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Sometimes Writer-Blogger
​Cutcha Risling Baldy​

In Which I Nominate Myself To Be The Native Oprah and make my list of favorite things OR Buy Native This Holiday Season

12/3/2015

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It's that time of the year. Oprah is pushing many expensive things pretending they aren't that expensive and telling me I should buy them because what's $160? (My car registration that's due Oprah. CAR REGISTRATION) Each and every year I promise that I am going to reign supreme as the Native Oprah and make my own list of favorite things... but each and every year I have just gone ahead and not told anyone else because it's none of their business what I am probably buying other people as their gifts. 

This year though, I'm getting on top of it. Mostly because it's important to #BuyNative and not just #AtTarget Native, or #AtAnthropologie Native or #AtWalmart Native, but instead Native, from Native artists who are doing wonderful and amazing things. So you want to get some Native things and impress your friends this holiday season? Here are some of my favorite things (hint hint to my BFF and my #SupaHupas and my #HoChunk and of course... the Husband). 

This shirt

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Buy this shirt 

Supports a good cause too. If you've never listened to Metis In Space then you should. Like right now.  Go there and then come back. It'll be a while. I'll wait. http://www.indianandcowboy.com/metis-in-space/

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Welcome back. Okay. Now buy their shirt. 

This art work

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This painted tile by artist Loren Lavine.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/253764691/anywhere-with-you?ref=pr_shop

She's from Hoopa. That means she's cool. 

There are so many other things on her Etsy site right now. You can buy any one of those and then send her a note and say "send it to Cutcha!" and she will! #ThankYouInAdvance

This book

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​This book https://heydaybooks.com/book/a-is-for-acorn/

You have a baby? Buy it! Read it to them!

You have children? Buy it! Give it to your child. Tell them to get inspired. 

You have no children? Buy it! Put it in your bathroom. Remind people what life was like before iPhones when we didn't just keep watching our TV shows while we were pooping. 

This magazine subscription

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​While you're at it. Give the gift that keeps on giving. A subscription to News from Native California. 

Then all year someone will be reminded how much you love them. 

So much you gave them News from Native California. https://heydaybooks.com/news-from-native-california/

This shirt

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​One time my BFF and I found a Cleveland Indians shirt at a garage sale. She took it home and then put a big black sharpie marker over the logo. Because #NoThanks

Now it's time for you to get on the bandwagon. #NotYourMascot 

So buy this shirt: ​http://shop.beyondbuckskin.com/product/dechief-raglan

This hat

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​This hat. 

This hat right here. 

My cousin made it. 

It's an awesome hat. 

http://www.nativerosedesigns.com/shop/

These earrings

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​These earrings. 

I have a pair kind of like them. They are really cute. And when you wear them they make this really nice sound. 

Also, wearing Native jewelry is important.

http://etsy.me/1XDMYIU

This book

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​Also important to learn something this Holiday season. 

Always be learning. 

And this book (though I haven't read it... yet) is HIGH on my list. Sarah Deer is a Native woman who won a freaking Genius Grant cause she's a genius. 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Beginning-End-Rape-Confronting/dp/0816696330 

This collection of Indigenous comics. That's right, comics that are Indigenous.

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​An Indigenous comics collection? A collection of Indigenous comics? 

A comic collection of Indigenous comics? 

"So I really like comics but I can't find any Indigenous ones." 

"I bought you a book." 

​http://ahcomics.com/moonshot-the-indigenous-comics-collection/

This shirt.

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​Because we're all going to be in line soon waiting to get in to our screening and figure out WHERE THE HELL IS LUKE?! #LukeTruther 

What better way to show your #StarWars love then with this awesome shirt. You know R2D2 was Native because he was a trickster with the best sense of humor and pretty much was like "Chill Luke. We'll just go blow up the Death Star, gimme a minute." ​http://oxdx.storenvy.com/products/14580765-r2dine2-mens-charcoal-crew

And this snuggling blanket...

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Admittedly one of the more expensive things on this list because a girl can dream. http://eighthgeneration.com/products/salish-pattern-blanket 

These blankets are wool and awesome and Native made. So if you were wondering "where can I find an awesome blanket that isn't just Native inspired but actually from a Native company" here you go! 

Now, what if you want to take this blanket it and make it in to a really awesome coat that Cutcha can wear when she's up late at ceremony? Sure. That works too. 

Oh man, I really want this blanket. Cold nights, awesome blanket... some peppermint tea and
Metis in Space!

​ 

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Z Nation was the first post-apocalyptic zombie tv show to feature Native Americans and it was bad… bad… really bad… I’m sure there was something redeeming… Eddie Spears is cute.

11/18/2015

 
Recently the SyFy channel announced that they would air an upcoming episode that featured Native American people living on their reservation post-apocalypse. And there was a resounding “INDIANS ON TV! POST-APOCALYPTIC INDIANS ON TV!” because we tend to get a little bit excited knowing that (1) somebody is trying to make an effort to show a representation of us as alive, futuristic people and (2) hey we actually survived an apocalypse in this fictional universe!

As I have said before, Natives aren’t really represented in post-apocalyptic shows and movies which I find very interesting because Native people have actually survived apocalypses/ the end of the world before… If you want to know more you should read my blog about The Walking Dead and Settler Colonialism. Or listen to this radio interview.

It seems to me that by the time the futuristic apocalypse rolls around Native people have already vanished (as per the “vanishing Indian” trope), so they aren’t a part of this “new world.” Either that, or Native people are just straight chillin’ someplace else, probably on their reservations, and they don’t need to get involved in all that junk where people go into hordes of zombies and thin
k it’s a good idea to try to lead them around (THAT WAS NEVER A GOOD IDEA RICK. NEVER.)

Z-Nation is a bit different because in this post-apocalypse there is a dude who is part zombie or something and they think he might be a cure? I don’t know I’ve only watched two episodes. And this episode was billed as a great thing because it featured many Native actors and a very Native specific storyline.

I watched it because I like seeing Indians on TV. I’ve written about this before in my blog where I explore the “Native Cameo.”“Native Cameos” are those 1-2 episode, sometimes intermittent appearances by Native characters on television shows. What I have found *spoiler alert* is that these Native Cameos resettle settler colonial claims to legitimacy, meaning, they justify, and normalize colonization and settler colonial occupation of Indigenous spaces and Indigenous histories. 

To better critically analyze (or what I like to call “engage in Indigenous media analytics”) I have provided the following cheat sheet of what I have noticed about these Native cameos. In the Native Cameo:
1.       Native Americans are spiritual peoples full of knowledge that is specifically aimed at addressing answers to questions and conundrums of main characters (Spiritual & Knowledgeable)
2.       Native American characters remind us that history is… complicated (History)
3.      Native American’s Own Casinos (Casinos)***
4.       Mascots are dumb (Booo Mascots!)
5.       Native Americans are Men (Men)
But ultimately what I was arguing was that
Understanding, discussing, and complicating the Native Cameo is important. We are more than just cameos to a world that tries to pretend like we don’t exist, or that we aren’t fully functioning nations of people who deserve equal footing in politics and culture. Our worlds are more than just other to the “real” or “normal” world that is often portrayed on television. When we are represented in places like Network television it can and should speak to our continued investment in our shared existence, in our shared experiences on Indigenous lands.
Now, while I think Z-Nation did complicate some of the usual Native Cameo points in their episode. (For instance there is a big attempt to have a “strong female Native” character here. She is the one who ends up in charge). There was still a lot of really problematic storylines that actually resulted in me and my friends GUFFAWING (yes, guffawing). And by the end of the episode the show had checked off every last one of my cameo requirements… (except mascots. Almost Z-Nation. Almost)

In the episode the main characters are running from a zombie-storm (z-storm) that is wide, moving fast and driving them toward the grand canyon. When they get there they meet up with a bunch of Indians living on the land, some in the sacred mountains of the tribe, others in the casino. There is the Chief (whose name is Danny) and the Mad Indian Guy (whose name is Gordon) and the Indian Princess Daughter (I didn’t catch her name) and the Medicine Woman plus several unspoken Indian parts. The Indians introduce themselves by saying “This is tribal land, no visitors allowed." And after they are told that there is a horde of zombies coming their way… they refuse to leave. And all heck breaks lose.
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I offer you here my picture essay of this episode. Enjoy.

