Cleary doesn't understand tribes

County Governments Oppose Fee Land to Trust

By Kathy ClearyThe fact that Federal Indian Policy is unconstitutional is obvious to anyone who takes a second to think about it. How can creating “sovereign nations” within the United States–allowing the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), a federal agency, to create governments based on race, that function under their own tribal constitutions with little to no oversight, transfer fee land into federal trust (removing land from local and state jurisdiction) for purposes such as operating casinos where the tribal government pays no tax on the profit, have no accountability and can actually become hostile to the surrounding community or to their own tribal members for that matter, and use their casino millions to contribute to politicians, something no other foreign/sovereign government is allowed to do–how can this be Constitutional? It can’t be and it isn’t.Comment:  Tribal governments are based on political and cultural affiliation, not race. And the federal government recognizes rather than creates them, since they've existed for hundreds of years. So what Cleary thinks is "obvious" is flatly wrong on these two key issues. It's flatly wrong, period.

As for her other claims--how accountable tribes are, how hostile they are, etc.--how are these constitutional issues? They aren't, obviously. Cleary is dressing up her dislike of Indians as a "neutral" legal argument. She's prejudiced against Indians but wants to pretend she isn't.

For more on the subject, see The Facts About Tribal Sovereignty and The Essential Facts About Indians.

Native food cart in Manhattan

Parks Department issues request for Native American food cart downtown

By James Fanelli and Kathleen LucadamoThe city is trying to get back to its culinary roots.

The Parks Department is searching for cooks who specialize in American Indian fare--think frybread, bison and beans--to run a food cart in Bowling Green.

"People still love the hot dogs and pretzels but they want other options," said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

Since the lower Manhattan park houses a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian, officials thought it was fitting to serve indigenous food nearby.

The winning vendor can serve native fare from North or South America.

That means relying on "squash, potatoes, pumpkins, avocados, yucca, bison, venison," and whipping up "frybread, ceviche, arepa, tamales and pupusas," a request for proposals shows.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Salishan Catering Serves Native Cuisine and Mitsitam Cafe Cookbook.

Shenandoah sings for peace

Native American singer Joanne Shenandoah performing at Mendelssohn

By Kevin RansomOne upcoming project that Shenandoah is excitedly involved in is the Project for Peace on Earth—a concert that will be held in Manger Square in Bethlehem on November 11 (11-11-11) to promote peace. Also participating are Sting, Bono, Sinead O’Connor, Robert Downey Jr and many others.

She also contributed a song to the upcoming CD, “Prayer Cycle—Path To Zero,” and has been writing songs for a new album that she says will be more of a “crossover” effort, in that the music and the themes will not be primarily Native American.

“They’re songs of love, and of pain, and peace,” says Shenandoah by phone from her home on Oneida, in central New York state. “I really do feel I have been put on earth to spread peace and hope and love, and I have to ask for the songs to flow through me. With me, I feel it is very directed. I often ask for divine intervention when I want to write these kinds of songs.”And:On “Bitter Tears—Sacred Ground,” Shenandoah sang a version of “The Star Spangled Banner” that was muted and sorrowful. Given that it is a national anthem for a country that, in the eyes of many, was “stolen” from it native inhabitants—and sung by a Native American artist—one is tempted to hear it as a lament for the homeland that the natives “lost.”

“Many Native Americans do feel conflicted about the national anthem, but this is still our land, too—it’s a land that now belongs to all of us, both Natives and non-Natives,” explains Shenandoah. “So, the song, the way I do it on the record, really is a tribute, to honor to those Native American people who fought in our wars and gave their lives for our country. We buried our ancestors here, just like our (non-Native) neighbors did.”Comment:  For more on the subject, see The 2009 NAMMY Winners and Native Performers at Seegar Concert.

Bonus NMAI Jeopardy questions

Here's a video showing the NMAI category on Jeopardy plus some extra questions:

NMAI on JeopardyThis December, the National Museum of the American Indian was a category on the game show Jeopardy. The contestants didn't get to all the museum's clues, so we have three left to be answered by viewers of this video. A prize is up for grabs! Watch the video for more details.

Comment:  The four questions used on Jeopardy were video questions. The three bonus questions are straight text questions.

I gather the NMAI staff prepared several video questions that Jeopardy didn't use. These are text-based versions of the extra questions. One of them may have been the unrevealed fifth question.

I guess Jeopardy didn't use these questions because they were too hard. Too bad, because they would've been better than the questions the show did use.

On a scale of 1-5, with five being the hardest, I'd say Jeopardy's NMAI questions were all 1's. In contrast, I'd give the bonus questions a rating of 2, 5, and 4.

