Channels Into Knowledge

  • Dynamic Queries

    Our queries are meant to be asked again and again. But we have to guard against answers becoming routine. And the questions themselves can become dated. What often brings a query back to life is a story. When I can connect a query to something that actually happened, a new question usually rises out of…

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  • Research Desk

    Open the Research Desk: 3,237 stories of hope and resilience

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  • Practicing Hope

    Did you know that hope is something you can actually practice and get better at? I hadn’t realized that until I read the following sermon by Quinn Norton. Since then, I’ve often signed my email messages “practicing hope”.

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  • On the Precipice

    One main reason we are at a precipice is that the tools we could once use to repair the damage no longer work. We can’t turn back. More fundamentally, the injustices of this country’s settling have never been addressed. The consequences will continue to reverberate, impacting us all, until they are dealt with in a…

    Read more →: On the Precipice

  • Reconnecting Generations

    This just came to me. Wouldn’t it be an awesome vision for us to commit to coming together to make the current generation the one that stopped passing the traumas on? All the traumas of all the communities.

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  • Colonizing Space

    My new disaster vision is the colonized militarized moon.

    Read more →: Colonizing Space

  • Recalibrate

    Recalibrate is the word that comes to me now. We are moving ever more deeply and rapidly into conditions of great change. This is a chance to recalibrate how we do justice work.

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  • House of Cards

    In 2024 I was writing my blog posts by hand. Partly it slowed me down as I tried to compose what I meant to write. More importantly, it was a way of expressing what I feel is coming: a time when we won’t have computers or phones to write on and share from. The Internet…

    Read more →: House of Cards

  • Stolen land

    The Dawes Act of 1887 was used to take Native land by creating parcels of land, giving some to the Indigenous people, and selling the “excess”. Thus the idea of private property.

    Read more →: Stolen land

  • Quakers and the Macklemore-Sheeran controversy

    I was surprised when I realized this current controversy surrounding musician and activist Macklemore being forced out of Ed Sheeran’s concert tour provides another way of looking at Quakers’ history since settling on this land.

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  • Where you are standing

    What is can do is help identify where you are in this journey to learn about another culture. And something very specific that you can do to move yourself forward at each step that applies to you.

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  • Systems can no longer repair the damage

    Supreme Court rulings have left political spending virtually unregulated, ensuring that lawmakers answer to concentrated wealth rather than the public interest. At the same time, rising executive authoritarianism has crippled Congress, while the Supreme Court has abandoned its role as an independent check on executive overreach. The institutions designed to repair the system are no…

    Read more →: Systems can no longer repair the damage

  • The Collapse Already Arrived

    People have pointed out that I haven’t written much about the concept of collapse, despite how often I refer to it in my writing. Collapse will increasingly impact us all. I haven’t written much about it because I thought it had been obvious for years that collapse has spread far and wide.

    Read more →: The Collapse Already Arrived

  • Native leaders will speak about mascots tonight

    Tonight’s Zoom meeting with Native leaders Sikowis Nobiss and Jessica Engelking is an example of the idea of channels into knowledge, which this website is about. An opportunity for non-Native people to build relationships with Native people, although remotely in this case.

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  • The draft and youth today

    Withheld in this case does not mean that we actively kept this knowledge away from youth. It is what happens when the relationship between adult Quakers and youth breaks down. Which has much wider implications. We see this in the dwindling membership of many Quaker meetings today.

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  • Leadings continued

    A leading is a prompting to act that arrives rather than being reasoned to–about something you had no way of knowing you wanted, requiring something you would not have chosen, and persisting until it is obeyed or refused. Jeff Kisling

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  • My Journal and Leadings for Young Friends Today

    It came to me (i.e. I feel led) to use what I wrote in my Journal during those turbulent times to show some of what I was going through. And to include what that looks like some fifty years later.

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  • Have you noticed something like “this”?

    But I left out of these discussions what I now realize is the most important part of this, which is what motivates people to want to build such channels, despite how difficult that work can be.

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  • My Quaker meeting and channels

    It is a colonial practice when non-Native people expect to be welcomed to visit, unannounced. We should realize that the Hub is a sacred space, and act accordingly. We should be committed to seeking and following Indigenous leadership.

    Read more →: My Quaker meeting and channels

  • Defining statement revised

    A better statement: Non-Native people cannot respond well to what Native people endured, and still suffer, until they understand it — and understanding of that kind arrives only through a channel: a relationship with the people who hold that knowledge, built over years, entered by invitation, and carrying in both directions.

    Read more →: Defining statement revised

  • What is a channel?

    Knowledge can be thought of as water flowing through channels. Water doesn’t reach where there are no channels — not because the water isn’t there, but because the channel hasn’t been built. That is what what did not reach us means.

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  • My Spiritual Basis

    What I hadn’t formulated was that this was also a channel — and in fact the channel that gave me the foundation to build all of the others.

