An Update: Apparently Dan Snyder who "rarely takes questions from reporters" did just that on Tuesday where he basically said that people should stop trying to change the Washington Racist Slur team name and instead 'focus on reality.' According to Dan Snyder the Washington Racist Slur team name is "not an issue." For Jacqueline: A little while ago the owner of the Washington R*dsk*ns (derogatory racist term, bleeeep) wrote an open letter about how he was starting some kind of foundation to help Native people. It's called the "Original Americans Foundation" although I have taken to calling it the "OG Americans Foundation" because Natives are the original gangstas. Sometimes I call it the "OMG I thought you'd be happy with a darn foundation WHY are you still complaining about my racist team name... foundation" and other times I call it the "OH GEE I really thought that this would make you shut up about my derogatory team name... foundation." Any way you cut it, Dan Snyder, owner, started a foundation after he visited some Native people who told him they had better things to worry about than a degrading team name that promotes stereotypes and affects how children perform in school. Then he wrote a letter about it. In response, I wrote my own letter. I have included Dan Snyder's original letter which inspired my new letter so that you can compare and contrast (that's the literature teacher in me). I'm the big bold writing, because that's how we do here in the Cutcha Risling Baldy Nation (look, if everyone is claiming to be a nation now, ahem, R*dsk*ns Nation, then I'm starting my own dictatorship nation where everyone pays taxes to me by folding and putting my laundry away... let it be written!) #ChangeTheName #NotYourMascot #DealWithIt March 24, 2014 April 10, 2014 To Everyone in our Washington Redskins Nation: To Dan Snyder Who Probably Thinks He Is A Nation (You're not dude, you're a guy who owns a football team, a team, not a nation) Several months ago I wrote you about my personal reflections on our team name and on our shared Washington Redskins heritage. For many years I have written to about your racist, derogatory, offensive team name and our unfortunate, disappointing, baffling, yet shared Washington R*d*kins history. (Seriously, why is this still a team name?) I wrote then – and believe even more firmly now – that our team name captures the best of who we are and who we can be, by staying true to our history and honoring the deep and enduring values our name represents. I wrote then - and believe even more firmly now - wait, scratch that - I am still QUITE POSITIVE as I was then - that your team name captures the best of the justified racism against Native American peoples by erasing their humanity in order to feel more comfortable about hunting and killing them. This is the "deep, enduring values" your name represents. In that letter, I committed myself to listening and learning from all voices with a perspective about our Washington Redskins name. I have also committed myself to listening and learning from ALL voices. BTDubbs there are also a lot of voices who think you should change the name, and for good reason. When was the last time you were on twitter? I’ve been encouraged by the thousands of fans across the country who support keeping the Redskins tradition alive. Most – by overwhelming majorities – find our name to be rooted in pride for our shared heritage and values. I have been encouraged by the thousands of fans across the country who support changing this name and the tradition of stereotyping Native people . Most - by overwhelming majorities- understand that our world has no place for the derogatory treatment of a group of people for "sport" and they find your name to be rooted in racism, prejudice and bigotry. “There are Native Americans everywhere that 100% support the name,” Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians Chairwoman Mary L. Resvaloso told me when I came to visit her tribe. “I believe God has turned this around for something good.” "There are white people everywhere that 100% support changing the name. " One of my white friends told me. "I believe that this is an opportunity for Dan Snyder to do something good, rather than continue to perpetuate his narrow-mindedness." She told me that it was far more important for us to focus on the challenges of education in Native American communities. I listened closely, and pledged to her that I would find ways to improve the daily lives of people in her tribe. She told me that it was far more important for people to focus on the challenges of education, poverty, debt and equal rights. "Why are we so worried about keeping some offensive, racist team name? Just change it!" I listened closely, and pledged to her that I would find ways to improve the daily lives of all people because that's what we should all do. What would my resolve to honoring our legacy mean if I myself—as the owner of and a passionate believer in the Washington Redskins—didn’t stay true to my word? What kind of Native person would I be if I didn't remain true to my word that I would write something to remind people that bigoted team names are never okay? I wanted and needed to hear firsthand what Native Americans truly thought of our name, our logo, and whether we were, in fact, upholding the principle of respect in regard to the Native American community. I wanted and needed to hear firsthand what white people truly thought of this name, this logo, and whether you were, in fact, upholding the principles of racism, prejudice, and disrespect in regard to the Native American community. So over the past four months, my staff and I travelled to 26 Tribal reservations across twenty states to listen and learn first-hand about the views, attitudes, and experiences of the Tribes. We were invited into their homes, their Tribal Councils and their communities to learn more about the extraordinary daily challenges in their lives. So over the past four hours, me and myself and my staff (which is me) traveled to 5 restaurants, a pizza place, coffee shops, Trader Joes and other places where I could find white people, across twenty blocks, to listen and learn first-hand about the views , attitudes and experiences of these people. I was invited to stand very near them, or to shake their hands, sometimes they offered to open doors for me, other times they helped me carry my groceries to the car and this is how I learned about the extraordinary daily challenges in their lives. “I appreciated your sincerity to learn about our culture and the real-life issues we face on a daily basis,” Pueblo of Zuni Governor Arlen Quetawki told us after we toured his reservation. “I look forward to working together with you to improve the lives of Native Americans in any way possible." "I appreciated that you wanted to learn more about the things I face on a daily basis." said one white guy who helped me load my groceries into the car. "I look forward to taking your cart back to the store and keeping your eggs from being smashed. Also, the R*ds*ins is a racist team name and we don't need it." The more I heard, the more I’ve learned, and the more I saw, the more resolved I became about helping to address the challenges that plague the Native American community. In speaking face-to-face with Native American leaders and community members, it’s plain to see they need action, not words. The more I heard, the more I've learned and the more I saw, the more I resolved that a lot of people could care less about this history of "honoring and deep enduring values" of this derogatory team name and instead wonder why you are holding on to it when it is a racial slur meant to degrade a group of people. Yes, some tribes are doing well. And in our candid conversations, we learned that we share so much with Indian country. We find their appreciation of history, legacy, caring for their elders and providing a better future for their youth inspirational and admirable. Yes, some white people are doing well. And in our candid conversations over glasses of pinot noir, we learned that we share so much with their people. We find their appreciation of our casinos, and our land and resources, also their obsession with all things Kardashian, pretty understandable if not somewhat baffling. But the fact is, too many Native American communities face much harsher, much more alarming realities. They have genuine issues they truly are worried about, and our team’s name is not one of them. Here are just a few staggering, heartbreaking facts about the challenges facing Native Americans today: But the fact is, too many white people face much harsher, much more alarming realities. They have genuine issues (not petty, meaningless issues like keeping a team name that reminds them of days where their relatives hunted and killed Indians for sport) that they truly are worried about (not like if they get to chant "Scalp em R*ds*ins" with their families over dinner) and keeping that racist team name is not one of them. Here are just a few staggering, heartbreaking facts about the challenges facing football fans (and members of your sad R*ds*ins "nation") today: -- The official poverty rate on reservations is 29 percent, as determined by the U.S. Census.36 percent of families with children are below the poverty line on reservations, compared with 9 percent of families nationally. Jobs are scarce, and so is genuine opportunity. --By one measure, U.S. income inequality is the highest it’s been since 1928. The U.S. is more unequal than most of its developed-world peers.Wealth inequality is even greater than income inequality. Also, the poverty rate in Washington DC is at 21%. -- Rampant diabetes, alcohol and drug abuse, violence, and heightened suicide rates afflict Native American youth, adults, and veterans. Life expectancies in high poverty Native American communities are the lowest anywhere in the Western Hemisphere—except for Haiti --The United States spends more on health care than Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia combined. A 2009 study found approximately 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the United States are related to medical bills. 78 percent had health insurance, although many were bankrupted anyway due to gaps in coverage like co-payments and deductibles and uncovered services. Today, people living in Puerto Rico have a greater life expectancy than people living in the United States do. -- Tribal reservations can lack even the most basic infrastructure that most Americans take for granted. For example, according to the independent, highly respected Millennium Project, 13 percent of Native American households have no access to safe water and/or wastewater disposal, compared with just 0.6 percent in non-native households. Similarly, 14 percent of homes on Native American reservations have no electricity, compared to just 1 percent among non-native households. It is hard to build for a better tomorrow without the basic needs of today. --A large percentage of American families have low incomes, which lead to a host of challenges and disadvantages for both parents and children. While these families face many of the same challenges as other families, they are particularly financially vulnerable. These low-income families struggle to find and keep work, pay their bills, and provide their children with essentials like housing and health care. "It is hard to build for a better tomorrow without the basic needs of today." -Dan Snyder These aren’t rare circumstances. These are the unfortunate facts found throughout Indian country today. These aren't rare circumstances. These are the unfortunate facts found throughout our country today. I’ve listened. I’ve learned. And frankly, its heart wrenching. It’s not enough to celebrate the values and heritage of Native Americans. We must do more. I've listened. I've learned. I've read. I've lived here. And frankly, its heart wrenching, it's not enough to give lip service to all the people out there who say "why the heck are we trying to hold on to a name like the Re*ds*ins when it is so obviously a racial slur." We must do more. I want to do more. I believe the Washington Redskins community should commit to making a real, lasting, positive impact on Native American quality of life—one tribe and one person at a time. I know we won’t be able to fix every problem. But we need to make an impact. I want to do more. I believe that the entire community should commit to making a real, lasting, positive impact on the world around us and all of our qualities of life - one person at a time. I know we won't be able to fix every problem. But I also know we can make an impact, a difference and actually do something right away that solves ONE PROBLEM. And so I will take action. And so I will take action. As loyal fans of the Washington Redskins, I want you to know that tomorrow I will announce the creation of the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. Change the name Dan Snyder. Change the name. Change the name. I don't even have to start a sad, insulting "Foundation" to give you the answer. I can just say it right here, right now. CHANGE THE NAME. The mission of the Original Americans Foundation is to provide meaningful and measurable resources that provide genuine opportunities for Tribal communities. With open arms and determined minds, we will work as partners to begin to tackle the troubling realities facing so many tribes across our country. Our efforts will address the urgent challenges plaguing Indian country based on what Tribal leaders tell us they need most. We may have created this new organization, but the direction of the Foundation is truly theirs. You're mission is clear. Instead of wasting millions of dollars trying to convince Native people that we somehow don't understand what the name is really about. Instead of trying to pretend like one foundation, one letter, and a couple of coats can take away what this name really means just CHANGE THE NAME.Your efforts can still address the "urgent" challenges plaguing Indian country, Dan, but guess what, they can also urgently address your racist team name. You may have created this brand new organization to act like you are doing SOMETHING but in reality you are just avoiding doing THE ONE THING THAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW. Our work is already underway, under the leadership of Gary Edwards, a Cherokee and retired Deputy Assistant Director of the United States Secret Service, as well as a founder and chief executive officer of the National Native American Law Enforcement Association. My work is already underway, under the leadership of the Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry organization. Because I’m so serious about the importance of this cause, I began our efforts quietly and respectfully, away from the spotlight, to learn and take direction from the Tribal leaders themselves. In addition to travelling and meeting in-person with Tribal communities, we took a survey of tribes across 100 reservations so that we could have an accurate assessment of the most pressing needs in each community. Look, I'm so serious about the importance of this letter, I began my efforts a long time ago when I was in high school and decided to write a paper on the portrayal of Native Americans in sports focusing on the Atlanta Braves. I have been confronted by people telling me I should "just get over it" and not take it "so personally." But, as my mother once said: “They accused it of being personal to Indian people but when you said stop the [mascot] it was personal to them.” -My Mom The stories I heard and the experiences I witnessed were of children without winter coats or athletic shoes; students in makeshift classrooms without adequate school supplies; text books more than decades old; rampant and unnecessary suffering from preventable diseases like diabetes; economic hardship almost everywhere; and in too many places too few of the tools and technology that we all take for granted every day—computers, internet access, even cellphone coverage. The stories I know and the experiences I have not only witnessed but experienced are of children who have their hair pulled by kids because they are "Indian squaws." These stories are about children who internalize the pictures of big nosed cariacture Indians, and they start to believe that Native peoples are cartoons. In the heart of America’s Indian country, poverty is everywhere. That’s not acceptable. We have so much, yet too many Native Americans have so little. In the heart of the R*ds*in Nation there is a man named Dan Snyder. He writes very long letters to announce degrading foundations in the hopes of keeping a racist team name. That's not acceptable. I have so much more to tell you, but man this is getting exhausting. Our work has already begun: My work to eradicate these prejudice depictions and give back to communities of Native peoples has never stopped: -- As the bitter Arctic winds swept across the Plains this winter, we distributed over 3,000 cold-weather coats to several tribes, as well as shoes to players on boys and girls basketball teams. “It’s been one of the coldest winters on record,” Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Vice Chairman Boyd Gourneau told me. “The entire Tribe is so appreciative of the coats we received for our youth and elders. It’s been such a great relationship, and we hope it grows.” -- We assisted in the purchase of a new backhoe for the Omaha Tribe in Nebraska. The Tribe will now be able to complete the burial process for their loved ones even in the coldest winter months, as well as assist in water pipe repairs which, without a functioning backhoe, has left the tribe without water -- for days. These projects were the first of many and we currently have over forty additional projects currently in process. We look forward to telling you more about these as our work proceeds. You can learn more about some organizations that are doing really great work in Indian Country here. For too long, the struggles of Native Americans have been ignored, unnoticed and unresolved. As a team, we have honored them through our words and on the field, but now we will honor them through our actions. We commit to the tribes that we stand together with you, to help you build a brighter future for your communities. You won't solve Native issues with your foundation. And guess what, while you are out there "saving" Native people and giving them coats you will STILL BE CONTRIBUTING TO THEIR CONTINUED DEGRADATION. You will still be contributing to their children doing poorly in school. You will still be the guy whose team name is a racial slur that encourages people to scream that racial slur on national television. The Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation will serve as a living, breathing legacy – and an ongoing reminder – of the heritage and tradition that is the Washington Redskins. I’m glad to be able to launch this vital initiative today. The Washington Racist Slur Original Americans Foundation will serve as a living, breathing testament to your bigotry- and an ongoing reminder- of how little you actually think of Native people to believe that we would fall for and embrace your patronizing, self-aggrandizing, blowhard, transparent, condescending attempt to silence us. With Respect and Appreciation, Change the Name Dan Snyder Cutcha Risling Baldy P.S. Throughout this journey, there have been many incredible moments. One of my favorite fan moments took place in Gallup, NM – to the cheers of dozens of Washington Redskins fans. As Pueblo of Zuni Governor Arlen Quetawki noted, “We even had an unprompted welcoming party of Washington Redskins fans from Zuni and Navajo greet you when you departed from the airport!” The passion and support for the Burgundy and Gold throughout the country has been overwhelming. P.S. Dozens? Really? Dozens of Washington Racist Slur fans showed up? I tend to get the cheers of dozens too, when I do a presentation, talking about how racist slur team names have gots to go. The passion and support to change the name has been overwhelming and growing. But you knew that... or you wouldn't be starting foundations trying to make it go away now would ya? I would not have been inspired to write this letter without eating lunch today with my friend Angel. She reminded me of the good that can come from humor and gave me the spark with which to write today. Thanks Angel.
