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Debating a black Tea Party

In Imagine a Black Tea Party, I asked what would happen if a black Tea Party stormed DC? Cops, rioting, blood? This led to the following exchange with correspondent Tom:Maybe Keith Olbermann would rank them as Worst People in the World.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/black-tea-party-protesters-vs-keith-olbermannSo the teabaggers found the half a dozen minorities in attendance and put them on camera. So what?

Not one of them had a valid critique of the Obama administration or its actions. The obvious followup question is: "Why are you protesting now when the Bush administration did much more to increase the size of government and curtail your freedom?"

For some of the mountains of evidence that teabaggers are motivated by racism, see:

Another poll proves teabaggers are racists

Poll proves teabaggers are racists

Klansmen, militias, and teabaggers"A Delayed Bush Backlash":

http://article.nationalreview.com/431990/a-delayed-bush-backlash/jonah-goldberg

FWIWAnd the whole point of this posting was how America would react to a large mass of armed black protesters calling for the government's overthrow. Therefore, noting a few scattered brown teabaggers is beside the point.If it was a large mass of African-Americans calling for lower taxes, dialing back the welfare state and lowering business regulations while exercising their rights under the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, I, and a lot of other people, would join them.

One thing: All of you out there who are always calling the tea-party protesters "tea-baggers" just sound like a pathetic, out-of-tune band of rusty trombones.Funny to see Goldberg call the liberal position "lazy sophistry" when his position is idle speculation invented out of thin air with no basis in fact.

Obama has lowered your taxes, bright boy. Or are you unaware of that?

What teabaggers are actually calling for is an end to moderate healthcare reforms, nonexistent "socialism," and the democratically elected government now in office. Your fantasy version of what they want bears only a tangential relationship to reality.

You might join the black marchers, but your fellow conservatives would denounce them as a mob. It would be the hatemongering we saw against Michelle Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Sonia Sotomayor times a thousand.

Incidentally, I couldn't care less if the hypocrites and haters don't like the name they chose for themselves. Anything I say is sweet music compared to the vituperation coming out of their mouths. And your opinion about how the name sounds doesn't move me in the slightest.

Teabaggers' Big Lie technique

In fact, the only thing that sounds stupid here is your fellow conservatives' juvenile misuse of the word "socialism." Are these people really this ignorant of economic concepts, or are they using the Big Lie technique to bamboozle the public? Ignoramuses or liars...you decide.

Here's a good article to help you determine whether teabaggers are stupid ignoramuses or hypocritical liars:Listen to Tea Partiers on cable news—or read the signs they hoist or their Internet comments—and you frequently encounter the flagrant abuse, the historically ignorant misuse, of words such as tyranny, communist, Marxist, fascist, and socialist.

You hear them say, for instance, that we live under "tyranny" because one side lost a health care vote in an elected legislative body. And that, in all seriousness, the president is a communist. For many Tea Party members, the word is not just a vile epithet; it's a realistic political description.And:The muddled Tea Party version of history is more than wrong and fraudulent. It's offensive. Calling Obama a tyrant, a communist, or a fascist is deeply offensive to all the real victims of tyranny, the real victims of communism and fascism. The tens of millions murdered. It trivializes such suffering inexcusably for the T.P.ers to claim that they are suffering from similar oppression because they might have their taxes raised or be subject to demonic "federal regulation."P.S. Obama hasn't done one thing to limit the ownership of guns. But yes, he is a scary black man in office. That must be why you feel the need to assert your 2nd Amendment rights. You certainly don't have any rational reason to do so with Obama in the White House instead of Bush.

In other words, irrational gun-control fears = evidence of teabagger racism. Thanks for helping to prove my point.

For more on the subject, see "Get a Brain, Morans!" and Any Excuse to Hate Obama.

Indian headdresses at Coachella

Adrienne Keene notes the prevalence of Indian headdresses at the Coachella music festival:

The Hipster Headdress Abounds at CoachellaCan you believe it's been almost 3 months since I first grappled with "The Strange Case of the Hipster Headdress?" Since then, I've definitely been shocked by just how much the trend has invaded indie/hipster culture, as well as more mainstream outlets (like Ke$ha on American Idol). Two weeks ago, the Coachella music festival was held in the desert of Southern California, and it seems like the go-to outfit of choice for attendees (and even some performers) included the now ubiquitous headdress.

A commenter on the Coachella.com forum asks: "Why was every other douchebag at this year's festival dressed in a colorful Native American Feather Headress with neon paint all over their bodies?"Comment:  Adrienne gives us six examples of headdresses in her posting, including the one below.



Adrienne has been covering the "hipster headdress" phenomenon since she began her blog in January 2010. I'm not sure it's a trend or anything new. People have been dressing up as Indians since the Boston Tea Party, at least. Examples of non-Indians wearing headdresses abound in our culture. You can find them throughout the last decade of the Stereotype of the Month contest and before.



If there is a trend, it's part of an increasing hostility toward minorities. The evidence includes the conservative hard line toward immigrants, student parties involving blackface and nooses, English-only laws, race-based attacks on the Obamas, and the many instances of Tea Party hatemongering.

Wearing a headdress seems benign compared to these examples, but the attitude behind the act is similar. Like mascot lovers, these Indian wannabes are asserting their superiority in a socially acceptable way. "We're white, we can do whatever we want, and you can't stop us."

For more on Coachella, see "A Sight for Squaw Eyes." For more on the subject in general, see The Big Chief and Indian Wannabes.

Cameron committed to indigenous causes

‘Avatar’ Activism:  James Cameron Joins Indigenous Struggles Worldwide

By Jessica LeeBlockbuster Hollywood director James Cameron said that he is committed to helping indigenous peoples around the world who, like the fictitious Na’vi in his film Avatar, are “caught at the tectonic interface between the expansion of our technical civilization into the few remaining preserves of this planet.”

Several months after the release of Avatar, which quickly became the top grossing film of all time, and two days after the release of the DVD on Earth Day, Cameron was invited to speak at two events on April 24 that were associated with the Ninth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues taking place in New York City from April 19-30.

“I’d just like to say it is a tremendous honor for me to be here,” Cameron said in his introduction to a special evening screening of Avatar to some 400 people from the indigenous forum at the New York Directors Guild Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. “I applaud what you [at the forum] are doing. It is so critical given how many indigenous cultures are under threat throughout the world.”

Cameron said that he has been astonished by the response to the film and said that many indigenous communities and environmental organizations have contacted him seeking his help and support.

“It has been very, very interesting for me in the last couple of months to see how many people have come to [my wife] Susie and myself asking if there is something we can do in association with Avatar because so many people around the world working with indigenous issues have seen their reality in the film—even though the film is a fantasy that takes place on a mythical world—people are seeing their reality through the lens of this movie.”

While he said that he had never worked with indigenous people before in his life, he says he is now very committed to helping illuminate these struggles worldwide. “I never really dreamed that a Hollywood film could have that significant of an impact,” Cameron said on panel discussion earlier in the afternoon, “Not only is this is an opportunity, it is a duty. I do have a responsibility now to go beyond the film, because it doesn’t teach, and to become an advocate myself and use what media power I have to raise awareness.”Native Peoples See Themselves in 'Avatar'

Comment:  A couple points:

1) It sounds as though Cameron didn't know anything about indigenous issues before making Avatar. Undoubtedly this is reflected in the movie's super-simplistic storyline.

2) People have invoked Avatar in at least three conflicts around the world: Canada, Palestine, and Brazil. Yet people claim movies have no influence in the real world and are just pieces of entertainment? The facts prove this ignorant view wrong.

For more on the subject, see Dam Suspended with Cameron's Help and Cameron's Conversion to Environmentalist.

Below:  James Cameron joins the panel discussion, “Real Life ‘Pandoras’ on Earth: Indigenous Peoples Urgent Struggles For Survival,” held at the Paley Center for Media in Midtown Manhattan April 24, 2010.

