Landover satirizes "Injun sin"

Local Injuns Ordered to Stay Away From Thanksgiving Festivities

Local Holiday Action AlertFreehold, Iowa--Each year local savages in our God-fearing community insist on playing a role in our historical retelling of the true story of Thanksgiving at Landover Baptist Church. Each year, by the grace of God, they are turned down, told to back away, and arrested, if need be. "Before anyone starts in," Pastor Deacon Fred tells the media, "Let's make it clear that that we hold no hatred toward the Injun people, even though they committed hate crimes against the wonderful Christian folks who founded our country. As decent Christians, we love them dearly, convenience permitting. Quite frankly, it is Injun sin that we hate. We hate alcohol, drug use, foul language, loitering, cheating, stealing, lying, gambling, horseplay, lewd attire, the flinging of feces, misuse of leather goods, jewelry on men, and long hair on men who don't kill themselves for our sins. If we were to let Injuns into our festivities, and onto our properties, it would be like welcoming the Devil into Heaven. It is nothing against the Injun people. It is against who they are and what they promote as a people. Our Godly church will not taint our respectable Christian image with such an obvious and abhorrent association. Praise the sweet and living name of our precious savior, Jesus Christ! Amen!"

Downtown Freehold and areas near the Landover Baptist Church are Iowa state and private Baptist properties. Injuns have crawled out of their trailers and casinos, high on dope, and drunk on moonshine. They stay drunk all year and sober up for one day, Thanksgiving, and assume lily-white Christian folks will have pity on their wretched souls, and roll out the red carpet. They lay on our streets and sidewalks in protest. They lobby for a demonic presence at our local Thanksgiving Play, they insist on being invited, even though they are unsaved, like their Satan-worshipping ancestors. "Landover Baptist's Two Tons of Turkey and Trimmings Feast on the Lawn is a Godly event, for God’s people," says Pastor Deacon Fred. "And these Injuns spread their germs and venomous lies to corrupt the minds of local youth.

Pastor Deacon Fred presented this question to the town council recently, "Why would we want the descendants of a people who murdered the Godly Christian Pilgrims who came in peace to this country to have an equal seat at our table?"Before you get outraged:

Landover Baptist ChurchThe Landover Baptist Church is a fictional Baptist church based in the fictional town of Freehold, Iowa. The Landover Baptist web site and its associated Landoverbaptist.net Forum are a satire of fundamentalist Christianity and the Religious Right in the United States.Comment:  Years ago I posted a couple items from the Landover site in my Stereotype of the Month contest:

Website uses "Injun" stereotypes to satirize Christians
Website jokes about "Injun" "heathens" and "drunks"

I figured they were satires, but I wasn't sure. This was before Wikipedia existed and I couldn't find any evidence.

Even if they were satires, I thought they crossed the line. They repeated Native stereotypes without doing enough to satirize them. Like many so-called satires, it was hard to distinguish them from the real thing.

This piece is more clearly a satire, I think. Condemning Indians for horseplay, flinging feces, and misuse of leather goods is clearly ridiculous, for instance. People who hate Indians don't make these complaints. Such clues tell readers not to take the posting seriously.

But fundamentalists and other conservatives do complain about things in the piece, such as long hair. So the satire scores some points. It's close to the line but it doesn't go over it.

It's not hard to find examples of the right-wing "thinking" this piece satirizes. For instance:

Jack Chick's Crazy Wolf
Shamans did it for sex and money?
Eagle rite = "Satanic sacrifice"?
Native spirituality is "demonic"?
13 grandmas cursed of idolatry

That's one good reason for posting this satire. To many people, this is the reality of Native America today. They really think Indians are squaws, drunks, and primitives.

Modern Indians are less Native?

StoryCorps Interview with NMAI's Ramsey Weeks (Assiniboine/Hidatsa)This week the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is sharing the stories of five Native staffers as part of American Indian Heritage Day and the StoryCorps' 2010 National Day of Listening, a holiday started by the nonprofit organization StoryCorps in 2008. Both holidays fall on the same day this year—Friday, Nov. 26.

Today’s interview is with Ramsey Weeks (Assiniboine/Hidatsa). As one of the museum’s Cultural Interpreters, Weeks leads daily tours and education workshops, offering visitors a chance to see the museum through Native eyes and learn about the museum’s objects from a Native perspective.

His job often involves challenging long-held stereotypes about American Indians—no easy task.And:On using objects and photographs to dispel myths during tours:

EXCERPT:  “I have this wonderful picture of me dressed up in traditional clothing. I like to hold that, “Who is this? Is this person more Native than me?” And most of the kids will look at that traditional clothing and say, “Yep, that person’s more Indian than you.” And then they’re very shocked when I was, “That is me!” It’s a great little learning moment for them to see that clothing doesn’t make a person Native, it doesn’t make a person more or less Native.”And:On working at a “Living History” museum:

EXCERPT:  “There was the stereotype that, as Native people, we should obviously know all of the things that traditional Native people knew, like tanning hides. I have never learned to tan a hide. You throw one down in front of me and tell me to tan it, I’m going to give you a very odd look. This is not something I know.”Comment:  I especially like the point in the second section. People think Indians are less Native, or not Native at all, if they don't fit our mental maps of them. This shows how powerful our stereotypical perceptions are.