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*Disclaimer* I am not a member of the Wiyot Tribe. I am a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and I am also Yurok and Karuk. I also do not speak for the Wiyot tribe. (I do not speak for any tribe actually. I speak for me.) The Wiyot tribe is made up of many people and I'm going to pretty much assume they speak for themselves. Please do not think that my rantings in any way reflect the beliefs of the Wiyot Tribe. Although I'd like to say I like the Wiyot Tribe very much. All us California Natives, we gotta stick together. It's been a weird day. I spent the morning reading craptastic articles from newspapers in California between 1851-1853 that said stuff like this: In Which I offer an Apology/Non-Apology Letter in response to the Eureka City Council's Apology/Non-Apology Letter for the Indian Island "Attack" (it's called a massacre people, deal with it) or Eureka, your Indian Problem is showing... Dear Eureka City Council: Your "Indian Problem" is showing. I know, you can't help it, it's hard to find coats big enough to cover it up when you have to drag it around with you at cocktail mixers or fundraisers. Everybody knows it's there. The ACLU is suing because you refuse to acknowledge it. It seems to be the only way to get your attention. Perhaps that is why you re-wrote and did an (ill advised, IMHO) revision of your apology/non-apology letter to the Wiyot people where you basically refused to acknowledge or pay respect to the severity of the Indian Island massacre while pretending like that is exactly what you were doing. I also know your letter wasn't meant for me, exactly. Originally you had wanted to apologize to the Wiyot Tribe as they are readying themselves for their first World Renewal Ceremony since 1860. Your potentially sincere (yet entirely insincere) interest in the return of this ceremony meant to balance our earth and protect all peoples (not just Native peoples, but all peoples) perhaps sparked your interest in producing said "apology" letter. The revitalization of the Wiyot World Renewal Ceremony can only most eloquently be described as a BFD and OMG In Yo' Face Awesome. Native peoples all over the world are talking about it. The Wiyot People are the people of Eureka, CA. They have been there since time immemorial. During the Gold Rush the Wiyot were massacred at their World Renewal Ceremony while they were resting. This was on what became known as "Indian Island." It is a place nestled in the Humboldt Bay. When I was growing up and we would drive over the bridge I would look out and say "There is Indian Island, that's where they killed a bunch of Native people for fun." (Other people played "Slug Bug" and I thought about how our landscape is rife with stories that should be remembered and told. That's how you know I was raised by *strong, proud Native people.*) Massacring Native people in California wasn't just fun it was good business. The State of California used to pay money for Indian Scalps and Heads. Bounty was set at 10 cents per scalp and $5 per head. Man woman or child. Man, woman... or child. Merchants would provide the tools (guns, knives, axes) for murdering Native people for free, especially when a mob rose up against some perceived injustice inflicted on them by a Native person -- "injustices" like "stealing one of my cattle" or "taking my food because they are starving" or "killing a guy who was trying to rape their daughter." There are stories about Native women jumping into the water with their children during massacres of villages and breathing through reeds for hours while watching blood spill into the water around them. There are stories about women and children and elders running for their lives only to be surrounded and riddled with bullets from either side. The Indian Island Massacre was no less debased or brutal than other massacres. And it happened during the Wiyot World Renewal Ceremony. Why am I telling you this? Because I want to make sure that you know this and I'm not quite sure what you already know. Unfortunately, even though we live in an area that has many opportunities to learn about Native peoples, and there is a Native American Studies department at Humboldt State University (you should take a class there, everybody should take a NAS course) and there are Native Americans in government and public positions and there are Native organizations and leaders throughout our county, I also meet people every day who do not and have never really wanted to learn about or confront the very brutal history of Humboldt County and the places we live. You don't mention these things in your apology/not-apology letter. You write "On a winters night 154 years ago, the Wiyot people of Humboldt Bay were attacked." The Wiyot people were not attacked, Eureka City Council, they were massacred. They were murdered. "Attacked" makes it sound like some people ran in, and a lot of Native people ran out. But Native people did not escape this "attack" they faced a "massacre" and "mass murder" of their people. The people of your great city committed a crime against humanity. Their actions were a genocide, they were deplorable, and people throughout the state and the country and the world knew, know and will know this -- even if you won't write it in a pseudo apology letter. You might think you can erase this, you might think you can take away the responsibility for what it really was, you might think that if you write different words that somehow makes it true but no matter how many times you call it an "attack" it will always be a massacre, it will always be the thoughtless, souless killing of a group of mostly women and children. Don't tell me it's just a word or that the language doesn't matter, because that acknowledgement -- the difference between massacre and "attack"-- it matters. And you know it matters, or you wouldn't have changed it. You seem to think that your "apology" may somehow concede to, formalize or name this genocide. And that if you name it for what it really is -- a "massacre," a "genocide" that Native people might finally see it this way and sue you, or hold you responsible. You seem to think that your letter names something for us. It doesn't. We already know. We have already named it. We call it for what it was, is, and continues to be. You don't have to say the words to us, or about us for us to know what happened. We feel it, we can see it when we look out over the land where we live. When we sing, we call on the songs and prayers and strength of thousands of years of ancestors, and we know their stories. We remember these stories and we say the "hard" words because we want to gain strength from them, because we want to honor them, because we want to heal our past, present and future. You should say the words. You should write them. You should own them. Instead of offering "support to the Wiyot Tribe" and re-affirming "our commitment toward healing the Wiyot people's wounds" why not commit to healing your wounds too? You think this apology is just about the Wiyot people? You think that it concedes something to them and you are in fact just helping them? Is that how it feels? Like maybe you're just helping this one group of people? And it doesn't affect you? (I've heard that before. Things like "I wasn't there, it wasn't me, it doesn't affect me.") Despite what you may think, those wounds, those lasting effects of genocide (historical trauma) they don't just infest and wreak havoc on Native peoples for generations, they infest, mark, change, and affect Non-Native persons living here and being out of balance. It is written as much in your history as it is in ours. You don't need to apologize because it's good PR, or because it might in some small way encourage the Wiyot people, (they will be and have been encouraged and empowered without your apology/not-apology) or because maybe it is a drop in the bucket of what needs to happen to re-balance this place that we all (now) call home. You need to apologize because you also need to heal. So don't do it for me. I'm good. Don't do it for the Wiyot, they are very busy. Don't do it for the thousands of Native people living here. Do it because you, your children, your grandchildren, your friends, your family, you all need the means and ability to heal. And that begins with using right words to apologize and tell the story. But that's just a start. It's time to start Eureka, if not now... when? Here we are, 104 years later, and here we will be. This World Renewal Ceremony will renew and balance and strengthen not just the Wiyot people, but all peoples and it will balance our world. This is what can only most eloquently be described as a BFD and OMG in Yo' Face Awesome. And it's just a start. In all sincerity and without any apology, Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok) Humboldt County Born and Raised so that makes me a super cool expert on all things Humboldt County #StreetCred The following piece is a work of fiction (because Tiger Lily is a fictional character originally portrayed in J.M. Barrie's children's stories about "Peter Pan", followed by numerous stage and movie adaptations. Perhaps her most famous portrayal is in Disney's cartoon version of Peter Pan, where she is represented as a young, nubile, beautiful Native American princess who flirts with Peter Pan and refuses to help Captain Hook even though he is threatening to sink her to the bottom of the ocean (violence against Native women and children is HILARIOUS). She also does not speak, not once, in the entire film. In Which I Interview Tiger Lily, famous Indian Princess... or Tiger Lily might just be my sister from another mister, that's cool. Perhaps she is best known as the beautiful Native girl with a whole lot of attitude. She was the queen of the side-eye, and while never an "official" Disney Princess, for many years she was the only representation of a Native female in a Disney feature film. And I hated her. Her attitude. Her dancing. Her jealously and competitiveness with Wendy. Her snobbiness. She seemed like the only person in the entire Peter Pan adventure who was just actively snotty. (Later, I would recognize that Tinker Belle was also a pretty snotty female character, but I forgave her because she was very tiny and people often grabbed her and spanked her without her permission in an attempt to get Pixie Dust. Gross.) I first met Tiger Lily in a dream. She looked a lot like I would imagine her to look "in real life." She had dark hair, it was long, she was wearing a beautiful buckskin dress, fully beaded moccasins and her hair was perfectly silky and shiny even though we were sitting outside in the wind. I asked her what she was doing there and she said "looking for you" and then she asked me if I would like a cup of hot chocolate and I woke up. The next time we met was at a coffee shop for tea (because neither of us likes coffee). I couldn't believe that she was there with me because I was supposed to be writing my dissertation. She looked different too. Her hair was graying and cut into a shorter, smoother shoulder length bob. And she was wearing a white tshirt, blue jeans, converse and a very cute beaded belt. She sat across from me and said "You look like you've seen a ghost." And I said "or an imaginary figure that shouldn't exist in real life but is sitting with me right now." She asked me "Do you know how stories come to people?" And that is how she began... "Do you know how stories come to people? Because I've always been told that stories come at inconvenient times or convenient times. They come in person or in dreams. They are everywhere around you. They exist outside of your self. They find you. Many native people would say that stories and prayers and songs are never lost, because even when there is nobody singing them, or saying them, or telling them, or knowing them... they still exist and they will come to somebody... someday. Each person might tell the story a little bit differently..." She asked me if I had ever heard her stories? And I said "the only story I ever knew of Tiger Lily existed in Disney's cartoon version of Peter Pan made in 1953 and based off of JM Berrie's children's stories about Peter Pan (published in 1902) and subsequent play (1904), which admittedly I'd never read before although I'd heard that the portrayal of Native people left something to be desired. She smiled and said "JM Berrie was a man who wanted to believe that Native people could exist somewhere in his imagination and could help his young boy who did not want to grow up to finally find a home away from home." That, she said, is what she found the most compelling about the way white male authors told the stories of Native peoples. "They had lost so much in the loss of their own Indigenous-ness." She said. "They had lost their home, their center. Native people were concerned with balance, not with power. With prayers, not with contracts and the bottom line. The bottom line was we all deserved to grow old in a good way." I whole heartedely agreed with her but still couldn't find much to say because it was freaking Tiger Lily sitting before me. She took a deep breath and agreed to do an interview with me, right there on that day in the coffee shop when I was supposed to be writing my dissertation. "Do you have a question?" And the only thing could think to say was the first thing that came to my head "Yeah, so, I sort of hated you growing up." Me: I need to be honest here, because I hope that honesty extends to your speaking with me today. I really hated you growing up. Tiger Lily: Thank you? Me: It was just that, at the time (and I may be dating myself here) you were really the only Native Disney Princess that was around. This was before Pochahontas, so I had one example of a Native girl in the movies in my childhood and she was you. And it always seemed like you thought you were better than me. Tiger Lily: I probably was... better than you. Me: A better Indian anyway. You looked like an Indian, you danced like one. You were what kids expected to see and so they would look at me and just be disappointed. Sometimes they would pull my braids. Sometimes they would call me Squaw. Tiger Lily: Those kids sound like little jerks. Me: But again, you were all they knew. They thought it was funny. Tiger Lily: So...little jerks. Me: You know they just announced casting for a new film that is sort of based on Peter Pan. It's supposed to be about his origin story. Tiger Lily: I heard. Me: Rooney Mara is supposed to play you. Or a version of you. According to the press release it's not like she's a Native American she's more like a "multi-racial/international" person or in an "multi-racial/international" movie? I'm not quite sure. TL: What does that mean? Me: Well, I think it means that they anticipate there being some backlash because she is a non-Native actress playing a famous Native character. So they want to put out the fire by saying she's not really going to be a Native person. TL: So in an effort to avoid the criticism, they will just erase my Native-ness as if that is not a significant part of who I am? Me: Yes. TL: That's flattering and not degrading to me at all. Me: I feel like we should note to