TRICKSTER's starred reviews

'Trickster' reviewsSchool Library Journal (May 2010)
(Starred review)

More than 40 storytellers and cartoonists have contributed to this original and provocative compendium of traditional folklore presented in authentic, colorful, and engaging sequential art. The stories are drawn from a variety of Native peoples across North America, and so the trickster character appears variously as Rabbit, a raccoon, Coyote, and in other guises; landscapes, clothing and rhythms of speech and action also vary in keeping with distinct traditions. Realistic, impressionistic, painterly, and cartoon styles of art are employed to echo and announce the tone of each tale and telling style, making this a rich visual treasure as well as cultural trove. Contributors include well-known author Joseph Bruchac, Pueblo storyteller Eldrena Douma, cartoonist and Smithsonian Institution employee Evan Keeling, and many who have not worked in comics heretofore as well as cartoonists with no previous allegiance to telling Native stories with their art. The total package is accessible, entertaining, educational, inspiring, and a must-have for all collections.

Booklist (American Library Association, May 2010)
(Starred review)

This graphic-format collection of Native American tales featuring an old folk favorite—the trickster—hits an impressive trifecta of achievements. First, it’s a wildly successful platform for indie-comic creators and an excellent showcase for their distinctive styles. From David Smith and Jerry Carr's heroic, animation-inspired “Trickster and the Great Chief” to the Looney Toons zaniness of “Rabbit’s Chocktaw Tail Tale” by Tim Tingle and Pat Lewis, there’s a bit of visual panache here for every taste. Second, with the exception of a stray X-Man or two and an obscure DC sword-and-sorcery character, this is the first graphic novel to really focus on Native American themes and events, a surprising absence that this book remedies with respect and imagination. Lastly, as Native American folklore is so directly tied to the culture’s spirituality, this proves the rare graphic novel that handles such issues without specifically attaching them to standard religious practices. With stories that vary in emotional tone, matching the ever-shifting appearance and character of the trickster himself and the lessons he teaches and learns, this collection is an ideal choice for dipping into over and over. A dandy read for those interested in history, folklore, adventure, humor, or the arts, and a unique contribution to the form.Comment:  The "obscure DC sword-and-sorcery character" is Arak. He's appeared in comic books but not graphic novels.

Even if you exclude every Native character from Marvel or DC, at least a couple dozen graphic novels have focused on Native themes and events. Any reviewer who doesn't know this is woefully ignorant of the field.

Anyway, TRICKSTER sounds good. I'll be checking it out and you should too.

For more on the subject, see TRICKSTER on Amazon.com and Comic Books Featuring Indians.

Brownback urges public apology

Brownback urges apology resolution public ceremony

By Gale Courey ToensingThe presidential signing of the bill took place without any fanfare or announcement just before Christmas. Like the eternal philosophical puzzler, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” questions soon popped up regarding the validity of an apology that no one knows about.

Brownback hoped tribal leadership would put forward an effort in the form of resolutions from the National Congress of American Indians, the United South and Eastern Tribes and NIGA urging Obama to have “a very public ceremony, invite the tribal leadership to be there and then the country knows about it. We passed it, but nobody knows about it. It isn’t like it didn’t happen, because it did, but you need to bring the resolution to the country. The words have been stated and now it is law,” Brownback said.

In late February, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, urged Obama to publicly acknowledge the Native American Apology Resolution.

“This apology deserves national recognition and public acknowledgment. To give true hearing to the apology, we respectfully request that you hold a White House ceremony with tribal leaders to formally issue the apology to Native peoples. We also look forward to additional steps in an action plan that will help to right the past wrongs,” the FCNL said.Comment:  The article adds, "Tribal leaders at the NIGA event are confident a ceremony will take place this year." They suggest holding it during the annual Native American Heritage Day or Month.

I'm not confident about it, but my guess is that Obama won't acknowledge the apology this year or ever. As we've seen with climate change, healthcare reform, financial regulation, and other issues, he's too cowardly calculating to rock the boat. If he can avoid it, he won't do anything to upset the (white) powers that be.

For more on the subject, see Obama's Invisible Apology.

Below:  "Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., was an invited speaker at the National Indian Gaming Association’s annual Indian Gaming Trade Show & Convention in San Diego in early April. He urged tribal leaders to support an effort to encourage President Barack Obama to hold a public ceremony to announce the signing last December of the Native American Apology." (Gale Courey Toensing/Indian Country Today)

"A sight for squaw eyes"

Adrienne Keene of the Native Appropriations blog makes another good catch:

Katy Perry at Coachella:  "A sight for Squaw Eyes"Notice 4 things:

1. The headline: Katy's "Poca face"?

2. The text: "Katy Perry looks a sight for squaw eyes"? and she could have "doubled for Pocahontas"?

3. Her pose: please tell me she's acting demure and not war-whooping?

4. The photo caption: "How girl"?

The Sun managed to wrap four of the most egregious and horrible stereotypes into one little post.Comment:  See Adrienne's posting for her comments on these faux pas.

I saw the photo of Perry in her Native-style dress, but that alone wasn't worth a mention. It's the Sun's commentary that makes this a Stereotype of the Month entry.

Incidentally, my guess is that Perry wasn't doing a war whoop, but it's impossible to tell.

For more on the subject, see Indian Headdresses at Coachella and Indian Wannabes.

Obama addresses Gathering of Nations

Video:  Obama delivers message at Gathering of NationsPresident Barack Obama delivered a video message at the 27th annual Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday.

"Native Americans, the first Americans, have always been a rich and vibrant part of our national heritage," Obama said.

Obama said he is committed to improving the federal government's relationship with American Indians and Alaska Natives. He cited the first ever White House Tribal Nations Conference, held last November, the recent signing of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act as part of the national health care reform law, and his appointment of two tribal members to White House positions.

One of them, Jodi Gillette, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, attended the powwow on behalf of the Obama administration. She was joined by Michael Strautmanis, another White House official.

Obama is the first sitting president to address the Gathering of Nations. In 2000, former vice president Al Gore attended the powwow while he was campaigning for president.Comment:  One could just as easily cite the things Obama hasn't done as the things he has. No release or mention of the Cabinet reports due 90 days after his tribal summit. No signing of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights--only a promise to "review" it. No passage of the Cobell trust fund settlement--it remains mired in Congress with no one pushing to resolve it. No public acknowledgment of the surreptitiously passed US apology to Native Americans.

For more on Obama's attitudes, see Obama Refuses to Use G-Word and "Moral Compass" in America: The Story of Us.

Harvard's Indian College

Students Create a Wigwam in Yard

By Evan J. ZepfelIn honor of the 360th anniversary of the Harvard Charter of 1650, the Native Americans at Harvard College celebrated the completion of an Indian hut at a ceremony in Harvard Yard yesterday.

Student members and other local Native Americans started building the wetu, or Indian hut, on Monday. They worked daily from 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. until the wetu’s completion on Wednesday afternoon.

The Charter, which was signed in 1650, dedicates Harvard College “to the education of English & Indian youth of this Country in knowledge.”

The Native Americans at Harvard College chose to build the wetu outside Matthews Hall because recent archeological digs have pinpointed it as the site of the Harvard Indian College.

The wetu, which is also known as a wigwam, is the historical home of the Wampanoag Indians who are native to Massachusetts.Below:  "Students explore the wetu, built in honor of the 360th anniversary of the Charter for the Harvard Indian College, after an opening ceremony yesterday." (Bora Fezga)



Education and Harvard's Indian CollegeNative American engagement with Harvard began soon after the college's inception. In the late 1640s, the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Natives in New England granted funds for Indian education at Harvard, acknowledged in the Harvard College Charter of 1650 as the “necessary provision for the education of the English and Indian youth” of the land.

In addition to supporting education, the Society’s gift to Harvard served to construct the Indian College building in Harvard Yard in 1655 and to print the first Bible translated into the native Algonquian language by the missionary John Eliot. The “Indian Bible” was first published between 1660 and 1663.

Two native students attended Harvard sometime during the 1650s: John Sassomon, and James Printer, an apprentice in the production of Eliot’s “Indian Bible.” Native students who attended the Indian College included John Wampus, who departed before graduation, Joel Iacoombs, and Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck. The latter two, both members of the Wampanoag of Martha’s Vineyard, were members of Harvard’s Class of 1665.

Before the 1970s, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck was the only Native American student who lived long enough to receive a Harvard degree, although he died of tuberculosis one year after graduation. Another student, Eleazar, whose surname is unknown at present, probably attended the College in the late 1670s but did not graduate.History of the Indian College

Comment:  For more on the subject, see Pee Dee Princess at Harvard.

Funding The Rainbow Boy

Navajo filmmaker seeks funding

By Babette HerrmannTraditional Navajo ceremonies guide filmmaker Norman Patrick Brown to make decisions in his personal life and career.

