Are good Native werewolves okay?

In White Vampire Yes, Indian Werewolf No, a reader accepted my challenge. She tried to come up with a justification for Twilight's Quileute werewolves that I hadn't already addressed. A justification that would require me to read the books before I could answer it.Ok I have one for you :)

If Stephenie Meyer really did write the book with a bias toward Indians by playing on the subhuman vs. superhuman idea--why is the Pack always depicted as protectors? Why do they play such a key role in the protection of Bella and forks? Why do they keep their abilities and continue to protect Forks and La Push from Laurent and Victoria after the vampires bail? And I think most importantly--why does the pack exhibit the values many of us look for in the ideal family? They love each other; they protect each other, and work to keep both their biological families, and their larger community family safe.My response:

I haven't addressed this argument all in one place, but I have addressed it. I'll outline my position and the source material for you.

White Vampire Yes, Indian Werewolf No: "Jacob the Indian werewolf is hairy, snarling, and savage just like a demon. He's literally a beast-man. So we see the duality Meyer has unwittingly set up. The white character is superhuman and the Indian character is subhuman."

Don't get hung up on the word "subhuman." I didn't say wolves and other animals are evil or bad. But they are creatures and they aren't human beings. In our culture, they're considered inferior by definition.

Pack behavior is admirable?

Jacob Black's Final Fate: Like puppy dogs, Twilight's werewolves imprint on humans. This further identifies them as subhuman animals.

Why does the wolf pack exhibit good family values? Why do good family members exhibit pack behavior? Because they're more animal-like than real people.

That's the great thing about dumb but loyal brutes. Animals like wolves (and Indians?) don't complicate their lives with moral equations or other complex thought processes. They operate by instinct. They take care of their own because they're programmed to do so.

And you consider this a good trait? Because I don't. Would a Twilight werewolf sacrifice his pack members to protect the United States from a terrorist attack? An intelligent, sophisticated Indian might make that choice, but a howling wolf-man probably wouldn't.

In fact, what would happen if all the Quileute werewolves decided to quit the pack and leave the rez? Or to overthrow the alpha wolf and elect a leader democratically? I suspect these things can't happen in Twilight because its Indians are part animal. Their pack instincts make them less than fully human.

Nobility = stereotype

Noble Savages in Twilight: In addition to this posting, see any of dozens of postings on the noble savage. Short version: A noble savage is still a savage. He may be a great guy--a loving, caring individual--but he's still primitive and uncivilized compared to Westerners.

Positive Stereotypes Are Negative: Does the nobility factor negate the savage factor? Not in my mind. A positive stereotype is still a stereotype.

Indian Werewolf in Hybrid: Indians are routinely depicted as, or associated with, werewolves, skinwalkers, and other creatures that go bump in the night. Again, these creatures aren't all evil, but they are all creatures.

Are you seriously arguing that dozens of creators have just coincidentally come up with the idea of linking Indians and werewolves? That this doesn't reflect a deep-seated belief that Indians are closer to nature and more animal-like, with their keen senses and hunting and tracking skills? If you believe that, I have a bridge you may want to buy.

Meyer's Unconscious Racism: I never said that Meyer intended to convey the message that Indians are beast-like. I said she did it whether she intended to or not. Learn about the concept of aversive racism before you try to discuss it.

Game over

Our reader continues:Now--I really don't expect you to agree with any of this because it is the exact opposite of your theories, but what I can do is simply point out that without reading the books you can't understand the relationship the reader has with the characters and the families.Alas. You can point it out, and I can point out that you're wrong. I don't need to read a word of the Twilight books to assert what I've asserted.

The "noble savage" is one of the oldest Native stereotypes. You may think it's okay, but I don't. No amount of nobility is enough to change this stereotype into an acceptable non-stereotype.

Anyone else think I haven't thought enough about the Quileute Werewolves in Twilight? Got a totally original defense of Native werewolves that I haven't heard yet? If so, bring it on. I'm ready if you are.

Below:  "I'm the 100th Native werewolf in a book, TV show, or movie. Do I get a prize?"

Determining Indians = waste of time?

In Tired of Phony Indians, a reader complains about my posting:I am really saddened that anyone could judge another by the AMOUNT of blood they carry. It just goes to show that whites are not the only ones guilty of unjust judgment. By what right does anyone decide who is Aboriginal? We are all related (Msit Nokamaq)(Mitake Oyasin) means the same thing in all three tongues.My response:

I have the right of every free-thinking individual to make rational and logical judgments based on the facts and evidence. Unlike you, I can determine who's an actual Indian in many cases. Occasionally it's hard, but often it's easy.What a waste of time to sit and worry about who is and isn't native. There are better things to do.Do you think we should consider anyone who claims to be an Indian an Indian? A New Age wannabe who exploits and bastardizes indigenous cultures? A phony tribal member who uses up the government resources devoted to Natives? An academic or artistic fraud who takes paying work from genuine Indians?

Well, I don't. I can think of lots of cases where it's important to distinguish between real and fake Indians. If you can't, you haven't been reading this blog long enough.

Get involved, whoever you areGet involved and teach the younger generation before the knowledge is lost.Don't we need to determine who's an Indian first? No?

Well, that's good to know. So you don't mind if I declare myself an Indian? And teach young Indians everything I know about being Indian?

In my case, you won't have to worry about losing the knowledge. Because I've gotten most of my Native knowledge from books and articles. Any time you need to relocate this Native lore, you can go to any library and do it.

If there's anything I don't know, we can hire someone from Shamans 'R' Us to fill in the gaps. We can tell how knowledgeable he is by how much he charges for his services. If his claims seem phony...well, we won't worry about it, because a real Native would never lie to us.

Because the truth doesn't matter, right? As long as we say we're Indians, that's good enough. Why waste time asking for blood quantum or tribal enrollment or community acceptance? Just take our word for it.

You, me, Ward Churchill, Chief Illiniwek, Cher, Dick Cheney, Osama bin Laden...we're all related. We're all Indians in one way or another. We're all qualified to teach young Indians how to be Indian.

Proud of my heritage, whatever it isOne last thing regardless of how the world views you, you are either proud of your heritage in the face of bigotry or you hide it.Again, don't we need to determine someone's heritage before we can be proud of it? No?

I'm proud enough of my Anglo heritage. But you've said it's a waste of time to judge whether I have any Native heritage to be proud of. So we'll skip the judging stage and go straight to the teaching stage. I'll teach all those young Indians everything I know about them.

Whether they're Navajo, Lakota, or Cherokee, they'll learn about the Great Spirit, tipis, totem poles, medicine wheels, peace pipes, smoke signals, flute music, and other key aspects of Native culture. By the time I'm done, they'll have as much authentic Indian knowledge as I do. And take my word for it, that's a lot.

Does anybody not get the point yet? Or should I continue mocking this poor fellow? I can do this all day long, you know.

For more on the subject, see Rob Doesn't Understand "Mutts"?

Below:  "I just found a Cherokee princess in my family tree. Please give me a government handout and let me open a casino. And cast me in the next Twilight movie."

Val Kilmer for governor?

Val Kilmer ponders run for NM governor in 2010Holy hornet's nest, Batman! The New Mexico governor's mansion?

Fresh from the inauguration, actor Val Kilmer is pondering running for governor in 2010, when two-term Democrat Bill Richardson will be forced from office by term limits.

"I'm just looking for ways to be contributive," Kilmer told The Associated Press on Thursday. "And if that ends up being where I can make a substantial contribution, then I'll run."

But there's no decision yet.As you may know, Kilmer is a small part Native:

Val KilmerKilmer has Scottish, Irish, Sephardic Jewish, Cherokee Native American (from a paternal great-grandmother), Swedish, German and Mongol ancestry.Frequently Asked QuestionsIs Val involved with any civic activities?