readers that you are being sarcastic. You are being sarcastic, right? TL: I am. For the record. Me: Have you heard about the new film? TL: Not until the casting news came out. Me: Do you have any comments or reactions to the casting news? TL: Not on any emotional level. Hollywood likes their Indians in a certain package. When I met Walt Disney, I don't think he even saw me for what I really looked like, I think I instantly became a certain kind of Indian girl to him. My hair, my eyes, my body, it was all, in his imagination, designed to evoke the right socio-emotional response to seeing a "Red Man." Me: So you met Walt Disney? TL: I spent some time with him, yes. The thing about Mr. Disney, he was somewhat fascinated with Native peoples. This was a man who lived through his imagination. But Mr. Disney was like a lot of people, he was raised on certain books and pictures and in those books and pictures Native people were a primitive civilization that died out long ago. Me: Disney has a weird history with Native peoples if you think about it. TL: Do you know that at one time the Jungle Cruise, a place where you can see hippos and tigers and lions, used to also feature a Native American village? Did you know that he would bring Native people in to the park to do dance demonstrations? Frontier land was built on this cowboys and Indians legend. You could buy a Tomahawk and some feathers or a cowboy hat and some guns and head to Tom Sawyer's Fort and pretend to kill each other. Me: So this new version of Peter Pan, which they are just calling "Pan" by the way... TL: It's just more of the same, but what makes it worse -- it doesn't have to be. They need to put the work in to tell a better story. Do you know how many Native writers and directors and actors there are out there? A lot more than you think. I don't trust "Hollywood" with this story, not yet. Me: You trusted them before? TL: Trust is a weird word. I think I had in mind the best intentions for telling a story. Me: Can we talk about this moment then? TL: I had a feeling it would come up, yes. Me: I think this is probably one of the most memorably bad moments in Disney history. I think most people would point to this as a major problem. TL: It is a major problem. Especially because of the way that it was portrayed. In this situation, we, as Native people became racist caricatures. But this is not the real story. Me: What is the real story? TL:Native people are pretty funny. At least that's the experience I've had. And you know what I remember about this story? Pan brings this group of little white children, from England, and they don't know much about Native people. So my Dad, he doesn't take this whole thing seriously. Another day, another group of white kids coming to make a fool of themselves in front of Natives. And the kids start asking these questions because nobody has ever taught them anything useful about Natives. Their questions are like "Why does he askem how?" and "What makes the Red Man red?" What kinds of questions are those? Me: Offensive ones. TL: But not just offensive. They are violent questions. They violently question my intelligence. They are questions meant to put me down and in my place. That tells you a lot about how these kids view Native people. Here is this five year old kid wearing pajamas and he thinks it is okay to ask when Native peoples first said "ugh?" He should have been ashamed but he was awash in his privilege. So my Dad says "well the first time I saw my Mother-In-Law I was all UGH." Ha ha, right? Me: Humor is lost on the young. TL: Or ignored. Or blatantly disregarded. If a Native person is sarcastic or funny or intelligent in their humor, people need to ignore it because those kinds of things make you sentient, they make you living. It's the same reason why people ignore the humor and love and personality that comes from animals, or trees, or the waters. Again, the portrayal of this song reflects so much on the kind of acceptable racism surrounding Native peoples and their image. I was disappointed, yes, in the portrayal of this story. But I was also infuriated. It took me a long time to tell more stories. It took me a long time to come and sit with you today. This wasn't just a "funny" or "racist" portrayal of Native people, this was violent and deliberate. We have to keep asking why Non-Native people want Native people to be so stupid or silent? Why? Because the lasting effects of genocide they don't just infest and wreak havoc on Native peoples for generations, they infest, mark, change and affect Non-Native persons. It is written as much in their history as in ours, even if they try to ignore or "Disney" it away. Me: And the way you were portrayed in this song? Pan is asked to take you as his bride? And you essentially do a table dance for him after he was just made in to an Indian and given a new name. You nuzzled him on the nose and turn his face bright red. TL: Nope. I could go on for days about the sexualization of Native women in Hollywood films, novels and stories. There is a reason why Native women are treated like objects. My voice was literally stripped away from me in this film. They did not want to hear me speak. THIS is how Disney storytellers adapt and portray my story, that says a whole lot about them. Me: I get that. I thought about it a lot as I was trying to reconcile my distaste for your portrayal in this film, and who you are, or could have been for me as I was growing up. Like when I look at this moment from this picture. You're tied up to an anchor and Captain Hook is going to sink you. TL: You know what I am in this moment... annoyed. Me: But you know what else I see in this moment, conviction. I started watching the film over again a few months ago and I started to think about the strength and courage you show throughout the movie. It took me many years to see through all the B.S. of this Peter Pan portrayal and instead try and listen to your story, and then wanting to re-claim your story. I don't think you belong to Mr. Barrie, or Mr. Disney. That was always hard for me to understand. Some people would say Mr. Barrie is your inventor, you came from his imagination. TL: Those people would be wrong. And even if he was the first person to describe me and write me down, that doesn't mean that I only get one story and one voice. That doesn't mean that we can't tell the story better now. How would people tell my story if they knew more? If they took a Native American Studies class? If they read more about Native women and colonization? If they talked to Native writers and directors and artists? That's what I would tell the writers and director of this new film. Why not try to actually learn something and make a good movie? Not a slightly less racist movie or a more international/multi-racial Pan-Indian white savior movie, but a good movie. They hold so tightly to their racist, sexist, ignorant portrayal of Native peoples. That is Hollywood. That is appropriation. That is seeing Natives in old photos, but not in new TV Shows. This is comfortable to them. So we are used as props to some story about adventure and fantasy. We are used as sidekicks to white people's stories about themselves. And if they like, we become invisible to them. One time I was at the coffee shop and I heard this kid saying that he had never met a real Native American before. I smiled and said "Now you have, hello." And he just stared blankly at me. He sort of shook his head and said "No, not like a Native person out here in the real world, but you know, like a real Native American, like the real kind." I sort of went with it, I smiled and said to him "Well, if one of the real Native Americans came in here, what would you say? What would you want to ask them?" And the kid just shrugged and went "I'd probably just ask to take a picture and Instagram it." Because you know what they say, if it's not on Instagram... it didn't happen. She was at the end of her cup of tea when she stopped and smiled at me. "Did you get what you needed?" she asked and I just nodded. She stood up to put her tea cup in the plastic bin and she offered to take mine as well. I handed it to her with shaky hands. "By the way," she said "if you ever find the time and want to write a really good movie about me you should talk about how we ended up in Neverland in the first place." "How was that?" I asked. She laughed and replied -- "Relocation" before she headed for the door. #IndianHumor So this happened today. Rooney Mara Cast as Pan's Tiger LilyI guess they are making a new Peter Pan? Nobody asked me. The movie is being released by Warner Bros. in 2015. It's written by Jason Fuchs. And apparently, so far, it stars Hugh Jackman (as Blackbeard) and Garrett Hedlund (as Captain Hook) and I guess people are saying this ain't yo mama's Tiger Lily. My first instinct was to be #Skeptical. It's Hollywood. We are fresh off of Tonto. Has anybody really learned their lesson? Wasn't Peter Pan one of the grossest misrepresentations of Native peoples? Would Disney not even touch it? Is that why it's a Warner Bros. picture? Because if Disney wouldn't touch it then be wary Warner B. Color me #Skeptical Especially when I read this: In Fuchs’ script, an orphan is taken to the magical world of Neverland, where he becomes the savior of the natives and leads a rebellion against the evil pirates led by Blackbeard. Man, we've never heard this story before. This, of course, sends me down a rabbit hole of research and information. Because I want to tell everyone "Run, run far away from this. Do something BETTER than this." This whole thing has a name: "The White Savior Industrial Complex." Lots of people have written about it. You can find this complex demonstrated in: literature, movies, art work, newspapers, songs, nonprofit organizations, viral videos and much more. He comes in many forms. Sometimes he is a lawyer and he gives impassioned about how racism is bad. Sometimes he is a dude on a horse and he has a trusty Native sidekick who likes to help him blow up railroads. Sometimes he is a white guy going to Africa to save Africans from themselves. For Native people the white savior is usually intimately tied to saving Natives from certain extinction. This tale becomes "if only the Natives had _______ then maybe they wouldn't have all died or gotten sick or 'lost' the war for their land." And usually what Natives needed (according to these stories) were more guns, more "modern" ways of thinking, and a white guy. In case you're a writer/ actor/ storyteller/ director/ producer and you're a little unsure if you, in fact, have fallen in to a "white savior industrial complex" movie allow me to provide you with a handy dandy guide. How to tell you are in a white savior movie in which you are the white person tasked with saving Native peoples from certain destruction (and/or Manifest Destiny). 1. You are an orphan. Or you have no other family. You've always wanted a family. 2. You go to a place and notice that there are awesome Native people being all "multi-racial/international" (as per the description in the press release) which usually means kind of a mixture of fictional Pan-Indian ideas. You also notice that they are one big family -- a "tribe" if you will. Many of them are related ("how many cousins do you have?!") Also everybody calls everybody else "Auntie" and that's nice. 3. The Natives there are having a problem dealing with big bad guys who have lots of guns, and technology, and they just want to take over the world. 4. You immediately think "let me teach you how to defend yourself" because "otherwise they will all die." 5. Most of the tribe is more than a little skeptical. But you know they just don't know any better. The Native guy giving you the side-eye, he's the "last of his tribe." You worry about him. 5. There's a girl there, she's probably kind of a rebel. All the rest of the tribe rejects you for a time. But she welcomes you with open arms because she's modern and hip like that. 6. Eventually you will have to lead them in a big fight against the big, bad people with more technology and you will save the day. 7. If at some point there is an elder Native man involved he will help you to discover more about yourself. Also he will die. Don't get too attached. 8. If at some point there is a nice white girl who is your friend, or who is on the other side and she falls in love with a Native man she will die. Don't get too attached. 9. You will save the day and decide to stay in Never land to help the Natives so they don't all just get killed. You have to protect them by living and being with them forever. 10. You're a super Native now. The story needs to be told this way for a number of reasons. First, it takes away the responsibility of genocide. It's almost as if people want to believe that genocide should be harder. In this tale, the attempt to annihilate a group of people wasn't "hard" it was just "destiny" (manifest destiny) and "survival of the fittest." Second, it takes away the worldview and societal organization of Native people. It assumes that Native people would have used their guns to kill everyone. It says that Native people weren't in fact organizing and making strategic decisions. Instead, they were mistaken about the serious of it all, too dumb to understand, too ill equipped to win. Less civilized. Less "intelligent." I have asked people before. "Who is more civilized and intelligent. The group of people who get together to create a society that is equal, balanced, sustainable and builds knowledge of how the world works while also creating a society that cares for all of its people. Or the group of people who get together to make guns and kill people?" Civilized and intelligent. But the story that perpetuates throughout Hollywood movies (if it's not "those savage Indians" or "those stupid Indians" or "those Indians who are busy communing with Nature and not actually living in the modern world") is "if only they had a white guy that could save them from, well mostly themselves, and genocide, but mostly themselves. And this affects how people see modern Native people. It allows people to reject "historical trauma" and the lasting effects of genocide. It pretends that living Native people are not still dealing with the past in the present. So I'm not just concerned because there is another movie about Native people already casting Non-Native people to play Native roles. I'm not trying to argue semantics of "Well, she's not supposed to be 'NATIVE' per se, she's more like, a 'multi-racial, international' character." I'm not trying to split hairs about how everyone is going to view her as Native no matter what you do, and even if you strip all these Native characters of their Native-ness, there is something about the story that rings true to Hollywood's Indian problem. (See, for example, Avatar). Because Hollywood has an Indian problem. Their problem is that Indian people still exist. There are still Indians. They are living, breathing, writing, singing, dancing, entertaining, basketballing, educated, funny Indians. They don't live in magical places where they speak in broken sentences and talk to trees and pass up on the super hot Native guy in favor of the blonde white guy. This is a problem. Hollywood