Uncontacted tribe sends a message

Reflections on the discovery of an uncontacted tribeUncontacted tribes expert, José Meirelles, who works for FUNAI and was onboard the flight, says that “What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilised’ ones, treat the world.”

I couldn’t agree more. The perilous situation to which Meirelles refers highlights the contradictions of capitalist globalization. Although these tribal people seem to be as far “outside” the global market as one could possibly get, they are being impinged upon by corporations that want to extract the tremendous resources of the Amazon, and convert the forest into farmland. Despite their avoidance of outsiders, these indigenous people are inside the capitalist world system, which today has no real “outside.” And even though they seem to be separated from us by a fathomless cultural and technological gap, our fates are thoroughly intertwined; we are truly linked in a global system. They are dependent upon the Amazon rainforest to meet all of their material needs, but we are dependent upon it as well. Often referred to as the “lungs of the world,” the rainforest produces over 20% of the world’s oxygen and is home to 1 in ten of the world’s species. The burning of vegetation in the Amazon releases large amounts carbon stored in the plants, contributing significantly to the greenhouse effect which is changing global climates.

The survival of their home is key to our own survival. Reversing our path of mindless destruction could allow their continuation. Haunting images of people far away, frozen on my flat computer screen, silently testify that we are really one world and one humanity. It’s time we act that way.Comment:  To sum it up, the uncontacted tribe gives us a different perspective on our dominant culture. It gives us a multicultural perspective.

Lost tribe settled around Great Lakes?

Raiders of the lost Book of Mormon DNACritics of the Book of Mormon tout DNA studies that concluded that American Indians belong to the Asian group. These studies use more precise categories of DNA markers called haplogroups; the American Indians usually have some combination of DNA from haplogroups called A, B, C or D. There is no room in the critics' story for American Indian DNA to come from any other source than Asia.

Meldrum, however, was intrigued by recent studies that showed another haplogroup appearing in American Indian populations. This haplogroup is identified by the letter "X." The curious thing for researchers is that X is one of several known European haplogroups. It is not Asian.

Although the studies are still preliminary and the exact source of the X haplogroup hasn't yet been determined, Meldrum became excited. If X was European that meant it was also possible it came from ancient Jerusalem--just as the Book of Mormon recounts.And:Meldrum knows most LDS scholars think the events of the Book of Mormon took place in a limited area in Central America. Common conceptions among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including artists from Arnold Friberg to Walter Rane, imagine the events of the Book of Mormon in a lush tropical environment.

"I was fully expecting to find this European DNA amongst the Mayan people," Meldrum said.

Although there are some traces of the X haplogroup in Brazil, Meldrum found no traces of X in Mayan populations. Instead, he found that the highest concentrations of X were in North America--particularly around the Great Lakes region.

Forgotten Native patriots

Book Lists Revolutionary War's Black, Native American SoldiersIn their haste to enroll enlistees to fight on the American side in the Revolutionary War, officials jotted down names, where the men came from—and little else.

Occasionally, records identified someone as black, but for the vast majority of those soldiers and sailors, their distinction as black or Native Americans was lost, and with that the fact that thousands of blacks and Native Americans fought for their country's independence.

Now, after years of pressure by two Plainville natives, many black and Native American soldiers are properly identified. In May, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution published a book that lists those veterans and identifies them as either black or Native American.

The book, "Forgotten Patriots—African American and American Indian Patriots of the Revolutionary War," names 5,000 black soldiers and an additional 1,600 who were Native Americans. They were among the estimated 250,000 Americans who fought in the war.Comment:  I believe five of the six tribes of the Haudenosaunee League fought for the British against America. They did so because they thought the British would treat them better.

Turns out they were right. The Americans were more likely than the British had been to break treaties and oppress the Indians.

For more on the subject, see Fun 4th of July Facts.

Redeye cartoonist dies

Cartoonist Legend Mel Casson Dies at 87Cartoonist legend Mel Casson, the writer and illustrator of the comic strip “Redeye,” died on May 21 at his Westport home. He was 87.

Casson was a 40-year Westport resident and lived on Guyer Road. For almost 20 years Casson illustrated “Redeye,” a parody strip about a 19th century tribe of Native Americans, for King Features Syndicate.

When cartoonist Bill Yates, who wrote the “Redeye” scripts, retired in 1999, Casson assumed full writing and drawing duties of the strip.Comment:  "Parody" translates to "weak humor based on Native stereotypes." From what I saw of Redeye, it was about as funny as Beetle Bailey or Nancy. (That means not very, for the young folks reading this blog.)

It's been a long time since I read Redeye, but I believe it featured the standard stereotypes: a chief, teepees, bows and arrows, etc. About the only nonstereotypical touch was giving Redeye a hat and vest rather than the usual buckskins and feathers.

Good-bye to Casson and good riddance to Redeye. One hopes it'll go to the "happy hunting ground," a phrase I'll bet it used more than once.

For more on the subject, see Native Comic Strips vs. Comic Books.

Peltier yes, Clinton no

Here's another reason to vote for or against Hillary Clinton: the pardon of Leonard Peltier that was supposed to happen but didn't.

Native Americans say NO! to Hillary Clinton[W]e in Indian Country were hopeful that a Democrat in the White House would at last listen to reason and finally free Leonard Peltier. So for eight years we patiently presented our evidence and over ten million signatures from around the world. We were wrong, President Clinton left office without signing his pardon and Leonard was left to spend another decade unjustly confined to a jail cell. He has now been there for over thirty years, long past the parole date for the crime he was convicted of aiding and abetting.

However it isn't only that Clinton refused to pardon Peltier it was the way it was done that has angered Indian Country. After an immense and intense lobbying effort by Native American people and our organizations the Clintons led us to believe that a pardon would be forthcoming at the end of their administration. I spent the final days of the Clinton administration helping the LPDC so I know first hand that contacts within the administration made reassuring backchannel statements to the LPDC and I also know that those statements came from the Office of the First Lady, Hillary Clinton. ... [W]e were led to believe what we did by Hillary Clinton's office and we all assumed, because of who those contacts were, with her direct knowledge. They deliberatly lied to keep us quiet as long as needed and Indian Country has a long memory.

More stupidity from Rush

Limbaugh called Brazilian indigenous tribe "savages"One of South Africa's--I'm sorry, South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru. The Brazilian government says that it took the images to prove the tribe exists and to help protect its land.

Wait a minute. Why do we have to help protect the land of this tribe? Aren't they the essence of purity, according to the environmentalist communists? I mean, here are people who are untouched by civilization. Here are people who are uncontacted by civilization. Here are people living on this planet the way they're supposed to be. Nobody even knew they were there. They suspected they were there, they flew an airplane over there, and they found 'em. Now, these people are probably at one with nature. Why do we need to protect their land? They're doing a better job of it than any of us ever could protect our land.Comment:  Hey, stupid Rush. Brazil wants to protect the land from rapacious outsiders. Not from the tribe itself.

Duhhh.

For more on the subject, see Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Racist.

Billy Mills endorses Obama

The race continuesWhile there's no firm overall consensus on who would be the best winner for Indian country, Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills believes Obama is the best candidate to make it to the finish line this fall.

"I was inspired," Mills said in a press conference call May 23 announcing his endorsement. "I've been inspired by three men--Kennedy ... Ronald Reagan ... and Barack Obama. He has a great vision for change--change we can all believe in."

Mills, a member of the Lakota Sioux Tribe, was born and raised on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He said he's been a lifelong Republican but will vote for Obama, if he eventually becomes the Democratic nominee, over McCain this fall.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The 2008 Presidential Campaign.

Indiana Jones tribe found?

Rare uncontacted Amazon tribe photographed

Images show Indians painted bright red, brandishing bows and arrowsAmazon Indians from one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.

The photographs of the tribe near the border between Brazil and Peru are rare evidence that such groups exist. A Brazilian official involved in the expedition said many of them are in increasing danger from illegal logging.

"What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilized' ones, treat the world," Jose Carlos Meirelles was quoted as saying in a statement by the Survival International group.Uncontacted Indian tribe spotted in Brazil

Comment:  Oops, wrong tribe. False alarm. Never mind.

This "lost" tribe has only thatched huts, not massive stone temples. But how do we explain how they've managed to stay hidden? Maybe they're hiding their gold treasure and crystal skulls with their mystical-cosmic magic.

Has any archaeologist ever discovered a lost kingdom or city or temple? I mean one with monumental architecture that an unknown people still inhabited? If so, when was this discovery?

If not, where exactly did this stereotype come from? And why are we still talking about it? Aren't we a little old to be daydreaming of imaginary cities of gold?

I think genies, mermaids, and unicorns are nice too, but I don't see them in any pseudo-realistic movie about archaeology. Only Indians get stereotyped this way. Only they get associated with fantasy motifs even though they're real.

I don't recall any modern-day movies featuring primitive Africans or Asians guarding secrets in ruins--except Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, of course. But this is all too common in Native-themed movies. Stereotyping Indians is the last acceptable prejudice.

We see this again and again and again. Americans wouldn't accept sports teams named Chinks or Wetbacks, but Redskins and Braves are okay. They wouldn't accept a beer or strip club named Martin Luther King, but naming it Crazy Horse is okay. They wouldn't accept statues of half-naked Zulu warriors, but half-naked Lakota warriors are okay. Etc.

These things are connected. And movies like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull only perpetuate the problem. Fortunately, we can read the news (above) and learn what "lost" tribes are really like.

For more on the subject, see Indiana Jones and the Stereotypes of Doom.

Indians know global warming

Russell:  Animal insanityGore tells us there are three sticking points in talking to people about global warming. (1) It doesn't exist. (2) It exists but it is not caused by human beings, but is rather part of a natural cycle. (3) It exists and is caused by human beings, but the problem is so huge we really can't do anything about it.

Most Indians, I quickly discovered, breeze right past (1) and (2). They have already noticed that for some years now the weather has been out of whack. They have blood memories of major ecological catastrophes caused by the settlers long before the term "ecological" was coined. The Kiowa know that human beings caused the buffalo to go away. Indians in the Pacific Northwest have been missing the salmon, and they understand it's not because the salmon just decided to leave.And:That third problem has a peculiar spin in Indian country. It's not so much that nothing can be done as an attitude that we are not responsible and therefore it is not our problem. The white man broke it and he should fix it.

The Indian spin is certainly true, but the fact of the matter is that fixing it is everybody's problem, whether that's fair or not. It's also true enough, as the naysayers use Indians to make fun of environmental progress, that if we all lived in tipis and gave up electricity and air conditioning and went back to riding horses, our carbon footprints would diminish considerably. Admitting to the truth in that bit of ridicule does not mean an 18th century lifestyle is what will be required.

It's true that we will have to give up some things to maintain the sort of habitat to which humans have adapted, but it's up to us which things to give up. The main thing we have to give up is greed. Every human being, every family, city, state, tribal nation or continent, has a "carbon footprint," an amount of carbon we put into the atmosphere because we live and because of how we have chosen to live.

Human beings in the U.S. have the largest carbon footprints in the world. Can anyone suggest a moral justification for this? Suppose you have a pond on land owned by three families jointly and it can produce a hundred pounds of fish a year without killing off the fish. Should one family get more fish per person than the others? It's that simple in moral terms.Comment:  Exactly. But giving up greed means giving up what makes us uniquely American.

For more on the subject, see Ecological Indian Talk.

Below:  Some of the few remaining salmon. Non-Indians have depleted the ocean's stocks so badly that the US government has banned salmon fishing along much of the Pacific coast. Incredibly, we're running out of fish.

Leading Native news sites

Here are the rankings of the most popular websites from Alexa.com today:

Yahoo.com:  1.
NYTimes.com:  102.
MSNBC.com:  2,305.
Indian Country Today:  221,841.
Indianz.com:  259,464.
BlueCornComics.com:  324,105.
PECHANGA.net:  395,325.
BSNorrell.blogspot.com:  1,511,083.
NativeNewsOnline.org:  3,083,555.
IndianCountryNews.com:  4,307,680.
NDNnews.com:  4,851,800.
OriginalPechanga.blogspot.com:  9,239,654.

Of course, PECHANGA.net links to much of the original content on ICT's site, Indianz.com, BlueCornComics.com, Brenda Norrell's blog, and elsewhere. It undoubtedly provides the broadest, most comprehensive coverage of news in Indian country. Which is why tribal leaders and advocates read it religiously.

As I've said before, PECHANGA.net is independently owned and operated by Victor Rocha, an enrolled Pechanga Indian. The website has no connection to the tribe or its casino except a similar name. No one at PECHANGA.net takes orders from anyone.

PECHANGA.net makes no bones about being primarily a news aggregator. We^* love the in-depth analyses done by ICT's editors and columnists. And the Washington reports and other columns done by Indianz.com. We salute our colleagues' contributions.

If you're wondering why the last blog is on the list, it's because the blogger is asserting that NDNnews.com and OriginalPechanga.blogspot.com are more important Native news sources than Indian Country Today, Indianz.com, and PECHANGA.net (which I'd label the big three). As you can see, the facts contradict this silly assertion. It's pretty clear which sites Indians rely on for their news.

For more on the subject, see Native Journalism:  To Tell the Truth.

^*As you probably know, I'm a significant contributor to PECHANGA.net and an occasional contributor to Indian Country Today. I'm also a significant contributor to Native News Online (NativeNewsOnline.org). No big deal...just stating the facts.

BIA appointees break promises

Savilla:  Bring back our commissionerIn its sad history, only three men have held the job longer than one year. Eddie Brown, Tohono O'odham, served for four years with Secretary Manuel Chavez. The next-longest service was by Ross Swimmer, Oklahoma Cherokee, who lasted two and a half years. Ken Smith, Warm Springs, Ore., served two years. All the rest resigned after one year or less. Then things got worse. The following came and left just since the year 2000, eight AS-IAs in eight years: Kevin Gover, Michael Anderson, James McDevitt, Neil McCaleb, Aurene M. Martin, David W. Anderson, James A. Cason and Carl Artman.

The people who agreed to serve were honest and sincere, but they forgot their political party's golden rule: "If appointed to a position in the president's administration, you must be loyal to the party and work at the pleasure of the president." When I warned one recent appointee of this golden rule, he said he had been promised that he could make changes and suggestions to improve the BIA's service to Indian people. He quickly learned otherwise. Their motto seems to be, "Promises are made to be broken."Comment:  To state the obvious, all the BIA directors since 2000 have been appointed by George W. Bush.

McCain's true colors

The day McCain showed his colorsIn 1989 he was the senior Republican on the Senate Select Committee for Indian Affairs. In addition to his work on the committee, he saw his role as explaining issues facing Native people to others in Washington. He said, "Not only is there a vast lack of knowledge about Indian affairs in the country as a whole, but frankly, there is a lack of concern."

As we were coming into Whiteriver, I asked him why he cared about Native issues when their voting power is relatively insignificant. "Your involvement in Indian affairs is probably going to cost you votes in Arizona," I said.

He looked at me with that now-famous frown and said, "You do some things just because they are the right thing to do."Comment:  I wonder what McCain's rationale is for opposing Christian fundamentalists, then supporting them. For opposing Bush's tax cuts, then supporting them. For supporting the administration's mismanagement of the war on Iraq, then opposing it.

Let's hope his views on Indian issues aren't as expedient as they are on these issues.

Alexie vs. SuperSonics

Sonics' lawyers don't want author Sherman Alexie testifyingPrize-winning author, poet and humorist Sherman Alexie shouldn't be allowed to testify at an upcoming trial to block the Seattle SuperSonics from moving to Oklahoma City because he has nothing relevant to say and is known for his "profanity-laced" columns for a weekly newspaper, the team argues.

Alexie, winner of a National Book Award and a PEN/Hemingway Award, also is a basketball fan who writes a column called "Sonics Death Watch" for the Stranger, an alternative weekly newspaper. His column has been highly critical of plans by the Sonics' owners to move the team out of town and is described as profanity-laced in a court filing by the team.Comment:  For more on the subject, see All About Sherman Alexie.

"Sioux" trips up student

Local student out of spelling beeMadison County student Austin Hoke was eliminated from the Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday when he misspelled “Sioux,” the name of the American Indian tribe.

Hoke, 14, an eighth-grader at Mount Vernon Middle School in Fortville, spelled the word as “sou” during the second round of the event in Washington, D.C.Comment:  I could see "Souix," but "Sou"? How about "Soo," "Sue," or "Sew"?

In other words, give me a break. America's ignorance about Indians continues.

Below:  Not a sou.



A sou.

"Jungle Love" in Family Guy

The main action in the 2005 "Jungle Love" episode of Family Guy takes place in an Amazon Indian village. Here's a summary of the show:

Jungle Love (Family Guy)“Jungle Love” is the thirteenth episode from the fourth season of the Fox animated television series Family Guy.

Plot summary

Chris is excited to become a freshman at the local high school, until Joe tells Chris about the "Freshman Hunt," a hazing ritual in which the freshmen are beaten with paddles by everyone. ... Chris asks Brian for advice. Brian tells Chris about his time in the Peace Corps. Chris decides to join the Corps and goes to South America, where he becomes popular with the natives. When he gets the tribe to dance, he is married to the chief’s daughter, as dictated by the tribe’s customs.

When Lois learns of the marriage, she immediately travels down to South America with the rest of the family. Disillusioned with his new job, Peter is as eager to go there as anyone else. Upon their arrival Peter is seen as the richest man in the country with just $37. Many of the natives of the country then become Peter’s slave for just nickels and dimes. When Chris accuses Peter of “using” the natives to escape his troubles, Lois points out that that is also what Chris did. Chris then decides to return to Rhode Island, telling his wife that he must leave her, casually referring to his status as a freshman. The natives respond exactly as the upperclassmen in Quahog do, so they chase the Griffins in a very hostile manner. The Griffins escape on a seaplane a la Raiders of the Lost Ark, but forget Meg, who is impaled by darts and arrows.Comment:  How many ways is this episode stereotypical? Let's see:

The Indians speak English. This is better than speaking gibberish, but worse than speaking their own language. It denies their rich cultural heritage.

The Indians all look young and handsome or beautiful. In particular, the women all look like Hollywood sex objects.

The Indians all look like each other. This denies that they're unique individuals.

Loka, the chief's daughter, is a classic princess character. Just once it would be nice if the only significant female weren't the chief's daughter.

That the chief gives his daughter to Chris after Chris dances suggests how unsophisticated and primitive the Indians are. Again, it denies their rich cultural heritage.

The Indians treat Peter like a god after he flashes $37 at them, making him the richest person in the tribe. Even if they understood and bought into the concept of money, it's ridiculous that they'd prostrate themselves to outsiders. I.e., that they'd passively accept masters who have no redeeming qualities.

Just as ridiculously, the Indians change from obedient lackeys into spear-wielding maniacs when they learn Chris is a freshman. Whether they're simpleminded children or simpleminded savages, they're simpleminded.

Although Family Guy occasionally makes fun of other minorities (blacks, Asians, the handicapped), it's usually only one brief bit. In contrast, "Jungle Love's" Indian subplot takes up half the show. Conclusion: Indians are fair game compared to other minorities.

For more on the subject, see Skeletal Chief on Family Guy and TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Below:  Chris dances in front of showgirl-style Indians, proving himself worthy of marriage.



Peter and company turn the Indians into killers by saying the wrong word.

Disenrollees are hopping mad

Gambling on tribal ancestry

As Indian casino profits soar, tribes reexamine who qualifies for a slice of the winnings--and thin their ranks.It all started sometime in late 2002. Rumors were heard, allegations were made, lineages were scrutinized, voices were raised, and, at the end of it all, the enrollment committee moved to throw some 130 members out of the 1,200-strong tribe.

The members targeted are hopping mad. "They did it to our face," says John Gomez Jr., one of the plaintiffs in the suit filed two months ago against members of the tribal enrollment committee. "They presented a memo saying there are 'issues' about our ancestor Manuela Miranda. False and absurd! We know who we are."

According to the Pechanga constitution, full membership requires proof of lineal descent from an original Pechanga member and a family line contained in the official enrollment book. Mr. Gomez and other plaintiffs trace their lineage to Manuela Miranda--granddaughter of undisputed Pechanga headman Pablo Apish. Most of the plaintiffs have enjoyed full membership rights and lived on or around the reservation--in Temecula, Calif.--for more than 25 years.

But now, committee members say they have found that Ms. Miranda, who was, to begin with, only half Pechanga (according to the US Bureau of Indian Affairs)--moved off the reservation and cut her ties to the tribe 80 years ago.

"Cut her ties? No. No and no," insists Gomez, a paralegal who was fired from his job as legal assistant for the tribe when the debate flared. "At show-and-tell at elementary school I would bring in pictures of my Pechanga ancestors," he says. Gomez grew up in northern California and moved to Temecula in 1997 with his wife, Jennifer. "I would tell stories of my dad and his cousins and their 'Indian tricks and games'.... To have someone suddenly tell you, 'You are not Pechanga and you never were,' is very hurtful."Comment:  A paid anthropologist says Gomez and company are related to a verified tribal ancestor. The tribe says Gomez's people cut their ties to this ancestor. For all we know, both sides may be correct. Now what?

The last time I discussed the question of the Pechanga disenrollment was in More Pechanga Bashing. In the comments section I specifically addressed this issue:As I said at the end of the Cooper article, if a tribe decides to disenroll people whose ancestors forfeited their membership, it doesn't matter if they're still Pechangas biologically. That's one explanation for how the tribe could ignore expert reports and testimony on the disenrollees' biological ties. Repeat: Ancestry doesn't necessarily matter if someone abandons tribal membership.Now we see this issue raised in the body of the Christian Science Monitor article. I'm still waiting for a cogent response. Sorry, but Gomez's "No. No and no" isn't it.

Gomez admits he didn't live on the reservation until 1997. That supports the claim that his ancestors cut their ties--that they repudiated their membership. Where's the evidence that his ancestors maintained ties to the tribe during his childhood despite living almost 1,000 miles away?

In the previous posting I raised several other issues as well. I'm waiting for a response on all of them. Take your time, people. I'm in no hurry.

For more on the subject, see The Facts About Indian Gaming--Disenrollment.

Strong, silent type in Shadow Hearts

Natives are stereotyped in video games as well as movies, TV shows, and comic books. The Shadow Hearts game is a good example of this.

I’m Sure You’ve Got Plenty to SayWhile discussing the game with BomberGirl and PlasmaRit, we became interested in the “strong and silent” Native American character Natan. We wondered how much he actually had to say throughout the course of the game, and I honestly couldn’t recall. It’s been a while since I’ve played it.

To investigate our suspicions, I combed through one hundred and ten pages of the Shadow Hearts: From the New World script. From beginning to end, the script is 30,324 words long.

Natan says 768 words.What this means:The treatment his character receives perpetuates the strong, silent Native American stereotype. At the very least, he’s not quite Tonto from The Lone Ranger. He rarely speaks, but he uses good grammar throughout the game, with one strange exception. After the party has been captured in the Caribbean, Natan lifts the gate from its hinges and says, “Long time no use… so gate was warped.”

The only quality of the Shadow Hearts series that makes this passably acceptable to me is that no one is safe. The developers must have had a Big Book of Stereotypes when they were drafting the characters. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, it’s not a game to take seriously.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Wooden Indians.

True Diary chosen as One Book

Book chosen for this year's One Book/ Many Voices event"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie has been selected as the featured book for Floyd County’s One Book/Many Voices for 2008.

Sherman Alexie grew up on a Spokane Indian reservation in Washington to become a bestselling novelist, poet, comic and screenwriter. He received the 2007 National Book Award for "The Absolutely True Diary," his first work for young adults.

He will give a public lecture and sign books on Sept. 18 at 7 pm at Pepperell High School.

Now in its second year, One Book/Many Voices is designed to encourage reading, spark discussion and bring the community together through the reading of one great book. In 2007 close to 1,000 citizens read "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and nearly 4,000 people turned out to hear the author, Maya Angelou, speak at The Forum.

