Stamps celebrate Native heritage

The National Museum of the American Indian has a Facebook photo album with five sets of Native-themed stamps:

Stamp Series from the USPSDid you know that the US Postal Service has issued these stamps celebrating American Indian heritage?Comment:  One of the five sets is below. Looks like someone has made the stamps into displays--either at the NMAI or a Postal Service building.

For more on Indians and stamps, see Indians Protest Carmel Mission Stamp and Tecumseh Stamp and Freighter.

Indians protest Carmel Mission stamp

New stamp upsets local tribe

Amah Mutsun say picturesque Mission Carmel postage stamp leaves out brutal reality

By Blair TellersWhen sightseers tour the centuries-old Spanish mission tucked off Highway 1 in Carmel-by-the-Sea, it’s likely they’ll admire the red-tiled roofs, the chapel’s aesthetic facade, the prominent dome bell tower, the exquisite gardens or the vast collection of liturgical art.

For Louise Ramirez–a former Gilroy resident and Tribal Chairwoman of the Monterey-indigenous Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation–the landscape is far from romantic.And:Citing “discomfort and concern with the unveiling of the stamp” in a Feb. 16 letter addressed to U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahue, Ramirez isn’t the only one who feels the mission is undeserving of a positive limelight. Her concerns are echoed by Valentin Lopez, 60, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

While the Mutsun tribe is principally associated with Mission San Juan Bautista and the surrounding areas of Gilroy and Hollister, Lopez explains the Carmel Mission, “like the other Franciscan missions in California, was actively involved with the massacre and genocide of California Indians.”The interesting part is the different interpretations of the stamp's significance:As of Monday, Ramirez and Lopez said the postmaster had not responded to their letters. In attempts to contact Donahue, the Dispatch was referred to Augustine Ruiz, postal spokesman for the Bay Valley District who said the concerns expressed by Ruiz and Lopez are “perfectly understandable.”

However, the U.S. Postal Service has no plans to halt the stamp’s release, he said.

“I understand it; I can empathize with it,” he said. “Anytime anything is introduced, there’s some element of controversy that’s usually attached to it.”

Ruiz reached out to the OCEN tribe in preparing for today’s ceremony. As tribal spokeswoman, Ramirez was invited to offer a blessing and prayer for her ancestors, followed by a speech in remembrance of her people.

Despite some opposition from her fellow OCEN members–many are practicing Catholics and did not approve of Ramirez “speaking against the missions”–Ramirez still accepted.

“I’m going to try, and hopefully I can get (the audience) to understand what we’ve been through, and what the missions have done to us,” she said. “It’s important that people know that we’re here. And if we refuse to attend these things, they’re never going to know we were there.”

In this particular case, Ruiz explained the stamp is meant to commemorate the Carmel Mission (formally known as Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo) for its architectural beauty and iconic place in California’s roster of historic buildings. It is the second oldest of California’s 21 missions and is often described as the most beautiful, Ruiz said.

The focus on architecture is elaborated in a U.S. Postal Service press release, which highlights the stamp’s colorful illustration depicting the church’s attractive façade. An earlier announcement released by the U.S. Postal Service Feb. 21 describes the mission as a landmark in California’s Spanish heritage.

While considered a bastion of California’s architectural landscape, “Spanish heritage” resonates differently for present day Native Americans.

For individuals such as Ramirez and Lopez, the phrase evokes a bitter reality of life beneath the Spanish Catholic regime; a subservient existence indigenous peoples were subjected to when European colonization of the Pacific coast began in the 1770s.Comment:  I can see both sides of this conflict. On the one hand, the Spanish occupation was a terrible time for Indians. And the missions are symbols of the Euro-American onslaught. On the other hand, so are Columbus, Pilgrims, the Founding Fathers, cowboys, wagon trains, Mt. Rushmore, the national parks, and so forth and so on. I don't think we can exclude everything that has negative connotations for Indians or there'd be nothing left.

I'd say the Postal Service did okay with its revised press release. Don't celebrate Junipero Serra or the mission system because their primarily goal was to pacify and "civilize" the Indians. But go ahead and commemorate individual missions, on occasion, for their architectural and historical significance. Be sure to cover the bad as well as the good in the accompanying press materials.