wants Native people to be imaginary. It's easier to make movies that way. Instead of having to learn something or educate yourself or change the dominant idea, they just want to make a movie. They don't want to consider what that means. Diversity, addressing privilege, combating racism, that's hard. Making a movie about an Indian that wears a bird on his head and saves a white guy from death so that he can save the day...that's a summer blockbuster. I'm anxious to see if I am right. You never know how these things go. Hollywood is a funny place where many minds come together to try to make something that is coherent and entertaining to watch. Most of the time this does not end as well as they would like. I once read somebody's memoir of Hollywood (I can't remember who) and it was all about how the script that is written is never usually the movie you see. Not with so many factors (what the actors want, what the director wants, what the studio wants, what the test audiences say). But I do know this. The story of the nice white savior who helps the Natives so that they don't perish and become relegated to the past... that's been done, done, and done. Let's move on. Why not invite some Native scholars or educators to speak with your director and your writer? Why not have them take a Native American Studies class or listen to a lecture? Why not see if that changes what these directors and writers want to show and what they want to write? I have a list you can consult of people who would be willing to talk to you if you just click here. Again, nobody asked me. They probably thought I'd say no. Who knows what I would have said. I think I probably would have started with "let me tell you a little bit about the white savior Industrial complex." PS. Hollywood, if you are looking for some people willing to take a look at and/or consult with you about making this movie (which you probably aren't, but you should be) I'm making a list for just such an occasion. Click here to find out more! To My Fellow Complainers: I realize sometimes this stuff can get a little heavy. We carry with us the continued struggle for representation, a seat at the table, an invitation to be a part of the conversation. We watch as the news goes on to talk about issues of sovereignty and child kidnapping (but they call it things like a "mishandled adoption" #VeronicaBrownBelongsWithHerFather) but they do not invite Native people to be a part of this conversation. "Experts" that are "easy to find" are nonNative and they are often mistaken about what they think they know. We go to plays where we are portrayed as savage or spiritual, or spiritual savages. We ask questions about why this is okay? Why are we still acting like Native peoples are always on their way into the past instead of acknowledging that we are one of the fastest growing groups of people in the United States? Our voices are surprising to people. They are unexpected. Because they believed the tall tale of manifest destiny, they thought there was no way we could survive in the modern world (let alone blog, tweet or speak to). But our worlds were and have always been "modern." Native people have been a part of this landscape, this world, this society, this story since time immemorial. We continue to be. It's not surprising... it's a fact. And it's hard. This past weekend I got tired of it. My friend and I went to Los Angeles where we experienced clear instances of racism, and even more of ignorance toward Native peoples. It was challenging not to roll our eyes and say something sarcastic. It was hard not to sit people down for a long lecture (in a crowded room). It resulted in my dear friend's head being rubbed by a white guy in an effort to? He rubbed it vigorously. (I am completing a blog entry on this incident post haste. Stay tuned! Also PS. stop asking to touch Native people. We don't need you to touch us to make sure we are real. We are.) After this past weekend I was soooo, soooo, tired of what it means to carry, lug, haul and be responsible for and to this continued attempt to make us all disappear. It's a magic trick really. They are moving mirrors, changing words, creating policies, doing slight of hand, because they like that story. "Native people are not real." Because what happens when you are real? What happens when you are standing right in front of them? What happens when you can talk back? This often happens: This was a response to an open letter to Christina Fallin on Native Appropriations. You should read it. Some girl (she is the daughter of the Governor of Oklahoma) wears a headdress and we're supposed to say "well it's not the MOST offensive thing that someone has done in a headdress." But instead, we write back. We take the moment, we educate, we speak the words that need to be spoken. (We share and share and tweet and bring it to our classes and we share some more.) And the response to Adrienne K. (writer of Native Appropriations) is something about how she is discriminating... It can start to feel like shouting into a wind tunnel (so I've heard. I've never actually shouted into a wind tunnel). Suddenly you are on display, held up, put out there because you have dared to question someones "right" to be offensive, patronizing, racist, privileged. They will inevitably use it to take you apart in some way. They will deny your very existence, most often. Maybe they'll listen (that's the goal) but mostly they'll try to defend their right to be offensive. Someone told me once that most people don't feel like their racism is "big enough." Big racism is separate water fountains and sitting on the back of the bus. We cured that (not true) and maybe we have "little" racism left, but we should be grateful. Why aren't we grateful?! Instead, racism becomes "micro." Instances where it can be slathered in "I didn't know" or "I was just joking" or "I was honoring you." Racism becomes measured against all other representations of that group of people. So suddenly I am aware as to why, each and every moment that we take to speak out against each and every single mis-representation is important. Yes, fellow complainers (educators, speakers, comedians, friends) they are paying attention. They are keeping track. The images they see around them -- matter. They not only matter because they are racist, but because they make an impression of "what is okay." And now we have many means by which to say "this is NOT okay." I am proud of you all for taking the lead in this. I am reminded that we are all still carrying, lugging, hauling, and are responsible for how we build our future. Every voice is a reminder and when we put our voices together, when we make more and more, this starts to be the first place that people get information... instead of speaking for us they finally get information from us. Go us. We are shouting into the wind tunnel but there are more of us each day and we are getting louder. And our voices are important. How do I know this? Because of this video. (I put it above for ya). I was not going to share this video. My thought process went a little like this:
But then I watched it again and it was still just as ridiculous and infuriating. And then I considered sharing it without comment just to make other people infuriated. And then I paused and took a breath and wrote to my "sister from another mister" and we both considered throwing things at our computers. But it's not the computer's fault. I already wrote a blog (An Open Letter to No Doubt) a while ago. You can read it if you'd like to know more about the problems with the No Doubt Video: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2012/11/an-open-letter-to-no-doubt-not-so-hot.html Let me tell you how I came across this particular video response to No Doub. One of my students sent it to me because he found it while doing an assignment for my class. THIS is what is out there for people to find information on this video. He was able to expertly take it apart, because of my class. Otherwise, he said, he might not have seen the problem with it. So I see the importance of Native American Studies... because in this situation his knowledge (gained from the class) allowed him to critically respond to this. I see the importance of my responses to the No Doubt Video because he was able to use my words to conceptualize what he wanted to say. I see how this gave him other places to find information and to question what he saw as a "professional" video as his only source of information. On to the video. There is so much to respond to! First - watch and be infuriated. Second, take a deep breath and roll your eyes. Third... we teach. (I teach. This should be a teachable moment. I use my voice to teach). Fourth, we call for action. 1. When asked to express in five words or less how they feel about this video the guests on this show decide on: "No Doubt this is silly." Oh, okay. Sorry host of this show. We will forget that it is racist and offensive because being racist and offensive is in right now. 2. "I'm 1/8th Cherokee and I don't ever complain about nuthin." My student found this girl both the most annoying and the most problematic. He told me "the day you talked about Blood Quantum in class was the day I found this video. I found it interesting she was claiming blood without thinking about what it really means to be a Native American. Like that was her street cred." Point well made student. Point well made. 3. "We know that black face is inappropriate... so we just need to figure out... someone needs to say once and for all and just figure this out because, like, Florida State people dress up like Seminoles every Saturday and the main person in the Seminole Nation is like 'that's fine.'" (Insert picture of Russell Means who is not, in fact, the main person in the Seminole Nation.) Have you spit Ice Tea all over your computer yet? Just me? Just me... And this is the moment where I thought of you, my fellow complainers. You see, it seems like people are anxious to "figure this out." They usually don't like what they hear but maybe as they hear it more it becomes "point of fact" instead of "how come people are always complaining." Cause we all KNOW that black face is inappropriate... because people "complained" and "educated" people to know that. Finally, whoever the "main person" is of the Seminole Nation that is like "that's fine" it's probably not Russell Means (the guy they used as a picture). There is so much more I could tell you about, fellow complainers, but I'll leave it for you to respond to. How about the part where they say that Peter Pan is even more racist. "Nobody talks about that." Like there is a point where you reach your racism max. No Doubt only had like four racist things... they did not reach their racism max. Or, like, whatever. But it's fashion. Stop being politically correct. Blahbeedy blah blah. I learned a lot from this video actually which is why I wanted to share it with you. I learned that it actually is confusing to people because they seem to feel like certain people get "singled out" when we start to respond and critique the things they are doing. They don't see it as a pattern because there are conflicting images out there. For instance, why is the "Washington R-Word" football team okay? Why do we have the racist images of Native peoples in sports if we can't have a No Doubt video? This reminds me why it is important for us to talk about stereotypes and mascots and music videos and to call out and point out every single hipster who ever wears a headdress. Every single one matters. So don't stop your Facebook rants, your twitters storms ( #NotYourMascot #NotYourTonto ), your open letters, your blogs, your symposiums or your hilarious videos. Don't stop your poetry, your art, your musings, your songs, your jokes. Keep "complaining." Because guess what. I read some of the YouTube comments (never, never, read the comments) and what I found out was... they started with a bunch of people calling out the awfulness of this video. They started with people saying that this video was the problem. I was proud of the You Tube commenters. And when am I ever going to get to say that again? Hopefully a lot more. We have a job to do fellow complainers. We keep complaining...together. -Love, Me. P.S. I nominate ME to be the "main person" of "The Native American Organization." Any seconds? P.P.S. I would like to email this show and give them a list of Native people who could actually go on their show to talk about these issues in the future. As I am going to soon be the "main person" of "The Native American Organization" though, I thought it might be more helpful to do that here, and then to also email this list to CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, Huff Post, Jezebel, Gawker, etc., and other shows I can find on You Tube, so that everyone can have this list for their use. If you would like to be added to the list please let me know! Email me the following information:
The start of the list is below! (If you are from the Media and want to know more Natives who may be willing to talk to you about Native issues... check back often! Or get in touch with me and I'll point you in the right direction.) Dear Media: Here is a list of actual Native People who may be willing to talk to you about Native issues so that you don't have to have people on your shows that say things like "No speak, me no feel." You're welcome. (In Progress) Name: Jennie Stockle Contact: Email (click to email) Tribal Affiliation: I'm a Cherokee Nation citizen Cherokee-Creek woman Blog: Ladyhoneybea.blogspot.com EONM Executive Committee Member like JJ Areas: Indigenous activism, Eradicating Native Racism and Discrimination, Native American Women and Children Issues, Supporting Native American Arts and Artists, Native Youth Suicide Prevention, and Promoting Native American involvement in STEM fields. Name: Summer Wesley Tribal Affiliation: Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Blog: ndnsworld.blogspot.com Tumblr: http://chahtasmmr.tumblr.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChahtaSmmr Areas: ICWA, Indian Law (both at the tribal & federal levels), Native Mascots, Tribal Sovereignty, Tribal Disenrollment, Media Representations, Cultural Appropriations, Languages, Native Women's Issues, Environmental Issues Name: Johnnie Jae Sisneros Tribal Affiliation: Otoe-Missouria and Choctaw Contact: Email (click to email) Website: www.nativemax.com Areas: Native Mascots, Tribal Disenrollment, Fashion, Media Representation, Cultural Appropriations, Languages, Native Women's Issues, Environmental Issues. Name: Me. (Cutcha Risling Baldy) Tribal Affiliation: Hupa, Karuk, Yurok Contact Email (click to email) Website: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com Areas: Native American Women, California Indian History, Why you should not be making music videos about tying Native women to walls, Native American Literature, Why the Veronica Brown case was the legalized kidnapping of a Native child, Representations of Native people in Pop Culture, How to Get In To Blogging Without Really Trying, Making Really Good Salmon Cakes, Native American politics and contemporary issues. Somebody DID take me up on this offer! And so it begins...
