Persistent stereotype of burial grounds

A posting on the stereotype of Indian burial grounds makes some good points:

'The Darkness,' 'The Shining,' And The Persistent Myth of The "Indian Burial Ground"

Redsploitation Horror has a long tradition in American cinema. Kevin Bacon's new horror flick continues the trend.

By Matt KimIn truth, these types of stories often frame Native Americans—who rarely appear in horror stories purportedly written about them and their culture—into westernized notions of the supernatural and the afterlife. Ghosts and possessions and the like are more closely associated with European superstitions, while there are simply too many diverse traditions in the indigenous culture to pigeonhole as a unified religion, or set of spiritual practices.And:There is some poetic justice, I imagine, in films which revolve around Native American “curses” destroying the lives of suburban white families. Naive nuclear family units who often overstep their bounds by moving into either a former reservation land, or burial ground, end up incurring the wrath of the vengeful spirits or dormant curse laid down by a people who were themselves laid down by the United States government. There’s an attempt at cultural restitution there, by way of making white American guilt into a literal horror.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Evil Spirits in The Darkness.

The "Indian burial ground" trope

Why Every Horror Film of the 1980s Was Built on 'Indian Burial Grounds'

By Dan NosowitzThese days, the Indian Burial Ground trope is something that’s become so overused, so expected, so old, that its only use, really, is as a comedic device. (The Onion tried it way back in a 2011 video titled “Report: Economy Failing Because U.S. Built On Ancient Indian Burial Grounds.”) The basic idea is that much disruptive ghost behavior can be traced back to current Americans (and Canadians) disrespecting a place where American Indians are buried by, say, building a house or a hotel on the spot.

But the trope has also, in recent years, become an interesting plaything for academics and critics, especially those identifying as American Indian (or First Nations, the Canadian equivalent), because there are so many weird things going on with it: fear, of course, but also guilt, ignorance, racism, and commercialism. So where did it come from?

First of all, it’s important to note that the Indian Burial Ground, which is sometimes abbreviated to IBG, is a trope, and not a real thing. Pre-Columbian peoples identified as hundreds of totally different communities, families, or nations, without very many similarities between them. That extended to the burying and treatment of the dead; in some arctic communities, the dead were simply left on the ice to be eaten by predators (what else are you going to do up there?), whereas other groups practiced more familiar burial forms ranging from mass graves to careful and solemn burials to burials performed quickly and with great fear of the corpse. The IBG concept is wrong right from the get-go; depending on how you look at it, there’s either no such thing or an unending variety of them.The explanation for this trope:Theory Five: Karma and guilt. Americans know that atrocities were committed and hundreds of nations were obliterated or nearly obliterated. Retribution is feared, and some people may believe that the ghosts of those who died due to this nation's invasion and European takeover will some day come back to get their revenge.

Remember that this is not long after the famous “Crying Indian” anti-littering ad, which was a harbinger of the change in the way post-Columbian American immigrants saw American Indians. The trend slowly started to move from a conception of the Savage Indian to something more like a survivor. It’s no coincidence that just as IBG emerged in the 1970s, so did many activist organizations: The American Indian advocacy group, began in 1968. The Trail of Broken Treaties, a massive coast-to-coast protest, took place in 1972.

The idea that one could disrespect American Indians, that theirs was a history on which we had trampled, was, embarrassingly but truthfully, sort of new to much of the American public in the 1970s. And what could be scarier than having your worst mistakes come back to haunt you?Comment:  For more on burial grounds, see Native Ghosts in Comic Books and Burial Ridge in Blacklist.

Native ghosts in comic books

A teacher e-mailed me to say she was interested in Native ghosts. For a section of her literature class, she wanted to know about Native ghosts in comic books. I sent her this response:

Native ghosts in comic books...interesting question.

There are a ton of stories in every genre--comics, movies, TV shows, novels, etc.--that feature Indian ghosts, spirits, or demons. Often they arise from an Indian burial ground that's been cursed somehow.

But these are usually throwaway stories. They're not central to the comic book, movie, or whatever in question. So it's difficult to produce a list of such stories. You'd have to search for "Indian burial ground," "Indian ghost," "Indian spirit," and so forth and weed through the false hits.

There are all sorts of variations, of course. I remember an old Tomahawk story where some Brits pretended to be ghosts to scare the Indians. Lots of wacky things like that.

As one approach, I'd suggest perusing my blog on two topics:

Burial grounds
Supernatural

Most of the postings are about movies or TV shows, not comics. But they may spark your interest anyway.

As for particular comics, characters such as Alpha Flight's Shaman, the New Mutants' Dani Moonstar, the Justice League of America's Manitou Raven, and DC's Arak sometimes enter the spirit world or the dream world. That's kind of like being a ghost. You could search those series for individual issues about ghosts. For instance, try "Alpha Flight Shaman ghost." See what it pulls up.

Beyond that, I can think of a few possibilities. Most of them don't involve ghosts in the classic European sense, but they may be close to what you want:

Desperadoes: Buffalo Dreams. I don't remember this mini-series well, but it may involve actual ghosts.

Ghostdancing. Dancing through different realms or dimensions--kind of like being a ghost.

Muktuk Wolfsbreath. Entering the dream world--again kind of like being a ghost.

I Am Coyote (Epic). Coyote shifts into a phantom state, which is kind of like being a ghost.

Timespirits. I don't remember this series well, but the characters go traveling through time and space. I wouldn't be surprised if they entered a ghostly state too.

New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga. Dani Moonstar faces a spectral demon, which is kind of like a ghost.

As you can see, there are many suggestions about characters like a ghost. I don't know if that helps, but it's about all I can think of.

As for buying them, I sell just my own comics and a few others. I'd try Mile High Comics at http://www.milehighcomics.com. They have a huge inventory--possibly the biggest online.

From what I've seen, it's about 50-50 whether they have Native-themed comics such as the ones I've mentioned. But the prices for lower-quality items are reasonable.

I trust that helps!

Rob



P.S. In a follow-up message, the teacher said she was also interested in Native spirits, demons, and related supernatural beings. That would increase the number of relevant comic books immensely.

Burial Ridge in Blacklist

In last week's episode of The Blacklist, titled The Front, (airdate: 10/20/14), the FBI team discovers several historical "facts":

That the Black Death was caused not by bubonic plague but by the more virulent pneumonic plague;

That a priest infected himself with the last sample of pneumonic plague to keep it from others;

That the priest fled to the New World a century before Columbus, where he died;

That the priest was buried at an Indian site called Burial Ridge on Staten Island;

That his bones were moved "31 miles east" to the site of the Trinity Church in lower Manhattan.

One reviewer rightly criticized this scenario:[T]he whole secret about a cadre of 4 priests in the 1300s taking the body of a colleague that contained a weaponized virus developed by the Byzantines and the Ottomans in the 13th century and then those priests stashing the body in a Indian burial ground on Staten Island before New York was even discovered (let alone before Columbus' time) is far fetched for even for a Clive Cussler novel, let alone in this show.

Plus I'm not to sure if the writers really grasp the whole concept of distance and direction, but 31 miles east of anywhere on Staten Island does not put you in lower Manhattan near the Freedom Tower, they should have been looking somewhere several miles east of JFK. Do the writers not think of things like that when they type this nonsense on their Macbooks sitting in Starbucks?Native lore

Yeah, this isn't the show for a Da Vinci Code type of treasure hunt. Even so, I checked and learned some of these things are real:

Burial RidgeBurial Ridge is a Native American archaeological site and burial ground located at Ward's Point--a bluff overlooking Raritan Bay in what is today the Tottenville section of Staten Island. The first documented evidence of Paleo-Indians using the site is from the end of the Early Archaic Period 8,000 years ago. The burial ground--used by the Lenape dating from the Woodland period until relinquishing Staten Island to the Dutch--is the largest pre-European burial ground in New York City and is today unmarked and lies today within Conference House Park.

