Natives to Hollywood: Stop stereotyping

People are still criticizing Adam Sandler for his racist Ridiculous 6 movie:

Adam Sandler, You Don’t Represent Me

By Amalia RubinOne would hope that you, Mr. Sandler, would realize how important it is as a Jew, especially as a Jew in public, to recognize that the struggles and horrors our people have suffered should inspire solidarity with others who faced and continue to face the same. From the unspeakable nightmares of genocide to the daily attacks of racism, what we have suffered has been suffered by innumerable others.

That is why your disgusting treatment of Native Americans in your upcoming Netflix film release The Ridiculous Six is so abhorrent. Like your fellow Jews, the indigenous people of America have suffered a massive genocide. Like your fellow Jews, they were demonized by the media and press. Even American children’s cartoons only a few years ago, like the ones published by Nazi Germany about Jews, showed Native Americans as barbarians who deserved to be killed. Like the Jewish boys kidnapped into the Czar’s armies, Native American children were forced away from their families into boarding schools where they were forcibly stripped of their cultures, faiths, and languages. And much the same as my father was beaten up as a kid for being a k***, native kids are attacked by fans at sports games, wearing fake head dresses, hooping and hollering “war chants,” dumping drinks on them, and calling them r*******. Like our Jewish grandmothers who were raped in the pogroms and shtetls of Europe with no legal recourse, Native American women are two and a half times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than your average American woman.

So for you to make a film where you hire native actors then mock them by promoting racist depictions: showing them as dirty and uncivilized, demeaning the women by giving them names like “no-bra” and “beaver breath,” mocking and profaning their ceremonies and cultures, is unforgivable. For you to still defend a project so offensive that a dozen Native American actors and cultural consultants walked off the set is a sign of either willful ignorance or overt racism. When we have fought to be depicted as something other than the hooked nose ganef and the miserly, conniving Shylock, you make a movie showing stereotyping Native Americans as “savages.” You, as an actor and a Jew, of all people, should understand. I stand with each and every actor that walked off the set that day. And as a Jew, Mr. Sandler, you should have too.Racism hurts

They're pointing why the movie is harmful:

The Reason Adam Sandler’s Racist Depiction of Native American Women Matters

By Jacqueline KeelerThe promotion of these outdated stereotypes is particularly harmful considering a 2010 Department of Justice report that found Native American women have two and a half times the rate of rape and murder of any ethnic group of women in the country. And the report found that in nearly 70 percent of the assaults on Native women the assailants were white men. This is unusual as most women in the United States are assaulted by men of their own race/ethnicity. If it were not for the additional assaults by white men, Native women’s rates of murder and rape would be closer to average of other American women.

On many Native American reservations, gaps in jurisdiction mean no one is prosecuted for these assaults. A recent revision in the Violence Against Women’s Act (2013) expanded tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians for Domestic Violence offenses but the law is still only being implemented.

For many Native American women the question is not if, but when women in their family will be raped. Lisa Brunner, an advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in her community, the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, told The Guardian, “I call it hunting—non-natives come here hunting. They know they can come onto our lands and rape us with impunity because they know that we can’t touch them.” Tragically, her teenaged daughter was also gang raped by four men from off the reservation before the new VAWA law was passed.

On her Facebook page, a former Miss Navajo Nation (and the first African-American/Navajo winner) wrote, “We have to control how we are satirized and make fun of ourselves. We need to stop allowing Hollywood to perpetuate unoriginal, antiquated, racist stereotypes that have long been used by media in general, or since the settlers first made contact with us … As for Netflix defending Adam Sandler and his movie, this shows that they themselves care little about being original or creative when it concerns Indigenous people.”

Native American Actors Work to Overcome a Long-Documented Bias

By Cara BuckleyThe walkout prompted a rhetorical “What do you expect from an Adam Sandler film?,” and a Netflix spokesman said that in the movie, blacks, Mexicans and whites were lampooned as well. But Native American actors and critics said a broader issue was at stake. While mainstream portrayals of native peoples have, Mr. Wente said, become “incrementally better” over the decades, he and others say, they remain far from accurate and reflect a lack of opportunities for Native American performers. What’s more, as Native Americans hunger for representation on screen, critics say the absence of three-dimensional portrayals has very real off-screen consequences.