If the first bonus question were the fifth NMAI question, I'd rate the category's difficulty as 1, 1, 1, 1, 2. I'd say a typical Jeopardy category should rate 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. That shows you how far the show has fallen from its heyday.

"Arapaho Ghost Dancer" in The Simpsons

in Sunday's episode of The Simpsons, titled Flaming Moe (airdate: 1/16/11), Moe convert his bar to a "gentleman's club" for gay men. At one point, one dancing man says another glides like an "Arapaho Ghost Dancer."

This reference comes out of the blue and goes right back into the blue. It's offbeat, if not weird, and not particularly funny. But it shows that the Simpsons' writers are willing to look outside the box for their cultural references. And it continues last season's streak of four Simpsons episodes with Native references.

For more on the subject, see Indians in The Simpsons.

Nanabush videos teach Ojibwe

Over in my Pictographs blog is a posting on a website called Walking and Talking with Nanabush. It's a place to learn Ojibwe via cute cartoon videos of Nanabush, the legendary Ojibwe hero. Check it out.

For a similar subject, see Berenstain Bears Cartoons in Lakota.

No Indians in Off the Map

I watched Saved by the Great White Hope, the pilot episode of Off the Map (airdate: 1/12/10). It was about as bad as I thought it would be. Here's what the LA Times had to say about it:

Young doctors try to heal patients, themselves in 'Off the Map'

Sappy situations abound in the South American jungle where the expatriate doctors ply their trade in the message-laden ABC series.

By Mary McNamaraCreated by "Grey's Anatomy" writer Jenna Bans, "Off the Map" is so inspirational and message-laden it would not be out of place on Oprah Winfrey's new network. By the very nature of the work, everyone involved in "Off the Map" is instantly credited with a certain amount of heroism. Clinic veterans, Drs. Zee Alvarez (Valerie Cruz), Otis Cole (Jason George) and Ben Keeton (Martin Henderson) may look momentarily askance at their newest recruits, but the three young doctors have not come to the jungle to pad their privileged resumes (as the jaded and exhausted Alvarez suggests). They are here to find Rebirth, Resolution and Redemption.

Alas, it all plays just as sappy as it sounds, even with the gorgeous and ridiculous distractions of make-do medicine—after Lily treats a patient mid-zip line, Ben transfuses him with coconut milk when the blood stores run low (kids, don't try this at home); Tommy saves a medicine-wary tubercular family using only the power of his voice and the soulfulness of his eyes (he speaks no Spanish); and Mina deals with the ho-hum-until-it's-not nature of clinic work.Comment:  Off the Map is the opposite of shows set in New York City, Chicago, or Los Angeles, where the settings give the shows context and color. It apparently has nothing to say about race, religion, culture, or politics. It's a modern medical ensemble show crossed with a Tarzan movie or Gilligan's Island, and it's about as realistic.

Location

Off the Map is intentionally vague about where it takes place: "somewhere in South America." It's about like having white settlers meet anonymous Indians somewhere in the Wild West. It's an excellent example of how the lack of details makes a show bland and generic.

Let's look at where the show should be situated, but isn't:

Commercials for Off the Map have called the location the "Wild West" and said it's "halfway around the world." The "Off the Map" name suggests it's supposed to be incredibly remote. But halfway around the world from the United States is the middle of the Indian Ocean. South America isn't that remote.

Fuller says he traveled 5,000 miles to get there. That suggests the location is somewhere on the northern edge of the continent: Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, or northern Brazil.

Keeton says the nearest medical clinic is 200 miles away. I'd be somewhat surprised if a single spot in South America is that far from medical help. Maybe in the center of the Amazon jungle--but these people are on the coast. I'm willing to bet that only Antarctica has 400 miles of coastline (200 miles in either direction) without a medical clinic.

New doctor Fuller says there are three topless beaches nearby. The first big medical case involves an elderly man caught on a zip line through the treetops. These things imply tourist resorts...but nobody has a better medical facility than this struggling clinic?

So people hike 200 miles through the jungle to reach topless beaches where the slightest accident could kill them? And no tourist resort, seaside port, oil company, or village on an Amazon tributary is close enough to offer help? That's flatly ridiculous.

At the end Keeton points out the constellation of the Southern Cross high in the sky. Wrong. The clinic is probably located near the equator, and possibly in the Northern Hemisphere. The Southern Cross wouldn't be visible from there.