According to Susan Cooley, director of the Sara Hightower Regional Library system, “'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' is an especially rich book for our community. The book examines the challenges of growing up and fitting in, as well as problems of racism, poverty and substance abuse. We think it will engage both adult and adolescent readers.”Comment:  For more on the subject, see All About Sherman Alexie.

Neither "Chief" nor "Squaw"

Things NEVER to Say to American Indian CoworkersSocietal concerns over the proper way to address American Indians are not new. You may hesitate over calling someone an American Indian rather than a Native American, though our sources prefer American Indian (after their tribal identification). But what else might you say that would be offensive? Take a look at these 9 things you should NEVER say to an American Indian colleague.

"Hey, Chief"
"Squaw"
"How Indian are you?"
"Hold down the fort"
"Do you live in a teepee?"
"Pow-wow"
"Climbing the totem pole" or "Low man on the totem pole"
"Indian-giver"
"That's a nice costume"Comment:  I don't think many Indians would object to the use of "fort," "powwow," or "totem pole" in a casual conversation. Given the number of stereotypes they see and hear every day, I imagine they've learned to tolerate such words.

For more on the subject, see Native American Slang.

No spoils, said Sitting Bull

Little Big Horn museum collecting Sitting Bull exhibitThen in his 40s and past his warrior days, Sitting Bull offered 50 pieces of flesh from each arm before he began the grueling ritual of dance and prayers. On the second day, a vision came. Soldiers were falling into camp, upside down, with no ears, LaPointe said.

“These dead soldiers who are coming are the gifts of God,” Sitting Bull told his people. “Kill them, but do not take their guns or horses. Do not touch the spoils. If you set your hearts upon the goods of the white man, it will prove a curse to this nation.”

They did not heed his words, LaPointe said.

When six companies of the 7th Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. George Custer were annihilated at the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, victorious Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho took horses, guns, scalps, uniforms and anything that could be useful on their nomadic journeys.Comment:  For more on Indian museums, see The Feel-Good National Museum.

Tennessee Indians in We Shall Remain

Tracing the Trail of Tears

WTCI producing local documentary to tie in with national PBS series[M]any Chattanoogans remain ignorant of the Native American history of our area—but possibly not for long. Local PBS station WTCI was selected as one of five PBS stations nationwide to create a local community coalition as part of PBS’s American Experience’s We Shall Remain, a provocative, multi-media production that establishes Native American history as an essential part of U.S. history, slated to air on PBS nationwide in 2009.

Episode Three of the 10-hour We Shall Remain series will focus on the Cherokee and the Trail of Tears, Grove said, and therefore also include a great deal of information about the Chattanooga area.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.

Mexico says no to exploitation

Why didn't Mel Gibson's Apocalypto have the cooperation of the Mexican government? Because Mexico protects its cultural heritage from commercial exploitation. Here's the story:

Treasures of a Nation, Not Fodder for an AdEager to bolster tourism, Hidalgo State came up with a novel idea: an advertising campaign featuring a well-known actress wearing Hidalgo’s most eye-popping sites on her flesh.

“Hidalgo, under my skin” was the catch phrase for the ads, which featured the soap opera actress Irán Castillo covered with computer-generated images of mountains, waterfalls and monuments.

But federal officials were unimpressed. They did not object to Ms. Castillo’s lying seminude on the grass with hot-air balloons displayed on her body or lounging in a forest with images of rock faces on her flank or even sprawled on a beautiful mosaic wearing nothing but a beautiful mosaic. “We’re not moralistic,” insisted Benito Taibo, an executive with Mexico’s National Institute for Anthropology and History. “We don’t have an issue with her. She’s a pretty girl.”

But the institute did have an issue with Ms. Castillo’s wearing Mexico’s patrimony on her curvaceous form. Whether it was the stone Atlantes in Tula de Allende or the old aqueduct in Padre Tembleque or the former convent in San Nicolás Tolentino, imprinting one of Mexico’s treasures on a soap opera star was deemed a violation of the law.The institute's other decisions:The country’s anthropology institute, based in Mexico City, does more than just serve as Mexico’s monument police. It oversees a vast collection of pyramids, shrines and other attractions, all more than a century old. With 800 researchers, the institute churns out academic treatises that seek to make sense of the country’s past. It also rejects anything seen as exploiting a historical artifact’s dignity.

That means that when a paint company recently asked if it could feature artifacts in a commercial, the institute said no.

The current crop of requests in a thick binder in Mr. Taibo’s office also includes one from the BBC seeking to film a documentary at a pyramid (Sí), another from a university professor seeking to do research at a site (Sí) and a third from a real estate developer who wanted to publish photographs of pyramids in his ads (No).

The institute’s staff pores over a movie script when a production company asks permission to film at a historical site to determine whether the story line is objectionable. “Apocalypto,” Mel Gibson’s 2006 film on the decline of Mayan civilization, received a no.

“We said, ‘You can film anywhere except in our historical zones,’ ” said Mr. Taibo, who is also a published poet. “It was a film loosely based on history, but it was a particularly bloody interpretation of our past.”Comment:  I'm glad to see the institute rejected Apocalypto for its falsification of Maya history. It didn't stop Gibson from filming, but it may have slowed him down. More to the point, it prevented him from claiming the Maya and their descendants supported his apocalyptic vision.

Unlike Apocalypto, though, it's hard to see how the Hidalgo ad would hurt anything. It's promoting an interest in Mexico's history--literally trying to make it sexy. That seems like a decent idea to me. (It would be even better if they also used a male model to avoid the appearance of sexism.)

Students can't overcome stereotypes

Chumash storyteller visits Paso librarySalazar advocates for a strong sense of living history, which helps to remove the stereotype from Native Americans. Teachers, he said, are doing a wonderful job of educating children about the history of local Native American tribes, but children are still influenced by long-held tropes popularized by Hollywood. Salazar pointed to an instance at a school when a young student, who was very educated on the history of the Chumash tribe, asked if Salazar had ridden a horse to the school.

“The myths and misconceptions, even among the students and young people that are learning a lot of good stuff, are still obvious,” he said. “So it is important that they see and hear the stories from a Chumash person, from a Salinian person.”Comment:  The ancient Chumash didn't own or ride horses, of course, since they lived on the Southern California coastline. So it's ludicrous that a child would ask a 21st century Chumash if he rode a horse to the school. What a sad testament to the power of stereotypes.

For more on the subject, see The Harm of Native Stereotyping:  Facts and Evidence.

Real Indian:



Imagined Indian:

Return to the Clinton era

Talking to tribes:  Democratic hopeful courts Montana's Native voteClinton told the Pablo crowd that, as president, she would make Indian Country issues a priority by restoring the practices her husband, former President Bill Clinton, put into action when he was the nation's commander in chief in the 1990s.

Under Bill Clinton, more than 1,000 American Indian schoolteachers were recruited to teach in public schools, and more money went into Indian Health Services and to create economic opportunity in Indian Country, she said.

“We were moving forward--not fast enough, but with discernible progress, much of which has either stalled or gone backward (during the current administration),” Clinton said, adding: “We need a president next January who understands the obligation the United States government has to the tribes that represent the first peoples of the United States.”

To the crowd's thundering cheers, Clinton made several promises she said she would uphold as president.

“We must fund the Indian Health Services. We must create a position at a high level in the government for the administrator of the Indian Health Services at the assistant secretary of state level, so that person has the clout and visibility in Washington to work with me as president to make the changes that are necessary,” she said.

“We must return to what was the case in the Clinton White House in the 1990s--we will have a representative of Indian Country inside the White House working with the president every single day. That's what we did in the '90s. George Bush eliminated that; I will return it so those issues are the highest priority in the White House and in the president's office.”

Longest Walk = moving prayer

Native Americans walk the talk across AmericaOverall, the Long Walkers have found an abundance of grace and generosity from the communities we passed through, from the ceremonies and meals of the Miwok in Shingle Springs, Calif., to the efforts to save the sacred places by the Paiute, Shoshone and Washo in Nevada. The Longest Walk was showered with hospitality by Navajos and townspeople in southern Utah, the staff at the Salt Lake Walk In Center, community members in Denver, staff at the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose, Colo., and all across Kansas. At the School of Natural Order in Baker, Nev., there was regeneration, and in the heart of Utah, in the towns of Scipio, Richfield and Green River, we felt the solace of generous spirits. The Kickapoo in Kansas offered a place for a five-day rest.

It was in Greensburg, Kan., that another dimension of the West opened up to the group--the force of a tornado to rip apart a town. Debris was still piled high nearly one year after the tornado struck on May 4, 2007. Still, there was hope and abundant love in this town as the people were rebuilding “green,” focusing on solar and wind power.

As the walk across America nears its end, it does so as a movable prayer. As Jimbo Simmons, a Choctaw, put it, “The act of walking brings back into focus the traditional knowledge that’s been locked away for generations.”

"Redmen" = Sambo

Professor:  Redmen name could bring law suits"It is not so much discrimination against an individual student, but accommodation in a public venue," Siegel said, citing a 1999 Harvard Law Review article titled, "A Public Accommodations Challenge to the Use of Indian Team Names and Mascots in Professional Sports."

Siegel noted that the name Redmen appears in a few places at the NHS football field, including on the scoreboard and the pressbox. If someone attending a game, whether a student, a resident or someone else, is offended by the use of the name that could be considered discrimination under Title II.Why Natick High School might lose:In a similar case in a neighboring state, a restaurant called Sambo's was sued by a group that believed the name was offensive.

"At a restaurant in Rhode Island the name was offensive to some African-Americans and the court agreed and they had to change the name," Siegel said. "The intent (of offending someone) is not important. If people are offended they are offended, it doesn't matter if people meant to offend them."Comment:  For more on the subject, see Team Names and Mascots.

Some tribes aren't stewards

Reader’s letter:  Tribe isn’t acting as steward of landWhat I do want to talk about is the Nuwu tribe’s continued insistence that they are stewards of the land. In light of their representative’s dismissive response to questions about the tribe’s non-adherence to the Endangered Species Act (Desert Trail, “Casino groundbreaking nears,” May 22), it is insulting for them to keep insisting their casino and trailer park project is about anything other than a lot of cold, hard cash for a tribe of 12 members, already the owners of one casino.

Like many other folks I’ve talked to, who only accept this badly located project because we are told there’s no alternative, I object to its placement—on 160 pristine acres bordering our national park, that could as a bonus end up draining the Oasis of Mara dry.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Ecological Indian Talk.

Lakota codetalker sports complex

Group pushes Code Talker sports complex

Money sought for project honoring key Lakota contribution in WWIIOrganizers of a Code Talkers Veterans Memorial sports complex on the Rosebud Reservation still are looking for corporate partners but are moving ahead with the project.

A group led by several South Dakota State University professors is trying to raise $2 million, half of which would pay for the complex west of Mission with a lighted ball diamond and fields for soccer and flag football.

The other $1 million would be used to upgrade facilities at 19 other communities across the reservation.

150 years of blaming the victim

The idea that minorities are responsible for their own poverty goes way back—to the Civil War, at least. As soon as the slaves were free, whites began blaming them for not becoming middle-class paragons of virtue.

White May Be Might, But It's Not Always RightIn its coverage of the Pew report findings, National Public Radio asked whether some blacks were lagging behind because they were choosing not to become "closer to whites in their values." Unfortunately, this line of questioning reinforces one of the most persistent myths in America, that white is always right. The myth reflects an enduring double standard based on "white" and "black" explanations for social problems. And it assumes that "white" culture is the gold standard for judging everyone, despite its competing ideologies, its contradictions and its flaws, including racism.

The masquerade began over a hundred years ago. Shortly after the end of slavery, sociologists and demographers began presenting research on black failure and struggle as "indisputable" proof of black inferiority. One of the first studies was released in 1896, when the leading race-relations demographer of the period, Frederick L. Hoffman, analyzed census data showing that blacks were doing worse than whites in mortality, health, employment, education and crime. The problem was not racism, he argued, but "race traits and tendencies."

To him, the civil rights acts of the 1860s and 1870s had leveled the playing field. Blacks should be left to compete against whites on their own and face the inevitable.Comment:  The same applies to Indians, of course. As soon as the Indian Wars were over, Indians were supposed to put on Western clothes, take up the plow, send their children to school, and go to church. Americans were surprised that their attempt to eliminate 10,000 years of history and culture overnight didn't have the desired effect.

For more on the subject, see Blaming the Victim.

Navajo Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance ... : Heights students use their native languages to recite pledgeReciting the Pledge of Allegiance can be a lesson in patriotism, memorization or public speaking.

The daily ritual is all three at Heights Middle School, where it also is a demonstration of the school's varied culture. Students crowd into the office each morning to recite the pledge over the intercom system in three languages: English, Spanish and Navajo.

"I think it's nice that the school brought this in," said 12-year-old Natalie Wernig, a sixth-grader who has learned the pledge in all three languages.

"We are all U.S. citizens, but English isn't necessarily our first language," she said. "It's cool we can all say it in our own language."The Pledge in Navajo:"Kéyah ashdladiingo hahoodzooígíí bidahnaat'a'í t'áá ííyisíí shil nilíigo baa bich'i' ádíshní. Háálá ájooba' hasin yee hadít'é, kéyah t'áála'í si'áági Diyin Dine'é yee ádééhodilzin, binahji' níík'eh ájooba' bidziilii bee da' ahíínííta'."Comment:  I'm not sure what "lesson in patriotism" you learn by repeating a rote phrase. I imagine the primary lesson is that if you don't recite the Pledge dutifully, your schoolmates will shun you for not being "patriotic." In other words, the Pledge teaches children to think in platitudes, to conform, and to shut up if you don't agree.

For more on the subject, see I Pledge Allegiance to the Constitution.

McCain: Obama doesn't know Indians

Obama signaling he will fight for Western statesMcCain said Monday that Obama "has no experience, no knowledge or background" on Western issues.

"I believe as a Western senator I understand the issues, the challenges of the future for these ... states, whether it be land, water, Native American issues, preservation, environmental issues," McCain said in an interview with the AP.

Obama said he needs to introduce himself to all Western voters, not just Hispanics. Issues like improving the economy, ending the Iraq war and providing universal health care will appeal to everyone, he said.

"I'm absolutely confident that we're going to do very well west out here because people out west are independent-minded and are going to look at whether or not over the last eight years the country is better off under Republican rule. I think they're going to conclude they're not and they want fundamental change, something that I'm offering and John McCain is not," he said.

Powwow scares Iraqis

Celebrating roots in Iraq

A Pryor man was among the revelers at the first combat-zone powwow. There were many American Indians serving in Iraq, and with the help of their tribes back home, some were able to organize the inter-tribal powwow, the first such event in a combat zone, Ketcher said.

Curious about what the Americans were doing, Iraqi civilians began to watch as the powwow began, but they soon left.

"They came and were checking things out, but as soon as drums started and singing started, they took off," Ketcher said. "It scared them."

Rapper's rez-centric reality

Native hip-hop at Folklife:  Komplex Kai raps a rez realityFor 40 minutes, Kai rapped with a mix of compassion and anger, revealing his allegiance to another tribe that could use a revival: '90s gangsta rappers of emotional substance.

Grim rez snapshots of "kids having kids" and "kids smoking pop"—or crack—came backed with Tulalip pride ("I'm throwin' my Tribe up!"), a move that's pure Tupac Shakur. Kai even did a dead-ringer for Tupac's wistful reconciliation track "I Ain't Mad At Cha," a ballad that mashed head-shaking love into sad truths ("drunk is how we cope"). Like 'Pac, Kai sounded much older than his age.

Western civ. is best?

Another debate on the alleged superiority of Western civilization:Through all our dark ages, Roman brutality, religious wars, crusades, inquisitions, towers of London, Nazi genocide, aborigine slaughters, drug infested sex crazed cultures, it IS "Western Civilization" that produced a team of 30 plus doctors who transformed a very, very unfortunate 8 armed human being monstrosity into a smiling little girl who will walk, and play due to magnificent surgical techniques and medical acumen acquired and developed by Western Civilization! The evidence is in my distant friends, WEST CIV. ROCKS!

Baum supporter questions Rob

Another debate on The Indian-Oz Connection:Should readers try to get inside the minds of Baum and his Aberdeen neighbors? Some of Rob's comments seem to say yes ("I doubt they took the Ghost Dance 'threat' seriously") and some no (as in dismissing "the white settlers' fears" as unjustified because we know better now).

"Cowboys and Indians" images

What do you get if you search for images of cowboys and Indians? Mostly pictures of cowboys or Indians.

But the pictures with cowboys and Indians are surprisingly revealing. They show us how commonplace stereotypes still are.



Your classic Plains chief.



Your classic mock Plains chief with buckskins and warpaint. This is the only illustration with the Indian in a superior position (an adult vs. a child). But the "Indian" looks so clownish that it negates his stature.



Buckskinned Indian with a feather and a chief, both with weapons.



A half-naked chief on horseback and three half-naked "braves," two of whom are carrying bows and arrows.

As with other scenes of conviviality, this illustration suggests that cowboys and Indians were one big happy family. In other words, that cowboys didn't kill Indians as part of America's manifest destiny. These happy-go-lucky pictures serve to whitewash the country's genocidal history.



Female version of buckskinned Indian with a feather. The pose suggests she's a friend or lover to the cowboy. The implication is that cowboys and Indians were partners in the West, with the Indians in the subordinate (female) role.

Compare this to an image of a strong Indian man holding a sexy cowgirl. You won't see anything like this except in a trashy romance novel. Why not? Because it would imply that Indians were dominant, that cowboys subordinated themselves to their interests, etc. Since John Wayne-style cowboys are our national heroes, we can't show them in anything but a dominant light.



Another buckskinned female with a feather provides a sexual counterpoint to the penis pistol-packin' cowboy.

Also note the two "braves" in the lower right. Both have headbands with feathers, and both carry bows and arrows. One is doing a "war whoop." They've tied up the cowboy because, well, that's what Indians do.



A chief and several half-naked "braves" with feathers. All are wielding weapons; some have tomahawks or spears rather than bows and arrows. The Indians are colored dark red because, well, they're "redskins."

Note the poses. The Indians are posed as if they're at war with the cowboys--because if they weren't friends and lovers, they must've been implacable enemies. Five of the Indians are brandishing their weapons at the cowboys, while only one cowboy is aiming at an Indian. Message: Indians are more warlike than cowboys.



Plains chiefs with drums and tipis, and buckskinned maidens with feathers. Daisy Duck in particular looks like a fetching sex object.

Note the implication--also seen in the second and third images--that anyone can become an Indian simply by donning a Halloween-style costume. In reality, Mickey and company can become cowboys by donning a hat and holster because "cowboy" is an occupation. They can't become Indians the same way.

Pretending they can diminishes the central importance of Indian culture and history. Saying anyone can become an Indian also says that being an Indian is nothing special. It says it's okay for anyone to use and exploit Indian beliefs and practices.

Conclusion

To summarize, we have Plains chiefs, half-naked or buckskinned "braves" with weapons, and sexy maidens. Period. No Indians as farmers, traders, or builders...not to mention doctors, lawyers, or rocket scientists.

People believe these stereotypical images represent reality because they see them over and over. They don't see anything else so they don't learn anything else. To most people, these are the only "real" Indians there are.

The only nonstereotypical Indian culture in these images comes from the "Northeast and Great Lakes" Disney stamp. Namely, the wigwam and collection of maple syrup. Alas, we rarely if ever see such things, so we don't associate them with Indians.

Mistakes and stereotypes in The Paradise Syndrome

Part three of an analysis of The Paradise Syndrome, the original Star Trek episode about Indians. From Star Trek and History: Race-Ing Toward a White Future by Daniel Bernardi.

Case Study:  “The Paradise Syndrome” (1968)The Kellam DeForest Research Company, hired by Roddenberry verify facts in preproduction stories, cites errors in “The Paradise Syndrome” script that would ultimately produce an essentialistic representation of Native-Americans, indicating that Roddenberry was made aware of at least some of the problems in the script. The report suggests changing the tribal mixture of the peaceful Indians, which already had been changed from simply “Mohicans” in the story outline to a “mixture of Navajo, Mohican, and Mandan” in the script, in order to be more authentic: “The Mandans were among the most violent, intransigent of all the American Indian tribes. They made war on everyone, on any excuse. Suggest Pawnee or Cherokee.” The report also notes that “‘Mohican’ is a very bad tribal name to use for several reasons: it is not really an Indian name (Mohegan or Mahican is close). It brings to mind immediately ‘Last of the ... ’; and they were also very war-like. Suggest: Delaware. (The Delaware were related and sets and props would be correct for either culture.)” Finally, the research report notes that the script is not authentic in its call for Indian costuming: “feathered cloaks are associated with the natives of Polynesia and with the Aztecs. Some feathers were used by the California tribes in particular, as decorations. Use by northern and eastern tribes is not valid.”

Despite the Kellam report, the aired version of “The Paradise Syndrome” reproduces the noble savage stereotype with little change. The episode begins with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beaming down to a planet that lies directly in the path of a huge asteroid—an ominous collision that will ultimately kill all the planet’s inhabitants, “a mixture of Navajo, Mohican, and Delaware,” Spock describes. Upon seeing the Indians, Kirk fantasizes about their “peaceful, uncomplicated” nature, and Dr. McCoy chimes in: “Typical human reaction to an idyllic natural setting. Back in the twentieth century we referred to it as the Tahiti syndrome. It’s particularly common to over-pressured leader-types like starship captains.” Soon after the landing party finds evidence of the conscientious super-race who “preserved” the Indians—the Noahs the galaxy, as it were—Kirk accidentally hits his head, gets amnesia, and is subsequently separated from his friends. After diligently trying but failing to rescue their captain, Spock and McCoy return to the Enterprise to deal with diverting the asteroid. Back on the planet, the captain, unaware that he is a “more evolved” human than the Indians, befriends the tribe, eventually “rising to the top” apparently due to his “natural” ability by becoming a medicine chief and, as the paradise syndrome would have it, marrying—in a feathered cloak no less!—the beautiful Miramanee (Sabrina Scharf).

As in the production documents, the noble savage stereotype in the broadcast text emphasizes the “superiority” of whiteness. In one scene, for example, Miramanee cannot figure out how to pull Kirk’s shirt off, s she cannot find any lacing. She is portrayed as simpleminded, not that bright. This is not the case with Kirk. Moments before, he had fashioned a lamp from an old piece of pottery and saved a boy by using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Despite his amnesia, he is shown as naturally superior. The text seems to say: while you can take the white man out of civilization, you can’t take civilization out of the white man. Given the impossibility of the white man’s return to the simplicity of paradise, the ending in particular plays out the morality of whiteness and, in the process, resolves Kirk’s Tahiti syndrome. When the Indians realize Kirk is not a god, they stone both him and Miramanee (it’s the Indians who are violent in this version of the noble savage stereotype). Spock and McCoy eventually intervene, but only Kirk survives. In this take on a standard white/red miscegenation narrative, the native girl dies so that Kirk, the white male hero, isn’t shown unheroically and immorally leaving her and their unborn baby behind. In accordance with both the network censor’s goal and Roddenberry’s vision of paradise, the starship captain is left unencumbered in his trek toward a white future.

Indians and polygamists

Tim Giago:  Parallels in Texas and Indian CountryThe upstanding and righteous Christian community had to do something. The people living near them had a religion that was so different than their own that it had to be considered as heathen. They didn’t believe in Jesus Christ so they had to be on the wrong path.

What’s more they were living in deep sin by practicing polygamy. Why some of the men had as many as three or four wives. What kind of damage was this doing to the innocent children?

The Christian community saw only one conclusion. They had to go in and rescue the children. If that meant sending law enforcement officials into the community to forcibly take the children from their parents, so be it. It would lead to a much better life for the children so the parents be damned. After all, what did these backward people know about raising children properly?

