What If European History Was Told Like Native American History?

By JacobSloan on May 15, 2013 in News

http://disinfo.com/2013/05/what-if-european-history-was-told-like-native-american-history/ 

An Indigenous History of North American http://indigenoushistory.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/what-if-people-told-european-history-like-they-told-native-american-history/ This website inverts the norm by imagining a U.S. school textbook devoted to the intricacies of indigenous societies in the Americas, with a few paragraphs covering the history of Europe:  The first immigrants to Europe arrived thousands of years ago from central Asia. Most pre-contact Europeans lived together in small villages. Because the continent was very crowded, their lives were ruled by strict hierarchies within the family and outside it to control resources. Europe was highly multi-ethnic, and most tribes were ruled by hereditary leaders who commanded the majority “commoners.” These groups were engaged in near constant warfar.

Identity (Article Excerpts and Links)

Contemporary Views of Traditional Identity
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/06/16/term-american-indian-plus-ethnicity-sovereignty-and-identity-155222

I would not say that Native American identity is shaped by ethnicity, rather Native American identity was and continues to be shaped by specific tribal cultures and traditions. American Indians do not form an ethnic group, they are composed of thousands of independent nations, communities, and cultures that have very different and specific identities.

Similarly, I would not say that American Indian identity has been shaped by sovereignty, rather American Indian cultures and identities have informed and supported the use or appropriation of the Western concept of sovereignty. If we mean by sovereignty the right and power to make our own decisions, then sovereignty has been a part of Indian nations from time immemorial.

Tribal citizens have cultural, kinship, often spiritual ties to a tribal nation and to its history, goals and values. Tribal citizens uphold and obey the laws and traditions of an indigenous nation. Tribal citizenship carries a political commitment to take on the responsibilities and benefits of tribal government and tribal nationality. However, tribal citizenship requires cultural understanding of the indigenous nation, and knowledge of the history of self-governance. Indigenous nations are holistic with overlapping cultural, political, kinship, economic, and community relations and identities. Tribal citizens take on time-honored obligations to respect kinship, community, nation, and ceremony, all of which are overlapping and holistic.

Pseudo Science to Get Rid Of
http://io9.com/10-pseudo-science-theories-wed-like-to-see-retired-fore-1592128908
Some excerpts below

Phrenology

Want to know what someone's like? Get to know them, or talk to a lot of people who know them. Handwriting won't tell you anything, unless the letters are written in blood. If you think someone's posture indicates their character, I wish you an uncomfortable chair for the rest of your life. And as for deciding that someone's body shape is an indication of what they're like inside - we got taught to know better than this in kindergarten, people. Get it together. I have no doubt that there will always be new forms of this crap floating around. Some charlatan will always find a way to claim physical characteristics indicate moral character. Give it the hydra treatment. Chop off its head and burn its neck stump.

Aliens Build the Ancient World

Look, I know it's easier to think that aliens came down to Earth thousands of years ago than it is to believe that the ancient peoples of Egypt or South America and Central America had any skill, brains, or artistry. But you still have to fill in questions like, "Why, of all the things aliens could do with the world, did they choose to make giant stone pyramids?" If you went to an alien world, would you want to build giant stone pyramids, or would you prefer to loot the world of all of its precious materials? (Or, if you were more benevolent, teach the natives how to cultivate penicillin?) While we're on the subject, why did aliens give up their interest in architecture? It's only been a couple of thousand years, and we could really use some help building vertical farms or supercities, or, I don't know, space ships. But I get it: We're smart, ancient people are not. Keep it to yourself from now on.

Genetic Memory

A little sentimentalism about one's ancestors can be quite pleasant. It's interesting to look around an old family house, or take a trip to the "homeland." Things get a little more complicated when people lay claim to the gifts and talents of their ancestors. What works in novels doesn't work in real life, and "innate knowledge," leads to all kinds of pseudo-scientific nonsense. We're not salmon. We don't have a instinct that leads us back to our origins.

Indians Who Aren't Indians
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/indians-who-arent-indians-256126711.html
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld an earlier ruling that says the Métis are Indians in constitutional terms, which implies a higher standard of federal responsibility. It rejected, however, the notion non-status Indians are in fact Indians under the Constitution, although it said Parliament could grant such status under some circumstances.

They may look like Indians, identify as Indians, associate with Indians, participate in Indian cultural affairs and pass on their Indian oral histories, they may even speak an aboriginal language, but as far as the federal government is concerned, they aren't Indians.

This paradox and historic injustice traces its roots to the 19th century and the beginning of the treaty system. A status Indian was someone registered under the Indian Act as an Indian, but for a variety of reasons many aboriginals never registered with the authorities.

Some aboriginals avoided the process out of mistrust, while other names were simply not recorded. Aboriginal women who married non-Indians lost their status, although that injustice was eventually reversed by the courts. Other aboriginals lost or gave up their status for a variety of reasons.

The Métis have a process for determining membership in their group, including self-identification, acceptance by the Métis community and records that verify ancestry.  A similar method could be used for non-status Indians who want to reclaim their heritage and their rights.

On Card Carrying Indians and Those Indians Who Don't

Warren Petoskey in Native Condition. 

http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/on-card-carrying-indians-and-those-indians-who-dont.html

This is the historical trauma no one wants to talk about. We, as Native people, take it as a badge of honor that we have been issued cards qualifying us as citizens of our respective tribes. My number is 0322. That number registers me with my tribe and with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington DC. Every tribal member in the United States and Canada has an identification number in addition to our driver's license number and our social security number among other numbers.

I have often thought of withdrawing my membership in my tribal club association if it were not for daughters who struggle with diabetes and need the medical services to control the disease. Neither can afford the test strips, the medicines, or the continuing need for medical care.

