Reflecting on November: the 1%

Raise your hand if you knew last month was Native American Heritage Month.

That's what I thought.

That's right, last month was supposed to celebrate the other 1% of the American population.

I think this Sioux blogger put it well (sources at bottom):

1 said:

There is something insidiously ironic about being American Indian during the fall of the 21st century. It all starts with Columbus Day to mark our “discovery,” then moves right into the “it’s totally not racist to dress up as a hypersexualized Indian” awkward Halloween party, and goes out with a bang on Thanksgiving when we celebrate the survival of the Pilgrims and that harmonious, mutually beneficial relationship forged between colonizers and Indigenous peoples everywhere! However romanticized or factually inaccurate, these holidays happen to be the three days when Native peoples actually enter the mass psyche of American culture.

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CNN goes on point out

2 said:

...a few high profile missteps surrounding the use of indigenous cultural imagery made bigger national headlines than any heritage month event.

First it was the release of No Doubt's Wild West-themed music video "Looking Hot," featuring teepees, fire dances and singer Gwen Stefani on horseback, a feather crowning her long blond braids. Then, supermodel Karlie Kloss walked the runway in a floor-length feather headdress, skimpy leopard-spotted bikini and turquoise jewelry at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

Both instances sparked allegations of "playing Indian" for profit, leading No Doubt and Victoria's Secret to publicly apologize. The gaffes also reignited debate over where to draw the line between cultural appropriation and appreciation and the extent to which non-Natives should represent Natives in mainstream media and pop culture.

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This Laguna blogger for CNN points out an interesting problem:

3 said:

Meanwhile, in coverage of the band’s misstep, the Los Angeles Times hosted a poll on its website. “Were you offended by the ‘Looking Hot’ video?” it asked, to which an overwhelming 65% of readers responded "no."

The Huffington Post raised a similar question in the aftermath of Victoria’s Secret’s headdress faux pas: the runway disaster featuring supermodel Karlie Kloss scantily clad in a Native American-style headdress and chunky turquoise jewelry. In its online poll, nearly half of its readers felt “people shouldn’t be so sensitive” to these kinds of cultural flareups. On November 10, Victoria's Secret apologized and said it will remove Kloss’ controversial look from the upcoming television special.

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I'm reminded of last week when I was having lunch, and had the joy of overhearing a discussion by two white people at the table next to me. A guy was reading our school newspaper, and commented to a girl on the article about racism on campus he was reading. Apparently, it was stupid for anyone to write such an article, because "it's not like racism really exists anymore."

Of course, Indians have the unique problem that not only do some people believe that racism no longer exists, but lots of people seem to forget that we exist anymore.

As our Sioux blogger so eloquently puts it:

1 said:

Despite what dominant society and mainstream media say, Native culture is a vibrant and living culture. We are not a relic of the past, a theme or a trend; we are not a style or costume; we are not mascots, noble savages or romantic fictional entities. We are human beings and, despite all odds, we have survived. As sovereign Nations, Indigenous peoples have the right to speak for ourselves and not have dominant Euro-American society project and profit off of an artificial and socially constructed image of “Indian” identity.

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But what's the big deal?

Aren't we just being overly sensitive? Overly PC? Racism doesn't really exist anymore, after all, right?

2 said:

[T]he community is still reeling from the effects of colonialism, [Pawnee artist Bunky Echo-Hawk] said.

"This country is really young and what may seem to a lot of people like ancient history is really recent history to us. We're just a few generations removed from our freedom," he said.

"It's all we have left and it's like we're being picked apart by vultures. It's something we feel like we have to protect and celebrate. It's our identity."

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3 said:

In addition, what lies at the core of these sexually charged fetishizations of Native women is an ongoing fight to protect the safety of Native women. According to congressional findings of the 2010 Tribal Law & Order Act (PDF), 34% of American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped; 39% will be subjected to domestic violence. That is more than twice the national average. In addition, the 2008 study by the National Institute of Justice (PDF) suggests that on some reservations, Native women are murdered at more than 10 times the rate of their non-native counterparts.

In the past year, Native advocacy leaders have made a push to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in Congress. The law would empower tribes for the first time to seek justice against non-Indian offenders.

Where Native voices are being heard is on the message boards of Facebook and Twitter. American Indian activists and scholars are some of today’s authors behind a budding collection of blogs shining a light on these issues and others that matter most to the Native community But so far, it seems the only people paying attention are Native peoples.