The Native Cameo in Z-Nation: A Picture Essay

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They come upon some Indians. At a casino. The Indians aren't having it. The casino has a big bus, and a parking garage and lots of cool ass Indians.
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Here comes mad Indian guy (Eddie Spears, yum) and he's mad. He's also really, really, really good looking. And mad. Stop making him so mad white people. That's right, he's mad because white people have zin-digo disease. (I couldn't decide if that's what they were saying.)
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"You bring disease and destruction." Stop doing that white people.  And actually they are. They are running from a zombie-storm and have led that horde right to them. P.S. The kind of shout out to Jack Forbe's  Wetiko Psychosis made me feel pretty happy. If that was on purpose.)
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Strong Native Woman takes them to the infirmary which is also a storage unit for all things Native American that they have found at the Native American souvenir stores from just around the way. Let's play spot the dream catcher, random baskets, pendleton blankets? 
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Strong Indian Woman and Mad Indian Guy are fighting about how you shouldn't be mean to white people. Medicine Woman is thinking about how she just forgave random white guy for settler colonialism. See that look on her face it says "wait, did I just forgive that guy for all the genocide?"
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The zombie comes to kill the two white guys and old white guy (who has been forgiven for all the settler colonialism) transmorphizes (jumps out of his body) and becomes this painted Native looking spirit thing and is able to kill the zombie even though he's still trapped in the net. You have to watch it if you don't understand. 
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This is Chief Indian after he prayed with some sage and then decided to go out gambling. I guess staying in your big ass building while a zombie horde comes is a bit of a gamble anyway. 
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The whole casino gets swallowed by the horde and destroyed. Goodbye gambling that was still working because there's always a generator at the casino. 
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That's when the buffalo start glowing. And Peyote White Guy says "do you think that zombies are as stupid as buffalo?"
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In the end zombies are as "stupid as buffalo" and they get herded off a cliff into the grand canyon. 
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This lady starts yelling "yáʼátʼééh" over and over again, I guess hoping they are Navajo? Okay you got me, most of us probably speak a little Navajo. They are everywhere!
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See how mad he is? He's so mad and angry. It's because... white people. And all the settler colonialism. Did I forget to mention that mad Indian guy was a Native American Studies Professor in his past life? That's why he's so mad. He thinks everybody is a settler. (Touche SyFy Channel)
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 Hey stop being so mad, says the Native woman. I appreciate that she puts him in to his place. She also rescues the white guys from the Mad Indian dude and tells him to chill. My friend who was watching this with me said "Sorry Kocoum." (SO TRUE)
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After the "medicine woman" fixes the old white guy up she gives him Peyote and they go out trippin' together. He makes bad jokes about the "long strange trip" this zombie-apocalypse has been and then she forgives him for settler colonialism and tells him it's not his fault. 
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Mad Indian guy decides he's going to entrap the white guys and sacrifice them to the zombies because he's mad and he used to be a Native American Studies professor. It's true, we Native professors are mad because we know too much. It's why most of our classes are just us giving this look to students and going "SHUT UP WHITE STUDENTS."
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In the mean time, Chief of the tribe who is at the casino is giving his daughter the side eye. There's a lot of side eye going on in this episode, all by Native people. We are really good at side eye. He decides that the Casino is sacred land and he's going down with the ship. Also he puts his daughter in charge (go Native women being leaders!)
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Of course he wins the jackpot. Which I took to mean "see you're never going to win any money at an Indian casino until the world ends." That's okay, you should still come and play and hang out with us. Cause we all have casinos...
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Mad Indian Guy is sad cause his Dad (the Chief) died.  So is his sister.  Mad Indian guy is going to be nice now cause he's Sad Indian Guy. He says "we need a plan" for the zombie-storm.
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 Remember when the buffalo got slaughtered by white people in order to usher in Native genocide? Stupid Buffalo! If only the buffalo had guns, then maybe they wouldn't have been so weak and gotten all killed and stuff.
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And I just whispered “sorry Havasupai. It’s raining zombies today.” (You all know there are Natives that live in the Grand Canyon right? We are EVERYWHERE.)
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Now everybody's friends. 
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See, Mad/Sad Indian Guy is like "we will record this in our history." Which I also kind of appreciate, because the idea that the western based book history is gone (end of the world and all) and these Native histories, always thought as "primitive" and "non-existent" are still here, and those are the ones being recorded... nice. (Also check out Medicine Woman, she's still thinking "wait. Did I really forgive old white dude for settler colonialism? Did that happen?" (IT HAPPENED)
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Strong Indian Woman is still making googly side eye at the skinny white dude that she was googly-eyeing at earlier who she rescued from the death sentence that Mad Indian guy sentenced him to.  She says "come back and visit." And they googly eye some more. This story sounds awfully familiar. 
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Mad/Sad Indian guy says thank you. No, thank you Eddie Spears, for being in this show and having the best hair. Also the best chin. And the best face. And the best lines. You're the best. #NativeAmericanStudiesProfessorsAreTheBest #EvenTheOnesThatAreJustFictionalAndOnTV 
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Medicine Woman gives old White Dude some more Peyote probably hoping he'd forget that she forgave him for all the settler colonialism and genocide. That didn't happen. It didn't happen... she'll whisper in his Peyote dreams. (IT DID). 

Final conclusion: These Natives need their own zombie-apocalypse show. It would be awesome. There's some work to do... yes. Much actually. Many, many things. But if Eddie Spears ain't on the television each week what's the point of television anyway? Get on it Z-Nation. And then hire some really good Native writers. Lots of them actually. And Directors. This could be awesome. (This episode was not.)

no:'olchwin-ding, no:'olchwin-te (to growold in a good way): The Hupa Flower Dance and the revitalization of women’s coming of age ceremonies in Native California

11/18/2015

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The following is an excerpt from my in progress book based on research I have been doing for the past few years on the revitalization of women's coming of age ceremonies in Native California. People have been asking "where's the blog?!" And I can only respond "I'm trying to write a book!" So I thought I'd give a sneak preview of what I'm working on and a little bit more info about my academic life and why women's coming of age ceremonies are so important for Native communities.


At one time,women's coming of age ceremonies were a public celebrations of a girl’s first menstruation which demonstrated how young women are powerful members of Native cultures and societies and that gender equality is central to Native epistemologies. Prior to invasion by western settlers, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, like many other tribes in Native California, were complex societies where gender roles were egalitarian and spirituality was central to all aspects of life. California's post-invasion history was a genocide aimed at the total annihilation of Native peoples and included systematic attacks on Native women and their coming of age ceremonies. As a result, many Native nations no longer practiced their women’s ceremony. At the start of the new millennium, Native women in many communities throughout California have come together to bring back the ceremony as a way to strengthen their community and promote healing from the issues of exploitation and violence introduced during colonization.

As I set out to do research on the revitalization of the women’s coming of age ceremony for my tribe, I was keenly aware that I wanted my research and study to focus on the impacts of this ceremony and demonstrate how it (re)writes, (re)rights and (re)rites who we are as Native people. In my own community, the Flower Dance has been an important method of healing for our people. It not only helps young women to build a foundation for their futures, but it has inspired older women, men and young boys to change how they regard the young woman of our community.

In regards to writing what will become part of the historical record, and a testimony to the contemporary experience and autonomy of Native people, I wanted to help tell a powerful story about women, about California Indian women, and how California Indian people can continue to build their futures with the cultural and spiritual foundations from our First People and our ceremonies. It was for this reason I focused not only on rigorous scholarly research of archival, ethnographic materials, but also
 on informed community based research that does not treat decolonization as “metaphor” but articulates a tangible means by which to decolonize Native communities so that they can be healthier, vibrant peoples (Tuck & Yang).


I foregrounded interviewing the women who were tied to this revitalization, although there were men who are important to the praxis and (re)vitalization of this ceremony as well. 
I have personal relationships with all of the women who I interviewed. Melodie George-Moore is a medicine woman for the Hupa people, mother and teacher, my relative, and close friend of my mother. Lois Risling, my mother, is a Hupa elder, trained medicine woman, and educator. The young women who agreed to be interviewed included Kayla Rae Carpenter, Natalie Carpenter, Alanna Lee Nulph, Melita Jackson, and Deja George. Together they span the first ten years of this revitalization in the Hoopa community. Each of the women agreed to and were excited about utilizing their real names in this research, something that I found poignant and important to respect, because of how proud they were to be tied to this revitalization. 

​The following is an excerpt from the final chapter of my book...

xoq’it-ch’iswa:l (on her- they beat time; a Flower Dance is held for her) The revitalization of the Hupa Women’s Coming of Age Ceremony ​

As I have continued to participate in Flower Dance ceremonies it has become very clear to me that the resurgence of the Flower Dance is a tangible, physical, spiritual and communal act of decolonization. This aspect of the dance was reflected by Hupa medicine woman Melodie George-Moore as well. For her, the dance is about empowering women, because of how colonization targeted Native women.
[The Flower Dance is] a very powerful nod to what women bring to their tribe. Especially powerful seeing as colonization, and for some tribes up to 500 years of colonization, it’s amazing to see when they come to watch what they experience… decolonization, I would say, at a very basic level; at a very biological level. We are celebrating menstruation. I don’t care what you think of it, this is what we think of it (George-Moore)
The Flower Dance supports an Indigenous decolonizing praxis by enacting Indigenous methodologies that center on ceremony to counteract the impact of settler colonial ideologies of gender, history, and spirituality. The women who helped revitalize this dance believed it was the loss of the Flower Dance that contributed to the struggles facing the women of the tribe and that the performance of this ceremony would create a community of women who could provide support to each other and to the young girls.
TI think that it’s an important part to keeping the balance in our community, in our spirituality, basically in all the areas of our lives. ...There’s a lot there that sort of keeps that balance within our tribe, male and female (Carpenter, K).

I think the dance brings a lot of people together. That kind of dance especially, because, I mean even if, even if mom is not in the picture or if dad's not in the picture you know that side of the family needs to come together for this girl and the family comes together for her. ...who cares about if they are fighting or who cares about what somebody said about somebody two years ago or who borrowed 20 bucks and never brought it back or you steal fish out of my net, or whatever. It's -who cares about that -this kid, this child, this girl needs us right now… (Nulph).
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A lot of [this dance] is representation of the support you have in the community.  I really appreciated the talking circles, it was just constantly seeing these women every day. It’s like they could leave at any moment but they’re not. This is what they are here for and I appreciated it. ...it helped signify how I stood in the community (Jackson).
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Part of  (re)building this community came from the resurgence of songs and singing among women. Some of the older women who participated in the ceremony were singing for the first time.  Younger women were coming together with older women to teach each other songs and talk about their role in the ceremony. Some women created song groups, who specifically came together to make up new songs, bringing new life to the ceremony. In these song groups many of the women were afraid at first of singing but were encouraged by those older women who remembered when women “sang out.” In this respect, the personal journey of the women was reflected in their journey of learning, creating and singing a song in the ceremony. As Melodie George-Moore reflects:

There’s other things happening here, like the five generation first time dancers, all of them first time, one time, singing together for the first time ever. Wow, I can’t top that- five generations of women singing together at one time. That’s the ultimate, that’s the ultimate decolonization that happens (George-Moore).
The revitalization of the dance, therefore, has provided a very poignant methodology for addressing these issues of gender and societal imbalance and the introduction and adoption of a misogyny into Hupa cultural practices and epistemologies. Alanna Nulph notes that what she learned in her Flower Dance was that in Hupa culture and society women are very important in all aspects of the culture and that the Flower Dance ceremony speaks to that importance.
[In Hupa culture] women own a lot of property and regalia and did a lot of the work, they are acorn eaters and who gathered all the acorns? Women! And who weaves all the baskets? The women, with exceptions sometimes you know. Who cuts up the fish? Who drys the fish? The women. So women are important just as the same as men are important in the bigger dances, you need something to celebrate women or else women will get mad at you and you don’t want angry women in your society (Nulph).
Lois Risling explains that this dance has helped men to “look at women in a different light.”
When you dance over somebody and celebrate somebody you don't think of them just as a piece of meat or just as some kind of sexual object. Which is kind of ironic, because that’s not how the miners thought, the miners thought the opposite of [Native women], just as them being a sexual object. But I think if you’ve danced with somebody, you've said prayers over somebody, you begin to think of women in a different way. And this is I think really important for our society because we have been oppressed and we have been told that women, from Christian American morals, we’ve been told that women are not equal to men and they’re not in the same position that men are in. But this ceremony definitely shows that women are important to the society and play a very important part in it (Risling).
As Hupa medicine woman Melodie George-Moore reflects on the impact of this dance she focuses intently on how each of these young women, and all of the people who have become a part of a the Flower Dance community, are able to utilize the positivity of this ceremony against the many issues that still face the Hupa people. The dance, and it’s public celebration of young women, contributes to a community healing, not just an individualized experience on the part of the kinahłdung.
I think we’re making a dent in, or building and holding space against, negativity. There’s a lot of negative things in this world. Especially in the modern world. In the modern Hupa world there is a lot of negative things that are cause for concern and I think we’re holding space against that with this dance. …I thought (we were only) giving the girl armour but in fact what we’re doing is a lot larger than that not just for the girl but for other people who come to participate (George-Moore).