    Read more →: My Spiritual Basis

  • Why is it necessary to study this at all?

    “This” refers to the concepts and examples of building channels into knowledge. Specifically, knowledge that you cannot learn about and understand just by study. In my case, as a 75 year old white male Quaker, I could not understand racial injustice or Indigenous knowledge by studying, much as I had tried to do so.

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  • The Words and What They Meant

    An understanding of the different meanings of terms used by Native and non-Native people is a crucial first step as this new series of blog posts begins. Necessary in order for a channel to begin to be built between cultures. Following is an interactive web app lists terms or phases from actual historical records. Over…

    Read more →: The Words and What They Meant

  • The Puzzle

    If it were just a matter of reading assignments, videos, and lectures, there wouldn’t be a problem. But, I have finally come to the realization that none of those methods can provide a connection into a different culture.

    Read more →: The Puzzle

  • The Spine

    I wrote this app to show the path through my thinking and writing about “what did not reach us.” This evolved as I was led to become aware of the stunning silence about the Quaker involvement in the Indian boarding schools specifically, and relations with Native people in this country more broadly.

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  • New Blog – Channels into Knowledge

    About this archive My current research is moving more deeply into discovering how knowledge reaches us, stimulated by my work to understand how some significant parts of history weren’t taught to me — specifically Quaker involvement in the forced assimilation of Native children, and more broadly the history of Quakers as settlers on this land.…

    Read more →: New Blog – Channels into Knowledge

  • Doing your own research

    Recent writing here has been about Quaker records, and about our relationships with the Native peoples of this land — or the lack of them. That is the point of this series: to get you to look into your own records. Arriving informed is a form of respect, and every question you can answer with…

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  • Reasons why knowledge fails to reach us

    I have been shocked not just at what I continue to learn about Friends’ involvement in the forced assimilation of Native children, but it has also been heart wrenching to realize how much of this history Friends chose not to write down — and then chose not to read. Harder still is seeing the intergenerational…

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  • Study Guide – Channels

    Understanding the difference between “what was withheld” and “what did not reach me” is necessary if you want to explore the history of the relationships between Quakers and Native peoples. I hope more Friends are led into this uncomfortable history, because that understanding is essential for work now with Native peoples. I don’t want to…

    Read more →: Study Guide – Channels

  • What was withheld from us?

    I’ve been working through the difference between “what did not reach me” and “what was withheld.” Some of this is specific to me, a seventy-five year old white male and a Quaker. Much of it generalizes to Quakers today. It has taken me a while — both to do the research, and to work out why so many Friends…

    Read more →: What was withheld from us?

  • Letters to a Friend not yet born

    I’ve only recently begun to grasp the fact that I must do what I can to teach future generations what I have been learning from my experiences related to Quakers and Native peoples in this land. Otherwise I would be continuing the Quaker silence that was responsible for not teaching me about this history. So,…

    Read more →: Letters to a Friend not yet born

  • Interactive catalog of my writings

    My recent experiences with Quakers and Native people have taught me a lot—to the extent that I am now being led to re-evaluate what I’ve written in blog posts since I first began publishing my writings in 2015. (My very first blog post can be found at the end of this post.) As part of getting…

    Read more →: Interactive catalog of my writings

  • The Missing Map

    I know it can be difficult to follow what I write about. I often have trouble keeping all of my thoughts organized. I’m at a point where I’m going to change direction somewhat, and go back through the history of the relationships among Quakers and Native peoples in this land, which I see differently now…

    Read more →: The Missing Map

  • The Choice

    I was recently led to make a difficult choice. My yearly meeting, Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) just finished its annual sessions, where our work as Quakers during the past year was discussed and decisions were made about the ongoing work of the yearly meeting. Many of the monthly meetings (local meetings that have business meetings…

    Read more →: The Choice

  • Clarifying who “we” are

    This article comes from the vague feeling of unease I sometimes get when I use the pronoun “we”. One of those things I should have paid more attention to. “We” means different things in different contexts, and by not being clear about which meaning I am implying, real confusion can occur. And there is the…

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  • Nightmare arrives 50 years later

    This photo of mine led me to live without a car in Indianapolis for my entire adult life there. It is a photo of Long’s Peak, with Moraine Park in the foreground, in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. I took it in the early 1970s, developing the film and printing the photo in a makeshift…

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  • Grammar of Silence

    An accurate historical analysis requires a grammatical conversion: from the passive voice of “what did not reach us” to the restored agency of “what was actively withheld.” I am beginning to see why I had no idea of the real impact of settler-colonialism on the Native people of this land — including the role of my own faith…

    Read more →: Grammar of Silence

  • Knowledge withheld versus missing

    It is crucial to differentiate between knowledge that is missing versus knowledge that was withheld. Knowledge that is missing is found by study and research. Teachers in classrooms provide knowledge to students. Prior to taking the class, the students likely didn’t have much knowledge of human anatomy, for example. That knowledge was missing prior to the class. And that knowledge…