Directions (or process or methods)
I often do this in my class with my students on those days when we are talking about cultural appropriation, cultural representation, No Doubt music videos and whatever else has come up within the last few months that has to do with some person dressing up as a Native female and portraying her as: overly sexualized, easy on the eyes, overly - feathered, underly-feathered, entirely there for the viewing pleasure of somebody else, as a woman who likes the earth, as a woman who likes to dress up and dance around while being overly sexualized, as something "super cute" and "super cool" to imitate by wearing something entirely overly sexualized. I will usually ask "but who cares right? I mean it's just one person doing something dumb, it's not like it affects the way we see Native women. It's not like it is the only way that people see Native women." And then I will say "alright, let's see, in a totally not scientifically designed, nor institutionally reviewed way, what happens when you Google Native American Women." And this is what happens: Before we get started I would like you to look at this screen shot from my computer and pick the photo that makes you stop and stare for a moment. Which of these photos, for you, makes the quickest impression. Which one makes you stop? After you've done that... make a mental note and continue reading. At the end of this thing *spoiler alert* I will tell you the image that ends up being the one that most of my captive audiences make note of. Hokay -- In which I lead a presentation on what happens when you Google "Native American Women" and critically analyze the images or "Hupas be like dang where'd you get that dentalium cape girl? Showing off all your money! PS suck it Victorias Secret."I will usually start with this question -- "What Do You Notice About The First Image?" Paraphrased Answer -- Native American Women are stoic and have long hair and are in black and white. Actually it's called "sepia." No this is not an Instagram filter. I will usually begin with this image because it is the first image. As I learned from the Sound Of Music (Julie Andrews' Sound of Music and not whatever that was on NBC a few months back) - we should start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... So this image is an Edward Curtis image. That's important. (At least to me it is; that nugget of info might not be important to everyone). Interestingly enough, when you Google Native American, or American Indian, or Native American Indian you will probably come up with Edward Curtis images. Lots of them. And you will most likely, at some point, come up with this one -------> That's Curtis's "Vanishing Race" photo and it became a signature piece, a piece that defined his point of view, a piece that people associated with the impetus and also meaning of his work. In Curtis's mind there were Native people in America and they were vanishing, literally riding off into the sunset, and Curtis was going to take pictures of them so that his photos would become the last documentation of this once great people. (Except that didn't happen, and Native people are still alive, and they are not all riding off into the sunset. In fact, I can't ride a horse. Shhh... don't tell. I would fail that Indian test.) But for many people these photos DID become the way that they saw and understood Native people: stuck at a certain period of time, looking a certain way, never smiling, always in the old West. These photos weren't always the bees knees, however. There's a super interesting story that happened where Curtis basically died penniless, alone and without the fame that he was chasing. Also interesting, they found his photos in a basement because nobody had really cared about them until they were "rediscovered" in the early 1970s. It's easy to find the dude supremely annoying. At least I did at first. He was just another white guy convinced that all Native people were on their way "into the past" and that he would be the one to capture their greatness before they disappeared. This is a common thought by a lot of white dudes in history, anthropology, archaeology, and photography among other disciplines. Could you imagine someone coming up to you and saying "I want to take a picture of you and your family because all of you are going to die soon. Okay thanks, bye." I would probably stop and be like "Wait a minute, we're going to die soon? Is there something we can do about this? I'd rather not just die. Are you here just to watch me die? Shouldn't we be talking about how you have this information and I do not? Shouldn't we maybe be trying to help me and my family not die?" And Edward Curtis would have said (maybe, I'm basically putting words in his mouth) "Oh sweet dear, it can't be stopped. Progress and all. Say cheese!" In the end, Curtis's photos were a way for him to solidify the death of Native people by taking their last pictures for posterity. This was exciting to a lot of people because deep down they wanted Native people to be dying. They really wanted them to just disappear. It would solve "the Indian problem" (that's the problem where Native people are still alive and the treaties still count and it's like "hey, can't you just go away so we don't actually have to be beholden to agreements that we made saying we would always be beholden to them? J/K about those treaties and stuff."), it would also make it a lot easier to claim that the United States (or the colonial government) is the "rightful" owner of the land, because nobody else owns it, they are all dead. This is the trope and belief system that Edward Curtis photos were supposed to contribute to. But instead, he captured many hundreds if not thousands of people who were carrying on in their lives despite what (at that time and continues to be) had been many, many attempts to annihilate, kill or assimilate every single one of them. So it's a fascinating story of survival, revitalization, survivance, resistance, strength and the power of culture. It's not a story about Edward Curtis in the end, although (to be fair) Curtis goes through what I see as a pretty fantastic transformation. He stops talking about the "inevitable death" of this group of people and instead starts writing about how the previous and continued policies of the federal government are causing the decline of these people and it is disgraceful. Edward Curtis's photos are everywhere and he had a certain style. He wanted his Indians to be stoic and looking longingly into the distance, almost like they were trying to see the future that they would not be a part of. He didn't want smiling, laughing, modern clothes wearing Native peoples in his photos. He was known to make people change clothes, get rid of any evidence of modern life, use the same shirt that he had picked up for whatever tribe he was photographing to make them look "more Indian." He picked certain lighting, certain ways of sitting, certain profiles because he thought they conveyed seriousness. To him, Natives were serious people, serious, dignified, kind of sad, a little staid, always sepia toned. His women were no different. Curtis is still the first photo that is going to pop up when you Google Native American Women. Consider that. What does it mean that of the main images that appear in Google Images, Edward Curtis's photo is the first to define Native American women? His viewpoint instantly becomes the one that people know the most. And make no mistake, his message lingers. So when I do this exercise I usually ask this question: "And what do you notice about the woman in this first photo? The way she dresses? The expression on her face? How she sits?" Some comments: "She is very serious." "She seems kind of stiff." "She's not wearing a feather in her hair." "She is very covered up and is wearing a lot of, are those shells? Well, she's pretty covered up." That will become important later. Question-- "Now, tell me what you notice about the 2nd Image" Answer -- Native American Women are beautiful beings who wear feathers and are spiritual and they live in the skies and everything is beautiful. Actually they are. So there you go. Let's move on to the next image. Oh wait, here she is again. The beautiful woman of the earth. I usually like to point out one thing especially about this photo - the title. "Women of the Earth: The Face of the Modern Native Woman." And then we talk about what this means. I don't want to speak for her. In truth, I don't know the back story of this photo. There is something nice about calling her a "modern" Native American woman who is also wearing her traditional regalia. This shows that Native people did not just fade on in to society and they no longer have these pieces to wear in "modern times." Maybe it's kind of nice that she has her regalia and she is wearing it and she is modern. However, it also is tied to a number of stereotypes and assumptions about Native women that need to be critically analyzed. There are reasons that Native Women, their image and ideas about them are so intimately tied to the land or the earth. Part of this could be an epistemological belief from their respective tribes. This could be because of historical ideas across cultures and nations about the earth. This could be because of settler colonialism. I like to blame Columbus, because who doesn't like to do that? The fact is that Native women are associated in many people's minds with being beautiful, mystical, women of the Earth - almost magical - almost. And when you are talking about settler colonialism, this also meant - Native Women were really just there for the settling, through whatever means necessary. If your body is just like the land, then your body needs to be conquered. After that your body can be vaulted to magical, mystical status, tied intimately to the earth - and yet always objectified (as many of us continue to do to the earth, as well). Q -- "What else stands out about these Native American Women in these pictures?" A -- Well, the old ones seem kind of unhappy. And, of course, sepia toned. Native American Women, BTdubbs, are not generally unhappy. Some of them are very happy. Some of them are hilariously happy. Some of them are not happy sometimes. But look at a lot of pictures of Native people in general and you probably won't find a lot of them laughing away at an inappropriate joke while at The Olive Garden (that happens a lot though, to some Native people, like me, the other day). Now ask yourself why, why does the "stoic" image of Native people persist? Why so many sepia pictures of Native people not smiling? It was Vine Deloria, Jr. who said It has always been a great disappointment to Indian people that the humorous side of Indian life has not been mentioned by professed experts on Indian Affairs. Rather the image of the granite-faced grunting redskin has been perpetuated by American mythology. The thing about it is, Native people are hilarious. Also, we laugh really, really loud. Of my many Native women friends (yes, many, I'm so popular!) when we get together all we do is laugh and laugh. But this stereotype and belief not only continues, it also becomes what people expect from Native people. And it becomes what Native people joke about. Stop smiling in the pictures, practice your stoic face. My stoic face looks like a little girl trying to tell her Dad it is not fair that she has to go to bed early. I would not have been asked to pose in Edward Curtis's pictures. Q -- Is this photo different from the others? A -- "You know that one seems happy." "She seems more real." "She seems more like a real person." "I think she looks really proud." Wouldn't you be? That's some pretty awesome regalia. PS. If you know who this woman is, please email me. I would like to know. She's very popular on Google. *UPDATE* Ask and you will receive! From an email sent to me: Hello! Great read about Native American Women. You asked if anyone knew who the woman is in the picture with the red regalia. Her name is Leela Abrahamson. Q -- "Is that Megan Fox?" A -- I think I heard she was Native somewhere, you know, back when people were all in to Megan Fox. I'm still totes in to Megan Fox. We could be friends. I would constantly ask her questions about what it is like to be married to David Silver and if she makes copious amounts of 90210 references over dinner or if she owns a "Donna Martin Graduates" t-shirt. Wikipedia says that Megan Fox is Native American: She has English, and smaller amounts of Scottish, German, French, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), and Powhatan Native American, ancestry This website that I just found says that she is possibly 1/256th Powhatan Native American. That's quite specific. They must have a BIA blood quantum chart on hand. But this website - courtesy of something called askmen.com is offensive, sad, degrading and also infuriating. As far as confirming whether or not Megan Fox is a Native person, it doesn't. But it does say this: Megan Fox doesn’t really look like all the other girls — she looks better than them. Claiming French, Irish and Cherokee ancestry, Megan Fox was born in Tennessee, where the Cherokee had lived for generations before anyone called it Tennessee. Today, the Cherokee Nation represents one of the country’s largest Native American populations — a tale of survival from which Megan Fox may one day need to draw inspiration, since she is as sizzling as can be right now and will need all the help she can get to stay that way. I'm sorry what? When I read this to people during my presentation they just look at me funny. And then I say -- "Yep, this is how websites that purport to be 'a men's online magazine' talk about Native Women." Native Women are beautiful, good thing too cause that will help them later when there is some other little girl trying to be beautiful and they can draw from the years of genocide to fight their way back to the top of the beauty pyramid. This persistent stereotype that Native Women are so beautiful comes from a long line of colonial conquests of lands. It has to do with what Edward Said (oooo super philosopher) called Orientalism and what I call "butt-head-ism." It has to do with travelers tales of far off lands, and the process of exploration which included sending a bunch of degenerate lonely men on a boat for months at a time where they landed somewhere and saw some women (who they usually thought of as closer to animals than anything) and thought "these women must be totally here for me to conquer, like I conquer the land, because they are so different from our women." They also weren't wearing shirts. This, according to these degenerate sailors, made them cuter. And closer to animals. It also has to do with Columbus, who wrote that the women of his newly "discovered" land were the most beautiful he had ever seen. They were so beautiful, he believed, they were essentially inviting him (and all of his degenerate man sailors) to rape, debase, degrade and mistreat them. That's what their beauty did. So it's really their fault. And after that the tales of far off lands included claims that the Indigenous men were savage beasts and the women were beautiful and just waiting to be ravaged and owned. Much like the land was waiting for the same purposes. So instead of talking about how awesome it was that Native women were leaders of their communities, that they were doctors, botonists, geographers, guides, linguists, storytellers, philosophers, diplomats, singers, dancers etc., we get "aren't Native women supposed to be like really beautiful? That must be why Megan Fox is so beautiful." Maybe. It might also explain why she's crafty enough to catch herself a David Silver too. Q -- "Uh no. Just no. Nuh-huh. No. Nope. No. Just... no." (That's not actually what I say when I'm doing this presentation by the way, but it's all I can muster at this very moment) A -- What I notice about this picture is feathers. Feathers. Lots of feathers. Is that a leopard print bikini? At least she's wearing a bikini. They just look kind of dumb. Ahhh... the headdress and the model. I feel like there is a bedtime story, tall tale fable in there somewhere. You see my darling child, long ago, they would sometimes dress up models as Native people by putting large headdresses on them and making them walk runways. "But why Papa?" We don't know why. It really made no sense. We couldn't possibly know why this seemed like a good idea. But there was something fascinating to these people about dressing up models like Indian peoples. Not the covered up, stoic, sepia toned Native peoples. Not the modern day, smiling, cool dance regalia Native peoples. But the kind that seems to say "hey, pretend I got captured by a Native American chief and he like totes let me wear his headdress and then I like totes became like an Indian princess and then like got all into the tribe and stuff but then they came and said 'Hey all you Native Americans have to walk thousands of miles in the snow and probably die because we feel like moving you to a new place cause we want your land now.' And then I was all, oh my gawd, kidding. I'm not REALLY a Native Princess. I was just playing an Indian for fun, cause it's fun until you try to kill me for being Native. Look if I take off this headdress, I'm just back to me, and I don't even have to walk that far and stuff." *The End* Dressing up like an Indian means that eventually one (the model, the people at a festival, the actress on the cover of a magazine) can take off that costume and just go back to living in a world where they don't have to put up with institutionalized racism, challenges to identity, challenges to your very existence, continued violence against your land, your body, your community. "Playing Indian" is a living testament to --- white privilege. Also, leopard print underwear? Really Victoria's Secret? Q: "Okay, let's talk about this picture really quick" A: Oh, that's Pocahontas. No, it's not. This is Pocahontas. I just asked my daughter what she thought of this picture (she's 6) and she said "Her dress is short but I like her necklace." "What do you think of her hair?" "It's okay. Your hair is better." And this concludes "Why my daughter gets to stay up late tonight and eat candy before bed time with Cutcha Risling Baldy." And now to reveal the picture that most people say is the one they stopped and noticed first. *TA DA* -- did you? Q-- What about the first image? Or the other images by Edward Curtis? How did they dress? A-- They were very covered up. They were covered mostly. Q-- What about the image of the girl smiling in her regalia. How was she dressed? A-- She was very covered up but she had beautiful bead work. She was smiling. She seemed very happy. Q -- So who is not covered up? In these pictures? A -- Pocahontas. Victorias Secret Models dressed up like Indian women. Other models in costumes. And this girl. Here are some things I don't know about her. I don't know if she is actually a Native person. I don't know where she is from. I don't know what she is advertising. I don't know why she is walking through a field wearing a headband and a feather and I don't know who she is looking at. But let's talk a little about her. I usually say: Somebody tell me her story. What's happening in this photo? "She's walking thorough a field." "Good." And what else? Is she scared? Is she running from a serial killer? Is she going to Grandma's house?" "No." "What is she doing?" "It's almost like she is inviting you, like whoever is looking at the picture, to come and like get her." "Alright. She's got this come hither look about her. And what else? She wants you come and get her so she can teach you about how Native American women were central to many Native societies in politics and culture and how they helped to shape democracy?" "No. Like she is saying she wants to have sex with you." And there you go. Here is my major problem with this photo. This photo, this messed up fantasy that takes the "Native women want me" colonial, conquest ideology and puts it in picture form -- this photo which portrays Native women as being practically naked, sexualized, walking through a field, open for whatever, this photo which lets you know she is a Native woman that wants whatever you are going to do to her, this photo that is pure fiction -- it comes up more than once in the "Native American Women" section of Google Images. And you know what else comes up: And this leads me to the part where I point out this photo. Included as part of the Google images search it is a poignant reminder of the many reasons why these types of images... matter. That's right. Maybe our "popularized" images, the ones that we are inundated with, maybe they don't just reflect how we think, they influence how we think. And if we are not taught other things about Native women (like say in school, or on television programs, or in movies...) then these images are what we know. This whole exercise... it's only a start. This is just a place to to start to have this conversation. How can we learn from the images that are all around us? And how can we start to expect, demand and make other images become what are the popular images of all women. How can we teach people to be critical of these images? How do we change our Google Image results? Because don't get me started on what happens when you Google Image: Asian Women... Black Women... Or just... women... I can't be the only person who was all "Meg Ryan? That's cool. Whatever happened to Meg Ryan?"
