Post 5

Even though I was unable to attend class on Monday for the 'Grizzly Man' discussion I did rent it to compensate for my absence. I'm not sure what was discussed in class, but I found Tim's actions most closely related to those of Native Americans.

I spent two weeks out of the last three summers on Indian reservations in South Dakota. Each summer there were Pow Wows, which seemed to honor most exclusively animals as somewhat spiritual beings. In doing the Pow Wows, masks and outfits were created that transformed the Native Americans into animals. It seems to me that what Timothy Treadwell did was similar to what the Native Americans I spent time with still do.

Tim Treadwell seemed more concerned with the sensation of becoming a bear (swimming with them, feeling the bear's poop, making noises and gestures that were much like a bear's). Even the Alaskan tour guide that was interviewed said that he thought Tim was trying to achieve something spiritual by becoming more like a bear. This is what I thought of when I witnessed the Pow wows. The Native Americans sing and dance and transform the image of animals into something of a higher power.

Now, I'm not quite sure what they get out of this religiously. Maybe it is just a feeling of interconnectedness. I do remember a conversation I had while eating dinner with an elder named Amos at the Cherry Creek Reservation. I asked him his opinion on Christians trying to convert the Native Americans because of what the Mennonites there called, "a dark and deceived religion". His answer was something like this, "I don't think we are much different. So many people want to find differences in belief. We are all connected: the wolf, the deer, the fox, and the human. I think that that's what their problem with spirtuality is. They (the Mennonites) just have to realize that we are all connected right here (as he pounded his fist against his heart)."