Val is an ardent supporter of Native American affairs and an advocate of environmental protection. He supports Lead or Leave, a non-partisan youth political awareness campaign, and Habitat for Humanity, an organization that raises money to to construct house for low-income families. In addition, in May of 1998, Val accompanied and assisted the AmeriCares (the international disaster relief organization) mission to Baghdad. The mission carried nearly 90,000 pounds of medicines and medical supplies for the Iraqi people. In 1999 Val continued his support of Native American culture by producing and directing a promotional video for the Native American Preparatory School.Comment:  For some reason, I thought Kilmer was more like 1/4 Native. The above indicates he's 1/8 or less, which puts him in Johnny Depp/Taylor Lautner territory.

Apparently he's mildly attracted to projects with a Native theme. In addition to his starring role in Thunderheart, he's appeared in The Doors, The Missing, and Comanche Moon.

Thunderheart is one of my favorite Native-themed films, and Kilmer is good in it. He plays a part-Sioux FBI agent who was raised away from the rez and is disconnected from his roots. Since this is roughly Kilmer's background, the casting is excellent. Kilmer is persuasive as the conflicted agent who's only dimly aware of his Native side.

This is what authentic casting is all about, people. You don't choose Kilmer to play Sitting Bull or Geronimo and you don't choose Graham Greene to play George Washington or Barack Obama. When the casting is done right, the actor brings a touch of verisimilitude to the role. The performance has an extra edge or oomph and the production sings.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

The Joseph Gribble case

In Rob Doesn't Understand "Mutts"? correspondent DMarks raises a perennial question: What about Joseph Gribble?

For those who don't watch King of the Hill, Joseph was born out of wedlock to John Redcorn, an Indian man, and Nancy Gribble, a white woman. Joseph has been raised by Nancy and her husband Dale and thinks he's their natural son. He has no idea that he's anything but white.

DMarks asserts that Joseph must be Indian because his blood quantum is high enough earn him membership in his biological father's tribe:With a full-blooded Indian father (John Redcorn), he [Joseph] would almost certainly meet the first of your requirements, which is all that is necessary according to you.My response:

You can find a list of Texas tribes in various places, including here:

Texas Indian Tribes and Languages

Since Redcorn tried to open a casino, I believe his tribe is federally recognized. You could concentrate on Texas's three recognized tribes in your search for enrollment requirements.

But is John Redcorn full-blooded? You and I may have assumed that, but do we know for sure? If he's only 1/2 or 1/4 Indian by blood, that throws a monkey wrench into your speculation.

A complicating factor is that some tribes decide membership by matrilineal descent. If you're half-Indian on your mother's side, you're a tribal member. If you're half-Indian on your father's side, you're not.

Let's suppose...

Let's suppose Joseph is 1/2 Indian by blood. I still say he's a special case. Since he's 50-50, he can choose to identify himself as Indian or non-Indian. He's "chosen" (through his ignorance) to identify as a white member of the Gribble family.

I think we have to respect that position just as if he declared himself an Indian. In other words, either identity would be valid in this hypothetical situation. Joseph could legitimately call himself white, Indian, or biracial.

Until we have more facts, therefore, I'd say we can't identify him as an Indian. I'm sticking with my claim: that his self-identification as white trumps his half-or-less Indian blood. If he wants to embrace his Indian side, he has to do it consciously.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Below:  Joseph before and after his growth spurt.

A brief history of "redface"

November is Native American Heritage Month

in which products available on DVD are discussedIn most American film, non-Native actors played Natives as bloodthirsty, unreasoning barbarians whose demise was glorified. Actors in redface depicted Natives as droopy nosed stoics capable only of speaking English in broken, halting fortune cookie-isms. Iron Eyes Cody even adopted a Native kid (Robert Tree Cody) and chanted on Joni Mitchell's "Lakota." Lithuanian/Tatar Charles Bronson often passed for believably Native--at least for a movie-going public almost completely unaware of what Natives actually look like.

Even when somewhat sympathetic to Natives, white people were still almost always cast as the leads, the Caucasian appearance usually attributed to their being "halfbreeds." The Last of the Mohicans (1920), Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, F-Troop, Iron Eyes Cody's entire career, Broken Arrow, Kings of the Sun, Navajo Joe (Burt Reynolds is a quarter Cherokee), Captain Apache, I Will Fight No More Forever, Sitting Bull, Commanche, Chato's Land, White Comanche, Comanche and Gregg Henry in Body Double all feature white actors playing Native characters.

Redface and negative portrayals of Natives occurred almost unchecked until AIM started staging protests in front of theaters showing anti-Native films. Their efforts (along with revisionist western filmmakers using the genre to subversively attack the war in Vietnam and address civil rights) helped put an end to the universal glamorization of the Native American holocaust.Comment:  This article is entertaining look at Natives in movies, with lots of good photos. I suggest you read the whole thing.

A couple of important points here. One, that non-Native actors consciously shaded their performances to make Indians seem more savage and uncivilized. Mistakes and stereotypes are what happen when you don't cast roles authentically.

Two, that the practice started to end when Native people protested it. Not when "liberal do-gooders" like me protested it and not when producers decided to cast Natives out of the goodness of their hearts. In case you don't know how the world works, demanding change is usually the prelude to achieving change.

Incidentally, another term for "a movie-going public almost completely unaware of what Natives actually look like" is "besotted fans of non-Native pretty boys who rationalize casting their heartthrobs as Indians."

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

Below:  "Tell truth. You not know we white man." (An actual quote from the article.)

Are pure-white Indians possible?

In Rob Doesn't Understand "Mutts"? correspondent DMarks raises another question about who qualifies as an Indian:Does this include completely white wannabes who have been accepted by other Indians in modern times, or the white men who "married into the tribe" in older days? Do you count these completely white men as Indians because they are accepted by a tribe?My response: This is a two-part question.

1) Re completely white wannabes: I'd say they'd have to be widely or generally accepted as Indians by Indians to qualify. A few Indians saying their white colleague qualifies as an Indian wouldn't be enough.

Take someone like Ward Churchill...please. Since he fails to meet the other criteria, it comes down to whether the majority of Indians accept him as Indian. Ten or twenty years ago, they probably did. Now they probably don't. Hence he's lost the Indian status he once had.

2) Re white men who "married into the tribe": Where's Russell Bates with his tales of the red-haired Kiowa boy when you need him? <g>

I think this case is representative, so I'll post it here:

Frank Baldwin captures mysterious "white Indian" TehanOn this day in 1874, Lt. Frank Baldwin and three scouts captured the "white Indian" known as Tehan in what is now Hemphill County. Tehan was taken by the Kiowas when he was a child. They called him Tehan ("Texan"). He was subsequently adopted by the medicine man Maman-ti and grew up to become a fierce warrior. Except for his red hair, fair skin, and bull-like neck, he was pure Kiowa, and he reportedly committed several depredations on whites as an apprentice brave during the early 1870s.I'm pretty sure Tehan's case is typical. He became a full-fledged member of the Kiowa and nobody discriminated against him based on his race. That's often what happened to foundlings, runaways, and kidnap victims in the olden days.

So the answer is yes. Membership in a tribe is a political decision, not a racial one. Any government, including that of an Indian tribe, can choose to make whoever it wants a citizen.

I'd strongly advise tribes not to accept anyone, including pure-white wannabes, as members. Because that would dilute their strength as groups with cohesive cultures. But in theory, yes, they can do it.

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

Below:  Tehan the red-haired Kiowa in Dreamkeeper (aka Archie Morris in ER).

"Utes" alienate Utes

Native student protest has diverse roots and reasonsCharges and countercharges of hostility and misunderstanding have fueled a long-standing controversy that erupted Dec. 4 when a group of Native students confronted the University of Utah to call for an investigation into policies affecting them.