It's easy to imagine how this can harm people. If Indians are perceived as "less Native" than they really are, they may receive less recognition and respect. Fewer job offers and government benefits. More criticism and scorn.

Consider what happened to the Cherokee Freedmen, or the unregistered Indian I wrote about recently. Or what happens constantly to Natives affronted by mascots and stereotypes like those in the Station 280 flier. These things happen because people don't realize that Indians are everywhere--because modern Indians don't match their stereotypical notions.

For more on the subject, see Photos Challenge Native Stereotypes, "Take a Picture with a Real Indian," and Modern Indians Anger Museum Goers.

Tonto Revisited stereotype exhibit

Tonto Revisited:  Native American StereotypesWhat do Land ’o Lakes, Argo Cornstarch and Syracuse minor league baseball have in common? Stereotyped images of Native Americans. This exhibit is curated by Tom Huff, a Seneca/Cayuga artist living on the Onondaga Nation. It exposes the cultural mythology surrounding Native Americans. The images and objects associated with “Indians” are dictated and defined by the dominant non-Indian culture. Many of the resulting representations are culturally and socially incorrect, even racist, with exaggerated misrepresentations of Native Americans.

Huff’s collection of portrayals of menacing warriors wielding tomahawks, knives and bows and arrows found in posters, advertisements, toys, sports logos and more will be on display. He has been collecting “Indian Kitsch” for over 25 years. While many may not think of them individually as destructive, this exhibit helps to illustrate how these pervasive negative preconceptions trivialize the tragedy wrought on indigenous peoples everywhere. We hope to both dispel the myths surrounding Native Americans and to encourage a new understanding of native peoples.Comment:  Sounds good...like what I'm doing on my website.

Key point:While many may not think of them individually as destructive, this exhibit helps to illustrate how these pervasive negative preconceptions trivialize the tragedy wrought on indigenous peoples everywhere.Right. They may not be individually destructive, but they're collectively destructive. And there are millions of them throughout our culture. Not hidden away like racist images of blacks and other minorities. Instead, out in the open, everywhere.

For more on the subject, see Indigenous Imagery in Corporate Logos, Indian Toys and Games, and Indian Kitsch in Wisconsin Dells.

Churchill loses firing appeal

Ward Churchill loses appeal of his firing

By Christopher N. OsherThe Colorado Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision denying University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill's effort to get his job back.

The court ruled that Denver District Judge Larry Naves was right to direct a verdict in favor of the university and to find that the university was entitled to "quasi-judicial immunity."

"We conclude that the nature of the decision reached by the university and its regents, and the process by which that decision was reached, shared enough characteristics with the judicial process to warrant absolute immunity from liability," states the opinion from Judge Dennis Graham, who was writing for the Court of Appeals.

Churchill's lawyer, David Lane, said he will try to convince the Colorado Supreme Court to take up the case. He predicted the case could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. Churchill has vowed that he will teach again at the university.Comment:  Hahaha! I don't like the university's attempt to silence Churchill, but I like it whenever he loses at anything.

For more on the subject, see ACLU Backs Ward Churchill and Cook-Lynn:  Don't Rehire Churchill.

Below:  "Ward Churchill testifies during his reinstatement hearing at the Denver City and County Building in Denver, Wednesday, July 1, 2009." (The Daily Camera/Mark Leffingwell)

Jolie: Thanksgiving = murder

Angelina Jolie Refuses to Celebrate Thanksgiving, Feels It's a 'Story of Murder'

By Rob ShuterWhile everyone is preparing to give thanks tomorrow, one of America's most famous families, the Jolie-Pitts, have decided to sit this Thanksgiving out.

"Angelina Jolie hates this holiday and wants no part in rewriting history like so many other Americans," a friend of the actress tells me. "To celebrate what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another, just isn't her style. She definitely doesn't want to teach her multi-cultural family how to celebrate a story of murder."And:[A]lthough Brad Pitt recently told 'EXTRA,' "We'll whip up a turkey somewhere," he certainly hasn't shared that plan with Angelina. A family friend tells me, "If Brad wants turkey, he will have to cook it himself. For Angie, it will be another day when America tries to rewrite history."Comment:  For more on Jolie, see Angelina Jolie, Iroquois? For more on Thanksgiving, see Thanksgiving Set the Tone and Hitler = Greatest Threat Since Indians?

