The Northern Tradition is that part of the Indo-European culture that existed north of the Alps in Europe, and in adjoining areas. It is distinctive and almost completely separate from the commonly called Western Tradition of modern times, which actually for the most part is the amalgamated evolution of Middle Eastern religion channeled through the apparatus of the Greco-Roman empiric ideal. The Northern Tradition not only has different answers, it has different questions. It is not "civilized," but it is very cultured, dignified and extremely ancient.
The 9000-year-old skeleton called Kennewick Man, found last year in the bank of the Columbia River in a park in Kennewick, Washington, can speak to us of this Indo-European past so we can understand our future. Kennewick Man connects worlds, living and dead. Forensic anthropologists have said this skeleton's features are more like ancient Europeans' rather than Native Americans'. This find gives us continued evidence of the far-reaching accomplishment of the Indo-European tribal expansions.
Historically, at the end of the last Ice Age, Indo-Europeans spread out from their original homeland east of the Balkan Mountains and eventually settled all of Northern Eurasia, with dominating incursions farther south into Mongolia, China, the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin. In the process, they tamed the horse, invented the wheel and the chariot and discovered steel. Though some attribute the wheel to Sumer, other reputable researchers attribute the invention of the wheel to the early Indo-Europeans.
These migratory people are the ancestors of the Europeans now known as the Baltics, Austrians, Slavs, Germans, Celts, Normans (people of Northern France, or Normandy, in other words Northman-Land), Swiss and Scandinavians. Once the prejudice is removed that moderns and our colonial progenitors were the only humans that had grit, vision and exploratory determination, at least the kind that would take them across oceans and continents, then the concept that some of these post-Ice Age ancestors of ours made it across the Bering Strait, by boat, is not hard to believe at all. Consulting a map and considering the distance that those determined to make this trip needed to cover makes it clear the journey is not really a big deal.
Additionally, Kennewick Man is not the first skeleton of its kind found in North America. There have been many in the past 100 years. Kennewick Man is just the most recent and undoubtedly the most publicized. Also keep in mind that preservation of skeletons is a unique event, as most deteriorate. Use a large multiplier when you theorize about how many weren't preserved.
So Kennewick Man was a random "chance" discovery, an act of Wyrd. Wyrd is the Anglo-Saxon word that some translate and call "fate" but really means results of layers of past actions, which when personalized includes inherited ancestral clan and family destiny. That a "Caucasian" was here in the Northwest thousands of years before what modern understanding allows is a hassle for the established scientific community, which already has an order, agenda and philosophy worked out about the populating of the Americas, which by the way doesn't match up with what the pre-Columbus inhabitants, that is the First Nations, believe. The First Nations have said for years, in statements to the press and in literature quoting their beliefs, that they were "spawned" here and were not immigrants across the Bering Strait. Additionally, I know Native Americans who have told me the same.
Established science disagrees at present, but enough evidence is gathering to overwhelm preconceptions. Continental drift was a crackpot idea little more than 50 years ago, even though any grade school child could see how the puzzle fit things together. Anyway, let's move to the discussion of what this "Caucasian" means.
Some, maybe quite a few at one time, of the exploring Indo-Europeans made it here to the Americas and eventually became part of the culture of the inhabitants who were already here before them. Historically, the Indo-Europeans who ended up in India, the Middle East, Greece and Rome joined with the local populations, after making their permanent mark on the culture. According to the best European university sources, one example of Indo-European expansion is Rome, which was founded by the Indo-European Italic tribe that defeated the Etruscans, who would not let them live in peace. After the Italics obtained stability through powerful defense tactics, they slowly morphed into a full-time expansionist warrior state. In one millennium, by the time of the Caesars, the Indo-European structure of their society was subsumed, as they absorbed many different cultural impressions from those they colonized: Greece, the Middle East, Egypt and so on. (For more on the Italic tribes and their histor y, see The New Comparative Mythology, by C. Scott Littleton, and check Littleton's sources as well. You are in for a great adventure.)
