Matriarchy?

Have you heard of Russell Means? He's a prominent member of the American Indian Movement and the leader of the Lakota Freedom Movement. He's pushing for the formation of a Republic of Lakotah, which would restore the original boundaries established by the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Years after that agreement was signed, an economic depression for the USA led to a gold rush, and the sainted American voter, heeding holy stomach rumblings, decided not to honor its word by keeping prospectors out of the Black Hills. That was only the first time that the land was whittled away by the USA. If you look at a map of the current reservation, it's just a bunch of little chips of land, whatever we decided to leave after carving out chunks for our own interests. Yet another oft-ignored embarrassment for those who believe that the will of the people tends toward the good. There are single tyrants and collective ones.

Anyhow, the proposed Lakota state is a matriarchal confederation. While I could argue for pages against this guy's arguments, there's something compelling in it too. I just think this is interesting.



You know there's zero evidence that a matriarchy ever existed, right? Some feminists have even argued against their own myth of paradise lost, seeing it as a bad foundation for a movement. But there's something about this fellow's vision that draws me in. Maybe it would be an improvement, just so long as these female rulers would be better than all the modern American consumerists around me. I'd hate to see Lakota coins saying "decadence," "indulgence," "sinfully delicious," etc, with pictures of cheesecake and shoes.

I truly hope that women are better than so many of those among my fellow citizens seem to be. And men too, for that matter. I think it's guys who started it, and the women just said, "Hey, I want to be wretched and wallowing in my own self-indulgence too!"

I dunno. The whole playing God thing rings true to me. And the club thing. I'm 42, and I still don't really worry about erectile tissue or anything, so maybe I'm biased. Not any more than other men do, anyhow. We all worry to a degree.

But maybe, just maybe, this fellow has a point after all.