The agents called Burial Ridge the largest burial ground in "New York." If they meant the city, that's correct.

I don't know if the site's location is supposed to be secret, but FBI and the terrorists knew where to find it.

The Trinity Church is 29.7 miles from Conference House Park. That's close to 31 miles, but the direction is north-northeeast, not east.

Pneumonic plague is real too:

Pneumonic plaguePneumonic plague, a severe type of lung infection, is one of three main forms of plague, all of which are caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It is more virulent and rare than bubonic plague. The difference between the versions of plague is simply the location of the infection in the body; the bubonic plague is an infection of the lymphatic system, the pneumonic plague is an infection of the respiratory system, and the septicaemic plague is an infection in the blood stream.I don't think it acts like the plague in The Blacklist, but the show covered itself by saying the terrorists genetically manipulated the bacteria.

The FBI agents didn't have much time to ponder things during the plague panic. Fortunately, the infected terrorists stupidly put themselves on planes where the authorities could intercept them.

But I was waiting for the agents to discuss the historical implications of their discoveries. "Europeans discovered the Western Hemisphere a hundred years before Columbus. Everything we know about world history since the Middle Ages is wrong!"

Alas, that never happened. Maybe another episode will explore the profound consequences of overturning the Columbus "myth."

Anyway, it was good to see a bit of Native lore in a network TV show. And mostly accurate lore, too.

Stereotypical Dark Shaman comic book

"Dark Shaman #1" Comic Review

By James FergusonThere are all kinds of evil beings within the Grimm Universe. Prepare to meet a new one in Dark Shaman. This time around, we're dealing with an ancient Indian burial ground or rather an evil Native American shaman that feeds on innocent blood for some unknown reason. The four-issue mini-series has Grimm Fairy Tales matriarch Sela Mathers shoehorned at the beginning as she goes shopping and is told of the story behind a strange tapestry.

The comic then jumps to the story featuring a group of co-eds going on the worst beach vacation ever. Things get a little confusing as one of the girls bears a striking resemblance to Sela. Is she in the story? Is this just something else? Anyway, this Dark Shaman shows up and basically wants to kill people. That's really what's going on. The book is set up like a generic slasher movie with a group of stereotypical twenty-somethings that are meant to be cannon fodder for the villain.

One of the kids has a tie to the tribe that the Dark Shaman comes from, but it's unclear exactly how they're connected. There's no real reason that this guy is killing people to begin with. I'm sure that innocent blood tastes great, but there are plenty of other options when it comes to a decent meal. Have you tried the Doritos Loco Taco? It's friggin' delicious.

I wish there was more I could say about this Native American murderer, but there's really not much else to go on. He rises from the depths because of some idiots that got too close to a haunted tree. (This marks the third haunted tree I've seen in comics in the past two weeks, by the way. See also Wytches and Sabrina.)



Comment:  The Timucua named in the story were a real people who lived in Florida. Some details on them:

TimucuaThe Timucua were an American Indian people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people.

By 1700, the population of the tribe had been reduced to 1000. Warfare against them by the English colonists and native allies completed their extinction as a tribe soon after the turn of the 19th century.

The Timucua were a semi-agricultural people and ate many foods native to North Central Florida. They planted maize (corn), beans, squash and various vegetables as part of their diet.

Spanish explorers were shocked at the height of the Timucua, who averaged four inches or more above them. Timucuan men wore their hair in a bun on top of their heads, adding to the perception of height.

Each person was extensively tattooed. The tattoos were gained by deeds. Children began to acquire tattoos as they took on more responsibility. The people of higher social class had more elaborate decorations.Florida Lost Tribes--Theodore MorrisThe Timucua Indians were spread across parts of northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. Their territory was large and consisted of many different environments. Beaches, salt marshes, and forests thrived near the Atlantic coast. Rivers, lakes, swamps, and woodlands covered inland areas. The Timucua were not a single tribe, but rather separate groups, who spoke dialects or types of the Timucua language. For example, the Mocama dialect was spoken by the coastal Timucua near Jacksonville, while the Potano dialect was spoken by the inland Timucua near Gainesville.

Because of Florida’s hot climate, the Timucua wore little clothing. Men dressed only in deerskin breechcloths. Their long black hair was tied in topknots, and their faces and bodies were decorated in brightly colored markings. Some of these tattoos were permanent, while others could be washed away. Women wore skirts of Spanish moss. Their long hair hung loose down their backs. Some women also had tattoos. Both men and women wore bracelets and necklaces of animal bone, teeth, and shell. Colored bird feathers might be placed in their hair during special events. Animal fur capes or robes provided warmth in the winter.Below:  Timucua Indians painted by a non-Indian based loosely on the evidence:




Judging by this review, the comics aren't totally stereotypical. The Timucua were scantily clad with facial markings. They had burial grounds--or at least buried their dead in the ground. There are no Timucua alive today, but other Indians live in the area and may claim descent from them. A few Timucua artifacts may reside in museums.

But that's about it. The "dark shaman" in Satanic robes on the first cover above is false. In fact, most Indian tribes, including the ones in Florida, didn't have shamans. Moreover, shamans aren't some sort of wizard who practices black magic. We don't know much about the Timucua religion, but I doubt it was involved in anything "dark" such as human sacrifice.

So the basic premise of this series is false. It's also stereotypical because it's been done hundreds if not thousands of times. Indeed, a revenge-seeking Indian spirit is the most common Native trope in the horror genre. It's so old and clichéd that it's mind-boggling to see someone using it again. Give it up, copycat creators, and do something original for once.

For more on Indian burial grounds, see Stereotypical Deadskins Video Game.

"Built on an Indian burial ground"

One house built on an Indian burial ground is a mistake. 130 million houses built on Indian burial grounds is a nation.

Stereotypical Deadskins video game

Is This Fun? 'Deadskins' Game Promises Scalp-Taking Zombie IndiansA video game designer is seeking funds for "Deadskins," a proposed console game that many Natives will no doubt find troubling.

The story begins with the mysterious massacre of a tribe by a supernatural being or beings. Then, as described at the game's Kickstarter page:

Using the powers and secrets of your elders, you must journey on a vision quest to repair the Spirit World and heal Mother Earth. Quickly become a warrior and fight a psychedelic battle against a man who has forgotten that he has died. He is a man known as the Dead Skin walker. And his power over the dead, was strong enough to punch a hole through to the land of the living, sending many lost spirits in search of revenge.

Ancestral spirits begin to rise from the earth and mount war parties of the Undead. This ravenous group of zombies attack everything they see and they quickly become many like the stars. They are DEADSKINS; a crazed and bloodthirsty tribe of the undead. Mounted on zombie beasts, the demonic warriors begin to cross over to the land of the living and curse all creatures they encounter.

Writer Dani Miller explains why the Deadskins game is a bad idea:

“Deadskins”--Genocide as Entertainment

By Danielle MillerDominant white culture will never seem to get over its unhealthy obsession with depicting Native Americans as dead and extinct. Cultural objects are whitewashed by acts of appropriation, celebrities and even the general public continues to wear imagery of dead Natives. This perpetual pattern to insult to Native American culture has become so intrinsic that I’m beginning to believe it is an unspoken element of capitalist identity and policy.