No, I am not talking about the fiasco at San Angelo, Texas. I am talking about what happened to the children of Native Americans across America in the late 1800s. Thousands of children were ripped from the arms of their mothers and fathers and shipped off to far away schools that would endeavor to turn them into God fearing Christians, but not before they were shorn of their identities, their culture, religion and traditions.Some history on the subject:The mainstream media once again makes the mistake of reporting that this is the largest such happening in U. S. history. They made the same mistake when reporting on the school shootings at the college in Virginia calling it the largest such massacre in American history. How could they have overlooked Sand Creek, Washita or Wounded Knee, to name but a few of the terrible massacres committed against Native Americans?

When Indian children were rounded up and herded into boarding schools throughout America at the turn of the century the mass media went along with it because they believed it was the right thing to do. Indians had no basic rights, civil or human. In order to make America a homogenous society, certain measures had to be taken. The end, as society records it, would justify the means.And:Polygamy occurred in the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation for obvious reasons that were apparently too difficult to discern by the clergy. If a warrior died by accident or in war he usually left a widow and children. What would happen to his family after his death? There were no welfare programs or commodity distributions to help feed, clothe and shelter the family. They would certainly die if not for the traditional practice of having able bodied warriors taken them under their protection as second wives and of course second families. It was the nasty minds of the Christians that turned this cultural practice into something dirty.

I make the analogy to the San Angelo fiasco to point out that it is never a good thing when one segment of society forces its beliefs upon another.Comment:  If the people involved aren't coerced or brainwashed, I see nothing inherently wrong with polygamy.

Indian country = Zion

Newcomb:  American ZionismBush also spoke explicitly of an alliance and a friendship between Israel and the United States rooted in the Bible. The source of the link between the two countries, he said, "is grounded in the shared spirit of our people, the bonds of the Book, the ties of the soul." Then, weaving a bit of American history into the mix, Bush told his audience: "When William Bradford stepped off the Mayflower in 1620, he quoted the words of [the Hebrew prophet] Jeremiah 51:10: 'Come let us declare in Zion the word of God."'

According to Bush, "The founders of my country saw a new promised land and bestowed upon their towns names like Bethlehem and New Canaan. And in time, many Americans became passionate advocates for a Jewish state." American Indian lands, in other words, were viewed by the founders of the United States as a new Land of Canaan, a promised inheritance and everlasting possession.

Although there may be those orthodox Jews who would not concur with Bush's characterization of the Old Testament, his speech illustrates the kind of thinking that has played such a prominent role in the historic mistreatment of American Indians by the United States, and in the callous and often brutal mistreatment of Palestinian people by the state of Israel. The mental model of a chosen people and a promised land provides a convenient rationalization whereby one people feels entitled and justified, by divine right, to take over, possess, and profit from the lands of other peoples.And:By using Bradford's quote of Jeremiah, Bush was making a metaphorical connection between the United States and Israel, but also between Zion and the lands of the indigenous nations of North America. Bradford used the Old Testament quote of Jeremiah to project the concept of Zion onto the lands of the indigenous nations in North America. Clearly, this is an American version of Zionism.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Indian-Palestinian Connection and A Shining City on a Hill:  What Americans Believe.

Bush as a Native contrary

The Contrarian Nature of George W. BushLet's play a game. If George Bush was a character in the 1970 classic Western, Little Big Man, who would he be?

The obvious answer would of course be General George Armstrong Custer. Like our president, his character combines a sublime arrogance, a juvenile sense of the heroic, and sheer forehead-slapping stupidity in a manner that can only be described as gifted. And, employing these traits to their fullest, he also leads his troops into an unmitigated catastrophe. But that's too easy. Come on, play the game.The author's answer:[R]ecent events have led me to choose one of the movie's lesser characters--Younger Bear, Little Big Man's nemesis within the Cheyenne tribe. In the course of the movie, Younger Bear becomes a "contrary," a strange phenomenon in Native American plains culture who says and does the opposite of what he actually intends. He rides his horse facing the rear, says "hello" when he means "goodbye," washes in the dirt and dries off in the creek.

I came to this conclusion after Bush's recent speech in Israel, where he famously equated Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's willingness to hold talks with Iran with the appeasement of Adolf Hitler prior to World War II. Pretty inflammatory rhetoric anywhere, but in front of the Knesset? Really over the top.

But it was the response of the Israelis themselves that clued me in. For no sooner had Bush's plane left the tarmac than they announced they were engaging in peace talks with arch-enemy Syria. They apparently learned their lesson in 2006. At that time, the Bush administration egged them on in their fight with Hezbollah "terrorists" in Lebanon, and it went about as well for them as our invasion of Iraq has gone for us. Well, "never again" as the saying goes. Now they know--whatever Bush says, do the opposite.Below:  Little Big Man and little man, period.

Blue corn for Blue Corn

Here's what real blue corn looks like:

White super-race in The Paradise Syndrome

Part two of an analysis of The Paradise Syndrome, the original Star Trek episode about Indians. From Star Trek and History: Race-Ing Toward a White Future by Daniel Bernardi.

Case Study:  “The Paradise Syndrome” (1968)Roddenberry’s interest in representing Kirk and crew as more advanced than the Indians stems from his interest in the myth of the “paradise syndrome” (it was Roddenberry who insisted that the original title be changed to “The Paradise Syndrome”). He writes:

Our story here, the essential and I think the most interesting and different one for our series, is whether a Herman Melville theme, i.e., modern man finding his “Tahiti,” that natural and simple and happy and untroubled life all of us dream about some day finding—and having found it and having held it in his hand, he learns he’s incapable of closing his hand around it and keeping it because all of us are innocent prisoners of our own time and our own place. And, as with Melville’s “Typee,” neither can our modern man (or his clerk from Boston) take his woman from this simple life back to his land and his time, since she would be as destroyed by it as he would be if he stayed there. This is the premise and theme, a strong one if used properly and certainly a most powerful and enduring one in Western literature.
Roddenberry’s interest in defining the problems of whites in a modern world, here both metaphorically and literally represented by Kirk, is ultimately pursued at the expense of Native-American peoples and cultures.

The NBC censor was also concerned with the notion of the “paradise syndrome,” but in the way in which it might affect the star persona of Captain Kirk. A letter from Stanley Robertson, manager of film programming, noted:

I think that it is a major mistake to have our star. Kirk, “marry” the lovely native girl, Miramanee, to have a child by her and then to return to “his world” with the Enterprise when a rescue is affected [sic]. I realize that your feelings are that you can “justify these actions” by establishing Kirk as a man engrained in the customs, mores, and social patterns of the planet’s culture. However, I think that we must remember that even though our series takes place at a time in the future, we still have contemporary people with contemporary views on morals, manners, etc., viewing our shows and, while we are able to portray others than our heroes in opposition to these conventional points of view, we should not ever depict our leads as having such thoughts.”
Clearly mindful of the twentieth-century audience, the NBC censor, though aware of the logic of science fiction, was less interested in the stereotyping of Native-Americans than with maintaining the “superior” morality of the white hero—another instance of network conservatism protecting a white bottom line.

This interest in representing whiteness as morally atop the evolutionary ladder goes beyond the goals of the network censor. In the memorandum to Freiberger, Roddenberry goes to great lengths to rationalize the benevolent super-race:

We are saying arbitrarily for purposes of this script that there was once, or still may exist somewhere, a race of highly advanced and kindly humanoid aliens, who had great love and affection for all forms of life and all levels of civilization and hated to see the fresh and different potential of primitive cultures absorbed and changed, such as happened on Earth with the Egyptians, Crete, American Indians, etc. Undoubtedly, the same sort of thing happens on other planets, too—it is a demonstratable law of progress in civilization that richly interesting primitive cultures die out and their particular values are lost when stronger cultures absorb or destroy them.
Roddenberry’s interest in the super-race, a logic derivative of the social Darwinian notion of “survival of the fittest,” continues, as he makes a weak effort at explaining why the Indians believe Kirk is godlike: “it is obvious that the Indians have never seen an Enterprise landing party member before and, therefore, more believable they believe Kirk is a sort of god.” The “demonstratable law of progress” implicitly assumes that “white” phenotypes, which is all that separates Kirk from the Indians at this point in the story, would be construed by “primitive cultures” as godlike, thereby linking Kirk not to the Indians, and thus to members of his own species, but to an alien super-race: Kirk is more alien super-race than human Indian. The discourse of white superiority, “not there as a category and everywhere as a fact,” as Richard Dyer argues about whiteness, is stretched into the future by the science-fiction notion of an alien super-race and a heroic white captain.

Rock the Native Vote

Every vote counts

'Rock the Native Vote' seeks to expand Oklahoma Indian voter participationIn Oklahoma, one organization hopes to increase Native participation in the local, state and national voting process. Called "Rock the Native Vote," the organization is a non-partisan effort that began as a Native youth initiative in 2003 within the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference of the United Methodist Church.

In addition to getting people registered to vote, the organization has a second purpose: change attitudes about the voting process and "help persons realize that our voting does make a difference, whether it's in our communities, our states or nationwide," said Rev. David Wilson, Choctaw, who serves as the OIMC conference superintendent and RNV chair.

In June 2004, RNV held its first large event, a live music rally in conjunction with the National Congress of American Indians, on the same weekend as the annual Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City. This year, RNV kicked off its voter registration campaign with a rally and dance held at the Oklahoma Native American Students in Higher Education conference in Weatherford, on the campus of Southwest Oklahoma State University.

Native America Speaks at Glacier

Native American influences a big part of Glacier's allureIn general, visitors to Glacier National Park come with a superficial awareness of the region's Native American heritage and the Blackfeet Nation, said Jack Gladstone as he prepared for his 24th summer as a presenter in the Native America Speaks program.

"There is an interest and fascination with our tribal identity," the Blackfeet singer-songwriter from St. Mary and Kalispell said.

By attending the 45-minute evening presentations at hotels, campgrounds and other sites in and near the park, Gladstone said, visitors accept an invitation to deepen their understanding of the cultural identity of the native people.Comment:  Good to hear there's a strong Native presence at Glacier. Those who have read American Indians and National Parks know that isn't always the case at our national parks.

More on Panama's King Tito

Hydro-dam exiles one of Latin America's last kingsThe Naso king is recognized by the Panamanian government as the tribe's maximum authority and its legal representative in discussions with outsiders. The government rejected Tito's ouster and still recognizes him as rightful monarch, referring to him as "Rey Tito" (King Tito) in official documents.

Tito is now considering a referendum on his rule.

"I am thinking about an election. Let's have the community decide whether I continue or not. If they want another king, then be my guest," said Tito, sitting in the shade of his hut.

Many of the 400 residents of the Naso capital Seiyik, which lies three hours by dugout canoe up a shallow river, are furious that the government and EPM are still talking to Tito.

How Blackfire got started

Blackfire:  The Rhythm of ResistanceA sync settled in, Jeneda leans into the conversation. “You know Blackfire just happened, it wasn’t planned. We grew up together, are close in age, played easily together and picked up instruments together.”

“Where did you get the name from?” I ask. “Black coal,” Says Jeneda, “has always represented, to our minds, the continued encroachment on Traditional Aboriginal land.”

Blackfire,” says Clayson, “is like a smoke signal.”

Klee seamlessly completes the thought. “In the old days, a smoke signal was used to warn other camps in the vicinity of the approaching enemy.”

Yakari videos

These videos are from a European TV series about Yakari, the Sioux Indian boy. They give you an idea of how Yakari looks and acts in his comic books.

Note that he isn't wearing a feather in the second video. This is actually a better, more authentic look for him. Even if a boy like him did something heroic, I'm not sure his elders would award him a feather.

Yakari intro 1983--[TV-Series]



Yakary si tunet mic

Visualizing stereotypical mascots

A collection of common items featuring Indian sports mascots:

Visualizing Otherness:  Native Americans

Review of YAKARI

A while ago I mentioned the Yakari series of comic books by Belgian creators Derib and Job. Erica Jeffrey, who is translating the Yakari series into English, was kind enough to send me a review copy.

I believe YAKARI AND THE BEAVERS is the third volume in the series. Here are some descriptions of it:

Yakari and the BeaversProduct Description

Yakari, while riding his horse through the woods, happens upon a colony of beavers. While enjoying a dip in the river with them, Yakari discovers that each has his own personality and characteristics. The storyline is message-driven and teaches children about tolerance, friendship and respect for the environment. Beautiful full colour illustrations complement simple, easy-to-read texts to make reading appealing to children of all reading levels, and especially to reluctant readers.

Product Details

* Reading level: Ages 9-12
* Paperback: 48 pagesFrom the back cover:Yakari is a little Indian, courageous and generous, whose happy life all children would like to share. Astride Little Thunder, his faithful mustang, Yakari gallops across the Great Prairie, where people and animals live in harmony and migrate according to the seasons. Endowed with the wonderful ability to talk with all the animals, Yakari comes to know their way of life and their environment. Through his encounters and discoveries, Yakari passes on to young readers of his fascinating adventures a sense of respect, tolerance, justice, and solidarity. With humor and kindness, Yakari also teaches how to take advantage of lessons about life revealed by Mother Nature....Here are my thoughts on YAKARI:

An enchanted past

Yakari is a Sioux (Lakota) Indian boy. He’s a typical cartoon version of a cute little Indian. He wears a headband, which makes him look Apache, and a single feather, which he supposedly earned in his first adventure.

In this story, Yakari doesn't interact with any adults. We see a few shots of the Sioux camp with men and women going about their daily tasks amid tipis. These scenes look reasonably authentic.

The Sioux own horses and Yakari has Little Thunder, a pony. This suggests that the story takes place after the advent of the white man. But there are no signs of Europeans anywhere.

Yakari seems to live in an enchanted past where people and animals mix freely. Where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play. Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day. (I just made that up.)

Despite the back-cover copy about the Great Prairie, Yakari's people reside in a forested area with moose and bears. I'd say it looks more like Minnesota—the Great Lakes region–than the plains or prairie.

The art is lovely, just short of spectacular. The drawings are technically skilled yet loose and animated. It's reminiscent of the best of Disney comics, when Disney was putting out the acclaimed Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks.

Talking to animals

As the text indicates, Yakari has adventures with his animal friends. He shoos a bear away, helps the beavers build their dam, and rescues one who gets lost downstream.

The cover (below) gives you an idea of the hijinks. A few beavers want to ride Little Thunder because they've never been on a horse before. But they get carried away and ruin Double-Tooth’s dam. Fortunately, Yakari is there to save the day.

The gentle tone reflects how some of us imagine traditional Indians. They're at ease with nature. They don't necessarily pray to or revere it, but they also don't hate or fear it. To them it's like a second home, comfortable and familiar. You wouldn’t worship your drapes or furniture and Yakari doesn’t worship the rocks or trees.

Talking to animals is a common feature of Indian stories, of course. Many tribes claim they used to be able to speak the animals’ language in the distant past, before their people grew corrupt and immoral. You can imagine that Yakari is so innocent he’s retained his ancestors’ ability.

The characters’ names are decent, ranging from the somewhat clichéd Rainbow and Little Thunder to the more appropriate Double-Tooth and Linden Tree. At least none of them are "Soaring" or "Brave" or "White."

What would educators say?

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of YAKARI is its vagueness. Other than a single mention of the Sioux, there's no indication of Yakari's having a culture or a history. Apparently Derib and Job thought all Indians were the same.

But it could have been worse. Jeffrey said that in other books she's translated, the Indian characters spoke gibberish, mixing words from various tribes. Yakari may be a Sioux with no culture, but he’s not a mishmash of conflicting cultures.

Is YAKARI a good bet for children? Well, the price is right: about $10 for an oversized graphic novel with 44 pages of story. The books will amuse adults for a minute or two, but kids may treasure them and read them over and over.

Judging by the comments online, youngsters love the Yakari series. But I'm not sure if Native educators would recommend them. On the one hand, they tell a positive story about Indians and their love of nature. On the other hand, Yakari and his fellows are more generic than Sioux. And of course Lakota style Plains Indians are one of the biggest clichés in Native-themed literature.

I don't know. I'm guessing non-Native educators would say the positive message outweighs the lack of specifics. And that Native educators would say the opposite. Perhaps the Yakari books can serve as a starting point for youngsters, to spur their interest in Native stories. Then they can graduate to more sophisticated books with real Indian culture in them.

Yakari or Rabbit and Bear Paws?

Speaking of which...it’s interesting to compare YAKARI with another children’s series I’ve written about: RABBIT AND BEAR PAWS. The two main characters, Rabbit and Bear Paws, are more goofy-looking and immature than Yakari. But they’re steeped in a real time and place. They meet French trappers and British redcoats, trade at forts and play lacrosse. That’s a lot richer than Yakari’s frolicking with beavers. RABBIT AND BEAR PAWS shows that Indians were and are real people, not fantasy figures in a magical Neverland.

YAKARI isn’t as divorced from reality as, say, Peter Pan or The Emperor’s New School. But it suffers from the same problem: separating Indians from their heritage. I suppose it’s too late now, but adding a few Lakota words and concepts to YAKARI would’ve made it better.

Hint to translator Jeffrey: If the publisher won’t modify the text, how about adding a text page or two? Maybe something explaining how Lakota children actually lived and played.

I’d give YAKARI AND THE BEAVERS maybe an 8.0 for its artistic tone and style and a 6.0 for its limited portrayal of Indian culture. Net rating: 7.0 of 10.

Noble savages in The Paradise Syndrome

Part one of an analysis of The Paradise Syndrome, the original Star Trek episode about Indians. From Star Trek and History: Race-Ing Toward a White Future by Daniel Bernardi.

Case Study:  “The Paradise Syndrome” (1968)As with “The City on the Edge of Forever,” the conditions of production surrounding “The Paradise Syndrome” reveal a contradictory racial project, this time one that stereotypes Native-Americans as noble savages and whites as “normal” and even divine. The basic storyline has Captain Kirk, suffering from amnesia, becoming a medicine chief for a tribe of Native-Americans on a planet far from Earth. The tribe was placed there centuries ago by a “super-race” who wanted to “preserve them.” Primary evidence surrounding the production of the episode indicates that the incorporation of the noble savage stereotype was a direct result of the liberal-humanist ideals and practices of Roddenberry and other creative decision makers. In other words, regardless of the tug-of-war between Roddenberry and the network, in this episode of Star Trek it was the creative decision makers that participated in and facilitated racist practice.

Originally titled “Pale Face,” the story outline by Margaret Armen uses well-worn racialized adjectives and cliches to construct the Native-American tribe as noble savages. Kirk, Armen writes, “has found this tribe gentle, kind, and in complete attune with nature.” Armen has Kirk being accepted into the tribe and marrying one of the women, Miramanee. This emphasizes the mythical structure of the story, that of the so-called paradise syndrome, which typically involves a white man escaping civilization or getting lost in the wild, befriending a wise but simple tribe of natives, falling in love with a submissive and often scantily clad native girl, and, after saving the natives from an event or person bent on destroying them, eventually determining that living among them is not his life’s mission. The white man, not the native, has evolved, and he must accept his role as a complex, civilized human. In Armen’s outline, Kirk realizes that Miramanee “can never fit into [his] world. Simple and gentle as she is, her only place is the idyllic tribal environment of her people. Gently, he tells her that he no longer fits into her world either, that the ancient prophecy has been fulfilled and he must go on to fulfill his further duty.” The outline concludes: “He knows a part of him—the part of man that is always pagan—will always remain behind, that a poignant longing for the idyllic life of the noble savage will never leave him.”

The noble savage stereotype found in the development of “The Paradise Syndrome” functions as a sort of fetish, much like its eighteenth-century predecessor, analyzed by metahistorian Hayden White: “belief in the idea of a Noble Savage was magical, was extravagant and irrational in the kind of devotion it was meant to inspire, and, in the end displayed the kind of pathological displacement of libidinal interest that we normally associate with the forms of racism that depend on the idea of a ‘wild humanity’ for their justification.” All three aspects of White’s noble savage fetish are played out in Armen’s outline. First, the Indians are associated with magical qualities, especially in the representation of them as being mysteriously connected to—“in complete attune with”—nature. Second, the representation of the Indians as existing in some pristine and unchanging condition—on another planet, no less—reveals an irrational devotion to a particular image of Native-Americans as “noble,” an image “fixed” in time like the fetish. This is perhaps most prominent in both the super-race’s efforts to preserve them and Kirk’s nostalgic longing to become one of them. Finally, the stereotype is strongly suggestive of a libidinal displacement, perhaps most clearly projected in the relationship between Kirk and Miramanee—in which the captain, after falling in “love” with the beautiful native, has nothing less than a “wild” time.

The use of the noble savage theme in the conceptualization of “The Paradise Syndrome” ultimately has less to do with the lifestyle and customs of Native-Americans than with the evolution of whiteness. In his analysis, White goes on to argue that the noble savage fetish ultimately “draws a distinction, in the nature of an opposition, between normal humanity (gentle, intelligent, decorous, and white) and an abnormal one (obstinate, gay, free, and red).” The “abnormality” of an otherwise noble humanity cannot be understood outside the notion of a wild/savage humanity (Indians), which itself cannot be understood outside the notion of a “normal”—and, at least rhetorically, superior—humanity (whites). Such an opposition thus becomes a way to define the superior “civility” of whiteness, which in the making of “The Paradise Syndrome” is especially evident in Roddenberry’s efforts to ensure that the Indians, despite centuries of unencumbered evolution on a far-off planet, haven’t really evolved. In a memorandum to Fred Freiberger, the producer of Star Trek during its third season, Roddenberry states his case in explicit terms:

if the Indians were brought here many centuries ago, it is likely that even though they retain much of their terrible custom, they would have advanced somewhat along the scale of civilization. Perhaps not to firearms, or not that fast, but perhaps added on to the Indian culture, it is a growing mastery of mechanics, which has resulted in the wheel, possibly the crossbow. ... Not enough to deprive our tale of the wonderful simplicity of life here, but enough to stay true to the premise and to logic.
Roddenberry’s insistence on representing the tribe as having advanced only far enough to invent the wheel reveals a hierarchy of cultures that has whites “naturally” on top of an evolutionary ladder—a telling contradiction in his liberal-humanist project.

Beach's independent APTN

Adam Beach is a man on a missionBeach has nothing against the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. Bottom line and deep down, Adam Beach is a really nice guy who isn't really into fighting against anybody, or even competing with others. But Adam sees what is happening around him and he believes deep in his heart and mind that he knows what needs to be done, and he is going to do it.

"APTN is fine, but they are regulated by government," says Beach. "We have got to tell our own stories, and share our experiences, and learn from each other, and support each other and work together independently, that's it that's all."Just like Spielberg:"Right now, the federal government has appointed a judge to head up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. They will spend $60 million trying to get our people to tell the stories of their experiences in Indian residential schools."

"I am not in competition with the government, but I am going to go out and hear those stories and share them with everybody who wants to hear and to heal and to reconcile," said Beach. "It's like Steven Spielberg going out to gather the stories of Jewish people who suffered through the Holocaust (World War II). Spielberg did that for his people and I would like to do that with mine."Tackling major issues:Adam also has plans to deal directly with some of the major issues which impact on First Nations communities. Of major concern is the disproportionate rate of suicide amongst young people. As part of Adam's participation in Vision Quest, he starred in a live theatrical presentation (interacting with pre-produced video) called "Kejeet", which was written by Adam's father Chris Beach, and deals with suicide prevention.

"We cannot allow our parents to lose their precious children and we cannot allow our children to grow up without their parents," Beach exclaimed in a videotaped introduction to his live performance.Helping with horses:Beach is also developing a healing and treatment program for youth that will connect kids with horses, and through the nurturing and care and bonding between human and animal, the youth can begin the journey that starts by understanding why the youth are hurting, and builds from there to heal the hurt.