Oneida float in Macy's parade 2010

Oneida Indian Nation float in Macy's Thanksgiving Day ParadeThe 84th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and will again feature The Oneida Indian Nation’s float, "The True Spirit of Thanksgiving." The float includes a 30-foot-tall White Pine “Tree of Peace” growing from the back of Turtle Island. Featured will be Iroquois dancers and Oneida members dressed in traditional regalia, as well as Native American singer Crystal Shawanda (Ojibwa). The 84th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will aired live to nationally on NBC from 9 a.m. to noon. The tribe’s float is expected to appear on TV at about 10:40 a.m.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Oneidas Don't Care About Peace?! and Oneida Float in Macy's Parade.

Preserving the Oxford mound

Another report on the Oxford mound controversy from last year:

Oxford working to preserve Indian artifacts at construction site

By Patrick McCrelessIt is hard to notice until you are literally standing on top of it.

But a grass-covered, centuries-old manmade mound does indeed exist at Davis Farm in Oxford–its slope plainly visible by anyone standing at the site looking south.

It and other American Indian artifacts on the property have withstood the test of time, and though Oxford is trying to build a multi-million dollar sports complex nearby, the city is ensuring that history will be preserved.

During its last meeting, the Oxford City Council hired engineering firm Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood to negotiate a mitigation plan with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Alabama Historic Preservation Office to restart construction of the sports complex.And:The next step toward restarting the project includes the creation of a mitigation plan to protect the remains, the mound and any other American Indian artifacts found at the site. Once the plan is made, all parties involved will sign a legal contract to abide by the plans’ rules.

Details on what the plan would entail were not available as of Monday.

“But there will be a burial treatment plan in place and it will specify exactly what will take place from the time it is discovered,” said Perry said.

The mound was one site marked out of bounds for the city several years ago. It and another nearby site, which some archaeologists suspect was once the location of an ancient village, were fenced off by the city when the sports complex project began.

One of those archaeologists, Harry Holstein, professor of archaeology at Jacksonville State University, claimed in January that someone had destroyed the mound.

After revisiting the site Monday with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood representatives and a representative from the Historic Preservation Office, Holstein recanted his previous claim and said he was confident the city would protect it and other Indian sites.

“I’m positive it’s there and they are going to save it,” Holstein said.Comment:  This issue remains a confusing one. It involves a hill, a stone mound on the hill, other sites on the hill, other sites on a nearby hill or mound, etc. Articles have discussed all of this under the single label "mound"--as in "the mound is threatened" and "they're digging up the mound."

Holstein was a prime contributor to this confusion with his claim that the mound was gone. Now he's recanted his claim. Next time, professor, don't say anything unless you've got incontrovertible evidence. Preferably a personal inspection of the site in question.

And everyone, learn to explain things better. When someone describes the hill, mound, and site(s) clearly, it'll be the first time. People across the nation joined a virtual movement to save the "mound," but I'm not sure anyone knew what they were fighting for.

For more on the subject, see Mayor Lies About Oxford Mound and Activists Protest Mound's Destruction.

Below:  The hill or mound in question, with some excavation visible.

Native humor for Thanksgiving

Indian Humor During Thanksgiving Week?  Ha Ha!According to the Lakota/Navajo cultural coordinator at the American Indian Center of Chicago, this is not only American Indian Heritage Month, aka Native American Awareness Month, but, as he put it, Rent-an-Indian Month.

And this coming Thursday? In some circles, it is commemorated as Thankstaking.

Serious tweaking is going on in Indian Country. Or rather, humorous tweaking.

In the years I have interviewed Native people about their lives in contemporary America, I have been struck not only by their humor, but by my fellow non Natives' frequent surprise it exists, as if this essential human trait somehow skipped Native DNA.

"They're funny?"

Yes, I answer. Often hysterical, I may add. Ironic. Witty. Most Native people I met either make puns, tell risqué jokes, do impersonations, or make fun of themselves or others. Occasionally, the joke (the same joke) is on me. "Oh, you're a vegetarian? In my language"--it does not matter which language--"vegetarian translates as 'bad hunter.'" I dutifully groan.

Most Native people I know realize that mainstream Americans have no idea Indian Humor, as it is called, exists.

"We're either stoic and noble or tragically flawed, you know? I get so tired of that," an Osage lawyer in Washington, DC told me, sighing, before returning to what she called her "roast beast" sandwich. Disconnections run deep.Comment:  One can trace the "lack of humor" stereotype to the stoic or wooden Indian. And then to the uncivilized Indian--no philosophy, oratory, or language except grunts and whoops--and the savage Indian--a predatory animal without human qualities.

Of course this stereotype comes from countless portrayals of Indians as one-dimensional torturers and terrorists in the media. A mass-murdering Indian doesn't have anything in his mind except a singleminded urge to crush, kill, and destroy.

