ʔiisaak • noun • (eee-sock)
Definition: “to be observant, to appreciate, and to act accordingly”
Origin: Nuučaanuł (a language of the Tla-o-qui-aht, Huu-ay-aht and other First Nations people who are indigenous to what is now called west Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada)
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My book THE CRIME WITHOUT A NAME will be released on October 12, 2021! (That’s in two days!)
The book has received glowing reviews and Publishers Weekly says that THE CRIME WITHOUT A NAME is one of the top books of Fall 2021.
You can pre-order the book at thecrimewithoutaname.com.
****At the bottom of the newsletter you can learn about upcoming SCL events including my book launch party on October 12! For those of you outside of Washington, DC all events will be live-streamed and online.****
I grew up in Marietta, Georgia, a city located directly south of Cherokee County.
Cherokee County does not have a large population of Indigenous Cherokee people. Much of Georgia’s Indigenous population was forcefully removed from the state during the Trail of Tears in the 1830s when tens of thousands of Cherokees were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma. Their land still bears their name, but the people and culture have long been removed.
The most common remnant of Indigenous culture that I remember seeing as a child were Indigenous burial mounds scattered around the state. They were circular at their base—not square—their tops were flat so that you could stand atop them, and grass had grown to cover these tombs of the dead. To the untrained eye, these mounds merely looked like hills, but in reality they are not much different than the step pyramids of Latin America in that both are ceremonial temples to their dead. The tombs in Cherokee County are smaller than the celebrated pyramids in Latin America, but the intent remains the same. I learned about these mounds on school field trips, and the Indigenous guides on the trip would be the only Indigenous people I would encounter until the next trip.
Far before I learned about the Trail of Tears, it troubled me that I could live adjacent to an area named “Cherokee” that existed largely without Cherokee people. The only sign of Cherokee people in their eponymous county were temples to their dead.
They had their own language and culture yet despite living adjacent to where their culture once thrived, I was never taught about how they lived their lives and interpreted the world. The people who had lived on this land for centuries surely would have knowledge that would be beneficial to me as I live on the land today, yet I rarely had the opportunity to meet with and learn from Indigenous people. The absence of this information equates to a void that all non-Indigenous people in the Americas have, but are primarily encouraged to ignore.
As we work to cultivate a sustainable, nurturing Eǔtopian culture in the Americas, we cannot do it without the language and wisdom of Indigenous peoples.
Language: Existence vs. Essence
Much of the work of SCL draws inspiration from the philosophy of Existentialism and the phrase “existence precedes essence.” Prior to Existentialism, most European philosophies prioritized essence before existence, and essence basically equated to ideas and beliefs that could define a person. René Descartes' famous phrase “I think therefore I am” is an acute summation of the philosophy of prioritizing essence before existence.
According to Descartes, what defined a person or proved that they were a human being were the thoughts in their head. Being human consisted of one’s capacity to think. Existence was all in the mind. This idea is obviously absurd because our humanity is not solely determined by our capacity to think. Additionally, this idea is incredibly dangerous because it empowers people to conclude that those who are not like them are incapable or less capable of thinking and therefore are not human or subhuman. Europe’s essentialist, or essence-driven, worldview shaped how they interacted with non-European people and empowered them to commit atrocities against people of color.
Europe’s destructive essentialist worldview not only shaped their thoughts but also their language. In doing so, it can become incredibly difficult to adequately translate Indigenous languages that are forged from a philosophy that prioritizes existence. ʔiisaak is one of these words.
ʔiisaak is commonly translated into English as meaning “respect,” but this definition falls short because, from a western cultural and philosophical perspective, “respect” is primarily an idea and there remains much ambiguity about the type of actions one must do to act respectful.
A more accurate definition of ʔiisaak is “to be observant, to appreciate, and to act accordingly.” This definition speaks to the actions one must do to be a respectful person.
If you observe and appreciate another person or group of people, you are less likely to make dehumanizing judgments based upon the absurd ideas in your mind. Then, based on the information you’ve gathered, you can act accordingly.