"The program is called "stepping stone", and we have a financier interested in developing 40 ranches, which will reach out to a lot of our native youth," said Beach.With funding from gaming:Adam Beach has some very ambitious plans, but when asked if he can "compete" with the massive resources of government and other influences, which may not be as relevant or effective as his self-determined approach, he would only say:

"There is a $30 billion dollar Indian gaming industry in the United States. They are very concerned and supportive of what we are trying to do. I am not worried about financing the television and recording productions I would like to see, and the healing programs that we want to develop."Comment:  For more on the subject, see All About Adam Beach.

Charlotte's Indians wow Indians

It's always good to see foreigners impressed by Indian cultures. It's extra fun when the foreigners are also Indians (Asian Indians).

Charlotte:  a complete package

Bollywood has found a new foreign locale in this charming American city listed as one of the Top 3 best places to live. Roopa Rao comes back impressed.The Bollywood train has travelled all around scouting for new locales. For a movie with stock car race as the theme where does the crew of Ta Ra Rum Pum go? Where else but Charlotte! The Saif Ali Khan-Rani Mukherji starrer, directed by Siddharth Anand, was shot almost entirely in the US of A, with a few scenes shot in a studio in Mumbai. Portions of the film were filmed in Rockingham, North Carolina at the North Carolina Speedway. Locals affectionately call it ‘The Rock.’ The track has hosted NASCAR events from 1965 to 2004.

There is a huge influence of native Indian tribes. So much so, that native folk art can be found integrated with walkways and pavements. Look out for these quaint touches in day time. The skyline is so spectacular at night that you do not remember to look for the mural art present on the walkways.

One story goes that Charlotte stands for the Colusa tribe, who changed their name to Carlos under Spanish influence, anglicising it to Charlotte. Adding a fine touch to the diversity prevalent in Charlotte is its strong religious roots. There are several religious institutions, including synagogues, monasteries, mosques, even a Swami Narayan temple.

Don't blame diseases

A commenter on Amazon.com says we shouldn't blame diseases for killing most of the Indians after Columbus. He claims European policies destroyed the Indians' livelihood and thus made epidemics inevitable.

Smallpox genocide and native population figuresIt wasn't the introduction of foreign diseases that caused the epidemics, it was the destruction of the normal sources of food for the natives, thereby causing massive near starvation. The introduction of alien food types, the change from a mostly meat to a mostly grains diet that unbalanced and weakened the bodies of the natives and destroyed their immune systems. After that any kind of illness, whether foreign or local would have had the same results.

It's the same process going on today, we have more diseases and death because our immune systems have been compromised from eating a constant diet of high sugar, high carbohydrate, largely processed and nutrient depleted foods. We no longer have access to the wide variety of locally grown fresh foods that our grandparents did. The majority of our foods are genetically modified, artificially adultrated with all manner of chemicals and pesticides, and then those foods are processed into foodstuffs that fill the belly but don't nourish the body.Comment:  This is another reason why it's correct to call the death of Indians "genocide." For more on the subject, see Genocide by Any Other Name....

Candidates scorn tribal contributions

McGee:  C'mon, just take the money!If tribal governments were any other kind of entity in the United States, a smart strategy would be to participate in the political process surrounding a presidential race. Even with the advent of campaign finance reform, presidential elections still offer opportunities for individuals and entities to influence a candidate's position and attempt to secure commitments through, among other things, the contribution of funds to the candidates' political campaigns.

However, tribes presently are under the impression that the candidates have taken a "no, thank you" position about accepting tribal contributions to their individual presidential campaigns. This is an impression rather than a known fact because campaigns have refused to go on record about their policies regarding tribal contributions. Repeated requests to each campaign manager and their press offices continue to go unanswered on this simple question: "What is your official position on accepting political contributions from tribal governments?"

First Native flute school

Native American Flute School First of KindSomething new is coming to Zion Canyon this summer. The people who brought you the Zion Canyon Art and Flute festival, are now proud to present the first Zion Canyon Native Flute School. The school will be held in conjunction with the Flute festival, said Betina Lindsay, organizer of the festival and education coordinator for the school.

Lindsay, who is one of the originators of the school, said she helped start the school for a purely selfish reason.

"I wanted to learn to play my flute better," Lindsay said. "So I thought that this would be a good opportunity." She added she believes this is the only Native American Flute School in the country, making it unique.

Obama tackles tough issues

A look at Barack ObamaIn the run-up to June 3, though, Obama hasn't played it safe or sat the fence on Indian issues. A direct engagement with intractable troubles was on display already in April, when Obama did a sit-down interview with the Montana Tribune. An exchange on the BIA has acquired added relevance since the recent resignation of Carl Artman as the Interior Department's assistant secretary for Indian affairs. The move, unexplained and unexpected, has left many Indian people with heavy concerns about the agency's future. Obama said some of what several of them have not wanted to commit to the record: "The Bureau of Indian Affairs has become sort of a backwater. It doesn't have a lot of clout in the administration. I want to put it front and center, along with other agencies, because on every indicator, Native Americans are having a much tougher time than the population at large."

The front-running Obama has met Indian issues head-on, even where they could put him at odds with other voters.

His own allies, for instance. Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., has already taken a slap at Obama's "campaign for change" by accusing him, in the headline of an essay, of "politics as usual" for supporting a court resolution of the Cherokee freedmen issue. Watson's bill, H.R. 2824 in the House of Representatives, would penalize the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma for trying to expel its freedmen, tribal citizen descendants of slaves and free blacks who lived among the Cherokee before, during and after the Civil War. The bill has 24 co-sponsors, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Thirty-five CBC members have also threatened to oppose passage of a bill to reauthorize the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act if it doesn't cancel Cherokee funding under the bill until the tribe recognizes freedmen and their descendants as citizens.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The 2008 Presidential Campaign.

Sexism alive in Indian country

Is gender playing a role in Montana's Indian vote?

AnalysisA growing number of female Indians from Montana are wondering whether some of their male colleagues and leaders are supporting Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton largely due to his gender.

"There's definitely a division among Indian people in terms of male and female support," said Democratic state Sen. Carol C. Juneau. "It's a really interesting division. And I wonder if Indian people are seeing it in other states."

Over the past month, three high-ranking male Native officials who work in both Montana state and tribal governments have told Indian Country Today during background political conversations that they view Clinton in a derogatory manner. Additionally, one said he didn't believe that the senator from New York could "hold her own" against Sen. John McCain, while another added that he just "couldn't see" a woman leading the U.S. out of the Iraq war.

Just as in America at large, sexism in Indian country is still alive and well.

Clinton releases sweeping agenda

Hillary pulls for S.D. Indian voteIn another sign that the Democratic race for the White House will go down to the wire, Sen. Hillary Clinton has released a sweeping "South Dakota Native American Agenda" that aims to increase opportunity and improve the quality of services for Indians in the state.

The proposal, according to Clinton's campaign, is grounded in the principle of tribal sovereignty, while focusing on improving the quality of health care, creating jobs and combating crime.

"For seven years, the Bush administration has failed to live up to its commitment to the Native American community in South Dakota and across the nation," she said in a statement released May 20.

"By making targeted investments to create good-paying jobs and ensuring everyone has access to quality, affordable health care and by continuing to partner with the Native American community within the government to government framework, we can begin to undo some of the damage President Bush's neglect has caused."Below:  The candidate's spouse stumps for votes.

Racist plan to reduce emissions

Briggs:  Tense situation threatens UNPFII promiseThe forum began in late April seeming sometimes to be like a honeymoon at the end of the 30-year battle for the adoption last September of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the U.N. General Assembly.

But the confidence in the proceeding began eroding midway through the two-week forum when U.N.-appointed leaders released a draft report endorsing a World Bank plan that the indigenous participants opposed. By the forum's last day, May 2, indigenous peoples were frustrated with Permanent Forum Chairman Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, an indigenous leader from the Philippines.

The World Bank plan, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, allows global fossil fuel corporations to pollute in one part of the world in exchange for preventing greenhouse emissions elsewhere on the globe.Comment:  The parties involved should accept this plan only if everyone agrees to it.

For more on the subject, see Global Warming Is Racist.

Tribe banishes its king

Panama tribe exiles its king over power plant dealAn indigenous Panamanian tribe has driven its king into exile over his approval of a £25m hydro-electric project in its jungle realm.

The Naso tribe, whose millennia-old royal inheritance system is recognised by the state, banished King Tito Santana for opening the kingdom to developers.

"Many of us are opposed to a king who, for us, is selling our society without any thought for tomorrow," Eduardo Santana, a nephew of Tito, told Reuters. The project risked cultural and environmental harm, he said. "We are part of nature and if we do not look after it, who will?"

Accused of putting his own interests ahead of the 2,500-strong tribe, the king and several hundred followers fled the capital, Seiyik, a village of palm-thatched huts on stilts accessible only by canoe, to a settlement near the village of El Silencio.

Native museum kills ducklings

Ducklings Die in Pool Drain At American Indian MuseumAt first, there were 10 ducklings. After a horrifying few moments, there were only five.

On Saturday afternoon on the Mall, passersby watched as a mother duck and her offspring paddled in a series of man-made pools outside the National Museum of the American Indian. The five ducklings died when they were pulled into a drain, even as guards and maintenance workers rushed to save them.

It was not the first time. A museum spokeswoman said ducklings have died in the fountain machinery four or five times since the museum opened in September 2004. In the latest case, equipment installed to protect wildlife appeared to have failed, she said.Comment:  For more on the NMAI, see The Feel-Good National Museum.

Obama inspires first-time voter

'Obamamania' hits the Crow NationHe was touched when his work to get people to vote was heeded by one elderly man on the northern Montana Rocky Boy's Reservation.

"And at a meeting, a man 74 years old came up," Kohn said. "He said nobody cared enough to ask him to vote, or cared enough to even show him what he should do to register to vote. But when he said he was going to vote for the first time in his life, he said, 'I'm going to vote for Barack Obama.'

"For the first time, I feel that a candidate really cares about improving the life of American Indians. There's no other candidate that has sat down face-to-face with American Indians and genuinely cared about them."

Indian history in Mustang

The history of the West to 1900 takes up six of nine chapters in Deanne Stillman's new book, Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West. It's fair to say the book is about cowboys and Indians as well as horses.

Here are a few excerpts from Mustang to give you a flavor of Stillman's writing. First, on Custer before Little Bighorn:On June 16, the Seventh began to encounter with some would later view as portents. They passed an Indian burial ground—an orchard of corpses on scaffolds in trees, including the body of an infant whose face was painted red. Three days later, when the Tongue and Yellowstone rivers join, the Dakota column spent the night at an abandoned Indian camp. The driftwood pony shelters were still there, and the troops used the wood for fires. Again, there was an airborne cemetery, and some of Custer's men stole beaded trinkets from the bodies in the cottonwoods and as the Seventh resumed its march the following day, they brandished the souvenirs from their saddles, not just whistling past the graveyard but taunting the dead to come and get them.On Buffalo Bill's trip to Europe:As Buffalo Bill sailed into port in 1887, Spain was about to lose Mexico to the United States, the West had been fenced in, and the Indian was not just vanishing but nearly purged from his homeland. The children of England had accomplished much since the Boston Tea Party, and now on board the State of Nebraska, they were met by a tug flying American colors. The passengers cheered in the cowboy band struck up "Yankee Doodle." Cody recorded the moment in his memoir:

A certain feeling of pride came over me when I thought of the good ship on whose deck I stood, and that her cargo consisted of the early pioneers and rude, rough riders from that section, and of the wild horses of the same district, buffalo, deer, elk and antelope—the king game of the prairie—together with over 100 representatives of that savage foe that had been compelled to submit to a conquering civilization and were now accompanying me in friendship, loyalty and peace, five thousand miles from their homes, braving the dangers of the to them great unknown sea, now no longer a tradition, but a reality—all of us combined in an exhibition intended to prove to the center of old world civilization that the vast region of the United States was finally and effectively settled by the English-speaking race.On actor William S. Hart and his 1925 Western Tumbleweeds:Critics loved the movie but it did not do well at the box office. Yet Hart was still popular enough to win an invitation to the Little Bighorn battlefield for the fiftieth-anniversary commemorations in 1926. For a famous movie cowboy to speak at the memorial was no small thing; three movies about Custer had already been made, and a "renegade" Indian named Willie Boy had recently been gunned down by a white posse in the Mojave Desert and was billed as the last "wild Indian." At the commemorations, Hart spoke of old warriors in full regalia, "the volleys fired over the graves of the dead, the soft sound of 'Taps' echoed back by the hills like a benediction, the low, weird death song of the Indian women." When he returned to Hollywood, a lifelong fascination with Indians became a defense of Crazy Horse. "Crazy Horse was a very plain man," Hart said, "simple in all his habits, and a great statesmen, and always looking out for the Indians."Comment:  Except for the overlong sentence in the Custer excerpt, not bad. Rob says: Check it out. (I'll let you know what I think of it when I get around to reading it.)

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.

Liberal guilt is good

This column about voting for Obama also applies to voting for candidates who support Indian sovereignty, Indian gaming, and necessary Indian services.

In Praise of Liberal Guilt

It's not wrong to favor Obama because of race.Since when has guilt become shameful? Since when is shame shameful when it's shame about a four-centuries-long historical crime? Not one of us is a slave owner today, segregation is no longer enshrined in law, and there are fewer overt racists than before, but if we want to praise America's virtues, we have to concede—and feel guilty about—America's sins, else we praise a false god, a golden calf, a whited sepulcher, a Potemkin village of virtue. (I've run out of metaphors, but you get the picture.)

Guilt is good, people! The only people who don't suffer guilt are sociopaths and serial killers. Guilt means you have a conscience. You have self-awareness, you have—in the case of America's history of racism—historical awareness. Just because things have gotten better in the present doesn't mean we can erase racism from our past or ignore its enduring legacy.

Critics of Obama supporters who use the phrase "guilty liberal" or "liberal guilt" in a condescending, above-it-all manner suggest there's something weak about feeling guilt; they paint a trivializing, Woody Allen caricature of it.

Actually, I think it requires a kind of strength, not weakness, to face the ugly truths of history and to react to them in an honest way. "Liberal guilt" isn't a reason one must automatically support a black candidate, but that doesn't mean that liberal guilt—better defined as an awareness of the need to contend with, and overcome, a racist past—shouldn't be a factor in politics.Comment:  One "ugly truth" that needs facing is our history of killing, oppressing, and marginalizing Indians. Until every American knows this history as well as they about Washington and Lincoln, we need more education.

Kootenai "war" against the US

Remember the Kootenai Tribe's struggle against the feds in 1974? Now's your chance to learnLed by Trice and others, the 67-member tribe declared "war" on the United States to protest living conditions in its village near Bonners Ferry and the taking of its ancestral land. More than a million acres were signed away without the Kootenais' presence under the treaty of Hellgate, Mont., in 1855.

In 1962, the government gave the tribe 36 cents an acre, based on 1855 land values.

The Kootenais weren't given a reservation, and their Depression-era housing was so inadequate that a tribal elder, Moses Joseph, froze to death in his home. From the tribe's perspective, the war wasn't merely a protest. It was a fight for survival.

No shots were fired--Trice said the closest thing to a weapon in the tribal office was a flyswatter--but the Kootenais charged motorists tolls to cross their land, threatened to block access to it and demanded payment for lands lost.

That set the stage for a brief but tense showdown with the state and then-Gov. Cecil Andrus, who sent about 70 state policeman to Kootenai country. Then-U.S. Sen. James McClure and Congressman Steve Symms flew to Bonners Ferry to negotiate with the tribe.

The bloodless "war" generated intense media coverage, and though some of the tribe's demands never were met, it did succeed in greatly improving its situation.

It received, among other things, a reservation with a new access road, a clinic, new housing and new water and sewage systems.

"Think tribal ancestors wanted casino?"

Tribal casino is product of governmental sovereigntyTo directly answer your cynical question, Ms. Cassady, no, our ancestors would never have imaged a casino as reparations for the millions of acres of land that was stolen from us. That is why the word “casino” is not found in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, the Treaty of Chicago (1821), or the Treaty of St. Joseph (1827); all of which were signed by our Chief, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish.

Those treaties did preserve our inherent sovereignty. Under federal and international law, sovereign governments have the right to make laws, collect taxes, protect the rights and welfare of their citizenry and maintain a system of government on their own lands.

Just as the voters of the State of Michigan implemented a public lottery in 1972 to help fund governmental services, our tribal members voted for a casino to fund our governmental services.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Facts About Indian Gaming.

Hopi/Navajo skate park

'Louise Yellowman Park' opens to public in Tuba City

Park includes skating area, BMX, walking and family riding trails for allWhat started in 2003 as a dream of Tuba City and Moencopi Hopi students--to have a fully equipped skate and BMX park complete with deep sub-rails and highly curved extensions to practice on, making it possible to win city, state and national skate competitions--became a reality May 10.

The Louise Yellowman County Park was officially opened amid hundreds of well-wishers, including the entire Coconino County Supervisory Board and Hopi and Navajo Nation officials. There were special student presentations by Tuba City Boarding School and Moencopi Day School ending with a skateboarding exhibition by GrindLine Skateparks featuring Dave Palmer and Jimmy the Greek. Live music was provided for the event by "No Name Street Band," led by local Hopi musician, Blair Quamahongnewa.

Indian origin of the Camp Fire Girls

Like the Boy Scouts of America, the Camp Fire Girls have an Indian origin. Here's some information on the subject.

First, from an e-mail dated 7/19/03:Have you done anything on Camp Fire USA's use of Native American symbolism?

Camp Fire Boys and Girls give service!

Here's a quote from the webpage of the camp I attended and was a counselor at:

"Camp Fire has always borrowed from the rich traditions of our Native American Cultures. At Camp Wilani, all aged campers in all sessions may learn about the Native American tribes that once lived in this region. Daytime and evening events at the new Native Village will focus on educating campers of indigenous ways through crafts, outdoor cooking, and sleeping in a tipi."

I was in Camp Fire for years and earned the highest award (WOHELO Medallion) and got a lot out of the program. Today however, I don't think I would let my kids participate in the program because of this "borrowed" "Indian Lore" nonsense.

Now, we were expected to treat this part of the program with the utmost respect—our "Ceremonial Gowns/Tunics" were *not* to be worn as costumes (I once went so far as to buy two old gowns from a costume rack at a thrift store and donate them to the local Camp Fire council so they would not be used for this purpose), and "Ceremonials" were rather solemn occasions, but at the same time, it was as if we were being taught about Native culture as if it were a *dead* culture. Like ancient Egypt or something. I can't recall meeting an actual Native American in all my years in the program.

I'm biased but I think the program is not nearly as bad as the Boy Scouts "Order of the Arrow" activities, and is "kinder and gentler" than BSA because of its former all-girls status, however, I think it might be time for the organization to move on. They claim to embrace multiculturalism—get this (from their official website):

"Camp Fire USA's programs are designed and implemented to reduce sex-role, racial and cultural stereotypes and to foster positive intercultural relationships."

Hmm. Reducing cultural stereotypes with beads and fringe?

If you have any suggestions, I would like to write to the head office and see what they say. Do you know if anyone has approached Camp Fire about this?

Love your website, keep up the good work!

Kathleen EhliThe Indian background of the Camp Fire Girls (now Camp Fire USA):

Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, a.k.a. Ohiyesa, Wahpeton Dakota Sioux (1858-1939)Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman was involved in the forming of both Boy Scouts of America and Camp Fire Girls.

As a Sioux, he was known as Ohiyesa. His father was a Sioux Indian; his mother was the daughter of a U.S. Army officer and the granddaughter of a famous Sioux chief. Ohiyesa had the traditional upbringing of a Sioux from 1858 to 1874, followed by an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth and a medical degree from Boston University Medical School. He became a fully licensed physician. He was the only physician to aid victims of the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890. Because of racism, his ability to earn a living as a physician was always difficult. To support his family, in 1895 he began working for the YMCA organizing programs for youth living on Indian reservations. In 1920 he helped verify the burial site of Sacajawea.

While it became politically correct to condemn Camp Fire and Boy Scouts of America for stereotyping the indigenous peoples of America and for "exploiting" their cultures, much of that early lore was offered to CFG and BSA by Ohiyesa. His 1914 book Indian Scout Talks was subtitled "A Guide for Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls." He wrote, "These chapters represent the actual experiences and first-hand knowledge of the author. His training was along these lines, until he was nearly sixteen years of age. It is with the earnest hope that they may prove useful to all who venture into the wilderness in pursuit of wisdom, health, and pleasure, that they are dedicated to The Boy Scouts of America and The Camp Fire Girls of America."

It might be argued that Dr. Eastman himself did not see the true picture of the Sioux, that he saw "the Sioux ways" through the eyes of a child, idolozing them or turning them "magical" as people sometimes do with the days of their youth. However, it must be noted that it was a Sioux Indian who gave Camp Fire so much of its Indian lore, tradition, and flavor.Historical origins of Camp FireOhiyesa's book written for Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls is filled with ceremonies, symbols, words, and names which he suggests as appropriate for use by the youth of the two groups. He wrote of how names were given to a person in his Sioux culture, and he suggested it would be appropriate for young people to create names meaningful to them. He included two lists. Above the first, he wrote, "The following are Sioux feminine names appropriate to Camp Fire Girls, with their literal and symbolic meanings." Then, he listed some Ojibway girls' names. Those same names have appeared in Camp Fire books since.

The source, however, was forgotten. Until I began doing this research, I'd never heard anyone in Camp Fire credit Dr. Eastman in any way. THAT is the shame: That a man like Dr. Eastman did so much, yet his name and his deeds would be forgotten. Sometimes it's important to remember to tell a man's story, so he is not forgotten.Comment:  This is the same Charles Eastman whom Adam Beach played as a tortured soul in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, of course. Despite the tragedy at Wounded Knee, Eastman managed to pick himself up and keep going somehow.

For more on a related subject, see YMCA-Indian Guides.

Horse sense in Mustang

Indians and horses have had a storied history together ever since the time of Columbus. Author Deanne Stillman has written about this history in her new book, Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West.

Stillman was kind enough to send me a review copy of the book for my inspection. Therefore, here are some quotes from her press materials on the history of horses in the West.55,000,000-4,000 years ago:  The horse evolves on the North American continent, primarily in the West, adapting to shifting geography and climate. Some lines go extinct. Others cross the Bering land bridge, repeating the pattern of extinction and survival around the world. At the end of this period, Equus caballus—or simply Equus—appears. This is the fleet, big-hearted athlete of the plains, the direct ancestor of the modern wild horse.

12,000 years ago, the Ice Age:  Equus goes extinct on this continent, but not before crossing the Bering land bridge like its forebears and populating Eurasia and elsewhere.

1493:  The second voyage of Columbus brings horses to Cuba and sets up a staging ground for the conquest. This first wave of horses is soon joined by others sent from Spain. Cuba becomes the first horse-breeding center in the New World.

1519:  Fernando Cortés leaves Cuba for Mexico with 16 horses. One of them foals during the voyage. The 16 horses of the conquest launched the Spanish entrada into Mexico. As the war against the Aztecs unfolds, the original horses perish, but replenishments arrived. Two years later, Cortés says, "We owe it all to God, and the horse."

1598:  Juan de Oñate enters into Mexico with 1,500 horses and mules.

1680:  Pueblo Indians revolt in Santa Fe, capturing 3,000 horses; the horse makes its way to other tribes.

1687:  A descendant of Carvajal’s, Alonzo de León of Nuevo León, brings hundreds of horses and mules from his ranch into Texas, supplying the burgeoning mission system with animals. Soon the missions are plundered, and the horse moves onto the deserts and plains, joining the horses taken in the 1680 revolt.

1700s:  There are so many wild horses in Texas that maps mark certain areas as "Vast Herds of Wild Horses," or simply "Wild Horses." The Lakota Indians enter the heart of the Great Plains and their horse culture begins to flourish.