The protest march was peaceful and, while no university officials spoke to the group, Michael Young, University of Utah president, was asked--unsuccessfully--to meet about issues highlighted at the protest, said Deb Yazzie, head of the Coalition to Protect American Indian Education Rights.

“The purpose of this protest is to raise awareness of the university’s attempts to silence American Indian students, staff and faculty who protest university policies that ultimately alienate, divide and destroy American Indian communities,” the coalition’s prepared statement read.

Asked to elaborate on the group’s concerns, Yazzie said the University of Utah uses the “Ute” nickname and has the red-tailed hawk as a mascot, “but the community and the university have not embraced that--people still wear feathers and paint and do the ‘tomahawk chop.’”

The many-faceted sense of outrage appears to center only in part on the “Ute” name as used by the university. Other key issues have included a T-shirt offensive to students, a controversial sign displayed during a volleyball game at nearby Brigham Young University and the termination of an American Indian teacher-training program.Comment:  Coincidentally, this article came out just after I posted something on the University of Utah's Utes. Good timing, Indian Country Today.

In Mormons, Utes, and Rob the "Bigot," someone claimed the aforementioned controversial sign was aimed solely at Utah's "Ute" nickname and mascot. That it had nothing to do with the actual Ute Indians. Here we see how phony that distinction is.

The "Ute" nickname and mascot are inextricably bound with the actual Ute Indians. Utah's non-Native fans know it, which is why they dress up as stereotypical Indians and do the tomahawk chop. Utah's Native students know it, which is why they're protesting the school's poor record of "honoring" Utes. Everyone seems to know it except our poor anonymous commenter.

For more on the subject, see Team Names and Mascots.

Do kids today know Tonto?

I asked some correspondents the following:If you asked the children you know the following question:

"Do you know who Tonto is?"

Would they say yes or no?Their answers:My own children? Yes. Other kids I might run into, probably not. Tonto and the Lone Ranger have not been in the public consciousness for a while now, which is a shame (save that Tonto was portrayed speaking broken English). I think kids who are comics savvy and are aware of the present comics incarnation MIGHT know who he is...

Rob D.
NO I do not believe they would know who he was.

I asked my 5 year old grandchild she said "whats a Tonto"?

I was even more shocked when I asked my 21 year old daughter. Not only did she not know who Tonto was she had NO IDEA who the Lone Ranger was!

My My I have failed as a parent (kidding)

Kimberly L.
I asked a few and they all pretty much said that Tonto was:

A new car from Honda...

A new car from Toyota...

The new boyfriend of Latoya Jackson...

A maker of action figures from Japan...

A maker of large-sized toy trucks...

I'm kidding, of course.

Seriously, I have no idea what "they" "would say"...but I think in my house, they'd know.

Kurt H.
I didn't get a huge response (don't have that many young friends easily accessible), but the results were somewhat interesting.

The 15 year old couldn't identify him immediately, but answered:

"um isn't it from some old western/indian movie?....like i think it's Dances With Wolves....am i right?....and i don't think any of my friends would know if i asked"

The 11 year old responded:

"umm no i wouldnt know who tonto is or was or whatever and neither would my friends"

The others I asked were between 18 and 20 (I think), and one of them thought the answer was so obvious as to think it was a joke. Another came up with the correct answer by collaborating with her younger brother, but they had to discuss it. The other two who answered didn't know at all.

So, hardly a scientific poll here, but I found the answers interesting--particularly the 15 year old's. ;)

Alana A.
Oops! One more, also from around a 20 year old:

"not really, i only know that he's the lone ranger's side kick or something like that but thats because there is a scene in a christmas story that talks about the same thing. so if you came across a die hard christmas story fan, i'm sure they'd know what you were talking about." Since they play A Christmas Story every year (sometimes in a 24 hour marathon), that will doubtlessly pick up some of the younger set. :)

Alana A.
My three ages 13, 12 and 10 said yes! I'm sure after the next year many children will be answering Johnny Depp!

Jhane M.Comment:  A few others said no or probably not. I'm not sure if they actually asked their children or were just guessing.

So kids who are deeply immersed in pop culture, or who have parents who are, may know who Tonto is. Others may not.

Alas, we can't say anything definitive from these results. But they tend to refute the claim that no one today knows who Tonto is. Some people are aware that Tonto is an Indian character, and a few know exactly who he is.

There's a hint in these answers that people don't want to guess wrong and look foolish. But if you gave them a quiz--e.g.,

Who or what is Tonto?

a) A new car from Honda
b) A maker of large-sized toy trucks
c) A fictional Indian character
d) A clown on a Nickelodeon cartoon

a lot might get it right. If true, Tonto is more deeply rooted in our culture than people think.

For more on the subject, see Johnny Depp as Tonto?!

All about Sacheen Littlefeather

Sacheen LittlefeatherWho was Sacheen Littlefeather? Was she Brando's creation, as pingouin suggests; was she a "fake" Indian, as is reported on many websites; or was she a woman trying to promote a cause she believed in?

The most common urban myth is that she is "really" a Latina actress named Maria Cruz, who was born in 1947 in California and sent by Brando to refuse his Oscar. pingouin takes this story to its logical conclusion, claiming that Marlon Brando created her and that she was an art piece that he performed. Well, not quite.

Sacheen Littlefeather was born Maria Cruz in 1947, but beyond that not much about her life conforms to the rumours. Her mother was white and her father part Apache, part Yaqui. She was born on a reserve in Arizona into conditions typical of such environments: her parents were very poor, her father physically and sexually abused her, and she attempted suicide at age 9.In 1973, Cruz got her 15 minutes of fame when Marlon Brando won an Oscar for The Godfather:She wore an antique buckskin dress and beaded hairpieces--appearing as a stereotypical Indian girl--and brought a 15-page statement written by Brando explaining his reasons why he was refusing the award, should he actually be the winner. He fussed over the speech till the very last second, so that Littlefeather arrived late and was whisked on stage within a few minutes.

When Brando's name was announced, the audience cheered, but they soon started to boo as Littlefeather appeared. Liv Ullman and Roger Moore were to present the award to Brando, and a famous photo shows them looking completely nonplussed as Littlefeather holds out her hand to decline the statuette. (Moore was so freaked out by the whole thing that he took the little gold guy with him to Mexico before realizing he still had it.) Littlefeather had been forbidden to read Brando's full speech by producer Howard Koch ("If you try, I'll cut you off the air," he apparently hissed at her), so she made a short statement.Sacheen LittlefeatherThis is the only authorized website for Sacheen Cruz Littlefeather

Sacheen Littlefeather currently resides in Northern California and is available for interviews, appearances and speaking engagements. This is the only website that will allow you to communicate with her about such matters. All other websites or email boxes are fake and unauthorized.

Contrary to misinformation which has been published on the internet, Sacheen Littlefeather is indeed of true Native American Indian descent. Sacheen was born Marie Cruz in Salinas, California. Her mother is French-German-Dutch, and her father was from the White Mountain Apache and Yaqui tribes from Arizona. "Cruz" is her father's recognized tribe name. Sacheen took the name "Sacheen Littlefeather" after high school to reflect her natural heritage. She is not a "Mexican actress" as Roger Ebert incorrectly reported.Comment:  Watch Cruz's speech on YouTube, especially if you didn't see it originally as I did. It's a great example of Native America intersecting with pop culture.

Imagine denouncing Native stereotypes to a billion or whatever viewers. I don't know if it had an effect, but stereotypes in movies started disappearing (slowly) around that time.