The doctors jump off rocky cliffs that I think we've seen in Lost and Hawaii Five-0. It's a clue that we're in a magical jungle land where nothing is specific to the location and everything is possible. As the article says, you wouldn't be surprised to find a Hawaiian leper colony, an Indonesian rubber plantation, or the Dharma Initiative around the corner.

Culture and language

The setting's culture is about as vague as its location:

Dr. Alvarez, the lone Latina, makes a couple comments about imperialist white doctors. Charlie the boy guide/translator calls Fuller a gringo. Some patients speak Spanish and some signs are in Spanish. Other than that, there are literally no cultural or political markers. The story could take place in any Spanish-speaking jungle in eastern Asia, equatorial Africa, Latin America or the Caribbean.

Alvarez and Charlie appear to be secondary characters, so Americans dominate the clinic. Cole the black doctor also appears to be a secondary character. So no brown-skinned foreigners tell the white good guys what to do.

Moreover, the Americans seem to be the only employees. One nameless Latina nurse does get a few of seconds of screen time, but that's it. This ensures that the heroic whites will solve every problem themselves.

Basically the story is about the great white doctor Keeton and his three white acolytes. Despite all the brown background characters, it's one of the whitest shows I've seen.

As the LA Times notes, it's absurd that people would sign up for a foreign program without taking language classes to prepare. And the show milks the language problems to an absurd degree. For instance, Fuller gives an impassioned speech about how his pride ruined his career to a patient who can't understand him. Charlie translates this as, "He's a good doctor," and that's enough to persuade the man.

Worse, when an old woman keeps showing up at the clinic, new doctor Minard tells her to go home. Minard emphasizes this by speaking slowly and clearly in English. Despite having three doctors and an unknown number of others who are bilingual, she doesn't ask for help. Not until the woman keels over does Minard think, "Hmm, maybe she was actually here for a reason. She wasn't just sitting here to annoy me like some ignorant welfare recipient who wants a handout."

When Keeton gives a pep talk, he lists three remedies found in the jungle and says, "Medicine began here." What he means is that Indians discovered or invented many of the medicines and techniques still used there. But Keeton doesn't credit Indians with being the first to practice jungle medicine. Maybe his great white ancestors, the Europeans who conquered the continent, made the discoveries.

Conclusion

It's ridiculous for a show set in a South American jungle, the home of many Indian tribes, not to mention Indians. It's also ridiculous not to mention any of the possible political or cultural conflicts. Are ranching, mining, or oil-drilling operations intruding on the local residents? How do the residents even earn a living: by subsistence farming or working for a mega-corporation? Are any drug lords or anti-government militias operating nearby? What's the unnamed government's position on economic development, environmental protection, and indigenous rights? Does the government lean to the left or right? Is it pro- or anti-American? Etc.

Off the Map doesn't answer or even ask these questions because they'd intrude on the show's theme. Which is that Keeton the great white "humanitarian" is going to save the primitive brown-skinned people from their own folly. The locals have no healers, no leaders, no authority in their own homeland. They're merely suffering subjects for the white doctors to cure.

Alvarez the lone Latina seems to be more of an administrator and a scold than a doctor. She disappears for long stretches while the white doctors handle the most pressing cases. Her big moment comes when the black doctor Cole tells her to chill out because the Americans know best everything will work itself out.

Cole doesn't have much more to do than provide bits of POC wisdom. When Fuller reports that his patients are dying, Cole's big moment is telling Fuller to go back and cure them. In other words, giving the white doctor his big chance is more important than saving lives at risk. If the brown-skins died, Cole presumably would tell Fuller: "Try harder next time, white boy."

The whole setup is incredibly paternalistic. Even though Off the Map is about "ugly Americans" learning to be better human beings, it handles the subject in an ugly fashion. The great white doctor has all the answers; the people of color serve him as flunkies or patients.

The show's worldview is rooted in the early 20th century, when white missionaries and doctors were the only ones who could save the "dark" regions of the world. It's an insult to all the Latino and Indian people in South America who are taking charge of their lives. Who don't need Americans to help them.

Forty-five years ago, the TV series Daktari had a similar premise. But the black characters in Daktari were more fleshed out than the nameless South Americans who serve as patients in Off the Map. Off the Map is a big step backward in the portrayal of indigenous peoples and cultures.

For more on what Off the Map missed, see Amazon Indians Weren't Savages, Cameron's and Weaver's Anti-Dam Films, and Amazon Indian Students on the Net.

God good, Father Sky bad?

