Indians aren't supposed to be modern
No One Ever Sees Indians: “On Stealing a Native Identity”[W]hen we screened Chris Eyre’s A Thousand Roads, there is a segment about a young Inupiat girl returning to Baro, Alaska to live with relatives she has just met while her mother serves overseas. I noticed the same reaction every time one particular scene comes on screen. The scene shows the girl’s cousins playing a Star Wars video game and every time the movie showed the kids playing the game, with the too-familiar music and light-saber sound effects, there was an audible chuckle that roiled through the audience.
Indian kids are not supposed to play video games, or watch standard Hollywood fare, read comic books, or watch too much television. They are not supposed to think that every kid in America grows up in the splendor that they do. To believe they are no different from the kids they see on TV and in movies. Indians are supposed to be mystical, and mythical, and at the same time violent and warlike and unable to grasp modern technology, such as making movies about their lives. That is the perception we have had to endure for so long.
4 comments:
Writerfella here --
Bushwah! Native kids grow up in the splendor that the rest of American children all share. It simply is the case that it is a lesser form of the same. In writerfella's own hometown, he has fought for and achieved the overcoming of racial prejudice in several particular educational areas. The local schools' main computer instructor decided that Native American students should be left out of computer courses 'because so few of them will be going on to college.' writerfella was roused to sheer anger over such a decision and personally took his case to the school board and to the office of the director of Oklahoma schools. The instructor, one Caucasian teacher named Dale Hill was called on the carpet for his published statements and for the manner in which he was administrating US and state funds toward computer education of El-Hi students. At first, he denied the allegations, but with writerfella's presentations of articles and even videotape, he had to back down and finally say that he might have been mistaken. Dale Hill came THAT close to being fired and so now he Hill hates writerfella for interfering. But he knows he is under scrutiny and so Native students receive at least the same technological experience as the rest of their peers. But writerfella always will interfere if he knows that injustice is being committed and will name names, places, times, and then go after them with a very large switch. The art symbol that writerfella adopted for himself says that in so many brushstrokes...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Some reservations still don't have electricity. According to recent reports, the Navajo are just beginning to provide Internet access across their sprawling reservation. And you noted that Oklahoma schools wouldn't have provided computer courses to Indians without your intervention.
Moreover, access to technology is only one aspect of "being modern" in Whiteman's article. He also mentions access to books, comic books, and movies. How close do you think the nearest comic-book shop or movie theater is on the Navajo rez, in Montana, or in Alaska, hmm?
Access to media in general is still only one aspect of Whiteman's argument. He's talking about access to all areas of mainstream American life: malls, nightclubs, amusement parks, office-supply stores, art schools, ethnic restaurants, sci-fi conventions, etc. How many of these things do you think you'll find on the typical reservation? How much farther does the average Native have to go to encounter these things?
Besides, Whiteman's point is mainly about perceptions. Even if Natives had perfect access to everything--which they don't--non-Natives still would perceive them as mystical or warlike. Why? Because non-Natives "know" Natives via stereotypes in the media, not in reality.
Conclusion: Whiteman's argument is sound. Whatever your hometown situation is, it's only one piece of anecdotal evidence. It doesn't necessarily tell us what most (non-urban) Natives experience. And it definitely doesn't tell us how most Americans perceive Natives.
Writerfella here --
Likely not, but writerfella is no superhero, either. Instead he wades in on things that he encounters and then takes action. In the 1970s, the local Riverside Indian School was somewhere in the backs of bureaucrat minds when it came to funding and resources. writerfella's aunt Louise Paddlety was the school librarian there for years. Once, when writerfella was there to speak on writing, his aunt took him on a tour of the library. It was woefully equipped and sparsely stocked. And when his aunt said the science fiction section of some 70 books was the most active area of all, he immediately returned home and brought 500 books from his own library as a donation. As a member of Science Fiction Writers of America, writerfella received box after box of the various publishers' quarterly output of science fiction and fantasy through the 1970s and 80s. He immediately notified SFWA and the Writers Guild of America, west, telling them that Riverside and whatever government schools were in their regions likely could use similar donations. The membership of both groups began to send books of all kinds by the hundreds to Native schools. writerfella's aunt kissed him several times because the kids were reading in great numbers, not just in science fiction but in most other literary genres.
Over time, of course, the number of government schools diminished and so Riverside began to receive largesse from Federal appropriations that were spread over fewer and fewer schools, until today it almost completely has been rebuilt and modernized. Still, books from SFWA and WGAw come there and there is a plaque in the Riverside library that states that it was writerfella who saw a need and then had it filled several times over...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I liked Indian "everyday life" being shown but hated the "A 1000 Roads" film overall, it was despressing and ended up created this "save the poor lonely Indians" image. For my film music review, go to http://www.filmcomposer.us/nmai.html
Brent
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