More important, everyone who saw this moment remembers it. This shows the power of popular culture to have an impact on people.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

Mascot foes receive death threats

Racism and intimidation in Carpinteria

Native Americans Face Violence and Intimidation Over Mascot Removal in CarpinteriaThe small town of Carpinteria, California is the latest battleground in Native Americans’ fight against racism. The controversy over a supposedly “harmless” high school sports mascot has alienated the Native American population of Carpinteria, who have come to fear violent reprisals from the non-Native community.

The Carpinteria “Warriors” mascot is the standard Indian chief stereotype, complete with generic plains-style war bonnet and stoic gaze. The school logo consists of a spear with dangling feathers; a visual symbol also associated with plains Indian cultures. Last spring, 15 year old Chumash youth Eli Cordero voiced his objections to the use of this stereotypical imagery by Carpinteria High School. On April 22nd, 2008, he brought his concerns before the school board which then voted to retire the use of all Native American imagery.

Since the April 2008 decision, many citizens of Carpinteria have waged a campaign of terror against those who supported the school board’s decision, as well as the school board itself. A local businessman placed a quarter-page ad in the local newspaper explicitly naming and targeting Eli Cordero, the young student who originally brought the issue to the school board. Since that time, the 15 year old has received death threats and his family has been harassed. Some citizens of Carpinteria shouted racial epithets at John Orendorff, a Native American Army Reserve colonel who spoke at a school board meeting in favor of removing the racist imagery.

Some Native American people have moved out of Carpinteria due to the climate of fear and anti-Indian sentiment. Ashleigh Brown, until recently a resident of Carpinteria, spoke of her decision to move away, “There is a community member who refused to do our printing for our cultural awareness event. Her son…started telling my roommate to keep my nose out of Carpinteria issues, or else I might regret it…So after other townspeople found out where I lived I decided to move out of Carpinteria.”Carpinteria schools may remove Native American items from logoIt now looks like the Native American head, canoe and arrowhead will be removed from the Carpinteria Unified School District's logo.

A student member of the Chumash tribe complained last year that the mascot perpetuates stereotypes and offensive to Native Americans.

The district's 15-member Native American Imagery Committee met for the final time Tuesday night and recommended the change, as well as urging removal of a 10-foot mural of a Native American and a bird.Comment:  A Plains chief and a Woodland canoe in Chumash (California coastal) territory. Classically, stupidly stereotypical.

So we have intimidation, racial epithets, and death threats. Thanks once again, mascot lovers, for showing us how you "respect" and "honor" Indians. Could you be any more hypocritical if you tried?

For more on the subject, see Team Names and Logos.

Giago's photo isn't Crazy Horse

In search of Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse not subject of photo, research proves 1872 photo really shows Stabber, who attended Washington peace talksThe legend is true. The history is correct.

Crazy Horse never posed for a photograph. At least not the one Tim Giago owns.

Researchers from a PBS show who study historical mysteries have determined that a photograph believed to be the only one of the legendary Lakota leader is in fact that of another man, Giago said.And:Most of the filming took place in Giago’s study. Filled with sound equipment and bright lights, the room in the house on the edge of Rapid City was crowded. The crew, two local sound technicians, a director of photography, an associate producer, the show’s host, Giago and the director all worked in the close quarters.

No loud cries of “Cut” or “Action” were heard and all of the direction from Lardner was positive and polite. The crew filmed scenes interviewing Giago and then asked him to change clothes.

They then staged a second scene, supposedly much later, in which they met with a second time to tell him the man in the photo was not Crazy Horse.

The crew also filmed scenes at Crazy Horse Memorial, where they met with Sprague and Ziolkowski to film scenes for the show.

The program airs Mondays during the summer on PBS. The piece on Giago’s photo will air as a 15-minute segment of a show this summer, according to a “History Detectives” staffer.Comment:  It sounds as though they haven't made a determination about the photo I posted, which someone claimed was Crazy Horse. So that photo still could be the real thing.

Lynn Johnston's Mtigwaki

Long-time readers of Indian Comics Irregular know that I used to read newspaper comic strips regularly. For a few years, I picked the best and worst strips of the year for their Native aspects. I believe Lynn Johnston's For Better or For Worse won 2-3 times--mainly because of the strips set in Mtigwaki.

Here's a recap of Johnston's impressive effort to feature First Nations people in her comic strips.

Mtigwaki (Land of Trees)In 2004, Elizabeth Patterson moved to a First Nations community called Mtigwaki in Northern Ontario to teach at a small school. You can read about her adventure in our archives, or in our collection books She's Turning Into One of Them and Teaching...is a Learning Experience.

Lynn's introduction to Mtigwaki:

I wanted to create an imaginary Ojibway community in Northern Ontario that would be true to life, giving readers a realistic view of what living in a First Nation community is like. In so doing, I wanted to show Elizabeth's world change for the better, with the challenge of teaching multiple grades in an unfamiliar environment, rich with Canadian history.The Mtigwaki Strips

Lynn Awarded Debwewin CitationFor introducing a fictional Anishinabek Nation community into a comic strip published daily in over 2,000 newspapers in 22 countries in eight languages, Lynn Johnston has been named the 2004 recipient of the Debwewin Citation for excellence in Aboriginal-issues journalism.Comment:  Not bad for an Anglo woman working in the "funny pages." This shows what you can do if you care enough to do it right.

For more on the subject, see Native Comic Strips vs. Comic Books.

The myth of SuAnne Big Crow

SuAnne Big Crow, the fans in Lead and On The Rez, a myth in the makingIn his book "On The Rez," author Ian Frazier reports the story of a basketball game in the fall of 1998 between Pine Ridge and Lead in which fans were in a near frenzy, heckling the young Thorpe players by yelling epithets such as 'squaw' and 'gut-eater.' In the book, he also says some fans were waving food stamps while the school band joined in with fake-Indian drumming and a fake-Indian song.

It was at this point, according to Frazier, SuAnne Big Crow, one of the most recognized and beloved South Dakota athletes both "on" and "off" the reservation, stopped at center court, draped her warm up jacket over her shoulders and began a traditional dance and Lakota song that quieted the unruly crowd.And:It turns out that Pine Ridge didn't play in Lead in 1988. Of course, that could be just a slip of the key stroke, because they did play there in 1987. But there was only one account of the incident, told years later upon Big Crow's death, and it appeared in the Lakota Times.

Those who played in the game, including Pine Ridge players, couldn't remember the slurs, the band, the dance. But it remains a permanent part of Big Crow's legacy.

Harlan wrote a piece to the New York Times; Frazier, in turn, rebutted Harlan's claims, but rather weakly. In his rebuttal, Frazier wrote: "Mr. Harlan considers me remiss in not checking the story with people in Lead. I regret that I didn't, because I want my reporting to be as thorough as possible. But given the town's reputation and the evidence I found to support it, I do not feel I was being unfair, in the big picture, to Lead."

Basically, it might not be true, but it could be.

Baloney & Bannock

Here's a Native comic strip featured on Lynn Johnston's website:

About PerryBoozhoo (Hello)! My name is Perry McLeod-Shabogesic of the N'biising Nation (Anishinabek Crane Clan) and I am creator of an Aboriginal comic strip called "Baloney & Bannock." I was born and raised on Nipissing First Nation in Ontario, Canada. My toons are not widely known and are printed in a small Aboriginal newspaper called the Anishinabek News and a local non-Native newspaper, The North Bay Nugget, on occasion. It's been over 15 years now that I've been drawing Baloney & Bannock and I thought it was about time I shared this wonderful and humorous journey I've been on with these two characters.B&B Strip Archive

Comment:  Typically, you find Native comic strips in local papers like the Anishinabek News. Sometimes they're pretty amateurish. I'd say Baloney & Bannock is better than most.

Demolishing Disrobing

In an excellent review, Gerald Taiaiake Alfred demolishes Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry, the policy book Jonathan Kay claims is the best he's read in a decade. I'm tempted to post Alfred's entire review so you'll see it all. Instead I'll limit myself to a few choice excerpts and encourage you to read the rest.