Other Resources

Blue Jay Sings-- The Revitalization of Women's Coming of Age Ceremonies and making Blue Jay Veils 
by Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok)
Presentation on Flower Dance revitalization begins at 57:21 in below video.
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In which we establish that there was a genocide against Native Americans, yes there was, it was genocide, yes or this is why I teach Native Studies part 3 million

9/8/2015

19 Comments

 
PictureI've decided to post pics of books that this Professor could read to actually learn about the Genocide against Native peoples in California.
Late last week this happened.  A young woman by the name of Chiitaanibah Johnsen (Navajo/Maidu) told Indian Country Today about her experience in a history class at Sacramento State University where she disagreed with the Professor’s claim that Native Americans did not face genocide. She said that because she was trying to engage with him during class, he ended the class early, called her disruptive, and said that she was “hijacking” the class. She also said that her professor told her she would be disenrolled and expelled from the classroom.

You should read the entire article here if you haven’t.

Now, some people may be surprised to learn that when I talk about genocide in my classes (and I do, I often teach about California, and it becomes very clear, very quickly that what happened in California is a genocide) that students resist. There are many things that I tell them which they take at face value. If we are talking about basketry, they don’t question the methods or the outcomes of what I am saying about basketry. If we are talking about sacred sites, they nod along to videos I show them of Native people fighting for the right to protect their sacred places. But when we start talking about genocide, it usually results in few people who really, really, want there to  have not been a genocide in the United States. That’s why this story hit so close to home for me. I mean, this dude is teaching in CALIFORNIA. CALIFORNIA. Genocide in California? Yeah, Native scholars have been writing about that for a while now…

Part of the problem is that many are surprised to hear there was a genocide, or even mass killings, or any horrific example of something that happened. When you start talking about sport killing, the hunting of Indians, the large sums of money that were paid for California Indian heads and scalps, the open, flagrant, killing of Indian children, -- well nobody’s ever heard about it before. The erasure of the genocide feels almost surreal, like nobody (especially our school system) could pull it off. If it was a thing that happened, we would learn about it, because you can’t hide something like that, right?

Bringing people into a discussion about how thoroughly we have “hidden” the genocide that shaped this “great nation” of ours is, yes, usually met with some skepticism. And what I noticed about this Professor’s response to some of Ms. Johnsen’s research is that these responses are ingrained, because we learn them even if nobody takes us aside and says “this is how you refute or question or muddy genocide against Native peoples.”

How we understand history is ingrained, it’s something that we have repeated… from kindergarten all the way through our required western history classes in college. We learn that history is benign, that history is the study of the past from an objective point of view that just wants to tell a story. We learn that history is in the past, and that our present and future depend on learning this story because we can learn a lot from it.

But in reality, history is about power. The ability to tell the story is a very powerful thing. And the history we have learned in the west, is about justifying, maintaining and supporting the illusion that western civilization, western control of, western ownership of this land was inevitable, beneficial, and destined (manifestly).

From a different perspective, history is not so benign. In fact, it is a constant presence meant to deny Native people’s very existence. Because if Native people exist, then all that history comes in to question. Who we will be, it’s not so set. And we are a country, not so settled.

I found this quote from Joy Harjo yesterday while I was preparing for class and it stuck with me because I know that to raise your hand, to say something, to speak as a Native person is a very powerful moment. Especially when someone will try to shut you down. In this case a Professor had an opportunity to maybe learn something, or at least bring this young woman into a discourse about the messiness of history. But most don’t want their history to be messy. They want their history to be in the past, and for them easily controlled.

But for Native people our history is our present is our future. Actually, that’s for all people, but Native people are clear examples of how this is true. Genocide (which happened) doesn’t just go away. Genocide… well Native people in California we didn’t just call it genocide… many of us called it “the end of the world.” An apocalypse, that doesn’t go away. That changes the world for everyone.

Or as Joy Harjo said:

“We are still dealing with a holocaust of outrageous proportion in these lands. Not very long ago, native peoples were 100 percent of the population of this hemisphere. In the United States we are now one-half of one percent, and growing. All of the ills of colonization have visited us in its many forms of hatred, including self-doubt, poverty, alcoholism, depression, and violence against women, among others. We are coming out of one or two centuries of war, a war that hasn’t ended. …But to speak, at whatever the cost, is to become empowered rather than victimized by destruction.”
Anyway… here is my list of the top three things people tell me that try to explain why it's not genocide against Native Americans (even though it is. It's genocide.)

Most Native Americans died of disease.

This is the one. This is the one that comes up the most when I start talking to people. In fact, scholars still write this in many of their articles. The statistic usually goes something like this:
According to scholar Sherburne Cook (FYI Cook is a guy who did this whole thing on population of Native California before “contact” (invasion) and became very well known for that) there are three waves of destruction that reduced the population of Native people in California. The first was the Spanish Mission system, the second was the Mexican/Ranchero systems and the third was the Gold Rush. Cook says that close to 90% of the Native population died during this time.
PictureOh look, another book that was written a while ago that you really should have read if you're a historian, especially if you are working in California.
Of that 90%, Cook also said that “most” died from diseases. It could be true. But, it oversimplifies a very complicated thing about genocide.

So we start here. What do you do when you get the flu?

1. You go to bed. 2. You drink fluids. 3. You sleep. 4. You think about starting a marathon of The Vampire Diaries on Netflix but you probably just fall asleep. 5. You call your Mom to complain. 6. You go to the doctor. 7. The doctor says “rest, drink fluids, and rest some more.” 8. You go home and go to bed. 9. Your very loving and supportive friend/ partner/ random delivery service on the internet brings you food. 10. You sleep some more.

What do you do when you get the flu and you are a California Indian person in 1849? (Heck, if you are a California Indian person in the missions in 1769?)

If you're in the missions: You continue to work because if you don’t, they will punish you, or keep food from you, or punish your child or spouse. They have you on rations, they won’t give you anything different than what they feed anyone else. And at night they lock you in a dormitory. You are now sick with everyone else around you, in a crowded, cramped space and you have to go to the bathroom, vomit etc. in a bucket by the door. Explorers/ travelers/ other European people that come to visit will write about how bad it smells in these dorms. Like human feces. And since you have the flu, like puke. (It’s graphic I know… it was a lived existence.) And then after a couple of days of this you die. The Priest writes “they died of the flu.” That’s technically true. But did you die of the flu?

Now if you’re living in California during the gold rush and you get the flu, you continue to run for your life. Maybe you can’t sleep, because people are going through villages and gathering up women and children. Every time you hear a branch snap or a group yelling in the distance you jump awake because you can’t be caught off guard. Maybe you’re sick but you don’t want to send out your family to gather food, because women gathering acorns alone are getting taken, raped, left for dead. Maybe you finally get some sleep and a group comes in the middle of the night just to mess with your village by shooting randomly into homes, or setting things on fire. You run. You grab your child and the only safe place is to jump into the river, kneel down until it reaches just at your nose,  and then you walk through the night, in the water, until you can no longer hear the violence. The next day you are exhausted, holding your child on the shore of the river, and you die… of the flu. But did you die of the flu?

Now lets say you are a Native person in the late 1800s and you get sick and all you want to do is get better. So you go into town to get medicine. They arrest you and put you in jail for “loitering” and tell you to pay your bail or someone else will and then they get to keep you as a slave (it’s called the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians - to protect Indians from loitering...). Of course you knew that, so you didn’t go in to town, you didn’t get medicine. Instead you decide you want to use traditional medicine, but you can’t do that. That’s been illegal since the Spanish Mission days. Any sort of Indian practitioner of medicine is targeted, because they tend to be women and also because they are a threat to settlers (who don’t like Indians knowing stuff, doing stuff, continuing to do stuff). So now you can’t even get medicine. And then you die of the flu. DID YOU DIE OF THE FLU?

This is the question I keep asking students. Yes, you technically died of the flu. But it wasn’t the flu. Jack Forbes, who was a Professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis, wrote in his book Native Americans of California and Nevada that what people discount when they start talking about “Indians died of diseases” is that Native people had been living in organized cultures and societies for thousands upon thousands of years. They had lived through epidemics before and their oral stories support this. They had developed medicine, surgery, psychology, and many other practices meant to keep them healthy. They had ways of addressing things like the flu, or small pox or other diseases that for some reason when we learn about them in history class become unstoppable epidemics.

Because that’s the implication right? It’s just that Native peoples immune systems were so weak and the super strong Europeans who had the antibodies they needed, they could survive. But Native peoples who were so (primitive? different? weak?) just couldn’t handle the super duper European disease.

Jack Forbes’ point, is that they could have. They already had in a number of ways. But when you are talking about genocide you are talking about the disruption of everything, you are talking about the end of the world. And maybe some Indians would have died of the “the flu” but had the government or the State of California stepped up and said “no genociding!” and provided resources, or even just protection… does a majority of a population die of disease? Or does the population continue what it has already been doing for thousands upon thousands of years--- living.

There was no central government that said “let’s go genocide today.” It was mostly bad, bad individuals who were acting of their own accord.

PictureA fairly recent book about this very subject.
One of the major tenets of genocide is that there needs to be a central government running the whole thing. This is the government that passes laws, or starts wars, all so they can keep their ability to genocide. This primarily comes from Lemkin’s definition of genocide. Raphael Lemkin, in case you didn’t know, was the first dude to say “this is genocide.” In fact, he coined the term (in 1944) by combining geno (a Greek word meaning race or tribe) and cide (from the Latin word meaning killing).

He used the Jewish Holocaust as his example of what he meant when he said “genocide.” And what he said was:"a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves."

The key to this was the “coordinated plan” which implied that it had to be organized, sanctioned and carried out by a central authority. Lemkin used the Jewish Holocaust as his example (because, as Brendan Lindsay points out, it was the most recent example) but this (as Lindsay says) doesn’t mean that Lemkin thought this was the only example.

In California, what people mostly latch on to is the number of “average citizens” who participated in the mass killing of Native people and how seemingly “random” it could sometimes feel. Groups of people would come together, start talking to each other about how mad they were they Native people were still alive, or how scared they were that Native people would retaliate, and they would grab pitch forks and torches and take off to kill a bunch of Indians.

This is not a central government organizing the mass killings of Native people. Only, these people were paid by the Government to carry out these killings. That’s right paid.

On average people were paid $5 per head and .25 per scalp for the killing of Native people. These prices could vary by region, as counties/cities/municipal governments would set their own prices. And this was man, woman or child. There are stories in parts of California about men riding through town on their horses with the heads of Native people dragging along behind them so they could go trade them in and get money. The State of California also authorized what they called a "volunteer militia" which were average, every day citizens who would be paid for the "suppression of hostilities" with Native people. This allowed them to pay these people to kill Indians.  In 1849 and 1850 the State of California paid out of 1 million dollars for the killing of Native people. 