What does this say about American culture that it is so inundated with imagery which symbolically subjugates populations who have been oppressed and survived through attempted genocide? It speaks to the success colonization has had on indoctrinating our “color blind” “post racial” society into ongoing imperialism in such a matter that celebration of genocide is normalized. It speaks to the continued genocide that many are complicit in; from perpetuation of stereotypes through erasure, the pillaging of cultural identity through cultural appropriation to blatant exploitation of native resources. Ultimately these seemingly shallow “issues” of stereotypes have causation with statistics and realities of colonial violence.

Many mitigate dead Native depictions by saying well “they just look cool.” But the effects of erasure through Dead Native stereotype are explicit every time someone rejects a real living Native American’s identity by saying: “You don’t “look” like an Indian” or, “I thought all the Indians were dead.”Comment:  For more on the message of dead Indians, see "Dreamcatcher and Skull" Clothing Line and Kanye's T-Shirts Feature Indian Skulls.

For more on Indians as zombies and vice versa, see "Zombies Are the New Indians" and What the Zombie Trend Means.

"Free dirt" offered from burial ground

Tribe Outraged at City's 'Free Dirt' Offer

By June WilliamsThe tribe claims the defendants offered the "free dirt" for landscaping projects, though state law requires stopping construction if grave goods or remains are found. But the city has a "financial incentive" to complete the project, according to the complaint.

The tribe claims that city officials knew the road project would traverse the site of an ancient village that had existed "for hundreds if not thousands of years."

The Swinomish left the village, called Tequcid, to move to their reservation in 1855, "leaving behind generations of their ancestors who were buried there," according to the complaint.

"The location and nature of Tequcid is well known and well documented," the complaint states. "Archaeologists or anthropologists documented the village and burial ground in the 1920s, 1950s, and 1980s. In 1953, the site was formally registered as a state archaeological site. In 1988, an updated state archaeological site form was prepared. Firsthand or press accounts of the presence of Indian burials at the site were made in the 1850s, 1910s, 1920s, 1940s, 1960s, and 1980s. In 1983, the Whidbey News Times published pictures of Indian burials being removed from the site after construction work along SE Pioneer Way had disturbed them."Comment:  Free dirt from Indian burial ground! Bones and relics included at no extra cost! This offer is too good to pass up, so hurry while it lasts!

I call this stereotypical because of the implication that Indian burial grounds are different from Euro-American burial grounds. That they're nothing but dirt that we can give away freely.

If you don't like the reality of thousands of Indian burial sites disrupting "progress," too bad. Don't conquer an inhabited land and expect it to be empty.

For more on burial grounds, see Indians Won't Build on Catholic Graveyard and Blame Burial Grounds for Economy?

Did Prescott Bush steal wrong skull?

Marc Wortman reviews a popular legend about Geronimo. He tackles the burning question: "Did a group from Skull and Bones break into Geronimo’s tomb and ship his skull back to the society’s clubhouse at Yale?" Below he offers a possible answer.

The Skull—and the Bones

By Marc WortmanTowana Spivey, the museum curator, was adamant: “The facts on the ground here just don’t line up with the story being told.” I’ve been involved in the Geronimo story, more or less accidentally, for a number of years, and agree with Spivey. That’s not to say that I don’t accept the story about Prescott Bush—in fact, I do. The circumstantial evidence suggests that Bush and his friends did indeed mount a grave-robbing operation, and that they came away with something. But with what? The historical rec­ord is clear that in 1918, when the “most spectacular ‘crook’” took place, Geronimo’s body was not lying in the kind of vault described in the Skull and Bones logbook. It had been buried in an unmarked grave, precisely to deter would-be grave robbers. The pres­ent monument was not built until 1930. There’s no iron door on it, like the one the Bones history describes. Assuming that Prescott Bush and his friends did smash open a burial vault, there are only two possible candidates at Fort Sill.

One of them straddles the grave of a Kiowa chief named Kicking Bird. It sits in a cemetery just a few hundred yards from the barracks where the Bonesmen were quartered. Spivey believes this was the grave they struck. I have my doubts. It’s so close to a main road that it’s hard to believe they wouldn’t have been observed.

The other site is three or four miles away—it’s the small Otipoby Comanche Cemetery, on a rise overlooking the prairie. A burial vault lies at its center. A modern stone marker next to it bears the words “Mark ‘Thomas’ Perconnic / Comanche Tribe / Son of Perconnic.” There’s evidence of past tampering: bricks now seal what once must have been a doorway. I suspect that the young men from Yale ended up here, having assumed that this very prominent grave must hold “the worthy Geronimo the Terrible.” If they took anything away, it was not Geronimo’s head. It was Tom’s.Kicking Bird was the name of Graham Greene's character in Dances with Wolves, of course.

Below:  "Two burial vaults that the tomb raiders may have mistaken for Geronimo's. Left, the crypt of Kiowa chief Kicking Bird, in the Post Cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Right, the tomb of Mark 'Thomas' Perconnic, in the Otipoby Comanche Cemetery, three or four miles away." (Marc Wortman)



Who is Harlyn Geronmio?

Another interesting aspect of the story is the role of Harlyn Geronimo. I've mentioned him before when the subject of Geronimo's bones came up. But now his story seems more suspect than it did before:Harlyn Geronimo, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, was born Harlyn Via. Now 63 years old, he is a sometime actor and a self-proclaimed Apache medicine man who lives in Mescalero. Harlyn is also a sculptor and has said that he would like the new Geronimo grave site to be marked by a monumental sculpture of his own creation. About 15 Years ago, Harlyn and his brother Joseph legally changed their surname to Geronimo. According to at least one credible Geronimo biographer, their grandmother was Geronimo’s daughter from a brief marriage during the period of his exile in Alabama. Released by the army, the mother went to Mescalero with the baby and soon remarried.

Whatever the nature of Harlyn’s kinship, he has certainly exploited the name. As Harlyn Geronimo, he has acted on television and been featured in documentaries. He has traveled to France and Germany, where fascination with America’s cowboys-and-Indians history is high. A book he co-authored, Sur les pas de Geronimo ( In the Footsteps of Geronimo ), was published in France in 2008. For his televised interviews and appearances at public events and festivals, (sometimes) on horseback he wears the type of feathered headdress used by the Plains Indians, not by the Apaches. When in Paris, you have to give the Parisians what they’re expecting. I have encountered Harlyn only once—in a shared television appearance in the aftermath of my discovery of the Winter Mead letter. His anger seemed genuine. I attempted to reach Harlyn many times over the course of several months, to ask him about the Ramsey Clark lawsuit, but he seemed always to be traveling in Europe, and unreachable. I finally contacted his brother Joseph, in Mescalero. Joseph was not interested in pursuing a conversation. What he in fact said was “I ain’t giving anything away for a handful of beads. Mail me a check, and if it’s enough and don’t bounce, I’ll talk.”

For more on the subject, see:

Geronimo vs. Geronimo Over Geronimo
Apaches don't want Geronimo moved
Geronimo sues Skull and Bones

Indians won't build on Catholic graveyard

Grave injustice:  Aboriginal group decides not to build on possible Catholic graveyard

By Mary OrmsbyA Toronto aboriginal health care group—desperate to find the perfect property for a new facility—is forfeiting a prized downtown piece of land on moral grounds because of concerns the land may be a Roman Catholic graveyard.