Review of “Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry”

Redressing Racist Academics, Or, Put Your Clothes Back On, Please! A Review of Widdowson and Howard’s, Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry (McGill Queen’s University Press, 2008).From the excited, glowing reviews of Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry I had seen in The National Post, and as a critic of parasitic white lawyers and consultants, sell-out aboriginals, and collaborationist Aboriginal politicians, I was prepared for a hard-hitting critique and useful deconstruction of the complex of injustice that has been built up around Indigenous-state relations in Canada. Instead, I found a collection of distortions, omissions, and exaggerations, that provides a reading experience like that of slogging through an undergraduate essay by, say, a kid from Alberta ruminating on Québecois nationalism, or an Alabama schoolgirl writing on the root causes of black-on-black violence. What a disappointment.

Widdowson and Howard attempt an awkward and ineffective mental sleight-of-hand trick to deflect anticipated criticism of their attacks on Indigenous people as being racist--as if Widdowson’s simply mentioning a potential charge is a Teflon dress protecting her against it sticking. Rather than speaking about Indigenous people, they speak about Indigenous “culture.” Instead of attacking Indigenous people, they attack the “Aboriginal industry.” But their cover is blown the instant you realize, and it’s pretty obvious from the first page of the book, that their notion of culture is equated to ethnicity and that their “Aboriginal industry” includes and embodies just about every Indigenous writer and representative in the country.

If Widdowson and Howard were serious Marxists concerned with the oppression of Indigenous peoples, even as a class of society, they would no doubt have focused on the economic and political relations that are at the root of the problems besetting Indigenous peoples and Canadian society as a whole. So, where is the analysis of Canada as a colonial regime and the broad consideration of Indigenous-state relations and the history of imperialism that forms the backdrop to any serious discussion of Canadian history and of Indigenous issues?

Widdowson and Howard see the dissolution of Indigenous culture and the assimilation of Indigenous people into the whitestream as the best thing that could possibly happen in Canada. They hold up the Métis, in contrast to First Nation and Inuit, as having “principled leadership” and because of their being assimilated, “it is with them that hope for real change lies” (256). So it becomes clear that the extermination of any meaningful sense of Indigeneity is Widdowson and Howard’s end objective.

I would not want to level the charge of Widdowson and Howard being haters without providing some evidence to that effect. Listed below are some of Widdowson and Howard’s views on Indigenous people, taken directly from the book:

--We have “not developed the skills, knowledge, or values to survive in the modern world” (9) and have “undisciplined work habits, tribal forms of political identification, animistic beliefs, and difficulties in developing abstract reasoning.” (13)

--We are “lazy” and unwilling to work (97) and “are unable to participate in wider society.” (105)

--Our societies are characterized by “savagery” and “barbarism” (12), and residential schools were “positive” and “necessary.” (25)

--Traditional land-based lifestyles do not require “forethought, discipline, and cooperative labour.” (22)

--Encountering our ancestors, who were ignorant (190) British explorers had never seen people “at such an early stage of economic and social development.” (23)Comment:  No wonder Kay thinks Indians should assimilate. He's swallowed every one of Widdowson and Howard's stupid, illogical, and racist arguments uncritically. Kay's praise of Disrobing says a lot more about Kay than it does about the book.

For more on the subject, see Outside the So-Called Ethnic Box.

Below:  "Indians don't have forethought, discipline, or cooperative labor, but we're not racists."

Indian werewolf in Hybrid

Hybrid is apparently a made-for-TV horror movie on the Sci-Fi Channel. Here's the scoop:

Hybrid (2007)Product Description

The eight installment in the "Maneater Series," Hybrid introduces a whole new maneating beast that howls under the moonlight and is eager to bite. When a young man is blinded in an explosion, he becomes the first human subject to undergo a cross-species transplant. Receiving the eyes of a wolf, he can now see in the dark. Unfortunately, he also starts seeing other humans as prey. Ordered to be hunted down and destroyed, he seeks shelter with a mysterious museum curator--a half-breed female herself. Hybrid delivers a snarling twist on the werewolf genre for an all new generation of animal lovers.

More Energy Efficient Werewolves, July 22, 2008
By Zekeriyah (Chicago, IL)

This is the latest release in the 'Man-Eaters' series, this time around about a werewolf. When I first heard about this flick, I joked to my girlfriend that its probably about 'energy efficient werewolves.' Oh how right I was. See, the main plot revolves around an evil medical corporation that implants a wolf's eyes into a blind man, inadvertently turning him into a werewolf. Well, sort of. He just kind of runs around at night with a pack of wolves (or in one case, feral dogs). Naturally, he runs away, with the military-industrial complex chasing after him. During the course of this, he falls in love with a Native American woman and undergoes a 'spiritual quest' to make peace with the wolf-half of himself.

Yeah, there's more than a little New Age-y spiritualism going on in there. But that said, its not a bad movie really. They actually hired Native American actors, for one, and had real wolves. And, unlike other movies, they didn't portray the wolves as especially evil or anything. The main thrust of this movie really seems to be man vs. nature, and while it wasn't especially scary or gorey as far as werewolf movies go, it at least was able to keep my interest. It also features Justine Bateman, who does a great job as the head of the hospital, trying to get our protagonist back. Its probably not the high point for the Man-Eater movies, but its still worth watching.Comment:  Tinsel Korey, who plays the mysterious curator/love interest, is apparently Native. She's played Native characters a few times, anyway. The ubiquitous Gordon Tootoosis plays her shaman friend, who apparently guides the wolf-man on his spiritual quest.

Indians as werewolves...ho-hum. That's been done only a dozen or two times. The latest example being Twilight, of course.

Funny that Indians are constantly associated with animals, but every time someone does it, the apologists say, "They're not implying Indians are savage or bestial in nature. There's no message there at all. It's just a coincidence that they're the 10th or 20th creators to envision Indians as werewolves.

"So what if most Americans think Indians were inhuman killers who scalped and mutilated their victims? That's totally different from thinking of Indians as nonhuman killers who rip and claw their victims. Totally!"

Just curious, but how many times do you have see an Indian portrayed as a savage beast before you get the message? 25? 50? 100? Give me a number, someone. That way, when we reach this magic number, you won't be able to deny that some serious stereotyping is going on here.

For more on the subject, see Native Things That Go Bump in the Night and The Best Indian Movies.

Below:  "No, I'm not a Quileute werewolf. I'm another kind of Indian werewolf."

Hank Williams First Nation

Hank Williams First Nation is yet another movie and TV series that I hadn't heard of until now. Here's the scoop:

Hank Williams First NationA remote Cree community takes on a certain charge when one of its own sets out on an ambitious (and somewhat loopy) adventure.

Seventy-five-year-old Martin Fox (Jimmy Herman) decides abruptly one morning that before he dies he must visit the grave of his long time hero Hank Williams. With the support of his younger brother, Adelard Fox (Gordon Tootoosis), Martin sets out for Tennessee on a Greyhound, accompanied by a 17 year-old nephew--sent along as a guide.

As the two travelers gain human-interest-story-of-the-week status in the US press, the news trickling back home provides a unifying spark to the little community, and the variety of colourful characters that make it their home.

Hank Williams First Nation is an endearing look at a good-hearted and good-humoured people and the unique charms and challenges that surround them.Hank William's First Nation--The Series“Hank William’s First Nation--The Series” continues the stories first brought to life in Aaron James Sorensen’s critically acclaimed 2005 feature film “Hank Williams First Nation.” The half-hour series is a collection of stories capturing the unique charms, the character, and the quirky humour of Wapahoo--a fictitious remote Cree community. The whimsical and unique life-affirming culture of the Cree is at the very centre of these stories as the people in them go through the daily trials and tribulations of their lives. Through it all, the show covers universal themes known to all audiences regarding lessons learned, experiences gained, and hearts swelled and mended.