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I can't help but wonder how many people have ever noticed my own blog, which I admit is hardly ever updated, but which I've referenced a few times when it comes to certain issues in Indian Country. I'm not much of a blogger.

Our Sioux blogger wraps up:

1 said:

November has been declared Native American Heritage month, and I think this would be an opportune time for corporate executives and members of the fashion and music industries to come visit Indian country and actually meet some of the people they are attempting to mimic. There are 565 federally recognized tribes in the United States, each with their own distinct culture, language, and history, and each with multitude of artists who could teach them a lot about beauty and dignity. Gwen, Karlie, Ke$ha and all you other culture vultures, maybe you should leave your synthetic headdresses at home.

And by the way, I am sorry if any of you are offended by me calling you out for being offensive.

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Unfortunately, it seems the final apology was entirely needed.

Reading through the comments of these three articles, my heart sinks.

But I still have mixed feelings of hope. This last weekend, I flew back to the rez for Shalako, our annual winter solstice religious events. The Shalako are tall, bird-like dancers who act as messengers of the gods. The dances last all night long, from dusk until dawn, and conclude with symbolic races the next afternoon, supposed to bring good luck in the new year.

Back in the early 90s, we tried to ban non-Zunis from attending, after some bad experiences. Shalako was being over-advertised, often by non-Zunis, and portrayed as something more like a tourist attraction or a spectator event than the deeply sacred ritual it is. Because it takes place during the busiest time of the school year, this was the first time I've been to Shalako since I was a young child, in part because one of my cousins was sponsoring one of the houses where they would dance.

I remember being able to count the non-Zunis I saw at these kinds of dances when I was younger on a single hand. My mother distinctly remembers one Shalako during her youth when she saw her first white person. (Yes, you read that right.)

This year, I was surprised. There were lots of non-Zunis, lots of white people. It wasn't like the times I'd read about though. They were respectful There were orientations at the tribal visitors' center, and pamphlets on how to respectfully observe Shalako. (Though I hear at least one person was caught trying to film — a big no no.) For the most part, the seemed respectful and honestly interested, though. But nonetheless, it was strange for me to see so many non-Zunis in Zuni.

On the one hand, I was happy, because they were able to witness it, and maybe understand a little more about my tribe and native peoples and culture. On the other hand, my cousin's Shalako house was so packed the whole time, from one noon until the next, and I was never able to get inside the house after midnight to see the dances. I watched from the window, with many other Zunis, outside, in below-freezing weather, which is par-for-the-course when you try to visit multiple Shalako houses. (I did manage to get inside one of the other Shalako houses to watch for a while.) It was strange, though, looking inside and seeing more than a dozen white people watching while my brother and I couldn't get past the door due to the crowd.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, or even how it relates to the articles.

I'm not even sure where I was going with by posting these articles here.

It was just something I had to get out.

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I don't think anyone needs to feel guilty.

It's not about feeling bad about the past.

It's about understanding how our past has shaped our present, and why it also affects our future.

Too many people focus on only one, when they're all the same. People will feel guilty about the past, and think that's respecting us, and forget we have a present and a future. People will look at our present, and blame us for our inability to fix our own problems, and forget about the past that brought us here. And no one looks at our future, because they assume we don't have one.

That's why I try to emphasize that, no, it is important that a President and the federal government recognize that lots of times different cultural and ethnic groups will need different solutions to the same problems. It's not "pandering" to black or latino or gay or native issues. It's called being a realist. Not all demographics or local populations needing local solutions are divided neatly into states. Lots of local problems don't obey lines on a map.

Opty said:

I'll be "Brutally Honest Guy" for a minute.

I think much of the reason for the slow, or altogether lack of, movement in area of Native American respect/rights is due to, frankly, poor activism PR.

Or, as is often the case, no activism/PR at all.

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Well, I don't want to sound like I'm giving excuses, but I can think of some reasons why that is.

Black leaders and LGBT leaders (just to name two groups for sake of example) have taken the fight to the people, getting in the faces of politicians and lawmakers, raising awareness through education outreach and activism, getting on TV and the papers and all over the internet, forcing their cause into the public consciousness. Demanding to be heard and demanding change.

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Well, all of that really are things we've done or tried to do.

Every tribe has long stories of getting in the faces of state and federal politicians and lawmakers to try to change things. Sometimes we've succeeded, and sometimes we haven't. In my own tribe, we fought a long time to prevent a coal company from constructing a mine over our sacred salt lake. We talked to Congress, and former Governor of NM Bill Richardson gave us a lot of help.