Guided by spirit and vision, he wrote and directed “The Rainbow Boy.” Leland Grass stars as Eagle Catcher, a Navajo man who time travels through a cave from circa 1300 AD to present day. He arrives donning a knee-high loin cloth, spear and shield, and struggles to understand a world bustling with cars, strange clothing, liquor--and the environmental toll of the modern lifestyle.And:Private investors poured $30,000 into the nearly completed project. A large distribution company, he declined to name, offered funds to complete the film, but he turned down the offer, saying it was an issue of “control.”

Pond said distribution houses tend to take control of a film, from the research down to the editing. “You sign your rights away.”

Not the right move for a film close to Brown’s heart.

In lieu, he opened an online Kickstarter.com account to raise the $15,000 needed to shoot the final scenes and complete the sound score. Kickstarter enables the general public to solicit help on creative projects. By mid-April, donors had funneled more than $7,330 toward the project with a target deadline of May 11.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Rainbow Boy Trailer and Jet's Film Financing Story.

ICT interviews Wayne Newton

An interview with Wayne Newton

By Vincent SchillingHaving celebrated more than 50 years as an entertainer in Las Vegas, Wayne Newton now has another reason to celebrate. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, Newton’s birth state, his tribe, the Powhatan Patawomecks were granted state recognition.

In an interview with Indian Country Today, “Mr. Las Vegas” took some time to express his feelings about Patawomeck state recognition and what it means to be an American Indian that has achieved such a great level of success.

ICT: After you testified in Virginia in February, the Patawomeck were quickly granted state recognition, how does that feel?

Wayne Newton: I am so thrilled beyond words. It was amazing how quick it went through. I think maybe for the first time, many people in that committee got that we were fighting to be recognized and it wasn’t just an ego trip on our part. I think that they then took that same energy, and that same insight into the larger body of lawmakers.

I was actually on tour when the chief called me and said, ‘we are through.’Comment:  For more on the subject, see Wayne Newton's Abandoned Jet and Newton Stumps for "Newton Indians."

Cherokee commemorative pins

Cherokee Nation Introduces Limited Edition Commemorative Pins

By Cameron AndrewsCherokee Nation today announced the introduction of the all-new, limited edition commemorative pins that honor prominent Cherokee leaders, statesmen and citizens. Will Rogers is the first to be featured in the series. The next will be former Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller followed by other notable individuals that have made a difference in the Cherokee Nation.

The commemorative pins are currently on sale for $9.95 each at all Cherokee Nation Gift Shops including Tahlequah, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Cherokee National Supreme Court Museum and the Cherokee Heritage Center.Comment:  For more on Cherokee tourism, see Cherokee National Supreme Court Museum and Tahlequah Named Top 10 True Western Town.

Twilight Saga: Eclipse trailer

Comment:  This trailer contains a few shots of Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and the CGI wolves, but no actual Indians. Once again we see why the Jacob role should've gone to an Indian.

For more on the subject, see How New Moon Robbed Natives and Quileute Werewolves in Twilight.

Marino attacks Pequots and Wampanoags

In Marino:  Tribes Are Too Large or Small I picked up where I left off last year with anti-Indian crusader Jim Marino. Let's continue Marino's butt-kicking education.

The Indian Gaming and Regulatory Act of 1988:  A Well Intended Law Gone Awry

By Jim MarinoThat is why there are now more than 600 Indian tribes in this country, many with only a handful of members, some with only one or two and many with highly questionable, if any, fractional ancestry linking them to a real Indian.Actually, there are 564 federally recognized tribes, bright boy. Only a handful have a "handful of members."

Note that critics like Marino never quantify charges like this one. Either they don't know, or they don't want you to know, how they're lying about tribal size.

What Marino considers "highly questionable" shows his ignorance of the issues. Historically, tribal membership was based on culture, not biology. Tribes are returning to this practice because requiring a level of "blood quantum" is a sure route to extinction.Since the advent of federal programs providing grant monies to “Indian tribes” and particularly since the advent of Indian gambling, there have been many more groups claiming to be Indians and seeking federal acknowledgment as a “tribe” or “band” of Indians.True but misleading. I think a couple hundred groups have petitioned for federal recognition in the last couple of decades. About 10 or so have actually achieved it. So the recognition process is working and there's no huge influx of "phony" tribes, despite the scare tactics of critics like Marino.

The Pequot caseIn fact, Indian tribes like the so-called “Mashantucket Pequot Indians,” which started with “Skip” Hayward and a couple of relatives, parlayed a faux tribal recognition, into the billion-dollar-a-year “Foxwoods Casino” in Ledyard, Conn.The Pequots were recognized by an act of Congress in 1983. This was to settle a lawsuit and had nothing to do with gaming. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) was still five years in the future.

Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law. So the recognition process was perfectly democratic even if it didn't take the usual route. If Marino didn't like the outcome then, he was free to vote against Reagan and his congressional representatives in 1984. (How much do you want to bet Marino was cheering for Reagan in 1984, not denouncing him as a sellout to Indian politics?)They have set as an enrollment criteria, a 1/32nd Indian ancestry or blood quantum and it is no wonder that these tribal members literally came out of the woodwork and the tribal enrollment now exceeds 700.Would Marino feel better if the Pequots had only seven or 70 members? Oh, wait...he already complained about tribes with only a "handful of members." What a transparently obvious hypocrite he is.

See Marino:  Tribes Are Too Large or Small for a demolition of Marino's stupidity about tribal size.So there is no surprise that hundreds heretofore never heard of “Indians” and “Indian tribes,” are lining up for recognition and the right to own and operate lucrative gambling casinos, and hiring lobbyists and paying off politicians to grease the wheels of recognition in Washington.There's also no surprise that our government has insisted on a strict recognition process to prevent wannabe tribes from taking resources from real tribes. So far it's worked pretty well, which is why Marino is left with nothing but his pathetic scare tactics. "Hundreds" of tribes on the warpath--none with a chance of being recognized, but never mind. Marino wants you to be very afraid of this imaginary Indian uprising.

We're now about halfway through Marino's column and he's yet to find a single flaw in IGRA. Heck, he hasn't even mentioned IGRA since his opening paragraphs. So much for his title thesis that IGRA has gone awry. Marino is bashing tribes in general and gaming tribes in particular, not criticizing IGRA.

The Wampanoag caseLobbyists like the now disgraced and imprisoned Jack Abramoff, whose assistance was instrumental in obtaining recent recognition for the Mashpee Wampanoag is now seeking to build a casino on or near Cape Cod, Mass.Here's the actual story on the Mashpee Wampanoags. They've been fighting for recognition since 1974, or long before gaming was an issue. After 30 years of delays, they hired Abramoff's firm to speed up the process. They continued using two of Abramoff's associates after they left the firm.

Mashpee tribe got Abramoff boostMembers stress that the tribe's ties to Abramoff are small in comparison to what Abramoff allegedly did for other tribes. The Wampanoags said they paid the two lobbyists $50,000 when they worked at Abramoff's firm, a far cry from the millions of dollars paid by some other tribes to Abramoff and his associates. There has been no allegation of wrongdoing involving anyone in the tribe, Ferson said.And:The Mashpee Wampanoags cited the support of members of Congress when it subsequently sued the government for failing to act on its request for recognition in a timely manner. The case went to District Court Judge James Robertson, who denied the government's motion for dismissal.

That prompted the government to negotiate with the tribe, resulting in a pact to reach a preliminary decision by the end of March 2006. If that is granted, the government would give final approval by March 2007.So Marino criticizes the recognition process as being muddled and unfair. When the Wampanoags complain about the same thing, he criticizes them. Marino doesn't care whether the process is fair. He wants fewer Indians and Indian casinos whether they're legitimate or not.

Again, the recognition process existed before IGRA and has nothing to do with IGRA. The Wampanoag case, like the Pequot case before it, proves the point. Both tribes sought recognition long before they could conceive of profiting from gaming.

And let's reiterate that these are two tribes out of 564. What do their issues have to do with the hundreds of legitimate tribes who conduct legitimate gaming operations? You know, the tribes Marino never mentions because they don't help his anti-Indian crusade?