For more on Native humor, see All About Jim Northrup and Low-Budget Film Explores Native Humor.

Gray Wolf on Irene Bedard

From a Facebook posting on the Irene Bedard abuse story:Ummmmm, let's see, she shows up in Alaska where her family is with a broken finger and a dislocated shoulder, ummmm. I really hate it when people make judgments on something they know absolutely NOTHING about. that seems to be the case here as many are trying to speak on a subject with no facts what so ever. If it seems I'm a little upset with all this, yes I am--I have read some of the comments like drug abuse and running away with her new boyfriend--GEEEZ, where do people get this stuff from or do they just make it up??? I spoke to Irene last night for about an hour and she could not believe what was happening and the things people were saying! A little background, I have known Irene for about 10 years and traveled with her and her husband Deni Wilson for about 5 years, one and a half years as her guitar player in the ID band. I saw the mental abuse on many occasions and suspected the physical abuse but she would always cover for Deni--I even talked to Deni a couple of times and told him that if I ever found out about physical abuse, I would personally make him regret it. Deni was an overly controlling little troll that would treat her like his slave more than his wife! He would reprimand her after what he thought were bad performances and never had anything to say in the way of a compliment. When she would stay at my house which she often did, I would talk to her and tell her to leave what I thought was a bad situation, on one occasion after a bad argument she even asked me if she could stay with me for awhile. I said yes but Deni again lied to her that things would change but they never did! There is much much more but anyone who truly knows Irene would know that all the negative stuff being put out by her poor excuse of a man husband is just propaganda to gain control of their son and to further abuse her! People that do not know her should stay out of what is none of their business and quit making up sensational crap just to make themselves look and feel better! Irene will come out of this eventually and will get back to acting because that is where she belongs!Comment:  The images below are evidence that Gray Wolf knows Bedard personally, at least. I can't verify what he said, but it seems consistent with what everyone else is saying.

For more on Bedard, see Irene Bedard's Current Projects and Irene Bedard at Flint Festival.

Miami students sing "Scalp Song"

The evidence of racism at Miami University just keeps mounting:

Miami wants to end 'the Scalp Song' at games

University asks students to consider other alternatives but hasn't banned it

By Cliff PealeMiami University wants students to stop singing "the Scalp Song" at athletic events.

The university, built on land originally occupied by the Miami Tribe, is asking students to consider other alternatives to the song, which normally is played by the band and accompanied with a "whoop" from students. It has not officially banned the song.

The reflection comes as Miami deals with several other reminders of its Native American connections.

One student wearing an American Indian headdress was asked to remove it and then asked to leave a home football game earlier this season.

And last week Miami sent a letter to students reminding them of that heritage after Web postings circulated around the Oxford campus inviting students to an "Indian Theme Party."

"We ask that Miami students challenge the Indian Theme Party and all similar ethnic and gender-based theme parties or actions that erode and threaten our capacity to be an inclusive community," wrote Ron Scott, associate vice president for institutional diversity, and Susan Mosley-Howard, dean of students.Comment:  Gee, ya think a song about scalping accompanied with a war whoop might be objectionable? Again, imagine a stadium full of students dressed as African or South Seas natives and singing "Boil 'em and eat 'em!" Inconceivable, but the same offense against Indians is considered acceptable and unremarkable.

For more sports-related stereotypes, see "Fighting Harbaughs" T-Shirts and Stereotypical "Sioux Me!" Teazshirt.

Below:  Only Indians routinely get depicted as primitive people of the past.

Indians made turkey dinners possible

Turkey’s trip to the table:  Domesticating North America’s largest fowl

By Johnny GibbonsThe turkey has become synonymous with Thanksgiving in the United States. But people were raising and eating these large ground-dwelling birds long before the creation of the holiday. But when exactly where turkeys first domesticated? And where? Bruce Smith, senior archeologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has the answers.

“The first evidence we have that turkeys were kept and bred by humans comes from Tehuacan in Mexico about 2000 years ago” Smith says. “By around A.D. 500 turkeys were also being raised by Native Americas in the Southwest United States, based on early evidence recovered from cave sites such as Tseahatso in Arizona’s Canyon del Muerto and the Tularosa Cave in New Mexico.”And:Unlike today, the original reason for raising turkeys may not have been for food. Archaeological evidence has revealed that the original motivation for domesticating turkeys was for their feathers. The turkey’s symbolic role in historic Southwest societies is extensively documented and there are frequent references to the use of turkey feathers in ritual contexts as components of costumes, ritual regalia, prayer sticks, and isolated feather bundles.

By examining clues such as cut marks, fragmented bones, burning, and disposal of bones in trash middens, scientists have determined that raising turkeys domestically for food became widespread across the Southwest after A.D. 900. It took another 900 years, however, for the turkey to find its way to the Thanksgiving dinner table as a holiday staple.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Preview of Growing Native and Native Foods Changed the World.