“Our people are still healing from historical trauma,” said Loren Anthony, one of the actors who walked out. “Our youth are still trying to figure out who they are, where they fit in this society. Kids are killing themselves. They’re not proud of who they are.” They also don’t, he added, see themselves on prime time television or the big screen. Netflix noted while about five people walked off the “The Ridiculous Six” set, 100 or so Native American actors and extras stayed.

But in interviews, nearly a dozen Native American actors and film industry experts said that Mr. Sandler’s humor perpetuated decades-old negative stereotypes. Mr. Anthony said such depictions helped feed the despondency many Native Americans feel, with deadly results: Native Americans have the highest suicide rate out of all the country’s ethnicities.

The on-screen problem is twofold, Mr. Anthony and others said: There’s a paucity of roles for Native Americans—according to the Screen Actors Guild in 2008 they accounted for 0.3 percent of all on-screen parts (those figures have yet to be updated), compared to about 2 percent of the general population—and Native American actors are often perceived in a narrow way.Stop the stereotyping

And they're demanding that Hollywood change:

How do we stop misrepresenting First Nations culture? Just ask

Television shows and movies are the biggest culprits

By Don MarksPerhaps these people believe in the old adage, "There's no such thing as bad publicity"—if the controversy draws attention to your product or event, you get free "advertising."

Then there could be those who are simply arrogant enough to think they are above the fray; they believe they can brush off the critics by saying they are "too sensitive."

And then there are those who are naive enough to think they can convince First Nations they meant no harm and/or the image is actually good for them.

So what can we do to prevent this calamity from creeping up time and again? Ask First Nations people what they think about the appropriateness of the action you are planning beforehand.

And take the time to listen to and understand the concerns First Nations are raising. Perhaps there is a way to compromise and work together for the common good.

A turning point for Native Americans in Tinseltown?

By Esther CepedaSo far, Rolling Stone reports, a producer promised the cast that a disclaimer at the end of the movie would reiterate that Sandler's movie is not an accurate portrayal of Native American culture.

Understatement of the year.

The truth is that the 500-nation Native American culture is richly diverse--with different regional customs and beliefs--and will never be accurately portrayed in the media until Native Americans are integral parts of the production and creative teams that tell stories about individuals, not a monolithic Indian people.

There will probably always be ridiculous portrayals of Native American culture in entertainment, but for some, this felt like a precedent.

Maybe this headline-grabbing Native American uprising will end up making filmmakers think twice next time--even for a fleeting moment. Or maybe inspire more Native American actors to bypass Hollywood and start creating and promoting their own authentic content.

This would be, at least, a start.Listen Up Hollywood: It’s Time To Let Native Americans Tell ‘Our Own Stories In Our Own Words’

"I would love as a Native actress to be able to go out and audition for the lead in a superhero film."

Comment:  For more on Adam Sandler, see Ricky Lee Defends Ridiculous 6 and Adam Sandler's History of Racism.

Student contemplates suicide over Chief Illiniwek

Native American student writes letter to UI administration in an effort to ban the Chief

By Megan JonesAs depicted in a letter sent to University administration last week, Xochitl Sandoval, a Native American student, struggles everyday with the remnants of the University’s former mascot: Chief Illiniwek.

While administrators stopped supporting the Chief in 2007, students and the local community have continued to keep the mascot alive with apparel, accessories and unofficial appearances of the Chief at sporting events. Additionally, the Chief’s performance music, such as the “Three in One,” still plays at sporting events.

“I don’t go to sports events because I know that that is where pro-Chief people will be congregating at and where they will be playing the music,” Sandoval, a senior in LAS, said. “I see Chief T-shirts and even though the official symbol has been removed, there are still people who are able to get their hands on the official logo, and every year Unofficial always has some kind of spin on the Chief.”

Sandoval struggles with the lingering mascot, specifically in regard to the “disrespect and racism” the mascot represents to her.Indigenous Student Discusses Public Suicide Over Chief Illiniwek Pain

By Vincent SchillingAn indigenous student has written an open letter to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign administrators and all indigenous and Native peoples of the world saying she wants to commit suicide. She says she would use a gun on the school’s quad because of the painful burden she experiences in dealing with the Chief Illiniwek mascot.