Interference bad, unless it's goodThis is a recent federally recognized Indian tribe, which was determined by a federal judge to lack the very criteria for recognition needed, in a case decided during the 1970s, when the tribe tried to take over acres of land around Mashpee, Mass., including the massive multi-million dollar New Seabury country club and resort development.Hysterical. When a federal judge intervenes in the recognition process, Marino is all for it--as long as the judge rules against the tribe. But if judges or legislators intervene in the recognition process to help a tribe, he's against it. Again, it's not the process he cares about, it's the outcome.

Marino the anti-Indian crusader is against increasing the number of recognized Indians. It doesn't matter whether recognition happens via the official process or not. "More Indians" = bad, according to Marino.Not only did Congress fail to clarify what constitutes an “Indian tribe” and who is an Indian when they enacted the IGRA, they also failed to clearly define what lands are the “Indian Lands” required by that Act, and which are the lands a tribe is required to have before they can build, own and operate any gambling casino.IGRA didn't need to clarify who's an Indian because the recognition process is reasonably clear. Most prospective tribes petitioning the government didn't get recognized before IGRA and haven't gotten recognized since IGRA. Despite Marino's scaremongering--Pequots! Wampanoags!--the system has worked for most tribes.

Recall that Congress approved of recognizing the Pequots. Who says the "clear definition" Marino wants would exclude rather than include the Pequots? Why does Marino think Congress would adopt a definition that invalidated its own decisions? If the definition encompassed the Pequots and other recently recognized tribes, then what?

This is blatant stupidity. The only clear definition Marino wants is "no more Indians." Don't let anyone else be recognized as Indians and eliminate some of the people presently recognized as Indians. Terminate the Indians before they rob us blind!

The practice of "reservation shopping"This failure has opened the door to real Indian tribes as well as highly questionable tribes alike, to buy or acquire fee land usually, with money furnished by non-Indian gambling investors, and then claim it is eligible “Indian Lands” on which they can build and operate a gambling casino and can do so wherever they believe there is a lucrative non-Indian gambling market to be had in the area. This has fostered a practice now called “reservation shopping!”True but again misleading. As with the "hundreds" of tribes seeking recognition but not getting it, dozens of tribes have sought to open off-reservation casinos. I believe only three have succeeded so far.

Politicians and local leaders are aware of "reservation shopping" and determined not to let it happen. There's no evidence whatsoever that the government is about to open up the country to off-reservation casinos. IGRA provides a process for taking "Indian lands" into trust and that process is working. That most tribes haven't opened off-rez casinos proves the point.

Once again, Marino is conflating an imaginary potential problem with actual flaws in IGRA. He's bashing real tribes who use the legal processes as well as phony tribes who "violate" these processes. Clearly he's prejudiced against Indians, period.

We saw this in his initial screed about "gaming" vs. "gambling." He didn't note that the commercial casinos of the American Gaming Association have championed this practice. In fact, he has nothing to say about the "evils" of non-Indian casinos in Las Vegas and elsewhere. Marino is attacking only Indian casinos and on the basis of race, which means he's a racist.

For more on Marino's views, see Too Many Indians, or Not Enough? and Calif. Tribes Are "Highly Questionable"? For more on the subject in general, see The Facts About Indian Gaming.

Below:  Marino's view of Indians in a nutsell, again.

Obama refuses to use g-word

Obama cites 'devastating chapter' in Armenia past

By Philip ElliottCandidate Barack Obama repeatedly promised he'd call the almost century-old massacre of Armenians in Turkey a genocide. President Obama twice now has refused to do so.

Commemorating Armenian Remembrance Day on Saturday, Obama called the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I "one of the worst atrocities" of the 20th century and "a devastating chapter" in history. But he did not call it genocide.

Obama's statement, issued as he and first lady Michelle Obama spent a weekend getaway here in western North Carolina, earned him criticism from all corners. The Turkish foreign minister said it was "unacceptable," and activists took issue with the president's tone in marking the 95th anniversary of the start of the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

It is "a devastating chapter in the history of the Armenian people, and we must keep its memory alive in honor of those who were murdered and so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past," Obama said in his statement.

Yet for a second year as president, Obama intentionally eschewed calling it a genocide. Instead, he used an Armenian term used to describe the first mass killing of the 20th century—Meds Yeghern.Obama Marks Genocide Without Saying the Word

By Peter BakerPresident Obama, who as a candidate vowed to use the term genocide to describe the Ottoman mass slaughter of Armenians nearly a century ago, once again declined to do so on Saturday as he marked the anniversary of the start of the killings.

In Yerevan, Armenians on Saturday solemnly observed the 95th anniversary of the genocide that began in 1915 under the Ottoman Turk government. About 1.5 million Armenians were killed.

Trying to navigate one of the more emotionally fraught foreign policy challenges, Mr. Obama issued a statement from his weekend getaway here commemorating the victims of the killings but tried to avoid alienating Turkey, a NATO ally, which adamantly rejects the genocide label.

“On this solemn day of remembrance, we pause to recall that 95 years ago one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century began,” Mr. Obama said in the statement, which largely echoed the same language he used on this date a year ago. “In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.”

When he was running for president and seeking votes from some of the 1.5 million Armenian-Americans, Mr. Obama had no qualms about using the term genocide and criticized the Bush administration for recalling an ambassador who dared to say the word. As a senator, he supported legislation calling the killings genocide, and in a statement on Jan. 19, 2008, he said that “the Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact.”The Armenian Genocide, the President, and the truth

By Chuck DevoreOn April 22nd, 1981, President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation in which he asked the American people to commemorate the “solemn anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps.” In doing so, he noted the other horrifying acts of 20th-century barbarism that preceded and succeed the Holocaust, including “the genocide of the Armenians before it.”

No American President since Reagan has had the simple courage to do the same. The Armenian Genocide that began 95 years ago today in 1915—a historical fact uncontested by the mass of serious historians—is now a forbidden topic to the leader of the free world. It’s a risible state of affairs made possible by the intersection of three factors: Turkish determination to promulgate its national mythos in our own country, a misunderstanding of the American national interest, and a failure of American political courage.

In this as in so many things, President Barack Obama is not showing himself the courageous leader Ronald Reagan was.

In mid-March, the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee attempted to stiffen the President’s spine on the public mention of the Armenian Genocide, with the narrow passage of House Resolution 252. The resolution “calls upon the President … to accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide.” It’s what candidate Obama proclaimed he would do in a speech exactly one year before his Inauguration, when he explicitly said, “[A]s President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

Add this to the lengthening list of Barack Obama’s broken promises.Comment:  I don't think Obama has ever used the word "genocide" to refer to the American Indian holocaust either. He's a typical pandering politician who's afraid to speak the truth.

Which will Obama do first? 1) Release the Cabinet reports due 90 days after the tribal summit; 2) call what happened to Armenians and American Indians "genocide"; 3) sign the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights; 4) pardon Leonard Peltier; 5) none of the above.

For more on the subject, see "Mind Your Own Genocide" and Armenian and Indian Genocides.

Morales: Obama takes vengeance against Indians

Bolivian President Evo Morales on President Obama:  “I Can’t Believe a Black President Can Hold So Much Vengeance Against an Indian President”AMY GOODMAN:  We’re talking to President Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. Yesterday at the Earth Day rally, the foreign minister of Ecuador said that the US had cut two-and-a-half million dollars to Ecuador because they didn’t sign onto the Copenhagen Accord. He said he would give two-and-a-half million dollars to the United States if they signed onto the Kyoto Protocol. Bolivia, the US cut two-and-a-half million dollars, or $3 million, because you didn’t sign onto the Copenhagen Accord. Can you explain what happened?

PRESIDENT EVO MORALES:  [translated] The thing is that there’s permanent sabotage and blackmail from the US government. I cannot believe that a black president can have so much vengeance with an Indian president, because our grandparents and our populations, black and indigenous, have been excluded, marginalized, humiliated. That’s where Obama is coming from, from that experience and that suffering. And me, too. And so, it’s one who’s been discriminated against discriminating against another who’s been discriminated against, one oppressed who is oppressing another oppressed. So much blackmail, and the so much blackmail we had experienced before, and now I’m being subject to $3 million blackmail.

But it’s with great pride and humility that we’re now better off without the United States. We’re better off economically. And in terms of macroeconomic policy, we’re better off without the International Monetary Fund.

AMY GOODMAN:  What was the $3 million supposed to be for, before it was cut?

