There is a book with an unintriguing title of "The Uses Of The Past" by Professor Herbert J. Muller which deals with history and why great civilizations of the past collapsed and became extinct. It took him ten years of research to track down the events that led to the decline and fall of the classic Greek civilization; the great Roman Empire and other great civilizations of the ages. There is a parallel in the present day events and that of the bygone eras which should give the modem Onkwehonwe pause for reflection. Professor Muller gives four major reasons why these powerful institutions wilted and dried away. Surely, they did not expect to die away. Who wants to die? It takes a psychological condition to make a person wish to die and to commit suicide. That whole nations and a part of a race can disappear from the face of the earth without being slaughtered is intriguing. It can even be frightening. If millions of classic Greeks, millions of Romans and other powerful nations can be abolished so that not a drop of blood be left is a sobering thought indeed. How can the native Onkwehonwe of the stolen continents of America, in their greatly reduced condition, resist and win over the threat known as extinction? Not only can whole peoples get into certain conditions, do certain things, ignore warnings, neglect natural duties and laugh at the wise, which can and will destroy them completely and extirpate them from the face of the earth, but there is the added threat from outside interests at work to achieve such an end to unwanted nations and races. Life is indeed full of traps, natural and manmade, for the unwary. Even the careful can become careless and go, baby, go. Seemingly of small moment, the four reasons are:

1. LOSS OF LANGUAGE: According to the book, no one in Greece today speaks the language of the classic Greek era. The people who live in Greece today do not have an ounce of Greek blood. There are no Romans today. The people who live now in the center of ancient Rome do not speak the language of the Romans. Likewise, there are no Persians today. No one speaks the language of Persia now called Iran. Loss of language is a big step towards extinction. There is a parallel here among the Onkwehonwe. Most of the people do not speak their own national language. Among the people of the Six Nations Confederacy, called "Iroquois" by the French and Kanonsonnionwe by themselves 300 years ago, the language has been broken up into dialects. The people themselves have changed the name of the Six Nations Confederacy to Hodenosaunee from the broken Seneca dialect, instead of Kanonsonnionwe from the original language.

The white man can say that the Iroquois made themselves extinct. Buried even their own name. If they are not the Kanonsonnionwe, then they are not the people known as the great and mighty Iroquois. It inspired the judge to say there are no more Mohawks, in connection with the Akwesasne dispute. Yet. the Mohawks speak the original Iroquois language, Fortunately, some inner strength in Mohawks resisted the language break up, linguists are amazed at the pureness of the Mohawk language. All say it is certainly not a dialect. The others of the Six Nations can draw from this big step towards extinction by relearning the language of their ancestors. It's not lost. The Mohawks speak it. According to linguists, when a language breaks, the first sound to go is R. It turns into L. Then the L goes. It is also noticeable that the last sound a child masters when he begins to speak is the R. For a while he says "twee" for three. When a people break up their language, they seem to go backward to their childhood. Is the broken dialect "baby talk"? The last thoughts of a dying person is also what his first thoughts were. Does it actually mean that when a language breaks, the people are preparing to die out? Knowing this the people can save themselves by relearning their ancient language.

2. THE RULES AND REGULATIONS that made ancient civilizations great were ignored after the people became great. Corruptions became the rule. The people took the second big step towards extinction. To start the Six Nations along the same path, someone put a taboo on reading the Great Law so, now, the people don't know when they are violating it. Fortunately, most Mohawks put no stock on taboos and will read anything including the Great Law. It is the law in effect in Ganienkeh. We believe that the taboo is a conspiracy to put the Six Nations on a greased skid to extinction. Injuns on reservations are forced to follow laws made by the United States and Canadian governments. A big step toward extinction.

3. ECONOMY: When the ancient civilizations became great, their spirit of cooperation relaxed in the matter of the economy of the people. It became every man for himself. Some people became super rich while the masses became poor. Sounds familiar? Our ancestors used the cooperative farm community economic system. Adopted by the present day Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and other well off groups. Only Ganienkeh among the Six Nations is using the ancient system and working towards economic self sufficiency. Careless economics is the third big step towards extinction.

4. SPIES AND TRAITORS: Great civilizations of the past ignored their spies and traitors. "They can't hurt us", said they while the spies and traitors hacked away at the very foundations of their existence. When the great civilizations collapsed, the spies and traitors also became extinct along with the people the helped to destroy.

Spies and traitors abound on Indian reservations. Indians say: "How can they hurt us? We got nothing left to lose." There is something Indians still have. Their existence. If they do not stop their spies and traitors, they will go the way of lost civilizations. Oblivion. The Indian informers, spies and traitors are many because no one does anything about it. It's a safe occupation. The fact that traitors are the lowest things on earth and most shameful of humans doesn't mean a thing to them. Honor, loyalty and integrity are just words that have no meaning. Their destiny is to destroy their own people as they are themselves destroyed as humans. Nature's first law. SELF PRESERVATION, is ignored at the peril of the people's existence. It is the last big step towards extinction.

The book notes that only people who struggle survive and their population increases. The people who stop struggling decrease and eventually, the people die out. The effects are said to be psychological. According to the book, the meek and humble who only want to be peaceful, decrease in number. The aggressive and greedy increase, rule and overpopulate the earth. The solution has to be the happy medium between two extremes. Get some spunk and fighting spirit into the meek and humble. Indoctrinate the overly aggressive and overly greedy and make them wear chastity belts. Anything to check the population explosion.

As a race, Injuns are small in numbers. Most are browbeaten into meekness and humility. Many die young. Many are on welfare which kills initiative and fighting spirit. Welfare is an effective aid in the program to make Injuns extinct. What must they do to avoid the easy road to extinction? Injuns must change their style. Instead of meekness and humility Injuns shall have to stand on their hind legs and fight for their rights. They must struggle to create their own economy. They should not continue to depend on the precarious white man's economy which has a bad habit of collapsing every once in a while and many Indians starve to death. Working for the white man is depending on his economy. To make sure of continued existence, Injuns should grow their own food, make their own bread, etc. Injuns should produce their own cloth to make their own clothes. Make their own styles. Now, there's a thought! Something for the imaginative young designers. Injuns should cut their own lumber and make their dwellings according to their own architecture. Or make it of stone. Plenty of stone around. Help each other. One of the ways of survival. Help each other.

Many Injuns do not think they're headed toward extinction. The extinct Greeks and Romans thought the same way. Intelligent Injuns have their work cut out to save their people, some of whom don't want to be saved. The United States and Canadian governments have a policy of assimilation for Indians. It means legal extinction. There are Indians who are already United States or Canadian citizens. They have committed racial and national suicide. Naturalized Americans or Canadians of Indian descent. No longer legally Indians. That's extinction, man! In time, according to white man's calculations, there won't even be any signs that once upon a time, a race of Indians did live. This plan must be resisted and fought until the battle is won. The Great Law provides that once a battle is joined, it must not stop until the people have won.