1840:  The Ute leader Wakara mounts the greatest horse raid of all time, sacking several Los Angeles missions over a period of days with the help of multinational gangs, making off with thousands of horses. Around the same time, Crazy Horse is born on the Great Plains, although he has not yet been given that fateful name.

1868:  Custer lays waste to Black Kettle’s band of Cheyenne on the Washita River in Oklahoma. After most of the men are killed, he orders the massacre of the tribe’s 800 ponies.

1876:  Battle of the Little Bighorn, in which Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and hundreds of Lakota and Cheyenne destroy Custer and his Seventh Cavalry gray horse unit. More horses than soldiers perish. Later, a badly wounded horse is found wandering the field. He is nursed back to health and becomes famous as the Army mustang named Comanche.

1887:  Buffalo Bill and his Wild West show travel to England for a command performance for Queen Victoria. Among the cast are Annie Oakley; Buck Taylor, the King of the Cowboys; nearly 100 Lakota men, women, and children, including Black Elk; and 200 horses, 18 buffalo, and various other animals. The trip inspires ongoing British and European fascination with the West.

1889:  Sitting Bull drops out of the Wild West show. According to an apocryphal story, Buffalo Bill gives him the white horse he rode for a farewell gift. Later, when Sitting Bull is killed in the battle outside his cabin, his horse dances until the shooting has ended.

1894-1926:  The age of silent movies, many of which are Westerns. Mustangs become America's first movie stars, and the most famous couple in cinema history—the cowboy and his horse—becomes a permanent part of the cultural landscape.

1902:  Scores of horses from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show die in a train accident while traveling through North Carolina. Annie Oakley is injured. The wreck signals the end of an era.Comment:  I've quoted Stillman in America's Cultural Mindset, so you know she must be okay.

P.S. Smart authors send me free books if they want to get mentioned in Newspaper Rock.

Quileutes and werewolves

Stephanie Meyer's TWILIGHTMany people have written to ask me about a young adult novel called Twilight. Written by Stephanie Meyer, Twilight is the first book in the "Twilight Saga." The "Twilight Saga" has been on the New York Times best-seller list for 40 weeks and as of this day, is in the number 1 spot.

I've been asked about it because the books include werewolves who are Native. Quileute, to be precise, from the La Push reservation in Washington. Quileute is not made up, and neither is La Push. Both are real.

I read the book, quickly. Here's [a passage] that begin on page 124.

"Do you know any of our old stories, about where we came from--the Quileutes, I mean?" he began.

"Not really," I admitted.

"Well, there are lots of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood--supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive like Noah and the ark." He smiled, to show me how little stock he put in the histories. "Another legend claims that we descended from wolves--and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them.

"Then there are the stories about the cold ones." His voice dropped a little lower.

"The cold ones?" I asked, not faking my intrigue now.

"Yes. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the wolf legends, and some much more recent. According to legend, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land." He rolled his eyes.

"Your great-grandfather?" I encouraged.

"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf--well, not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You would call them werewolves."

"Werewolves have enemies?"

"Only one."

I stared at him earnestly, hoping to disguise my impatience as admiration.

"So you see," Jacob continued, "the cold ones are traditionally our enemies. But this pack that came to our territory during my great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of their kind did--they weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the pale-faces." He winked at me.(Excerpted from Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature, 5/19/08.)

Comment:  If this Quileuete lore is genuine, I don't necessarily blame Meyer for using it. But I wonder how much of it she made up.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.

P.S. It's "Stepenie," not Stephanie.

Indiana Jones ripoff

Movies have always employed the Indiana Jones trope of adventurers discovering lost kingdoms, but here's one that involves Indians.

'Indiana Jones' and the Rip-offs of Doom'Firewalker' (1986)

Indy replacement:  Max Donigan (Chuck Norris)

The rip-off:  Consider director J. Lee Thompson and producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus the Spielberg and Lucas of cheapo knockoffs. After their collaboration on "King Solomon's Mines," they re-teamed to take the Indy rip-off into the present day. And with the casting of Chuck Norris they did Harrison Ford one better--they added lots of kicking. But aside from the modern trappings and feet of fury, this hunt for lost treasure features lots of of Indy-like touches. More bickering in the face of danger, angry natives and ancient Mayan temples with lots of booby traps. Plus, Sallah himself, John Rhys-Davies makes an appearance as well.Comment:  There are lots of restless natives of various ethnicities in this film. Check out the spearchucking Indian savage at the 00:25 mark of the trailer.

The other films in the "Rip-offs of Doom" gallery also feature primitive tribes and lost temples. But since none of them are explicitly about Indians, I didn't mention them.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

Firewalker trailer (Cannon Films)

Candidates in Newspaper Rock

I've read articles about Obama's and Clinton's positions on Indian issues. I haven't seen any major differences between them. I think other factors are more significant. Who can get elected? Who can lead? Who can change the system?

In Newspaper Rock, I've mainly covered the candidates' popular appeal. Because that's the primary "pop culture" aspect of the presidential race. From what I've seen, Indians are flocking more to Obama than they are to Clinton. My coverage reflects that.

In that respect, Indians are like Americans everywhere. They sense Obama is a winner and they want to back a winner. They're tired of George W. Bush and his policies of scorn and neglect. They don't want four more years of the same.

I'd be happy to vote for Obama or Clinton over McCain. Either one would make a much better president. But the voters have given Obama the edge, and the polls confirm it. Obama is the best candidate we have to defeat McCain in November.

Below:  The Bush "economic policy" McCain is likely to continue.

Racist Baum and segregated Oz

A debate about L. Frank Baum's editorials against Indians, the Ghost Dance movement, and the diversity or lack thereof in Oz continues:

Rob:  "Separate but equal" was ruled unconstitutional and un-American in 1954. It's not a wonderful message for today's multicultural children; it's a mixed message at best.Eric:  But Baum was not writing for TODAY, he was writing for his own time. Baum died in 1919, thirty-five years before Brown vs. Board of Education.

No Time for Indians

Tim Giago claims "The 2008 Time 100: The World's Most Influential People" unfairly excludes Indians. The reality is more complex than that.

Time Magazine Snubs Indians AgainThere are the usual suspects of movie stars, rock singers and politicians on the list and I am sure they have exerted some influence on some people or activities in their lifetime. But again I ask, why no Native Americans? Could it be that the editors of Time magazine are, as the editors of other mainstream media, so ignorant of the Native Americans in their midst that in their minds they do not exist? To go from the predominant culture to non-existent in 500 years is truly amazing and frightening.

Every Native American can probably name 10 Indians that deserve to be on Time's list of most influential people. The problem is nobody asks them. Out of sight out of mind does not lead to a cohesive means of communications. White and black editors see who is around them in their own little world and Native Americans are not a part of their world.Comment:  Giago goes on to name Ernie Stevens Jr., John Echohawk, John Yellow Bird Steele, Wilma Mankiller, and Eloise Cobell as candidates for the list.

I wish there were more influential Natives. But I don't have a problem with Natives not being on the list. We're talking about the 100 most influential people in the world. Heads of state, of religion, of multinational corporations. Newsmakers and celebrities whom millions of people listen to and emulate. Does any Native person really compare to that?

Stevens or Cyrus?

Consider Ernie Stevens Jr. He's been a great leader for the Indian gaming industry, but how many people does this industry affect worldwide? Not that many. If he hadn't existed, would the industry be substantially different? I doubt it.

Or consider Elouise Cobell. She brought a great scandal--the lack of payments on trust fund accounts--to light. But so far there hasn't been a definitive court ruling requiring payment. And even if the US did pony up billions of dollars, how many people would it help? A few hundred thousand? That's less than 1/10,000^th of the world's population.

Giago compares Stevens to Miley Cyrus:Stevens has managed to pull the gaming tribes together in a coalition that has stood as one to protect their rights. I would say that his influence is much more consequential to a people than say that of a Miley Cyrus.This shows the problem with Giago's position. The list isn't of the 100 people whose influence has saved the most lives or lifted the most people out of poverty. That would be a different, more narrowly focused list. This list is about the most influence, period.

It doesn't matter whether the influence is good or bad, consequential or inconsequential, short- or long-lived. If millions of people are following you, it doesn't matter where you're leading them. You have influence by definition.











Giago makes a mistake

If you look at Time's list, I think you could argue against most of the people on it. If I were making the list, it would consist mostly of world leaders and CEOs with a smattering of inventors and celebrities. No way would I include Robert Downey Jr. (who isn't really a millionaire playboy industrialist) and leave off Pope Benedict XVI. But I doubt I'd add any Natives.

Actually, Giago has overlooked one Indian on the list: Evo Morales. As Time put it:When union organizer Evo Morales was elected President of Bolivia in 2005, it was the first time in the country's history that the indigenous people, who make up roughly 60% of the population, had one of their own as President. He moved quickly away from the neoliberal policies of his predecessors to try to help his community, the vast majority of whom live below the poverty line.Morales, an Aymara Indian, is the kind of Native who should be on the list. For starters, he's trying to transform an entire nation. More than that, he's providing a vision for indigenous movements around the world. That's a lot bigger than leading a tribe, nonprofit, or trade association in the United States, no matter how well someone does it.

Let's look at the numbers. There are roughly 50 million Indians in the Americas. Most of them--about 95%--are in Latin America. These Indians comprise slightly less than 1% of the world's population. (50 million = 1% of 5 billion.)

If you went by the statistics, you'd expect to find one Indian, a Latin American, in Time's 100. Lo and behold, that's exactly what you find. Far from being biased, Time has fairly and accurately gauged the relative importance of Indians.



Who's the most influential?

Unfortunately, Time didn't rank the people in its list. Humorist Joel Stein explains the problem:Numbering a list is a journalistic rule so obvious even E! understands it. But TIME's editors won't stoop to rank the TIME 100. No, they're afraid of hurting people's feelings or making a mistake.Stein, who is proud of having no mathematical abilities, came up with a formula for ranking them. It's based on such factors as number of Google hits and mentions in the British Financial Times.

To me this seems like a valid approach. The number of times we talk about people is a rough guide to their influence. As someone who does have a mathematical background, I approve of Stein's effort.

With that in mind, here are Stein's top 10:

Vladimir Putin
George W. Bush
Ben Bernanke
Hillary Clinton
Barack Obama
Evo Morales
John McCain
Tony Blair
Kevin Rudd (Australian PM)
Dalai Lama

Not bad. According to Stein, a Native is the sixth most influential person in the world. Morales is the third highest world leader, the second highest non-Caucasian (after Obama), and the highest person from the "Third World."

Of course, one could argue with this ranking also. Clinton, Obama, and McCain won't have a significant world influence unless they're elected president. Blair is out of office. No one from Australia has significantly influenced the rest of the world.

For more on the subject, see The 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons.

Below:  Someone can be influential even if he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

Which is the Aztec?

More reactions to the racist Chihuahua trailer....

Which is the Aztec? This one?



Or this one?



Which is an example of the Aztecs' cultural achievements? This?



Or this?



This?



Or this?



I could go on....

Obama joins Crow Nation

Obama becomes 'Barack Black Eagle'US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama became an honorary member of a native American tribe today and promised policies to help tribal people if he wins the White House in November.

The Illinois senator who is leading rival Hillary Clinton in their race for the party's presidential nomination, joined the Crow Nation, a tribe of some 12,100 members in Montana, taking on a native name and honorary parents in a traditional ceremony.

Obama, who would be the first black US president, was "adopted" by Hartford and Mary Black Eagle and given a name which means "one who helps all people of this land."

"I was just adopted into the tribe, so I'm still working on my pronunciation," Senator Obama told a crowd after stumbling over some of the native names.Why Indians like Obama:Mr Old Horn said the tribal members related to Senator Obama because of his background.

"His heritage of being poor, of being an outsider, you know those two things are the commonalities that he has with us," he said.

"We've always been treated like outsiders when it comes to government policy. In addition to that, we all grew up poor."Comment:  For more on the subject, see The 2008 Presidential Campaign.

Which Turok was the best?

Snark Free Corner for 5/12

by Brian CroninThe original Gold Key stories featuring Turok had the great Gaylord Du Bois and Paul S. Newman writing the stories (particularly Newman), but they were fairly straightforward tales.

The early Valiant issues had a nice twist, while keeping the whole “hunting dinosaurs” bit, it also had various other weird anomalies in the Lost Land. However, while the series did feature Tim Truman for awhile and a young Rags Morales, otherwise, it did not have creators at the same level as a Newman.

The final Valiant series was created by Fabian Nicieza, and it remakes Turok as a modern-day Native American who gets caught up in his destiny to be the next dinosaur hunter. It was a fun story, and it spawned a very popular video game.

So which series was the best?Comment:  I can't answer the question because I've read only one or two Turok comics.

For more on the subject, see Comic Books Featuring Indians.

SCALPED fans can't tell the difference

An excellent commentary from an educator whose students have asked him about SCALPED, the Indian crime comic book by Jason Aaron:[T]he very fact that my students are asking me "is this real or is this stereotype" demonstrates the fact that not only is a portion of Jason's audience accepting his work as an "authentic depiction" but also that despite Jason's confidence in them, they lack the information to be able to tell the difference.

Jingoism in Indiana Jones

The latest Indiana Jones movie seems to be somewhat politically correct when it comes to the theft of archaeological artifacts. Whether it's equally correct about its portrayal of Indians remains to be seen.

Back in an 'Indiana' State of Mind

'The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' meets every expectation—without ever exceeding them.Coherent plots have always been secondary to the action in the series. That said, this one feels particularly unnecessarily hokey and complex. As in past installments, the back story is explained by Jones in passages of leaden exposition that slow the action to a halt. In "The Crystal Skull" the characters stop, the good professor mouths some mystic mumbo jumbo about ancient civilizations and purloined antiquities, everyone nods, and then they're off again to battle Soviet bad guys or contend with a swarm of flesh-eating ants. The story line concerns Indy's attempts to locate the skull of the title, which allegedly contains supernatural powers, before a band of villainous cold war Soviets gets it, and return it to its rightful home deep in a South American jungle. (It's interesting to trace the films' treatment of the civic-minded archaeologist's handling of antiquities. In the earlier films he insisted the looted artifacts belong in museums, but here, perhaps in response to recent controversies about real-world museums' ill-gotten collections, the emphasis is on returning the pieces to their native lands.) A certain political correctness pervades this story on the whole; the xenophobia so rampant in the past movies (especially "Temple of Doom," with its monkey-brain-eating Indians) has been considerably toned down (though there are still too many grunting natives), and the anti-Orientalism of the first two films, in which almost every villain had a turban and a thick, generic Middle Eastern accent, has been completely jettisoned. But the West Is Best jingoism remains; Indiana taunts the Soviet evildoers by sneering "I like Ike."Comment:  I've read several reviews and no one has said much about the Indians. Perhaps their role is relatively minor.

Or perhaps people don't think twice about seeing barbaric tribes in the movies. Perhaps the Indiana Jones films have done their job: teaching us that Western civilization is best.

The reviews may not dwell on the Indians, but check out the poster below. What a surprise to see spearchucking savages chasing Indy...not.

Anyone want to bet that Crystal Skull will imply that aliens or Atlanteans built the "lost kingdom"? I.e., that Indians were too primitive to do anything that sophisticated?

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

Racist Chihuahua trailer

Below is the trailer for Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Disney's upcoming comedy. It's due to be released in September. Let's hope the movie isn't as bad as the trailer, because the trailer is bad.

How bad is it?

Imagine dressing up Jews or Africans as small, annoying animals. You probably can't imagine it because that kind of racist stereotyping hasn't happened in decades. And yet, Indians continue to suffer this fate. From the Go-Go Gophers to children's picture books to the latest Disney release, they get portrayed as critters.

And not even as lions or tigers or bears. Oh my, no. Your typical Indian-style animals are cute little toys or pets. Since "everyone knows" Indians were uncivilized, it's okay to portray them as teddy bears or bunnies or Chihuahuas.

What's going on here? For the last couple of years, we've seen stereotype after stereotype of Central and South American Indians. In the movies: Apocalypto, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, The Ruins, Aztec Rex, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. On TV: The Zagar commercials, The Emperor's New School. And in video games: Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs, Aztecs: Empire Of The Dying Sun.

Do studios not realize that the descendants of these people still live? That they don't appreciate being compared to rat-like dogs? That a bunch of clown-like Chihuahuas is an insult, not an honor?

This isn't the first time it's happened, either. You may recall this incident--Chihuahuas Dressed as Indians--from March. What is it with people portraying Mexican Indians as dogs?

I can just imagine the cogs turning in the simpleminded heads that came up with this idea. "Indians are a separate race of quaint and colorful beings. They dance and prance, yip and yowl, and we can't quite understand them. Hey, they're just like Chihuahuas. How clever it would be to represent one with the other."

I don't see any trailers portraying white people as Chihuahuas (or pigs, or monkeys, or...). Therefore, I conclude this video is racist. And please, don't waste my time saying "It's just a movie" or "It's supposed to be funny." People have used these excuses to stereotype people for decades, if not centuries.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Official Trailer)



P.S. Thanks to correspondent DMarks for bringing this to my attention.

Skateboarding = hot trend

Skate Jam promotes healthy messageHundreds of Native youth gathered for the second annual All Nations Skate Jam in Albuquerque, a daylong event celebrating one of the hottest new trends on reservations and Native communities from California to New York.

Skateboarding has not become just a sport for American Indian youth looking to channel their energy, but a canvas for Native artists to create breathtaking works on the backs of boards.

"The event is all about giving Native youth a healthy, safe and positive activity," said Todd Harder, a Michigan native who founded and organizes the All Nations Skate Jam. The event attracted Native skateboard companies such as Native Skates, Wounded Knee, 4-Wheel Warpony and Full Blood Skates, who were on hand selling their latest lines of boards and gear.

Indian in The Matrix Reloaded

Montaño Rain, son of actress Joanelle Romero (The Girl Called Hatter Fox), played young Thomas Anderson (Neo) in The Matrix Reloaded. Here's a blurb on him (slightly edited) from Romero's website:Montaño Rain (Apache/Cheyenne)--Teenage actor Montaño Rain is founder of his own non-profit organization Help the Earth (HTE). Traditional Indian hoop dancer, rock & roll drummer, and traditional Indian drummer/singer, piano, and artist. Montaño Rain plays five instruments and has mastered three. He was young Neo in Matrix Reloaded and has grown up in the entertainment industry.Below:  Gandhi's grandson Arun Gandhi, Joanelle Romero, Sally Kirkland, and Montaño Rain.

Giving First Americans their due

Indian Comics Irregular #170:  Fun for All at the FAITA Awards

Indians in The Magnificent Seven

Normally we don't associate The Magnificent Seven, the classic Western based on Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, with Indians. "Everyone knows," even those who haven't seen it, that it's about cowboys vs. Mexican banditos. But Indians do play a minor but essential role in the movie.

In fact, it's an Indian who first brings Chris (Yul Brynner) and Vin (Steve McQueen) together to form the group's nucleus. Unfortunately, he's a dead Indian who's been lying in the street two days. Here's the undertaker (Whit Bissell) explaining the situation to Henry and another salesman:Undertaker:  They say he isn't fit to be buried there.

Salesman:  What? In Boot Hill?!

Henry:  There's nothing up there but murders, cutthroats and derelict old barflies, and if they ever felt exclusive, brother they're past it now.

Undertaker:  They happen to be white, friend. And old Sam ... old Sam was an Indian.

Henry:  Well I'll be damned. I never knew you had to be anything but a corpse to get into Boot Hill. How long's this been going on?

Undertaker:  Since the town got `civilized`. Oh it's not my doing, boys, I don't like it, no sir. I've always treated every man the same, just as another future customer.Chris and Vin agree to drive the hearse up the street to the cemetery. A crowd follows them and someone shouts "Injun lovers!" But they face down the opposition and ensure that Old Sam is buried properly.

We don't know if Chris and Vin harbor other prejudices, but their willingness to stick up for an Indian is telling. Clearly, they have the stuff of heroes inside them. It's no surprise when they decide to protect a poor Mexican town for the principle of it.

Judging by the town's festival, the farmers' culture has a strong Indian influence. Their celebration is a mixture of Catholic and Native religion (e.g., a dancer wearing a deer's head). You can see similar celebrations in New Mexico's pueblos today.

Also, the Harry Luck character keeps speculating about what the seven are really protecting: gold, silver, gemstones, etc. Eventually he suggests it must be "Aztec treasure." It's a further confirmation that the region has Indian roots.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

Makah proposal is low-impact

Makah whale-hunting proposal rated 'least impact' in study

Public comments accepted until July 8The Makah Indian Nation's proposal to hunt gray whales has fewer negative impacts than five of six alternatives considered in a draft federal study released May 9.

The National Marine Fisheries Service conducted the study of the possible impacts of Makah resuming gray whale hunts, in response to the nation's request for a waiver of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. It is accepting public comment on the study until July 8.

NMFS developed alternatives to consider based on Makah's proposal and on comments submitted at public hearings in 2005. One of the alternatives is to take no action on Makah's request--essentially, to deny it. But "divorcing" the Makahs from whaling would erode cultural identity and increase tensions "between [the] Makah Tribe and others, including [the] federal government," the study states.The specifics of the proposal:* Makah proposes to hunt gray whales using a hand-thrown, toggle-point harpoon to strike the whale and a .50-caliber rifle to kill the whale; time of death is about eight minutes, but that time is expected to improve as hunters gain additional experience.

* The nation's regulations would prohibit the striking of a whale calf or a whale accompanied by a calf, and would prohibit the hunting of a gray whale between June 1 and Nov. 30 to prevent the hunting of whales that may be part of a seasonal resident gray whale herd.

* Makah's regulations would provide for detailed photographic monitoring of all landed whales, for comparison with photos in the National Marine Mammal Laboratory's photo-identification catalog of the seasonal resident herds.

* Whale "products" would be restricted to local consumption and ceremonies.Comment:  Eight minutes would be significantly better than the previous time of death, which was about 10 hours.

For more on the subject, see The Makah Whale-Hunt Controversy.

Lore of the crystal skulls

Who's That Skull?

Ancient Secrets Of Indy's ReturnTHE Mayans, whose Central American empire crumbled over 1000 years ago, are said to have found the 13 skulls, which gave them vast and strange powers.

THE skulls had moving jaws and could talk and sing. But they were lost when Mayan civilisation collapsed. Some are thought to be under the sea and others in private collections.Lots of fakes:HUNDREDS of fake skulls were produced by antiques traders in the 19th century in an attempt to cash in on the Mayan legend. Most of the replicas are given away by the tiny marks left by cutting tools which were unavailable to the ancient Mayans.

A CRYSTAL skull of Aztec origin is kept in the British Museum. It was bought from Tiffany's in New York after being looted from an ancient site in Mexico.Real skull still used:THE last Mayan tribe remaining outside Western influence in the Mexican rainforest, the Lacandon, believe the skulls have control over natural forces and can project visions

A CRYSTAL skull is still used in special ceremonies by Lacandon priests who believe it can help ward off sickness and halt the deforestation of their land.What it all means:SCIENTISTS believe some of the skulls are as much as 36,000 years old and one theory on the origin of the 13 is that they were crafted in a long-dead civilisation as advanced as our own, much like the mythical Atlantis.

ACCORDING to an ancient Mayan legend, the world will end at midnight on December 21, 2012, unless the wisdom of the combined skulls is heeded.