PRESIDENT EVO MORALES:  [translated] Of course, for social programs, as well as environmental programs, but that’s just $3 million. In terms of fighting drug trafficking, they have the responsibility to make an investment, and that it’s not just a question of cooperation, it’s a matter of an obligation on their part. Nonetheless, they have pulled out, and we are facing drug trafficking alone—some crumb to make it seem like something, certainly. And so, for example, I had information that they were going to invest in the Millennium Development Account, like $600 million, and they withdrew all of it. And so, we worked this out with other countries. We’re talking about investment. One is not going to raise that claim about this. We are a country of dignity.

But what they do is take vengeance, intimidate. And that is why my doubt is, one who has been subjugated, one’s family has been subjugated to discrimination, is now president; how is it possible that he can discriminate against another movement that has been discriminated against? It is the peoples who will hear.

AMY GOODMAN:  Do you see a change between President Bush and President Obama?

PRESIDENT EVO MORALES:  [translated] If something is changed, it’s just the color of the president that’s changed.Comment:  Sounds petty of Obama to withhold $3 million in aid because Bolivia refused to sign the weak Copenhagen Accord. Especially since the US didn't let Bolivia, other small nations, and indigenous groups negotiate the accord.

For more on the subject, see Climate-Change Conference in Bolivia and Indians Fight Back in Latin America.

"Moral compass" in America: The Story of Us

'America: The Story of Us' gives a vivid docudrama sheen to US history

The History channel’s 'America: The Story of Us' premiers its six-part series this Sunday.

By Gloria GoodaleThe cable channel now simply known as History returns to its roots as a traditional source of the grand historical narrative this Sunday night when it launches its most ambitious effort to date, a 12-hour, six-part survey covering 400 years of American history.

“America: The Story of Us” debuts with a lead-in from no less a figure than President Obama, extolling the virtues that make up the American character and encouraging Americans to help shape the nation’s future through understanding a shared past.

“Our American story has never been inevitable,” the president says in the introduction. “It was made possible by ordinary people who kept their moral compass pointed straight and true when the way seemed treacherous, when the climb seemed steep, and when the future seemed uncertain. People who recognized a fundamental part of our American character: that we can remake ourselves–and our nation–to fit our larger dreams.”

The filmmakers clearly hope to tap a resonance between early settlers and the headlines of today, from reminding viewers of the Mayflower settlers yearning for religious freedoms, as well as their partnership with one tribe of Indians that helped to wipe out a rival tribe of native Americans, to the early tobacco farmers in Jamestown and the first black Americans, including the first to die in the Boston Massacre. The early militia’s fateful encounters with British redcoats, not to mention the first tea party activists in Boston Harbor are but a few more of the same lines clearly drawn from the present day to our past.Comment:  America was built by "ordinary people who kept their moral compass pointed straight"? Yeah, if keeping their moral compass straight is a synonym for killing and enslaving Indians and blacks. If breaking every one of almost 400 Indian treaties, transforming tribes from sovereign nations into domestic wards, is a sign of moral rectitude.

Sounds like Obama is whitewashing America's past again. As with his Inaugural Address, he's afraid to tell Americans anything but a fairy-tale version of history. Which may explain why he won't sign the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights or utter the word "genocide."

Will the first episode of America: The Story of Us cover the Mystic River massacre or King Philip's War? What will it say about the colonists' bounty on dead Indians or participation in the slave trade? Not a whole lot, judging from this article.

For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.

Below:  "Actors play Powhattan Indians, near Jamestown settlement, in the new history channel series 'America: The Story of Us.'" (Charlie Sperring/AETN)

Eagle released on Earth Day

Eagle soars on Earth Day

Iowa Tribe releases a rehabilitated bird

By Clifton AdcockA bald eagle nursed back to health was released into the sky on Earth Day in a spiritual event among more than 100 spectators.

"Bless us! Bless us! Back to the world," yelled Bobby Fields on Thursday as the eagle began its ascent.

Fields, chief of public safety for the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, said the eagle holds a special place in nature.

"For me, for our nation's people, our eagles are sacred," Fields said. "Those prayers fly with him, and they are carried up to the creator."Iowa Tribe Restores Health to Eagles

By Emily WoodThe bald Eagle was once at risk for extinction. But the Iowa Tribe in Oklahoma has worked to save the eagles and restore their place in the wild.

It can take years to help an injured bird heal, but on Earth Day the tribe released one of those eagles to fly back to his family.

The eagles are permanent residents at the Bah Kho-Je xla chi Eagle Sanctuary. Some have lifelong injuries, and others have handicaps that prevent them from flying long distances. None of them could survive for long in the wild.

"The big one's lucky, cause it's lucky we found she had a broken collar bone," Aviary Manager Victor Roubidoux said.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Ecological Indian Talk.

Below:  "Victor Roubidoux, an Iowa tribal elder and aviary manager, releases a once-injured bald eagle after a spiritual ceremony on Earth Day on Thursday." (Zach Gray/For the Tulsa World)

"Squaw badges" for sale

Takkoda.com is a website that sells knickknacks with pets dressed as people. Among the items offered are pin-on buttons:Button badges in nearly all our animal designs. Classic pin fastening. Shiny 32mm button badges 75p each.Between the Robber Badge and the Superhero Badge is this item:

Squaw Badge



Wow. So much wrongness in one little button.

1) Most Indians consider "squaw" a vulgarism or a slur.

2) The feather, warpaint, and bearclaw necklace are all standard stereotypes for portraying a generic Indian.

3) These stereotypes position Indians as primitive people of the past. No other race or ethnicity gets this treatment. There's a bulldog dressed as Chairman Mao, but that kind of proves the point. Nobody would think of homogenizing a billion Chinese people by calling it a Chinese badge.

4) A female--even a female cat--wearing the trappings of a male warrior would be wrong or inappropriate in many Native cultures.

5) Dressing an animal as an Indian sends the false message that "Indian" is an identity you put on like a set of clothes. That it's a matter of choice, not a matter of birthright and upbringing. Indians are like robbers or superheroes, according to Takkoda; anyone can aspire to be one.

For more on the subject, see Why Thanksgiving Pageants Are Wrong and Chihuahuas Dressed as Indians.

Counting coup in Castle

Castle mentions Indians for the third week in a row. In this week's episode, Den of Thieves (airdate: 4/19/10), crime boss Joey Racine explains where he was when a murder occurred.RACINE:  Home. And I have round-the-clock bodyguards who can attest to my whereabouts. But you don't think I killed Finch. You assume I had somebody do it for me, so you're here just to [touches Castle with a golf club] count coup, aren't you?

DEMMING:  Sorry. What was that?

CASTLE:  The Plains Indians considered it an act of bravery to get close enough to one of their enemies to touch them with a coup stick. Is my hair...?

DEMMING:  Looks good.

CASTLE:  Thanks.Castle has a nice streak going. Let's see if it continues next week. This could be a record for most Indian mentions in a row by a TV show without regular Native characters.

Incidentally, I checked who wrote the episodes. Three different writers did them. Either it's a coincidence or someone--the producers? Nathan Fillion?--is inserting the Indian references.

For more on the subject, see Sacagawea in Castle and Maya Mummy in Castle.

Marino: Tribes are too large or small

Last June, anti-Indian crusader Jim Marino published two false or misleading columns about Indian gaming. I covered them in Too Many Indians, or Not Enough? and Calif. Tribes Are "Highly Questionable"? Now he's back with another false or misleading column, so it's time to kick his butt again.

The Indian Gaming and Regulatory Act of 1988:  A Well Intended Law Gone Awry

By Jim MarinoThe first mistake Congress made in trying to clarify for the states the impact of the Supreme Court in the Cabazon case was in the name of the Act itself. To me, games are checkers, chess, basketball, etc. The gambling industry came up with the name change, calling gambling games “Gaming.” They apparently hoped to shed the inherent stigma associated with gambling activities and transform gambling into what they classify as recreational entertainment.Here's the standard response to that:

Gaming vs. GamblingWhile some people assume the word gaming was created as a way to "re-invent" the casino industry, history tells a different story. The word "gaming"--defined as the action or habit of playing at games of chance for stakes--actually dates back to 1510, predating use of the word "gambling" by 265 years. The words "gambler," "gambling" and "gamble" all were considered slang when they came into use in the 18th century, implying that the activity involved unduly high stakes. The word "gamble" was essentially considered a term of reproach, according to The Oxford English Dictionary, and would only be used by those who "condemn playing for money altogether."It's nice of Marino to establish that he's prejudiced against gaming as well as Indians. That'll help us judge the bias in his subsequent comments.One would think the first simple question that Congress would have asked before enacting this controversial legislation is, “Who is an Indian?” More particularly before giving any Indian tribe the right to operate an essentially unregulated gambling casino, Congress would have also needed to understand “What is an Indian tribe?”Marino's belief that Indian casinos are "essentially unregulated" is comically wrong. Actually, they're at least as regulated as non-Indian casinos, which are highly regulated.