Graham:  Prayer service turns to rally

Ignoring God and Tucson clergy is appalling mistake

By Franklin GrahamHow sad. Father Sky and Mother Earth can do nothing to comfort Capt. Mark Kelly, who had been at the bedside of his wife, Rep. Giffords, wondering if she'd ever leave her bed. Or Mavy Stoddard, who was only alive because her husband sacrificed his life by shielding her with his body. Or the family, classmates, teammates and friends of little Christina, whose life was snuffed out before she could play another season of Little League.

For the sake of these innocent people and for Americans everywhere, I wish someone could have prayed to the One who created all of us, Almighty God. The president quoted from the great textbook of grief, the Old Testament book of Job--always fitting words in times like these. Perhaps the Yaqui tribe representative, the president of the university--someone--could have echoed the words of the Psalmist: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

What a shame that the University of Arizona didn't have enough sensitivity to suffering families and a watching nation to invoke the name of the God who is "Father to the fatherless and protector of widows." In fact, any of the 150 chapters of Psalms picked at random would have offered more comfort than the mystical rambling delivered from the stage. My question: Why were the clergy of Tucson--the men of God--excluded?Comment:  Graham is the same guy who expressed his bigotry against Islam earlier, so you know where he's coming from. His remarks are stupid for several reasons:

1) The Creator invoked by Gonzales is the same deity as the Christian God. Who is also the same as Allah and every other monotheistic god. Duh.

2) Who is Graham to say what kind of prayer would've comforted the victims? It's asinine to claim Christians like only Christian things, Jews like only Jewish things, etc. Graham seems incapable of understanding that everyone isn't a narrow-minded bigot like him.

I've yet to read any quotes from the survivors saying they didn't appreciate Gonzales's remarks at the memorial service. Again, who is Graham to speak for them? Other than a self-serving shill for his own religion, I mean.

3) Obama quoted from the Bible, as Graham admits, so the Christian perspective was adequately covered. Graham seems to be carping because the service wasn't 100% Christian despite the multiple faiths of the people present.

4) To answer Graham's question about why "the men of God" were excluded, try the First Amendment, dummy.

It would've been funny if Obama found a lesbian pastor or some equally unconventional Christian to talk about God. Would Graham and the other conservative crybabies have welcomed that?

No, of course not. When they talk about God, they're really talking about white male Christians like themselves. They're upset because someone other than them got the limelight for once.

For more on the subject, see Apology for "Ugly" Prayer Remarks and Conservatives Attack "Ugly" Native Prayer.

Below:  The only God conservative Christians recognize.

Sopranos-style Blackstone debuts

Rez Life à la The Sopranos

By Wilhelm MurgIn a closed society that operates under its own rules, things can go very wrong. In recent years, that basic idea has underpinned some of the best series on television: the HBO hits The Sopranos, True Blood, and Big Love, to name a few. First Nations reserve life will get a similar unflinching look when Canadian production company Prairie Dog Film & Television unleashes Blackstone on Jan. 25.

Set on (and off) the fictional Blackstone reserve, the show is an intense, compelling and confrontational exploration of power and politics. “We wanted to take a look at some of the reserves in Canada and to bring some exposure to what are some really big problems: corruption and nepotism,” says Ron E. Scott, executive producer and a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. “Authenticity is one of the hallmarks of this production; a lot of our Native actors have first-hand knowledge of this stuff—people in their family or people they know. That includes me: My mother was Native and my father was a drunken white sailor. I have a lot of aunts and uncles on my mom’s side who grew up close to the reserve, and I looked at some of their behaviors. In the clash of cultures the authenticity really comes forward.”

The quest for authenticity led Scott and his team, which also includes the award-winning Native filmmaker Gil Cardinal, down some dark roads that Native TV and cinema has often avoided. Characters battle addiction to alcohol and gas-huffing. There is tension between those who have left the reserve and those who still live there. Characters with high social status cling to it, while those at the bottom of the pecking order struggle for respect.Comment:  Having watched The Sopranos, True Blood, and Big Love, I can say they all show the good and bad of the cultures they portray. They aren't relentlessly negative liked SCALPED, which also has been called a Sopranos on the reservation.

I trust Native filmmakers to get rez life right more than I do non-Native writer Jason Aaron. They presumably know that for every gangster, drunk, or whore there's a leader, a healer, and a teacher. Life on the rez isn't unremittingly bad.

I haven't watched Blackstone yet, but I hope to eventually. It'll be interesting to see if it rings true.

For more on the subject, see Blackstone Gets Full-Season Order and Blackstone TV Pilot.

New approach to the Lone Ranger?