Bad books since 2000

"I" Still Isn't for Indian

A look at recent publishing about Native Americans[T]he bulk of publishing about Native Americans since 2000 is disappointing. Other Thanksgiving books on the market portray the entrenched, traditional vision of the dominant culture. Robert Merrill Bartlett's classic The Story of Thanksgiving has been revised (HarperCollins, 2001), yet still shows readers a harmonious and full-blown friendship between the Wampanoag and Pilgrims, which, according to Grace and Bruchac, was more likely a wary truce. The Hollywood-happy vision is also apparent in many picture books. Laurie Halse Anderson's well-received Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving (S & S, 2002) falters on the first page as Matt Faulkner's appealing cartoon illustrations show a line of smiling, waving Wampanoag women, children, and men, standing at the gates of the Plimoth colony and holding out a roasted turkey. Actually, Massasoit arrived that day with 90 men (having heard gunfire), and though many Americans are fixated on the turkey, it's clear that turkey was not the centerpiece of the "first Thanksgiving." Nearly every recent book about Thanksgiving reveals these same types of inaccuracies that we've been seeing for years.

Most of the nonfiction published about Native Americans is designed to help with "the tribe report." Raymond Bial's "Lifeways" series (Benchmark) has been acclaimed for its use of color photographs of contemporary people and reenactments. Yet, behind its fresh look, the series provides much of the same condescending, trivializing language and non-Native perspective as in less-attractive fare. The books are written almost entirely in the past tense, suggesting that these people and their ways of life are gone, and elements of Native cultures are depicted in opposition to European ones, suggesting that they are at odds.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.

Time again for mugwumps?

At the rate the Republican Party is self-destructing, an old political term based on Indians could become useful in the 2008 election.

MugwumpThe Mugwumps were Republican political activists who supported Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the United States presidential election of 1884. They switched parties because they rejected the financial corruption associated with Republican candidate, James Blaine. In a close election the Mugwumps supposedly made the difference in New York state and swung the election to Cleveland.

Noteworthy Mugwumps

Henry Adams, author

Thomas Nast, political cartoonist

Mark Twain, author, self-identified as a Mugwump in his essay, Christian Science

Origin of the term

Dictionaries report "mugguomp" was an Algonquin word meaning "person of importance" or "war leader." Charles Anderson Dana, the colorful newspaperman and editor of the New York Sun, is said to have given the Mugwumps their political moniker.

Disreputable history of "squaw"

This posting contradicts the claim that "squaw" became a vulgarism only recently, when "politically correct" advocates twisted its meaning.

Back off / that wordAll Iroquoian children are cautioned early on not to use the word. In my own case, I clearly remember being quite small when I was told the word was "mean" and not to use it. When I got older, I was told what it did mean (cunt). This has been recorded by many Iroquois, starting long ago and continuing into the present. In the nineteenth century, a Mohawk Clan Mother told Indian agents not to use the word and what it meant, "mons veneris," which means "my sporting parts" in old French and "mound of Venus" in Latin.

In 1926, Arthur Parker was quite emphatic about disallowing use of the word in scholarly material, for just this reason, stating unequivocally what I was always told--long before I ever read Parker--"The Seneca do not use the term 'squaw.' With them it is a term of disrepute and is regarded as an obscene appellation."Comment:  For more on the subject, see Squelching the S-Word.

Westerman on Native spirituality

Floyd Red Crow Westerman video message

The missions' mission

Newcomb:  Spirit-breaking:  Mission horrorsIn 1769, Catholic priest Junipero Serra founded the Catholic mission system in California. In 1775, the Franciscan and Dominican orders in California made a joint statement characterizing their mission. The language they used provides insight into their way of thinking and their behavior in the missions.

In the joint statement, the two orders said that their task was the "spiritual and temporal conquest" of the "vast territory" called California. They also referred to themselves as being "in this corner of the world of Old and New California, occupied with the spiritual conquest and conversion of the infidels." Infidels translates to "not of the faith," or, in other words, non-Catholic.

Conquest is one aspect of the paradigm of domination that underlies the colonizing mission of the Vatican and the Catholic Church in the Americas, in keeping with papal decrees that called for the "subjugation" of "barbarous nations." As part of this charge, one task of the church was to break the free spirit of and "reduce" those who were "not of the faith." Spiritual conquest involved the use of spirit-breaking techniques that served as part of the arsenal that was employed against the originally free and independent Indian nations and peoples of California.Comment:  Nice to get the backstory on these popular tourist spots. To reiterate, the missions' goal was "spiritual and temporal conquest." Destroying a people's religion and culture is one aspect of genocide, of course.

Navajo Spirit Warriors

Film on Navajo veterans uncovers painful pastA new documentary about Navajo veterans premiered here last Wednesday to its toughest possible audience: Navajo veterans.

For the most part, "Spirit Warriors: A Legacy of the Navajo Veteran" got rave reviews when it was unveiled at a Central Agency veterans conference. Some vets wished it could have been longer.How it was made:The documentary, by award-winning independent film company Guerilla Docs, relies mostly on interviews filmmaker Randall Wilson collected over two week-long visits to the Navajo Nation, interspersed with historical footage from the 1920s through the 1960s.

"I went to the National Archives in College Park, Md., and spent seven days locked in their library," Wilson said. "They had some wonderful footage."Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.

Below:  World War II Navajo Code Talkers visit Pentagon, meet with General Pace.

Indians of many shades

'Be Proud of All Your Bloods'

Mashantucket exhibit takes a look at raceThe faces, framed in 140 black and white squares, stare out from a wall just inside the gallery.

Some of the photos depict women in American Indian outfits with feathers clutched in their hands. Others are portraits of men in business suits. Another shows a young man and his basketball.

They are all members of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe. They are the first faces to greet you at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center’s “Race: Are We So Different?” exhibit.

And its tough to find two among the array whose skin tones look even vaguely alike.

“We do not fit the stereotypes of people’s ideas of what natives should look like,” Kimberly Hatcher-White, the museum’s executive director, said Thursday night during an invitation-only preview of the exhibit. “But that doesn’t make us any less native.”

The candidate for Indians

Obama Upholds Rights of Cherokees, All Native American TribesSen. Obama understands that the federal government owes a legal and moral obligation to tribes to provide health care, education and other essential services to tribes. "This is not a handout, but compensation for millions of acres of land relinquished by tribes," he said.

Those are the words of Senator Barack Obama, but what about his actions? Native Americans still concerned about an Obama presidency should research the websites of Clinton, Obama, and McCain for an indication of each candidate's interest in their community. Clinton and McCain websites have no specific links or information for Native American peoples or issues, while Senator Obama's campaign has a main page link directly to his website for "First Americans," at www.tribes.barackobama.com.

Further, a look at all three candidates' campaign teams reveal that Senator Obama has a Native American Community Outreach Coordinator and a 30-member Tribal Steering Committee. If Clinton and McCain have a Native American presence on their campaign teams, it is well hidden.

Tribal Quest the reality show

Participants to live traditional Blackfoot way on reality seriesCable gone out? That's OK, there's still the computer. No Internet? No problem, send a few text messages. But no stores, restaurants, cars, radios, running water or matches?

Welcome to life on the Prairies in 1750.

Julian Black Antelope and his business partner Ruby Eaglechild--both from the Blood Reserve--are hoping the idea of giving up modern conveniences for one month to live the traditional Blackfoot way will appeal to 12 native men and women.

Black Antelope, an actor and stunt performer, is hoping to create a six-part reality television series called Tribal Quest, where participants will learn every aspect of traditional daily life and survival from Blackfoot elders.

"With a lot of reality series you're voting each other off, pitting people against each other, but this is the exact opposite," he said. "It's about working together as a tribe, the essence of how people are supposed to be doing things."

Documentary on Navajo weaving

“Weaving Worlds”...Where Weaving Blankets Means Much More than Blanket Weaving Being Navajo—the language, customs, even the dusty landscape—is explored vis-à-vis the challenges of contemporary artisans in the 2007 documentary, Weaving Worlds. Directed and written by Dine filmmaker Bennie Klain, the film gives an intimate view of the Navajo Nation far away from the curio shops and Indian motel marquees familiar to most travelers.

What we learn is that the Dine weavers who craft the textiles sold for hundreds and thousands of dollars are hardly getting rich off the deal. Quite the opposite; it is the white traders who reap the financial largesse on the backs of artists whose rugs hang in the homes of affluent Americans and Europeans. Despite the unfairness, the weavers define the value in what they do beyond mere dollars and cents.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.

Musician plays Inca instruments

Musician finds inspiration through Inca tribeOscar Rios Pohirieth told Barr Middle School sixth-graders that he found his passion at age 10.

That's when his father brought home a "quena," a flute created by the Inca tribes who lived in the South American Andes.And:Pohirieth is not just working to perfect his talents on the quena. He also plays numerous other instruments invented by the Incas. They include several forms of zampoñas, or pan flutes. He also plays other kinds of flutes, the drums and even a "baby guitar."

Incas made their zampoñas from reeds that grow around the perimeters of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, Pohirieth told the sixth-graders, who were celebrating "Travel Around the World Day" on Friday.

US ignores Indian sites at risk

Group:  Cultural sites in national forests threatened

Activists cite lack of funding for lack of protection by Forest ServiceIndian pueblos, Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields and trails used by Lewis and Clark are in jeopardy because the Forest Service lacks the means to protect them, a prominent preservation group said Thursday.

The nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation released a report saying the U.S. Forest Service lacks a clear legal mandate and the financial ability to protect thousands of historic sites and buildings on national forest lands from development, vandalism and other threats.The report at a glance:Here are some highlights of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's report, "The National Forest System: Cultural Resources at Risk:"

Only 1,936 of 325,000 U.S. Forest Service sites identified as historically or culturally significant are on the National Register of Historic Places. Only 27 are designated National Historic Landmarks.

About 80 percent of the 193 million acres the agency manages in 44 states and Puerto Rico haven't been surveyed for cultural and historic sites.

Heritage programs account for less than 1 percent of the Forest Service's $4.4 billion budget.

The Forest Service has two architectural historians. It manages roughly 40,000 older and historic buildings.

The trust recommends doubling the Forest Service's $14.5 million annual budget for heritage programs.

The trust says statutes should be amended to explicitly recognize the Forest Service's responsibility for historic and cultural resources on the lands it manages.Comment:  For the umpteenth time, here's how we "honor" Indians--by giving pretty speeches while their physical culture deteriorates and disappears.

In related news, the Bush administration continues to advocate tax cuts for the rich while pouring money down the drain in Iraq.

Allowing someone to harm these sites is a tragedy and a travesty, if you ask me.

Invisible history of Indian baseball

American Indians' Untold Baseball StoriesBaseball fans around the world have probably heard of two of America's major league teams, the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves. Both names refer to American Indians, although the teams themselves have no connection with tribal culture. But few fans have heard the names Charles Bender or Louis Sockalexis, legendary baseball players who really were American Indians. A new exhibit at a museum in New York State hopes to change that. It celebrates the role of America's first people in America's pastime. David Sommerstein reports.

The Iroquois Confederacy, a group of six American Indian tribes, once reigned across much of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Today, the Iroquois Museum in upstate New York commemorates that legacy. The museum's cedar shingles resemble the elm bark of a traditional Iroquois longhouse, or meeting place.

With major league baseball's hall of fame a short drive away in Cooperstown, it's the ideal meeting place to tell the largely invisible history of American Indian ball players. Inside, you're greeted by more than a dozen black-and-white photos of players with American Indian ancestry. Many are household names.

Exhibit visitor Rosemary Joyce looks them over in amazement. "Bucky Dent and Johnny Bench and Early Wynn… I didn't know there were this many American Indians in baseball. In fact, I was surprised at the names. Names I always heard growing up when I was a teenager."

Rainmakers vs. Georgia drought

Native Americans aim to end Georgia's drought

Weekend ceremony at Stone Mountain Park will seek to bring back rain, heal EarthGov. Sonny Perdue prayed. The rain came. But the drought stayed. So now an Eastern Shoshone wise man will give it a shot.

On Saturday morning, a couple of hours before sunup, Bennie "BlueThunder" LeBeau will lead a group of Native Americans in a Stone Mountain Medicine Wheel Ceremony at Stone Mountain Park to wrest rain from a dry sky and finally break Georgia's historic drought.

LeBeau, 58, is an elder with the Eastern Shoshone tribe and lives on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Fort Washakie, Wyo. He was invited to Georgia by members of the Cherokee and Muscogee nations to lead the ceremony.

"This is not a rain dance," LeBeau emphasized in a telephone interview Wednesday. "And please don't call me a Shaman because people think we're devil worshippers. We are not. We are just trying to heal the Earth and bring back the rain and fill the streams and stop the tornadoes."

Whalers slapped on the wrist

Makah judge fails to empanel jury to prosecute whalersThey promised tough prosecution, but in the end the Makah Nation couldn't put together a jury to try five whalers who were charged with illegally killing a gray whale off Neah Bay last fall.

Tribal Judge Stanley Myers on Wednesday instead granted the men one-year deferred prosecution and promised to dismiss the charges if they committed no offenses during that time. The whalers also were each ordered to pay a $20 fine.

The deferral came after the judge summoned more than 200 people from the remote village of Neah Bay on the Olympic Peninsula to serve as potential jurors. But the judge gave up on empaneling a jury because just about everyone was either related or said they had strong feelings about the case, according to one of the whalers, Wayne Johnson.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Makah Whale-Hunt Controversy.

Dan Ackroyd at Mohegan Sun

Aykroyd heralds Mohegans' $682 million Earth expansionThe $682 million Earth expansion at Mohegan Sun, with its hotel featuring House of Blues music hall and themed rooms, has the blessing of its tribal owners, bank institutions and a Blues Brother, tribal and casino leaders said Wednesday.

"Today is a wonderful day because we marry the spirits of two great entities," Dan Aykroyd, a co-founder of the House of Blues, said after making his entrance to the ceremony at the top of a parking garage via a Harley-Davidson. "In today's world, God knows we need music, fun, entertainment and leisure."

The groundbreaking is the last for the $925 million Project Horizon, an incremental expansion and renovation at Mohegan Sun, and comes just days before the Mashantucket Pequots open their $700 million MGM Grand at Foxwoods hotel and casino expansion.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Facts About Indian Gaming.

Polar bears wanted dead, not alive

U.S. polar bear decision condemned in NorthCondemnation came swiftly from Canada's North to Wednesday's decision by the U.S. government to list polar bears as a threatened species, as Inuit groups and northern politicians denounced the bears' new status.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne made the announcement in Washington on Wednesday, saying the decision was based on findings that bears' Arctic sea ice habitat has dramatically melted in recent decades.

While environmental activists applauded the move, people in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories say it runs contrary to observations by Inuit that polar bear populations are on the rise in some areas.

The decision will also effectively kill the American sport hunt that brings more than $3 million a year to the Canadian Arctic.

Beach to produce Native movies

Actor Adam Beach has plan to back First Nations films and TVOne of Canada's most prominent First Nations film stars has a plan to get more aboriginal stories into movie theatres and onto the airwaves.

Adam Beach, the Manitoba-born actor most recently known for his role on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, has announced he is setting up a new film company and will take a high-profile role in a new internet cable company.

He announced details Wednesday at an aboriginal economic development conference in Winnipeg.

His new company will produce feature films created by First Nations filmmakers.Comment:  For more on the subject, see All About Adam Beach.

Agent e-mailed Indian "joke"

Not that president-in-waiting Obama should worry, but his Secret Service agent once forwarded a racist e-mail about blacks and Indians.

Obama Secret Service Agent Tied to Sex JokeA Secret Service supervisor who until recently was a leader of Senator Barack Obama’s security detail sent several colleagues an e-mail message in 2005 that included a crude sexual joke about blacks and American Indians, according to documents disclosed last week as part of a lawsuit by black Secret Service agents.

The supervisory agent, Victor Erevia, sent the Jan. 26, 2005, e-mail message to five other Secret Service supervisors with what he described as a “joke,” one that referred to “popular myths of sexuality” and ridiculed several racial and religious groups. It appears that Mr. Erevia was not the author of the joke, but shared the message after it had been sent to him.I believe the following is the joke in question. I present it as a public service:Nymphomaniac Convention

A man boarded an airplane and took his seat. As he settled in, he glanced up and saw the most beautiful woman boarding the plane. He soon realized she was heading straight towards his seat. As fate would have it, she took the seat right beside his. Eager to strike up a conversation he blurted out, "Business trip or pleasure?"

She turned, smiled and said, "Business. I'm going to the Annual Nymphomaniacs of America Convention in Boston."

He swallowed hard. Here was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen sitting next to him, and she was going to a meeting of nymphomaniacs. Struggling to maintain his composure, he calmly asked, "What's your business role at this convention?"

"Lecturer," she responded. "I use information that I have learned from my personal experiences to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality."

"Really?" he said. "And what kind of myths are there?"

"Well," she explained, "one popular myth is that African-American men are the most well-endowed of all men, when in fact it is the Native American Indian who is most likely to possess that trait. Another popular myth is that Frenchmen are the best lovers when actually it is men of Jewish descent who are the best. I have also discovered that the lover with absolutely the best stamina is the Southern Redneck."

Suddenly the woman became a little uncomfortable and blushed. "I'm sorry," she said, "I shouldn't really be discussing all of this with you. I don't even know your name"

"Tonto," the man said, "Tonto Goldstein, but my friends call me Bubba."

King Arthur in the American West

Another comic book does Indians wrong by portraying one of them as a mystic with magical powers but no culture or history.

Weekend reviews:  Radical Comics, Minima! and a book about Iraq

Caliber: First Canon of Justice No. 1 (of 5)
Written by Sam Sarkar, Art by Garrie Gastonny
Radical Comics, $1

Reviewed by Chris MautnerI’m sure the creators felt the melding of the two mythos—the taming of the American West and the chivalric tales of knights in armor—was a sure hit, never mind the occasional awkward symbolism, like the fact that Excalibur here is some sort of magical six-shooter that fires lightning. Wow.

But if the Arthur myth is about making order out of chaos, it’s also about protecting the helpless—might for right and all that. Caliber slips up in a major way by making its protagonist the son of a white Union officer. What a convenient way to absolve the creators of any white guilt for massacring the entire Native American populace! Merlin, at least, is portrayed as an Indian, though what tribe I couldn’t possibly say; the comic is maddeningly vague.

Wouldn’t it be more sensible, nay, more interesting even, to have the entire cast be made up of Native Americans, say Comanche or Cherokee? Wouldn’t it be more intriguing to intersperse actual Native American mythology and history in the book, drawing parallels between their plight and the heroic drama Malory wrote about so long ago?

Eh, maybe not, but there’s certainly nothing in Caliber as it currently stands to warrant my interest.Comment:  I'm not sure making the King Arthur figure a white Union soldier is a problem. As long as he isn't a member of the US Cavalry who fought against Indians.

But making the Indian magical and generic is a problem--a big one. The original Merlin came from a primitive race that predated Christian England, and so does this one.

For more on the subject, see Comic Books Featuring Indians.

Preview of DC's FINAL CRISIS

A new comic-book series from the company that gave us Superman and Batman is shaking up its universe again. Specifically, it's using the Native concept of a fourth world that transforms or evolves into a fifth world.

Death of the New GodsDEATH OF THE NEW GODS is an eight-issue comic book limited series published in 2007 by DC Comics. It is written and drawn by Jim Starlin.

The series follows the last days of the New Gods as they are stalked by a mysterious killer.

Background

Jim Starlin stated in interview that: "I sort of think of this project as putting an ending to Jack's New Gods' saga. Since Kirby's initial run on the characters others have presented them with mixed results. Looking back I'd say at least half of the past New Gods series have done more harm than good. So for me, Death of the New Gods is half honoring Jack Kirby, half mercy killing."

Plot

The Source ... reveals that it is now using an agent to eliminate the Fourth World in order to bring about the Fifth World, which will be perfect.The CC2K Hype Train: Final Crisis--A PreviewAll the players of the DC Universe will be here. Superman. Batman. Wonder Woman. All the Green Lanterns. DC's super-pets, multiple all new international teams created by Morrison, and the creation of the "Fifth World." The shear scope of ideas being thrown into the pot for this seven issue mini-series is astonishing.

Very little has actually been revealed as to what Final Crisis is about. We do know this Crisis covers the beginning of time, through the end, starting with Anthro, the first boy, and ending with Kamandi, the last. Final Crisis is also the story about "The Day Evil Won" and its fallout.Or as one commenter put it:So the 4th World has ended, and Morrison gets to play King Kirby and recreate the New Gods of the 5th World.

Seven Cities of Gold video game

Speaking of lost cities, as I did with the new Indiana Jones movie and the old Mysterious Cities of Gold cartoon, here's a bit on a video game. From correspondent DMarks:By the way, have you heard of the vintage computer game "Seven Cities of Gold"? It put you in the role of a conquistador organizing an expedition to the New World. I remember playing it on Atari. Looking back, I remember it involved trading with or slaughtering Incas, Aztecs, and other "Novamundians" (ha). As I recall, you could not get away with trying to slaughter all the Aztecs or Incas, because they would swarm and wipe you out. However, the loners (representing small low-population tribes) further to the north could be taken out with little consequence. I recall encounters with the large cities for the purpose of trade or annihilation involving swarms of stick-figure Natives moving around a stick-figure chief.The Seven Cities of GoldThe Seven Cities of Gold is an award-winning adventure game created by Dan (later Danielle) Bunten (and the game development team Bunten founded, Ozark Softscape) and published by Electronic Arts in 1984. The player takes the role of a late-15th century explorer for Spain, setting sail to the New World in order to explore the map and interact with the natives in order to win gold and please the Spanish court. The name derives from the "seven cities" of Quivira and Cíbola that were said to be located somewhere in the American Southwest.Comment:  No, I hadn't heard of it. My video-game experience doesn't go much further than the original Pong.

For more on the subject, see Video Games Featuring Indians.

Registry includes Navajo Shootingway

What do the first trans-Atlantic broadcast, Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and the Navajo Shootingway ceremony have in common? They were all added to the National Recording Registry this year.

Jackson, Orbison songs added to historic registryThe best-selling pop album on planet Earth and a disc sent hurtling into deep space are among recordings the Library of Congress will preserve for their cultural significance.

Twenty-five selections were added to the National Recording Registry on Wednesday, part of the library's attempt to save America's aural history by archiving recordings deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."The works added to the Registry:

1. The first trans-Atlantic broadcast (March 14, 1925)

2. "Allons a Lafayette," Joseph Falcon (1928)

3. "Casta Diva," from Bellini's "Norma"; Rosa Ponselle, accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Giulio Setti. (recorded December 31, 1928, and January 30, 1929)

4. "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again," Thomas A. Dorsey (1934)

5. "Sweet Lorraine," Art Tatum (February 22, 1940)

6. Fibber's Closet Opens for the First Time, "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio program (March 4, 1940)

7. Wings Over Jordan, Wings Over Jordan (1941)

8. Fiorello LaGuardia reading the comics (1945)

9. "Call it Stormy Monday but Tuesday is Just As Bad," T-Bone Walker (1947)

10. Harry S. Truman speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention (July 15, 1948)

11. "The Jazz Scene," various artists (1949)

12. "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," Kitty Wells (May 30, 1952)

13. "My Fair Lady," original cast recording (1956)

14. Navajo Shootingway Ceremony Field Recordings, recorded by David McAllester (1957-1958)

15. "'Freight Train,' and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes," Elizabeth Cotten (1959)

16. Marine Band Concert Album to Help Benefit the National Cultural Center (1963)

17. "Oh, Pretty Woman," Roy Orbison (1964)

18. "Tracks of My Tears," Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (1965)

19. "You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song," Ella Jenkins (1966)

20. "Music from the Morning of the World," various artists; recorded by David Lewiston (1966)

21. "For the Roses," Joni Mitchell (1972)

22. "Headhunters," Herbie Hancock (1973)

23. Ronald Reagan Radio Broadcasts (1976-1979)

24. "The Sounds of Earth," disc prepared for the Voyager spacecraft (1977)

25. "Thriller," Michael Jackson (1982)

Fence violates Tiguas' rights

Planned border wall blocks Tiguas from sacred groundsProposed border fencing in El Paso could cut off the Tiguas' access to parts of the Rio Grande the tribe has used for centuries to conduct sacred ceremonies.