I'd say Congress is reasonably clear on "what is an Indian tribe." The BIA has a procedure to recognize potential tribes and Congress usually goes with its determination. This recognition process has been in place for decades--long before gaming and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) were factors.

Anyone can claim to be Indian?In the former case, an Indian is anyone who claims to be part Indian or who is a member of any self-styled “Indian tribe,” or in the eyes of the federal government, an Indian is whoever a recognized Indian tribe decides is an Indian.The only definition relevant to gaming is the last one: "whoever a recognized Indian tribe decides is an Indian." By mixing a bunch of definitions, Marino is falsely implying that anyone can declare himself an Indian and then open a casino. This is a stupid and ugly lie.Once one of these often questionable tribes attains official acknowledgement status, the BIA never questions tribal government’s assertion or representations about who is a tribal member, who isn’t a member or who they decide to kick out as no longer members: a practice euphemistically described as “disenrollment.”Why would the BIA question this? The Supreme Court has ruled that tribes are political entities with the right to determine their own membership. That's been the status quo for decades. Again, it has nothing to do with gaming or IGRA.

Once a tribe is recognized, who cares how many people it has? Whether it has 50, 500, or 5,000 members, it has the same right to gaming as other tribes. The tribe's casino will earn the same amount and have the same community effects regardless of the tribe's size. The tribe's size is irrelevant.

With 800 members, the Mashantucket Pequots earn more from gaming than the Cherokee Nation with 300,000 members. And...so? Would Marino feel better if the Cherokees and Pequots switched casinos and income? How would that affect anyone except the members of the two tribes?

Would Marino really care if a tribe doubled its size? It would mean each member's receiving only half as much casino income. Would he care if the tribe halved its size and doubled its income per person instead? How would that be relevant to him or anyone outside the tribe?

Note that Marino never says hundreds of legitimate tribes are engaged in legitimate gaming along with a few "bad apples." He and his ilk never talk about Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, Navajo, Apache, Sioux, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Oneida, or Seneca casinos. It's all about how a few controversial cases invalidate the whole industry.

Apparently Marino has never met a gaming tribe he likes. Large gaming tribes are bad because they have too much economic power (see references to lobbying and Abramoff). Small gaming tribes are bad because they have too much economic power per person (see references to the Pequots and disenrollment). There's no "right" size for a gaming tribe to be.

In other words, all gaming tribes are bad, so let's shut down Indian gaming. According to Marino, the barbarians are at the gate. Indians are on the warpath again, so circle the wagons. The savages are threatening white power and privilege again.

Disenrollment: good or bad?

As he did in Too Many Indians, or Not Enough? Marino foolishly raises the disenrollment issue. Once again he's hypocritically trying to have it both ways. He complains that there are too many phony tribes with phony Indians in them, but he also complains when these tribes expel members, thus reducing their size.

Ironically, tribes that disenroll members often claim they're expelling people who aren't legitimate Indians. So they're doing exactly what Marino presumably wants: limiting gaming to "real" Indians. And yet he and other critics carp about it.

Which is it, dumbass: Do you want gaming tribes to keep questionable members or get rid of them? Would we be better off if these tribes were larger or smaller? Once again, are there too many Indians or not enough?

I love it when critics demonstrate their hatred for Indians and gaming. Marino doesn't have a rational position on whether disenrollment is good or bad. Or whether "phony Indians" are good or bad. All he's trying to do is tar-and-feather gaming with whatever charges will stick. "Gaming is somehow related to disenrollment and phony Indians, so gaming must be bad!" His "thinking" is literally that shallow and illogical.

We're a third of the way into Marino's column and he hasn't begun to address his title thesis--namely, how the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act went awry. Marino's screed against "phony" tribes and Indians have nothing to do with gaming in general or IGRA in particular. He's using gaming as a pretext to spew bigotry against Indians--to keep them "on the reservation" where they belong.

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

Below:  Marino's view in a nutshell: No tribes are legitimate or have a legitimate right to gaming.

Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers

THEATER:  Family of blended heritage takes center stage at museum

By Kara Briggs“Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers,” a play that explores racial ostracism and redemption, is being performed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Photo by Katherine Fogden, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Leila Butts, as August Jackson, hands a bundle of sage to David H. Sawyer, who plays her uncle Craig Robe in the production “Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Playwright William S. Yellow Robe Jr. draws a story of adult siblings, descendants of an African-American Civil War cavalryman and a Native woman, who find themselves driven apart by their mixed feelings about their blended heritage.

At its core, “Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers” is a love story. It begins with the grandparents, who find love and leave their respective peoples to start a family together, and continues with their modern descendents, who renew their love for each other and themselves.

“Whenever you hear a story about the Buffalo Soldier, it becomes that the Indian woman was raped,” said Yellow Robe, 50. “There is no conception that these people might have been in love and that they were leaping into new relationships.”

Indian tribes in the West have a complex history with Buffalo Soldiers, who were all-African-American units in the U.S. Army. Tribes gave them the name “buffalo.” But the soldiers were assigned by the U.S. government to subjugate tribes, making them enemies to many. Still, in some instances, Indian women and African-American soldiers married.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Plays and Other Stage Shows.

Below:  "Leila Butts, as August Jackson, hands a bundle of sage to David H. Sawyer, who plays her uncle Craig Robe in the production Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian." (Photo by Katherine Fogden)

De La Rosa makes guitars

Filmmaker branches into custom-made guitars

By Jan-Mikael PattersonWhen it came to asking Shonie De La Rosa why he began building electric guitars, his explanation couldn't have been said better.

"I figured that if I can't play bad ass guitar then I'll build a bad ass guitar," De La Rosa said.

That's how Navatone came to be, a custom guitar shop operated out of the De La Rosa home.

Shonie and Andee De La Rosa are perhaps best known for their independent film company Sheephead Films. The couple produced and directed the documentary "G: Methamphetamines on the Navajo Nation" and the indie reservation hit "Mile Post 398."

They also helped lobby the Navajo Nation Council to pass a law criminalizing the piracy of creative work, such as DVD bootlegging.

"I've always like guitars," Shonie said as he tuned up one his creations, Navatone No. 002, which combines a Fender Stratocaster body with a custom-made neck and pick-ups.And:Three years ago he began researching how to build a guitar, leading to his recent completion of his first three Navatone guitars. All use the Fender Stratocaster body with custom-made necks and a head in the shape of an Eagle. Each is finished with a custom paint job.

It's not so much cutting the guitar body from wood, but ordering parts from manufacturers. The customization comes in the sound produced by the pick-ups, which are purchased separately and, if needed, can be custom built to fit the musician's need.Comment:  For more on Shonie De La Rosa, see Balloon Flight Over Monument Valley and Navajos Hot to Trot.

Below:  "Shonie De La Rosa gifted blues virtuoso Levi Platero with a custom-made guitar, Navatone No. 002, which Platero named 'The Green Hornet,' as a belated birthday present."

White Sands film fest honors Studi

White Sands film fest honors Studi

Focus on cultural issues becoming common in films

By Elva K. ÖsterreichAs an event that began in Alamogordo as a germ of an idea and spread, it outgrew its home county and now has become a coveted weekend in Las Cruces.

The White Sands International Film Festival has celebrated another year of success as socially relevant films have become a focus.

This year, taking home the lifetime achievement award, Santa Fe resident and actor Wes Studi spent time with the WSIFF audiences following a recent film of his, "The Only Good Indian."

Fresh off the set of "Avatar," Studi chose to work on the little-known "The Only Good Indian" because it touched a place in his heart.

The film follows classic Western style and is set with the backdrop of one of the "Indian schools," which Native American children were required to attend to make them more like white people.