The tribe who so generously allows me to have one of their cards does little to address the conditions that have developed that are intended to end our legal existence and the federal government's obligations by treaty to us. If they are allowed to determine when we will suddenly disappear because of the lack of their standards for blood quantum than we, as tribal members, have done little to establish and protect our origin of sovereignty. Sovereignty was and is not the gift of men, but the gift of the Creator. Somehow we have allowed me to dictate who we are or who we aren't. This is prejudice at its highest effort.

I think of the many tribes the federal government terminated. In essence the federal government was and is saying these tribes no longer exist or have any legal status in the United States or Canada. That is like telling the Creator that they are going to take the lead in saying who is and who isn't! So they have usurped the authority of the Creator and took matters into their own hands.

After five hundred years of threat to our existence in which nearly 100 million of our people were exterminated and we were determined to be less than human, this little crumb from our master's table giving us a card to carry validating us as citizens of our own tribes is an indication of their lack of honor and respect. But we, as a people, have bought into it all and practice that level of oppression on our own people and stick our heads in the sand when other members of our Red Race is determined not to exist.

9 Things America Needs to Understand About Native Values
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/07/07/9-things-mainstream-america-needs-understand-155670?page=0%2C2

1. Honesty and Integrity 
2. Prioritizing Who Is Paid Well For What  
3. Appreciation for Women 
4. Natural Law 
5. Respect
6. Kinship and the Relationship Between All Beings  
7. The Sacredness of Life and Intention
8. Generosity
9. Mother Earth

Authenticity: Ethnic Indians, non-Indians and Reservation Indians
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/01/06/authenticity-ethnic-indians-non-indians-and-reservation-indians-152952
The cultural complexities of contemporary Indian communities tend to confuse non-Indians who are expecting and often demand traditional cultural expression and personas from contemporary Indian people. If a person does not look and act like an Indian—usually a stereotypical image of a Plains Sioux Indian—then many non-Indians doubt the Indian authenticity of tribal member.
 
Reservation Indians usually have very secure identities, and so when non-Indians or ethnic Indians doubt their authenticity, reservation Indians often find these circumstances amusing.  Ethnic Indians can be defined as persons of Indian descent who are not members of a tribal community and often their families have not have had contact with a home community for generations. For reservation Indians, authenticity is confirmed within the local reservation community. While for many ethnic Indians and non-Indians, Indian authenticity is determined by stereotypes and images that are common within American society.
 
There are more non-Indians in the U.S. than reservation Indians, and generally the views of non-Indians prevail. Non-Indian views of Indian authenticity drowned out reservation understandings of Indian authenticity. Before the 1980s, some times Indians often conformed to U.S. images of authenticity by dressing in Plains Indian clothes and headdresses, partly because otherwise they could not be recognized as Indians. Southern California Indians, for example, do not traditionally have powwow dances, but have dances and songs based on their tribal creation teachings that narrate an epic migration of ancestral birds who end by establishing the homeland of the people. Unfortunately, much contemporary discussion about Indian authenticity focuses more on U.S. definitions of authenticity than tribal understandings, which are less well known and understood by the U.S. public and many ethnic Indians.

Trapped in Our Ancestors Old Ways
http://starcasm.net/archives/277205
From TLC: “The series chronicles the dramatic and emotional journey of Mary, Frank, Tamara, Qituvituag (also known as Q) and Nuala, as they embark on their high-stakes ‘escape’ from Alaska to explore the world outside their villages and small towns. Although they love their families and take pride in their heritage, they are yearning for more fulfilment and different experiences. Escaping Alaska captures their brave journey as they leave their sheltered lives behind.”

Native People, in All Their Glory: 20 Portraits by Ryan Red Corn
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/gallery/photo/native-people-all-their-glory-20-portraits-ryan-red-corn-155641
Working with Buffalo Nickel and on his own, Red Corn has built up a substantial portfolio of portraits of Natives; his subjects include entertainers and athletes, politicians and activists, kids and elders. Basically, everyone -- view gallery for a selection of some of his recent shots.

I am Not Pocahontas

http://www.theweeklings.com/ewashuta/2014/09/04/pocahontas/ 

The word "Pagan" is a problem when applied to Native Americans
http://nativeamericanresources.blogspot.com/2011/10/letters-2011-word-pagan.html 

Beyond Assimilation and Nationalism: Walking in Two Worlds Is Necessary

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/12/23/beyond-assimilation-and-nationalism-walking-two-worlds-necessary-152788 
Indians use a variety of strategies to manage their life prospects and identities. The old stereotypes of opposing traditionalist and progressive strategies do not capture the complexity of contemporary life choices, nor the consequences of tribal identity and commitments to sustaining tribal nations.

American Holocaust

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The North American Story

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/american_holocaust_when_its_all_over_ill_still_be_indian/#.UzG33o948lr.facebook

 
The powerful and hard-hitting documentary, American Holocaust, is quite possibly the only film that reveals the link between the Nazi holocaust, which claimed at least 6 million Jews, and the American Holocaust which claimed, according to conservative estimates, 19 million Indigenous People. 

Noted even less frequently, Canada’s “Aboriginal policy” was also closely examined for its psychological properties. America always took the more ‘wide-open’ approach, for example, by decimating the Buffalo to get rid of a primary food source, by introducing pox blankets, and by giving $1 rewards to settlers in return for scalps of Indigenous Men, women, and children, among many, many other horrendous acts. Canada, on the other hand, was more bureaucratic about it. They used what I like to call “the gentleman’s touch”, because instead of extinguishment, Canada sought to “remove the Indian from the Man” and the Women and the Child, through a long-term, and very specific program of internal breakdown and replacement - call it “assimilation”. America had it’s own assimilation program, but Canada was far more technical about it.