The six-part series stars Gordon Tootoosis (“North of 60”) and Edna Rain (“Dead Dog Café”) as Adelard and Vivian Fox, grandparents to Sarah and Jacob, played by Teneil Whiskeyjack (“Dreamkeeper”) and Colin Van Loon (“Hank Williams First Nation”). The series also stars Sheldon Elter (“Canadian Idol” semi-finalist) as Sarah’s friend Huey Bigstone and Jimmie Herman (“Distant Drumming: A North of 60 Mystery”) as Uncle Martin.Comment:  Let me get this straight. Canadian TV shows such as Hank Williams First Nation, Wapos Bay, Moccasin Flats, and North of 60 were and are full of talented Native actors. But Twilight's producers can't find anyone except Taylor Lautner and Vanessa Hudgens to play Quileute werewolves. Are they missing something, or am I?

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies and TV Shows Featuring Indians.

The first chocoholics

Mystery of Ancient Pueblo Jars Is SolvedFor years Patricia Crown puzzled over the cylindrical clay jars found in the ruins at Chaco Canyon, the great complex of multistory masonry dwellings set amid the arid mesas of northwestern New Mexico. They were utterly unlike other pots and pitchers she had seen.

Some scholars believed that Chaco’s inhabitants, ancestors of the modern Pueblo people of the Southwest, had stretched skins across the cylinders and used them for drums, while others thought they held sacred objects.

But the answer is simpler, though no less intriguing, Ms. Crown asserts in a paper published Tuesday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: the jars were used for drinking liquid chocolate. Her findings offer the first proof of chocolate use in North America north of the Mexican border.And:The Mayan vessels, decorated with court scenes and hieroglyphics, were used to ceremonially consume chocolate at sumptuous feasts, Ms. Reents-Budet said. An expensive luxury, the cacao beans were fermented, roasted and ground up, then mixed with water and flavorings before being whipped into froth. It made sense to present the beverage in a special vessel, she said.

“It’s as if you were having a dinner party and serving Champagne,” said Ms. Reents-Budet. “You serve Champagne in really nice glasses.”Comment:  This isn't exactly a pop-culture item, but it reminds me of our unacknowledged debt to Native America. Indians gave us something like half of our dessert and snack foods: chocolate, vanilla, peanuts, pecans, cashews, potato chips, corn chips, popcorn, sunflower seeds, chicle (gum), etc. Without them we'd be stuck eating celery and carrot sticks between meals.

Whenever Superman appears in the media (comics, cartoons, movies, etc.), the producers are required to add a line saying "Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster." Imagine if every time a chocolate product appeared in the media, it had to include a tag saying "Brought to you by Native Americans." That alone would start changing our perception of Indians as unaccomplished savages.

For more on the subject, see 100 Amazing Indian Discoveries and The Native Culinary Tradition.

Wapos Bay: The Series

It's too bad we don't get Canada's Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) here in the US. And that APTN hasn't released much of its content on DVD. Because it's putting out a lot of Native TV shows and movies that I haven't heard of.

Here's one of them:

Wapos Bay: The SeriesThe Stop Motion adventures of a family on a reservation in Northern Saskatchewan.Wapos Bay SeriesThe Wapos Bay animated series is a charming and often humorous look at the contemporary life and culture of the northern Cree. The fictitious community set in northern Saskatchewan is home to the main characters: young Raven, Talon and their cousin T-Bear. Educators can use the series to teach children about northern Cree culture through the exploits of the young characters and their extended family: kohkum (grandmother), mushom (grandfather), Sarah, Jacob and Alphonse.

Married for twenty years and parents to two children, Dennis and Melanie founded Dark Thunder Productions (DTP) in 1998. Their first project, Journey Through Fear, won the Telefilm Canada/Television Northern Canada Award at the 1998 Banff Festival. The enchanting world of Wapos Bay was first brought to life in Christmas at Wapos Bay, an animated special directed, produced and written by Dennis and edited by Melanie, which premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. Drawing on this success, they joined forces with the National Film Board of Canada to produce the Wapos Bay series.

Dennis and Melanie Jackson use stop-motion animation to create the Wapos Bay community and characters. Both draw inspiration from their experiences growing up in Aboriginal communities in Saskatchewan—Dennis from his community of Sandy Bay and from his mushom (grandfather), who hunted and trapped to make a living for his twenty-two children, and Melanie from her family and her own Saulteaux people in southern SaskatchewanComment:  For a list of the series episodes, see Wapos Bay: The Series. For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Friday the 13th: The Shaman's Apprentice

Friday the 13th was a horror series on the Sci-Fi Channel that had nothing to do with the movies of the same name. The Shaman's Apprentice was the 24th episode of the show's second season.

Here are a couple of synopses:

"Friday the 13th" The Shaman's Apprentice (1989)A Native American doctor discovers a unique way to cure terminally ill patients, but the price of the treatment is murder.Friday the 13th: The Series--The Shaman's ApprenticeA ceremonial rattle lets an Indian doctor save his patients by taking other lives.Dr. White Cloud was played by someone named Paul Miceli-Sanchez. It was apparently his first and last role in the business. There's no indication whether he's Native or not, but he appears to be. Gordon Tootoosis is the only cast member who's clearly Native.

You can see the first 9:51 of the episode below. It's your typical "modern Native doctor scorns traditional shaman grandfather" plot, with the young skeptic learning the old ways via a magical artifact. There's nothing new here, but it's reasonably well done. It isn't pure trash.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

The Media Blueprint Project

Native Public Media launches new projectNative Public Media recently announced the launch of its Media Blueprint Project naming Sascha Meinrath to work with Peggy Berryhill, Muscogee, director of media architecture and services as the lead research consultant. According to Loris Ann Taylor, Hopi, executive director, the Media Blueprint Project will determine how the Native media network can utilize new media technologies and platforms to enhance and expand the media capacity of Native America.

Key to the development of next-generation media is access to broadband media technologies, the nerve center of global communications. American Indian communities have received both poor broadband services and little attention in national Internet use surveys. The first phase of the Media Blueprint Project will document the on-the-ground realities among Native people to provide a much-needed intervention to address current inequities.

Mormons, Utes, and Rob the "bigot"

In "Back to the Reservation for U" Anonymous claimed I'm a "bigot" for condemning some Mormons. Follow the link to review the original controversy, or continue here.Come on, Rob... You whine in this article about Racism, yet you call out those attending BYU as Mormons (Which, hello… It’s owned by their church. That’s like saying that people that attend Notre Dame are "probably" Catholics… I’m sure that’s pretty much understood.) and accuse them of being ignorant to the feelings of others? Now YOU’RE the one being the bigot, ripping on Mormons.Did you read the part where I wrote that the Mormon university responded appropriately? How do you figure I'm attacking all Mormons when I said the students supporting the sign were wrong but the officials denouncing it were right?

Apparently you weren't paying attention if you think my nuanced response was a condemnation of all Mormons. Either that or you don't know what "bigotry" means.

"Good Mormons" aren't ignorant?And for your information, a large majority of those that attend the U of U are Mormons too! My grandpa, mother, father, one of my sisters and SEVERAL of my cousins graduated from the U, and guess what? They are all good Mormons who are not ignorant of ANYONES feelings. Your comments make NO sense.I've discussed Indians and Mormons several times in postings such as these:

The Indian-Mormon connection

Indians think they're Lamanites

Mormons modify Indian origins

If your relatives hold more intelligent beliefs than the Mormons who consider Indians a lost tribe of Israel, more power to them. I'm glad to hear they're so educated and enlightened.