“The irony is not lost on us—due respect where none is given,” says Joe Hester, Anishnawbe Health Toronto’s executive director, noting business rarely halts when aboriginal remains are unearthed by bulldozers clearing ground for subdivisions and roads.

“I think often times, when (aboriginal) burial sites are found, there’s development already in progress and to a large degree, that development continues and our people are an after-thought. Here, we get some information and we respect that. It’s a burial site.”

The decision to leave the bones—and more importantly, the souls of the dead—undisturbed at 51 Power St. is in keeping with native beliefs. It also means another frustrating delay in a decade-long quest to better serve the 85,000 aboriginal men, women and children living in the GTA, a group whose overall health is two to three times lower than the general Canadian population.Comment:  Ironic indeed!

This is an excellent example of Native values in actions. Unlike many Euro-Americans, Natives put their money where their mouths. They refuse to desecrate a possible Catholic graveyard even if it costs them.

If the colonizers had taken this approach, much of America might still belong to the Indians. Which is why they didn't take this approach. A big part of Western culture is exalting greed and selfishness above other values. That's why the colonizers chose to go abroad and conquer and kill rather than stay at home.

For more on burial grounds, see Blame Burial Grounds for Economy? and Mound Supporters Compared to Violent Protesters.

Below:  "Joe Hester, Executive Director of Anishnawbe Health Toronto, right, along with Dr. Chandrakant Shah, left, and Jacques Huot, President of AHT's board of directors at Orphans Greenspace, a city of Toronto off-leash dog park at 51 Power Street. The land in question may contain human remains from a 19th century Roman Catholic cemetery, a possibility that caused AHT to walk away from buying the land for a new facility."

Blame burial grounds for economy?

Report:  Economy Failing Because U.S. Built On Ancient Indian Burial Grounds

Comment:  This Onion satire is mostly innocuous. It mocks non-Indians for believing in the "curse" of Indian burial grounds. And not the Indians or their burial practices.

Note also that it's basically true, which robs it of some of its sting. Indians did own the entire land. They are buried everywhere. Everything we built sits on top of Indian bones, either literally or figuratively.

For some stories dealing with burial grounds, see Mound Supporters Compared to Violent Protesters and Wamapoke Curse in Parks and Recreation. For more on the subject, see Indian Remains = Specimens and Digging Up Indian Graves Okay?

Mound supporters compared to violent protesters

More details on the story I covered in Bikers Ride Over Indian Mound:

“Democracy” and the Desecration of Native Burial Sites

By Jacqueline S. HomanFor many years First Nations groups have tried to work with recalcitrant non-native city officials and BMX cycling enthusiasts towards getting the Snake Mound site protected from destructive activity. The city of Toronto previously posted “No Access” signage instructing BMX enthusiasts that no dirt bike riding is allowed in that section of the park. BMX bikers claim that there is no other place in Toronto that is perfect for their activity. Some BMX enthusiasts got belligerent and hurled racist epithets and rocks at Native people protesting the destruction to Snake Mounds caused by the man-made dirt bike ramps.

Aboriginal rights and cultural preservation advocates graciously offered to do the city’s job for them (without the good pay and benefits package that city employees get, of course): they made their peaceful presence visible at this contested site to deter further destruction caused by the BMX crowd, who repeatedly thumbed their noses at the law by mucking up the park in connection with their recreation.

Joe Warmington of the Toronto Sun falsely referred to the aboriginal rights advocacy and peacekeeping group encamped at Snake Mound as a “mini Caledonia” incident. Caledonia entailed a violent confrontation in the 1990’s between the Mohawk community and police over a fraudulent transfer of land title by non-native members of the town council to a private developer seeking to expand a high-priced housing development and possible golf course onto unceded Mohawk land. Warmington also said in his May 18, 2011 article that “there is no official archeological evidence” to back up First Nations people’s claims of an ancient burial site.

Paul Russell of the National Post quipped in his May 22, 2011 article that “there was absolutely no physical evidence” that Snake Mound is an ancient burial and/or ceremonial site. But where do these reporters get their facts? Did they get their info from the same source as the city of Toronto?

Toronto relied on the expert opinion of Ron Williamson, a Toronto archeologist who has not held his professional credentials and licenses since December 31, 2000.Comment:  The layers of insult and attack go beyond the physical desecration of the mound. The bikers hurl racist epithets. The media claims there's no evidence and compares the Native guardians to violent protesters. The city has no credentialed archaeologist but won't get a replacement or listen to the Indians.

This may not be a coordinated campaign, but it's a campaign nonetheless. The strategy is to denigrate the Indians, deny their claims, and dismiss their concerns. The goal is to "vanish" the Indians politically the way we almost vanished them physically.

Why is this happening? Because the white man wants to stay in control. Acceding to the Indians' wishes means giving up control. It means acknowledging Native history and culture, which means revisiting Native land claims and treaty rights. The white man doesn't want to do that, so it's denigrate, deny, and dismiss.

Of course, the archaeologist's lack of credentials doesn't prove that he's wrong and the Indians are right. The article could've said more about why the Indians are sure Snake Mound is a burial site. Since the issue seems to be in question, that is.

For more on burial grounds, see Wamapoke Curse in Parks and Recreation and The Savage in Bonanza.

Bikers ride over Indian mound

Chief ‘disgusted’ as bikers ride over sacred Iroquois site in High Park

By Jayme PoissonSix Nations Chief Arnie General stands on a mound of dirt in High Park, propped up by a cane.

“I feel very disgusted with the people here in this area,” he says. “Maybe not all are of the (same) mentality, but those who don’t care about my people.”

General, accompanied by Clanmothers and faithkeepers from the Six Nation, came to Snake (or Serpent) mound Monday evening to visit what many believe are ancient Iroquoian burial grounds dating back 3,000 years. As the group walked to the site, a clan of teenagers dispersed, taking their BMX bikes with them.

The teens and other bikers have been using the site, no bigger than a football field, for about six years now. It’s carved into rounded hills, ramps and dips. Tire tracks mark the dirt. For the many who believe the site is sacred, it’s the ultimate disrespect.Comment:  This is a typical example of how people "honor" Indians in the real world. If it was a non-Indian church or cemetery, there's no question that the city would ban the bikes. But a sacred Indian burial ground is different.

For more on sacred sites, see Pro-Colonization Propaganda in Up and The Ghosts of Celilo.

Below:  "Chief Arnie General stands on what many believe are ancient Iroquian burial grounds in High Park. The area is currently used by BMX bikers." (Jayme Poisson/Toronto Star)

Wamapoke curse in Parks and Recreation

The TV show Parks and Recreation has stereotyped Indians before. In last week's episode, titled Harvest Festival (airdate: 3/17/11), a "Wamapoke Indian" finally appears on-screen. The town of Pawnee is about to hold its Harvest Festival and the local Indians aren't happy.

Of course, there are no federally recognized tribes or tribal casinos in Indiana. Tecumseh's Shawnee tribe and others were forced out after the War of 1812. But let's pretend the fictitious Wamapoke tribe exists.

You can see the whole episode here:

But here's a synopsis with my comments:

Parks and Recreation recap: “Harvest Festival”

By Megan Gilbert

Leslie explains to camera how the Harvest Festival is the biggest thing in her career and if it fails the Parks Department will be eliminated. Dun dun dun!