Before the “Ice Age” - Research on Early Americans

Pullling Apart the Bering Strait Theory

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/world/americas/discoveries-challenge-beliefs-on-humans-arrival-in-the-americas.html?_r=3

Researchers here say they have unearthed stone tools proving that humans reached what is now northeast Brazil as early as 22,000 years ago. Their discovery adds to the growing body of research upending a prevailing belief of 20th-century archaeology in the United States known as the Clovis model, which holds that people first arrived in the Americas from Asia about 13,000 years ago.

Walter Neves, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of São Paulo has done analysis of an 11,000-year-old skull in Brazil and implies that some ancient Americans resembled aboriginal Australians more than they did Asians.

Tom D. Dillehay, an anthropologist at Vanderbilt University, has shown that humans lived at a coastal site called Monte Verde as early as 14,800 years ago.

European and Brazilian archaeologists building on decades of earlier excavations said last year that they had found artifacts at a rock shelter showing that humans had arrived in South America almost 10,000 years before Clovis hunters began appearing in North America.

Dr. Guidon remains defiant about her findings. At her home on the grounds of a museum she founded to focus on the discoveries in Serra da Capivara, she said she believed that humans had reached these plateaus even earlier, around 100,000 years ago, and might have come not overland from Asia but by boat from Africa.

Genetic Evidence of a single migration (but not over Bering Strait)
http://www.wisdompills.com/2014/06/13/dna-testing-proves-native-american-genealogy-to-be-among-the-most-unique-in-the-world/
The team’s work follows up on earlier studies by several of its members who found a unique variant (an allele) of a genetic marker in the DNA of modern-day Native American people. Dubbed the “9-repeat allele,” the variant (which does not have a biological function), occurred in all of the 41 populations that they sampled from Alaska to the southern tip of Chile, as well as in Inuit from Greenland and the Chukchi and Koryak people native to the Asian (western) side of the Bering Strait. Yet this allele was absent in all 54 of the Eurasian, African and Oceanian groups the team sampled. 

In these earlier studies, the researchers concluded that the most straightforward explanation for the distribution of the 9-repeat allele was that all modern Native Americans, Greenlanders and western Beringians descend from a common founding population. Furthermore, the fact that the allele was absent in other Asian populations most likely meant that America’s ancestral founders had been isolated from the rest of Asia for thousands of years before they moved into the New World: that is, for a period of time that was long enough to allow the allele to originate in, and spread throughout, the isolated population.

How Linguists Are Pulling Apart the Bering Strait Theory

How Linguists Are Pulling Apart the Bering Strait Theory 
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/03/19/how-linguists-are-pulling-apart-bering-strait-theory-154063?page=0%2C0

Click link for complete article (It's 6 Internet pages) - excerpts below:

Over the past few weeks, new scientific discoveries have rekindled the debate over the Bering Strait Theory. Two of the discoveries were covered recently in Indian Country Today. The first “More Reasons to Doubt the Bering Strait Migration Theory,” dealt with the growing problem of “science by press release,” as scientific studies hype their conclusions to the point that they are misleading; and the second, “DNA Politics: Anzick Child Casts Doubt on Bering Strait Theory,” discussed how politics can influence science, and the negative effects these politically-based scientific results can have on Native peoples.

Deloria also argued that science, when studying people, was not neutral. In his view, some scientific theories harbored social and political agendas that were used to deprive Indians and other minorities of their rights. Many of the assumptions that underlay certain scientific principles were based on obsolete religious or social views, and he urged science to shed these dubious relics. The issue for Deloria was not science vs. religion (or tradition), it was good science vs. bad science, and in his view, the Bering Strait Theory was bad science.

Deloria also argued that science, when studying people, was not neutral. In his view, some scientific theories harbored social and political agendas that were used to deprive Indians and other minorities of their rights. Many of the assumptions that underlay certain scientific principles were based on obsolete religious or social views, and he urged science to shed these dubious relics. The issue for Deloria was not science vs. religion (or tradition), it was good science vs. bad science, and in his view, the Bering Strait Theory was bad science.

One of the 150 New World language stocks, Eskimo-Aleut, also spans the Arctic and so has Asian and European relatives. Another language super stock, Na-Dené, composed of the language stocks Athabaskan, Tlingit and Eyak, and located in Alaska and the northwest coast (but also in the southwestern U.S.), is also believed to have relatives in Asia, possibly the Yeneisian languages of central Siberia.

One of America’s greatest scientists, Franz Boas, generally considered to be the father of modern anthropology and an important linguist in his own right, in his classic study, Race, Language, and Culture, published in 1940, wrote that not only were American Indian languages “so different among themselves that it seems doubtful whether the period of 10,000 years is sufficient for their differentiation,” but that the evidence of extremely ancient Indians would some day be found, and that, “all we can say, therefore, is that the search for early remains must continue.” Indeed, Boas was among the first to propose, based on the evidence from an expedition that he led to the Bering Strait region in 1897, the “back migration” from the Americas to Asia.

The dispute also led the influential linguist, Johanna Nichols, to publish “Linguistic Diversity and the First Settlement of the New World,” in the journal Language in 1990. In her introduction, she first made two important scientific points: the diversity of the languages of the New World is due to “the operation of regular principles of linguistic geography;” and that the linguistic and archaeological evidence from the Sahul clearly contradicted the attempts to assign early dates for the Bering Strait migration, since the assignment of early dates in the New World would create a scientific anomaly; “but such a discrepancy–one of at least an order of magnitude–must be assumed if we adhere to the Clovis [15,000 years ago] or received chronology [20,000 years ago] for the settlement of the New World.”

Nichols’ paper used six independent linguistic methods for calculating American Indian antiquity and she determined that it would have taken a minimum of 50,000 years for all of the American Indian languages to have evolved from one language, or 35,000 years if migrants had come in multiple waves. She concluded that, “The unmistakable testimony of the linguistic evidence is that the New World has been inhabited nearly as long as Australia or New Guinea.”