"What struck me when I decided to do this, is I am Cherokee and I know people who have been very much affected with the ideas of coming along to government-based schools," Studi said. "You are affected by the teaching of the school itself. The goal is to change the Indian into something he is not."Comment:  For more on the subject, see Runningwater Interviews Studi and Studi Challenges Stereotypical Roles.

Below:  "Actor Wes Studi is recognized with a lifetime achievement award." (Elva K. sterreich/Daily News)

Eyre films Native Century pilot

Film crew works downtown on pilot for 'Native Century' series

By Mary WestonKatahdin Productions filmed a segment of a promotional clip for the documentary "Native Century" Thursday morning by the Centennial Clock on Montgomery Street.

The crew also filmed a scene at the Butte County Office of Education on Bird Street in front of the Ishi mural.

Ishi spent his first night in civilization in 1911 in a jail located on what's now the BCOE property.

"Native Century" will be a four-hour series directed by Chris Eyre of "Smoke Signals, Skins."

The documentary recounts Native American history in the century after Wounded Knee. The film chronicles how Native Americans have sustained ancient traditions and preserved sovereign nations while adapting to the 20th and 21st centuries, according to information at www.katahdin.org.

This week the company has been filming a pilot film about Ishi and the repatriation of his brain from the Smithsonian Institute.Comment:  For more on Chris Eyre, see Hollywood Puts Natives "in a Box" and Pix of After the Mayflower. For more on Ishi, see Brian Wescott, Charlie Hill, and Ishi. For more on Native documentaries, see Native Documentaries and News.

Cherokee jazz saxophonist

MUSIC:  Jazz sax in a Native keyCherokee saxophone player and bandleader Sharel Cassity has a trademark lick. It sounds like the wavering falsetto that starts a powwow song.

“I believe that jazz comes from the powwow drum,” said Cassity, who lives in New York. “There are elements from Africa. The harmonic consistency comes from Europe. But you don’t get that thump, that boom, boom, boom in the bass and drums without the powwow.”

Jade Synstelien, the first bandleader to hire Cassity, says she brings a Native sensibility to all her work, including her new CD, “Relentless.”

Cassity performed with the Tony Lujan Septet at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian earlier this month. The concert was a tribute to bebop pioneers Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Pettiford, who was Choctaw and Cherokee.Comment:  For more on Natives and jazz, see Mildred Bailey's Tribal Roots and Harjo's Wild Theatrical Ride.

Below:  "Sharel Cassity plays the alto saxophone in front of a mural of jazz greats. The Cherokee musician recently performed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian." (Photo by Michelle Watt)

Native TV shows nominated for Rosies

Nominees announced for the Rosies, Alberta's answer to the Oscars

By Alyssa NoelNominees for the 36th annual Rosies, Alberta's "answer to the Oscars," were revealed Wednesday during a modest ceremony at the Hotel Macdonald.And:Another local production company that’s seen much success in the last year is Prairie Dog Film and Television. They earned nominations on both ends of the fiction spectrum for Blackstone, a one hour television series pilot about corrupt politics on a First Nation reserve, and Mixed Blessings, a dramatic comedy series set in Fort McMurray that recently headed into its third season.

Both air on APTN.

“It’s great to recognize so many diverse productions,” said Prairie Dog executive producer Ron E. Scott. “The quality of production seems to go up every year. Obviously, we’re thankful to be a part of that.”Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Natives in Encounters at the End of the World

You'd think a documentary about Antarctica wouldn't have much to do with Indians, right? If so, you'd be wrong.

The movie is Warner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World, which I reviewed here. Here are the bits that explicitly deal with Natives or Native lore:

It begins unexpectedly with the opening sequence of the Lone Ranger TV show and a shot of the Ranger and Tonto with an Indian chief. Herzog's narration:HERZOG:  The National Science Foundation had invited me to Antarctica, even though I left no doubt that I would not come up with another film about penguins.

My questions about nature, I let them know, were different.

I told them I kept wondering why is it that human beings put on masks or feathers to conceal their identity?

And why do they saddle horses and feel the urge to chase the bad guy?

LONE RANGER:  Hi-yo, Silver!

Actually, Indians don't wear feathers to conceal their identity. At this point I had no idea where Herzog was going with this.

Herzog talks to Scott Rowland of the transportation Department at McMurdo:ROWLAND:  Before I came to Antarctica, I was actually a banker in Colorado.

And after two years there, I changed my pace a little bit and decided to help the people of Guatemala, so I joined the Peace Corps, and there I worked in small business development.

Just realized that the world's not all about money.

Where I lived in Guatemala was in the northern part. It's a Kekchi Mayan village, 99% Mayan, and therefore nobody spoke Spanish. I had to learn the Mayan dialect, Kekchi.

When I first moved to Chisec, I was just out on a normal walk, and before I knew it I had six people with machetes chasing me down, wanting to talk to me. Turns out the little brother told them I was there to steal children. I was, however, not there to steal children.

They took me back to my--my judge and jury was the 14-year-old boy in the town who could speak both Spanish and Kekchi.

Luckily, they let me go, and we ended up being great friends over the two years.

HERZOG:  The jury acquitted you.

ROWLAND:  I was acquitted. I made it out of there.

HERZOG:  But it could have been dangerous.

ROWLAND:  It is, it is. And, you know, a story not too long ago is, a lady was just taking a picture of a child, you know, the same type of group of people with machetes, and she wasn't so fortunate.

She didn't make it out.

HERZOG:  What happened to her?

ROWLAND:  She was killed, by machete.

Now I really didn't know where Herzog was going. By including this interview, was he commenting on the savagery of Indians?

No, I don't think so. Actually, I think it was more of a commentary on the disconnect between Western and indigenous people.

People who venture into Antarctica have to learn how to build "survival trenches and igloos." They learn how to cut ice blocks just as the Inuit do it.

Herzog interviews David R. Pacheco Jr. Pacheco shows that his middle and ring fingers are the same length, as are his index and little fingers.HERZOG:  David Pacheco works in maintenance and construction as a journeyman plumber. He prides himself on his heritage. He is part Apache but has claims to yet another lineage.

PACHECO:  It's funny, but I'm revealing my hands and they are very distinct, and I was told by my doctor who operated me that it is from the Aztec and the Inca's royal family.

Pacheco adds that his ribcage is long like an Aztec's, and notes that he's a "green person."

Herzog interviews William Jirsa, linguist and computer expert.JIRSA:  Yeah, specifically I was in a graduate program, and we had lined up to do some work with one of the people who was identified as a native speaker and a competent native speaker of one of the languages of the Winnebago people, the Ho-Chunk, I think is how they pronounced it, and...

HERZOG:  To make a complicated story short, he ran into New Age ideologues who made insipid claims about black and white magic embedded in the grammar of this language. Hence, in this stupid trend of academia, it would be better to let the language die than preserve it. He had to destroy his entire PhD research.

JIRSA:  So just imagine, you know, 90% of languages will be extinct probably in my lifetime. It's a catastrophic impact to an ecosystem to talk about that kind of extinction. Culturally, we're talking about the same thing. I mean, you know, what if you lost all of Russian literature, or something like that, or Russian, you know? If you took all of the Slavic languages and just they went away, you know, and no more Tolstoy.

HERZOG:  It occurred to me that in the time we spent with him in the greenhouse, possibly three or four languages had died.

In our efforts to preserve endangered species, we seem to overlook something equally important.

To me, it is a sign of a deeply disturbed civilization where tree huggers and whale huggers in their weirdness are acceptable, while no one embraces the last speakers of a language.

I haven't heard of "New Age ideologues" getting involved in Native language disputes or making claims about "black and white magic embedded in the grammar." Nor have I heard of people having to destroy their entire PhD research. I wouldn't be surprised if there was more to this story.

Finally, Herzog talks to a scientist launching a neutrino particle detector. The instrument has Hawaiian words and images on it.HERZOG:  Not surprisingly, we found this incantation in Hawaiian language on the side of his detector.

It was as if spirits had to be invoked.

More End of the World clues

Herzog offers other clues about his theme:

He talks repeatedly of the Shackleton expedition and how it was doomed, the ship crushed by the ice.

Herzog's initial impression of McMurdo: "Of course, I did not expect pristine landscapes and men living in blissful harmony with fluffy penguins, but I was still surprised to find McMurdo looking like an ugly mining town filled with caterpillars and noisy construction sites."