For more on the missions, see Salinan Violin Stolen from Mission and Indoctrinating Students About Missions.

Tecumseh stamp and freighter

Tecumseh to Grace a Stamp, and a FreighterThe great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, a key figure in the War of 1812, will be doubly honored during the bicentennial year of that conflict by both a stamp and a freighter. The former will bear his likeness, and the latter his name.

The stamp is scheduled to be unveiled in June, and at some point a Great Lakes freighter will be rechristened, champagne and all, with Tecumseh’s name, CBC News reports. Tecumseh joins First Nations musician Robbie Robertson, who had a stamp created in his honor last June.Comment:  For more on Tecumseh, see War of 1812 Documentary and Cougars Named After Chiefs.

Robertson on Canadian stamp

Canadian Music Icon Robbie Robertson Adds Canada Post Stamp to His List of AchievementsCanada Post today unveiled a stamp featuring Canadian music icon Robbie Robertson, part of the third installment of the Canadian Recording Artists stamp series. Available June 30th, the Robertson stamp will share the spotlight with four other outstanding Canadian singer-songwriters; Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Bruce Cockburn, and Ginette Reno. More than one million of each stamp will be available at post offices across Canada.

"We're proud to be able to add one more honour to Robbie Robertson's long list of accolades," said Jim Phillips, Director of Stamp Services for Canada Post. "It's an honour for us to be able to pay tribute to such a prolific and talented artist."Comment:  For more on the subject, see Robertson to Write Memoirs and Robertson in Songwriters' Hall of Fame.

Postage stamp for Charles Curtis?

Someone sent me this:

Postal Stamp for Vice-President Charles CurtisPlease consider this petition for a United States Postal stamp with the picture/portrait of Vice-President Charles Curtis(Native-American) to be issued on or before Jan. 25, 2035; on the 175th birthday of Charles Curtis, the 31st Vice-President of United States of America; from Topeka, Kansas. Please consider all the 'firsts' that are throughout his lifetime.

With all of his achievements; one of his most notable achievement was the original filing of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as Senate Joint Resolution No. 21 on Dec. 10, 1923 as Senator Charles Curtis with House Representative Daniel R. Anthony, Jr. (Susan B. Anthony's nephew); both were Republicans, and both were from Kansas.

Though the resolution failed; the resolution continued to be re-introduced into every Congress since where it finally passed in 1972 with enough votes to be sent to the states for ratification, but ratification (needed 3/4ths or 38 states) failed.A website devoted to Curtis notes some of his accomplishments:

Charles Curtis:  Native-American Indian Vice-PresidentPolitical Record of support by Charles Curtis, (prior to 1928)

1) Revision of congressional rules to eliminate "joker" legislation

2) Woman Suffrage Amendment (Kansas women received full voting rights 1912)

3) Soldier's Adjusted Compensation Bill ( for World War I veterans )

4) Anti-Child Labor Amendment

5) Bill to give union men the right to trial by jury in contempt cases growing out of the acts committed outside the court's presence

6) Anti-narcotic legislation

7) Bill for protection of Native American women (and children of marriage) who marry foreigners (Frenchmen, white Americans)

8) Bill making all Native American Indians citizens of the United States

9) Bill exempting labor unions from Sherman law

10) Parts of the present Tariff Act protecting farm interests

11) Plan to help wheat growers whose crops have failed

12) Hepburn railroad bill eliminating discrimination against farmers

13) Bill providing for purchase of $50,000,000 issue of Farm Loan Bonds to enable board to make loans to farmers at low interest rates

14) Conceived law to consolidate all Ports of Entry, saving taxpayers $300,000 annually in the collection of customs

15) Proposed amendment to Interstate Commerce Act to help and protect farmers

16) At the time he had more Senate Committee assignments than any Senator has ever before held at one time.Comment:  On the other hand, as I noted in Obama Isn't the First:By his own experience, Curtis believed that the Indians could benefit by getting educated, assimilating and joining the main society. The government tried to encourage Indians to accept individual citizenship and lands, and to take up European-American culture.Except for his misguided views about assimilating Indians, Curtis had a good legislative record. He probably deserves a stamp for his breakthrough role in American politics: the first minority candidate on a major-party ticket. So give him one.

For more on the subject, see "All-Star" Movie About Wyandot Sisters.