Johnny Depp Says The Lone Ranger Will Allow Him To Salute His Native American Ancestry

By Eric EisenbergThis past weekend the majority of movie-goers flocked to see The Green Hornet, the film pulled in $40 million in its three day opening. One of the more interesting aspects of the movie is the way that the hero/sidekick dynamic is flipped, with Kato being a genius martial artist and brilliant with gadgetry, while the Green Hornet is a bit of a schlub. According to Johnny Depp, that very same dynamic will find its way into the film about Britt Reid's grand-uncle, The Lone Ranger.

The actor recently spoke with EW about the upcoming film, which will be directed by longtime collaborator Gore Verbinski, and one of the biggest draws of the project to him is it's treatment of Native American characters. Depp, who is part Cherokee and will be playing Tonto in the movie, recognizes the horrible on-screen representation of Native Americans in film history and sees this project as a way of repairing that image.

“It’s a real opportunity for me to give a salute to them. Tonto was a sidekick in all the Lone Ranger series. [This film] is a very different approach to that partnership. And a funny one I think.”Comment:  If Depp is talking about an approach in which the Ranger is a novice or bungler and Tonto is the brains of the operation who makes fun of him, that isn't new or fresh. Indeed, it's been done several times before.

A better way to repair the image of Natives in film, and to salute Depp's Native heritage, would be to cast an actual Native to play Tonto. Then people would learn that Natives still exist, they can act, and they can carry potential blockbuster films. They won't learn any of that with Depp taking the Native role.

For more on the subject, see Depp Goes Native for Tonto and Sppoky Stuff in Depp's Lone Ranger.

Sanitizing Martin Luther King Jr.

Opinion:  Stop Sanitizing MLK's Message

By Tim WiseIt's a common proclamation heard at this time of year, reinforced by schools, politicians, and civic leaders who apparently believe Dr. King was just as concerned with community beautification and the sustainability of the Red Cross as with those things he called the triple evils of America: racism, poverty and militarism.

To be fair to Mrs. Obama, for whom I have long had great respect, perhaps she meant to imply, in the "or more" section of her above statement, engaging in massive demonstrations against the illegal and immoral wars that continue under the leadership of her husband-–something King would likely do were he still here-–or protesting the substantial housing, job or criminal-justice system discrimination, which evidence indicates still plague people of color, but about which the president speaks little, for fear of offending white folks.

But if so-–if radical social action is still part of how we can or should carry on King's legacy-–one would never know it from listening to Michelle Obama, or pretty much any modern political leader for that matter.

Amid the ubiquitous insistence-–now quickly approaching the level of cliche-–that the King holiday should be a "day on, not a day off," community after community herds its youth, especially, into utterly depoliticized, ideologically neutered service projects that are guaranteed to produce a warm-fuzzy feeling, but do little to even raise larger issues of justice and injustice, let alone seek to ameliorate the latter in the name of the former.

Operating on a charity model, rather than one of solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed, these service projects, while perhaps worthwhile in and of themselves, serve to reinforce the illusion that the society is basically a just one, requiring no substantial transformation, but rather, just a little more "helping out," in order to attain perfection.

To believe such a myth is one's prerogative of course: yours or Michelle Obama's. But such a faith is far afield from that which Dr. King was suggesting during his life and at the time of his death. And it is likely just as far from that which he would be saying had he not long ago been taken from us.

Thus, to honor Dr. King with such a watered-down agenda is not to honor him at all. It is to dishonor the true Dr. King and the movement of which he was a part, and to allow his legacy to become so devoid of transformative potential that its hijacking by conservatives-–the very people who stood so resolutely against him during his life–-will only become easier in years to come.

Honoring Dr. King requires action, and not just any kind of action, but action aimed at producing a new way of living.

It is one thing, after all, to build houses for homeless people, but quite another to demand an end to housing shortages in a nation as wealthy as this one. It is one thing to feed the hungry, but quite another to demand that food security be guaranteed as a matter of public policy and not just hoped for as the result of private charity. It is one thing, in short, to honor the safe Martin Luther King Jr., and another to honor the man in his entirety.

Forty-three years later, it isn't only conservatives who fail to recognize the difference. Perhaps Michelle Obama has to play the game this way for political reasons. But for the rest of us, there is no similar excuse.You can see an example of what Wise is talking in this MLK Jr. quote:If we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.Comment:  King advocated a radical shift in our cultural values. He wanted to achieve something like an idealized spiritual society, which is what traditional Native societies were. He might've considered a tribe like the Hopi, which wasn't as militaristic as others, perfect.

For more on the problems with Western civilization, see America's Cult of Self and Columbus the Cannibal. For more on the Native alternative, see What a Native Utopia Looks Like and Indians Inspired More's Utopia.

Weasel Zippers: "Shaman" was sham?