Also -- The gal on the second row at the very end with the tan jacket on. That's Viktorija Čmilytė. I looked her up on Wikipedia because she comes up so high on this Google Images search. She is the Lithuanian chess player with the titles Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and Grandmaster (GM). She won the gold medal at the Women's European Individual Chess Championship in 2011. That's awesome. (There's hope for you yet... Google Images.) Hokay. Just so everyone knows. I do get your emails/ messages. I do read them. I have found that responding to them is sometimes hard but I try to get through as many as I can. Today I am working on my syllabus and class for our upcoming quarter and in between, wondering how I can best provide some information to people asking me sincere questions. I figure, I'll use it as a jumping off point for another cool (yep, COOL) list for the blog. So here is a list of five things that people have asked me about -- I hope it somewhat answers some of your requests. And now back to the syllabus. Five (New-ish) Videos To Watch/ Use/ Learn FromI know Jim (the dude who plays "Red Jacket") because all Native people know each other. :) Actually it's because he went to Stanford and I went to Stanford which just goes to show you that all Native people eventually meet at Stanford. Also "Ask a Slave" is a great You Tube series. You should go to there. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPZR1lUMS47BA-N2Ihrtlg?feature=watch I don't know any of the 1491s (unfortunately) but I know people who know them, because the people I know are cool like that. If you haven't been watching the 1491s on You Tube you really should. When I show them to my students in class I usually get emails from students the next day that go "Hey, I just spent all night watching all of the 1491s videos. HA HA HA." #IndianHumor http://www.youtube.com/user/the1491s Is this the coolest way to do a short documentary that I've seen in a long time. Probably. Has this inspired me that there are SO MANY ways to get stories out there. Yes. Do I wish I had thought of this first? Daily. Can I draw? No.
('e:wa:k) Charlie Hill passed away very recently. He was a standout of standup comedy and he was a Native person. And if it is true (which I think it is) that humor, Indian humor especially, helps us to heal -- then Charlie Hill was a healer. Four Native Organizations to Give To/ Support/ Like on Facebook/ Learn FromNative Women's Collective. I have to say this one because I am the Executive Director there. And from my work as a nonprofit fundraiser I have learned -- always be closing. No, wait, that's with Real Estate. It's actually "Always be asking." Support us! We are a nonprofit that supports the continued growth of Native American arts and culture. We are an entirely volunteer run organization and we hope to continue to expand so that we can do arts, culture, language, educational and other projects that help support Native people and communities. In the past year we've done basket weaving retreats, bear grass braiding circles, cultural demonstrations, educational lectures, and started a project on the history of regalia pieces from our area. If you want you can donate to us. Visit our website. Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples. SGF is an organization that supports other Native organizations while also working on many of the important issues facing Indigenous peoples throughout the world. They encourage us all to "Be a Good Ancestor." From their website: Seventh Generation Fund is an Indigenous non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and maintaining the uniqueness of Native peoples and the sovereignty of our distinct Nations. We offer an integrated program of advocacy, small grants, training and technical assistance, media experience and fiscal management, lending our support and extensive expertise to Indigenous grassroots communities. Learn about us, the programs and services we provide, our grantmaking guidelines and giving philosophies, upcoming events, online publications and so much more! http://www.7genfund.org/ National Indian Child Welfare Association: Protecting our Children, Preserving Our Culture. The importance of what NICWA does was demonstrated this year with the Veronica Brown case. The very disappointing outcome of that case highlighted how NICWA is necessary to help educate the wider public about the importance of protecting Native families. You can find out more and donate to them on their website: http://www.nicwa.org/donate/ From their website: The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) works to address the issues of child abuse and neglect through training, research, public policy, and grassroots community development. NICWA also works to support compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), which seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian families. NICWA improves the lives of American Indian children and families by helping tribes and other service providers implement services that are culturally competent, community-based, and focused on the strengths and assets of families. This work includes collaborating with tribal and urban Indian child welfare programs to increase their service capacity, enhancing tribal-state relationships, and providing training, technical assistance, information services and alliance building. Hey Day Books. Most of the books I use in my classes on California Indian people are from Hey Day because Hey Day is really fantastic at publishing Native California authors, artists, poets and more. Their California Indian Publishing Program: aims to celebrate Indian culture through our quarterly magazine, News from Native California, and books on Native life; hosting Indian events; and helping provide reading material to community members who would not otherwise have access to quality Indian publications.Along with News from Native California, we’ve also published more than forty books devoted to California Indian culture and history, we’ve sponsored scores of events,we’ve launched two museum shows that traveled the state, and we’ve been helpful to the Indian community in a number of significant ways. From the website: Heyday is an independent, nonprofit publisher and unique cultural institution. As a member of the Publishers Club, you will receive discounts on books, invitations to thought-provoking events and festive book-launch parties, seasonal book catalogs, regular updates about what’s happening on the California cultural scene, and a meaningful way to participate in an enterprise that combines vision, intelligence, and creativity. https://heydaybooks.com/ Three Books to Read/ Buy/ Learn From/ Pass AlongBad Indians by Deborah Miranda. 2013 for me was the year I found Deborah Miranda, fan girled out on her at the California Indian Conference, stalked her again at a reading in San Francisco, taught her book in my class, and decided that finally I had an easy answer to the question "well, what should I read then if I can't read this book written by some historian about the Mission system?" What did my students say about it - "This book made me laugh, cry and want to write a letter to my school telling them to stop teaching the Missions the way they do!" Read Deborah Miranda. You will not regret it. Buy it: http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Indians-A-Tribal-Memoir/dp/1597142018 Mark My Words: Native Women Remapping Our Nations by Mishuana Goeman. You know how there are those books that make you feel super smart when you are done reading them because (1) you understood what the author had to say and (2) you understood what the author had to say and that author is very smart and so that makes you feel smart? That may just be me. Mishuana Goeman wrote this book and I underlined basically the entire introduction. (She's also on my dissertation committee - because she makes me work super hard and do real good work even when I don't want to...) She's talking about space and maps and geography and Native Women. Actually, she's interrogating these things. Actually, she's (re) mapping and (re) defining what we talk about when we talk about maps, geography, space and Native people. Buy it: http://www.amazon.com/Mark-My-Words-Directions-Indigenous/dp/0816677913 The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King. I just wrote a review of this book for the American Indian Culture and Research Journal. The book is funny. It's full of countless information. It's a quick read but packs a lasting punch. King is not just lecturing, he's having a conversation, and he's telling a few jokes here and there. The book talks about both Canada and the United States, which just goes to show you that there are Native people EVERYWHERE (even in Canada and the United States). I read the book in a day, but I also could see how it could take a while to get through. There is a lot of information in there. For instance: Did you know that before John Smith supposedly met and was saved by Pocahontas that, according to Smith, he had met and been saved by three other women in far off places like Turkey, Russia and France. "...all of whom assisted him during his trials and tribulations as a young mercenary." (8) King calls him a "lucky guy." Apparently, according to John Smith, women liked saving John Smith. (Or he made the whole thing up) Buy it: http://www.amazon.com/The-Inconvenient-Indian-Curious-Account/dp/0816689768 Two Hupa phrases to learn and use in your every day language
And this is not just because my Walking Dead blog entry went everywhere and even got a shout out in Indian Country Today! But also because the show is starting again soon -- so it will come in handy when you invite your friends. ch'indin da:ywho'-ding ch'iwidil (Translation: corpse, they were going along somewhere) One Song to Listen to and Get You Moving in 2014 (Yes I'm dancing in front of my computer right now)Does anybody know these guys? I want them to come to UC Davis and play a show. I may invite other people. Just putting it out there... Back to dancing.
Hello Everyone! After an extended break up to Hoopa and out to town, one kid friendly New Years Eve Pajama Jam (complete with jammie fashion show) and a carload of dirty clothes I am finally back in front of a computer. I'm starting off 2014 with a recap of a few blog entries as my "year in review" on the old bloggity blog. These are in no particular order, though I have to begin with the Walking Dead one because, dang, that thing got AROUND and at one point it was sent to me in an email telling me I should read my blog. I've had some emails asking about what's up for 2014. In 2014 I am writing - a lot. I have a dissertation to write. I'm finishing a book. I'm finishing some short stories. I'm finishing a documentary with Wren Usdi Productions. AND I plan to write more blogs. So hopefully you have liked me on Facebook which is where I update when I post. Thank you to everyone who sends me comments, emails, questions and stories. I read each and every one even if I can't write you a personal reply. And to my friends and family for constantly inspiring me to write more... And to my daughter - for being awesome sauce. And now-- on to the BLOG YEAR IN REVIEW (with updates!) In Which I *Spoiler Alert* all over the Walking Dead and a whole bunch of people pass it around.Excerpt from the blog: Anyway, Indians. When I started watching the Walking Dead I immediately thought about Indians. And when people tell me “Man, Indians, they are always going on and on about genocide and stuff and they should just get over it” I often pause and say “Well, consider the Walking Dead…” Lawrence Gross (he’s a scholar and a Native person) talks about “Post Apocalypse Stress Syndrome” where he says that Native American people have “seen the end of our world” which has created “tremendous social stresses.” California Indians often refer to the Mission System and the Gold Rush as “the end of the world.” What those who survived experienced was both the “apocalypse” and “post apocalypse.” It was nothing short of zombies running around trying to kill them. Think about it. Miners (who were up in Northern California, where I am from) thought it was perfectly fine to have “Indian hunting days” or organize militias specifically to kill Indian people. These militias were paid. They were given 25 cents a scalp and $5 a head. (In 1851 and 1852 the state of California paid out close to $1 million for the killing of Indians…) In effect, for a long time in California, if you were an Indian person walking around, something or someone might just try to kill you. They were hungry for your scalp and your head. They had no remorse. There was no reasoning with them. And there were more of them then there was of you. (Zombies. But even worse, living, breathing, people Zombies. Zombies who could look at you and talk to you and who were supposed to be human. Keep that in mind. The atrocities of genocide during this period of time, they were not committed by monsters -- they were committed by people. By neighbors. By fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters.) Read the full entry here: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2013/12/on-telling-native-people-to-just-get-over-it-or-why-i-teach-about-the-walking-dead-in-my-native-studies-classes-spoiler-alert.html *Update* Dear lord, this thing went everywhere! Over 11,000 likes to date. I can only say thank you to everyone who took the time to read. Even the person who wrote and told me "This could have been a lot shorter." (I do read and consider each of your comments by the way. And yes - I have to approve them but that is because otherwise I get a lot of spam on the blog. Thank you for taking the time to comment and share your thoughts and stories.) In Which I freely admit that I cried when I watched Dusten Brown have his daughter Veronica Brown taken from him in what amounts to a legalized kidnapping of a Native child simply because a "nice white couple" wanted herYes. I have emotions. Excerpt from the blog (that was republished on Native News Network!): Dear Dusten Brown: I never know where to begin. The truth is that I have started, re-started and changed this letter many, many times. And after much deliberation I always seem to start the same way. Dusten, I am sorry. I am sorry for every ignorant internet comment, every misinformed and lazy reporter, every single time I ever watched Dr. Phil (before and after he did that awful, biased show about your daughter). I am sorry for reporters not wanting to tell your story, for people who believe they have all the information without doing any research outside of their one-sided view from the adoptive couple. And I am sorry that I participated in this. I am sorry that I tried to present this case as "complicated" when it is not complicated. I am sorry that I thought I had to be nice. I am sorry that I wrote that the adoptive couple were not "bad people" and that in my effort to be "reasoned" I erased their malevolent intent and continued attempts to perpetrate injustice. I am sorry that I believed in "justice" and "reason" and that I didn't immediately understand that your case was a call to action, not a call for support. Read More: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2013/09/on-separating-veronica-brown-from-her-father-dusten-brown-a-letter-to-dusten-brown.html http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2013/08/i-keep-saying-watch-out-world-im-going-to-post-about-the-baby-veronica-case-someday-and-so-here-it-is.html *Update* I almost cannot do an update justice in this situation. (In the end, Veronica was taken from her father by two people who then turned around and sued him for their lawyers fees and who refuse to drop the charges in their state. This effectively bars him from visiting her. They took his daughter and they also want his money. They are diabolical...) For the most up to date information I would suggest visiting the Standing Our Ground for Veronica Brown Facebook page to learn more about the continued unethical adoption practices that separate daughters from fathers (Native or otherwise). This is an issue I continue to teach and talk about. It is something that my friends and I plan on addressing in numerous ways because Veronica Brown belongs with her father. In Which I go see another (as in an additional, as in people keep writing these