It is becoming increasingly clear from new discoveries that "Indians" were very well-established in the Americas long before the end of the last Ice Age, just as their traditions say. Imagine that. So if you were an exploratory foreigner, you had two choices, beat 'em or join 'em. The history of the Indo-European expansions from 6000 B.C.E. until 800 C.E., where there were sufficient numbers of Indo-Europeans in any given area, is mostly one of out-trading their competition (see J.P. Mallory; In Search of the Indo-Europeans). When conflict took place, they usually won, due to superior technology and war-craft.
The Indo-Europeans conquered many civilized areas, including India, the Middle East, Greece and so on, but were finally absorbed into those local cultures. Those conquered who were not civilized became part of the Indo-Europeans. After 800 C.E., the sole remaining descendants of the original Indo-Europeans, the "Germanic Nations" were proactively attacked by the Holy Roman Empire, the leaders of which were determined to destroy the culture of the "heathen" Northern European.
This process was finally concluded during the "Burning Times" of the Middle Ages, by effectively destroying the female magick workers - the witches. The overwhelming majority of "witches" were murdered in the Germanic countries. These women were devotees of the Aesir and the Vanir - the Northern European designated names for the ruling deities. This genocide and domination destroyed their culture. (For more on this topic, see the Mallus Malificarium and Witchcraze, the latter by Anne Llewellyn Barstow.)
In the Americas 9000 years ago, it is easy to predict who got absorbed by whom. There is where I think we can find a fascinating ancestral motif worth pondering. This land we now call America is now is a melting pot. In the earlier parts of this century, this melting-pot quality allowed immigrants to forget where they came from, a prospect welcome to many who wanted a fresh start. In the past three decades, the neo-pagan revival began causing a remembrance of our pagan and heathen past. That some of our Indo-European ancestors were here thousands of years ago gives us a connection with this land, but this connection must be viewed in the context of who the spiritual custodians of this land are: the nations here before us, and those of us who respect that fact. If we consider ourselves pagans or heathens, we must emulate the First Nations' example and be true to our ancestral ways, which in many respects parallel their beliefs. Before our Northern Indo-European ancestors were "civili zed" by the Roman empiric intrusions, we were the spiritual custodians of our land. That custodianship was stolen from us, and we were forced by the sword to accept baptism or die. Ask anyone from the First Nations if that sounds familiar.
I can see Kennewick Man as an example of bravery and exploration, a man who obviously saw the Earth as a place to be discovered. I can also feel a very ancient heritage, of one who traveled to what he probably saw as just a continuation of the Earth. However, Kennewick Man would have had to have a respect for different heritages, to become part of or remain friends with any new society with its own heritage. To me, this indicates that the human race is at its best when diversity is the basis of attraction, not the synthetic tyranny of universalism. Hopefully, Kennewick Man acted accordingly. Who knows? But he was an explorer, or the descendant of some who came here before him. To look that far back in time makes me pause and reflect that correctly apprehending the deep mind and memory allows difference to become a regenerative fusion and awakening. Remembrance of heritage is essential, for the past is the weave that inexorably creates a future.
To paraphrase a well-known saying, "Those who don't know the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes." However, for the wise, strong and productive, what "should" be becomes both new, when it manifests, and then old, because it is connected to what it came from. This is the Myth of the Eternal Return. The Northern Tradition is adamant that knowing the past literally means knowing the future, and that you create the future to a happy end when you actually become part of history. Kennewick Man, our Indo-European ancestry and the First Nations now have an opportunity to keep holy, and yet share their history and ancestry. For it seems we have all met before.
J.T. Gordon, a Northern Tradition Godhi (Indo-European Priest) legally recognized by the American Vinland Association and the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, is active within the local Heathen Alliance, and is the RuneGild Hall Leader in Washington state. For more information, contact Huldur Ve Hof, P.O. Box 1479, Maple Valley, Washington, 98038.
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