Xochitl Sandoval, an indigenous student at the university, posted the letter on Facebook and explains that the letter is very personal and sacred and about her life and the legacy of disrespect and racism towards herself and the indigenous people who lived on this land and who continue to bear the unbelievable burden of having to fight for respect.

In a conversation with Sandoval, she said she has no plans to harm herself, but she was at her last wit’s end and thought, “What else can I do? I will condense my lived experience in a letter since nothing else has changed.”

In the letter Sandoval states the following:

“On March 11, I had the thought that I should commit suicide. On March 11, 2014, I specifically thought ‘blow your brains out on the quad.’ My process was as follows: Write a letter to Mr. Jamie (the UIUC Director of the Native American House) and explain that this whole Chief situation was so unbearable, and the apathy on behalf of Administration so painful, that it was obvious that nothing was going to change. Maybe suicide was the way. I would then purchase a gun, load it, go onto the quad, stand facing Union, bring the gun up to my temple, and pull the trigger.

Maybe by committing suicide, you, Chancellor Phyllis Wise, the Board of Trustees, and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Administration will realize that no, I am not exaggerating about the emotional, physical and spiritual pain that seeing the former-yet-still-lingering Chief mascot has on me.”

Alaska documentary on Native suicide

Alaska Documentary Takes Up-Close Look at Suicide Among Natives

By Mary Beth Smetzer“In a landscape as dramatic as its stories, Alaska Native people face staggering suicide rates, yet remain determined to heal and thrive.”

So begins the description of “We Breathe Again,” a documentary film in progress on Kickstarter.com, an Internet funding platform for creative projects.

“We Breathe Again, Heartbreak & Hope in Alaska,” is a collaboration between Gwanzhii LLC, the Indigenous Leadership Institute and Crawl Walk Run, whose principals form a tight-knit team that began filming more than a year ago in several locations around the state.

To date, the project has been funded with a lot of volunteer hours by numerous people and a couple of individual donors.

The group is seeking a project goal of $15,000 on Kickstarter.com to help finance another six months of filming to create a feature-length film for television and the theater.Comment:  For more on Native suicide, see Anti-Suicide Campaign at Lakota College and Bucher's Free Anti-Suicide Concert.

Anti-suicide campaign at Lakota college

Native Sun News: Lakota College students inspire hope for youth

By Karin Eagle“What does hope look like to you?”

The introduction to business class at Oglala Lakota College in Pine Ridge posed that question to hundreds of young Lakota people, then asked them to take a picture of their answers. The results were staggering to the organizers of the project, aptly named the Lakota Voice Project.

Jason Alley, creative director and principal of Message and board member of the Black Hills Chapter of the American Advertising Federation, both based out of Rapid City, approached the class with the challenge of developing an advertising campaign that could enact change in their community. The idea was simple, on the part of Alley: Let the class research, plan and develop the campaign with the mentorship of Alley and his group.

The class itself, comprised of Lakota college students, came to an almost immediate agreement that the suicide prevention movement should be the focus of the campaign. Hundreds of disposable cameras were handed out to reservation schools with that one question–“What does hope look like to you?”–as the only instruction.

This collection of photos will figure prominently in a suicide awareness campaign set to be launched in the fall by the Sweetgrass Project, the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s suicide prevention program.

The photographs were presented to the public on the evening of June 22 at the Little Wound Elementary School auditorium. The class participated in the creation of the displays, which featured larger-than-life banners with some of the more poignant photographs. Long streamers of photographs linked together in two-sided fashion formed the centerpiece.Comment:  We stopped here June 25 during my visit to South Dakota. The place was almost deserted--perhaps because it was a Lakota holiday, or the spring term was over, or it was late in the day. Probably the holiday, I guess.

The point here is one I make all the time. If you're depicting life on the rez--e.g., Children of the Plains or SCALPED--by all means show us the dark side. Show us the poverty, crime, substance abuse, and suicide.

But don't show only that. Show that people are aware of the problems and fighting them. Don't show that they've given up and lost; show that they're trying to win.

For instance, I imagine there are dozens of efforts to combat the suicide epidemic. You can show a montage of anti-suicide efforts, or you can show one as an example and allude to the others. Whatever you do, show that the problems aren't beyond hope.