In English, we would probably describe this process of being respectful as “having an open mind,” but we would use this term because western philosophy and language primarily believe that everything comes from our mind. In professing the importance of an open mind, we are articulating that we do not understand the nuances of their language and culture, because ʔiisaak’s emphasis on action means that we need an open heart.
Having an open heart is imperative to living a respectful life because by opening your heart to another you open yourself up to the opportunity of seeing and understanding their world from their perspective. By opening your heart, you can expand your mind. A handful of years ago, I opened my heart to the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos because I trusted, respected, observed, and appreciated my Mexican friends, and now I celebrate Day of the Dead every year, but I do it in a way the celebrates my Black culture and appreciates the culture of others. SCL’s annual Altars Festival in late October is an extension of ʔiisaak.
However, ʔiisaak and the act of opening one’s heart can be a frightening ordeal within an ethnocidal society that encourages developing an essence-driven relationship with the world. In America, you can easily open your heart only to find that someone’s destructive essence-based philosophy interprets your attempt at respect as an opportunity to take advantage of you and break your heart. When your language prioritizes the idea of respect more than the act of respect, it becomes very easy to justify the harming of respectful people in order to sustain toxic ideas.
Language, Culture, Place, and Action
In this great article about ʔiisaak, the Indigenous writer also talks about the distinction between the English word “tree” and her language’s equivalent: sučas. In Nuučaanuł, most things are named based on either their actions or their connections to the rest of the world. Therefore, a “tree” or a “sučas” is not named based on its appearance or the idea of a tree, and instead its name denotes its actions and/or connection to the world.
The proper translation of sučas from Nuučaanuł to English would be “landholder”. Sučas is a combination of a Nuučaanuł verb meaning “to hold” and a suffix meaning “on the land” or “of the land.”
Calling trees “landholders” would completely alter our understanding of trees. Rampant deforestation would be inconceivable because linguistically and culturally we would wonder about the stability and security of the land if all of the “landholders” were destroyed.
This is a language of action grounded in existence and our connections to the world around us. And tragically, this linguistic philosophy primarily remains an alien concept to the western world because far too much of western philosophy and language derives from our attachment to our mind, or essence, and this relegates existence to a secondary concern.
In the Americas, we must work to strengthen our connection with existence by observing, appreciating, and acting accordingly to Indigenous cultures, languages, and people. Working to preserve Indigenous languages is a vital part of this process because, without the wisdom of their words, we will have a greater likelihood of being condemned to live within an unsustainable, destructive, and divisive essence-driven philosophy.
And as we appreciate Indigenous languages and people, we must also respect that their languages consist of sounds that do not exist within European languages. We must incorporate new letters, symbols, and accents into our written language and alphabets.
The symbol in ʔiisaak is not a question mark but a glottal stop, but the letter in the Nuučaanuł alphabet is “ʔii”. The accent above the “c” in Nuučaanuł is a caron, and it is also the same accent that SCL uses above the “u” in Eǔtopia. The “ł” is also a letter within their alphabet, but this letter also exists in the Polish alphabet. Here is a great website for exploring Indigenous languages.
Philosophies of certain Indigenous people and languages do not just encourage us to think in a certain way but to act in the right way with an open heart. This is linguistic wisdom that is especially pertinent today.
Upcoming Events!
Book Launch and book signing event at Eaton House
Date: On Tuesday, October 12.
Time: Doors open at 6:30pm
Where: Eaton House, 1203 K Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20005
Price: Free, and you can also give a donation to SCL
RSVP: Here is the Eventbrite link for the event.
Note: As of right now, the event will not be live streamed, but we are working on that. I will let all of you know if we are able to live stream the event so that our non-DC audience can attend.
Online Discussion at the New York Public Library about The Crime Without a Name
The Crime Without a Name: Barrett Holmes Pitner with Lewis R. Gordon
Date and Time: Thursday, October 21, 2021, 7 - 8 PM
End times are approximate. Events may end early or late.
Location: Online & the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Price: Free
RSVP: Here is the registration link.