A website called Weasel Zippers posted the following article from CNSNews.com. This article addressed the Native prayer discussed in Apology for "Ugly" Prayer Remarks and Conservatives Attack "Ugly" Native Prayer. Weasel Zippers added the headline to show what it thought of the prayer.

The Shaman Was a Sham?  Native American Prayer at AZ Memorial Delivered by Roman Catholic Physician

“In reality, I’m Catholic.”It would be a mistake, however, to call the Native American beliefs he was expressing a religion, Gonzales said.

“It’s not truly a religion, it’s more of a way of appreciating spirituality,” Gonzales told CNSNews.com. “I’m Yaqui and Yaquis have been Roman Catholics since 1650. We were one of the first tribes in Mexico to actually peacefully absorb Catholicism; however we have always practiced Catholicism in our own unique manner, incorporating traditional beliefs, and so I grew up as a Roman Catholic with a Yaqui variation.”

“In reality, I’m Catholic, but the spirituality I’ve come across with traditional healers is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen, and it’s a way of approaching people and it’s an additional way of healing that has actually helped me to be a better family doc.”

None of the victims of the Tucson massacre were known to be Yaqui. Moreover, no rabbi, Catholic priest or Protestant minister, the known religions of the victims, was included in the memorial program.Comment:  Gonzales never called himself a shaman. The only one who did that was the ignorant Weasel Zippers headline writer.

The only "sham" is the ignorant assumption that Native Americans can't be Catholics. Again, blame the Weasel Zippers headline writer for that.

As for whether Roman Catholics can say Native blessings, the answer is yes. It's done throughout the Southwest, where many Indian pueblos combine Native and Catholic traditions.

Weasels show their hate

Given the range of victims, how would Weasel Zippers have chosen between a rabbi, a priest, and a minister? Or would it have had one of each?

I think the First Amendment explains why the memorial service had a Native blessing rather than a religious prayer. I'd say whoever planned the service was smart.

This is yet another example of the conservative hate speech liberals have denounced so often. Did these weasels discuss the choice of Gonzales intelligently or offer thoughtful alternatives? Did they research him or his Native background before commenting on him? No.

Rather, they called him a shaman" and a "sham" to demonize him. They deemed him a brown-skinned threat to their white privilege, so they sought to take him out. They engaged in character assassination rather than actual assassination, but their objective was the same. Get rid of the strange, unpalatable, un-American one, even if he is a Catholic. Smear and discredit so he can't hurt conservatives in the future.

For more on the subject, see What "I Want My Country Back" Means and Obama Smeared as Luo Tribesman.

Preview of On the Ice

Meet the 2011 Sundance Filmmakers | “On the Ice” Director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean

By indieWIREIn the isolated, frozen town of Barrow, Alaska, Iñupiaq teenagers Qalli and Aivaaq have grown up like brothers in a tight-knit community defined as much by ancient traditions as by hip-hop and snowmobiles. Early one morning, on a seal hunt with their friend James, a tussle turns violent, and James is killed. Panic stricken, terrified, and with no one to blame but themselves, Qalli and Aivaaq lie and declare the death a tragic accident. As Barrow roils with grief and his protective father becomes suspicious, Qalli stumbles through guilt-filled days, wrestling with his part in the death. For the first time in his life, he’s treading alone on existential ice.

In this utterly engrossing, suspenseful feature-film debut by award-winning short filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, the snowy Arctic plains embody Qalli’s lost innocence, while the claustrophobic town mirrors his entrapment, as he trudges through layers of deceit and the gauntlet of how to be a friend and a man. [Synopsis courtesy of Sundance Film Festival]And:Reaching a bigger audience…

About ten years ago I was living at home in Barrow, Alaska, writing and directing plays with a small theater company I co-founded with a cousin of mine. We put in a lot of work into the pieces, and I’m proud of them, but Barrow has a pretty small audience base (the population 5000 or so). Film seemed like a way to tell stories that were relevant to me and my culture while reaching out to more than the 400-500 friends and relatives who would come to our plays.

A short leads to a feature…

“On the Ice” has a pretty interesting history. It’s based on my short film “Sikumi,” which means ‘on the ice’ in the Iñupiaq language. “Sikumi” was at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking. I wrote the short as a writing exercise when I had writers block while working on a script based on an event from my grandfather’s life. So some of the characters have their roots in real people, but they’ve changed a lot along the way. “On the Ice,” the feature, is very different from “Sikumi,” the short. The characters are younger, and the story is more contemporary because I wanted to highlight some of the challenges facing kids in small arctic communities like Barrow.Comment:  For more on the subject, see 11 Native Films at Sundance and Sikumi the Feature Film.