But more often than not, most Indians are struggling just to get by and get the basics. Nearly half of Navajo Nation doesn't even have plumbing and running water. It's a fight just to get the basics, and that doesn't leave much energy left over for more activism on a national scale. In many cases, the programs are already there. They're just underfunded, or inadequate. But they're there, so people shrug their shoulders and move on.

As for outreach, I spent half the summer traveling with other native grad students doing outreach for underrepresented minority high school students, trying to encourage them both to stay in school, and educate them about some native issues. There are native blogs across the internet, as referenced in one of the articles I quote, but no one seems to pay attention to them except other natives.

And, it's worked or is working, for the most part. Though, there is definitely a ways to go. The point is, the tide is turning in regards to civil rights for those groups because they've successfully raised awareness. In essence, they've engaged in aggressive PR.

Where are the Native American leaders doing that? Where are the passionate activists and organizations working for positive change in public perception? Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Harvey Milk, Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, Ellen Degeneres...all black and LGBT leaders and news makers, all have worked tirelessly to change perceptions.

I can't name one Native American leader, or politician, or even actor. Don't know of any activists or activist groups. Seriously, the only time I see a Native American group getting exposure on TV, they're trying to sell me an emergency loan at 89% interest. That's not a joke.

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Something else I can think of? Exposure to blacks and LGBT people is a helluvalot easier than exposure of Native Americans. There are tons of urban blacks. Anyone who lives in a city probably sees a black person every day. Most of the native community are on reservations, safely out of sight and out of mind. For many — even if they've been displaced like most of the eastern tribes — it's their home, and leaving is difficult, for multitudinous reasons. It's enough of a fight to even prove that we exist.

The suffering on the rez are far, far removed from the rest of the American world. It's not just a matter of poverty. It's nothing so simple. Poverty, people can understand. (Even though they seem to think we're all rich from casino money.) Poverty is simple, straightforward. It goes beyond simply being poor. It's about history and culture, and it's not something that can be easily understood unless you've been on the rez. People don't understand why we get upset or care about the things we do.

Hell, it's a struggle just to educate other Indians over what the problems are, let alone trying to explain it to the wider public. It's hard to explain to an elderly couple why the water from one well is drinkable and why the water from another well isn't. It's hard to answer "why do I still get sick when I drink from the one you say is okay?" It's hard to explain what it's doing to the earth to let people drill and mine, because all they know is they're getting some nice cash in exchange. It's hard to explain why the aerosols from the plant are bad for their health, even though they can't see them. It's hard to try to say whether it's a good idea to let them build that power plant when the gases it releases might slowly kill them when they're unemployed and the plant is the only chance at a job they've got.

The issues in Indian Country are complex and confusing. Right now, it's difficult enough to explain them to other Indians. That's what we're trying to do right now.

That's not good. There needs to be a much stronger public presence to get things changed. I know that Native Americans are a diverse group, but this is where some major cooperation and organizing needs to happen. Where are the loud voices we need to hear? Why aren't young NA's more actively involved and organized on this?

Americans are oftentimes lazy and they won't change or even recognize that they need to unless they're forced to face it, with someone else up in their faces to show them.

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It's difficult. Damn difficult. Most of the people I know who are in a position to do those kinds of things are trying their hardest just to help their tribe with the basics. There are some of us who don't really want to be politicians or anything like that, but want to help in other ways. I'm sure not cut out for politics. I'm no Martin Luther King, Jr. or Harvey Milk. I'm just me.

ETA: I really, really hope this didn't come off as a "our oppression is worse than your oppression" kind of post, because I really, really didn't want it to. I hope no one gets that impression, and if so, that's not what I meant at all. I'm just trying to answer Opty's questions with what's true from my experiences and the experiences of others I know.

Williebee said:

Meanwhile Johnny Depp is playing Tonto? And I have no idea how I feel about that. Especially since the first thought was "Lone Ranger? Why the hell would anyone want to..."

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I have mixed feelings on that. On the one hand, yeah, it'd definitely be preferable to have a "real" Indian in the role. (Depp claims to be part Cherokee, and is an "honorary" member of the Commanche tribe, which apparently decided they were cool with the role and decided to adopt him.)

On the other hand, Depp's other films that have involved Native Americans — Dead Man and The Brave (neither of which it seems most people have ever seen) — handled their native characters quite respectfully and tastefully, IMO. Because of that, I'm willing to withhold judgment until I see the movie.