The advocates of the Bering Strait Theory have countered that the linguistic evidence, strong as it may be, is not “proof” that Indians have inhabited the Americas for more than 15,000 years, and granted, it is not proof, it is evidence. The demand by the proponents of the Bering Strait Theory for “indisputable proof” is actually a curious but important aspect of that theory. Science is only rarely able to prove things with absolute certainty, and it normally confines itself to mathematical probability. As one scientist put it, “proof is not a currency of science,” and virtually all widely accepted scientific theories are based upon the preponderance of the evidence, not proof. This strident demand for “proof” while ignoring the evidence is abnormal in science and reflects the fact that originally the Bering Strait Theory was not a scientific theory at all, but a dogma. And this dogmatic stance, along with the vicious nature of the debate surrounding it, has long been a sore point for many scientists, not just for Indians.

Proud To Be (not a Redskin)

This is THE BEST video on Native American identity, watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR-tbOxlhvE

No Honor

Here is some background history to racist logos:

Cleveland Indians are Hurting Their Bottom Line
http://qz.com/199397/the-cleveland-indians-controversial-mascot-is-hurting-their-bottom-line/

"Redskins": A Native's Guide To Debating An Inglorious Word
deadspin.com/redskins-a-natives-guide-to-debating-an-inglorious-1445909360

The "Redskins" debate is similar to the "nigger" debate, yet unlike with the "nigger" debate, outsiders feel perfectly comfortable telling Native people how they should feel. I suppose that's the most frustrating part of the debate—that we Native people, the folks who are the only meaningful stakeholders in this debate—are not allowed to have a voice in the matter. Correct that: We can have an opinion so long as it is pro-Redskin. Otherwise, we're being "too sensitive."

Yet, there is a crucial difference: It is black folks who debate the merits and demerits of the word "nigger." White folks understand that, as a matter of propriety, it would be the ultimate in tastelessness and disrespect to take the lead in the discussion of the word "nigger." Yet, here are outsiders—black, white, Asian, Latino—telling Native people how we should feel about the word "redskins" and what we should be offended by. If white people tried to pull the "we're going to tell you what words you should be offended by" shit with the word "nigger," there would, as NWA eloquently put it above, be serious problems. Apparently, though, while it's racist and condescending to tell some people what should offend them, it's somehow OK to do the same with Native people.

‘Redskins’ Opponents Tackle Bipartisan Outrage, Bipartisan Ignorance

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/08/redskins-opponents-tackle-bipartisan-outrage-bipartisan-ignorance-151647

Native Americans of all political stripes have been taking this issue on for decades before President Barack Obama lent his support to changing the name in a recent Associated Press interview. Conservative members of Congress, including House leadership team member Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), have pressed the NFL to get rid of the racist name. Even tea party member and Cherokee Nation citizen Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) has reportedly told his pals that he has experienced culture shock in seeing the name and mascot plastered everywhere in Washington, D.C. since being elected to Congress last fall.  “Native Americans throughout the country consider the term ‘redskin’ a racial, derogatory slur akin to the ‘N-word' among African Americans or the ‘W-word' among Latinos,” Cole and nine other lawmakers wrote in a letter earlier this year to team owner Daniel Snyder. “Such offensive epithets would no doubt draw widespread disapproval among the NFL's fan base. Yet the national coverage of Washington's NFL football team profits from a term that is equally disparaging to Native Americans.” 

AIM Minneapolis Will Protest When Redskins Play Vikings November 7

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/16/aim-minneapolis-will-protest-when-redskins-play-vikings-november-7-151780

On October 14, two affiliated AIM (American Indian Movement) groups, the AIM of Twin Cities and AIM Patrol of Minneapolis, released a statement condemning the use of the name "Redskins" by the Washington NFL team, and soon thereafter announced plans for a public protest when the team comes to town for a matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. 

Mash-up! PETA Endorses NFL Washington Redskin Potatoes

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/16/mash-peta-endorses-nfl-washington-redskin-potatoes-151778

The Washington Senators, the Washington Renegades and even the Washington Hogs are some of the suggestions fans are offering to Dan Snyder to replace his beloved Redskins.

The Redskins Issue: An Internal Discussion and Question

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/16/redskins-issue-internal-discussion-and-question-please-repost-151784

Think about it: why hasn’t there been any polling, that originated from Natives, about if the Redskins mascot/name is offensive to you?  Native people are smart enough and capable to make our own decisions without someone determining for us.  NOBODY—whether they are pro-Redskins or anti-Redskins—should be speaking for you and saying what is offensive to you. 

So, the R-word is okay to say on the radio, but the N-word isn't… http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/19/breaking-news-dc-radio-stations-wont-run-anti-mascot-ad-151842

“It is unfortunate and un-American that the station permits the team to slander Native Americans on the public airwaves with the use of the r-word, but doesn't permit Native Americans to use the same airwaves to object to the use of a racial slur,” Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter said in a news release. “We will not be silent mascots. This issue is not going away, as evidenced by the growing and diverse support this effort gains by the day." 

Native Americans Give Other Groups A Taste Of CasualSports Team Racism

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3019837/image-of-the-day/native-americans-give-jews-chinese-a-taste-of-casual-sports-team-racism?partner=rss

How the Redskins Debate Goes Over in Indian Country

http://www.buzzfeed.com/joeflood/how-the-redskins-debate-goes-over-on-an-actual-indian-reserv

“I don’t really worry about it,” said Elaine YellowHorse, a college student and EMT on the reservation, told me. “There are just so many other things that I need to worry about before that.”  But YellowHorse gives the lie to the idea that 58% of the survey respondents actively condone the name. While she said she wouldn’t bother to change it, YellowHorse also told me that she found “Redskins” offensive and was upset by the idea that there were non-Native fans running around in headdresses in the nation’s capital. It’s a difficult sentiment to understand — to find something offensive but not worth worrying about — but when the whole world around you is tinged with racism, you have a high bar for what you deem worthy of worrying about.