The State Government supported and designed this genocide because they actively paid people for it, they passed laws that would support and make it legal, and also because they did not protect Native people from being killed. In fact, to prevent people from being held responsible for their crimes against humanity they passed laws (like the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians) which said that no Native person could testify in court (also that you could keep Indian people as slaves, you could keep Indian children who had no parents, and you could arrest an Indian for just hanging around). So the only people who could testify in court were non-Native people and they had no reason to report on their crimes.

The federal government also participated in this by reimbursing the state of California for the killing of Native people. And when they finally decided to dispatch agents to California to negotiate treaties it was not because they felt bad for all the genocide. It was because it had gotten too expensive to subsidize the genocide.

Did the government specifically come together in a meeting and say “let’s genocide today?” Not exactly. But the second act passed by the State Legislature of California was to pay people for killing Native people. And the governor of California made this statement very soon after he became governor to tell people what his agenda for the “Golden” state would be:

... that a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert.

I don’t know, that sounds a little Hitler-y to me.

It was a war… and war is hell.

But intent. The intent to genocide, to erase, destroy, and kill all members of a specific group of people, that’s not war. At a point, they aren’t fighting a war they are mass murdering. We didn’t genocide everyone in the South in the Civil War, because they were people. The union stayed together, Confederates got “convinced” to follow the rules of our “great nation” and we started reconstructing. But we didn’t start rounding up Confederates to kill them all. Genocide is a choice, a deliberate choice to annihilate a group of people. We cannot erase that intent by calling it “war” because the intent is clear. Take the UN definition of Genocide for example:
[G]enocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.


And what I find interesting about this is the continuation of genocide that has happened to Native people throughout history. There was not a clear start or end to the policies that were set forth with the deliberate intent to “destroy, in whole or in part” Native people. The continuation of policies to do this throughout history is astounding.

And so silent. I can leave in my car right now and within 20 minutes I can visit the place where Juan Cabrillo landed to “discover” San Diego. There is a big statue of him there, overlooking this beautiful place, he “discovered.” And then I can head down the freeway and visit the “first Spanish Mission” in California. Mission San Diego, which would also usher in the first mass incarceration, mass enslavement, mass starvation of Native people in California. That won’t be on the plaque. Where do we go to remember? Where do we go to learn? (Apparently, not even history class...)

The collective silence on this genocide is so loud. It echoes when we sit in classrooms and someone says something like “I don’t really like to talk about genocide and Native Americans” or “I don’t think it applies.”

We cannot be silent. We can speak louder than the monuments. Watch as we speak louder than monuments.
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In Which I Have This Song Stuck In My Head All Day - Say My Name Say My Name It's Mount Denali Not Mount McKinley Why You Running Game or Your Settler Colonialism is Showing You Better Get That Treated

9/3/2015

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PictureThat's my friend Enei Begaye and her husband Evon Peter on The Daily Show set. You should google them and support everything they do cause they awesome.
Here's a true story. One time I was watching this documentary about Natives and the environment and there was this really cute Native guy just talking away and I thought, "that's a good looking, smart Native dude" and then in the middle of the documentary he starts talking about his perfect wife and I thought "awe man. He's married." And then finally you get to see his perfect wife and it turns out she's a friend of mine from college and I was like "OF COURSE SHE MARRIED THE HOT NATIVE DUDE." So basically, I'm only one degree away from him. Not that I'm stalking him, or whatever.  

A couple of months ago they were on The Daily Show talking about changing the name of what was called "Mt. McKinley" to "Mt. Denali" a Native Alaskan name for the mountain that means "the high one or the great one." 

Years ago they renamed the mountain after President McKinley, who, if you watch The Daily Show segment - never climbed the mountain, never saw the mountain, and never did anything in, around of for Alaska because "Alaska was not a state at the time." (He is also lovingly described as "Not one of the best Presidents, but certainly not one of the worst.")

The curator of Mckinley's Presidential Museum argues that if you start un-naming mountains then people may start forgetting about President Mckinley. And The Daily Show Correspondent asks "What do you know about Athabaskan culture?" She replies "Not a thing." And he says "It would be good if there was a way to remind people and help people learn a little bit about it." Indeed. 
Watch the entire video here.

Jon Stewart begins the report with a question... "What's in a name?" Don't worry, I got this Jonny.  So here goes.



Just the other day I sat down and perused my newsfeed only to discover that President Obama (of the #ObamaDontCare second Presidential term) signed the order to (re)name Mount McKinley in Alaska to it's given name -- Mount Denali. 

That's right, score one for the Indigenous Alaskans, score one for old stories, score one for the story of a land and landscape that is based on an ancient knowing of land and place. It's Mount Denali beezies... deal with it. 
       
I (as I am an Indigenous person who reads/watches/peruses several news outlets, feeds etc.) braced myself for the inevitable (oh it's coming), meandering (there will be many misspelled words), uninformed (and someone will mention something about how Natives lost the war) responses that include claims like: 
  • It's just a name
  • It's just a word, dumb words.
  • Don't you have more important things to worry about? 
  • Mckinley was a President! He should have a mountain 

or my favorite 

Denali is actually a Kenyan word for "Black Power." No it's not. Get off my porch.

My expectations were met, of course, especially when one dude running for President said (I paraphrase) "I'll change the name back if I'm President" and I smiled and thought "So no worries Denali... you're safe. He ain't gonna be President." (Hey Cutcha, how come you don't say his name? How come you call him one dude running for President? Well, it's hard to keep track of all the white dudes jumping around trying to be President, but also, I could just see him drooling as he googles his name over and over again and reads all the many references and he finds mine and gets mad and tweets me something rude. I don't have enough time to be tweeted rude things but some dude.) 

I am fascinated by the gut punch response that seems to come from people who take the time to write "OH GOD is this really important? Who cares? It's just a name?" 


 Naming something is a very powerful thing. In fact I have actually written about this before (in one of my academic articles). Naming was so important that as the Spanish are wandering around the planet trying to claim territory they kept going around naming everything "little Spain" or "teeny tiny Spain" or "Little Spain Episode 5 Little Spain Strikes Back" because they definitely didn't want anyone thinking it was "Little Netherlands" or "Little France" or "Little Britain" because Britain was already going around naming things "New England" and that's just unacceptable. 

One of the first things that colonizers/invaders do is RE-name the land, the people, the trees, the oceans because whoevers name sticks... wins. That, in their opinion, shows OWNERSHIP. Yes, it's just a word, but WORDS MATTER. 

If a scientist "discovers" a disease, he gets to name it. If an astronomer "discovers" a star... he gets to name it. If an Indigenous person "discovers" a method for assuring that there will be less forest fires, that the land will be well cared for, and that the soil will be better to grow things... they get told they are wrong, and then many, many years later some scientist goes "we should practice controlled burning" and they have NAMED this new methodology. 

Naming also marks our history. Our history is written in our names, it's written in how we name things, and naming is a part of how we tell this history. We don't call him King Henry we call him King Henry VIII. He's not the eighth Henry, there were probably thousands of Henrys before that... he is the eighth Henry of his family named after seven other very particular Henrys (He's number eight, and he cray). That's history, right there, in a name.  

Here's something I wrote in my article about naming (that's right I'm quoting myself):
There is so much in a name. There is power in a name. There is the right to self, respect of knowledge and acknowledgement of existence in a name. When Indigenous people were forced to accept the renaming of their lands and, in many instances, forced to accept new names for their own peoples and themselves, this was a systematic attempt to destroy these peoples. In Boarding Schools, Indigenous children were forced to give up their Indian names in favor of names like “John” or “Jacob.” The repercussions of this loss of identity and personal autonomy are still being felt today. 
Picture
  
Now, the replacement of Indigenous names with names from a random guy who says he discovered this mountain even though Indigenous people were living on that mountain (AHEM Mt. SHASTA) is a very powerful way of saying "we are the first, the rightful, the only real owners of this place. We have successfully occupied this joint." That erasure is what we are trying to address as we focus on things like the names of our lands and places. 

The "gut reaction" I was talking about -- that's settler colonial fear. It's the instability that comes with the physical reminders that this place was settled, but not conquered. There are still treaties, there are still Native people, there are still voices and there are still warriors and we are still here and we are not going anywhere. Settler colonialism is tenuous and the shaky, weak premise that "occupation," "invasion" and "discovery" is enough foundation to erase, eradicate and rightfully claim this place isn't as "settled" as people thought. This can be jarring for some ("wait, why are we talking about this?"). It can be threatening for others ("I'll change the name back, when I'm President." HA HA... when you're President dude... sure).  But guess what, it's happening. 

I am drawn to this idea that words can change the world. In the case of Mount Denali, it's true. Now we will look at a map of the world and it will say "Mount Denali." As it should. 



PS. Here is a video of President Obama dancing with some Native Alaskan kids doing a Native Alaskan dance. And it is the best thing on the internet right now. 
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In Which I Explore the Native Cameo in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or Troll The Respawn Jeremy If You're Gonna Do This Story Lets Do It Right

3/11/2015

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A little while ago on the blog I wrote about the “Native Cameo” where I said (look at me quoting me!)
“Native Cameos” are those 1-2 episode, sometimes intermittent appearances by Native characters on television shows. What I have found *spoiler alert* is that these Native Cameos resettle settler colonial claims to legitimacy, meaning, they justify, and normalize colonization and settler colonial occupation of Indigenous spaces and Indigenous histories.
You can read more here about the Native Cameo and why NBC hates Adam Beach if you want to.

Anyway this past weekend I sat down to watch every episode of the newly released “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (they alive dammit!) and to my surprise there was a Native cameo! Of course the scenario was the same as it always is - me, half-watching the television and then suddenly I start yelling at my husband “there’s an Indian on TV! There’s an Indian on TV!” and then my daughter comes running and says “where? Where?” And I point excitedly at the TV and she goes:
“But that’s just that blonde lady from that other show you watch.”
PictureThis is Jenna (sorry Jacqueline) as a Native person. See she's wearing a beaded necklace and she has dark roots (literally and figuratively, HA!)
Ya burnt “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” Ya burnt.

So yes, Jenna (sorry, she’s called Jacqueline in this show although she will always be Jenna Maroney to me…) is a secret Native American. Not like “Top Secret” where she sometimes puts on her Pendleton jacket and heads out to fight colonization or to try and push secret government agencies for more money for language revitalization… but a secret Native American because she thinks the path to prosperity is to become an upper east side wife and upper east side wives are white… and blonde so she decides not to be Native American anymore, at least not in the “I have brown hair and brown eyes and respect my parents” kind of way.