Why he dislikes McMurdo: "McMurdo has climate-controlled housing facilities, its own radio station, a bowling alley and abominations such as an aerobic studio and yoga classes. It even has an ATM machine."

He films a survival class where people wear buckets on their heads to simulate a blinding snowstorm. They get lost and wander in circles, unable to find their way.

He records seal calls under the ice, which sound unearthly and even inorganic.

"Do you think that the human race and other mammals fled in panic from the oceans and crawled on solid land to get out of this?" Herzog asks a diver. The diver answers, "Yeah, I think undoubtedly that's exactly the driving force that caused us to leave the horrors behind. To grow and evolve into larger creatures to escape what's horribly violent at the miniature scale, miniaturized scale."

Herzog notes the folly of trying to be first to the South Pole. "It was for personal fame and the glory of the British Empire. ... But, in a way, from the South Pole onwards there was no further expansion possible, and the Empire started to fade into the abyss of history."

He finally states his message explicitly: "For this and many other reasons,
our presence on this planet does not seem to be sustainable. Our technological civilization makes us particularly vulnerable.

"There is talk all over the scientific community about climate change.
Many of them agree the end of human life on this Earth is assured."

To bolster this message, Herzog uses religious music for his nature footage, which he films slowly and reverentially. Unlike civilization, nature is holy, sacred.

So the basic theme of Encounters at the End of the World is civilization and technology vs. the indigenous and nature. I don't know if Herzog literally thinks the earth is doomed, but he clearly thinks it's headed in the wrong direction. His solution is like mine--i.e., to encourage dreams and alternate modes of thinking. To appreciate nature and the indigenous and unexplored places of the world and mind. To note the ugliness and sterility of modern-day life, where people visit Antarctica only to set pogo-stick records.

I should've guessed Herzog would use Antarctica as a pretext for sending a message. In works such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, and Where the Green Ants Dream, he's dealt with these themes before. His previous documentary, Grizzly Man, was about a guy who thought he could coexist with grizzly bears. A bear ended up eating him, of course.

For more on the subject, see Review of Encounters at the End of the World and Native Documentaries and News.

Below:  Humanity is small compared to the mysteries and wonders of nature.

Review of Encounters at the End of the World

Encounters at the End of the WorldEncounters at the End of the World is a documentary film by Werner Herzog completed in 2007. The film studies people and places in Antarctica.

Synopsis

Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger go to Antarctica to meet people who live and work there, and to capture footage of the continent's unique locations. Herzog's voiceover narration explains that his film will not be a typical Antarctica film about "fluffy penguins," but will explore the dreams of the people and the landscape.Encounters at the End of the WorldThere is a hidden society at the end of the world. One thousand men and women live together under unbelievably close quarters in Antarctica, risking their lives and sanity in search of cutting-edge science.

Now, for the first time, an outsider has been admitted. In his first documentary since GRIZZLY MAN, Werner Herzog, accompanied only by his cameraman, traveled to Antarctica, with rare access to the raw beauty and raw humanity of the ultimate Down Under.

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Herzog’s latest meditation on nature, explores this land of Fire, Ice and corrosive Solitude.The upside

Encounters at the End of the World

By Roger EbertRead the title of "Encounters at the End of the World" carefully, for it has two meanings. As he journeys to the South Pole, which is as far as you can get from everywhere, Werner Herzog also journeys to the prospect of man's oblivion. Far under the eternal ice, he visits a curious tunnel whose walls have been decorated by various mementos, including a frozen fish that is far away from its home waters. What might travelers from another planet think of these souvenirs, he wonders, if they visit long after all other signs of our civilization have vanished?

Herzog has come to live for a while at the McMurdo Research Station, the largest habitation on Antarctica. He was attracted by underwater films taken by his friend Henry Kaiser, which show scientists exploring the ocean floor.And:Herzog is a romantic wanderer, drawn to the extremes. He makes as many documentaries as fiction films, is prolific in the chronicles of his curiosity and here moseys about McMurdo, chatting with people who have chosen to live here in eternal day or night.And:I make the movie sound like a travelogue or an exhibit of eccentrics, and it is a poem of oddness and beauty. Herzog is like no other filmmaker, and to return to him is to be welcomed into a world vastly larger and more peculiar than the one around us. The underwater photography alone would make a film, but there is so much more.And:Herzog's method makes the movie seem like it is happening by chance, although chance has nothing to do with it. He narrates as if we're watching movies of his last vacation--informal, conversational, engaging. He talks about people he met, sights he saw, thoughts he had. And then a larger picture grows inexorably into view. McMurdo is perched on the frontier of the coming suicide of the planet. Mankind has grown too fast, spent too freely, consumed too much, and the ice cap is melting, and we shall all perish.The downside

Their Own Separate Universe / Encounters at the End of the World

By Ranylt RichildisWerner Herzog looks for examples of human madness everywhere, even on the sparsely populated continent of Antarctica. In fact, what likely drew him to the location of his latest documentary was the promise of eccentric residents eager to mug for his camera.And:You can find a thread of humanity’s individual or collective madness either in the stories he tells or the people he shines his light on. This isn’t mere exploitation; Herzog’s made a career out of proving that madness and alienation are part of the human condition and should be embraced for their meaning, their creativity and, well, for their humanness. Those whom the majority of us consider fringe or unhinged, Herzog argues, are sometimes the most honest of homo sapiens, and they have critical lessons to share.

The lessons many of the personalities in Encounters at the End of the World share with viewers is a popular one: ecosystems are fragile and the human race is doomed. But don’t be fooled. Herzog may dignify his latest doc with climate-change epaulettes, but his real interest is in the people who live at McMurdo and other research stations on the vast ice.And:While Treadwell [Grizzly Man] was genuinely extreme, at least (which made up for the film’s other lapses), the human subjects in Encounters lack the intensity, or at least the haunting quality, which Herzog relies on to make points about our condition. A few of them might fit the “unconventional” mold, perhaps, but no one seems distressed as a result of the environment, and most are cheerily well-adjusted. Continental isolation and a mortal climate don’t contribute to anomie or alienation, but instead knit people tighter into their community. Barring a few exceptions, Herzog’s subjects aren’t as interesting as he hopes they’ll be (to the point where even Herzog mocks their chattering), and most of their comments are banalities presented as quirk or insight.And:With the help of the linguist and a marine biologist, Herzog makes worn claims about how we fight to save a species of tree or plankton, but ignore the collapse of languages and communities. A link is made between ecological and cultural death—which is a pertinent observation. It’s just too bad that it’s an observation National Geographic has been making in every third issue of their magazine since the 80s. Herzog’s desultory achtung-ing doesn’t affect us as it’s supposed to affect us, simply because what he presents as jarring really isn’t anymore.Another review:

How Many Goodly Creatures Are There on Mr. Herzog’s Planet

Rob's review

Encounters at the End of the World covers the same ground as a National Geographic-style documentary. But Herzog's point of view means that you're seeing things that usually don't make it into these documentaries. Encounters isn't better or worse than the standard documentary, just different.

A lot of the entertainment value comes from Herzog's quirky voiceover and accent. You can feel his acerbic wit and attitude even when he's making "straight" comments. If someone else were narrating the film, it wouldn't be as good.

Herzog does seem to be in love with the underwater footage. Even though it's gorgeous, he shows so much of it in reverential slow motion that you want to speed it up. And the religious music backing these scenes is so loud and heavy-handed that I had to reduce the volume three-quarters.

One gets the sense that Herzog saw the underwater footage first, then figured out how to build an Antarctica movie around it. "We'll find people and places to contrast with this underwater beauty, make a statement about man vs. nature, and voilá. The NSF will finance my film."

You can see this in the trailer below. The underwater scenes make up maybe 20% of the movie but they're almost 50% of the trailer. It's clear they're the "tail that wags the dog."

The quality of the interviews is mixed, to say the least. Sometimes Herzog mutes the sound and summarizes what a person is saying, which suggests the person's words aren't that notable. This is an effective technique--one more documentary makers should use. <g>

All in all, I'd say Encounters at the End of the World is about as good as any good nature documentary. Rob's rating: 8.0 of 10.

For more on the subject, see Natives in Encounters at the End of the World and Native Documentaries and News.