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  • Truth and Liberation in Action

    The Truth and Liberation in Action all day teach-in is an opportunity for exactly what I’ve been writing about related to “what did not reach me?” and “what am I called to do now?” Knowledge travels through presence and building relationships. This one-day teach-in is provided as an invitation from Native people to build, or…

    Read more →: Truth and Liberation in Action

  • ‘Then I lost my spirit’

    Historical view of White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute. Source: WTHR I’m about to begin to re-tell the story of the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March. I originally wrote the story as it was happening, writing blog posts each evening that we walked during the eight days and ninety-four miles of the March, and then numerous…

    Read more →: ‘Then I lost my spirit’

  • Three questions answered

    Yesterday I wrote about the interactive web application I created about the three questions that I’ve been discussing: Somewhat Shocked One part of that application is titled Your Turn. You enter your own responses as you are led through these questions. I have to admit I was both shocked and angry when I realized just…

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  • The passive completed with the active, ending in what you are called to do

    I sense that my recent writings might be a bit confusing. I’ve been making up and exploring these questions myself as I’ve been trying to understand how and why I was never taught the history and significance, today, of Quakers’ involvement in the Indian boarding schools. I’ve been led to believe each of us must…

    Read more →: The passive completed with the active, ending in what you are called to do

  • My mistake

    There is a danger, which you might already have noticed, that the phrase “what did not reach us” can be seen as absolving us from any more prayer or action related to the history of Quaker involvement in the Indian boarding schools. “What did not reach us” is passive. When in actuality, knowledge was withheld…

    Read more →: My mistake

  • My example of how it reached us

    I’ve asked, “WHAT did not reach us?” And “WHY did this history not reach us?” These questions refer to the Quaker involvement in the Indian residential schools in this country and Canada. Which were institutions of forced assimilation. Those words do not reveal the horrible things that often happened there. That is a large part…

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  • Not an excuse

    I’ve been troubled by my observations related to “what did not reach us.” I’ve come to see that phrase as a way in for Quakers to begin to get past the words that trigger many Friends to shut down any attempts to discuss settler-colonialism and its consequences. I believe that can be a valid approach…

    Read more →: Not an excuse

  • Why Tell the Story of the March?

    My new awareness of how knowledge is transferred has me wondering if I should be writing more about the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March. Knowledge cannot be transferred from reading text. But, the March is an example of how knowledge begins to be transferred. It was designed for this very purpose, to provide the extended…

    Read more →: Why Tell the Story of the March?

  • Addressing ‘what did not reach us’

    The concept of ‘what did not reach us’ seems like an authentic way to restart discussions with Quakers and others about building right relationships with Indigenous peoples. See: https://activeobjection.substack.com/p/the-gap. In that post, I wrote of how a channel began to form, to connect me to Indigenous peoples and their ways by telling a story from…

    Read more →: Addressing ‘what did not reach us’

  • What Did Not Reach Us: Web App

    Yesterday I dove more deeply into the concept of “what did not reach us,” the throughline in my life that begins not with something I received, but with something that was absent. I have created an interactive web app to explain more about this concept. I first wanted to point out something before giving you…

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  • The Gap

    What Did Not Reach Us is one of my life’s throughlines. That line is completely different from the other throughlines because it begins with absence. That absence was an awareness of how settler-colonists, which included Quakers, completely dispossessed Indigenous peoples of their lands and their culture with genocidal violence. Absence of awareness of the tragic history of forced assimilation of Native…

    Read more →: The Gap

  • Scattergood Friends School throughlines

    Every significant thread of my life — Quaker practice, integrity, land, and what was missing — traces back to one acre of ground in Iowa. A table and interactive graph mapping how Scattergood shaped the work at the Great Plains Action Society’s Urban Resilience Hub.

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  • How Knowledge Travels

    Knowledge travels through channels. Where no channel exists, knowledge doesn’t arrive — not because it isn’t there, but because the path hasn’t been built. A reflection on what Quakers didn’t know, and what that requires of us now.

    Read more →: How Knowledge Travels

  • What are your throughlines?

    A wheel shows origin, not just sequence. Here my five throughlines radiate from Scattergood Friends School — and an interactive exercise to help you discover the patterns shaping your own life.

    Read more →: What are your throughlines?

  • Throughlines

    Five pathways run through my life: Quaker practice, community of integrity, personal integrity, embodied land, and what did not reach us. An interactive map of a life’s journey — and an invitation to find your own.

    Read more →: Throughlines

  • Embodied Land

    A lifelong relationship with land — farms, mountains, marches, pipelines — and a growing reckoning with what I didn’t understand about Indigenous peoples’ relationship to those same places.

    Read more →: Embodied Land