Below:  "The remains of a headless turkey excavated at the site of Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. Turkeys were apparently frequently sacrificed as part of dedication ceremonies for buildings and plazas at the site." (Alfred Cohn)

Language whipped out of Indians

Melvin Martin:  The importance of keeping Indian languages alive"There were two offenses, son, that made the boarding school people really mad at us and that was wetting the bed and talking Indian. Not talking in Dakota was hard for me to do because I didn't speak any English until I was five years old, and that's when I was shipped off to boarding school for the first time. Every morning right after breakfast that was usually cold cornmeal mush with sour milk and giant worms or moths in it, they lined up all the bed wetters and anybody from the day before who was heard talking Indian and marched us all down to this old oak tree. Once there, we all had to take off our pants and underwear, us boys, and then we were hoisted up and over a tree branch with an old rope that was tied around both feet. There we were, hanging upside down and swinging in the air with our private parts showing for all the world to see."

"Then, this older white woman who said she used to be a nurse in the British army and who worked at the school as a dorm matron, would take out this horse whip that had been shortened to about four feet in length. There were nine leather tabs that had the old-fashioned thumb tacks stuck in them, the big brass ones, that were attached to this whip." (Note: I later found out that an instrument like this is known as a "Cat o' nine tails" and was used by the British Navy to flog sailors who had committed various offenses at sea.)

"This old English hag would then just proceed to slice our butts to hamburger with that whip. Until I was ten, I'd always pass out from the pain and some older boys would carry me back to the dormitory. I haven't spoken a word of Dakota since 1950, three years before you were born." My father died in 2003.Comment:  We've heard horror stories about Indians killed, maimed, and raped, but this seems almost as bad. Boys hung upside down from trees, naked, like slabs of beef. Then whipped until they passed out from blood loss and pain. And Americans wonder why Indian reservations are messed up? Here's your answer, people.

For more on boarding schools, see Libraries Hide Hidden from History and Tiles to Represent Boarding-School Victims.

Below:  Whipping the Indian to a bloody pulp to save the boy.

3rd season for Arbor Live

Rock Hilarity to Continue As Arbor Live Picks Up 3rd SeasonFans of APTN’s Arbor Live will be sleeping easy for the next year, as the program as been picked up for a third season and season two will re-air starting December 7, 2010 running through to March 2011.

If the second season was any indication of the program’s penchant for outdoing itself, fans have much to look forward to. This last season built on the success of the first by featuring guest musical performances from international sensations like The Crystal Method. Tommy Lee, Slayer, Chickenfoot, Zakk Wylde, Black Label Society, Staind, The Scorpions, Fishbone and Mastadon. Staying true to its Canadian roots, the season also featured emerging Aboriginal and Canadian talent such as Suzie McNeil, Grady, Chantal Kreviazuk, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Mother Mother, Shane Yellowbird, Moneen Priestess, Domenica and You Say Party!

Likened to a musical cross between The Larry Sanders Show and The Office, the premise of Arbor Live centres around three Native guys running a fast-paced music variety show with complete ineptitude. Rock-guitarist Stevie Salas plays the show’s host, alongside his comedic director “Steelbird” and their “assistant,” played by movie star Eric Schweig.Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Native Tongue in Medium

The TV show Medium had a Native episode recently: Native Tongue (airdate: 11/5/10). Here's what Medium is about:

Medium (TV series)Medium is an American supernatural and dramatic television series that premiered on NBC on January 3, 2005. Its lead character is Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette), a medium who works as a consultant for the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney's office.For a detailed synopsis of this episode, see Medium Watch:  Native Tongue.

Basically, Zahn McClarnon and Jesse James Youngblood play two Navajos who have robbed a bank. The episode begins with McClarnon returning to the trailer where he lives. Someone in a flame-retardant suit is waiting for him and demands to know where "it" is. McClarnon tells him but the guy sends the trailer up in flames anyway, killing McClarnon.

In the Phoenix area lives Allison Dubois, a psychic who gets random flashes of the past, present, and future. This time she sees McClarnon die in a dream and wakes up unable to understand anyone. They're all speaking "gibberish" (actually, the Navajo language) as far as she's concerned.

The episode mainly uses Allison's inability to communicate with her husband as a metaphor for, well, her inability to communicate with her husband. Their relationship seems devoid of chemistry, charm, or humor, so it's not very interesting. It's hard to believe this show has lasted seven seasons.

Story problems

[**spoiler alert**]

The focus on Allison's family obscures several story problems:

Why did Allison get a flash of this particular crime and not another? Why did it affect her in such a strange way? The show provides no answers.

The criminal has committed a rather imperfect crime. His flame-retardant suit should be easy to track. His getaway car leaves tire imprints on the dirt road. Most of all, he learned of the bank robbery when the robbers boasted of it in a bar filled with Navajos. You don't think someone might've noticed two non-Indians listening intently to a Navajo bar conversation?