things and then acting all "surprised" that Native people don't fawn all over and fall in love with their continued musings about how real Native people are dead) play about a "famous" Native person.Excerpt from the blog: I suppose the one thing I can’t get out of my head, that thing I woke up the next day repeating was the last line of the play. At the very end of the play Crazy Horse is left on stage alone and he pulls back a curtain to reveal the Pine Ridge Reservation, supposedly, maybe, the “modern” Pine Ridge - a trash filled, barren, wasteland. Crazy Horse cries. He says “The Lakota have nothing.” He calls this place the “pitiful remnants” with pennilessness, depression, and “despair of an empty life.” And he says “The Lakota are finally defeated.” Before he turns his back on us and mutters. “It is better to be dead.” It is better to be dead. Did this play, did this author, did Crazy Horse just tell me, a living, breathing, singing, dancing, loving, laughing, joking, mothering Native woman that it is better to be dead than the Native person that I am? Did Crazy Horse just tell me, he would rather be dead, than to be a part of the living, breathing, singing, dancing, loving, laughing, joking, mothering, fathering, grandparenting, Lakota people? It is better to be dead. I left the theatre flabbergasted and… pissed. THIS is what passes as art? THIS is what people call material to “enrich, engage, educate, inspire and entertain” (that’s from the message from the Executive Producing Director in the program BTW). It is better to be dead than to be an Indian? Read the full blog entry here: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2013/11/in-which-i-go-see-crazy-horse-and-custer-so-you-dont-have-to-a-play-review-for-crazy-horse.html *Update* There were protests held at the theatre by a group of Native people. The play house seemingly responded by allowing comments to be posted to their Facebook, but not refusing to stop the show. But then if you check their Facebook now they seemed to have edited the comments speaking out against the play? Also, they would only post reviews with semi-positive spins on the production of the play. Which is too bad for them as there was an opportunity for real dialogue and collaboration to create a more meaningful play that actually complicates the all too overused "dying Indian" trope. In Which I Explain Why I Wear "Indian" Jewelry (short answer: cause it's awesome) and also how Hupa people been "blinging" since the year 1.Excerpt from the blog: My interest was peeked by this idea - "why do I wear Indian jewelry?" I get the sentiment of what she is trying to say, so I'm going to offer my two cents, because I have two cents to offer, and because I think we need to have multiple people talking about the same issues because we want people to understand that "Indian" people aren't just one or two people who got interviewed for a movie, they are all different kinds of people from all different kinds of places. We want more than once voice, more than one view. The complexity of what it means to "be an Indian" is a far more interesting and important conversation then "what do all the Indians think about (insert random subject here)?" I like to tell people "Well, at our last meeting of all the Indians we decided THIS is what we think about whatever issue or idea you are asking me about." Those meetings are pretty top secret. Often times I'll even localize it for people, when they are asking me "What do Hupa's think about...?" I'll say "Well, next week we're having another meeting of every single Hupa person and I can ask them what our official feeling is about that..." I have always been taught in my family, and I notice a lot of people do it now, to say "I have been taught" or "I believe" or "What I know" or "What I heard." This is an oral history thing to me, a long tradition of "Tell me where you're coming from" and "understand that might be different for someone else." It's all about relativity, which Vine Deloria, Jr. wrote a lot about. Read the full entry here: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2013/01/5-reasons-i-wear-indian-jewelry-or-hupaswe-been-bling-blingin-since-year-1.html *Update* Still rocking my Native jewelry. That picture is of my elk horn hair stick that I got for Christmas -- made by my brother. And yes, the jewelry is still awesome. In Which I Write A Letter To A Dude - who wanted some "feedback" on a less than original appropriation of Native culture.Excerpt from the blog: I wasn’t going to weigh in, because I’m busy, but also because many of my fellow Native community members were doing an awesome job offering reasoned responses to yet another example of cultural appropriation gone wrong. (This implies, of course, that there is cultural appropriation gone right, somewhere, out there, in the land of cultural appropriation. It probably has something to do with the Cheesecake Factory making Navajo Tacos, though I hear their frybread leaves something to be desired…) First – a quick and dirty run down history. There is a company. This company wants to make a tshirt. The artist at the company designs one. It’s has an Indian looking guy on it with some feather headdress and earrings and whole bunches of generic “Indian” looking designs in the background. And underneath it says “Chief Life.” A bunch of people respond. Some like it, some don’t, some are concerned, some are concerned about people being too concerned. Friends of mine get involved. The artist asks for honest feedback about the design. People give it to him. He says some people are rude, some people aren’t, but mostly he thinks they are rude. He is surprised by the response so he “redesigns” it to be an Aztec guy, and not some generic Indian guy. (This seems to mean from the pictures I’ve seen that he changes the generic designs in the background to Aztec writing symbols and also adds some Aztec design looking earrings and an Aztec shield to the guys forehead. Everything is the same. It’s like, Mr. Potato-Head Indian Style. Exchange your cultural appropriation parts for others, make an entirely new Indian Mr. Potato-Head.)... Read the full entry here: http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com/1/post/2013/03/humboldt-county-t-shirt-controversy-thats-all-up-in-my-facebook-or-native-american-mr-potato-head-now-with-aztec-parts.html *Update* The response from people to this entry was amazing. I still meet people IRL who quote this blog entry to me. I haven't heard much on the t-shirt front since it happened. I was in contact with the artist a few times via Facebook. He said I misquoted him. I did not. Here we go 2014!
So a friend of mine wrote me a message on Facebook that went a little like this: how the heck do you get through to someone that thinks natives need to just get over it. I started writing him back and then realized that on this day (a day where I should be grading and preparing for final exams) this question sparked something in me and suddenly I was writing him a blog entry. I decided I would both send him my somewhat epic response and also – post it here. Then I’ll start getting ready for finals. I swear! Question: how the heck do you get through to someone that thinks natives need to just get over it. Answer: Shake them? I never advocate shaking people, but maybe something is loose in there. Tell them to take a Native American Studies Course (it ain’t cheap, but it’s worth it). But if I’m being honest, lately, when this comes up (and isn’t it telling that it comes up often enough that I can begin with “lately” instead of “well the last time, a long time ago, man I can barely remember that time”) I like to tell them about The Walking Dead. I must take a moment here to tell you all *Spoiler Alert.* That’s right. I’m going to put it all out there. I’m going to tell you about all the nitty gritty of the Walking Dead that I can muster in one blog entry. It is ALL going to be one massive *Spoiler Alert* especially if you haven’t had the opportunity to watch all the past seasons on Netflix yet because you have a life and there is never the perfect moment to sit down and watch a slow moving, somewhat depressing, not always entertaining indictment of humanity in the midst of a zombie-apocalypse and the end of the world as we know it. *Spoiler Alert* There is this one scene in this season of the Walking Dead where some of the characters are talking. Actually that’s most scenes, there is a WHOLE lot of talking in this show, but I digress. In this scene, we find out the “questions” that the leader of “the group” (Rick) asks to people when he meets them to determine if he can bring them in to their safe space and make them a part of the group. How many walkers (zombies, for those who don’t watch the show) have you killed? How many people have you killed? Why? But there is a fourth question that comes up a lot in the show that isn’t a part of this list. Rick asks it a few times in this season, and others in their own conversations are essentially asking it as well. Do you think we can come back from this? Will we be able to move on after we have had to live through and do horrible things? What happens to our humanity? It’s something that is explored throughout the season, especially by the “leader” (de facto, not always, sometimes farmer, often confused, very sweaty “leader”) Rick and in the end he makes a grand speech that yes, yes we can come back from this. “We can come back,” he says. “We all can change.” (Season 4, Episode 8) Right after that his friend is beheaded by the Governor, a guy who CANNOT change, an all out shooting war starts, a bunch of people die and run away and there is the possibility that Rick’s baby has been eaten by zombies. But you know… hope. Anyway, Indians. When I started watching the Walking Dead I immediately thought about Indians. And when people tell me “Man, Indians, they are always going on and on about genocide and stuff and they should just get over it” I often pause and say “Well, consider the Walking Dead…” Lawrence Gross (he’s a scholar and a Native person) talks about “Post Apocalypse Stress Syndrome” where he says that Native American people have “seen the end of our world” which has created “tremendous social stresses.” California Indians often refer to the Mission System and the Gold Rush as “the end of the world.” What those who survived experienced was both the “apocalypse” and “post apocalypse.” It was nothing short of zombies running around trying to kill them. Think about it. Miners (who were up in Northern California, where I am from) thought it was perfectly fine to have “Indian hunting days” or organize militias specifically to kill Indian people. These militias were paid. They were given 25 cents a scalp and $5 a head. (In 1851 and 1852 the state of California paid out close to $1 million for the killing of Indians…) In effect, for a long time in California, if you were an Indian person walking around, something or someone might just try to kill you. They were hungry for your scalp and your head. They had no remorse. There was no reasoning with them. And there were more of them then there was of you. (Zombies. But even worse, living, breathing, people Zombies. Zombies who could look at you and talk to you and who were supposed to be human. Keep that in mind. The atrocities of genocide during this period of time, they were not committed by monsters -- they were committed by people. By neighbors. By fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters.) In the Walking Dead the survivors resort to hiding. Sometimes they go in to town and barely survive an attack as they try to steal food or gather supplies. Sometimes they turn on each other. Sometimes they lose people they are close to. Sometimes they have to kill to stay alive. The world is in chaos. Everyone probably has high blood pressure. They probably don’t sleep much. They probably don’t get the proper nutrition. They probably get sick and die of the flu, because it’s hard to get medicine and rest and get better – when something is out there constantly coming after you, trying to kill you and everyone you care about. (Zombie-pocalypse sounds eerily similar to California Indian history...) How long until you tell those zombie-pocalypse folks to just “get over it already?” How long until you tell them “it was a long time ago?” How long until you tell them “it’s not worth talking about. It doesn’t affect me! I wasn’t there.” How long until you pretend like it’s not still a part of future generations? How long until you try to erase that the zombie-pocalypse ever happened? I asked someone this question once and they said “well, it’s never the same after that. That becomes a part of who everyone is. It doesn’t go away. I mean it’s the freaking end of the world. You can’t just pretend like that never happened.” Exactly. #2: I like to tell them about Carl’s great grandchildren. Carl is Rick’s kid in the Walking Dead. At first I hated him because he’s dumb. He’s in a zombie-pocalypse and he’s all wandering off by himself and acting like he can just hang out and not be useful. But then he ends up becoming a bad ass who likes to make decisions, unlike his Dad, who really only makes the decision that he will no longer make any decisions. *Leadership* Anyway, if you think about it -- Carl, who is living through the end of the world, which for him means loss, suffering, shooting some kid in the head because he came into his camp, having to kill his mother after she gave birth to his sister, watching his father go crazy for a period of time, getting shot, and having to watch his Dad kill his other father figure (stupid Shane), getting shot in the stomach, and finally thinking that his little baby sister has been eaten by zombies (I say thinking, because I’m convinced that somebody rescued her) – well Carl is my Great Grandfather. That’s right. That’s how close it is. My Great-Grandfather was living through the genocide of California Native peoples. My Great-Grandfather had to hide from Russian Soldiers who were coming for him. He tells stories about using reeds to breathe under a sand pit so that people wouldn’t find him. He was taken to Boarding School, he ran away and spent months in jail as a kid. He was hunted by bounty hunters. His Uncle was shot several times, people in his tribe were killed. Lot’s of people’s Grandparents and Great-Grandparents have stories like this. We are not that far away from when Native people were being massacred, in the name of our “great state” because “it was the only Christian thing to do.” Also – did you know they recently completed a study which showed that your ancestors experiences leave an epigenetic mark on your genes? Or as Dan Hurley from Discover Magazine put it: Your ancestors' lousy childhoods or excellent adventures might change your personality, bequeathing anxiety or resilience by altering the epigenetic expressions of genes in the brain. Exactly. #3: I like to tell them that I agree with them. Wait? What? And I just nod. “Yep, I agree. We should get over it. In fact, I am over it.” Wait? What? Well I’m over it. I don’t like to speak for all Native people in the universe because that’s not fair, and we’ve never been able to come to a consensus at the meetings we have where we decide how all Native people feel about things. (We do not have these meetings, by the way, there are lots of Native people, we are very different from each other, that meeting would be huge, I would probably go because there would be lots of good food and laughter.) But I am over it. I am over the federal government trying to pass policy and laws that sanction and legalize genocide, slavery and removal of Indian people. I am over the legalized attempts to seize land and rights from Native peoples through racist, flawed, discriminatory, and frankly imaginary legal doctrines like the Doctrine of Discovery. I am over the Doctrine of Discovery. I am over plenary power. I am over the taking of Indian children away from their families and placing them in ‘good homes’ which implies that Indian homes are not good enough. I am over the fact that at most colleges Native students are less than 1% of the population but in certain states Native peoples are between 4-6% of the prison population. I am over that Native women are more likely to be raped than any other group in the United States. I am over that close to 90% of the population of Native people in California were killed