How It Is: The Native American Philosophy of V. F. Cordova

by V.F. Cordova, Kathleen Dean Moore (Editor), Kurt Peters (Editor)

Viola Cordova was the first Native American woman to receive a PhD in philosophy. Even as she became an expert on canonical works of traditional Western philosophy, she devoted herself to defining a Native American philosophy. Although she passed away before she could complete her life’s work, some of her colleagues have organized her pioneering contributions into this provocative book.

In three parts, Cordova sets out a complete Native American philosophy. First she explains her own understanding of the nature of reality itself—the origins of the world, the relation of matter and spirit, the nature of time, and the roles of culture and language in understanding all of these. She then turns to our role as residents of the Earth, arguing that we become human as we deepen our relation to our people and to our places, and as we understand the responsibilities that grow from those relationships. In the final section, she calls for a new reverence in a world where there is no distinction between the sacred and the mundane.

Cordova clearly contrasts Native American beliefs with the traditions of the Enlightenment and Christianized Europeans (what she calls “Euroman” philosophy). By doing so, she leads her readers into a deeper understanding of both traditions and encourages us to question any view that claims a singular truth. From these essays—which are lucid, insightful, frequently funny, and occasionally angry—we receive a powerful new vision of how we can live with respect, reciprocity, and joy.

Genres: Philosophy, Indigenous, Nonfiction, Native American, Spirituality, Ecology, School

268 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book review. Cordova, V.F. How It Is: The Native American Philosophy of V.F. Cordova. Arizona UP: Tucson, 2007.

This book was put together by her friends and colleagues after Dr. Cordova suddenly passed away of a brain hemorrhage. It includes biographical information and is compiled from excerpts of lectures, her personal notes, correspondence, and discussions.

Cordova writes that there are three question philosophy must answer: (1) What is the world? (2) What is it to be human? (3) What is the role of a human in the world?

Compare Cordova’s answer with Heidegger’s: "Martin Heidegger says of these foundations that there were once answers to 'open' questions that are not 'quiescent'--that is, we no longer ask questions concerning what the world is or what man is. The Native American cannot afford to forgo those questions. The 'answers' we have grown up with--our definitions of man, the world, and their relationship--do not rest 'quiescent' for any of us" (51).

Native Americans are generally excluded from the practice of philosophy in academia: "There are . . . almost no Native Americans in philosophy departments at our universities . . . we have not yet been accorded the right to speak for ourselves . . . the time has come for American native peoples to give their own explanations. And that is the relevance of the study of philosophy for Native Americans: not to see ourselves as others see us, but to look at ourselves through our own eyes" (53).

Or, ghettoized: "A Native American with a background in philosophy is assumed to be fit only to teach Native American philosophy . . . [however] any Euro-American philosopher can teach a Native American philosophy course, regardless of his qualifications to do so. and very few Native American philosophers are allowed to teach Western thought" (58).

Here is an example of how Native American students are marginalized: "Meaning for the Native American, is embedded in context--is, in fact, given meaning through context" (73). "I sat on the committee overseeing the thesis of a Native American graduate student. She had prefaced her research with a chapter 'about herself' (as the non-Native Americans on her committee described it). I, too, had faced such criticism as a graduate student" (73). All too often, "The Euro-American classroom is an exercise in authoritarianism" (80).

The beginning of Cordova’s book provides the context of her life. One of the lessons she learns as a child is: "Just as one cannot tell another person what to do, one can also not ask for anything. To ask for something is to imply an inability to be independent. To ask for anything is to imply the person asked that he or she has failed to be perceptive to the other's existence or needs" (26).

You have to read the entire book to fully appreciate it, but here are some notable excerpts about significant philosophical topics:

Usen, the unidentifiable IS. "The American aboriginal concept of Usen is a term of such abstraction that is has, thus far, proven too complex for Europeans to understand. The idea of Usen, or its manifestations, was mistaken by early Christian missionaries for the Western concept of God. 'Great Spirit' is the name the missionaries gave it" (107).

"A reification of the concept of time allows Westerners to speak of traveling 'in' time. They can postulate traveling into the future or into the past as thought the past and future were places or things that exist somewhere out there" (108).

"The Native American's response to the terror and awe inspired by the universe is to call it sacred . . . it is sacred because it is beyond reification" (109).

"In a dynamic model of the universe, something is always happening without an agent having to cause anything, because that is what the universe, by its very nature, does" (111).

"For the Christian . . .God and his creations are never 'one thing'. God exists always outside and apart from whatever it is that exists" (115).