Jenna (sorry, Jacqueline) has rejected her Native heritage by bleaching her hair blonde, wearing blue contacts, and adopting the accent of a rich white person. She has also taken to... ignoring her children, wasting water, hiring a tutor to do her sons work, going to spin class, having a tiny dog (that doesn’t poop) and not knowing how to drive (all white people things I guess... That’s right – white people tropes. Or at least- rich, white people tropes.)

“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” like “30 Rock” (both the brain child of Tina Fey) before it invites the audience into a world of caricatures, slowly breaks down the walls of those caricatures, but never apologizing for their existence as tropes, modern, tongue-in-cheek tropes that ask us to laugh with them (but mostly people probably laugh at them). It’s a miniscule distinction to some people, but to others, like anyone except for white people, it’s important because we don’t get much screen time, so the screen time we got says a lot. And if the minority representation on the show is to make fun of their... minority-ness well that also says a lot.

Since this past weekend people have started writing to me asking “what do you think” or “how am I supposed to feel about this?” I could see it being a bit jarring when it first comes up, suddenly this very blonde white lady is not so blonde, not so white. Both of her parents are Native in the show, they are the Native cameos as one cannot exactly count Jenna (sorry Jacqueline) as a cameo because she’s a non-Native actress playing a Native who is pretending to be white. 

I didn't exactly know what to say because my initial instinct was to be all "It wasn't the worst, it wasn't the best. There were pros and cons." So I made a list. 

Here are the pros and cons of the "Jenna (sorry Jacqueline) is a Native American" story... (according to me, and I know everything).

PRO: Mascots are bad.

Yeah they are. When Jacqueline sees an Indian mascot climbing off a bus she gets upset. Lillian (who is the landlady for Kimmy) says “After everything Native Americans have been through… now still with this nonsense” and Jacqueline decides it’s time to do something about it. Yeah it is.

CON: After she beats the crap out of the Indian mascot she howls at the sky like a wolf. I don’t know why. The implication to me was “when Natives go primitive you best watch out, cause they are going all the way back to when they were like animals.” And if that was the message you wanted to send writers – fuck you.

WHAT THE WRITERS SHOULD KNOW: We weren’t “animalistic” nor are we “animalistic.” Not that it is bad to be compared to or in balance with animals, but this idea that Natives were "lesser than human" because they were so identified with animals (a very western idea of hierarchy BTDubbs) is an ingrained stereotype built from colonization to excuse the mass murder of Indian people and the taking of the land. You don’t feel bad about shooting the wolf when he comes too close to town… now do you.

SUGGESTION: No more howling. Period.

PRO: White people may be doing everything they can to claim Native heritage because they think it somehow gives them street cred to be 1/16th something but there are some Native people who can “pass” as white and choose to.

Because they may look more phenotypically “white” than what is considered Native some Natives can (and do) pass as white. It's an interesting choice. Some Native people aren't actively hiding their Native-ness so much as avoiding it. Some people treat it like "that thing" but do nothing to be a part of their native culture. Like my elders have said to me before "being a Native is expensive and tiring" and it's true. There are many Native people who don't just think about how "cute" it is to have Native ancestry, they would rather not worry so much about what it means.  Again, a lot of this is probably informed by a long history of having to hide Nativeness in order to survive but also exercising the autonomy to decide how or what it means to live as a "Native" is a fascinating subject. These issues of identity should be talked about. If you want to join this conversation, it's a WHOLE conversation not just a subplot.

CON: Jacqueline is played by a white actress pretending to be a Native person who is pretending to be white.


WHAT THE WRITERS NEED TO KNOW: Lots of white people have played Indian people in movies… on tv… on the radio… at sporting events… and even if you don’t want it to, it adds a layer of disingenuousness to your story. When white actresses are given the leeway to play Native it hearkens back to these days where any actor could play native by slapping a headband on or crying for the spoiling of the earth on TV commercials (stop littering. You are making the Natives sad). It might not be “fair” or “what you intended” but this is the way that it is when white people play Natives… and it will be this way until we get more positive representations of Native people, by Native people, with Native people. That’s what you’re signing up for with this story writers, deal with it.

SUGGESTION:  Hire more Native people, actors,  writers, producers to work with you on this. Cause dang, that would be fun. Also-- Jacqueline needs a bunch of real Native cousins, played by Native actors. They need to call her out on her B.S. and maybe educate the audience a little bit. They can say things like “you know just dying your hair blonde doesn't make you white, like putting on a beaded necklace doesn't make you Indian. So really… you need to get it together.”

Picture
PRO: Not all Native people are super spiritual and in tune with nature. Not all of them own casinos and enjoy the "Free stuff." There are many many complex and diverse ways that Native people experience being Native. Sometimes Native people even reject their heritage. Why this happens is a story worth telling.

For a long time the rejection of Native heritage was the story of many generations of Native people who were forcibly taken from their families in an effort to assimilate them. It’s not just a rejection of the heritage that is interesting, it’s that Jaqueline ties this to “success” and the implications of what it means that a Native person has internalized "success" with a rejection of Nativeness is a very complex story to include as part of a television show. Perhaps this is setting up an opportunity for a conversation about the many varied experiences of Nativeness in this world (let's hope). We are a diverse group of people so our experiences are very diverse. Our cultures are living… how we choose to live with those cultures has many different outcomes.

CON: And when she rejects her Native culture her parents are all “see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya.” 

WHAT THE WRITERS SHOULD KNOW: Native parents, especially Jacqueline's parent's generation, are probably readily familiar with the impacts of boarding schools and the assimilation policies that attempted to erase Native culture from Native people. I am surprised that they did not lecture her more, or at least try and tell her that she is following down a lonely path for a Native person in this world. Just because you, lovely writers, didn't learn about it in history class, doesn't mean that Native people haven’t lived this history. Her parents (who are the actual two Native actors on the show) should be fleshed out to include how Native people are not just here carrying on their culture, but are here actively resisting the continued degradation of their culture, especially when it comes to the success of the future generations. And if it wouldn't, in your opinion, be them who would call Jacqueline on her BS and question her very (colonized, westernized) view of the world, at least, at least allow one of her mean Native aunties to show up and throw some shiz down when she decides to leave.


SUGGESTION: Just give Jacqueline’s parents their own show already.


I know people are (understandably) somewhat upset about this tongue in cheek portrayal of Nativeness on this very white show in a very white universe. I sometimes think that it’s just reflective of how exhausting modern, privileged, white centered comedy is. It’s always outside looking in. It’s always “look at my privilege, be awash in my privilege, watch my privilege allow me to make whatever jokes I want or to write whatever I want because I want to oh and by the way here's where i say sorry if you were offended.” It’s so tongue in cheek that it can be exhausting – especially when that’s all there is. (It's the reason why those pointed lines that make fun of this privilege are so exciting for people. It's also why people think they can get away with the other problematic portrayals of race on the show "but we made a joke about privilege, so we can now make this problematic character speak in a funny accent...)

As an avid TV watcher I know most of these universes are basically “white universes.” They are reflections of how white people see their world. Maybe they try to say they are “diverse” universes, but at the end of the day with all the decision making really in the hands of a bunch of very wealthy white people we all know it’s true. I heart Tina Fey (I do) but I don’t expect her to be adept at telling a Native American story. This is why who sits in the writing room really matters, because those multitude of voices (if they aren’t just a bunch o’ white people) can shape a story to be what it could be, and not just the brain child of people that haven’t… oh I don’t know… taken a Native American studies class, hung out with a Native family, gone to the Cheesecake Factory with a bunch of hilarious Native students…because those stories have yet to be told, the complex yet hilarious story of what it means to be this #BusyCuteAndNative 

So that’s all I really want to say about it. If you’re gonna do a Native story (which hey, why not?)… do it right. Set higher standards. You can’t access the Native experience just because you have some people who are Native descendants possibly working on your staff. How much pressure is that for those people to “speak for the Native experience.”

Do it right. Hire some Native writers, producers, editors...

It’ll be way funnier that way. I promise. 



Troll the respawn, Jeremy. 

PS. Yes, Tina Fey, there are Native people in Hollywood (and outside of Hollywood) who can help you out. Need help to find them, email me and I'll point you in the right direction.
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Why I Went to College (Pt. 1) - share you story with me!

3/10/2015

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Yup I made this video for a presentation I'm going to do on Friday but I also want to collect more stories! Are you a Native person who went to college? If you want to send you story you can email it to me. Use your phone or your computer and I'll make it work. Tell me "Why I Went To College!" (check out the video to see part 1)

#PositiveRepresentations #NativesInCollege #BusyCuteAndNative

Click to email me...

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I Can't Believe You Keep Killing Off Adam Beach, NBC: Gender, Representation, Settler Colonialism and Native Cameos on Television OR I Went to the Perspectives on Native Representations Symposium in Berkeley and Adam Beach Re-tweeted me

2/23/2015

1 Comment

 
PictureAdam Beach re-tweeted this photo of me doing a presentation about Adam Beach. #BasicallyWeAreBestFriendsNow
This past Friday I went to the Perspectives on Native Representations symposium with keynote speakers Adrienne Keene (of Native Appropriations); Migizi Penseneau (1491s!) and Matika Wilbur (from the 562 Project!) and it was pretty great. I was there to present and was lucky enough to have a group of good friends come to sit with me and watch all the other presentations as well. It was a fully day talking about the importance of representation of Native peoples as the modern, awesome, funny, strong, photogenic, survivors we are.

I presented on my love of all things Adam Beach as a way to finally register my disappointment with NBC who likes to bring Adam Beach on to tv shows to kill him off. I said "settler colonialism" a lot so that I would sound super smart and academic like. And then I talked about the "Native Cameo."


And then Adam Beach re-tweeted a picture of me presenting about him. That's right, he hit that tiny little set of re-tweet arrows and shared it with all of his followers. And with that...I am willing to call this the best presentation of my growing academic career. Hands down.

Now that we are best friends via Twitter Adam Beach let me just say, I also tweet sometimes about my favorite places to get Iced Tea. Feel free to re-tweet those as well.



I Can't Believe You Keep Killing Off Adam Beach, NBC: Gender, Representation, Settler Colonialism and Native Cameos on Television OR I went to the Perspectives on Native Representations Symposium in Berkeley and Adam Beach re-tweeted me

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I don’t know about anybody else but ever since I was a little girl I have been in the habit of yelling every time there is an Indian on TV: “THERES IS AN INDIAN ON TV! THERE IS AN INDIAN ON TV!” and then I would expect everyone to come running.

By the time I got to my formative TV watching it felt like (to me) that there wasn’t a whole lot of Natives on TV. Instead, I have often cataloged a collection of what I called the “Native cameo.”  

