Generational Generilizations

Angela Duckworth’s book, Grit, references IQ assessments “... if you scored people a century ago against modern terms, they would have an average of seventy – borderline from having an intellectual disability.” If this is truly the case, what happens to the Working Hard Quotient?

From the perspective of the two encounters in my last article, the WWII Veteran and my older siblings, our Working Hard Quotient may be going down. From older generations observing much younger generations, what does that look like?

I reached out to Zane Baker, the Collection Manager at the MHA Interpretive Center, New Town, North Dakota. MHA is the acronym for Mandan Hidatsa Arikara.  Mr. Baker pointed me to Hidatsa Eagle Trapping by Gilbert Livingstone Wilson, Anthropological Papers, The American Museum of Natural History, Volume XXX, Part IV.  I visited the MHA Interpretive Center in 2021 and decided to call the center to get information on an Indigenous Culture’s lessons on hard work and diligence.

 Mr. Baker has written an accompanying article to talk more about MHA culture and ceremonies.  It helps with context that I can't provide. I recommend reading books and papers recommended by MHA Interpretive Center to get information on questions you may have.  Click here for Mr. Baker's article. For this article, I’ll stick within the context of generational perspectives on working hard.

Near the beginning of this particular story within the Eagle Trapping narrative, Wolf-chief, Wolf, Fire-above, Two-bulls, Fast-dog, and White-back set out to trap eagles, pluck their plumes, and release them back into the wild. None of the six were experienced in eagle trapping.  At the end, for products made from his eagle feathers, Wolf-chief received property of great value. Much more than he thought he would. But what did he and his party do to be able to make such a trade?

Wolf-chief is the narrator.  He describes their hunting party as “rather reckless young men, and not very reverent to sacred things”.  His village was located in the area where the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers meet. The area is now part of Buford, North Dakota. The elevation of Buford is approximately 1,900 ft (580 Meters).

Wolf-chief collected and carefully packed food and supplies which included a rifle and 50 cartridges. The party would be gone for months. The hunters traveled “about 70 miles” to the place they decided was good for trapping eagles. There is no mention of a horse and Wolf-chief’s account is very descriptive.

The physical and mental stamina they displayed to survive, to trap, and to construct a lodge goes on for pages. The following are just samples. After making the camp, they hunted for food and bait, moved carcasses to the campsite, made different types of provisions from the carcasses, boiled water in a pot made from animal skin and a hole in the Earth, helped each other dig eagle trapping pits with sticks, knives, and a hoe, and built a hunting lodge.

Each hunter helped the other dig his pit and make covering frames from branches and sticks.  The hunter could observe an eagle as it attempted to get the bait. Once the eagle got to an opportune place, the hunter would grab the eagle by both legs and get it in a position to pluck some plumes; hopefully, all before the eagle could realize what was happening and injure or maim him.

Wolf-chief captured 3 eagles, including a “white-headed” one.  With the birds being sacred to him, they were not killed. Later, he released the sacred birds back into the wild with a prayer.

Wolf-chief visited an Assiniboin tribe where he received an offer to have a war bonnet made using thirty eagle feathers and a sacred child pipe made with six eagle feathers. He would use these in an adoption ceremony; however, the planned ceremony did not happen.

A friend of Wolf-chief was able to make another arrangement with the Assiniboin. By adding a buckskin coat adorned with porcupine quills to the original offer, he acquired 5 horses, a tent, and everything therein. Honestly, I’m not quite sure of what everything therein means but Wolf-chief stated it as “property”.

Mr. Baker explained to me that in his Indigenous culture, he knew of no books equivalent to Grit or other “self-help” books. Instead, ceremonies and narratives capture many of these “virtues”. While many of us in the workforce development world tell children to work hard, those lessons were delivered differently for the Hidatsa and other Indigenous cultures.  The narratives and ceremonies are sacred, but many have been abolished or lost over time.  Indigenous cultures are trying to regain and document the cultural stories and ceremonies in which “virtues” live.

We can’t know what Wolf-chief would think about our current state of working hard. But, there is a passage from the narrative that gives a direct statement from a man referred to as Black-hawk. He clearly acknowledged that farming meant working hard.

See afterthought below.

Again, thank you Zane Baker, the Collection Manager at the MHA Interpretive Center, New Town, North Dakota.

The narrative of Wolf-chief is documented in Hidatsa Eagle Trapping by Gilbert Livingstone Wilson, Anthropological Papers, The American Museum of Natural History, Volume XXX, Part IV. 

Afterthought:

I do have an afterthought about Black-hawk’s farming comments.  I do understand the contrast he made about the way to status among his people versus that of the settlers. He spoke of the settler’s value on making money. But, he brought out an emotionally complicated chuckle from me as he said settlers who farmed got rich with money. I thought, “My father made so much money after over a decade of farming, that he went to work at the mill.”