Warrior Mindset: The Practice of Cheyenne “Blindness” by Mark Hatmaker

 

The Wisdom of the Plains Warriors, and experienced Frontiersmen demonstrate remarkable “philosophical” agreement on many points. Let us look at one facet of agreement and perhaps learn a little [or a lot] from the Cheyenne Warrior, Little Wolf.

·        Little Wolf had long experience in battle both with other tribes [notably the Sioux] and many engagements with the “Vehoe” [“spiders” aka “White Folk.”]

·        Little Wolf, although a warrior, was noted for his equanimity, his compassion, or best expressed as his keen-eyed perspective. That is, he only responded to that which required a response, and in that response, sought the appropriate measure.

·        Charles “Ohiyesa” Eastman, the noted mixed-blood Lakota physician knew Little Wolf in his later years and offered that it was Little Wolf’s compassionate nature that made him such an effective war chief.

·        Noted naturalist, George Bird Grinnell, said this of Little Wolf: “I knew old Little Wolf almost intimately. Toward the end of his life…[I] used to pass him my pipe to smoke. I consider him the greatest Indian I have ever known.”-From a 1925 letter to a friend.

·        Lieutenant William P. “Philo” Clark of the 2^nd Cavalry had more than a few tussles with Little Wolf. He even captured him on an occasion which led to him getting to know Little Wolf from their time together at Fort Robinson. Clark wound up growing to greatly respect and admire Little Wolf’s character and they became friends and Clark employed his expertise as a scout and become one of his greatest advocates.

·        Lest we think Little Wolf was nothing but a gregarious softie, the Warrior knew when to turn it up a notch for battle. Fellow Cheyenne warrior Tangle Hair says this of Little Wolf’s battlefield demeanor in the Battle of Punished Woman’s Fork..

·        “He did not seem like a human being; he seemed like an animal---a bear. He seemed without fear.”

·        Little Wolf was so esteemed by his tribe that he became head man of the Elkhorn Scrapers. [A military society within the Cheyenne.]

·        He was also elected Sweet Medicine chief.

·        This is an exceptionally high honor. Among his duties was “To be above anger,” “To think of the people first.”

·        Little Wolf’s character was already one to honor the role as Sweet Medicine chief, but he also sought to be more scrupulous about his equanimity.

·        He stated, “Only danger that threatens the people can anger me now.”

·        Let us repeat that: “Only danger that threatens the people can anger me now.”

·        Many of us hear such admonitions and nod in agreement, but we fail to realize that we often keep this vigilance in too ready a state. That is, “I’m ready for when shit hits the fan, Man!” often bleeds into “I overreact when gnat shit spatters the windshield of life.”  That is, we “Go Red” for “threats/annoyances” far below the stated level of reaction-worthiness.

·        To Little Wolf’s mind, these overreactions are the way of the child, of one who plays at Warriorship without being a Warrior.

·        To be “Red” always or often is “battling” when there is no battle, which exhausts the Spirit of the false warrior and is tiresome to all around who must endure yet another outburst of needless “false bravado.”

·        Many of us are often so “ready to defend” that we defend, well, things that require nothing of us. We fight for the political ambitions of distant strangers. We raise our voices for the “honor” of opinions that will be re-named, re-shuffled and forgotten with the next news-cycle. We war with words and digital fist shakes as if we were on an actual battlefield instead of clutching an inanimate smartphone the size of a child’s toy.

·        Little Wolf on perspective. “If a dog lifts his leg to my lodge, I will not see it.”

·        Now that…that is the essence of a Warrior’s equanimity.

·        Notice he does not “ignore” or “tolerate.”

·        Not to ignore annoyances.

·        Not to be “tolerant” of those who simply disagree with you.

·        To ignore and to tolerate one must also acknowledge annoyance and something “to be tolerated.”

·        Both are weak sisters to Little Wolf’s wisdom.

·        His Warrior advice is to truly be invulnerable to that which does not rate, he does not ignore or tolerate—both of which require energy to resist the anger reaction.

·        Little Wolf’s reaction is to be blind to it.

·        He advises preserving the Soul’s equanimity via the training of never wasting the energy of anger. He respects anger’s power and does not use it as a toy to impress the impressionable.

·        “Only danger that threatens the people can anger me now.”

·        A noble, worthy and lofty goal.

·        To us all being as blind as Little Wolf and impervious to all the standard plaints and whines of the world…

·        And fearsome as Bears when such resources are truly needed!

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