She, Ben, and Tom discuss the nerdiness vs. non-nerdiness of Star Wars (Tom and Leslie: nerdy; Ben: not-nerdy) while they wait for Ken, the leader of the Wamapoke tribe, who is sporting a slicked-back ponytail, a bolo tie and a festival-related grievance. Tom gets in a “Dope bolo” before Leslie addresses Ken in his native language. But this does little to assuage Ken’s grievance: the “carnival” is being held on the site of the Battle of Indian Hill, and its shooting galleries and fried dough stands need to be moved.

That Pawnee would hold a festival on a historic battlefield is hard to believe. Battlefields are treated as "hallowed ground" almost everywhere in the US. Moreover, the battleground is a potential tourist attraction for the cash-strapped town. The smart move would be to hold the festival near the battleground and urge people to see both.

The Wamapokes supposedly lost the battle because they didn't have any weapons, which is a bit insulting. Describing them as hapless children isn't much better than describing them as savage killers. Actually, as Allan W. Eckert's A Sorrow in Our Heart makes clear, Indiana's Indians were sophisticated defenders of their rights and cultures.

Leslie holds her ground—literally—going to the Map of Pawnee Settler Atrocities Against the Wamapoke (99% blue with “atrocities” in blue) for backup for the fact that given its history, Pawnee has a hard time not being offensive. Ken resignedly leaves, throwing a “I just hope that the souls of my ancestors don’t put a curse on this festival…” over his shoulder, then tells camera in confidence that white people's fear of curses is equal only to their love of Matchbox 20.The Indian's name is Ken Hotate, is which is better than Brave Eagle or Running Bear. But "hotate" is a Japanese name for plain scallops, not an Indian word.

Clearly Hotate has invented the "curse" to achieve his political goals. The idea that an Indian would place a curse in 2011 is silly. It would be like accusing someone of being a witch--a practice that died out centuries ago. But it's also silly that most of the townspeople believe him. The joke is primarily on them, not on him.

The "curse" takes hold

Things start to go wrong the day before the festival:

An emergency meeting is called. As Ron devises the mini horse recovery mission, April hurls the first of many passive-aggressive anti-Andy comments. The news of the curse spreads throughout the fairgrounds: Ann’s “beefy dude” patient is talking about it; Ken Hotate’s on the news talking about it; the Tawainese animators were inspired enough by the drama to create one of their masterpieces! The end screen of which is a representation of Leslie’s head turning into a skull with flaming red eyes.The TV news presents a CGI recreation of the meeting in which Hotate announced the curse. The video shows him grunting and dancing like a gorilla while a drum plays in the background. Ghosts fly about and Leslie's CGI head turns into a glowing skull.

That seems offensive to me. Even in this fictional context, it shows non-Indians conveying their stereotypical beliefs about how Indians act. In the real world, people would condemn this as a racist depiction of Indian spirituality.

Ron rethinks his tactics—the ground mission has failed, and it’s time for an air strike. He, April, Andy, Tom and Jerry mount the beautiful spinning beast. Meanwhile, the news media has flocked to the fairgrounds. Leslie addresses the ravenous crowd, clearing up rumors like a Roomba clears up so many dust bunnies (“At no time was any parks department worker quote feasting on petting zoo animals”), offering concessions to the Wamapoke tribe, and dismissing claims of a curse. Cue the grounds-wide power outage. Crap on a spatula.Hotate wanted the whole carnival moved and Leslie says she's moved the shooting gallery. It doesn't seem to be enough, which may explain why Hotate isn't around.Leslie learns that the generator is shot because the TV crews plugged in and overloaded it. Guess who has the only nearby generator? The Wamapoke casino. Leslie successfully barters with Ken, who lifts the “curse” on camera via a “sacred ceremony” crowned by the nonsense words “Doobee doobee do.”

For starters, the show has never mentioned that some Wamapokes survived. It definitely hasn't mentioned that there's a Wamapoke Casino in Pawnee. The casino doesn't fit with some of the previous claims made: that the town is broke, that its biggest attraction is a giant turnip or whatever, etc. A cash cow like a casino would be a major factor in the government operations of a town like Pawnee. See the Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa in Palm Springs or the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez for examples.

To obtain the generator, Leslie offers to "put the Wamapoke history exhibit inside the carnival grounds, right past the entrance turnstyle, so that you have to look at it before you start having fun." Funny, but the white folks still haven't addressed the Wamapokes' demands. Except for the shooting gallery, the bulk of the carnival still sits on the burial ground.

Clearly no one is taking the Indians' spirituality seriously. Not even Hotate, who finds Leslie's offer "interesting" and agrees to lift the curse. It's as everyone knows the white man's wishes trump the Indians', and all that matters is how to pay off a special interest group.

In the Wamapoke "ceremony," Hotate's Native song is subtitled in English. "I am not saying anything," he intones. "No one can understand me anyway. Doobee. Doobee. Do." Even though Hotate's actions are a spoof--he's lifting the "curse" he made up--this is really a slam against Native ceremonies. "We" don't understand what "they" mean, so perhaps the Indians are babbling nonsense. Perhaps their religious beliefs and ceremonies are nothing more than stunts to impress gullible non-Indians.

Joss speaks about his role

Wish granted: Joss lands Parks role

By Jeanne Jakle

Enter Joss, who is the potential fly in the ointment. The McCollum High graduate plays a local casino host and Wamopoke tribal leader who places the event in jeopardy when he threatens to put a curse on it. The festival carnival, you see, is taking place on sacred burial grounds--namely, the site of a seven-day battle that the Wamopoke lost. It would be offensive, he says, "to have shooting galleries and fried dough stands" there.

Whoops. Once the muckraking host of a 
local newsmagazine (Mo Collins) gets wind of this development, it quickly explodes into a huge story.

What a great role for Joss, marked by lots of fun, hilarity--even snappy clothes.

"I got to wear a suit," Joss said. He also spouts choice lines. For example: "There are two things I know about white people. They love Matchbox Twenty, and they're terrified of curses."

Joss said he was thrilled to work again with executive producer Greg Daniels, who co-created King of the Hill "And I really liked that they put so much thought into my story line," he said, adding the show was careful not to offend Native Americans. When his character performs an over-the-top ceremonial bit, for instance, the prop master brought over a bag to sprinkle over the crowd and "took care not use any actual ceremonial ingredients."

The producers may have been "careful not to offend Native Americans," but they could've done more. There were a few things Indians might find offensive.

Despite these criticisms, the episode is decent overall. The details--particularly the depictions of Indian ceremonies--are stereotypical, but the main points are solid. The producers cast an Indian to play an Indian. He's wearing a suit and tie, not some sort of costume. He has a normal name, not a funny Indian name.

Other than the phony curse, he doesn't offer any "wise" or "mystical" nonsense. He pulls the wool over the white man's eyes, but not in a "shifty casino owner" kind of way. Nothing about him suggests he's savage, uncivilized, or anything but a solid businessman and community leader.

For more on Parks and Recreation, see Wamapoke Wedding in Parks and Recreation and Spirit of Pawnee in Parks and Recreation.

The Savage in Bonanza

Unlike the other episodes of Bonanza I've reviewed, The Savage (airdate: 12/3/60) is plainly stupid. For a detailed synopsis, see Pictorial Synopsis: The Savage. Most of the online summaries are partially incorrect, including this one, so I'll tell you what happens and why it's wrong.

[**spoiler alert**]

Beginning

Two white trappers enter a Shoshone burial ground because it contains the best fur-trapping west of the Mississippi. Which is ridiculous because they're in an arid mountain area devoid of running water. It doesn't matter because two Indians kill them for their effrontery.

The two Indians are part of a party led by Chato. The credits call Chato "Chief" but he's a shaman, which is still incorrect. "Medicine man" probably would be the correct term.