Anyway, feel free to read these postings for signs of my alleged bigotry. If you and your relatives want to share your vast sensitivity to the Indians' indigenous roots and beliefs, go right ahead. By all means, tell us how you think the original Book of Mormon was wrong and Native religions are just as valid as Mormonism.But fine; you want to talk about Ignorance? How about the University of Utah CONTINUING to use the Ute’s as their mascot?? They can say all they want, that they “banned” their mascot, but just as Yazzie said, they kept the name… They are they ignorant ones thinking that they can keep a name like that, and NOT think that everyone else will continue to think of them in the same terms.I've written about how the University of Utah "honors" Indians before. Note that I didn't mention Mormonism in this posting because it didn't seem relevant. So much for my alleged bigotry against Mormons.

Not racist to attack Indians?And as for the BYU fan that made the sign, I can ASSURE you, that the comment was not meant to be racist at all! They were simply attacking the MASCOT, which every other school out there does, but this time it was taken out of context.Unfortunately for your argument, intent isn't the measure of whether something is racist. Racists rarely intend to be racist, but that doesn't mean their actions are free of unintentional bias. Bottom line: If they discriminate on the basis of race, they're racist regardless of what their feelings or motivations are.

For more on the subject, see Anti-Indian Racism Explained.

But I don't agree that the "Trail of Tears Part II" and "Back to the reservation for U" signs were merely an innocent attack on the "Utes" name and mascot. They were a racially-based attack on the concept of Utes as Indians. The message was or should've been clear to everyone: If you University of Utah students want to associate yourself with Indians, we want you to suffer the same fate as those Indians. We want you to be confined on an impoverished reservation or forced on a genocidal death march.

Even when made in "fun," these attacks are racially charged and racially specific. The equivalent to these signs would be to tell students at a Jewish school, "Into the ovens with U." Or to tell students at a black school, "Back to the slave ships for U."

When signs like this appear, please let me know. Then I'll concede that BYU's students are equally willing to "razz" all ethnic groups. I.e., that they aren't biased against Indians only. Until then, I stand by my conclusion.

Cowardly comments about Churchill

In Another Fraud Like Churchill, an anonymous coward who's too afraid to sign his name castigated me for quoting Ward Churchill. Here are his comments and my responses:[Y]ou made the idiotic claim that he's an Indian.Wrong, doofus. I've never claimed Churchill was an Indian. If you disagree, quote the alleged claim. Put up or shut up.[N]ow you might say that you didn't know about his lies but the pic you posted of him clearly shows that he's Caucasian.In case you're as ignorant as you seem, a lot of enrolled tribal members are less than half Indian by "blood" and look white or black. I don't discriminate against Indians because of their looks. If we were going by Churchill's appearance--which we're not--he might well qualify as as an Indian.

I listed the criteria I and others use to determine who's an actual Indian. Churchill claimed to meet all three standards: Native ancestry, tribal membership, and acceptance by other Indians. He's never proved the first, the second was revoked or denied, and he's lost the third. If people used to classify him as Indian, they've changed their minds.

Churchill a "terrorist wannabe"?Not to mention you claim to be against violence right? Well wardo's a bit of an armchair terrorist wannabe, do some googling for his stomach churning comments.Yep, I claim to be against violence. If you want me to consider something Churchill has said, cite and quote it and then we'll discuss it. I'm not wasting a second Googling something that's irrelevant to my work.

I don't particularly care what Churchill has said said other than what I've quoted. I don't play "guilt by association" games and neither should you. In case you haven't heard, guilt by association is generally considered wrong.Seriously why are you so easy on this scumbag?For every time I've quoted Churchill on the genocide of Indians, I've quoted critics lambasting his scholarship or his claims of being Native. If you think I'm a Churchill supporter, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. Get a clue, stupid, because the facts prove you wrong.But then I guess you have something in common with him what with your inane bigoted anti-American blanket statements.Yes, we both have our careful, nuanced critiques of US history and culture. So what?

I guess you're too inane to disprove any of my "inane" statements, because you haven't done it yet. Let me know the first time you can demonstrate I have an anti-American "bias" that isn't grounded in hard facts. In other words, let me know when you can challenge my claims that America has documented flaws and shortcomings.

For more on the subject, see America's Cultural Mindset.

Below:  Churchill the self-proclaimed Indian.

Concerto for violin and Native flute

World violinist Arvel Bird unites classical and Native roots for “life-defining” new CDGoing where few musicians have gone before, multi-award winning world violinist Arvel Bird has just released the long-awaited new CD Tribal Music Suite: Journey of a Paiute (Concerto for Violin and Native American Flute). Described by Bird as his “soul’s song,” it has been thirty four years in the making and is a benchmark in the artist’s life.

The new CD is classical in form and concept with the central instrument being Bird’s violin, but has an exciting twist--it brings the power and drama of the Native drum and flute to the symphony orchestra, and will be performed with Native American singers, dancers, and soloists. The project returns Bird to his roots in classical music (he won a music scholarship to Arizona State University and trained classically for eleven years), but also allows him to incorporate all that he has learned since leaving that world: most notably the genres of Native American, Celtic, bluegrass, country, roots, world, New Age, and more. It will open up a whole new arena of performance possibilities for him with orchestras all over the world who want to experience cultural diversity in their concert programs. The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra will debut the piece live in May, 2009.

While the blending of Native American and classical music has been done before, this is the first time it has been done by a musician who comes from the classical world, but whose heritage is Native American.Comment:  Given all the postings I've done on classically trained Native composers, I doubt this last claim is true.

For more on the subject, see Classical Chickasaw Composer and First Native Concerto.

Through the Eyes of the Eagle

Eagle’s view reveals Native health challenge

New art exhibit at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center focuses attention on obesity, diabetesUsing inspiration from a dream, Nambe Pueblo’s Georgia Perez crafts books that use the Native American tradition of storytelling to address a very modern challenge: obesity and diabetes.

In four books, the author and diabetes educator weaves together stories of eagles, coyotes, spinning tales of a return to traditional ways of living that bring about wellness and health. Quotes from the books, along with vibrant watercolor paintings by artists Patrick Rolo of the Bad River Band of Ojibwe, and Lisa Fifield of Oneida—both of Wisconsin—make up an impressive exhibit that combines art, health and storytelling at the Albuquerque-based Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC).

The exhibit—Through the Eyes of the Eagle—opened on Saturday.

With a well-attended opening dinner that included speakers from health, policy and tribal government backgrounds, the opening reception began what promises to be an exciting four-month display of the exhibit.Comment:  Patrick Rolo may draw the cover for the long-awaited PEACE PARTY graphic novel.

For more on the subject, see Comic Books Featuring Indians and The Best Indian Books.

Japanese doc on mustang sanctuary

Black Hills horses debut on Japanese televisionThe Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary will be featured on NHK Japan Public Broadcasting. The three-person production crew filmed one day on location at the Wild Horse Sanctuary in January. The television documentary will feature the Indigenous tribes, wild horses and bison of the Great Northern Plains. The program will air in Japan April 2009.

The Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary is the largest private non-profit wild horse sanctuary in northern America and has been in continuous operation since 1988. It is home to over 500 wild mustangs. The Sanctuary’s locations have been featured in film and documentary projects including; Touchstone Pictures HIDALGO (2004), TNT Television movie CRAZY HORSE, History Channel COMANCHE WARRIOR and Paramount/Vantage Films INTO THE WILD.Comment:  For more on Indians and mustangs, see Horse Sense in Mustang and Film About Quadruplegic Horse Trainer.

Below:  Viggo Mortensen in Hidalgo.

