Custer's Last Stand--review

A review of a fine documentary that I watched years ago:

American Experience: Custer’s Last Stand – Television Review

By Jay WertzOverall, the story aspect of the film is strong when the viewer realizes that it is more about Custer and the myth surrounding the Last Stand than about the battle itself. Examples of the pop-culture development of the myth through movies and literature are presented. These things show the breadth of the fascination with the subject, and the on-camera speakers rev up enthusiasm for the man and the event. Some are stronger and more interesting than others. “Films like this end up having a certain synthesis built into them because we have a kind of Greek chorus of talking heads that help us bring the history back to life,” explains Ives.A video of the documentary's first chapter:

Custer's Last Stand Chapter 1

Random thoughts

Some interesting comments taken or paraphrased from the film:

"The Battle of Washita." Some called it a massacre.

Custer was seen as a great Indian fighter.

Custer was ambivalent about Indians like most Americans. He admired their courage and fighting ability, but considered them primitive savages.

The official government policy toward Indians was tolerance and signed treaties. The unofficial policy was "get rid of them."

Custer attended 40 performances of Julius Caesar.

He wanted a triumph for the nation's centennial.

Custer was sent south to surround the Indian camp. Other soldiers thought he'd attack. "Leave some for us," they said.

Sitting Bull was calling tribes to gather. It was their last chance to live free, and the largest gathering ever.

Custer believed the Indians had no command structure. He thought they were disorganized, would panic and run. His soldiers could defeat much larger force.

Sitting Bull sent two people to negotiate.

Custer was haunted by the ghost of Elliot, whom he'd left behind to die at Washita.

Because of Sitting Bull's success, some believed he wasn't Indian. That he must've gone to West Point and studied Napoleon.

Final quote

From Louis Warren:Right away, Custer becomes a kind of martyr to the cause of American progress. And this allows the cause to be more acceptable than ever. Because it isn't as if Americans have not sacrificed anything now. It's not as if they haven't given something up. They gave up Custer. The more glorious they can paint Custer, in the aftermath of his death, the more they seem to have sacrificed as they take away all the Indians' land.

Armed white militants go free

The verdict is in on the colonizers' latest occupation of Native land:

How the government lost its case against the Oregon occupiers

Many people noted how the armed white militants got off free while unarmed Native activists didn't:

The Bundy verdict proves the US is fine with armed white militants—but not Native American activists

Criming While White Vs. Saving What Is Truly Sacred In This World

The Injustice at Standing Rock Is an American Story
I'm angry. White people in Oregon are acquitted while Native people in North Dakota are attacked by riot police from five states. And our politicians are preoccupied.

The protests at Standing Rock are necessary. What happened at Malheur was nonsense.

Dakota Access pipeline protesters see bias after Oregon militia verdict
Activists at the Malheur wildlife refuge were carrying guns – but ‘if native people were armed, we would be killed,’ says an activist at Standing Rock

The privileges of protesting while white

Why do we punish Dakota pipeline protesters but exonerate the Bundys?

Justice Looks Different in Indian Country

Some tweets on the subject:

Debbie Reese@debreese 3 days ago
White men (Bundy's) occupy gov land; desecrate Native lands, walk free. Native people protect water, are arrested, strip searched, maced.

Mark Cogan@mccogan 3 days ago
Let's be honest America. If a gang of heavily armed ppl of color took over a Federal facility, they'd be dead. No justice. #whiteprivilege

Mic@mic 2 days ago
America: Where peaceful activists are brutalized by the police but heavily armed protesters are greeted cordially.

Victor Laszlo@Impolitics 2 days ago
The armed terrorists who took over a wildlife refuge are acquitted on all counts following their brilliant defense strategy of being white.

BlueCornComics@bluecorncomics 2 days ago
The Bundy bunch immediately goes and reoccupies the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. "Why not? The court said we didn't do anything wrong."

License to occupy

Some pundits warned us to expect more of these illegal stunts:

After Oregon verdict, a hot debate: A victory for liberty, or license to intimidate?

Bundy Verdict Puts a Target on the Backs of Federal Workers

Sheyahshe's review of Peace Party

While I gear up to produce more comics, here is Michael Sheyahshe's review of Peace Party in his Native Americans in Comic Books:Schmidt has put some very hard work into this title. As mentioned, while he is non-Native, he does do his homework and he includes Native Americans in the creative process as well. The books are entertaining, well written, and well illustrated.

Coppola's Virginia Dare restaurant

Creative take on Native American cooking at Francis Ford Coppola's Werowocomoco

By Carey SweetSome Virginia tribe spokespeople seethed on social media that taking the name for commercial use was an “outrage” and a “disgrace,” especially as the winery location is all about alcohol. On a local level, some critics lamented that the restaurant wasn’t named after a California tribe.