“Native Cameos” are those 1-2 episode, sometimes intermittent appearances by Native characters on television shows. What I have found *spoiler alert* is that these Native Cameos resettle settler colonial claims to legitimacy, meaning, they justify, and normalize colonization and settler colonial occupation of Indigenous spaces and Indigenous histories.

These Native characters are also primarily male and do not have Native female counterparts. Native women are rarely mentioned as being part of modern discourse.

To better critically analyze (or what I like to call “engage in Indigenous media analytics”) I have provided the following cheat sheet of what I have noticed about these Native cameos. In the Native Cameo…

1.       Native Americans are spiritual peoples full of knowledge that is specifically aimed at addressing answers to questions and conundrums of main characters (Spiritual & Knowledgeable)
2.       Native American characters remind us that history is… complicated (History)
3.      Native American’s Own Casinos (Casinos)***
4.       Mascots are dumb (Booo Mascots!)
5.       Native Americans are Men (Men)

Okay here we go!

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There’s this one episode of Sleepy Hollow that my friend Angel told me to watch, so I did. This episode has a Native character because there was a special Native monster that was causing a whole bunch of non-Native people to die in their dreams. Ichabod Crane (if you’ve never seen the show, he’s like in the present now because of something?) says “all we need is a Mohawk Shaman who can help us to defeat this monster.” And then his sidekick explains that there aren’t a lot of Mohawks or Shamans cause of colonization and genocide and stuff and Ichabod is all:

How is that possible? Their nations stretched the continent! Their rules for governance formed the very basis for how we planned to unify thirteen diverse states in a single federation!"  (You go Ichabod Crane)
Luckily, they are able to find a Mohawk guy and, surprisingly, he teases them for assuming that he can help them because he’s Mohawk. Like every Mohawk knows how to get rid of a sleep demon. Except in the end he can solve their spiritual issue. Lord knows it would be weird if they had to approach at least TWO Mohawk guys before they found the right magical spiritual one.

Rating: THERE’S A NATIVE ON TV, and he’s kinda funny, and he helps them to conquer the dream monster. So I’ll go with “coulda been worse.”

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On an episode of Greys Anatomy where Izzie was going crazy and seeing her old boyfriend Denny even though he is dead she meets a Navajo man who is supposed to have heart surgery to take out his donor heart because he believes it is “haunting” him. Izzie decides this has something to do with her. The Navajo guy is very understanding when she opens up to him and tells him she is also haunted. And instead of going “well, sure, let’s talk about how my heart surgery is really about you” he patiently explains to her that she should burn everything that she still has tying her to the dead guy and that she probably shouldn’t do his surgery.

RATING? THERE’S A NATIVE GUY ON TV, and he’s Navajo. So I’ll go with “Shonda Rhymes you have three million shows on television, I think you could maybe, possibly put one MAIN character who is a Native person on one of those shows.”


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I don’t know if it’s fair to say that Adam Beach’s character on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit was all that spiritual. I’m unwilling to go back and watch his many episode arc to support my claims. But I do remember that there were several instances in which he offered some important discussion in to how “other” cultures would respond to whatever the issue of the week was. I was so looking forward to a very long tenure by this character. FINALLY, a Native character who is Native (yes, it’s true) but he’s also a cop on the beat, making jokes with Ice-T. Except that didn’t happen, because why would it? And Adam Beach was relegated to Native Cameo status when for some reason he went off the deep end and become some kind of vigilante justice cop and killed some guy because…whatever. I’m still bitter.


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Parks and Recreation’s portrayal of Ken Hotate has always been very fascinating to me. I actually really like the dude. I like him because he’s got great delivery, and also because he gets to come into the show and be funny and then go away. I also like his confidence. He knows he’s got the money (the casino) and the pull to do what he wants. That’s an interesting position in this town that Leslie Knope points out, does not have the best history with Native people.

On this week’s episode (from Tuesday) Ken Hotate made a super cameo in a commercial for the Wamapoke Casino which ended with the slogan “Slowly taking back our money from white people one quarter at a time” (I LOLd).



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There are actually several times that Native people pop up on the Family Guy. “Native American What’s Happening” or “Offensive Native American Mascot” or “Peter saves the Native Americans.”

In Season 12 Episode 6 “Life of Brian” Stewie and Brian travel back in time to Jamestown where they give Native Americans guns and change the course of history.  When we catch up with Brian and Stewie in the present day. Brian tells Stewie: “Thanks to you the Indians killed all the white people and took over America.”

This new, present day America is filled with brown faces, and Indians wearing headbands, with braids and jean jackets. The joke on the show is that Natives love their jean jackets (I have two of them, actually). Medical care is done by a shaman who does funny poses but offers no real help for a dying man. Native music is gibberish that all sounds the same. Native families live in houses that look like teepees and instead of “I love Lucy” they watch “I love liquor.”

These are the stereotypes of Native people come to life. This is not a Native vision of the future where Native people weren’t mass killed and removed, this is a tongue in cheek representation of stereotypes shoved in to the audience’s face.

Brian tells Stewie they have to go back to Jamestown to “set things right” as if this alternative future, where Native people are the majority and white people live on reservations is “wrong.” This, again, effectively resettles this space and makes it “right” to be under control of white settlers, and not under the control of Native people.


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*Bonus Cameo* In another episode Peter remarks that he has always wanted to use a musket to go and save Native Americans from “rapacious Calvary men.” It then flashes to a Calvary raiding a Native village where one guy is kidnapping a woman to probably take her and rape her. Peter accidentally shoots her in the head. He then remarks something like “you don’t have to be afraid of him anymore.” The most disturbing part is that when I looked this clip up online the guy recording it lets out a huge laugh when this woman gets shot in the head. And there you have a Native Cameo featuring a Native woman. She is there to get kidnapped, possibly raped, and then shot in the head.

Rating: There’s Natives on TV. They are cartoons. There is so much here to talk about. For instance- this idea that had the Indians been given guns they would have also used them to oppress white people. But I don’t have enough time right now. Maybe later.

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South Park actually has a number of episodes featuring Native American characters and cameos. (Like, Cherokee Hair Tampons, or A History Channel Thanksgiving, or Cartman’s Mom is a Dirty Slut) The most cameoed of cameos comes in Season 7 Episode 7 – “Red Man’s Greed.”

In this episode South Park is trying to say that Native peoples are (now) just as obsessed with the trappings of capitalism as any other group.

There is another layer added throughout this episode as well and that is what I call the “just desserts” layer. For instance, when the Natives decide to build a super highway through South Park, they buy all the land “out from under” the residents and force them to move. When the residents protest, they give them blankets with the SARS virus on them. There’s your just desserts white people. There’s even a joke about removal and relocation.

South Park’s seemingly pointed is another settler colonial apology “we’re sorry for the genocide, you would genocide us too if given the chance” and also “we’re sorry for taking your land, you would take our land now too, if given the chance.” Dismissing the possibility that even in imaginary cartoon universes Native people could create a much different present and future because of their past experiences with genocide… well this re-settles the settler claims to innocence by saying colonization is “human nature.”

RATING: South Park’s Indians are a mixed bag. I’m interested in this cartoon obsession with voice cadence, the way Indians talk and sound and even laugh. Maybe now I just want one Indian on TV who is like “oh you know, whatevs, it’s the bees knees, fer realsy.” Or says “totes” a lot. Okay we Natives don't say totes all that much. You know what we do say a lot... "BINGO!" #JustKiddingINeverWinAtBingo

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"Revolution" is technically not on the air anymore but when I started writing this very rigorous research down in my very fancy hardback notebook, "Revolution" was on the air and "Revolution" had Adam Beach on it. When the group ends up in the “Plains Nation” there is good old Adam Beach, and he’s the sheriff. I was very happy to see that they at least acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, at least one Native person survived the apocalypse. I mean it’s not like we haven’t survived an apocalypse before…

Anyway, Adam Beach shows up to die one episode later, in a cage. And there you go. We managed to survive 500 years of attempts to annihilate, assimilate, exterminate us, but get us post apocalypse with no electricity and we are done for.


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I see what it means for people to be exposed to Native people in this way, whether it be young Native children who really do acknowledge and hold on to each and every portrayal, or non-Native people who might not ever engage with “modern” Native American people. Our TV watching experiences do shape us, even though they probably shouldn’t.

Understanding, discussing, and complicating the Native Cameo is important. We are more than just cameos to a world that tries to pretend like we don’t exist, or that we aren’t fully functioning nations of people who deserve equal footing in politics and culture. Our worlds are more than just other to the “real” or “normal” world that is often portrayed on television. When we are represented in places like Network television it can and should speak to our continued investment in our shared existence, in our shared experiences on Indigenous lands.
Also, it gives us the opportunity to watch Adam Beach do his Adam Beach thing… which is nice.

Because I’m still bitter NBC. Still…bitter.


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BONUS CAMEO – Someone in the audience (okay it was a 1491. And yes, I tried not to be all “OH MY GOSH ARE YOU ASKING ME A QUESTION and YOU ARE FROM THE 1491s!) asked me about “House of Cards.” Funnily enough, I had written something about "House of Cards" but had to cut it for time. Here it is:

House of Cards – (History, Casinos, Men): Ah yes, the rich Native people on a show about rich people who try and take over the world. I binged on "House of Cards" (like any decent TV watcher would) last year because I just had to know what Frank was going to do after becoming Vice-President. And there was an Indian on the show, and he was smart and witty and just as big of a jerk as everyone else. I appreciated the “inside jokes” about Natives and politics and the BIA. Jokes about the BIA are always welcome. Also, jokes about Andrew Jackson, HA! I really appreciated when Frank goes to the big old white house that is on the Indian reservation (very symbolic, BTdubbs, we got our own white…house) and he thinks he’s a big deal and the Tribal Chair guy is like “you are not a big deal. We are on sovereign land. You are not my vice-president.” I clapped. Jokes about how even the vice-president doesn’t understand sovereignty… priceless.

When you find out that the Indian casino is participating in what could probably amount to espionage in order to give money to buy an election because they got the money to spare I thought “um? Okay?” The discourse on casinos tends to focus on how casino power must or will corrupt. This is a narrative that is growing and starting to dominate how we talk about casinos. Instead of “casinos are active parts of the sovereignty and contribute to the self-determination of Indian nations” we have “casinos help Indian people to become rich and participate in politics the way other rich people do and that’s scary…” Talk about settler colonial fear. We may just get enough money and political clout to get our land back… uh oh.

Rating: There’s an Indian on TV (Netflix) and he’s… just as horrible as everyone else on that show. So I guess that’s okay because if they would have made him way better than everyone on that show you’d wonder if they were doing that out of guilt for you know… all the genocide and small pox blankets.


1 Comment

I went to see the opera “The Lariat” in San Francisco and all I got was this play review in my continuing (unfortunate) series Will this Play be Better Than the Ishi Play?