Why not rewrite Twain's books?

Apparently the biggest objection to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer is that black children are horrified and traumatized when they read the n-word. I haven't heard of white children being traumatized by this word, and it didn't traumatize me when I read Huck Finn in high school. Nor have I heard of black or white children being traumatized by the words "Injun" and "half-breed."

This suggests a better solution than simply sanitizing the books of every objectionable ethnic slur in them. The publisher could develop a black edition without the words offensive to blacks and an Indian edition without the words offensive to Indians. If the books have any words offensive to whites, a white edition could exclude them.

This is a silly solution, but it points to the silliness of the proposed solution. One silly solution deserves another.

Slurs out but racism remains

The real problem isn't that Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are great books except for the ethnic slurs. Rather, they're steeped in the racism of the era. If the publisher really wanted to address this problem, it would rewrite all the racist passages. Eliminate Jim's phony dialect and superstitious ignorance and Injun Joe's murderous savagery, among other things.

This is why critics have said replacing the slurs is a slippery slope. Where do you stop if you're really trying to protect the children? Why is it wrong to expose them to racist words but not to racist ideas?

Schools have a few ways to deal with Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. The options include 1) teach kids to deal with the ugly truths in them, or 2) don't teach them until kids are mature enough to handle them. Either option seems better than using sanitized books.

For more on the subject, see Mark Twain, Indian Hater and Is Huck Finn Racist?

"2011 Notable Children's Books"

2011 Notable Children's BooksEach year a committee of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) identifies the best of the best in children's books. According to the Notables Criteria, "notable" is defined as: Worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children's books, notable should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children's interests in exemplary ways.

According to ALSC policy, the current year's Newbery, Caldecott, Belpré, Sibert, Geisel, and Batchelder Award and Honor books automatically are added to the Notable Children's Books list.The notable books include:Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness into Light. By Tim Tingle. Illus. by Karen Clarkson. Cinco Puntos, $17.95. (9781933693675).

This picture book autobiographical vignette shows a modern Choctaw family enduring and supporting each other with love, courage and fortitude.

Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection. Edited by Matt Dembicki. Fulcrum Books, $22.95 (9781555917241).

This collaborative effort by more than 40 writers and artists presents 21 Native American trickster tales in graphic novel format.

Black Elk’s Vision: A Lakota Story. By S.D. Nelson. Abrams, $19.95 (9780810983991).

This handsome, large-format volume combines archival photographs, original acrylic paintings and powerful first-person narrative to present the devastating story of the painful changes in life forced upon the Lakota people.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Dembicki Explains Trickster's Origin and The Best Indian Books.

New Tom Sawyer eliminates "Injun" too

When people were talking about censoring Huckleberry Finn last week, I didn't realize they were planning to do the same to Tom Sawyer:

Upcoming NewSouth 'Huck Finn' Eliminates the 'N' Word

By Marc SchultzRather than see Twain's most important work succumb to that fate, Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books plan to release a version of Huckleberry Finn, in a single volume with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, that does away with the "n" word (as well as the "in" word, "Injun") by replacing it with the word "slave."

"This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colorblind," said Gribben, speaking from his office at Auburn University at Montgomery, where he's spent most of the past 20 years heading the English department. "Race matters in these books. It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."Educator Debbie Reese examines the problems in Tom Sawyer:

An American Indian perspective on changing "Injun" to "Indian" in TOM SAWYERSummary: The first Indian that Twain introduces readers to is an unnamed figure in Tom's imagination. This takes place in chapter eight on page 74. Tom has been rebuffed by the girl he's sweet on (Becky) and runs off to the woods. There, Tom thinks about running away to "join the Indians" where he'll "hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the trackless great plains of the Far West." When he returns, he'll be with "a great Indian chief, bristling with feathers, hideous with paint." He'll go into Sunday-school "with a blood-curdling war-whoop."

Deb's comments: Tom's image reflects America's love/hate attitude towards American Indians. On one hand, we're admired and on the other, we're feared. Or--I should say--IMAGES of us are admired and feared. Tom wants to join Indians who (he imagines) are living the good life out west, hunting buffaloes. He is drawn to the warlike image, too, as he images going on the warpath with the Indians of his imagination. Tom dwells more on the aggressive warlike image of Indians in feathers and paint who utter sounds that terrorize courageous Christians and settlers.In the next chapter, Injun Joe is helping a doctor and his assistant dig up a body in a graveyard. Injun Joe tells the doctor he has a score to settle because: "The Injun blood ain't in me for nothing." The "half-breed" Indian circles the doctor--"creeping, catlike and stooping"--before stabbing him.Deb's comments: As developed by Twain, "Injun Joe" is a vengeful, lying murderer who moves like a cat. In framing "Injun Joe" as animal-like, Twain is not alone. Authors then and now do it. A recent example is seen in James Crowley's Blackfeet characters who gnaw on bones.