Artistically speaking, if you devote 50% of the time to the problem and 50% to the solution(s), I'd say that's fair. Children of Plains didn't quite meet that standard. It was more like 60-40 or 70-30.

SCALPED isn't anywhere in the ballpark. If it's ever shown a majority of its fictional population doing anything positive--participating in a Sun Dance, going to college, or battling suicide--I must've missed it. Its negative portrayal of rez life is badly stereotypical.

Showing only the negative side is an exmaple of "poverty porn." You're showing the negative to gain sympathy (Children of the Plains) or titillate the audience (SCALPED). What you aren't doing is presenting a realistic portrait of both sides.

A one-sided portrayal is stereotypical even if it's technically accurate. It may depict the problem accurately, but the problem is only half the equation. The missing half makes rez life look more ugly, depressed, and savage than it really is.

In other words, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. SCALPED's stereotypical depiction of rez life is a great example of this.

For more on the subject, see Economic Development on Pine Ridge and Kristof's Pine Ridge Column.

Below:  "From left, Pte Ska Win Poor Bear, Lyle Pilcher and Jason Alley discussing the Lakota Voice Project photo exhibit in Kyle June 22." (Karin Eagle)

Bucher's free anti-suicide concert

Michael Bucher to Perform Free Concert in Name of Native Youth SuicideTwo-time Nammy winning Cherokee folk artist Michael Bucher will perform and speak to residents and community members on the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) Reservation in Hayward, Wisconsin on October 6. The free concert and presentation is dedicated to Native youth who are battling their struggle with suicide.

Bucher’s most recent album “Believe,” similarly in honor of children throughout Indian Country fighting against suicidal thoughts, won Best Folk Recording at the 12th Annual Native American Music Awards. The CD had been nominated in five categories for this year’s Nammy’s, which was held on November 12 at the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, New York.

As an artist known for his performances that combine reactionary folk music and informative storytelling, he will also be telling Native Youth and other members of the LCO community about the You Are Not Alone Network (YANAN), a new online social media and suicide resource website founded in part by Bucher and created to help put a stop to Native teen suicide, reported Schilling Media, Inc.

“I’m looking forward to traveling to the LCO Reservation to speak and play a few songs and for the opportunity to talk about the You Are Not Alone Network,” Bucher said.Comment:  For more on Bucher, see Tribute to Cash's Bitter Tears and Dirty Water at Bear Butte.

Goodall tackles Native suicide

Jane Goodall And the Rise of the Planet of the Chimps

By John JurgensenA new documentary film, “Jane’s Journey,” covers these chapters, but also takes the story back to Goodall’s childhood in England, where she rooted in the family garden and doted on a stuffed monkey named Jubilee. Her later scientific breakthroughs, including her discoveries that chimps were not vegetarians and used rudimentary tools, are noted in the movie, but the emphasis is on her current work through the non-profit Jane Goodall Institute. In the movie she helps bring a youth conservation program to an Indian reservation in South Dakota, where a rash of youth suicides had hit the Oglala Sioux Tribe.And:How did you, as a primatologist, end up at the Pine Ridge Reservation, trying to address a very human problem, teen suicide?

Flying over the Gombe national park in 1991, I realized that outside this tiny 30-square mile patch, all the trees were gone. More people than the land could support. Terrible poverty. That led to us to forming a program where the people created a buffer around the park. To make conversation work, you have to work with people and get them to be your partners. What’s the point of saving forests if we’re not educating young people? Our Roots and Shoots program, which is young people choosing projects to make the world better, is now in 120 countries. From pre-school right through university. I thought, the program is working so well in Africa, why wouldn’t it work on an Indian reservation? It makes perfect sense once you look.Comment:  For more on Native suicide, see Anti-Suicide Arts Workshop and Oprah Network Funds Suicide Prevention.

Below:  "British primatologist Jane Goodall holds a speech while sitting next to a toy monkey at the town hall in Hamburg, on September 3, 2011." (Christian Charisius/AFP/Getty Images)

Anti-suicide arts workshop

Tribal youth using digital media to battle silent epidemic:  suicide

By Tom BanseTribal member Sarah Hull has felt the same shock, not just once, but multiple times. The 16-year-old goes to school off-reservation in suburban Gresham, Oregon.