during this historical time period and yet we do not have a monument or requirement to learn about this in schools. We do however have a monument and requirement to learn about Father Junipero Serra, who liked to beat and starve Native people. I am over models dressed like Indian women on runways while sticking out their tongues. I am over t-shirts that portray Native people as permissive of drug use and music videos that promote Native women as permissive of being oogled over while tied up to a wall. I am over policies that keep Native people from practicing their religion and keep Native people from tending to and being responsible for the land. I am over trying to find a benign/objective way to say slavery, genocide, holocaust, murder, massacre, slaughter, rape, abuse, violence and pain because people don't like to hear about the true California history. I am over the vanishing Indian. I am over the same old story that gets told, the one where we would rather be dead, the one where we were fading away, the one where we have bigger problems than history, the one where the past is the past. I am over that telling me to "get over it" asks me to pretend that these things are not still happening. I am over pretending that Native people aren't still dealing with many issues that have their roots in genocide, especially in California. I am over erasing the past at the behest of people who would rather ignore it, then have to also accept and "get over it." I am over it. That’s why I won’t stop talking about it. That's why I CAN talk about it. That's why I have to talk about it. Ask yourself what it means to be "over it." Because to me, this does not mean "never ever mention it" again. To me this means, now we can really talk about it, all of it. And we should. When we stop talking, when we stop remembering, when we stop honoring that past, we become ignorant of how that past is the present, is the future. We cannot be complicit in erasing the past by “getting over it.” In these words, when we speak to our survival, we are sending strength to those who fought, bled, died, and refused to “get over” what was happening to them. We also refuse to accept that it can, should, or will happen to us. We stand up. We fight. We owe it to them to continue to fight just as hard as they did. Our ancestors will feel it “back then” like we feel it now. They will know “back then” that we are here because we didn’t just “get over it.” They must have known of us, their future. They must have thought of us, their grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. Some Native people say they think of Seven Generations when they do things. When our ancestors were sitting together, talking, trying to figure out how to survive this “end of the world” they must have said to each other “Do you think we can come back from this?” And they must have thought about the future generations (like us). Perhaps they saw in the fire a group of us laughing together, perhaps they dreamed about us, singing together, dancing together and they knew the answer… “yes, we will." Now it is up to us to help our next seven generations to remember. We can all "get over it" but we will never forget. First, the disclaimer. A lot of people would expect me not to like this play I’m about to review. And by a lot of people I mean most of my friends, some people who read my blog, my mom, and of course skeptics, or actors, or dismissive playwrights. I find that many think it is easy for me to be offended by things. I feel like many Native people get a bad rap. People are like “oh, here comes that Native girl, and she’s probably offended. She’s probably going to tell us something that we did that was offensive, or racist, or that perpetuates colonization.” (I am probably going to do that- because that is probably what is happening…) I begin with this disclaimer because, yes, I am a Native American Indian, Hupa, Yurok, Karuk person who is writing a review of a play called “Crazy Horse and Custer.” And because I was referred to this play by a reporter for Indian Country Today. And I spoke with a member of the Crazy Horse family about the play and why it is was problematic before I went to see it. And yes, people told me that I probably wouldn't like this play. But even knowing all of that, I am still this person who believes in being surprised. I thought “maybe, just maybe I’ll go and be pleasantly surprised. They can’t all be plays about incestuous barbaric degraded Indian people who have to live and die in museums.” I thought I could actually be surprised about this play because I – am an optimist. People surprise me all the time. But, as my disclaimer comes to a close I will end with this-- I went to see the play “Crazy Horse and Custer” at the Sacramento Theatre Company on November 6, 2013. The play was still in preview. I bought my own ticket. I had an open mind. The theatre people were nice enough to hold the start of the show to wait for us as we came running through the doors. I sat next to my good friends in an uncomfortable seat and the theater was intimate, the space was interesting, the mood was excited. The lights dimmed, the music started, I sat through two full hours… and in the end I must say, in all honesty, I left – offended. I have a lot to say, but, it all feels so… repetitive. I want to begin with “Again?” Again we are confronted with a problematic play that is not only problematic because it is patronizing, disrespectful, degrading and dismissive of Native people, but also because it’s just, actually, not well written. So the play is about “Crazy Horse and Custer”, if you couldn't tell from the title. It’s a two man show. It’s a character sketch. It’s an opportunity to have these two historical figures come together to talk about who they are, their lives, where they came from, what happened, and of course the Battle of Little Big Horn. Each of them gets to give lengthy monologues that tell the stories of their life. Through these stories each of them inhabits other characters, often adopting funny voices or stances to denote another person speaking. I’m sure some people might find it interesting, but I could barely get past Crazy Horse’s exceptionally greasy hair, an hour of Indian monologue about Elks and uh…. something, love? There was a girl in there somewhere. Somebody rode a horse and Crazy Horse figured out that Indian spirituality was bunk and then somebody thought he was powerful and then he got shot and that hurt and then he went and led the charge against Custer and a bunch of soldiers died. Or something. During much of this portion of the play I sort of… tuned out. It’s not that Crazy Horse is a boring person. I’m sure he was quite the opposite of a boring person. It’s that the first act drags on and on. And it is done in a very mystical Indian kind of way, although Crazy Horse spends most of his time talking about why mystical Indians are not very smart and how he really doesn't buy the whole spirituality thing, he's more in to "reality." There was very little humor. It felt like I was hearing the story of an ancient Indian from a long time ago, who left out all the good parts. When we finally got to the part where Crazy Horse (along with many other Native people) mounted a successful defense against Custer (along with many other soldiers) and Custer's illegal, ill advised, attempted massacre, Crazy Horse doesn’t get to tell the story. I can’t even remember what Crazy Horse said. He didn’t elaborate on anything that happened and instead left the stage so that we could (finally) have an intermission. During intermission I read the program and author’s note. The full transcript of the authors note is included in the picture. My friends Angel Hinzo and Stephanie Lumsden were with me and we read one particular line aloud. “I think the culture of the Amerindians of the Great Plains is gone forever, and the last words you hear from Crazy Horse is their epitaph.” I cleared my throat and almost lost my eyes in the back of my head from my epic eyeroll and Angel looked over at me and said “Oh hell no” before she started miming taking off her rings and taking out her earrings. I think her instincts were right, thems fighting words. In my head I immediately flashed to the second half of the play, as re-written by the three Native women in the audience. Angel charges Custer, Custer gives up, Angel says “who’s gone forever now!” before tearing off Custer’s overly thick blonde wig. We would cheer. Everyone else might wonder, “where did these Native people come from? Aren’t they all dead and gone?” During intermission I listened to conversations going on between the mostly older crowd gathered in the lobby. “Where do you think they got all of their information about Crazy Horse?” “Do you think this historical information is mostly oral history?” “It must have been hard to keep all those facts straight.” And I almost interrupted and said “Excuse me, you mean this fake, imaginary, “entertainment” “fictive” version of Crazy Horse. To quote the author’s patronizing, and frankly rude, note -- “What I have written here is neither myth nor is it history – which when studied closely is not at all unlike myth- it is a play, an entertainment, and by its very nature fictive. So, please! No slings or arrows from impassioned advocates of both the historical and mythic Crazy Horse and Custer, and no quibbles over events that, while often based on the records, I have consciously reconstructed to fit the needs of my fancy.” Excuse me? Oh hell no. That’s the second Native woman of the night who started taking off her earrings and preparing for battle. Instead I went back into the theatre and prepared for the second half of the play. In the second half of the play we hear from Custer and he’s, just a dude, who thought he was awesome, who wasn’t awesome. (The actor was pretty good though) He, like Crazy Horse, mentions nothing about Native American people and genocide. He mostly tells us about his awesomeness and, wait for it, how he coulda been President. When we got to the part where he declares: “I would have lead this great nation to become even greater” and “I was the best man” and “I would have been President” I had to keep myself from yelling out “uh huh, sure dude, you would have been PRESIDENT.” Custer wasn't my problem in this play. Crazy Horse wasn't the problem in this play. The writing was a problem. Having Crazy Horse call Custer a “compelling man” (UGH) and not a “psychotic, homicidal, genocide inflicting war criminal" who, would he have survived to become President (because, yeah, yeah, Custer, you would have been President, blah, blah, blah) would have continued his reign of terror against Native people, just because – he’s an asshole, that’s a problem. And an even more significant problem is that we go through two acts of this play and there is very little, if any (I can’t think of any) mention of the genocide of Native peoples. We hear from the beginning about the mutilation of white soldiers at Little Big Horn by Lakota people, but nothing about the murdering, raping, torturing, starving, war against Indian peoples. Custer was a war criminal. He wasn't even supposed to be at the Battle of Little Big Horn. They told him NOT to attack. He disobeyed direct orders. He committed a war crime. He wanted to kill Indian people more than he wanted to stay alive. He had already massacred Indian people before that. He killed women and children and elders. He did it with no remorse. This was not a jovial, funny, off the cuff, fringe wearing, Johnny-Depp, Jack Sparrow, drunk Uncle. This was a psychotic masochist who enjoyed killing people. And when he came on that stage my friend Angel, shuddered. Here came this “fictive” version of this man who died “a long time ago” and she cringed. And then Crazy Horse called him a "compelling man." UGH. The truth is I am having a hard time because I can’t figure out why these are the stories that play houses, and community theatres, and educational institutions want to support. Writing this kind of review isn't divorced from my emotions. I’m “offended” but, it’s more than that. I feel that heavy burden that comes from pushing against the great weight of history – or the continued attempts to negate, erase, belittle and speak for us. And I want to shout it (which just means write IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS) but sometimes I feel like, they won’t listen. So of course I rely on Vine Deloria, Jr. who reminds us that “Custer Died for Your Sins” The most popular and enduring subject of Indian humor is, of course, General Custer. There are probably more jokes about Custer and the Indians than there were participants in the battle. All tribes, even those thousands of miles from Montana, feel a sense of accomplishment when thinking of Custer. Custer binds together implacable foes because he represented the Ugly American of the last century and he got what was coming to him (148). I suppose the one thing I can’t get out of my head, that thing I woke up the next day repeating was the last line of the play. At the very end of the play Crazy Horse is left on stage alone and he pulls back a curtain to reveal the Pine Ridge Reservation, supposedly, maybe, the “modern” Pine Ridge - a trash filled, barren, wasteland. Crazy Horse cries. He says “The Lakota have nothing.” He calls this place the “pitiful remnants” with pennilessness, depression, and “despair of an empty life.” And he says “The Lakota are finally defeated.” Before he turns his back on us and mutters. “It is better to be dead.” It is better to be dead. Did this play, did this author, did Crazy Horse just tell me, a living, breathing, singing, dancing, loving, laughing, joking, mothering Native woman that it is better to be dead than the Native person that I am? Did Crazy Horse just tell me, he would rather be dead, than to be a part of the living, breathing, singing, dancing, loving, laughing, joking, mothering, fathering, grandparenting, Lakota people? It is better to be dead. I left the theatre flabbergasted and… pissed. THIS is what passes as art? THIS is what people call material to “enrich, engage, educate, inspire and entertain” (that’s from the message from the Executive Producing Director in the program BTW). It is better to be dead than to be an Indian? But then something came to me clearly as I walked out into the cold night air. Maybe I think the playwright is somewhat correct. Those great Indians of yore, you know the ones who ride horses and have long flowing hair and fight epic battles with tomahawks and adopt white people who then become the last of their tribe? Those Indians are dead and gone. Those Indians are never returning. Because those Indians only existed in the imagination of Hollywood who created that Indian to make light of the reality of Native people. We were never fading away into the sunset. We were never destined for defeat. . He’s right. It is better for THOSE Indians to be dead. It is better for HIS Crazy Horse… to be dead. It is time to tell a new story. The story of this play has already been told. We have already mourned the loss of the noble savage, the last of the Mohicans, the last of the tribe. Let those Indians turn their backs to us and walk into the sunset. And then we will sing. We will dance. We will laugh. We will tell you an even greater story. Crazy Horse will probably be there. He will sit down with us and join in and he will not say to us "it is better to be dead." He will say “It is better to not spend two hours watching this play.” We will laugh. We will be laughing long into the night. More Info and Articles:
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AuthorCutcha 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... (5) Top PostsOn telling Native people to just "get over it" or why I teach about the Walking Dead in my Native Studies classes... *Spoiler Alert!*
Hokay -- In which I lead a presentation on what happens when you Google "Native American Women" and critically analyze the images or "Hupas be like dang where'd you get that dentalium cape girl? Showing off all your money! PS: Suck it Victorias Secret"
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
5 Reasons I Wear "Indian" Jewelry or Hupas...we been bling-blingin' since Year 1
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
I need to read more Native blogs!A few that I read...
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