Chato sends his two sons into the Mountain of the Dead, the Shoshone burial ground, to contact White Buffalo Woman. They need her help to cure the illness devastating their tribe. Chato doesn't expect his sons to come back alive, but they're desperate for her help.

Meanwhile, Adam Cartwright is passing by on his way to see a windmill. He sees the dead trappers, then hears an Indian calling for White Buffalo Woman. He watches as a blond woman in Western dress appears.

The Indian implores her to help his tribe, but she refuses. He grabs her arm and realizes she's a flesh-and-blood woman, not a spirit. He threatens her. Adam intervenes and kills the two Indians, but not before one of them wounds him with an arrow in the leg.



I don't know anything about Shoshone burial practices, but I doubt the Mountain of Dead thing is real. Anyway, that's not a big deal. The real problem is the so-called White Buffalo Woman.

1) The Shoshone Indians have been in contact with white people for decades--at least since the Lewis and Clark expedition. But they think a white woman is a supernatural being? Why, because she lives on the Mountain of the Dead without being struck by lightning? Or what, exactly?

She doesn't appear out of nowhere, float in mid-air, or conjure things. In fact, she looks exactly like a standard pioneer woman. Why wouldn't the Indians consider the possibility that she's mortal? Because they're primitive and superstitious and can't think rationally, I presume.

2) Why do they call her White Buffalo Woman? Because she's a white woman, which is similar to a white buffalo woman? The supernatural being is a "White Buffalo" Woman, not a White "Buffalo Woman." It's idiocy to equate one with the other.

3) As Adam correctly notes, White Buffalo Woman is a "spirit woman of the Plains Indians." So what the heck are the Shoshone Indians of the Lake Tahoe area doing worshiping her? After Adam points out this glaring flaw, the episode ignores it. Did Bonanza's writers think western Nevada was part of the Great Plains?

Middle

The woman, whose name is Ruth Halverson, nurses Adam back to health. He takes to wearing a headband for no discernible reason. Perhaps it's to show he's living primitively, getting closer to nature, like an Indian.



Mr. and Ms. Savage, above.

Ruth tells Adam her story. She was a girl in a Norwegian immigrant family that headed west from Missouri. Her father disappeared and Bannock Indians captured and raised her. White hunters killed the Bannocks, leaving her to live alone. She preferred the solitary life because she had no one left.

Is Ruth supposed to be the savage of the title, or is Adam? Either way, the generic title doesn't fit the episode. It's even less fitting than The Last Hunt.

Adam and Ruth fall in love for no discernible reason--perhaps because they're the only two white persons for miles around. Adam proposes to Ruth, which means the relationship is doomed. She'll be lucky if she gets out of the episode alive.

End

Two Indians enter the Shoshone village of tipis (wrong). They go to the "shaman" (wrong) to tell him his sons are missing. Wearing a buffalo helmet (wrong), the shaman says he'll have to do the job himself.

The Indians find Chato's sons dead and attribute their demise to White Buffalo Woman's powers. Apparently they're not able to distinguish between bullet wounds and magic. They go to her camp and demand her help. Knowing she isn't a supernatural being, she again refuses.

Since she's turned down every Indian plea, it's not clear why they think she has healing powers. Because she's a white woman who lives in a sacred burial ground? Why not ask other Indians or white men for help? Other episodes have established that the Indians deal with white men occasionally.

The Indians depart but return to capture Adam when he's alone. They'll threaten to kill him unless she cooperates. Suddenly they're not too worried about her alleged ability to strike people dead. Maybe she'll miss them when she fires her invisible thunderbolts.



Chato the Plains-style Shoshone shaman, above.

Ruth appears and ignores Adam's warnings. When an Indian prepares to kill him, she agrees to go with and help them. Adam is left distraught and alone when the other Cartwrights find him. Ruth has survived but Adam probably won't see her again.

Conclusion

As usual, the Indians are played by non-Indians in wigs and headbands, but that's the least of The Savage's problems. First is equating the Shoshone tribe and religion with a Plains tribe and religion. Second is the Shoshones' inability to distinguish a white woman from an Indian spirit. Third is their reliance on an uncooperative stranger for their medicinal needs. Three strikes and The Savage is out.

For more Bonanza reviews, see The Paiute War in Bonanza and Day of Reckoning in Bonanza.

Hopper gets Indian-style burial

Dennis Hopper laid to rest in simple Native American burial after memorial service attended by Jack Nicholson and Val KilmerThis humble grave--little more than a mound of rocks--is the final resting place of Hollywood legend Dennis Hopper.

The Native American-style burial mound in the Jesus Nazareno Cemetery in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, is believed to have been the Easy Rider star's final request.

Flowers and a wreath from well-wishers cover the top of the rubble pile.
Native American burial: Hopper was laid to rest in the traditional grave he had requested

And the only marker identifying the plot is a small plastic wallet with the star's name written on paper skewered into the ground.

The 74-year-old actor, who died on Saturday, was laid to rest at the site in a private ceremony on Wednesday. He died of prostate cancer.

The service was attended by friends and relatives including his friends Jack Nicholson and Val Kilmer.

Before the ceremony, Peter Fonda spoke to the small crowd and opened up about the death of Hopper, his co-star in the iconic Sixties film Easy Rider.Comment:  Following the link for photos of Hopper and his mourners.

So they left Hopper's casket aboveground and covered it with dirt and rocks? Why not bury it underground instead? The mound looks rather unsightly to me. And I don't think it's more environmentally friendly than an underground burial. The mound takes up more space than a burial plot, not less.

I believe some tribes, especially in the West and Southwest, did bury people this way. They probably had reasons for it: no shovels to dig a hole in the hard ground, no time to linger in potentially hostile territory, etc. I'm not sure anyone believed that burying people aboveground was better than burying them underground.

For more on Dennis Hopper, see Hopper Supported Native Rights. For more on Indian burials, see Nicholson Wants Indian Burial and Indian Burial Grounds.

Gaiman wrong on Graveyard Book

As you may recall, this controversy bubbled up a few weeks ago. In a speech, author Neil Gaiman explained that he set The Graveyard Book in England because, he implied, America was empty 250-plus years ago. Educator Debbie Reese criticized this presumption. Gaiman posted a response saying he meant America's graveyards were empty 250-plus years ago. Readers took umbrage with Reese's critique, saying she was being "politically correct" and hypersensitive to imagined slights.

I happened to come across The Graveyard Book at the library, so I "read" it (listened to it on CD). Now I can report authoritatively on the Gaiman/Reese contretemps. Reese and her supporters were right; Gaiman and his defenders were wrong.

The setup

You can learn more about The Graveyard Book here. But all you need to know about the story is this: A boy named Nobody "Bod" Owens is raised in an English graveyard by ghosts and a vampire.

Most of the cemetery's English inhabitants died within the last 250 years, but a few date to Renaissance times and one or two to the Middle Ages. However, the story doesn't require English ghosts older than 250 years. It would've worked about as well with American ghosts of that vintage.

As I noted before, there are cemeteries in New England and Virginia with four centuries of history. And cemeteries in Florida and the Southwest with more. There's no good reason for Gaiman's 250-year cutoff date.

But never mind. Even if it's not necessary, the English setting is arguably better. Bod can interact with a millennium of ghosts with the same language, culture, and ethnicity. There's no sudden break as there was in America in 1492.