"I know from personal experience living in a Native American community and being around people, depression is really common because for a lot of people it's hard to find your way to your culture or find your way to a certain passion when you don't who you are and you're confused," Hull says.

Sarah's mother says there've been times she could feel "danger in the air." The family has found an antidote in music.

Hull's music is part of an anti-suicide, healthy living workshop put on by the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board. The regional agency invited 60 students from different tribes throughout the Northwest to come to Portland for a week ... supported by a federal grant.

Suicide prevention coordinator Colbie Caughlan says the staff wanted help crafting health promotion messages that resonate with young people.

"Youth learn from youth," Caughlan says. "That's what has happened forever."

Conference organizers arranged presentations about suicide warning signs and healthy, drug free living. Then they set the young people loose with video camera, drawing paper, notebooks or a music producer.

Eventually, the hope is to move the resulting material online and unleash a wave of positive social networking media.Comment:  For more on Native suicide prevention, see Oprah Network Funds Suicide Prevention and Native Band Plays to Prevent Suicide.

Oprah Network funds suicide prevention

Oprah’s Angel Saves Lives:  Jeremiah Simmons Leads Suicide Prevention on the Mescalero Apache Indian ReservationThe Oprah Network recently visited Jeremiah Simmons on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in south central New Mexico, where he serves as the program coordinator for the Suicide Prevention Team at Mescalero Apache High School. He is featured in a video posted May 24 on the Oprah Show website as part of the education tribute for Oprah’s Farewell TV series.

Back in 2000, Simmons received a $25,000 scholarship through Oprah’s Angel Network, awarded to the Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year representative for New Mexico. “This scholarship was really my gateway to escaping the cycles of poverty, despair and hopelessness that tend to keep some of the young people down,” says Simmons, who is of Lakota and Navajo heritage, although he considers himself Mescalero, “because I grew up with their culture and traditions.”Comment:  For more on Native suicide, see Roger:  Let Indians Commit Suicide and Native Band Plays to Prevent Suicide.

Roger: Let Indians commit suicide

Another day, another entry in the Rand/Stossel termination agenda for Indians:

American Indians Putting Faith in Government 'Help'?

By Chuck RogerIn New Mexico's state capitol, a local newspaper reports that Santa Fe Indian School students are "watching with bated breath" for Governor Susana Martinez to sign a bill that would create "culturally sensitive programs" designed "to help Native American communities deal with teen suicides."

The situation is tragic on two levels.

First, the high suicide rate attests to social problems endemic in Indian communities. But the second tragedy is even worse, for it compounds the first. No one, especially American Indians, should put faith in government to "deal with" anything, much less something as horrible as suicide. Government has consistently worsened the plight of the Indians with poverty-perpetuating, will-weakening, assimilation-discouraging "help."

The bill in question, sponsored by a Democrat state senator, would also provide resources to address general mental health issues of New Mexico's Indians. The effort would typify the emotional liberal response to problems like the ills that afflict Indian communities.

It doesn't seem to occur to liberals that the solution to social problems in isolated communities could be to end the isolation. Psychologists have understood for decades that increased self-reliance, encouraged by the rewards earned by self-reliant people, has the power to eliminate depression. Yet big-government liberals incessantly fall back on feel-good but ineffective "interventions" orchestrated by governmental central planners.Comment:  No doubt you recognize the key codewords here: End the isolation. Stop discouraging assimilation. In other words, Indians should give up their land, their reservations, and their sovereignty. They should forget about the treaty rights that guarantee them certain benefits.

It doesn't matter what the Constitution and various court decisions say. We stripped them of their land, cultures, languages, and religions. Now let's strip them of the money that was supposed to compensate them. They're only "dirty redskins," so who cares if we rob them twice? We'll rob them as many times as it takes until they shrivel up and die.

Pay close attention to what this Jolly Roger is saying. Indians are suffering high rates of suicide, but let's do nothing to help them. Maybe they'll help themselves and maybe they won't. If they don't, problem solved. Once they're dead we can take their remaining land and resources without listening to them whine about their "rights."

This is pure social Darwinism: survival of the fittest. Those that overcome depression on their own deserve to live; those that don't deserve to die. Roger is more concerned about his free-market ideology than saving actual lives. If self-reliance isn't the cure-all he thinks it is...oh, well, they're only savages. No big loss to humanity.

