  Red stick for protection
13. Bread without yeast
Irish soda bread
Wood ashes used by woodland tribes in bread making
14. Social gatherings
Ceildhs
Pow-wow
15. Hospitality
Expected and delivered. Never turn away a traveler, particularly from your clan
Similar within tribe or neighboring tribes / clans     potlatch traditions
16.Spiritual leaders
Celtic druids and later Catholic priests interpret and explain experiences as messages from god
Shaman / medicine man/woman as messenger of spirit
17. Conversation and oratory
Celtic / Irish national pastime
Important part of socializing and communicating oral history






PARALLEL
IRISH
NATIVE AMERICAN
8. Myths and stories
Oral process from generation to next about heroes and saints, fairies and banshees
Stories help to ‘shorten the night’. Oral process of tales of ghosts and spirit animals
19. Music
Embedded in culture a higher, singing is sophistication to storytelling.  Harps and whistles, bodhrans and fiddles. An outlet for joy or rage Celebrate life and mourn death, keening
Drums, flutes, rattles and chanting part of spirituality and celebration and awareness elevation and motivation to hunt, fight. Funeral chants telling stories of departed.
20.Value individuals
Recognized talent, courage, and status. All social levels had a currency value according to Brehan law.  Had rules of engagement 
Would sing songs of brave warriors.  Valued individuals but not arrogance or fanaticism.
21. Guerilla war tactics
Rapparees or Tóraighs and later IRA and UDL
Evident in most areas of U.S.  Particularly with Comanches
22. Respect for enemy
If he fought bravely he was recognized in story and song
Higher honor to touch an armed enemy with coup stick than to kill him.  Courageous enemy might be spared after battle.
23. Invaders forced religion on ‘conquered’
Catholics persecuted by Protestant Anglicans and Puritans
Spanish, French, Catholic missionaries.  English, and Dutch protestants, all worked to convert natives
24. Invaders forced law systems
English law over Brehan law, an excuse for persecution
European law over tribal values and traditions. Reason behind failure of every so called ‘treaty’
25. Invaders forced ideas of land ownership
Royal grants and payment to ‘adventurers’ over familial or clan ownership
Total foreign concept about ‘owning’ land.
26. Ceded land to survive
Better to give up land than to die trying to keep it.
Overwhelmed by technology and growing white population, little by little they gave in.
27. Destroying food source as a military tactic.
Crops burned or stolen and exported
Crops burned, prairie plowed, and buffalo exterminated
28. Trees destroyed
Harvest Irish oaks for the British navy
Cleared Eastern forests for cultivation, and construction materials
29. Hierarchy ignorance
Invaders negotiating and getting agreement from lower leaders who had no right to speak for all of the people.
Nations would not recognize agreements made by sub-tribe leaders. E.g.  Ogallala could not speak for all Lakota Sioux











PARALLEL
IRISH
NATIVE AMERICAN
30. Broken promises
Regime changes would negate promises of former royalty
Details of some treaties not understood by tribes who did not speak the language of the written treaty.  They relied on the ‘spoken’ promise which the whites did not
31. Sacrifices
Old Druidic practice (assumed)
Northern Plains tribes sun dance
32. Mound builders
e.g. Tara, New Grange
All over the southeast U.S.
33.  Mystical beings
Leprechauns, fairies, Sidhe (fallen angels, harbinger of doom)
Shape changers, little people of the Iroquois
34. Derogatory names
Red legs, Mick, Papist
Savage, red skin
35. Mistrust of ‘mixed bloods’
Irish and Old English Catholics/Norman Catholics/Scottish Presbyterians/Norse pagans
“Half Breeds” Natives and Anglo-white or Natives and Mexican “Comanchroes”
36. Super heroes to save the culture
Cu Chullain, Brian Boru, Gráinne Ní Mháille
King Phillip, Tecumseh, Crazy Horse, Quannah Parker, Geronimo, Ghost Dancers
37. Terrorism
Massacre at Drogheda, Wexford
Massacre at Sand Creek, Wounded Knee
38. Forced to move west, toward the setting sun, the darkness, the unknown and impending doom
‘To Hell or Connaught’ per O. Cromwell
 Slaves to West Indies
Trail of Tears.  Andrew Jackson committed to pushing all Eastern Tribes to “Indian Territory” now Oklahoma.
39.  Dehumanizing
Killing a Celt (Irish Catholic)  was not a crime
Similar even to the extent of paying a bounty on native scalps from men women and children.
40. Laws to specifically suppress
Irish couldn’t vote or hold office, own property, become a priest, or own a horse worth more than

41. Celebrate planting and  harvest
Beltane and Lughnasadh festivals
Corn dance, rain dance, dance for a successful hunt
42. Strong family ties but families separated
Captives and kidnapped shipped into slavery or bondage
Children taken and sent to school to “De-Indian them” Punished for speaking native language, required to wear white man clothes
43. Spiritual connection to ancestors
Cairns and burial mounds were holy places
Same
44. Reverence and respect for elders.
Wisdom based on experience led decision making
Elders would hold council to hear problems and suggest (or mandate solutions



PARALLEL
IRISH
NATIVE AMERICAN
45. Folk medicine
Sage-femme as mid-wife, druidic knowledge of herbal medicine
Folk knowledge of using the environment for health
46. Courtship
Intervener, usually the parents of the couple would negotiate the courtship and the dowry
Parents, chief and shaman would be involved to consider the advantage, disadvantage of relationship and the bride price
47. Status
The potential groom evaluated on parent’s wealth and status in the clan.  Land and successful harvests were the currency.
Same, with horses and successful hunts and battles as the currency
48. Signal fires
Along the mountaintops in Ireland to give orders to armies
Natchez tribes kept informed of DeSoto’s movements
49. Sanctity of trees
Matty’s rowan walking stick
Tribal talking sticks, coup stick
50. Little people
Fairies , Leprechauns, etc
Teachers of the medicine men







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