Gaiman doesn't tell us where Silas the vampire was born. But he hints Silas may have come from eastern Europe, the "birthplace" of vampirism. It's possible Silas is supposed to be Dracula of Transylvania after he repented his evil ways. In any case, Silas and his Romanian associate Miss Lupescu are another reason to set the story in Europe.

The problem

The problem comes with two characters who are necessary to the plot: a Roman ghost who's 2,000 years old and an even older Celtic ruler, the Indigo Man, who's buried beneath a hill.

As far as I know, there are no English cemeteries that contain 1,000 years of English souls, the remains of a Roman soldier, and a Celtic tomb. I imagine such a site would be a national archaeological treasure--as valuable as Stonehenge and Westminster Abbey combined. Which is why I think no such site exists.

Of course, Gaiman was free to invent a cemetery built on top of Celtic and Roman grounds. But that's where the difficulty arises. He could've invented a similar cemetery in America. It could've had a 1,000-year-old Viking ghost who referred to a 2,000-year-old Indian tomb. Or a 2,000-year-old Indian ghost who referred to a 4,000-year-old Indian tomb.

Indeed, the Indian ghost could've referred to a stranger from the "Old World"--perhaps a Phoenician or Egyptian who managed to cross the ocean. The buried Indigo Man even could've been someone from mythical Atlantis.

I'm not actually advocating one of these alternatives. If an Indian were buried in the tomb, Gaiman would've had to invent a supernatural belief system about dark curses and demonic spirits. We've had enough of those stories without adding one more.

No, I think Gaiman made the right artistic choice. But we're talking about his justification for that choice in his speech. That's where he went wrong.

Britain full, America empty?

The point is this: America and its graveyards weren't empty. They were just as inhabited as their English counterparts. Considering how Europe was depopulated during the Black Plague, it wouldn't surprise me if America's eastern seaboard was more populated than the contemporary English countryside.

According to Wikipedia, Europe had an estimated 25-30 million people at the time of Charlemagne. England supposedly had a population of about 1 million in 1086. Meanwhile, the Americas had an estimated population of 10 to 100 million. Many of those lived along the coasts and waterways.

The population of the mid-Atlantic states (including New York) is roughly comparable to the population of Great Britain today. Both have about 60 million people. For all I know, the two populations have been roughly equal for 1,000 or 10,000 years.

Gaiman's use of Roman and Celtic characters proves he wasn't just talking about a single cemetery's confines. If he had been, he could've used Indian characters instead. He was implying that the whole continent was mostly empty. That England had a suitable history and prehistory for his story and America didn't.

To reiterate: Gaiman's assertion that he couldn't identify an American cemetery older than 250 years is flatly wrong. His implication that (civilized) people have inhabited Britain but not America for thousands of years is also flatly wrong. Gaiman made a mistake and Reese rightly called him on it.

Summing it up: Reese 1, Gaiman 0. Better luck next time you talk about Indians, Neil.

Rob's review

Despite the controversy, The Graveyard Book is a fine story. I don't know that I'd give it the Hugo and Newbery Awards, but I don't know that I wouldn't. I'd have to see the competition first.

Gaiman wrote it as a series of chapters paralleling Kipling's Just So Stories, and it shows. Some of the episodes seem more like diversions than integral parts of the story. And since it features murder and attempted murder, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for young children. But overall it's an enchanting story full of invention and imagination, just as the critics have said.

Rob's rating: 8.5 of 10.

For more on the "empty land" stereotype, see Europeans Keep Discovering Newfoundland and Vanished Mound Builders in The Prairies. For more on good literature, see The Best Indian Books.

Below:  Empty America, where the deer, the antelope, and the buffalo played without human intervention.

"Tardicaca Indians" in South Park

Tardicaca Indians
Episode 1407:  Crippled Summer
Original Air Date:  Apr. 28, 2010

Season 14:  The Red Team's scavenger hunt doesn't go as planned.Comment:  The stereotyping and racism in this clip are obvious. The insulting tribal name...the tipis and burial ground...and the Plains-style warriors on horseback with bows and arrows.

Even worse is the presumption that Indians would kill anyone who trespasses on their reservation. This is false; only a few tribes don't allow visitors, and they'd merely escort you off the reservation if you trespassed. And worst of all is the Indians acting on this presumption by shooting an intruder on sight. Showing Indians as vicious savages from 150 years ago is pure racism without any redeeming quality.

And don't bother telling me South Park is an equal-opportunity offender who insults every political, racial, and religious group equally. Unless you've done a study in which you tallied all the insults and compared them to US and world demographics, you're just guessing that South Park is evenhanded. Guesses don't interest me; facts do.

Besides, who cares if South Park is racist or bigoted toward every group? Do two, 20, or 200 wrongs make a right? Unless you can demonstrate that this clip isn't racist, it doesn't matter what else South Park's creators have done. Racism toward one group doesn't excuse racism toward another.

I'd say the evidence from Cannibal! The Musical and Red Man's Greed is more or less conclusive. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are prejudiced against Indians. If you disagree, show me something they've said or created that isn't prejudiced against Indians. Until then, my claim stands.

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

Neil Gaiman on "dead Indians"

In a 2008 interview, author Neil Gaiman discussed his novel The Graveyard Book:"The Graveyard Book” is a metaphor for life, family and leaving home, Gaiman says. The book opens with a baby boy escaping an assassin who has massacred his parents and older sister. The boy totters to a decrepit cemetery, where he’s adopted by ghosts, christened Nobody Owens (Bod for short) and given the Freedom of the Graveyard.

"Essentially, the world of the graveyard is this glorious extended family,” says Gaiman, who chose a British cemetery as the book’s setting so Bod could interact with historic characters.

"The great thing about having an English cemetery is I could go back a very, very, very long way. And in America, you go back 250 years (in a cemetery), and then suddenly you’ve got a few dead Indians, and then you don’t have anybody at all, unless you decide to set it up in Maine or somewhere and sneak in some Vikings.”Educator Debbie Reese posted her thoughts on Gaiman's comment about Indians:"A few dead Indians"--Given his reference to 250+ years ago, we can assume he's thinking of 1750 or thereabouts. In fact, by 1750, millions were dead due to warfare and disease. Estimates of the population of American Indians range from 18 million (Henry F. Dobyns estimate) to 75 million (Russel Thornton's estimate).

"...and then you don't have anybody at all" suggests the continent was an empty land. In fact, prior to European contact, there were thriving Native communities all across the continent. At Nambe (my Native Nation), we established ourselves at our current village location in 1300. Before that, we were in other, nearby villages, and before that, the Pueblo people were in places like Mesa Verde, Bandelier, and Chaco Canyon.Gaiman responds

Gaiman posted a response to Reese on her blog:I was replying to a specific question about European-style graveyards in the US and who you'd find in them and why I didn't set THE GRAVEYARD BOOK in America, which was that they didn't go back far enough, and they didn't give me the dead people I wanted for the story to work. Obviously (or obviously to me) I wasn't saying or implying that the country was uninhabited prior to the arrival of Europeans, or trying to somehow render invisible hundreds of millions of people who had inhabited this content for tens of thousands of years--especially after having very specifically written about them, and about that timespan in American Gods.

(And, of course, European Graveyards in the US go back much further than 250 years.)

A more sensible answer to why I didn't set The Graveyard Book in America was that I didn't want to, but I had a microphone stuck in front of my face by the Hornbook in front of a crowd of people at Book Expo or ALA, and I babbled.

Also apologies to any Icelandic or Norwegian readers who are offended by my imprecision. Obviously none of the Newfoundland settlers were Vikings.Commenters joined in, with some taking Gaiman's side:Angel Of Wrath said...