June, 2014 Trademark Rescinded!
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/washington-football-team-108213.html#ixzz35lS6Db7X
The heinous origins and history of the D.C. team’s name should tell you why the overwhelming majority of Native American peoples support litigation against the Washington franchise – and why our fight is far from over. Last week, in a historic decision, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board canceled the Washington team’s trademarks, pending appeals. The TTAB held that the six trademark licenses issued to Pro Football, Inc. between 1967 and 1990 were “disparaging” to a “substantial composite” of Native American people. That was the second time the TTAB – the expert judges on trademark law – ruled against the team’s name; the first was in 1999 in Harjo et al v. Pro Football, Inc.

A Listing of Who Has Spoken Out About the Redskins
Namehttp://nativeappropriations.com/2014/06/who-has-spoken-out-against-the-redskns.html

Racial Slurs Are Not an Honor
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/06/19/redskins-lawyer-claims-there-no-momentum-name-change-155396

A Document that shows how "redskins" represent scalps and dead Native People http://www.esquire.com/blogs/news/redskin-name-update?src=soc_fcbks
The excerpt is from The Daily Republican newspaper in Winona, Minnesota from Sept. 24, 1863.

Cheerleaders do their own blunder
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/06/25/pocahottie-pride-redskins-cheerleaders-arent-getting-memo-either-155480  

If You Want To Understand Why Mascots Like ‘Redskins’ Are A Problem, Listen To This 15-Year-Old Native American
thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/07/23/3463085/15-year-old-native-american-explains-why-names-like-redskins-are-offensive/ 

Missing the Point: The Real Impact of Mascots and Team Names...
http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2014/07/14/93821/missing-the-point-the-real-impact-of-native-mascots-and-team-names-on-american-indian-and-alaska-native-youth/
CLICK LINK FOR VIDEO (1 hours 30 minutes streamed live)The debate over the Washington football team’s racist name and mascot has reached a fevered pitch in recent months. But too much of the debate has missed the point. It is not just about a name, a logo, a business, or a matter of intent. Racist and derogatory team names have a real and harmful impact on American Indian and Alaska Native, or AI/AN, people every day, particularly young people. The Center for American Progress will release a new report examining the research about the harmful impact of these representations on the self-esteem of AI/AN youth, how they create a hostile learning environments in K-12 and postsecondary schools, and the decades-long movement to retire them. It will also propose new recommendations to local, state, and federal education agencies to transform learning environments that are hostile and unwelcoming to AI/AN students and their families into ones that are supportive.

Native American “Black Face” Equivalent

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/espn-no-comment-on-talent-wearing-the-native-equivalent-of-black-face/280713/

We are supposed to be having a particularly earnest conversation with each other (and ourselves) this autumn about whether the continuing use of the nickname "Redskins" for Washington's professional football team perpetuates stereotypes against Native Americans. Of course it does. If you want to better understand why,  if you want to better appreciate the enormity of the problem, if you want a sense of the challenge American Indians face as they seek to fight back against these hoary symbols, watch this clip from Saturday's "College Gameday" on ESPN.

This unseemly episode is the result of two traditions. The first has to do with Florida State University, which has taken the nickname "Seminoles" from the Native American tribe with a long and unfortunate history in Florida. The university's tradition, since 1978 anyway, is to have a man, dressed up like a tribal "chief" named Osceola (né William Powell), ride out atop a horse named "Renegade" onto Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee before home games and throw a flaming spear into the ground at midfield while the crowd goes wild. Here is the list of "Osceolas" (and "Renegades") over the years.

The second tradition has to do with ESPN and this particular show. Each week, Lee Corso, a nationally known college football commentator, dons the garb of the team he is picking to win the feature game of the weekend. Sometimes, Corso wears a mascot head. Sometimes he dresses up. The college kids eat it up. It's great fun and great for the show's ratings. On Saturday, Corso, an alum of FSU, happened to pick his alma mater to beat Clemson (which FSU did, by a lot), which is why he was dressed up like Osceola. (Update: I don't mean to suggest this is the first time he has done this. Here is how he did it last year).

Redskins vs. Bears Today: What's in a Name?

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/20/redskins-vs-bears-today-whats-name

African-American men, women, and children struggled in the mid-century fight for civil rights here in the United States. It was a long and brutal fight fought with sticks, stones, laws, words, and names like the N-word and all the brutality it still conjures today. Some died so that future generations, this generation included, could be equal and respected. The Two-Spirit community struggled for rights of recognition and is inching away from hateful names and acts, and towards equality and the freedoms found therein. A brighter dawn breaks for them. The political world is crashing in on itself and people are seeing dysfunction. Wanting to be heard, they are raising their voices and calling for change.

Yet for Native people, the harsh reality of deep-seated racism continues to smack us in the face. Dan Snyder and the onerous name of his football team are under scrutiny. The public is questioning whether the term “redskin” is racist or not. The Native community is reminded that we are still at war, a perpetual fight to establish ourselves in this society as people deserving of respect and dignity afforded everyone else.

Every time a racist mascot (usually a white guy in red face dressed in an Indian “costume”) rears its ugly head, Natives are reminded that we are not equal; we are not respected. We will be told if something should offend us. It is arrogance in its purist form for a non-Native to tell a Native whether an image of a dancing, whooping, cartoony Indian is offensive or not. It is arrogance for a non-Native to tell a Native the word “redskin” is a great honor from the Great White Father and we should all be so pleased with their generous mercy and wisdom.