"It is an infringement on our First Amendment right of freedom of religion," Tigua War Captain Rick Quezada said this week.Why it's happening:Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he would use waivers to sidestep about 30 laws and ensure the fencing could be completed this year. One of the laws Chertoff said he would ignore is the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

That announcement was one reason U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, signed onto a legal brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the waivers.Comment:  This is another example of how Americans "honor" Indians in theory while ignoring or harming them in reality.

Hualapai on Good Morning America

Grand Canyon West recognised as one of the "wonders" of AmericaGrand Canyon West was recognized by the ABC News' “Good Morning America” (GMA) as one of the “7 Wonders of America.”

To announce the selection of the Grand Canyon as one of the seven “wonders,” GMA aired a LIVE segment on May 7, 2008 from the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

The segment highlighted the culture of the Hualapai, the Native American tribe that owns Grand Canyon West, and featured the spectacular views of the Canyon seen at Grand Canyon West’s multiple viewpoints.Comment:  It's not clear if GMA honored the Grand Canyon from Grand Canyon West, or if it honored Grand Canyon West. If it actually chose to honor Grand Canyon West, what about the rest of the Grand Canyon? It's not as good as Grand Canyon West?

Holiday for Maryland's Indians

Maryland Indian tribes get state holidayDozen of members of Maryland Indian tribes, some in native dress, stood behind Gov. Martin O’Malley on Tuesday as he signed into law a bill designating the Friday after Thanksgiving as American Indian Heritage Day, a new state holiday.

The holiday won’t cost the state a thing, said Mervin Savoy, chairwoman of the Piscataway-Conoy tribe in southern Maryland.

That Friday is already a holiday for state employees, but it now gets a new name.

Review of Bravestarr

Previously I reported on Bravestarr, the TV series about the futuristic marshal of the planet New Texas. Now I've seen The Best of Bravestarr DVD, which includes the movie Bravestarr: The Legend and five episodes of the show. Here are some reviews of the DVD:

Animated Views:  The Best of Bravestarr
Pop Matters:  The Best of Bravestarr
DVD Verdict:  The Best of Bravestarr

And here are a few of my thoughts:

The good

The frontier mixture of humans, aliens, and robots is well-conceived and rich with possibilities.

The four main characters--easygoing Bravestarr, ornery Thirty/Thirty, passionate J.B., and comical Fuzz--are well-matched and balanced.

With his Western gear, attitude, and drawl, Bravestarr is more a cowboy than an Indian. His role is a nicely nontraditional one.

Thirty/Thirty the "equestroid" is perhaps the most complex and interesting character of the bunch. As one reviewer put it, "Bravestarr’s main sidekick is a robotic horse named Thirty/Thirty with whom the hero both speaks to and rides. The power-dynamic of the duo is slightly more perverse than, say, the one seen between He-Man and Cringer, though, because Thirty/Thirty is capable of walking as a biped."

The music gets the first credit in the movie and rightly so, because it's striking .

The bad

The characters each have one or two dimensions in the movie but become shallower, not deeper, in the series.

Bravestarr has too many abilities. He uses a ray gun, energy shield, cyber-tomahawk, and night-vision goggles. He's the fastest draw in the West. He's acrobatic enough to dodge blasts. And he has his four spirit powers. These ten options are seven or eight more than a good character should have.

Other than the spirit powers, there's no evidence that Bravestarr and his mentor Shaman are Indians. They show no sign of having Indian values, beliefs, or customs. They never even call themselves Indians.

The animation is acceptable but limited in the movie and grows worse in the series.

Most of the action is lame--ray guns vs. monsters a la Godzilla--and the moralizing at the end is painfully obvious.

The ugly

Animated Views recounts the beginnings of the series:The origin of Bravestarr can actually be traced back to about 1984 during the development of the Ghostbusters show that Filmation did. Lou Scheimer liked something about a character named Tex Hex, who was designed as a lackey for Ghostbusters baddie Prime Evil. Ol’ Tex was put on the backburner for the time being, until another show could be developed that would do him better justice. That show turned out to be Bravestarr, a series that also fulfilled Scheimer’s desire to spotlight a Native American hero, and mixing western themes with science fiction.So Bravestarr came into being not because he was an inspiring idea, but because Tex Hex was. The show basically existed to showcase the villain. That's ugly part one.

On the DVD commentary, Scheimer said something to the effect that Tex Hex was the best villain he'd seen since He-Man's arch-foe Skeletor. Which is basically saying nothing. It's like saying the Spot is the greatest Spider-Man villain since the Gibbon. Or the Turtle is the greatest Flash villain since the Rainbow Raider. Or Tyroc is the greatest Legionnaire since Matter-Eater Lad.

That's ugly part two.

So Scheimer wanted to do a series with a Native American. His solution was an Indian with no Indian traits whatsoever except his spirit powers. An Indian who was basically a blank slate. In fact, if his mentor hadn't looked like an Indian, Bravestarr could've passed as any brown-skinned minority.

That's ugly part three.

In sum, Bravestarr is a series that existed for the wrong reasons. Scheimer had what he thought was a good character--Tex Hex--and threw in a generic Indian counterpart to keep him busy. Here's a helpful hint: If you're going to spend millions creating a TV series, make sure your main character is deeper and richer than the supporting characters.

Conclusion

Bravestarr gets points for making the Native character a nontraditional hero: a cowboy-style marshal. It loses points for making him a generic Indian with no history or culture. The result is a wash.

And so it goes with the rest of the series. Interesting concept and characters, mediocre execution. On the DVD, storyboard coordinator Rob Lamb said he hopes Bravestarr "will take its place in the halls of achievement in animation." If there's a hall for wasted potential, for unusual concepts that never quite gel, Bravestarr should be there.

Check out the DVD if you're curious. The movie isn't bad. I give it about a 7.5 of 10.

But if you're like me, you'll be done with the series after one movie and five TV episodes. That's enough Bravestarr for anyone.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Mystery of the crystal skulls

The latest Indiana Jones movie is based on a crystal skull found in Maya ruins. Here's the history and science behind the fiction.

From a photo caption on MSNBC, 5/12/08:People watch as Mayan Indian priests participate in a ceremony while one holds up a crystal skull at the Mayan ruins of Palenque, Mexico March 10, 2008. There is a legend that the ancient Maya possessed 13 crystal skulls which, when united, hold the power of saving the Earth, a tale so strange and fantastic that it inspired the latest Indiana Jones movie.The History Behind the Mystery

Eighty Years of Exploration and Study Reveal the Secrets of Crystal Skulls … MaybeIn 1924, the famed British banker-turned-adventurer F.A. Mitchell-Hedges led an expedition deep into the Central American jungles of British Honduras (now Belize). His mission: to find evidence of the lost continent of Atlantis. But it was Mitchell-Hedges’ adopted daughter, Anna, who made a find for which this quest was to become famous. On Anna’s 17th birthday, as Mitchell-Hedges and his crew were excavating the ancient ruins of a Mayan temple at Lubaantun, Anna spied an object glinting in the soil under a collapsed altar: a beautiful sculpted human skull carved with uncanny craftsmanship out of a single block of translucent quartz crystal.The facts behind the mystery:In 1970, the Mitchell-Hedges family reportedly loaned the skull for testing to Hewlett-Packard Laboratories—a leading facility for crystal research in Santa Clara, California. The testing produced some startling findings, according to Frank Dorland, an art restorer who claims to have overseen the examinations. He reported that HP researchers found that the skull had been carved against the natural axis of the crystal. Modern crystal sculptors always take into account the axis, or orientation of the crystal’s molecular symmetry, because carving “against the grain” causes the crystal to shatter—even with the use of lasers and other high-tech cutting methods.

Furthermore, Dorland claimed, HP could find none of the microscopic scratches on the crystal typically caused by carving with metal instruments. This led Dorland to hypothesize that the skull was roughly hewn with diamonds, with the detail work being done with a gentle solution of silicon sand and water—a near-impossible task he estimated would have required up to 300 years in man hours to complete. Dorland also claimed the skull originated in Atlantis and had been carried around by the Knights Templar during the Crusades.

But there is no documented evidence to support the claims of the skull’s exotic origins and some authorities have claimed that Mitchell-Hedges purchased the skull at an auction at Sotheby’s in London in 1943—an allegation supported by documents at the British Museum, which reportedly had bid against him for the artifact. That would also explain why Mitchell-Hedges apparently never spoke of the skull before 1943—even though he claimed Anna had found it nearly 20 years earlier. However, Mitchell-Hedges claimed he was actually buying back the skull after leaving it in the care of a friend, who put it up for sale at Sotheby’s.

There is also some doubt as to whether the tests at Hewlett-Packard were ever carried out, since no evidence of such testing has been provided by the company. Furthermore, later tests determined that the skull was carved using 19th century jeweler’s tools, making its supposed pre-Columbian origin even more dubious.A segment from Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World explores the mystery (uncritically):

Crystal Skulls Unsolved Mystery

Renegade

Amid the 1990s shows that most people know about--Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman--there's this oddball that no one ever talks about. Renegade aired from 1992 to 1997.

Renegade (TV series)Framed for the murder of his wife by Dixon, Reno Raines is sent to prison but promptly escapes. Dixon sends professional bounty hunter Bobby Sixkiller (Branscombe Richmond) after him, but Reno instead saves Bobby's life and gains his trust. Adopting the name Vince Black, Reno works as a bounty hunter for Sixkiller Enterprises, while searching for the one witness who can clear his name and bring down Dixon.Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Live version of "NDN Kars"

NDN CARS--Keith Secola & The Wild Band Of Indians



Forget all the Native music featuring flutes. I'd say "NDN Kars" (the official version, not this extended live version) is the best Native song ever.

Native stereotyping = minstrel shows

What Do Native Americans Want?

Pix of the 2008 FAITA awards

Check out the studly Indian men and sexy Indian women who attended the First Americans in the Arts awards ceremony this year.

First Americans in the Arts--May 3, 2008

"Red is Green"

Joanelle Romero (The Girl Called Hatter Fox) is touting a new PSA to do what the "crying Indian" one did for the previous generation. It apparently launched on Earth Day (April 22) last month.

Here's a press release I just received on it:

American Indians Launch Environmental Public Service Campaign

RED is GREEN--American Indians Placed at the Forefront of Global Green MovementRed Nation Celebration announced today the launch of a test spot for a new national public service announcement (PSA) campaign to be launched on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, 2008, that serves to share with the public an American Indian legacy about reverence and care for Mother Earth.

“Water is our bloodline to Mother Earth,” quotes Joanelle Romero, founder of Red Nation Celebration, the American Indian-owned nonprofit directing the Campaign. The test spot, which will premiere on Red Nation television channel and other web-based media, also features the campaign slogan: "RED is GREEN--Honoring American Indian as our nation’s first environmentalists," which points to the fact that American Indians have kept environmental traditions alive for thousands of years, living harmoniously with the living systems of the Earth. The RED is GREEN Campaign seeks to share this sensibility via six upcoming announcements now in production, some featuring Academy Award-winning celebrity endorsements.

Although the RED is GREEN Campaign references the iconic “Crying Indian” PSA campaign launched in 1970, with a weathered Indian (Iron Eyes Cody), with a tear in his eye overlooking a polluted river; the RED is GREEN test spot bears a slightly different message: “Water is Sacred.” After spanning polluted waterways, an Indian woman, great with child, is shown as she kneels at a river and reverently cups water in her hands, blessing it for the new life she carries. She then offers water to the viewer, just as Mother Earth gives water to her people.Comment:  Slightly different? Other than the environmental focus, this PSA sounds substantially different.

For more on the subject, see Ecological Indian Talk.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold

Indians finally started appearing in TV shows in the 1980s. Of course they were supporting rather than lead characters, and the shows were stereotypical. But something is better than nothing, right?

The Mysterious Cities of GoldThe Mysterious Cities of Gold is an animated television series co-produced by DiC Entertainment and Studio Pierrot first shown in 1982. The series comprises 39 episodes told in a single continuous narrative.

The story is set in 1532. A young Spanish boy named Esteban joins a voyage to the New World in search of the lost Cities of Gold. He hopes to find his father, from whom he was separated on being rescued from a sinking ship by Magellan's expedition. On arrival in South America Esteban and his companions begin uncovering evidence relating to the Cities of Gold and various ancient technologies, and also become deeply embroiled in a conflict between the Spanish, the various native populations and later, a strange race called the Olmecs."El Dorado, the Cities of Gold"

Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Paw Paws

If The Go-Go Gophers isn't the lamest TV show ever to star Indians, this 1985 show may be.

Paw PawsPaw Paws, sometimes known as Paw Paw Bears, debuted as one of the original segments of The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. A group of small bears that lived in a tribal society, the cubs spent every day defending themselves from their enemies, The Meanos, led by the evil sorcerer, Dark Paw. The antagonist bear and his henchmen were after the Paw Paws' three large wooden totems, Totem Bear, Totem Tortoise, and Totem Eagle. The totems also served as the tribe's protectors, coming to life when needed through means of Princess Paw Paw's Mystic Moonstone, which she wore around her neck, to defend the village.

Much like Smurfs or Biskitts, the bears had names that denoted their personalities—Laughing Paw, Medicine Paw, Bumble Paw, etc. Brave Paw and Princess Paw Paw tended to be the leads, riding into adventures on their magical flying ponies, while aging Wise Paw served as tribal advisor. The mascot of the group was a tiny dog by the name of PaPooch.Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Roanoak

RoanoakThe 3-part TV miniseries Roanoak traces the history of North Carolina's "Lost Colony". The story begins in 1584, when British settlers land upon Carolina's shores. There they are confronted by Native Americans who at first regard the visitors as evil spirits. This mistrust is briefly reciprocated before the settlers and Indians learn to depend upon one another. One of the Englishmen, artist John White (Victor Garber), endeavors to teach the English language to two of the tribesmen, Manteo (Tino Juarez) and Wanchese (Joseph Runningfox), who are then selected to return to England with White, there to acquaint the locals with Indian customs and traditions. Part Two takes place during the first winter at Roanoak, as a diminishing food supplies rekindles hostilities between the whites and the Indians. And in Part Three, Sir Walter Raleigh gives White permission to return to the Roanoak colony--which has mysteriously vanished from the face of the earth. A collaborative effort of the PBS network and South Carolina Educational Television, Roanoak first aired May 26, June 2 and June 10, 1986, on the American Playhouse anthology series.Comment: For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Paradise

Paradise (TV series)Paradise (Guns of Paradise), was an American western family television series, broadcast by CBS from 1988 to 1991. It was also broadcast in syndication by The Family Channel for a couple years following its cancellation.

Paradise starred Lee Horsley as Cord, a professional gunfighter who was forced to take custody of the four children of his sister, a Saint Louis singer who was dying and unable to make any other arrangements for their care. Cord realized that his profession was unsuitable to child rearing and decided to change, renting a farm from Amelia Lawson (Sigrid Thornton), who also owned the local bank in the small town of Paradise, California (the origin of the title). Ethan tried to live a peaceful life, but was constantly haunted by his violent past and frequently called upon by the townspeople to defend them from lawlessness. Cord was close friends with John Taylor (Dehl Berti), a Native American medicine man, who often provided him with wise counsel and insights into human nature.Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Innovators with Native connections

In the fall of 2007, Smithsonian magazine published a special issue titled 37 Under 36:  America's Young Innovators in the Arts and Science. Whenever I see a roundup like this, I wonder how diverse it is. Specifically, does it include a Native component?

I'm glad to report that this roundup did reasonably well. There was one Native and several non-Natives with a Native connection. Here they are:

Making the Grade

Yurok Indian Geneva Wiki is helping other young Native Americans "develop their best selves"Geneva Wiki is fighting the flu. "You're seeing me at only about 75 percent of my normal energy," says the director of the Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods, in Klamath, California. It's a formidable 75 percent. Two of her teachers are absent, so Wiki, a 30-year-old Yurok Indian, darts between the school's three classrooms, her bobbed hair swinging. She counsels a student struggling with an essay; murmurs "language!" to a boy who has just shouted an expletive; puts out plates and plastic utensils for lunch; and tells two other students they can't eat potato chips while walking and call it PE. Since there's no school bus, Wiki, who is married with a toddler at home, began the day by driving several students to school.

More than half of the 30 teens attending this public charter school are Yurok and more than two-thirds are American Indians. As young as 13, they have all taken college placement exams and are co-enrolled in high school and the local community college, working simultaneously toward high-school diplomas and college credits. The idea behind this innovative project, part of the Early College High School Initiative, largely funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is that low-income, minority and otherwise disadvantaged young people at risk of dropping out are encouraged to stay in school and get a free, non-intimidating taste of college. There are now 147 such schools in 23 states and the District of Columbia, 11 of which are specifically for American Indians.

"This is the front line of our civil rights movement," says Wiki. "Past generations struggled first over rights to fish and hunt, and then to govern ourselves. Now we need to work on reclaiming ourselves through education."

Down to Earth

Anthropologist Amber VanDerwarker is unraveling the mysteries of the ancient Olmec by figuring out what they ateBetween 1999 and 2002, while she was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she examined plant and bone remains that Arnold and another archaeologist uncovered from two small sites in the volcanic Tuxtla region that was on the outskirts of Olmec territory but north of the city centers. "I hit pay dirt," VanDerwarker recalls.

What they found suggests that the Olmecs differed from early peoples in Egypt, Mesopotamia and China, where the growth of urban centers was closely tied to a single grain—wheat, barley and rice, respectively—and central powers coordinated vast networks of fields and farmers. Most researchers had assumed that it was the cultivation of maize that made the Olmec prosper.

On the contrary, say VanDerwarker and her colleagues, who identified an astonishing array of foods in the Olmec diet—from deer, ocelots, rabbits and turtles to beans, avocados and tree fruits. For several centuries, because the Olmec lived with what she calls "an abundance of resources," they even managed plots of fruit trees. Animals drawn to such forest gardens would have been easy to hunt.According to the standard theory, civilizations develop a centralized government and religion because large-scale agriculture gives them surplus wealth that requires administration. But VanDerwarker implies the Olmecs may have chosen a different model more in keeping with their Native values. Namely, living closer to and in harmony with nature, with a flatter social structure and less top-down control.

Even if this was true only in the outlying regions of the Olmec civilization, it's still significant. In cultures such as ancient Egypt and medieval Europe, the central authority (the pharaoh or pope) reached into every corner of the realm. Almost every aspect of life was controlled by rules and regulations from above. Even with a central government, the Olmecs may have been less rigid and authoritarian.



Flower Power

Studying ancient botanical drawings, Daniela Bleichmar is rewriting the history of the Spanish conquest of the AmericasHistorians are apt to regard images as second-class sources—a means to underscore a point developed through analysis of a manuscript or, worse, a way to pretty up a paper. But for Bleichmar, drawings and prints are the keys to the kingdom. "What I'm trying to do is treat images as seriously as text," she says.

From them, Bleichmar has pieced together how naturalists and artists working for the Spanish Crown surveyed flora in America and took what they learned back to Europe; how their images helped the empire in its search for supplies of coffee, tea, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg and medicinal specimens; how their keen observations earned them favor with rulers and their ministers; how their omissions—of indigenous people, of wider landscapes—reflected the colonizers' attitudes toward the colonized.In other words, all those pictures of plants as specimens--as isolated things with no context--helped to objectify the "New World." They gave viewers the impression that the Americas were full of goods for the taking and empty of inhabitants who owned them. Even if Europeans understood intellectually that Indians were present, the lack of pictures conveyed the idea that the natives were an insignificant part of the landscape.



Crossing the Divide

Novelist Daniel Alarcón's writings evoke the gritty, compelling landscape of urban Latin AmericaAlarcón inhabits a bridge between the Americas, a place whose denizens are not entirely of one continent or the other. His fiction evokes the dust and grit of urban Peru, conveyed in gracefully nuanced English. He is, as he describes himself, "un norteamerincaico"—a North Amer-Incan—citizen of a highly mutable, interconnected world.

Also, there's Matt Flannery, a software engineer who "pioneers Internet microloans to the world's poor." His organization is named Kiva.org--presumably after the religious centers of the Pueblo people. I don't see any real connection between the name and the mission, but "kiva" certainly sounds low-tech, Third-World, and people-oriented.

Of course, we could come up with hundreds if not thousands of young Native leaders as innovative as these people. But these choices give us a fair sampling of what today's generation are doing to change the world.

Moreover, it's good to see Native values seeping into the mainstream--into the work of non-Native innovators and into bastions of the establishment like Smithsonian magazine. Five of the 37 innovators have some connection to Native Americans, and more are linked to minorities and indigenous people around the world.

P.S. There's no truth to the rumor that "Geneva Wiki" is also a website run by the United Nations. ;-)

Nakia

The 1970s were even worse than the 1960s. Other than a Last of the Mohicans mini-series, the only series about Indians was the short-lived Nakia.

Fall 1974:  ABCABC's second new Saturday series, Nakia, premiered the following Saturday, on September 21st, and lasted about two months longer than The New Land. A made-for-TV movie of the same name served as the pilot, airing April 17th, 1974. Robert Forster starred as Nakia Parker, a Navajo deputy sheriff in a tiny New Mexico town.

Arthur Kennedy appeared as Sheriff Sam Jericho, and Taylor Lacher and Gloria DeHaven portrayed Hubbell Martin and Irene James, respectively, two other deputies. Nakia was up against The Carol Burnett Show on CBS at 10:00PM and after thirteen episodes the series was gone, its last episode airing on December 28th, 1974.

The problem with Nakia stemmed from its reliance on Native American culture. Although Forster made a convincing Navajo, many of the guest-stars looked or acted nothing like their Native American characters. Many of the plots relied on Nakia's native "abilities" (he was able to silently sneak up on someone while wearing his moccasins, for example). It's not surprising the series didn't last.Comment:  To see the opening credits, follow the link.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Mayan TV

Reaching the people

Mayan TV broadcasts in GuatemalaThe time was right. On April 23, a television station that once was the voice of the Guatemalan military dictatorship that had massacred thousands of Mayans showed the glyph of the day from the millennial Mayan calendar and announced itself as "TV Maya: Guatemala's multi-cultural station."

The indigenous people of Guatemala finally had their own television station.

"This is a dream that indigenous people have had for many years: to have a means of communication," Mayan Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu told Agence France-Presse at the official inauguration of the station, which was also attended by Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom and other dignitaries.

The station, funded by the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (ALMG), broadcasts for 30 minutes, three times a day, showing programs that teach Mayan culture, worldview and language. Its programs are broadcast in indigenous languages with Spanish subtitles.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.

Burt Reynolds as Hawk

In the 1960s, about the only Indians on TV were faithful Indian sidekicks. The one exception was the short-lived Hawk.

Do you remember Burt Reynolds TV show, Hawk?HAWK was a shot-running TV show, a police story with a twist. John Hawk (played by Burt Reynolds) was a full-blooded Iroquois Indian working the night beat for the New York District Attorney's Office with his partner Detective Dac Carter (played by Wayne Grice). Together, the officers will come face to face with crime, murder and racism.

Premiered: September 8, 1966 Last Aired: December 29, 1966Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Aztec religion = dinosaur worship

Any mainstream movie about the Aztecs and Maya is likely to be bad. Aztec Rex (aka Tyrannosaurus Azteca) appears to be a prime example of the genre.