Rugged individualists kill themselves

Roger reguritates his free-market propaganda without a shred of evidence except a vague reference to psychologists. This is anti-intellectual, asinine nonsense for several reasons.

1) We could point to many, many government programs that work for all Americans. The military. Water and electricity provision. Homeland security. The highway system. Food inspections. The air-traffic system. Public universities. National, state, and local parks. Public libraries. Home mortgage deductions. Student loans. Etc., etc., etc.

Roger says we shouldn't put faith in government to "deal with" anything. Does he really think we should privatize our troops, our highways, and our libraries? Or is he too stupid to realize that government does many things well? (Social Security has lower costs than comparable private programs, for instance.)

2) Roger obviously knows nothing about suicide. Guess which states have the highest suicide rates?

Ranking America's Mental Health:  An Analysis of Depression Across the StatesIn terms of 2004 suicide rates, the District of Columbia was the lowest, followed by New York and Massachusetts. Alaska had the highest suicide rate, followed by Nevada and New Mexico.Here are the ten most suicidal states:

West Virginia
Arizona
Colorado
Utah
Idaho
Wyoming
Montana
New Mexico
Nevada
Alaska

Colorado and New Mexico are arguably swing states, but every other state on the list is solidly conservative. These are exactly the states where people are supposedly rugged individualists. Where people supposedly hate the nanny state--when they're not receiving subsidies for their water, grazing, or mineral rights, that is--and rely on themselves. To put it bluntly, self-reliant people have the highest suicide rates in America.

It's not hard to understand why. Struggling to survive on your own is tough. The cure for feelings of loneliness and isolation isn't more loneliness and isolation. It's a caring web of social connections--the kind memorialized in the phrase "It takes a village."

Not everyone can live up to America's cowboy standard: the "virtue" embodied in John Wayne and Ronald Reagan. If you lived in a conservative state where they preached God and family while people lied and cheated, you'd feel whipsawed by the hypocrisy also. If it was bad enough, you might become depressed or suicidal too.

Suicide prevention works

3) Roger obviously knows nothing about suicide prevention programs, either. An article appearing the same day outlines the facts Roger is ignorant of:

Response plan needed on suicide epidemicMontanans may never know exactly what caused the spike in suicides among the youth of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation--but we have a good idea of how to stop it.

The first step is to urge the U.S. Public Health Service to return to the reservation and provide much-needed counseling and mental health care. The next step is to see to it that these services are available to Fort Peck families on a long-term basis as part of a comprehensive safety net that catches these kids well before they fall through the cracks.

The heartbreaking spate of suicides by Native American children in Montana reached horrendous levels last school year, when five Poplar Middle School children killed themselves and 20 more students attempted suicide on the Fort Peck reservation.

Assiniboine and Sioux leaders recognized the situation for what it is--a crisis--and in response to their crisis declaration, federal emergency teams came to the reservation to shore up mental health services, study the situation and make some recommendations.

And for 90 days, there were no suicides.Duhhh. Unless you're a stupid twit, you know that mental health problems aren't solved with "self-reliance." They're solved with mental health services that require money. These services help military veterans with PTSD and they help others the same way.

If you think they don't work, let's throw our traumatized soldiers out on their asses and let them fend for themselves. If this treatment is good enough for Indians, it's good enough for everyone.

Sheesh.

For conservatives like Roger who are ignorant of American history, we've tried allocating the Indians' land...forcing them to assimilate...and terminating their tribes. None of these policies worked. Don't take my word for it, dumbasses, look it up in the historical record. Stop pontificating about your ivory-tower theories and start dealing with reality.

There's no proven connection between government services for military veterans, the elderly, or women with children and suicide rates. There's no proven connection between government services for Indians and suicide rates, either. If "unearned" money made people weak and helpless, millions of trust-fund babies would be committing suicide. That's obviously not the case.

For more on the subject, see

Didier:  Stop protecting the weak
Tea Party leader posts racist "satire"
Why Americans hate welfare
Capitalism gets comeuppance
Westerners = freeloaders

Below:  Cowboy Bush grows weak and helpless living off government handouts (his presidential pension).