Obama Supports Redskin Name Change
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/politics/2015/11/06/obama-again-urges-redskins-name-change/75281872/

Adidas Offers to Eliminate Mascots at High Schools and ReBrand
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/11/05/adidas-offers-help-eliminate-native-american-mascots/LLd7EhkayYGZ5mfvJ0meoO/story.html?event=event25 

 

I Am Not A Costume (Thoughts on Halloween and "Dress Up")

Yesterday, I went with kids to get costumes.  
I saw the stereotypical "Indian," among other things.  It's a problem that these exist and that folks choose to dress up as another culture, in a stereotypical way, particularly an oppressed group with very few positive, accurate images.  Here is a great "open letter" by someone who makes important points on the topic - it's a long read, but well worth the effort to gain understanding: http://nativeappropriations.com/2013/10/open-letter-to-the-pocahotties-the-annotated-version.html

11 Offensive "Latina" Costumes You Shouldn't Wear This Halloween
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/fashion/news/a32349/offensive-latina-costumes/?utm_content=buffer21e31&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

An Open Letter to the PocaHotties and Indian Warriors this Halloween
http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/31/open-letter-to-the-pocahotties-and-indian-warriors-this-halloween/
I was going to write you an eloquent and well-reasoned post today about all the reasons why it’s not ok to dress up as a Native person for Halloween–talk about the history of “playing Indian” in our country, point to the dangers of stereotyping and placing of Native peoples as mythical, historical creatures, give you some articles to read, hope that I could change your mind by dazzling you with my wit and reason–but I can’t. I can’t, because I know you won’t listen, and I’m getting so tired of trying to get through to you.

4th Largest Tribe in US? Mexicans Who Call Themselves American Indian

A January 2012 report from the U.S. Census Bureau—“The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2010”—says that 175,494 Mexicans (Mexican, Mexican-American, Chicano) self-identified as American Indian, making them the fourth largest tribal group in the country, says Think Mexican.

The group also pointed out on its tumblr page that the 2010 United States Census form was “deliberately disorienting” and that some Census workers were encouraging Mexicans to identify as white.

They refer specifically to question No. 9 on the form, which asks to which race residents of a home belong. The choices included: White, Black, American Indian, Alaska Native, various Asian descents, Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders, and “some other race.”

“It was confusing. I came to that question, and I just stopped. I didn’t know what to put,” Jessica Valenzuela, a schoolteacher from Avondale, told The Arizona Republic in 2010. “Obviously, I’m not White. I would consider myself Hispanic or Mexican-American, but definitely not White. The form doesn’t really leave you with another option, though.”

Think Mexican says that while 175,494 out of 31 million Mexicans in 2010 may not seem like that much, but despite of the confusing form and centuries of Catholic indoctrination, it’s a “powerful statement.”

“It says that indigenous identity amongst many Mexicans is strong, and although this group is numerically relatively small, it represents a much larger group with a similar heritage,” the group says.

They also say Mexicans making up the fourth largest tribal group directly challenges Manifest Destiny by saying: “This land is still Native.”

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/08/05/fourth-largest-tribe-united-states-mexicans-150740

Johnny Depp Portrays Tonto in Lone Ranger Disney Movie

This is a FANTASTIC article.  Not just on Tonto, but also stereotypes in general. 
 
Hollywood Gets It Wrong, But It Still Matters
http://www.war-times.org/johnny-depp%E2%80%99s-tonto-hollywood-gets-it-wrong-it-still-matters
Imagine for a moment what the reaction would be if Johnny Depp played the African American sidekick of a white cowboy. In Black face. Folks would pretty much go ballistic, right? What if Depp’s grandmother told him that he had an African American ancestor somewhere back there? Would that make it okay? What if Depp said he wanted to reverse all the negative images of African Americans in cinema? Would that make it okay? What if the producers of the film donated proceeds from the premiere to the United Negro College Fund? What if there was an African American consultant working on the set? What if the movie provided roles for a dozen or so Black actors? Would any of these make it okay for Johnny Depp to don black face and portray an African American?

Some try to rationalize Depp’s Tonto as just a figment of some white writer’s imagination. But as Adrienne Keene writes at Native Appropriations.com, racial stereotyping is alive and well in most every depiction of Native peoples that we see today, Tonto included:

“Here’s the thing. Yeah, Tonto is a fictional character, and there are plenty of white actors and actresses who play fictional characters, and we don’t automatically assume that white people are fictional, so it shouldn’t matter, right? We saw Natalie Portman as an evil-crazy-swan-human in the Black Swan, and we don’t assume that Natalie Portman’s character is representative of her, or all white people, in real life. But that, my friend, is white privilege at work. Everyday we see millions of representations of white people in varied and diverse roles. We see white actors as “real” people, as “fantasy” characters, and everything in between.

But for Native people, the only images that the vast, vast majority of Americans see are stereotypical in nature. You go to the grocery store and see plenty of smiling white children on cereal boxes, contrasted with the only readily recognizable Native image–the Land o’ Lakes butter girl…There are also hardly any (if any) Native people in current, mainstream television shows. And this carries over even more strongly into Hollywood.”

Let’s also not forget the major professional sports teams brandishing their racist mascots while using the justification that they are “honoring” Native peoples. Remind me again how the Washington Redskins mascot honors Native Peoples? Or the Atlanta Braves or the Cleveland Indians or the recent Stanley cup winners, the Chicago Blackhawks?

These stereotypes matter. They matter because they continue to perpetrate a view of Indians that is ultimately used to justify how they are treated in society as a whole.