"Man is created and placed in a specific and slightly unearthly place: The 'Garden' of Eden implies a place that is separate from the normal earth--it is cultivated, trimmed, and so on--it is a garden. When man is ousted from the Garden, je is confronted with a harsh and stingy land--he is furthermore cursed to struggle to make a living" (116).

"By contrast, in American Indian legends, man is placed on Earth within specific boundaries but he is not given anything specially created to make his life easy. He is given 'sweet grasses,' the waters, the animals as both food and medicines. Man is not placed in a harsh environment, nor is he cursed by his maker . . . overall the Earth is seen as a good and rightful place for man to be. Secondly, the sense of being in the 'right' place is essential to the understanding of American Indian's concept of the Earth as mother. Man was created by the Earth and belongs to the Earth. He does not think of or postulate another or 'better' home." (116).

"Time means something different when it is based on a concept of an infinite universe. Time is merely a measure of motion . . . Time, as a measure, is not a self-existing 'thing'; it is not even a dimension--it is a human construct. . . Many Native American groups portray themselves as active participants in the making of the present--we are, in effect, 'cocreators' with a natural process in constructing the future. The future is not 'there'--we are creating it through our present actions . . . We do not exist in a preordained universe; our actions bring the 'future' universe into existence" (118-9).

"The Greco-Roman world depicted the universe as infinite but cyclical . . . some even postulated that the new cycle would repeat exactly the old cycle. Nietzsche dubbed this 'eternal recurrence' . . .There is, in this view, a scent of fatalism in that we are preordained to do the things we do. We can catch a glimpse of this preordination in the Greek dramas" (119).

"The 'Old Testament' God makes promises to his people as a people. The 'New Testament' addresses itself to individuals who are require to make a choice between their former identities and the new Christian identity" (145).

"The society, as a whole, is held together in the Native American context by individuals, all thinking for themselves and contributing to the greater whole. This perspective has very deep implications for how children are taught to become persons" (148).

'An individual set apart from his group, can more easily be manipulated by others. He has no value except 'self-interest'" (156).

"I believed there are no self-made persons. There are only those who cannot (or refuse to) acknowledge their debts" (158).

"The residents of formerly self-sufficient homelands now swarm into the cities in search of a means of survival. The world's people grow accustomed to seeing this displacement called 'progress' . . . 'development'. We do not acknowledge that the price paid for the West's access to world's foodstuffs and the world's ores" (162).

"Who questions the reality of something called 'progress'? I know of no work to match the critique in J.B. Bury's The Idea of Progress, though today's evolutionary biologist questions the idea of a progressive evolutionary process. They offer, instead, the concept of change in the face of other changes" (175).

"What was left, after many indigenous persons had lost their native languages and no longer adhered to ritual in daily life, was a set of values instilled in childhood and reinforced by the Native communities. They served to ward off the assimilation attempts of educators, government officials, and missionaries. It seems, in talking with Native persons throughout North America, that there is something 'pan-Indian' that has escaped the efforts of White America to rub out the final evidence of the real 'winning' of the West" (193).

"Rather than accepting diversity as a natural phenomenon, human beings are labeled according to a singular notion of 'developed', 'developing', or undeveloped'" (202).

"The result of modernization attempts is not the elevation of 'backward' people onto a higher notch on the scale of evolutionary progress. The result is an incomplete and perhaps impossible attempt to create a monoculture" (206).

"Whatever degree of alienation from the Earth is caused by the Judeo-Christian account in Genesis, it is enhanced in the Christian postulation of 'another world' as the true home of mankind" (209).

"The image of the Native American that is prevalent in the United States is a product of someone other than the Native American. The Native American's own image was one that allowed him not only to survive but thrive on this continent for thousands of years. When Europeans first arrived on these shores they described a paradise. Five hundred years later the land suffers almost three hundred million people. The air, even the mountaintops, is dirty, and you can no longer safely drink the water even in the most isolated streams" (213).

"The theologian and the philosopher are largely to blame for the present view of humans and their environment. It is their fields that have provided the conceptual underpinnings that allow the present sate of environmental degradation to exist" (215).

"Native American groups who often come together in regional 'powwows' do not waste time arguing over whose myth of origin is the 'correct' myth. It is understood that each group has its own story that pertains only to its group and that all other groups will have their own unique stories or 'explanations' that account for their existence in a specific place with a specific identity" (224).

"The European masks this attempt to create a mono-cultural world under the guise of 'bringing people into modernity'--'modernity' meaning simply an adoption of the European lifestyle and conceptual framework" (226).

Codova should have saved John Trudell’s quote for the conclusion: "John Trudell, an 'angry' Indian, says: 'I don't trust anyone who isn't angry'" (45).