Tyrannosaurus AztecaThe year is 1519 A.D. Hernán Cortés leads a scouting party of thirteen conquistadors through hostile Aztec territories. The scouting party reaches a lush, nearly inaccessible valley and discovers a pyramid surrounded by bits of human bone. Suddenly, they find themselves face to face with the "Thunder Lizard." To survive, Cortés will not only have to battle the hostile Tlalocs and Aztecs, but he'll also have to devise a way to kill a predator that's sixteen feet tall, weighs eight tons, and has a bite that can cut an armored man in half... Stars Shawn Lathrop (an HPU grad), Kalani Queypo (of Hawaiian, Caucasian, Blackfoot descent), William Snow, Dichen Lachman, Jack McGee ("Rescue Me"), and Ian Ziering (Beverly Hills 90210" and "Dancing with the Stars").Aztec Rex–An Affordable (And Gory) Dino Movie“Back in the Stone Age [i.e. 1969], I worked on the trailer for the dino flick The Valley Of Gwangi, one of many great Ray Harryhausen films, getting an inside peek at the stop-motion master’s work as it progressed through the final stages. I became determined to make a dinosaur movie. It took only 38 years! [laughs]. You might say Aztec Is Jurassic Park Eats Cortez Or Apocalypto In The Valley Of Gwangi, with a dash of Aguirre, The Wrath Of God. I like making genre cocktails that both celebrate and affectionately satirize their antecedents.”

What’s it about? You may well ask--and Brian will answer: “This is the untold story of the first scouting expedition to central Mexico by imperialist colonizer Hernán Cortes and a small band of soldiers in 1522. They are captured by an Aztec tribe who placate the last remaining Tyrannosaurus rexes in the valley with virgin sacrifices. Shocking waste of virgins, if you ask me. Our hero, Rios, a somewhat progressive conquistador, tries to prevent Cortes from enslaving the Aztecs and put an end to the human sacrifices—a time-honored plot for costume pictures of the ’60s. But we have tried, without interfering with the fun of the piece, to inject a little more plot, character delineation and interesting historical detail.”

But of course Brian also injected lots of blood …. “my mayhem is as graphic as time and money would allow. Two human hearts are ripped out, a leg is bitten off, intestines spill, ribs are shredded, half-eaten corpses fall onto wet sand, etc. These are the moments in this kind of picture I would have loved to have seen as a kid. Gore fans will certainly get some chuckles.”Comment:  Let's see if I have this straight. Here's the actual Aztec religion:Aztec cosmology divided the world into upper and nether-worlds, each associated with a specific set of deities and astronomical objects. Important in Aztec religion were the sun, moon and the planet Venus--all of which held different symbolic and religious meanings and were connected to deities and geographical places. ... For the Aztecs especially important deities were Tlaloc the god of rain, Huitzilopochtli the patron god of the Mexica tribe, Quetzalcoatl the culture hero and god of civilization and order, and Tezcatlipoca the god of destiny and fortune, connected with war and sorcery. ... A common Aztec religious practice was the recreation of the divine: Mythological events would be ritually recreated and living persons would impersonate specific deities and be revered as a god--and often ritually sacrificed.And here's the TV version of Aztec religion:The Aztecs sacrificed virgins to placate their dinosaur god.Oops! Someone made a mistake. Someone looked at the Aztecs' complex cosmology and saw dinosaur worship.

How did director Brian Trenchard-Smith make this unfortunate boo-boo? Well, "everyone knows" the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice because they were cruel and inhuman. That is, because they were basically beasts with no souls. That is, for no reason.

So if they killed people for no reason, why wouldn't they kill people to stop a rampaging T. rex? Either way they get to indulge their bloodlust. This way they also protect themselves from getting killed.

Why risk your life to hunt the big bruiser when you can sacrifice a virgin to it instead? After all, your average T. rex is reasonable. He won't eat you if you give him a daily meal. We learned this from movies such as King Kong, so it must be true.

The Aztecs' spiritual void

To put it another way, "everyone knows" the Aztecs were too savage and barbaric to worship actual gods. So if a big ol' animal came along, wouldn't it fill their spiritual void? Wouldn't they adopt a god-like creature as their god and decide to worship it?

I mean, you and I would never mistake a dinosaur for a god. But we're talking about Indians who worshiped rocks, trees, and animals. If they're so ignorant that they thought a squirrel was holy, how much holier would a massive deadly predator seem?

So Aztec Rex gives us Indians as superstitious children who sacrifice virgins to a monster. These Indians are just like your classic devil worshipers. The Euro-Americans' religion is uplifting and civilized while the Indians' is primitive and degenerate. According to this movie, it's literally bestial.

No wonder we defeated the Indians so easily. Our god is an all-powerful white man who rules the universe. Theirs is a dumb dino who eats people. Since our god created their "god" in 4000 BC, guess who wins?

Stupid, stupid, stupid

In short, how stupid can you get? This movie makes a film like Apocalypto or The Ruins seem intelligent by comparison. Aztec Rex goes straight to the top of the stereotype pile for May.

Aztec Rex debuts May 10 (tonight) on the Sci-Fi channel. This is one movie I definitely plan to miss.

Below:  A TV spot for the movie. I love the way the Spaniards and Aztecs both speak English. Because it would be, like, a bummer if the Aztecs had their own language and the conquistadors couldn't understand them.

Debate over Touching Bear Spirit

A Review of Ben Mikaelsen's TOUCHING SPIRIT BEARTouching Spirit Bear is fatally flawed by Mikaelsen’s inexcusable playing around with Tlingit culture, cosmology and ritual; and his abysmal lack of understanding of traditional banishment. It is obvious that what he doesn’t know, he invents. Edwin, the Tlingit elder, instructs Cole to: jump into the icy cold water and stay there as long as possible; pick up a heavy rock (called the “ancestor rock”) and carry it to the top of a hill; push the rock (now called the “anger rock”) back down the hill; watch for animals and dance around the fire to impersonate the animal he sees (called the “bear dance,” “bird dance,” “mouse dance,” etc.); announce what he’s learned about the characteristics of that animal from his dance; and finally, carve that animal on his own personal “totem pole.”Response from Ben Mikaelson re TOUCHING SPIRIT BEARAs for my accuracy in Touching Spirit Bear, I stand by what I've written and can defend every word. The Tlingit culture was peripheral to my story so there was no need to go into cultural aspects in great depth. Anybody familiar with any of the First Nation Cultures knows that their cultures are very complex and a person can spend a lifetime learning all the nuances. This was not possible or necessary for my purposes. This said, all of the healing methods portrayed, carrying the ancestor rocks, dancing the dances, carving the totems, turning the clothes inside out, soaking the ponds, breaking the sticks of anger, etc., all were shared with me by a First Nation spiritual leader.(Excerpted from Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature, 5/10/08.)

Comment:  Here's how I responded to Mikaelson's defense of himself:Mikaelson writes, "All of the healing methods portrayed, carrying the ancestor rocks, dancing the dances, carving the totems, turning the clothes inside out, soaking the ponds, breaking the sticks of anger, etc., all were shared with me by a First Nation spiritual leader." Is that it? Was this spiritual leader a Tlingit? Did Mikaelson verify these methods in written sources or with Tlingit authorities?

Not that he indicates. If we take him at his word, he got the most questionable bits in his book from exactly one source who may not have been Tlingit. If that's supposed to be persuasive, it isn't.But more interesting is this exchange with Anonymous, one of the commenters:Why do fiction books have to be read by "experts" before being published? It's not claiming to teach about Native culture. Why does everything have to be analyzed to death?My response:  Why do fiction books have to be read by "experts"? Well, why do fiction authors have to research the history and culture they write about? Why not just make up everything?

For example, God created the earth in 4000 BC. Cavemen coexisted with dinosaurs. George Washington was a transvestite. Santa Claus is a pedophile. The pope is the anti-Christ. Americans long for another 9/11. Indians are merciless savages. Etc.

If accuracy in fiction doesn't matter, are all these things okay? In a grotesque parody or satire, perhaps, but not in a work based on reality. Reality demands a measure of accuracy.

So the answer to Anonymous's "why" is because accuracy is the right thing to do. And because parents, teachers, and librarians demand it. Publishers want to sell authentic books and readers want to buy them.

Islamic cartoon compared to Indian cartoon

Newspaper cartoon a hate crime, Islamic group claimsPolice in Halifax are investigating a complaint about a political cartoon that some members of a local Islamic group claim is a hate crime.

The cartoon, published April 18 in the Chronicle Herald newspaper, depicts a woman in a burka holding a sign that reads, "I want millions," and she says, "I can put it towards my husband's next training camp."

The cartoon by Bruce MacKinnon is a reference to Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal, a woman from Nova Scotia whose husband was arrested in 2006 in an anti-terrorism raid. Qayyum Abdul Jamal was released from jail after charges against him were stayed on April 15.

Zia Khan, director of the Centre for Islamic Development in Halifax, said the cartoon goes beyond what can be considered free speech.

"You would not put a native American Indian with feathers and say I need money in order to cull white people's heads. You wouldn't do that. This would be libellous," he said.Comment:  Well, the hypothetical Indian cartoon is definitely stereotypical if not libelious. The Islamic cartoon would be also if it portrayed a generic Muslim woman.

But this woman is wearing a particular type of glasses. If that's what Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal wears, the cartoon is targeting her, not all Muslims.

For more on the subject, see The Muhammad Cartoons.

Broken Arrow

When I glanced at my list of TV Shows Featuring Indians, I realized I didn't know anything about some of them. I figured I'd better do a little research to educate myself and my readers about them.

So I'm going to take a decade-by-decade look at some of the obscure series that have prominent Indian characters. First, from the 1950s:

Broken Arrow (TV series)Broken Arrow was a Western series which told a fictionalized account of the historical relationship between Indian agent Tom Jeffords (played by John Lupton) and the Chiricahua Apache chief Cochise (played by Michael Ansara). It was based on the novel Blood Brother by Elliott Arnold, which was made into the movie Broken Arrow in 1950.

The show ran on ABC in prime time from 1956 through 1958 on Tuesdays at 9 PM Eastern time. Repeat episodes were shown by ABC on Sunday afternoons during the 1959-60 season. Selected repeats were then shown once again in prime time (on Sunday evenings) during the summer of 1960.Ansara played Indians several times in his career: in The Lone Ranger, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, and Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans. He also appeared in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Land of the Giants, and The Time Tunnel. Trekkies know him as Kang from the TOS episode "Day of the Dove."

Northwest Passage

Northwest PassageMajor Robert Rogers (Keith Larsen) organized "Rogers Rangers" to search for the alleged waterway across the United States during the French and Indian War (1754-1759). Helping Rogers, an experienced explorer and Indian fighter, were Hunk Marriner (Buddy Ebsen), another experienced Indian fighter, and Langdon Towne (Don Burnett), a Harvard graduate who was the map maker. The episodes told the story of their trials and tribulations searching for the Northwest Passage and their battles with both the French and Indians during this war.A reviewer on IMDB.com added this hyperbolic comment:This one-season 1958-59 program was, by my lights as writer, actor and director, the best one-half-hour program made for television in the twentieth century; it is indisputably the best-written and best-produced of all such series.Comment:  Gee, why limit yourself to the 20th century? Why not say it was better than any drama in history, including Shakespeare's plays?

I haven't seen Northwest Passage yet, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it isn't better than I Love Lucy, All in the Family, or The Sopranos. I'll let you know when I know for sure.

Indigenous comic art

A Native American take on comic art

A New Mexico museum exhibit shows the natural affinity tribal artists have had for the graphic storytelling techniques from Marvel and other comics.THIS summer is overflowing with images of familiar superheroes and ominous villains, and the world of American Indian art is digging up its own version of the comic art form at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, N.M.

"Comic strips were the first accessible form of mass media made available on reservations, and there was this immediate connection between native people and that type of work," said Antonio Chavarria, curator of ethnology, who organized the Comic Art Indigene exhibit. "There was no language barrier, and the whimsical stories were a very familiar tradition." Comics were consumed as a recognizable and legitimate form of storytelling.

Most of the art on display is a collection from regional artists, including Santana Shorty, Rose Bean Simpson and Marty Two Bulls, and their interpretation of politics, humor, culture and identity. Some of the contemporary work is based on older comic-art images; for instance, Diego Romero makes drawings which are interpretations of the Marvel Comics of the 1960s.Pow! Wow! Now!Comic-book figures like Superman, Captain America, and Spider-Man are a big part of the American mythology. Blessed with special powers, they defend the weak in the name of justice. But these characters are far from the first superheroes in North America. If you stray from the world of contemporary pop culture and drift into the world of Native American creation stories, you'll find superheroes of a different—but not entirely different—nature. One Pueblo creation story involves a pair of twin warrior gods (born on the Sandia Mountains, in some tellings) who guarded over ancestral peoples. A Spider Woman even plays a part in Pueblo legend.

While one shouldn't get too carried away with comparing the Spider-Man seen on Pizza Hut cups to the sacred figures in Native creation stories, parallels can be drawn between ancient and modern stories: what excited the imagination then is not so different from what excites the imagination now. Comic Art Indigène, which opens at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture on Sunday, May 11, identifies common threads in these stories and the way they've been told. Ancient artifacts offer evidence of art with a sequential theme, and certain Native American archetypes recur in modern comic books.

A pictograph of a shield-wielding, red, white, and blue warrior from the Pueblo II period (carbon-dated to circa 1290) is paired with a Jack Kirby drawing of that other shield-wielding, red, white, and blue warrior, Captain America.Some connections between Native and comic-book art:The language of the comic-art medium can also be traced through Native American traditions. Comic-book art relies on specific visual signs to communicate a narrative to readers. Many ancient cultures have their own pictographs, and the ancient culture of Native Americans can be seen in petroglyphs and pictographs throughout the Southwest.

Chavarria gathered a couple of Zuni pots that display evidence of direct correspondence between the visual language of traditional Native culture and current comic strips. "One shows the influence of the unique language that both Indian art and comic art have, because both of them developed their own indigenous languages. Comic art developed all these visual shorthands for action, like motion lines, sound effects, sweat drops, and the 'X's in the eyes to suggest an altered state of consciousness, like you're knocked out or something." The show displays this pot next to a Krazy Kat strip that also uses the "X" effect.Comment:  You can view more of the artwork here.

We also saw the connections between Native and comic-book art in the Montclair Art Museum exhibit I participated in last year. But that show emphasized the social themes, whereas this show appears to emphasize the artistic styles.

For more on the subject, see Comic Books Featuring Indians.

Below:  "Tewa Tales of Suspense: Behold...Po'pay!" by Jason Garcia:



The source for this image:

National Geographic's Native tours

The trip of a lifetime:  National Geographic takes notice of Chaco CanyonNational Geographic Traveler magazine has selected a high-end Chaco Canyon camping tour as one of the publication's annual "50 Tours of a Lifetime."

The tour, Southwest Safari Camps at Chaco Canyon, is one of three adventure trips within the United States, and 50 within the world, included in the publication's May/June issue. The magazine calls its selections, which include tours in North Korea and Antarctica, the "most transformative, sustainable, and authentic experiences" in global guided tours.

"It was not easy finding places in North America that we felt lived up to the moniker Tours of a Lifetime,'" Quintos said. "We did feel like this one did do so, in part because people think of (Chaco Canyon) as an exotic place. There's a sense of the other-worldly."Comment:  Apparently National Geographic Traveler chooses "50 Tours of a Lifetime" every year. It has chosen a Native-themed tour each of the last three years.

The previous winners:

2006

"Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona: Where the Water Cuts Through Rock"

Moki Treks

2007

"Lakota Moon: Journey to the Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation"

Go Native America

I'm glad to say I've been to two of the three Native locations--the two in the Southwest. I'd recommend them if you want somewhere to go.

The significance

To reiterate, National Geographic has chosen one Native tour out of 50 tours from around the world. That may not seem like much, but it's significant considering how small the Native American population still is.

Let's do the math. Say the present population of Native Americans (North and South America) is 50 million. So Natives make up about 0.7% of the world population, which just passed 6.67 billion. But they contribute 2% of the world's most worthy tours. Using tours as a measure, they have roughly three times the influence suggested by their raw numbers.

The misnomer

Of course, we should note that the idea of presenting 50 "lifetime" tours every year is bogus. If you went on the 50 lifetime tours of 2008, would you have seen everything worth seeing in a lifetime? No, because you missed 100 previous lifetime tours and there'll be another 50 next year.

In other words, as long as National Geographic Traveler keeps adding new tours, you'll never accomplish all the lifetime tours in one lifetime. So it's not exactly accurate to call them lifetime tours. They're the best tours of the year, not of a lifetime.

Below:  Chaco Canyon.

Today's Native population

It's difficult to locate Native populations figures for North and South America on the Web. But from what I could find, the total for all the Americas seems to be about 50 million today.

Native Americans of North AmericaAccording to the 2000 census, about 2.5 million people in the United States reported they were Native Americans. Some 1.5 million others reported they were Native American plus another race, typically white. The two figures together represented a 26 percent increase over the 1990 census figures. Overall, Native American people accounted for about 1 percent of the total U.S. population.

The 1996 census reported there were 1,170,190 people with aboriginal ancestry in Canada, making up about 3 percent of Canada’s inhabitants. Some 867,225 reported North American Indian ancestry; 220,740 reported Métis; and 49,845 Inuit. Counts based on identity went down from the overall number: 554,000 identified as North American Indian, 210,000 as Métis, and 41,000 as Inuit. About 6,400 people were counted more than once because they claimed to be members of more than one aboriginal group. But Statistics Canada admitted its census did not catch everyone; forms were not completed on more than 75 Indian reserves.Native Americans of Middle and South AmericaIndigenous peoples in Middle and South America today make up a large majority of all Native Americans throughout the world. At least 400 different groups count themselves as culturally distinct peoples.

Recent estimates of Latin America’s total indigenous population vary from 40 million to 49 million people. Native groups are spread unevenly throughout the area. The majority of indigenous people live along the mountainous spine of Middle and South America, in densely settled villages in the Mesoamerican highlands and the Andes Mountains.

The size of indigenous populations varies widely from country to country in Latin America. In some countries, indigenous people make up almost half or more of the population. These countries include Bolivia (60 percent of the population), Peru (45 percent), Guatemala (44 to 53 percent), Ecuador (43 percent), and Mexico (8 to 30 percent). Bolivia is the only country that officially describes itself as having a Native American majority.

The countries with large indigenous populations—notably Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru—also have very large numbers of people, even majorities, who are mestizo. The term mestizo refers to people of mixed indigenous and European or African ancestry who generally do not practice indigenous lifeways. Mestizos make up between 70 and 92 percent of Mexico’s population, 40 percent of Ecuador’s population, and 37 percent of Peru’s population.Comment:  My understanding of the US's 2000 census figures is that 4.1 million people were Indian or part-Indian. That total broke down into 2.1 million who were Indian and another 2 million who were part-Indian.

The last Census report I saw estimated the population of Americans who are Indian or part-Indian has risen from 4.1 to 4.5 million.

Below:  Some of the 95% of Indians who don't live in the US or Canada.

TV series starring Indians

In TV Shows Featuring Indians, I list the series that have had significant Native characters. But what about series that starred Native characters? That is, where the Native characters were first-billed, as the lead.

While Canada has broadcast several series starring Natives, here's a rundown of TV's pathetically poor record in the US:

Three live-action shows, none of which featured full-fledged Native actors:

Broken Arrow
Hawk
Nakia

(Broken Arrow starred John Lupton as Tom Jeffords and Michael Ansara as Cochise. I haven't seen the TV show, but it sounds as though Jeffords and Cochise were considered co-leads.)

Five cartoons, two of which feature animals as Indians, and none of them voiced by Native actors:

The Adventures of Pow Wow, the Indian Boy
The Go-Go Gophers
The Paw Paws
BraveStarr
The Emperor's New School

Incredibly, we'd have to give the prize to The Emperor's New School for the most Native characters in an American network series. Unfortunately, they're only pseudo-Natives, with no real Native characteristics.

After thousands of TV shows over 60 years, we've never had an American network series whose main character was a Native played or voiced by a Native actor. What a sad testimony to Hollywood's racial blinders.

Note:  Obviously the US networks have aired made-for-TV movies and documentaries starring Natives. And at least one mini-series, if you count Dreamkeeper or the Hillerman mystery movies. But I'm talking about regular weekly series here, not one-time specials.

Freedom vs. balance

Spiritual balance is goal of the people[T]he concept of freedom is fundamental to Western civilization, if not one of its defining concepts. Great Western thinkers such as George Hegel and Karl Marx envision the main evolutionary path of human history as a struggle to gain greater individual and social freedom. There will be freedom, in many senses salvation, at the end of history. Many conservative liberals hold this same vision today and argue for the long-term value of free markets and political democracy. The idea that freedom is realized through history is a secular version of Christian salvation, and derives from the vision of the emergence of national freedom when the Israelites escaped from slavery and tyranny in ancient Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.

Freedom, however, is not a central core theme in the teachings of indigenous peoples. There are sometimes evolutionary themes, but those themes, such as among the creation teachings of the Navajo or Pueblos, focus on lessons of gaining increasing moral community and knowledge about how to sustain spiritual balance among tribal members, other peoples, and the powers or spirits of the cosmic order. Spiritual balance, the golden rule, moderation, working within ritual and life constraints, fulfilling ceremonial duties, maintaining individual and community moral commitments, and accepting individual and community responsibility for proper moral and ceremonial relations are core values for indigenous communities.Comment:  Perhaps Indians didn't philosophize or worry much about freedom because were naturally free. People tend to obsess about something only when they don't have it.

When Europeans from hierarchical, top-down societies first encountered Indians, they were surprised. They had never really understood that people could live without popes, kings, and lords telling them what to do.

For more on the subject, see Indians Gave Us Enlightenment and Hercules vs. Coyote:  Native and Euro-American Beliefs.

Standing Bear, pop icon

Standing Bear continues to inspire othersLately, it seems everyone has Standing Bear on the brain:

* In March 2007, “Wakonda’s Dream”—an opera about a modern Ponca family and its relationship to Standing Bear—debuted at the Orpheum in Omaha.

* That night, New York City playwright Chris Cartmill will perform his monologue about Standing Bear, “The Nebraska Dispatches,” at the Johnny Carson Theater. The University of Nebraska Press plans to publish a book based on Cartmill’s monologue.

* The University of Nebraska Press plans to publish a children’s book about Standing Bear.

* And Tribeca Films plans to produce a film about Standing Bear’s life.Comment:  Standing Bear isn't a real pop icon, since roughly 99.9% of Americans have never heard of him. He's just getting his 15 minutes of fame this year.

In fact, as I noted a few years ago, there are no Indians among America's top pop icons. They make up 1% of the population but 0% of the icons.

Obama opposes punishing Cherokees

Obama weighs in against CBC legislation on CherokeesCBC lawmakers have proposed a number of provisions this year that would cut off federal funding to the tribe because of its decision in March 2007 to remove the Freedmen—descendants of freed slaves once owned by tribe members—from Cherokee membership.

But Obama disagrees with those measures. In a statement to The Hill provided by his Senate office, the Illinois Democrat said that although he opposes unwarranted tribal disenrollment, Capitol Hill should not get involved.

“Discrimination anywhere is intolerable, but the Cherokee are dealing with this issue in both tribal and federal courts . . . I do not support efforts to undermine these legal processes and impose a congressional solution,” said Obama. “Tribes have a right to be self-governing and we need to respect that, even if we disagree, which I do in this case. We must have restraint in asserting federal power in such circumstances.”Comment:  Good to see the writer who implied Obama was guilty of double-talk was wrong.

For more on the Democratic nominee, see The 2008 Presidential Campaign.

Comparing Native sex mags

Another Native magazine is exploiting women for allegedly lofty reasons. This time it's annual literary issue of Spirit, "Canada’s leading Aboriginal magazine."

Thanks to Latoya Peterson of Racialicious for alerting me to this and the Shameless blog for writing about it:

It’s Exposed and In Control, so read Spirit!Spirit is Canada’s leading Aboriginal magazine, featuring cutting edge material from the Native community across the country.

This current publication is their very first SEX issue and I am so darn excited and happy that it exists. The beautiful young woman you see on the cover is none other than Métis burlesque extraordinaire Veronika Swartz, photographed by the Über talented Ojibwe photographer Nadya Kwandibens.

Within these pages you will read some of the most progressive and provocative literary masterpieces as they pertain to se