AND A COUPLE MORE ARTICLES ON JOHNNY DEPP'S PORTRAYAL OF TONTO IN THE LONE RANGER MOVIE

The Real Problem with the Lone Ranger Movie?  It's Racism, Stupid.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/07/08/real-problem-lone-ranger-movie-its-racism-stupid-150323
The hysteria over Johnny Depp as Tonto is (probably) in its denoument: The Lone Ranger opened to terrible reviews and disappointing box office numbers, and American Indians who didn't like the idea of Depp as a Native icon were to some extent vindicated. There will be some pieces to pick up and some lessons learned, but a lot of questions have been answered.

In a piece for Slate entitled "Johnny Depp’s Tonto: Not as Racist as You Might Think. But Still Kind of Racist," Aisha Harris was more forgiving than others, but still couldn't get past the limitations of the source material. "Depp’s attempt to be a 'warrior' role model to all the American Indian kids lucky enough to watch him save the day fails—and for the simple reason that the original material is too entrenched in an essentially racist ideology."

Native American Ancestry?

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/26/its-hammer-not-depp-indian-blood-says-ancestrycom-150140

June 26, 2013

According to a press release issued today by genealogy website Ancestry.com, Armie Hammer, the actor who plays the title role in Disney's upcoming western film The Lone Ranger, has Native American heritage.

The thrust of the release is that both Hammer and Johnny Depp, who plays Tonto, are descendants of "real American freedom fighters."

For Hammer, that means Cherokee, with "one of the earliest documented Cherokee leaders and known peace advocate, Chief Kanagatucko" way back in his family tree, according to Ancestry.com's researchers. Depp's justice-seeking relative was Elizabeth Key, the first woman in the North American colonies of African descent to sue for her slavery and win, in 1656.

Depp, who has faced criticism as a non-Native playing a Native character, has claimed American Indian blood -- specifically a grandmother who was Cherokee or Creek. The Ancestry.com release does not address the issue of Depp's purported Native blood.

I saw the Lone Ranger so that you don't have to

http://nativeappropriations.com/2013/07/i-saw-the-lone-ranger-so-you-dont-have-to.html
It’s been 12 hours since I saw The Lone Ranger, and I still have the darn William Tell Overture stuck in my head. I wonder how long that lasts. It’s like waking up with a Tonto hangover, I guess. I have so many thoughts on this film, and only maybe one of them is good. But I think we need to start off with this: The Lone Ranger is just a bad movie. It’s 2.5 hours of a film with an identity crisis, not knowing if it’s supposed to be funny, campy, dramatic, “authentic,” or what. At points it was very hard to separate the stereotypical and hurtful from the bad script, bad editing, and bad character development of the movie itself.

I wrote in my notes: FINALLY! I AM SO BORED! and then that scene drug on for another 15 minutes and I just wanted it to end. I forgot what we were even fighting for. Which I think was the problem all along.

This is also the most violent movie I’ve seen in awhile, and I’m a fan of Game of Thrones.

And for those of you new to the blog or need a refresher, here’s all my Tonto coverage over the last year or so, which covers the casting, the costume, and a whole bunch of other things: my initial reactions, why you should care about Tonto when there are “bigger issues” out there, tearing apart Depp’s reasoning over his costume choices, the controversy I dealt with for writing about Tonto, and Armie Hammer’s comments about Indians loving the movie.

The first words of the whole film: “Kemooosabeeeh.

I won’t go this in-depth with the rest of the film, but I wanted to set the stage. The very first scene we are presented with an image of a Native person, in a museum–which presumably we’re supposed to critique, but there’s no questioning of Tonto’s position there. To me it reinforces the idea that all the Indians are dead, relics of the past, which is actually a theme throughout. This Indian is so silly and backward he trades a dead mouse for a bag of peanuts, doesn’t even know how to eat peanuts, and is feeding a bird, but it’s dead. Even the child knows that’s wrong. So this is the “new” Tonto? Definitely an improvement, amiright? (that was sarcasm. In case you missed it.)

Tonto, A Misguided Friend to the Indians
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-eyre/native-americans-hollywood_b_3569823.html
At its core, this movie is a re-telling of a 1933 radio show about Hollywood's inventing Native Americans, historical confusion, and most of all this movie is about "entertainment!"
The new The Lone Ranger movie delivers on all of these promises in its contemporary tale of taming of the West. True to the genre's form, it is also a white man's debate between good and bad values and American morality.

One white man, Latham Cole (played by Tom Wilkinson), manifests his destiny by gaining all he can through the riches of the railroad (we call him "capitalism-at-all-expense tribe"), and the other white man, John Reid (played by Armie Hammer), believes in justice and "his" moral-truth (we call him the "righteous-and-overbearing tribe").

But wait, I thought this new The Lone Ranger movie was Johnny Depp's effort to show Tonto in a different light? Well, truth be told, yes, Depp's Tonto is seen in a different light, in that evidently the fictitious Tonto was much more important to the story of righteous manifest destiny than we previously knew. Yet, it is still a Native (I use the interpretation of the word "Native" very loosely) character as a secondary figure to the "white" debate over Manifest Destiny and their ideas about good and bad as they seek the taming of the West.

"This train is not going to stop..." might have been better served as a line Depp's Tonto character received, "This train is not going to stop, Depp!"

But, maybe Johnny Depp knows this better than anyone because as a Hollywood "powerhouse," Depp knows Hollywood's long and non-regulated telling of Native Americans misrepresented culture and history in movies. In Hollywood's telling of Native America, "facts" are never important and don't need to be as long as we are entertained. Native Americans in Hollywood movies have always served as a centerpiece to be molded by the "right," but mostly the "left," for the filmmaker or the studio or the financiers' personal American ideals -- and the new The Lone Ranger is no different.
Since the beginning of the moving image, Hollywood has created and appropriated its very own image of Native America that was always made by non-Native Americans for their own political point of view towards the masses.