Fortunately for the criminal, the police don't seem to do much detective work. Instead, they rely on Allison for flashes of information. Too bad these sudden insights are dramatically unsatisfying.

Stupid criminal tricks

The criminal comes up with the "brilliant" idea of sending linguist Jane Livingston to spy on the police investigation. Livingston didn't know Allison would have a language problem, but she helps Allison by translating English to Navajo. In other words, she speeds up an investigation that would've slowed down without her.

This is obviously stupid. Criminals are supposed to flee and hide, not offer themselves as consultants.

The criminal refers to himself and Livingston sarcastically as "palefaces." He says he speaks five "fairly useless" languages, including Navajo. He calls Youngblood's character "Tonto." Okay, he doesn't like Indians...so why did he become an "anthrolinguist" specializing in Navajo?

It's ridiculous for someone to spend years studying a subject he hates for little or no money. What was he going to do if he didn't stumble onto the bank robbers...rob a bank himself? How about quitting the field and going into something else, bright boy?

How Medium handles Navajo

The show handles the language issue by having everyone speak English with Allison unable to understand them. The exception is when she goes to the office and hears everyone speaking in a foreign murmur. I couldn't tell what language it was, but I'm guessing the show didn't hire a roomful of Navajo speakers. It sounded a bit like Japanese to me.

In this scene, Livingston speaks "Navajo" on the phone and we (and Allison) hear it as English. So I'm not sure anyone ever speaks Navajo. Clever of the show to avoid potential trouble, but in a story about language, some actual Navajo would've been good.

Livingston says Navajo is "dying." I think the proper classification at this point is "threatened" or "endangered." It may start dying eventually, but I don't think it's there yet.

Livingston should be upbeat about whatever she's doing to protect and revive the language. Saying it's dying is one step away from lamenting it as dead and thus not worth saving. It's the linguistic equivalent of calling Indians a vanishing breed.

Language issue highlighted?

A few commenters were happy the show raised the issue of endangered Native languages. I wasn't impressed. Zahn McClarnon is Standing Rock Sioux and Irish, and Jesse James Youngblood is Latino, I believe, so the show didn't use Navajo actors. In fact, it didn't show any Navajo people or the Navajo reservation. And I don't think it used any words of the Navajo language.

The show gives us nothing but a couple of flashbacks of "Navajos" robbing, suffering, and dying. The overall impression is that Indians are lowlifes and losers. In that context, mentioning the "dying" language isn't worth much. Viewers will conclude that the language is dying because the Navajo don't care enough to save it.

Normally, I wouldn't mind if the Native characters were criminals. But look at the underlying message. Non-Indian linguists are trying to preserve the Navajo language. Navajos are drinking and committing crimes. Mainstream culture is normal and healthy; Navajo culture is marginal and unhealthy.

How to counteract this impression? Navajo bank robbers are okay, but complement them with a range of Navajo characters. Give us Navajos who are working to stop alcoholism or language loss. Focus on the Navajo world, for once, not the white world. When your plot is white cops investigating dead Indians, it's not much of a Native episode.

For more on the subject, see Adam Beach in Hawaii Five-0 and "Pocahontas" in Parenthood.

7th Annual Red Nation Film Festival

From a press release:Red Nation Celebration announces film & tribute award winners for the 7th annual Red Nation Film Festival--The Authentic Voice of American Indian Indigenous Cinema. The awards were presented at the Red Nation Film and Tribute Award Ceremony, Tuesday Nov. 9th, at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City, CA.

Red Nation tapped New Mexico sculptor artist Phillip Mangas Haozous, son of the late Apache sculptor artist Allan Houser, to create and design “The Red Nation Statuette” Phillip Mangas Haozous created the design in three dimensions--and the world-renowned statuette was born.

Outstanding performances and film awards on closing night including:

Actress in the leading role > Tamera Feldman “Rez Bomb,” US

Actress in supporting role > Casey Camp Horinek “Behind the Door of a Secret Girl,” US

Actor in supporting role > Gil Birmingham “Eclipse: The Twilight Saga,” US

Special “Tribute” Achievement awards:

American Indian Heritage Month Award > California Native American Heritage Commission, Larry Meyers, Dave Singleton

Red Nation Vision Award > Chief Oren Lyons (Wolf Clan, Onondaga), faithkeeper and world spokesperson for the rights of indigenous peoples

Edward Albert Jr Indigenous Film Award > Oliver Stone, director

Brando Award > Vicangelo Bulluck--Executive Director of the Hollywood Bureau of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Best Network Award > ABC Disney

Red Nation Humanitarian Award > Dr. Jane Goodall

Red Nation “Oyate” Award > Elizabeth & Dennis Kucinich

Red Nation Community Award > Ken Taylor, American Indian Revival Church

Red Nation Theatre Playwright Award > Tim Robbins, “Break The Whip”

Red Nation Activists Award > Joe Brings Plenty--Chairman Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation

Comment:  For photos of the event, see Red Is Green Carpet Galas. For more on the subject, see Red Nation Creates Indian Oscar and 6th Annual Red Nation Film Festival.

