At the Indian gaming convention

Pix of the 2006 NIGA convention:

NIGA--Apr. 4-6, 2006

The quintessential Western?

The Worst Best MovieThe Searchers, John Ford's epic 1956 Western, is a film geek's paradise: It is preposterous in its plotting, spasmodic in its pacing, unfunny in its hijinks, bipolar in its politics, alternately sodden and convulsive in its acting, not to mention boring. Impossible to enjoy, and yet not as obviously medicinal as, say, The Spirit of the Beehive, The Searchers segregates the initiated from the uninitiated; and so it is widely considered, by the initiated, at least, to be among the four or five best movies of all time.

Coming to The Searchers for the first time, I was surprised at how fidgeted-together this supposedly great film is, how weird its quilting is, of unregenerate violence with doltish comic set pieces, all pitched against Ford's signature backdrop, the buttes and spires of Monument Valley. Though visually magnificent, the movie is otherwise off-putting to the contemporary sensibility, what with its when men were men, and women were hysterics mythos and an acting style that often appears frozen in tintype.

Indian gaming = sleaze?

Pizzo column:  "Indian Gaming:  More Corrupt Than Ever"

Indians fleecing the government?

Indians want "$13 billion plus interest" of taxpayers' money

Pirates parodies Indians

The new Pirates of the Caribbean is out and so are the reviews. Apparently, Caribbean Indians appear in only one segment, but it sounds about as bad as people feared. Let's see how mainstream reviewers, who ignored the blatant stereotyping, described it:

Depp revives iconic swashbucklerThe film's comic highlights come out of a sequence in which Sparrow believes he's become the king of a tribe of island cannibals, not realizing that the feast they're preparing will feature him as the main course.Pirates of the Caribbean:  Dead Man's ChestPanicked that he'll be sunk by Jones' pet sea monster, Sparrow grounds his ship, the Black Pearl, on a remote island populated by cannibals. While Sparrow sets himself up as the tribe's king, his crew is imprisoned in round cages hanging above a gorge.

The escape of Sparrow, who becomes a kind of human shish kebab, and the crew members, who run with their feet sticking out of the cages like a pack of Fred Flintstones, scores pretty high on the fun-o-meter.Pirates of the Caribbean:  Dead Man's Chest[T]here's a cannibalistic tribe that's mostly played for laughs despite presenting a necklace of severed toes.'Pirates' sequel entertaining, lively--and exhaustingOther entertaining new elements in "Chest" include a tribe of cannibals that speaks a language that's apparently made up of goofy double-entendres and flat-out gibberish ("ooboogie snickle snickle" is one of their phrases).Yo-Ho-HumThere is one scene where Sparrow is captured by the aforementioned islanders and speaks to them in the sort of condescending nativespeak you'd expect to hear from Johnny Weissmuller in the old Tarzan movies.

An Emmy for Spielberg?

Into the West, Grey's Anatomy, 24 lead EmmysFast-paced thriller 24, starring Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland, won 12 nominations at the 58th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards, in a race that relied mainly on tried-and-true prime time programming.

However, the leading nominee, with 16 nods, is the miniseries Into the West, an epic about the opening of the American West, produced by Steven Spielberg for the Turner Network. Shot partly in Alberta, it has earned acclaim for artistic direction and cinematography.Comment:  Best art direction or cinematography? Maybe. Best miniseries? No way.

See Into the Archetypal West for my thoughts on this problematical series.

Dutch mutant Lone Ranger and Tonto

Arendsoog (Eagle Eye) and White Feather

French Lakota super-sorcerer

Some Indian comic-book characters from across the Atlantic:

OzarkPOWERS: Master magician capable of using a variety of spells to achieve a number of physical and supernatural effects, such as the "Light of Kelios" to see through illusions and lies, and the Shield of Kronan to prortect himself against supernatural attacks. Telepathic communication with Mustang.

WEAPONRY: Mustang (sacred horse embodying the mystic powers of the Lakota), Wa-Tan-Peh's amulet.

BIOGRAPHY: A dying shaman, Wa-Tan-Peh, gave young Lakota Russell Red Horse, nicknamed Ozark (because he was raised in the Ozark Mountains), a magic amulet that enabled him to summon Mustang, the sacred horse who is the mystic embodiment of his people.

Spear gets a goose egg

A critic gives the 2006 movie End of the Spear a 0 of 10 rating:Christian fantasy and discrimination. "Our way is better and everyone else is going to hell." And I'm SICK of that philosophy!!!!

This movie doesn't even want to admit that the Natives have their own beliefs and religions. It paints Christianity as the only salvation for people. It paints the Natives as savage murderers and Christians as non-violent hero's. However, some contradictory things come to mind like the Crusades, Reverend Colonel Chivington, Manifest Destiny, etc.

Biting an Indian apple

Waffling Warrior

The Editrix disses David Yeagley, a conservative Comanche who thinks he's the last true Indian warrior.

Who cares what the Founding Fathers would do?

WWFFD?  Who cares?The Constitution produced by the founding fathers lacked the enlightenment of some of the colonial charters of several generations earlier, most notably the laws of Pennsylvania that barred slavery, refused to raise militias and insisted on fair-minded treaties with Indians. Benjamin Franklin despised these "Quaker laws" of his colony and even published a pamphlet denouncing the Pennsylvania Assembly for not sending young men to fight the French and Indians.