Johnny Depp's "Tonto" resembles nothing that is Native American in reality, not his talk, not his crow on his head, not his face paint or his Potawatomi language "Kemosabe," spoken by a fictional Comanche character. Depp's Tonto is an entertaining farce. It's an idea audiences world-wide own through Hollywood invention and appropriation. The Lone Ranger's storyline, its characters and its ideas are not based in historical fact or related to Native America or its contemporary progressive people. Period.

Today, there needs to be a new category for the appropriation of Native American images by Hollywood and by non-Natives that try and portray that idea for mass consumption. I know, let's call it "entertainment."

And, I have to say, there are a lot of Native people who seem irate over Depp's portrayal of "red face." I was recently asked, "Is Depp's Tonto offensive to Native people?" I thought to myself, two things. One, if a Native person is offended by this Tonto character they must not recognize how unbelievable this character is, and two, if Native people think this is their opportunity to change other people's minds regarding negative representations of Native characterization I would say, "Go see another movie!!"

Ethnic Identity

Great article about the importance of racial and ethnic identity:  http://www.education.com/reference/article/ethnic-identity-and-academic-achievement/

Excerpts: 
During adolescence, individuals begin to construct a general sense of their identity, or their personal definitions of who they are, what is important to them, and appropriate ways to think and behave. During this period, youth also differentiate their various social identities, the self-constructed definitions of who they are in relation to the social groups to which they belong. A sense of ethnic identity becomes salient for many ethnic minority adolescents as they explore the significance of their ethnic group membership in defining who they are (Spencer & Markstrom-Adams, 1990; Phinney, 1990). Ethnic identity has multiple components, including individuals' views of the importance of their ethnic group to their self-definitions, the meanings they attach to their ethnic group, and their thinking about how their ethnic group affects their position in society. Thus, ethnic identities are descriptive (e.g., “I am a Mexican American”; “I am an African American”), affective (“I feel positively about being an African American”; “I think others regard my ethnic group positively”), as well as prescriptive (“I know how Chinese Americans act”; “I know how African Americans act”). Adolescents' understandings of the meanings of their social identities influence their adaptations and responses within domains in which those identities are salient. Because race and ethnicity often are salient in the domain of education, adolescents' ethnic identities may be particularly relevant in shaping how youth interpret and respond to their social and classroom contexts at school.

Relative to younger children, adolescents have more highly developed cognitive abilities related to understanding themselves and their experiences in more complex, abstract, and indirect ways, and this period also involves intensification of particular social-cognitive attributes, e.g., heightened awareness of how they are viewed by others. Thus, they become more cognizant of the relevance of race and ethnicity in society and have a higher likelihood of perceiving experiences in terms of race and ethnicity (Spencer, Dupree, & Hartmann, 1997).

Academic engagement requires linking one's personal identity to the roles of student and learner (Garcia & Pintrich, 1994), showing sustained curiosity and interest in class, and displaying intense efforts in learning tasks (Connell, Spencer, & Aber, 1994; Skinner & Belmont, 1993). Adolescents' academic engagement has been linked to social identities that are made salient in the academic domain (Garcia & Pintrich, 1994). The academic domain is one in which race often is salient for many ethnic minority adolescents. For instance, entry into secondary schools is associated with increased racial cleavage, social comparison, and heightened salience of racial and ethnic stereotypes (Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000). Thus, it is likely that minority adolescents' levels of academic engagement are influenced, in part, by their ethnic identity beliefs. Theory and research suggests that ethnic identity may serve as a risk factor for lower academic motivation and achievement as well as promote academic motivation and achievement. The risk and promotion approaches are described below.

Also, there is growing evidence that having a strong, positive sense of ethnic identity may protect minority adolescents from the negative psychological and academic impacts of perceiving ethnic group barriers or experiencing interpersonal discrimination based on their ethnic group. For instance, in a 2006 study, Sellers and colleagues found that Black youth having an ethnic identity characterized by feelings of strong group connection and group pride showed more positive psychological well being when experiencing racial discrimination compared to those adolescents with less strong feelings of connection to and positive attitudes about their ethnic group. Wong and colleagues in their 2003 study found that African American adolescents who held a strong connection to and pride in being Blacks were protected from the negative impact on academic attitudes and performance of experiencing racial discrimination at school relative to those with less of a strong, positive connection with their ethnic group.

Thus, school practitioners must receive training about the development of youth from multicultural backgrounds. This training should not only acknowledge the unique risks associated with membership in ethnic minority groups in the United States but also consider how youths' ethnic identities can serve as cultural assets in relation to their achievement and how to use this information to create inclusive classroom contexts for all students. Without such training, it is likely that teaching approaches and practices will be based on popular views of common sense approaches not supported by empirical research. Additionally teachers should be mindful of endorsing their own ethnic identity beliefs in the class contexts they create.

Civil War or Spritual Site?

Besides being beautifully written, it makes a direct link between The Civil War and the treatment of Native Americans, as well as, the concept of "What is worth preserving?" Here are two excerpts:

Killdeer is designated a North Dakota State Historical Site and is valued for its contribution to the story of the state. The signage on site reflects the value the state has placed on the conflict. While there is nothing wrong with valuing, protecting, and interpreting the site as a battlefield, the story of the site as a hunting place, the story of the site as a spiritual place goes largely untold, and maybe that’s how it should be. But these are different days and the site should be preserved for more than the tragedy that occurred there.

The success of the Union in the Civil War is directly related to the success of total war theory as demonstrated in the Punitive Campaigns of 1863 and 1864. If the site should be protected and preserved for its tragic history, then it must be argued that Killdeer holds a key to the victory of the union and must be protected.


Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/01/19/ta%C4%A5%C4%8B-wakut%C4%97pi-where-they-killed-deer-147081