Squanto the con man?

Pilgrim guide Squanto has mixed reputation

By Eric WilliamsTo William Bradford, Squanto was "a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation," who helped settlers plant corn, find fish and gain a foothold in New England.

He also was a survivor of major trauma and, in essence, a man without a country—kidnapped and shipped out to Spain, bouncing to England, finally returning home to the Plymouth area only to find most of his village wiped out by disease, all before the Pilgrims arrived on the scene.

But "one man's hero is another man's villain," said Charlebois, of Plimoth Plantation. "He was not looked upon highly by the Wampanoag people."

Charlebois, a member of the Abenaki tribe of Quebec, says the problem wasn't that Squanto was interacting with the English. It was that he was "a super con man" who ignored and stepped over the Native American hierarchy for his own advancement.

Even Bradford described Squanto as a hustler, writing that he "sought his own ends and played his own game, by frightening the Indians and getting gifts from them for himself, making them believe he could stir up war against them."

Charlebois said Squanto used the threat of disease as a weapon against Native Americans. "You better play ball with me or I'll unleash the plague," summed up Charlebois.

Such behavior didn't sit well with the Wampanoag sachem Massasoit, who wanted Squanto beheaded. "This caused Squanto to stick close to the English, and he never dared leave them till he died," wrote Bradford.Comment:  What Squanto did or didn't do doesn't necessarily matter. The interesting point here is how we've taken a complex situation and turned it into a Hallmark greeting card. According to the prevailing myth, Squanto helped the Pilgrims survive and arranged the big feast. In reality, he may have sided with the Pilgrims against his own people.

So our Thanksgiving myth is largely a fairy tale concocted to make white Americans feel good about conquering and killing another race. Indians and Europeans living together in harmony...yay! No mention of the tribes' doubts about the invaders...their jockeying for position...and sellouts like Squanto making deals behind their backs.

For more on the subject, see Losing Ground in After the Mayflower and Thanksgiving in After the Mayflower.

The disease factor

Also interesting is the mention of using disease against the Indians. This bolsters what I said in European Invasion = Biological Warfare and Disease = Invisible Bullets? Although they didn't understand the mechanism, both sides knew the Europeans were using disease as a weapon. They were engaging in biological warfare.

Once again, the claim that disease just happened to kill the Indians is false. Disease killed the Indians because the Europeans saw Indians dying and thought, "This is good news. For some reason these Indians aren't immune to our illnesses. They're dropping like flies. If we keep advancing into hostile territory, they'll keep dying. So let's do it."

This is a genocidal intent and a genocidal act. The Europeans didn't avoid transmitting their diseases when they could've--if nothing else, by going home. Instead, they transmitted their diseases intentionally. They wanted weak and dying Indians because that served their purpose. It made colonization and conquest possible.

For more on our Thanksgiving myth-making, see Thanksgiving Set the Tone and Hitler = Greatest Threat Since Indians?

Below:  "The wooden head likeness of Squanto, who served as guide and interpreter to the Pilgrims, is the only surviving piece of the wooden pediment installed on the Pilgrim Hall Museum building in 1880." (Cape Cod Times/Christine Hochkeppel)

Greek gods gave us chocolate?

I saw a TV commercial the other day that demonstrates our myth-making process. It shows what looks like Greek gods in a temple in the clouds. The white goddess Artemis or equivalent shoots an arrow into a pyramid of gold-wrapped chocolate balls and they fall to earth. Here's the accompanying narration:A divine secret that once belonged to the gods slipped one day from the heavens to be discovered by all: Ferrero Rocher, a deliciously layered chocolate with an irresistible taste.You can see it below. This version is slightly longer than the version I saw, which clocked in at about 18 seconds, but it's basically the same. One website says it was released in November 2007.



Comment:  Only one small problem with this commercial. Chocolate was developed by Mesoamerican Indians, not Greeks. As perhaps the most delicious substance in existence, it's one of their greatest contributions to civilization. Yet this ad attributes it to Europeans, not Indians.

If Ferrero Rocher wanted to use the "gods" theme, why not use Mesoamerican gods? The ad could've gone exactly the same way, but with brown-skinned gods in jaguar skins and feather cloaks rather than white gods in white robes. It would've given viewers exactly the same overt message.

But the covert message would've been different. And that's the point. Beneath its overt message, this ad is telling us that whites are mighty godlike beings. That they've done everything great and noble. That our comfort and wealth (represented by golden chocolate) came directly from the Greeks. That Europe is the source of civilization.