And, he's a half-breed whose Indian blood/identity is the reason he's a vengeful, lying murderer.(Excerpted from Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature, 1/10/11.)

Comment:  Reese goes through the whole book analyzing it in the same vein. She concludes that changing "Injun" to "Indian" and "half-breed" to "half-blood" won't make much difference. Injun Joe is still a one-dimensional savage killer regardless of the words used. The book doesn't belong in any curriculum except to study racism in literature.

For more on the subject, see New Huck Finn Eliminates "Injun" and Is Huck Finn Racist?

Hopi One Love Concert

'One Love' concert Jan. 22 to honor 'The Hopi Way'On Saturday, Jan. 22 at the Hopi Veterans' Memorial Center, hundreds will join together for the first annual "Hopi One Love Concert." The concert, organized and hosted by Julia and Robert Roskind, will feature conscious reggae group Native Roots from Albuquerque, N.M. and renowned Native American flute player Travis Terry from the Canyon de Chelly area. The family-friendly concert begins at 8 p.m. and the cost is $5.

"All our concerts and events carry the same core message," says Robert Roskind. "We encourage our audience to claim themselves as 'teachers of love' by simply expressing unconditional love, kindness and compassion in their everyday lives."Comment:  For more on the subject, see Cherokee Rapper Signs with Eminenm's Label and Inuit Theme Song for Flying Wild Alaska.

Below:  "Acclaimed Native American reggae group, Native Roots."

Yup'ik Swan Lake

Ballet merges with Yup'ik dance to give 'Swan Lake' an Alaska twist

By Mike DunhamA new "Alaska" version of "Swan Lake" will debut Friday and Saturday in the Discovery Theatre. Alaska Dance Theatre's "Qug'yuq" (the Yup'ik word for swan) retells the story of a girl sinisterly transformed into a bird and the frantic love she shares with a human who is unaware of the magic conjured up to keep them apart.

This time, however, the swan and her swain come from a Yup'ik village. Their nemesis, intent on keeping the girl for himself, is no one less than the powerful trickster, Raven. The usual balletic pirouettes and plies are augmented by Yup'ik Eskimo drumming and dance.

"We wanted to introduce a story ballet, but we knew we didn't want to restage 'Swan Lake,' " said Codie Costello, the executive director of Alaska Dance Theatre. "But reading through it again, we began to think about how we could merge it with Alaska Native stories."

The thread of humans transforming to animals and vice versa, for instance, is a recurring feature in both European fairy tales and Native lore.Comment:  For more on Native dance, see Fasthorse Wins NEA Grant and Indigenous Dance Residency.

Go Native's "Bear Medicine" tour

Into Bear Country! (With a Guide)The bear has long been considered by the Plains Indians a powerful symbol of healing and power, a grandfather and a guardian. There is no way to experience the grandeur (and avoid the danger) of the wilds of western South Dakota then with a Native American guide, one of the Plains Indians who lead week-long journeys into Grizzly territory, revealing the mystical connection between the Plains Indians and bears.

There are tours offered by outfits like Go Native that let you go into Grizzly country with an experienced guide (it’s a good way to understand the history of the ground you’re walking on, and, to not get eaten.) For this tour, the journey beings at one of the most sacred sites on the Northern Plains—the Mato Paha, or Bear Butte, a geological formation that is basically an isolated hill with very steep sides and a flat top. This site is, “the holy center of the Cheyenne universe,” where your guide tells the story of the prophet Sweet Medicine, who received the knowledge from God that went on to inform the Cheyenne’s political, religious, social and economic customs. Mato Paha was sacred to the Sioux and Lakota as well, and indigenous people made pilgrimages to the butte to leave prayer cloths and bundles tied to tree branches.Comment:  For more on Native tours, see Native Plymouth Tours and Cherokee Nation Offers Tour Package.

Keith Olbermann on the Giffords shooting

Keith Olbermann addresses the Giffords shooting with a plea to end the hateful and violent rhetoric:



Comment:  Obama should've said something like this in his speech at the Tucson memorial. Apologize for any mistakes he made, pledge to eschew violence-oriented rhetoric, and challenge everyone else to do the same.

For more on the subject, see Political Vitriol in the Giffords Shooting and A History of Conservative Hate Speech.