Slavery was the most celebrated flaw of the founding fathers, but they also set the stage for the genocide of about 10 million American Indians and did not even entirely reject colonialism. They believed that it was wrong to tax colonists who did not have representation in the legislature, but the tax, not the lack of representation, was the grievance. They were affluent men of property, and they hated paying taxes. Ironically, they repeatedly used words like "enslavement" and "slavery" to criticize taxes while at the same time accepting real slavery.

Native children need Native languages

Educators seek grants for language programsEnglish-only is not foreign to American Indians. Boarding schools of the 19th century attempted to eradicate the languages by requiring all students to speak English. But people spoke the language in their homes, and today the standard profile shows fewer than 100 language speakers in some tribes and very few with fluency below the age of 70, Kipp said.

Wilson said what is intriguing is the fact that students who attend language immersion schools compete better than those who attend traditional western academic programs.

"We can make a case that this [western education] has failed Indian country--why not look at alternatives to western styles? It is proven [western education] hasn't worked for our kids. The onus is on us as leaders to advance to the forefront to Indian education those sets of practices of learning styles."Comment:  Clearly, we need more Native-themed reading products, including comic books. For one approach to the problem, see my Tribal Language and Cultural Preservation Proposal.

Dolphins are people, too

On the dolphin sculptures of Bud Bottoms (father of actor Timothy):

Saved by DolphinsBottoms' own belief system has a distinct California cast to it, weaving his love for the outdoors (Thoreau his idol) with American Indian rituals and mythology. Add to this his well-honed salesman's instincts and you have just the right man for the ever-competitive battle in the public sculpting arena. One of his most successful selling tools has been the handy Chumash legend of the Rainbow Bridge. In it the Earth Mother takes pity on her clumsy children, who, while traveling said bridge from Santa Cruz Island to the mainland, lose their footing and fall into the sea. At this point Mom turns them into dolphins, which are thereafter one miracle from being "people."

No holiday for Indians

Tribes take their place in nationWhy are there some disgruntled feelings? The Declaration of Independence says "that all men were created equal and that all were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" but it didn't seem to apply to many of the American Indians, blacks and other ethnic groups.

Those disgruntled feelings are understandable. In my search for historical information about the glories of the Fourth of July, I came across an article written by Chris Mato Nunpa, Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, Minn. He gathered together many quotes and phrases of Presidents Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson and Van Buren that would cause some Native people to stump the ground. I, too, ran across many of these quotes as I was researching a book about the history of the Sahnish (Arikara) people.For more on the subject, see Fun 4th of July Facts.

Reagan, Peltier, and Dr. Phil

Last year, when the Discovery Channel picked the "100 Greatest Americans," it didn't include a single Native. And when activist Terri Jean conducted a survey to find the greatest Native American, the winner was Leonard Peltier.

Read about the twin travesties at Ronald Reagan...the Greatest American?

More on the problems with Little Tree

The Education of Little Tree and Forrest CarterHuhndorf explains how this helps to reinforce Carter's own white supremacist views: "By poignantly relating this story [of the Trail of Tears] and by defining Natives, quite literally, as children of nature, the narrative raises an important problem: the legitimacy of white Southerners' claims to the lands previously occupied by the Cherokees and, by extension, white ownership of any Native lands. Like Gone to Texas, though, The Education of Little Tree immediately attempts to resolve this problem to the benefit of white Southerners by distorting historical facts. Those Cherokees who fled to the mountains during the removal, as the novel tells the story, found fast friends among the mountain folk . . . . [The novel] imagines a 'kinship' between the outlaw and the Natives: both Confederates and Indians ostensibly share both common values and a common enemy in the 'guvmint' that dispossesses and otherwise persecutes them . . . . these similarities between mountain folk and Indians ultimately render the former the proper heirs of Indian land and, in this particular case, the proper heirs even of Native cultures and identities as well" (152-53).

Desert plants used by California's Indians

Gardens of the Huntington Library--Mar. 19, 2006

Whale-watching in Chumash territory

Santa Barbara/Ventura--Jan. 8, 2006

Mini-comic soars as graphic novel

Magic, Myth and Mystery in the Frozen Lands of the Raven's ChildrenThe story is really what has always set Raven's Children above the rest of the mini-comics pack. It's a sprawling, historical epic with occasional bits of fantasy and science fiction thrown in for good measure. Inspired by the Inuit Tribes of Alaska and Northern Canada, Layla has meticulously crafted a handful of dynamic societies and set them at odds with each other in an ongoing clash over territory and cultural differences.

Raven's Children is as grand and sweeping as Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels. Like much of McCaffrey's work, Layla uses science fiction and fantasy elements as backdrop, but the important elements of the story are the characters. She's figured out how to make fully realized people from different and sometimes diametrically opposed cultures come to life by merely setting pen to paper. She's packed the story so densely with real characters that you almost don't realize that the whole story takes place on another planet.

Comment:  I just heard about this comic-book saga, even though it's been around for several years. It sounds great.

Indians know stereotyping

Stereotyping--beyond political correctnessAs American Indians know, we are probably the "poster children" of stereotyping. True, many stereotyping comments come out of the mouths of people who are unaware of the culture and lifestyles of tribal nations, but sincerely want to learn, it must be said. They are good people who do not mean to offend and would be shocked to think they have offended.

I have to smile at this point when I think about some of the questions and comments I heard in my travels around the nation. "Tell us about the teepees you live in." "Who is your medicine man?" And my favorite: "I have a relative who was a Indian princess." These may be stereotypes, but they also are from people who may be merely uninformed. I take such comments lightly.

But words such as savage (or adding "Fighting" to the name of a tribal group), buck, squaw and papoose do not bring to mind the same images as do the words man, soldier or baby. Those, I do not take lightly.