Native band plays to prevent suicide

Indigenous band Broken Walls to hold concert for suicide preventionInternationally acclaimed indigenous band Broken Walls will perform a live concert today to raise suicide prevention and wellness awareness. The concert will be at Door of Hope Church, 270 Fairhill Road at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

In addition, they will join Bill Pagaran of Carry the Cure and Guy Peters of Alaska Vision on a journey to five villages along the Iditarod Trail to host school assemblies, men’s groups and evening concerts. The purpose is to talk about suicide, raise wellness awareness and bring a message of hope. The villages are: Tanana, Galena, Unalakleet, White Mountain and Nome.

Broken Walls hails from Canada. They are a NAMMY nominee, six time Aboriginal Music Awards nominee and are an internationally known Native American band. Broken Walls, will share their music and messages that bring hope, restoration and unity to indigenous people throughout the world. They share a traditional and contemporary blend of Native American music and dance, along with workshops and powerful messages and stories, that promote healthy lifestyles, unity and an understanding of “contextual” worship.Comment:  For more anti-suicide efforts, see JR Redwater Battles Suicide Rate and Comics to the Rescue!

Hunters and warriors lose power

Traditional roles for Arctic women changing faster than climate

By Gustaf Klarin"During the past 20 to 30 years, women have increasingly abandoned the role of the traditional housewife of the hunting and trapping husband," says Katrine Nathanielsen from the 8th of March Group. "Women are getting educations and making money while men are stagnating."

"This can lead to conflicts between men and women when the gender roles change, when the proud but poorly educated hunter loses status," says Inge Olesen Brandt, who serves on Greenland's council for equality. "And this can lead both to suicides among men and domestic violence against women."

The climate has been steadily warming in Greenland during the past ten years. And in the Greenland debate, the traditional lifestyle is depicted as the loser now that the climate is changing. This is because the traditional culture is based on hunting with dog sleds, and when no snow falls and the ice does not form, the hunters can no longer support themselves. This is also an image that has spread internationally.

But social changes and altered gender roles are a greater threat to the old culture than changes to the climate according to Rasmus Ole Rasmusen at the Nordic Council's research institute Nordrigio. Young people, primarily younger women, are not especially interested in conforming to the traditional male-dominated culture, where the man hunts and the woman takes care of the home, the children and the spoils of the hunt. And when there is a shortage of women, it is difficult to maintain the hunting and trapping culture.Comment:  What I find interesting here is the interplay of the tangible and intangible. The tangible includes things like global warming and technological changes that free women to leave their homes and become educated. The intangible includes things like image and status.

It starts with Arctic Native men adhering to the traditional hunter image: the lone Eskimo on his dogsled braving the elements with his harpoon. It's an image they and the world helped create, promote, and affirm: the Arctic equivalent of the mighty Indian warrior.



But external forces challenge this stereotypical self-image. Men start losing power and prestige. Women with increased options start rejecting the old lifestyle. Men cling to the past to define their self-worth. Women start leaving, men start getting angry or depressed. The outcomes of this downward spiral are predictable: alcoholism and drug abuse, crime and domestic violence, and suicide.

This isn't just happening in the Arctic, of course. It's happening on Indian reservations, in American cities, and in cultures around the world. I suspect one could find the same pattern wherever traditions are breaking down because of social and technological change. Namely:

Men lose status and power => men lash out at women and society => those who can't adapt or escape self-destruct via drugs/violence/suicide

The world's self-proclaimed macho men are fighting a losing battle to retain their age-old status. I'm sure this has a lot to do with everyone from angry Islamic fundamentalists to angry Christian fundamentalists. In America, as I've said many times, the multicultural future is challenging the white supremacist past. Teabaggers and other rabid conservatives are mad as hell precisely because liberals, feminists, and minorities are threatening their manhood power.



Brains needed, not brawn

This is one reason I criticize the warrior stereotype--even when Indians deem it a noble and honorable tradition. Mighty warriors were a good thing when people actually had to hunt and kill to survive. But those days ended a century or two ago with the dawn of the industrial age.

Now you don't get much credit for being stronger and tougher than your enemy (or your family). Today people with brains routinely defeat people with brawn. Being the best fighter or killer entitles you to be a ditchdigger, gang member, or prison inmate--nothing more.