Coppola was annoyed enough by all this that he penned a lengthy article for the San Francisco Chronicle’s opinion pages that fall. He noted that he “shared meals on Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico, in private homes and eateries for local people,” and he “formed a council of advisers consisting mainly of Native Americans of different tribes from around the country, to bring authenticity and respect for these traditions.”A comment from a Facebook posting:At first, I thought this was from The Onion. But no, I looked at the menu, and FFC's restaurant is planning to serve fry bread and salmon sashimi tacos in an apparent reference to a 16th century Virginia colony of English people, who he thinks were somehow "Native American" and, it gets better, ate fry bread centuries before it came into being and...sashimi?? Bizarre and offensive mashup of cultural appropriation.Comment:  Coppola's response seems to support his critics. He's met Indians and eaten in homes around the country? That's why he has an Eastern seaboard restaurant in California with food from the Northwest or the Southwest--not from the Eastern seaboard or California. It sounds like a typical example of pan-Indianism--like "a bizarre and offensive mashup of Indian cultures."

Savage Indians on Yale-Dartmouth program

Football programs criticized for racist imagery

Yale apologizes for republishing racist Native American illustrations on football program to mark 100th Dartmouth football game

Yale apologizes for 'dehumanizing' cartoons of Dartmouth mascot

Yale criticized for use of Dartmouth Indian images

ASIMOW: Learn from the past, change the present

Common sense missing from Yale game program

Pedro Martinez's war whoop

Pedro Martinez acts out Native American stereotype after Indians sweep Red Sox, apologizes on Twitter

Pedro Martinez salutes Indians’ sweep of Red Sox with horrible stereotype

I’m Sick Of Left-Wing Politics In My Sports Stories

By Robert PickupMartinez, who is part of the TBS pre- and post-game broadcast, did a Native American war whoop in tribute to the team. Since athletes have compared their competition to battle since forever and Cleveland’s mascot is an Indian, it just makes sense to imitate a war cry after victory.Comment:  It "makes sense to imitate a war cry after victory"...because you think Indians are primitive, warlike savages? Rather than modern people with cellphones and computers? I guess that makes sense...if you're a racist.

Fly on Hillary = spirit animal?

A tweet from educator Debbie Reese:In Native American culture, all animals are believed to have totems. When they cross your path unexpectedly, they mean something. So, we looked into what it might have meant that a fly landed on Hillary Clinton's face tonight.Comment:  Reese says CBS News got its info from a New Age website.

I believe CBS has garbled an already garbled claim. The fly on Clinton's face has a totem? What would the fly's totem be...another fly? An eagle? Donald Trump?

The actual claim, I think, is that all people have animal totems. Not that all animals have totems.

Of course, this claim is a false generalization about thousands of Native cultures. It may be true in a few cases--especially in Plains cultures--but I doubt it's widespread. I doubt it applies to everyone even within those cultures.

Buffalo God in American Gods comics

AMERICAN GODS Adapted For Comics By DARK HORSE

Comment:  This announcement helpfully includes an image of the figure who's sort of the elder god of the American continent.

A Buffalo God with a Pacific Northwest tattoo and a super-tomahawk? Looks like pan-Indian stereotypes to me.

For more on the subject, see America "Not a Good Country for Gods"?

Werewolves excised from Lone Ranger

A Native filmmaker says Disney excised a werewolf plot from Johnny Depp's The Lone Ranger:The tone is bonkers. All the underlying structure of Injun Werewolves is still there... We see Butch Cavendish eat the Lone Ranger's brother's heart, and then the next scene is wacky hijinx with Tonto. Tonto calls Cavendish "Wendigo" all through the film. 200 residents of Tonto's boyhood village were killed by two white men with pistols? No one ran away? They never ran out of bullets? Clearly it was supposed to be a werewolf attack. Helena Bonham Carter's leg was eaten by Cavendish. There are rabbit meat-eating bunny rabbits everywhere. The signs of the excision of the Werewolves are everywhere... and they're typically over the top and unnecessarily violent. They go utterly unexplained, and then are immediately papered over in each case by goofy pratfalls. It's just bizarre. I went in with a truly open mind, and was enjoying it for a while... but then it abruptly got stupid and long and wow was it tedious toward the end. The final action sequence is 30 minutes long, and it's visually amazing... But it comes too late to save a truly confused film.Comment:  Tonto says he's hunting Cavendish because Cavendish is a wendigo--a flesh-eating creature from the northeastern woodlands.

It doens't make sense for a wendigo to be in Texas--the movie's setting. Or in Monument Valley in southern Utah, the movie's actual setting.

It also doesn't make sense for Tonto, supposedly a Comanche Indian, to believe in or care about wendigos. It would be like a Chinese man hunting a Jewish golem. It could happen, but it makes no sense without an elaborate explanation.

I don't know anything about the supposed werewolf subplot. What's left is a villain who's inordinately evil because he's a wendigo--a malevolent spirit in human form. He eats human hearts and massacres whole villages--which isn't much different from your usual mass-murdering bad guy.