It's ethnocentric if not racist. Yet we're bombarded by messages like these hundreds of times a day. The Marlboro Man and Barbie are normal, representative Americans. Indians are strange, exotic creatures who never appear in the media. Except as savages, werewolves, or shifty casino owners, that is.

Here we see America's mainstream culture in action once again. White Europeans are good; everyone else is questionable. White Europeans rule the heavens as well as the earth. Nothing has changed since the Middle Ages, when white Europeans decided God and Jesus looked just like them.

For more on chocolate, see Chocolate Proves Native Greatness and The First Chocoholics.

Below:  White god gives life (and chocolate) to white man.

People can't be black and Indian?

Charles Trimble responds to an e-mail about the controversy noted in Powwow Dance Excludes Unregistered Indian. To be specific, he debates whether Professor Shonda Buchanan can be both black and Indian:

Charles Trimble:  Racism still alive and growing in Indian CountryBoyden:  “Dr. Shonda's web page and profile at where she teaches expresses ZERO INDIANNESS! In other words...she chooses to be BLACK...NOT Indian. Her writings and what she teaches is ALL BLACK!”

Response:  First of all, Dr. Shonda teaches English. There are Native Americans, I’m sure, who teach English or American history, which itself if mostly about European colonizers of the continent. I don’t think that one can deduce that these people prefer to be whites over Indians because they are teaching white language or history--they are scholars, and generally not racists.

Boyden:  “So tell me...what in the black culture is there that is compatible with Native American culture? And in spirituality? Curious what you can share with me and educate me so that I can see the ‘light’!”

Response:  I think that there is much in American black culture and modern American Indian or indigenous culture that are mutually compatible. First of all, there is tragic history: both peoples were enslaved, and both peoples were considered sub-human, or even non-human. Both peoples had their traditional cultures stripped from them, and both suffer from being deprived of the cultures, as is shown in the societal disarray in both cultures. Eradication and removal policy options were considered for both peoples. But, of course, the most important “compatibility” is that of the brotherhood of their humanity.Comment:  For more on the subject, see IndiVisible Is Long Overdue and Native Roots of Hendrix and the Blues.

Below:  The opposing sides in the Cherokee Freedmen conflict.

Obama still should apologize

Public apology to Natives overdue

By Carol BerryPresident Barack Obama will be asked–again–for a formal and public apology to Indian country on behalf of the U.S. government for past atrocities, said Don Coyhis, whose White Bison Inc. made a cross-country trek in 2009 fruitlessly seeking such an acknowledgment.

Instead, Coyhis noted, the president issued an “Apology to Native Peoples of the United States” last December that was buried in the Defense Appropriations Act and was “never properly presented to Native Americans and to the American people.”

The apology said, in part, that the U.S. through Congress, “recognizes that there have been years of official depredations, ill-conceived policies, and the breaking of covenants by the federal government regarding Indian tribes.”

Currently, a key purpose of White Bison’s new Boarding School Apology Initiative is to encourage Obama to present the apology of the Appropriations Act “to a Native organization–for example, the National Congress of American Indians–visibly and with adequate media coverage so that all people will know that the government has apologized,” Coyhis said.Comment:  I'd say there's no chance of this happening. It would make Obama look too weak to the right-wing ideologues who have said their only goal is to take him down.

For more on the subject, see Presbyterian Churches to Apologize to Indians and Brownback Reads US Apology.

Kimberly Guerrero in Grey's Anatomy

In last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy, titled Slow Night, So Long (airdate: 11/18/10), Kimberly Guerrero guest-stars as a mother with a boy in pain. She appears in only a couple of scenes, but has an impact anyway.

No one says anything about her being an Indian, but that's okay. Her character is unusual for a few reasons. The only name she gives is Mrs. McNeil--no Sacheen Littlefeather here. She works as a nurse at "Seattle Press" (Seattle Presbyterian Hospital?), so she's an educated professional.

Most important, she doesn't accept the doctors' "wait and see" attitude. When she doesn't get a satisfactory answer, she calls the hospital chief at home. He storms in and reads the riot act to a lab technician. This shows everyone they need to dive in and tackle problems rather than wait for help. It provides the impetus for the rest of the show.

It's too bad they didn't give Guerrero another couple of scenes to strengthen her chcaracter. (The phone call to the chief happens off-screen.) But she's implicitly acting the way every parent and patient's advocate should. Question authority. Get a second opinion. Don't accept what the first doctor tells you.

This is the second Native role Grey's Anatomy has had since 2008--both during Heritage Month. Does someone there like Native characters and storylines? Could be.

For more on Grey's Anatomy, see August Schellenberg in Grey's Anatomy. For more on Guerrero, see Indians in My Neighbor Totoro and Indian Actress in Broadway Hit.