1/28/2015

1 Comment

 
Listen. It would be very easy to think that I spend my time hoping to go to plays (and now operas) that are really problematic and ill-informed representations of Native people so that I can write a blog entry and get everyone on board for how far we still have to go before people actually start being introduced (not interested in, not informed by, not tired of, just INTRODUCED) to narratives that don’t rely on old Hollywood Indian stereotypes that reinforce settler colonialism and excuse genocide. But that’s not true. I actually go hoping to be surprised. This is why it takes me a while to write these things because it takes me a while to process most of the stuff that I see repeated over and over again.

My initial reaction to stereotypes and mis-representation of Native people is to explain. I want to explain to people why they wrote the play the way they did and why the story is always about this vanishing, poor, sad, Native who just can’t fight against the oncoming onslaught of progress and civilization. Learning to critically analyze these ever-present justifications of the invasion of the Americas is why everyone should take a Native American studies class because we have to (re)learn what we think we “know.”

I had to learn to do it myself, quite honestly. For instance, I have this very clear memory of being a child and telling my mother that Columbus did discover America because he “discovered” it for Europeans. Also, if they wouldn’t have discovered America then we wouldn’t have cars.

Yeah, that’s what I said. “Well, without Columbus we wouldn’t have cars. Or cities. Or computers.”

And she, in her wisdom, explained (or tried to explain) not that I was wrong, or prejudice, or dumb, but why this this was the story I was taught in schools.

“Indian people,” she would say “have to be the sad, less-civilized, other in these stories because then it erases their contributions, it belittles their historical trauma, it renders them useless and primitive so that whatever was happening to them was partially their fault and partially nobody’s fault at all. They become nothing more than a discovery and then a problem. Every policy, every law, every story, every history book has been written to solve what they called the ‘Indian problem.’ And do you know what the ‘Indian problem’ was? That there are Indians.”
I find myself saying much the same as I continue to speak up against mis-representation, mis-appropriation, mis-information and mis-guided attempts to portray Indian people in plays, the media, popular culture etc. In many ways, my voice becomes part of their Indian problem. Their problem is that I exist, that I am, that I have a response to their “works of art” and that they feel like I should remain silent because they believe that their earnestness is enough. They don’t mean to erase Native people with their work. They don’t mean to forward ideas about Native people that render them useless and primitive… They don’t mean to be so dismissive of Native people through their storytelling. But they are.

Perhaps this is why it has taken me a moment to write a coherent response to a recent opera I went to see in San Francisco, called “The Lariat.” I could take it apart for what it is, or what it isn’t. But I found that I mostly just wanted to tell everyone involved in the production to take a Native American Studies class so they could learn the critical analytical skills necessary to understand why the stereotypes in this opera are so problematic.

Which is all a long winded way for me to explain that I went to see the opera “The Lariat” in San Francisco and all I got was this play review in my continuing (unfortunate) series Will this Play be Better Than the Ishi Play?

And away we go…


PictureI had way too much fun googling "Indian dudes on romance novels" to find this pic.
After I went to see that one play about Ishi (which was some of the most offensive, traumatic BS I’ve ever had to sit through) I think my tolerance (unfortunately) for bad, stereotypical nonsense has been set somewhat high. My initial response to this new opera, “The Lariat” was “well it’s not minstrel show bad” it’s more like Indian dude on the cover of a dime store romance bad. And, truth be told, it could have been worse.

“The Lariat” described as a “dark comic opera” about the Mission Carmel, and the Esselen people is not really about the mission or the Esselen. The mission is the backdrop to a much more convoluted, tragic romance between Padre Luis who loves (unrequited) an Esselen woman (Ishka) but she loves a vaquero (Ruiz Berenda a.k.a Kinikilali) who is half Indian/ half Spanish. It’s based on a novella by a guy named Jaime De Angulo which was written in 1927.

The fact that this opera is based on this old novella was a discussion point between me and my friend Angel. My final word on the subject was that the opera should stand on its own. The decisions of the writer, director, producers were made by these individuals in 2015 and stand as an approved portrayal of Native people in 2015. They chose these depictions, not just (or even if they are) because of an old novella.



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In the opera, Ishka is billed as a main character. In fact, she is featured on the cover of the playbill, topless, wearing some kind of grass skirt and necklace with the ocean in the background. This is the way she looks when you first see her, or when Father Luis first encounters her on the beach. The scene is supposed to be important, because she’s, I don’t know… boobs.

But Ishka is not a main character in this story, neither are any of the Native people. No, this opera is about the missionaries. It’s about one Spanish dude (Father Luis) and  the people he covets as “potential converts.” This is not to say that this is the worst thing I have ever seen or that I was ready to walk out of the opera. From a critical feminist standpoint this play is a full on misogynistic patriarchal mess. From a Native studies standpoint this play is not a play for Natives or even about Natives. The Natives are essentially moderately self-sufficient props. Nope, this is a voyeuristic look at Native people through western eyes. From a Cutcha Risling Baldy standpoint all I could really muster after the opera was over was “meh. Good thing I found some m&ms in my jacket pocket.”

The Native person who gets the most pointed stage time is Ishka (or the Esselen girl, as she is also billed in the program) and her entire existence revolves around men. She is completely defined by the men in her life, who she in turn inspires to lust, greed, envy, wrath and pride (five of the seven deadly sins ain’t bad). And eventually they all die because they cannot have her, or because they want her too much. Interestingly enough, her songs are all in the Esselen language, so we never really get her perspective, because most of us don’t speak Esselen. When she does speak English, it is about what’s going on in her relationships, or with her men, or in her last song where she is begging for death so she can be with her man.

There are many Native women (feminist Native women scholars, Native women leaders) who could have helped to inform a much stronger and more realized character than this Ishka. I kept wanting to apologize to Ishka. “I’m sorry that the playwright/opera writer didn’t want more for you. I’m sorry that you are stuck in a patriarchal, misogynistic trope you can’t get out of.”

All the stereotypes are there. (If you want to learn more about Native Women and stereotypes read my blog entry on just that!) Stereotypes including:


Native women are like the land so let’s tame and conquer them.

After Ishka’s new true love (who is a vaquero) decides to marry her he goes to the woods and sings a song about how much he loves the land, even if it trembles at his touch, even if he can’t have it but just has to look at it and I thought “subtle dude.”

Native women are meant to be lusted after, even though they are too “innocent” to know this. Their childlike innocence keeps them from being ashamed of their bodies.


Ishka is introduced as a naked woman emerging from the sea, driving men to love her (Venus Demilo) and the thing I immediately write down is “what happened to the rest of her skirt?” For some reason she wore it as a loin cloth, to show all of her legs and barely cover her front and back. She is the natural, the wild, the beauty of the land. She is untamed, wilderness. The padre immediately lusts after her because, well this is never quite clear, but I mostly summarize his love for her as “bewbs.”

Native women are tied to nature and spirituality. The defeat of this nature and spirituality will be accomplished through subduing Native women.

At one point Ishka (the prop) passively accepts being baptized, which Father Luis pushes her in to doing because otherwise she will be lashed, even though she gets lashed anyway? She doesn’t understand what is going on, but kneels before him and allows him to drip water on her head. Then he starts singing about… wait for it… her bewbs.

Native women don’t really like Native dudes. Native dudes kind of bum them out.

Ishka and her old Shaman husband lose their baby, somehow? It’s not really clear. She leaves her Shaman husband after their child dies. He longs for her, she never mentions him again. He cries for her in the woods. She shows up to the woods and sings a love song with her new true love, a half Spanish half Indian guy who is the perfect example of assimilation – the padres like him because he is a Catholic, the Indians love him because he is an Indian and he loves her? Because? It’s never really established so maybe…bewbs.

When the going gets tough the Native women get going because they long for progress, a “better future” and Native men are old and represent the past.                                                     

The complete rejection of her Native life is incredibly problematic. I can only infer as an audience member that Ishka blames her Native life for her child’s death. This is a subtle hint that the Native life is bad for you, babies die in this life. She continues to reject her Native life throughout the opera. We hear nothing about her having any other family, as if her marriage to the Shaman is what defined her as a Native person. The other implication is that her marriage to the Shaman was forced, or arranged. And it is only after she goes to the mission that she is able to find “true love.” Again, the implied narrative is that Indian marriages are false, not based on true love, not real.

If a Native woman ain’t got no man, then what’s she got to live for?

(The future of her people? The rest of her family? To help fight for freedom from the missions? To help keep the other enslaved Esselen safe? To rejoin her community?)

Sadly, the only agency Ishka demonstrates is when she decides to kill herself, so she can be with her man. As if she is lost and undefined. As she is singing her song, she begs to be taken to the land of the dead to be with her true love and I thought “which guy will show up?” Will it be her Shaman husband who she never divorced? (She could have divorced him, Native people had divorce). Or will it be her new vaquero (it’s the vaquero)? 
Other fun tropes that run throughout the opera:

Indian people are sad and dying.

One of my favorite moments (in song) was when the blue jays showed up to make fun of the crying Shaman and sing “Poor Indians, they are all kind of sad.” Indeed.

Indian culture is dying.

Indian children are dying.

If you are in love with an Indian woman (because…bewbs) then you, much like the culture and children, will soon be dying!


The dying Indian story has been told, and told, and told. Why? Because people like their Indians dying. It makes for better “dark comic operas” and also makes for a better excuse. There was tragedy all around. It wasn’t just the tragedy of the missions (which were tragic) but it was the tragedy of the west, it was “manifest destiny” or “manifest tragedy.”

I don’t know. When I set out to write this review I thought “what will I say? It wasn’t the most horrible thing I’ve had to sit through.” Granted, there are a lot of problems. The portrayal of women, problem. The stereotypes, problem. The excusing of Mission violence, problem. Still, not the worst. The Ishi play was the worst.

That’s what I was going to say. But then I wrote something down at the very end of my notes which I just came across.


Set – higher – standards.
PictureGo to Netflix and watch this movie instead of watching the opera.
It was as much advice for myself as anyone else.

Dear playwrights, play houses, and audience members: set – higher – standards.

Yes, we can tell a better story than this.

Yes, we should.

Yes, when you take on the responsibility of writing about something or some people who are still struggling to be heard then you have to do more work. People still think the missions were nice places where Natives learned to farm and Padres kissed babies and brought “civilization.” Junipero Serra is being declared a saint! #HesNotASaint Native women suffer from some of the worst rates of violence, most of which are (still) committed by non-Native people. These stories matter and the way we tell them… matters. You should want to do more work. You should want to tell a better story.

Ishka deserves better.

The Esselen people deserve better.

We all deserve better.




The opera continues this weekend. You don’t have to go. Instead, head over to Netflix and watch this movie. You’ll thank me for it.