I'm part Native American and I didn't really glean any sort of racist lean from what he said.

And I'm really sick of people looking for reasons to be offended.

There are so many other travesties going on in the world today, you should better save your time trying to call attention to them and not caring so much about what an author says.

Get offended because gay marriage is still illegal in most states, get upset about the recession...do something a touch more productive. Seriously.

Taylor said...

Debbie, to put it bluntly, you need to calm down.

Neil's not discounting the deaths of millions of Native Americans. You jumped the gun, acted out of emotion, and didn't pause to really read what he said. There were no Native Americans being buried in European-style graveyards. Of course not.

What he was getting at is that a graveyard in England can go back a couple thousand years, to early AD, when the Romans first settled Britannia and earlier. There is more history. There are more peoples.And some taking Reese's:Anonymous said...

"And in America, you go back 250 years (in a cemetery), and then suddenly you've got a few dead Indians, and then you don't have anybody at all..." How could this not be read as anything except ignorant? Dr. Reese is not being emotional here. Mr. Gaiman specifically said "a few dead Indians." It's so tiring and stupid for people to continue to imagine that history in the Americas only began when Europeans invaded. Maybe Mr. Gaiman should have just specified that he wanted to write a book about werewolves or vampires or whatever and chose to situate the book in Europe since that continent has a long literary tradition peopled with such mythical creatures. That would have been preferable to disparaging Native peoples, as he did in the initial interview.

Anonymous said...

I like how so many of these comments essentially crack up to "how could you be such a jerk? Why would the phrase "a few dead Indians" be offensive? It doesn't offend me, and my great-great-great-great grandmother was a Cherokee princess! Get over being a minority, because none of us can relate, and you're just picking on famous person of the week."

If people don't know why a comment that SOUNDED LIKE it downplayed the mass genocide of a people could be offensive, then I don't know what to say. The OP could only take this comment in the context it was given where she first saw it. Neil explained its original context and it then made sense. But, in the context as it was from the blog she got it from, it seemed pointless and sensationalist to use the phrase "a few dead Indians," which, historically, has been used malevolently. Not to mention that it makes it seem that Indians are a thing of the past, and that there aren't currently millions of those Indians buried in European-esque cemeteries, thousands more with every passing year.

It must be nice to be unaffected by the constant derogatory comments about NAs, and to never have to wonder if someone you may respect is making one. I love Neil Gaiman, but he really worded this poorly. Full stop. It seems like a lot of you are just being troll-y to get into his good graces.(Excerpted from Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature, 4/18/10.)

Rob weighs in

I understand the point Gaiman was trying to make. I think he did it poorly enough to deserve the criticism he got. In other words, I'm on Reese's side.

First, to reiterate the obvious, European history in North America goes back 500 years, not 250. By 1750 there were substantial European settlements along the Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific coast as well as the Southwest and the Great Lakes area.

Some of the European settlements were built on top of Indian settlements. The Europeans might've buried their dead where the Indians previously buried their dead. So the "European-style graveyards" might have Indians buried informally, if not formally, in the same grounds. That would work fine for a story about ghosts inhabiting a graveyard.

More to the point, Europeans and Indians quickly began mingling in the same settlements. From 1550 to 1750 they were cohabitants in California, New Mexico, Texas, and Florida, and from 1625 to 1750 in New England, New York, Virginia, and on down the coast.

In some cases Indians joined the settlements voluntarily, became Spanish or English citizens, and intermarried with the foreigners. In other cases they were enslaved or forced into servitude. The Europeans coaxed them to convert to Christianity, after which they could receive a proper Christian burial. Pocahontas is merely the most famous example of an Indian who could've been buried in a European-style cemetery in America. (She's actually buried in England.)

Indeed, New Englanders created "praying towns" for the converted Indians to live in. Yes, towns full of Christianized Indians. Presumably their European-style graveyards had as many Indians as Englishmen.

Gaiman:  right or wrong?

True, few of these old graveyards remain. So technically speaking, Gaiman is correct. Few of the American cemeteries established by Europeans go back before 1750.

But in a broader sense, he's incorrect. With his "Vikings" comment, he clearly implied that America was uninhabited between 1000 and 1750. At best his remarks grossly oversimplified the complex history of pre-Colonial America.

I presume he knows about Columbus and the Pilgrims, but it's not clear what else he knows about this period. In his MARVEL 1602 comic-book series, he wrote about an alternate timeline where the Roanoke Colony of North Carolina survived. In this universe, the New World was populated by a few shadowy Indians and dinosaurs.

This suggests Gaiman's attitude toward American history. Until his English ancestors came over and started civilizing the place, America was a mythical land. Indians, dinosaurs, monsters, and gods all mingled in a prehistoric Neverland. There were no cultures here with burial grounds or cemeteries--just forests and plains with Indians running free like animals.

Incidentally, Angel of Wrath's opinion that we shouldn't spend time correcting historical mistakes and stereotypes is just plain stupid. Experts have noted the harm of Native stereotyping again and again. Angel may be ignorant of why stereotyping is one of the most significant issues facing Indians, but we aren't.

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

Attack of the Mayan Mummy

While researching the Maya Mummy in Castle, I came across this item:

Attack of the Mayan Mummy

By Cavett BinionPlot Synopsis

American "B"-movie mogul Jerry Warren can always be counted on to turn a cheap but fun horror import into a boring, unwatchable mess--as proven by this tedious effort, originally produced in Mexico as The Aztec Mummy and later padded out with deadly-dull exposition. The original film is silly enough; the first of a popular Mexican series, it involves the awakening of the mummy Popoca to avenge the desecration of his tomb by infidels. As a cost-saving measure, instead of re-dubbing the Spanish dialogue, Warren added new scenes with American actors, who drone on about reincarnation and past-life regression and bring the action to a screeching halt.

Similar Works

La Casa del Terror (1959, Gilberto Martinez Solares)
La Maldicion de la Momia Azteca (1957, Rafael Lopez Portillo)
La Momia Azteca (1957, Rafael Lopez Portillo)

Plus these items:

Written language of the Maya shocks scientists with its brutalityIt has been scientifically proved that America's ancient inhabitants, the Maya, used to wrap the deceased in caoutchouc and evaporate the mummies in humid tropical jungle, like in a sauna.Note:  The article's content doesn't justify the scaremongering headline: "shocks scientists with its brutality." The text notes how the Maya drew their own blood, but I wouldn't call that "brutal."

Ancient Mayan Mummy Proves A Tattoo Is ForeverEvidence of the extraordinary longevity of tattoos has finally been discovered, in a mummified Mayan female whose panoramic tattoos have lasted almost two thousand years.

Note:  A naturally mummified body isn't the same as the artificially mummified body in Castle.

Hackmaster Stats for Mayan MummiesDESCRIPTION: Mayan Mummies appear to be desiccated corpses dressed in the priest garments of a Mayan worshiper of Tezcatlipoca. The bodies are often still adorned with the jewelry and raiments the individual had in life. Because of the particular preserving process, the creature is also usually covered in salt.

Comment:  The last image pretty much sums up the linkage between Mesoamericans and horror. If blood and death were involved, the people had to have been evil, right?

The second link is the only semi-scientific reference I found to Maya mummies. And it comes from a UFO site. So far the existence of Maya mummies remains unconfirmed, to put it mildly.

For more on the subject, see Maya Invented Werewolves? and Indiana Jones and the Stereotypes of Doom.