For more on the subject, see:

Male warriors and female princesses
(Native) soldiers aren't heroes
Weaponized drone = Indian savage
The way of the "Orrier"
Alexie on warriors
Gang culture in Indian country
Indians join military for paycheck?

Below:  The stereotypical Indian warrior: an outdated relic of the past in more ways than one.

JR Redwater battles suicide rate

Laughter and Suicide

Accidents and suicide are the leading causes of death among young Native Americans. And brazen humor may get to the heart of the problem.

By Mary Annette PemberThe fight against the high rates of suicide among Indian people has found a seemingly unlikely champion in Lakota comedian J.R. Redwater. JR performed recently at Cankdeska Cikana Community College on the Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota as part of their suicide prevention program. A member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, JR’s take-no-prisoners approach to poking fun at reservation life has a poignant ring of first hand experience. Clearly, as my auntie would have said, “he’s been dragged across a few floors,” in his life.

Born and raised on the rez, he tells the audience, “Hey, I’ve been through it all. Drugs, alcohol, sexual abuse. I’ve been abandoned and physically abused.” The topics might seem too dark and inappropriate for tonight’s audience of youngsters and adults, but JR knows that these rez kids, like himself, have been through it all. His message is simple yet profound. The act of publicly telling his truth and laughing in its face sends the message that Indian people can be proud and successful no matter what has happened to them.Comment:  For more on the subject, see All About JR Redwater.

Below:  "Comedian J.R. Redwater brings serious hilarity to Cankdeska Cikana Community College, Ft. Totten, North Dakota." (Mary Annette Pember)

Gangs, suicide, and stereotypes

National gang expert: Gang life, reservation suicides linked

By Dirk LammersGang activity and teen suicide on American Indian reservations need to be addressed together, according to a national gang expert who says there's a strong connection between the two problems.

Christopher Cuestas with the National Violence Prevention Resource Center spoke Thursday to a gathering of tribal members and legal and law enforcement officers during a "tribal listening conference" hosted by U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson.

Cuestas said that once a gang emerges in a community, the group establishes itself by recruiting and indoctrinating members. A gang during this stage will dovetail the community's risk factors, which for Indian reservations include drugs, alcohol, poverty and unemployment--the same ones linked to teen suicide.Comment:  I think stereotypes are connected to both gang activity and teen suicide. First, there's the culture-wide pressure to achieve: to keep up with the Joneses, to be no. 1. Then there's the particular Native pressure to be a man and a warrior: strong, proud, stoic. This is stoked by countless media stereotypes portraying Indians as mighty chiefs and braves.

To prove your toughness, you join with a gang. Gangs practically exist so youngsters can flaunt their machismo to each other. And if you can't prove yourself in a gang, you give up. You commit suicide because you feel worthless and hopeless.

For more on the subject, see Tribalism = Solution, Not Problem and Gang Culture in Indian Country.

Mills almost committed suicide

Mills:  Perceptions of others can break you, but pursuing dreams healsEarlier in his running career, a newspaper photographer had asked Mills to step out of a group shot of cross-country runners, even though he had been named the Division I champion. A Canadian runner interceded on Mills' behalf, saying if Mills wasn't part of the portrait he wouldn't pose either.

This experience would be repeated the next year and the following year, too.

It was at this time, Mills went to his hotel room stood on a window ledge and closed his eyes. Swaying next to the glass, he considered ending his life.

The perception being that he, an Oglala Lakota, was not quite good enough.

"Perceptions almost broke me," he said.Comment:  Recall that Mills is a motivational speaker who generally accentuates the positive. The reality of his life was probably worse than what he revealed here.

This anecdote is a testament to the terrible power of racism and stereotyping. If a successful athlete considered suicide, you can imagine why a battered spouse or neglected child might commit suicide.

For more on the subject, see The Harm of Native Stereotyping:  Facts and Evidence.

Comics to the rescue!

Superhero flying to the rescue of native youthSuicide is a scourge among young aboriginals. But a new superhero, with eagle feathers in his hair and a red, white and blue suit that hugs his chiselled body, is flying in to the rescue.

His name is Wesakechak, named after the mythical shape-shifter and protector in Cree legends. But he's been updated for the 21st century with a flying motorcycle, superhuman strength and put inside a comic book now being distributed across the country for aboriginal youth.