1 Comment

Pope Francis decides to make Father Junipero Serra a saint or In Which I Tell Pope Francis he needs to take a Native Studies class like stat

1/15/2015

9 Comments

 
char·la·tan
ˈSHärlədən,ˈSHärlətn/
noun
  1. a person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill; a fraud.
  2. synonyms: quack, sham, fraud, fake, impostor, hoaxer, cheat, deceiver, double-dealer, swindler, fraudster, mountebank OR

    Junipero Serra

Canonization (in American English and Oxford spelling) or canonisation (in British English) is the act by which the Catholic Church or Eastern Orthodox Church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. In the Catholic Church the act of canonization occurs at the conclusion of a long process requiring extensive proof that the person proposed for canonization lived and died in such an exemplary and holy way that he or she is worthy to be recognized as a saint. The Church's official recognition of sanctity implies that the persons are now in heavenly glory…

or

An act by the Catholic Church to erase and/or excuse the inhumane treatment of California Indians by the Franciscan missionaries (who would subject Native people to starvation, beatings, rape, humiliation etc.) that also demeans and dismisses these torturous/barbarous acts and elevates them to "righteous" sainthood.

I am not the first, nor do I hope to be the last person to refer to Junipero as a “charlatan.” I got that from the late, great Dr. Jack Forbes who in his wisdom and poise called em like he saw him. He is greatly, and with all sincerity, deeply missed. 

Pope Francis decides to make Father Junipero Serra a saint OR In Which I Tell Pope Francis he needs to take a Native Studies class like stat

PictureI find this statue super creepy TBH.
Today, the big news out of the Pope’s office is not that he is visiting the Philippines and the Philippine government is  arresting homeless children to put them in jail so that the Pope won’t have to be confronted with actual poverty. No, today’s news is that he has decided (unlike other Popes) that he will declare Father Junipero Serra a saint.

Pope Francis called Serra an "
evangelizer of the west of the United States," and that he "has for centuries been considered a holy man" so Pope Francis will wave "Church rules that require a second miracle to be attributed to the candidate for sainthood after his beatification."

Junipero Serra. [eyeroll]

Junipero Serra is not a saint.

What is Father Junipero Serra?

He was a man. He performed no saintly public acts, no miracles (except the miracle that people are still insisting he could be a saint) and really what he is most responsible for in the annals of history is supporting, manufacturing and maneuvering a mass genocide of Native people during his run as the head of the Franciscan California Mission system.

Yeah I said it. Lots of people have said it before me, but you probably haven’t heard about it before. The Missions in California, seemingly tasked with“converting” Native people to good, Catholic citizens of New Spain, were actually mass murdering, concentration camps tasked with subduing and controlling the land, people, flora and fauna of California at all costs.

Oh, I’m just getting started.

PictureNot my California Mission Project. Mom wouldn't let me do one. (Good job Mom)
In the fourth grade in California we are forced (mostly forced and/or told that we have to or something really bad will happen to us) to learn about the “great” California mission system. Much of California was “settled” (or invaded) by the Spanish beginning in 1769 as part of a massive mission system attempting to “civilize” and convert Native people to Catholicism. It resulted in 21 missions founded between 1769-1834 (though it is important to note that the Franciscian mission program was a continuation of efforts that started in Baja, california and Mexico and made their way through Southern and Central california). 


Led primarily by the Franciscans, the Mission System was a well oiled machine of colonization and demoralization. This was not the Spanish church’s first time at the rodeo. Having already forcibly colonized (demoralized, destroyed) Mexico for over 100 years, and having already established Franciscan Missions (the first in 1533) throughout the southern part of the Western hemisphere, they knew exactly what they were doing.

Consider their means and methodologies against their own people during the Spanish Inquisition. I once went to a museum that was doing an exhibit on the torture devices of the Spanish Inquisition. It was an entire exhibit hall filled with various torture devices used by the Spanish against their own Catholic converts. It was creepy and a salient reminder that there are those of us who use our brains to invent sustainable ways to maintain the earth and care for our wildlife and assure the future of our planet and those of us who invent all kinds of torture devices. Or as my Great Grandfather wrote in 1971:

"I have learned through my life that [Native peoples] were highly civilized, that of which will never be equaled. The civilization that is patterned from the materials that kills human lifes [sic] is poorly civilized."
Students in California are often asked to build a model of a mission as part of their mission project. It often focuses on the architecture, and happy little Indian people in happy little gardens with happy little Franciscan missionaries all happily living in this happy place. Deborah Miranda (YAY!) compares it to having children make happy little plantations or happy concentration camps and turning those in.   
“That’s why it’s time for the Mission Fantasy Fairy Tale to end. This story has done more damange to California Indians than any conquistador, any soldado de cuera (leather-jacket soldier), any smallpox, measles, or influenza virus. This story has not just killed us, it has taught us how to kill ourselves and kill each other with alcohol, domestic violence, horizontal racism, internalized hatred. This story is a kind of evil, a kind of witchery. We have to put an end to it now.” -Deborah Miranda (xix)
Holy crap she is awesome.

The “mission mythology” is one that attempts to venerate the leaders of the mission system. They are the manifest destiny come to life, ordained by god and welcomed with open arms not only by the Native people, but by the land, just hungry for what the Priests were selling.  This false (very false, epically false, insanely false) idea that everyone in the missions was happy is done on purpose. It’s a very easy way to erase the intent of genocide and to make it a sort of “whoopsey daisy” in history. “Whoops, we meant to bring you into our happy missions and make you civilized people but instead we killed over half of your population, enslaved you, forced you to procreate, committed violent acts against you and introduced violence into your relationships.”

Junipero Serra was the "
great evangelizer" and leader of this crazy train. Choosing to canonize him is choosing to canonize what he proliferated while he was running the mission system. Here are some things he proliferated, this soon to be canonized “saint”:

  • Sexual assault of Native women, which BTW was one of the first recorded acts by Spanish Missionaries when the Spanish entered California. Not only that, Native people at the time testified that Serra turned a blind eye to sexual assaults and rapes because he wanted to keep the Spanish soldiers happy.
  • Forcing Native people into slavery and working them to death. They were required to build the missions. If they died while building the mission, they would be buried in mass graves (yup, this process required MASS graves) and the building would go on.
  • Beating Native people with (sometimes) over one hundred lashes. Sometimes with a wooden club. Sometimes with a “Cat-o-nine tails” or a wooden club with ropes and knots tied at the end of it.
  • Starvation of Native people. Feeding them as little as 400 calories a day, rationing their water intake and forcing them to work.
  • Forcing Native people to procreate. There is one story about a woman who was not getting pregnant. The padres brought her in and demanded to know why she wasn’t with child. They forcibly did a vaginal exam of her.
  • Allowing Missions to run what were akin to slave labor shops/ sweat shops. Native women and children were forced to weave for long hours and those items were sold to support the mission activities. Natives were not paid, nor were they allowed to make money off of their labor. 
  • Locking up women. These “dormitories” were supposed to protect chastity and control reproduction. They were unhealthy, dirty, crowded and forced Native people to go to the bathroom in a bucket by the door. Today, we would call this torture and inhumane. We would write a big report about it and Congress would congratulate themselves for writing such a big report. Fox News would debate if it was actual torture.
I guess Junipero Serra can be a saint for you Pope, but what that means is that the Catholic Church is saying that they venerate and believe that these torturous acts against Native peoples are not only righteous, but they are the true path to a holy, sainted life.

And now comes the part where somebody says: “But he didn’t know it was wrong” or “he was a product of his time” and “for his time” he was way ahead of the game because it’s not like he just killed them, first he used them for labor and forced them to do things that he wanted them to do. That's what happens when you are a "product of your time" you don't know what you are doing is "wrong" per say.

Well, a lot of people“of that time” knew it was wrong.

Do you know who knew it was wrong? The Native people.

  • In 1781 the Quechan revolted against the mission system and killed nearly 100 Hispanic colonists.
  • In 1775, Natives in San Diego killed two soldiers and a Priest. They also burned the San Diego mission to the ground.
  • In 1812, Natives in Santa Cruz killed Father Quintana for his continued abuse of Native peoples.
  • Natives often ran away from missions. They refused to have children. Sometimes they practiced abortion and infanticide to keep children from being born in this system. They resisted the system by refusing to work, working very slowly, maintaining their cultural ceremonies and revolting against the imposed system of slavery and work camps.
Other people who knew it was wrong:

The French.
“...We mention it with pain, the resemblance is so perfect, that we saw men and women loaded with irons, others in the stocks; and at length the noise of the strokes of a whip struck our ears.” (Jean Francois Galaup de La Perouse comparing the missions to slavery (1785-`1788)
Other visiting explorers.
“From all I saw, I must say the Spainards are bad men.”

and

“[Indians] were bound with rawhide ropes and some were bleeding from wounds and some children were tied to their mothers. The next day we saw some terrible things. Some of the run-away men were tied on sticks and beaten with straps.” -Russian otter hunter Vassilli Petrovitch Taragkanoff.
Other Spanish dudes.
“The treatment shown to the Indians is the most cruel I have ever read in history. For the slightest things they receive heavy floggings, are shackled, and put in the stocks, and treated with so much cruelty that they are kept whole days without drink of water.” (Padre Antonio de la Conception Horra, 1799)
“There is not a single mission where all the gentiles have not been scandalized, and even on the roads, so I have been told. Surely, as the gentiles themselves state, [Spanish] are committing a thousand evils, particularly those of a sexual nature. The Fathers have petitioned Don Pedro concerning these points, but he has paid very little attention to them.” (Father Jayme, 1772)
“In a 1797 report written by Diego de Borica… Borica described how he entered [a dormitory that housed Native women] at an unidentified mission and was forced to leave the building because of the stench of human feces.” (Jackson & Castillo, 48)
Suffice to say it seems like the only person who didn’t have any sort of qualms about their inhumane mistreatment of Native people in the mission system was… Father Junipero Serra.

And now… Pope Francis.

Pope Francis -- you really should take a Native American Studies Class like stat.

Or read this book.

Or both.

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PS. Junipero Serra is not a saint. You can’t credit him with all the good stuff that happened in the missions and then say “all that other stuff, he’s not responsible for, that was OTHER people not him. He knew what was going on. He was okay with what was going on. He was the leader of what was going on. He set up the system. I’ll bet he even knew it was wrong. He just didn’t care. That’s not a saint, that’s an arrogant jerk with no morals.

PPS. Just to be clear, because apparently we have to be clear about these things. Columbus isn’t a saint either.

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    Cutcha Risling Baldy is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies at Humboldt State University. She received her PhD in Native American Studies from the University of California, Davis.  She is also a writer, mother, volunteer Executive Director for the Native Women's Collective and is currently re-watching My Name is Earl...


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