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest books of philosophy I’ve read. Cordova is as accessible as she is profound. Firmly knowledgeable of the European classics, she takes the inchoate ideals of Nietzsche of rooting the philosophical in the personal and surpasses it. How indeed can we know what a persons ideological foundation is if we don’t know where they come from? Cordova makes it clear that Europe by no means has a cultural monopoly on the subject of philosophy as we have been passively taught. Can’t recommend this book enough.

[Meghan Elizabeth]

One of my all time favorite and most sacred texts. Changed the way I think and perceive the world/"reality".

[Lio Smits · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for every philosophy student!! This book proves why critical theory is not enough. Why reconsidering our being, our spiritual practices and our relatedness to what is, matters. As Cordova brilliantly puts it: “Without a reevaluation of human nature and the human dependence on the environment, there can be no “new” environmental ethic.”

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! Native Americans are among the most marginalized groups and even still get demeaned in small ways. This book provides a window to seeing what their culture is based on and how we can relate to it.

A very illuminating book.

[Julio R. Ra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that brings in the perspective of Native American philosophies to define the world, man, and the role of man in the world.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal work. I read this with a book group this month where we had weekly discussions. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially the poetry.

[Salamah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for research purposes but I felt there were so much in this text that I read most of the short chapters to gain a fuller understanding of Native American Philosophy. Native American thought has not been given it's place in academia so I thought it was important to understand a different viewpoint. Cordova explores three main questions in this text What is the world? What is it to be human? and What is the role of a human in the world? These are not unique questions but her approach to thinking about them is. My favorite chapters were " They have a different idea bout that" and the philosophical questions. In each of these chapters she discussed children and the thinking around how a child is education in the Native American culture. It made me think about how African American children may enter a school environment, particularly today in which their culture's identity and contributions may be ignored. Cordova's powerful poem entitled " Who We Are" I enjoyed as well.

[Johan D'Haenen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even situeren... ik studeerde wetenschapsfilosofie (logisch positivisme) en evolueerde daarna via "Tao van de fysica" van Fritjof Capra naar boeddhisme, taoïsme... In de wetenschapsfilosofie was ik specifiek gericht op relativiteitstheorie en kwantumfysica die me uiteindelijk ook naar de CERN in Genève brachten. Tussen de Oosterse filosofieën en de kwantumtheorie zag ik duidelijke lijnen, iets wat ook Fritjof Capra duidelijk maakte.
En nu kom ik via het prachtige werk "Toevallige Ontmoetingen" van Kristien Hens in contact met Viola F. Cordova en de filosofie van de Native Americans. Wat mij vooral trof, was het feit dat de denkwereld en de visie van de Native Americans heel sterk samenloopt met het Taoïsme... monisme, holisme, harmonie, wederzijdse beïnvloeding tussen alles, collectivisme...
En dan ook de onweerlegbare link met de moderne fysica, de kwantummechanica... het vormt één geheel, een smeltkroes van ideeën en wereldbeelden die zo veel rijker is dan het klassieke, agressieve en individualistische wereldbeeld van het Euro-Amerikanisme.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good philosophical examination of indigenous thought

Cordova accomplished putting into words our worldview, which often gets trampled under dominant culture's view of us as a magical race of elf-orcs that only exist in the mythologies of their national narratives. Though there is a bit of romanticizing our own pasts, over looking inter-tribal warfare and violent migrations over resources, not to mention indigenous imperial powers (such as the Mexica and Inca empires) that occurred long before any European set sail across the Atlantic.

[Nawaf Dandachi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s comprised of essays, broken into three parts, laying Indigenous philosophies out next to Western ones. The first section lays out her understanding of reality, the origins of it all, and the way culture and language plays a role in everything. The second covers our role as residents on Earth and the relationships we make. Finally, she asks us to no longer draw a line between the mundane and sacred, to look at the world with a new reverence.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

a perspective altering book that provided me with a new way of understanding how we can interact with each other and the environment.

had read parts of this for class in senior year philosophy class and was reminded of it the other day. just as interesting as i remembered

[Sena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changed my life

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

If your not familiar with indigenous philosophy. Get ready to have all of your assumptions challenged. This book has changed the way I view the world in ways I didn't know were even possible.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting exploration of the Native American worldview in contrast to Western Philosophy. Many people will put Cordova into the "postmodern" camp, which means that there is a mix of insight and sloppiness. She seems to hate Christianity so much that she dismisses anything she can see as even remotely Christian, even a scientific theory. This was not written as a cohesive book but cobbled together from numerous essays, so it is partially graded on a curve. There are so few books about Native American philosophy that this one has more value than it might have otherwise.