Stereotypical Red Bull commercial

Red Bull Stimulation--Only Smoke Signals Without Red BullA simple line drawing animated cartoon shows a teepee either side of a great canyon. As red-indian drums accompany the background music, Brown Bear and White Pigeon communicate their unrequited love across the great divide by means of animated and suggestive smoke signals. The narrator comments "Ahh, no Red Bull, no happy ending."

Comment:  Indians of the past, teepees, smoke signals, feathers in headbands, pseudo-Indian names, war whoops, tom-toms, flute music...the usual stereotypes.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Super Bowl Hopi doll

Super Bowl Spirit...Handmade Super Bowl Hopi Doll--Miss Hopi Kiara Pahovama and First Attendant Jody Timms with Hopi radio station KUYI's mascot showing his Cardinal pride.Comment:  The photo shows a koshare (clown) doll in an Arizona Cardinals jersey with a red and white football under his arm.

For more connections between Arizona's Indians and football, see Indians to Protest at Super Bowl and Worst Native Comic Ever?

Boy Scouts dishonor Indians

Scouting rife with cozy ties

As roles blur, perceptions of impropriety riseIn Oregon, two foresters for the state's largest Boy Scout council help advise how much of its vast camp properties to log, and when to log them.

Then, after the decisions are made, the same Scout volunteers are paid to write the logging plans, obtain permits and do other forestry work related to those timber harvests.

"I'm a volunteer on the forestry committee, but I'm hired to do forestry," said Jim Wick, whose company, Woodland Management Inc., manages timber sales for at least five of the Cascade Pacific Council's Scout camps.

In Washington, several current and former employees for corporate logging giant Weyerhaeuser Co. serve in key directors' board positions for the Pacific Harbors Council.

Last year, the council's board approved a logging project that paid "several thousand dollars" to use Weyerhaeuser logging roads as part of a lucrative clearcut at a Scout camp, the council's president, a Weyerhaeuser executive said.

Such cases are among 10 examples of seemingly cozy relationships between Scouting councils and their volunteers that a Hearst Newspapers investigation found in its review of Boy Scouts' logging and land deals nationwide. In such cases, professional and political roles blurred with the volunteer roles of individuals tied to Scouting councils.Settlement shrouded fish kill

Powerful donors helped council after violation of Endangered Species ActThe Boy Scouts of America's Monterey Bay Council operated a summer dam on a pristine river and--despite official warnings--allegedly killed federally protected steelhead trout downstream.

And when state and federal regulators sought to have the dam removed, Scout executives turned to politicians to whom they had given campaign contributions or with whom they had personal ties.

The Scout council avoided fines and quietly secured a favorable settlement agreement that, until now, has obscured a full account of its conduct at Camp Pico Blanco on the Little Sur River, north of the rugged Big Sur coast.And:The imbroglio at the Scout camp began when state Fish and Game officials sought to halt use of the dam about 12 miles south of Carmel, off Highway 1, because it did not meet environmental standards.

But after the Scouts complained to then-state Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, officials agreed to let them continue using the dam.

The Scout council agreed to take precautions to protect the fish. But within weeks, agents of the National Marine Fisheries Service discovered evidence that camp staff had ignored the safeguards and--rushing to fill the lake in hot weather--"dewatered" the river below the dam, killing at least 30 threatened steelhead trout in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Concerned about future violations, the federal officials sought to stop the Scouts from damming the Little Sur until the dam met standards.

Scout executives again resisted, saying they needed to continue using the dam so Boy Scouts could use the lake to earn merit badges.Comment:  The Boy Scouts were partially based on the Woodcraft Indian movement founded by Ernest Thompson Seton. Scouting organizations such as the Order of the Arrow and the Tribe of Mic-O-Say still claim to honor Indians.

But...chopping down trees for profit? Killing fish for merit badges? The practices described above are inconsistent with traditional Indian values.

Consider also that Boy Scouts must pledge their belief in God and can't be overtly homosexual. Both are at variance with traditional Indian cultures, which didn't have religious tests and accepted two-spirit people.

There's no indication that members of the Order of the Arrow or the Tribe of Mic-O-Say participated in this un-Indian despoiling of nature. But there's no indication that they didn't either. At a minimum, I'd expect the pseudo-Indians in the Boy Scouts to denounce the un-Indian activities of their brethren.

This Boy Scout hypocrisy is similar to the hypocrisy of Indian mascot lovers. These people love and honor Indians in theory, but they scream at real Indians who interfere while they trample on Native rights and values. "How dare you interrupt my beloved mascot ritual? Get out of the way, you goddamn hippies, drunks, and heathens."

For more on Scouting's pro-Christian bias, see Self-Indulgent Hypocrisy For Dummies, Lesson 204.

Below:  "We had to destroy the forest in order to save it."

The myth of Princess Wenonah

Homecoming to explore roles of American Indian womenThere is perhaps no one more enamored with the legend of Princess Wenonah, said to be Winona’s namesake, than the town itself, with her image immortalized in bronze, advertising pieces and our imaginations for at least a century.

Wenonah, which literally translated from the Dakotah language means firstborn daughter, is said to have been the child of Chief Wapasha, leader of the band of Dakotah that called this region home when white settlers first stepped off boats in the 1850s.

The legends that have surrounded her life and death since days when the Dakotah lived here are many, though all carry a central theme: Princess Wenonah’s father was going to force her to marry someone she didn’t love, so she leaped to her death from hundreds of feet above the Mississippi River at a place called Maiden Rock.That's the myth. Now here are the facts:Research suggests that in the Dakotah language, the word “Wenonah” is more a designation than a personal name, much like the words “grandma,” “great-grandma” or “uncle” are to us today. It refers to the first-born daughter of any family, tribal chief or not, and it is only in modern times that it would likely be used as an actual first name. Few dispute that any of the generations of Chief Wapashas may have had a daughter, but what their tribal names were and whether any of them actually dashed herself on the rocks is another matter.

Also, Dakotah Indians do not have a designation of “princess,” that is a fabrication by white people, researchers say. In fact, there is not even an equivalent word to princess in the Dakotah language.

The truth of the matter is that settlers of European descent have been infatuated with the mystique of American Indian women since Pocahontas supposedly saved John Smith in 1607. There are many, many Princess Wenonah legends that can be found all across the Midwest, as well as other kinds of “Indian princess” legends from one coast to the other.Comment:  From Pocahontas to the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls to various doomed maidens in old Westerns and romance novels, stories of Indian princesses who sacrifice themselves are common. I'd guess that almost none of these stories are true.

Rather, I'd guess these cases were psychosexual fictions based on Christian feelings of shame. The white man was attracted to the exotic Indian maiden, who was wild and free and "hungry as a wolf" for sex. But puritanical Americans were raised to repress or deny their sinful feelings of lust.

The solution? These Americans invented or exaggerated stories about self-sacrificing Indian maidens. The maidens sacrificed themselves for the greater good, thus redeeming their devilish souls and freeing the white man from temptation.

P.S. I await correspondent DMarks's comments on this subject with bated breath. He's our resident expert on all things related to Winona.

Below:  "I see a white man who wants me. To save myself, I must throw myself off a cliff."

Kay thinks Indians should assimilate

Here's another racist screed by Jonathan Kay, one of the foremost Indian-bashers in Canada's conservative National Post. I'll let him have his say before I demolish some of his arguments.

Jonathan Kay on aboriginal assimilation, and the best Canadian policy book written in the last 10 yearsI don’t usually praise the work of Marxists. But in the case of Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard, I’ll make an exception.

Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation—excerpted elsewhere on this page—is the most important Canadian policy book I’ve read in the last decade.

It is one thing for National Post columnists to criticize land claims and native self-government. We can be sloughed off as reactionaries—or even racists. But such ad hominems don’t work in the case of Widdowson and Howard, overt socialists whose theories are based on years of field work in the Northwest Territories.

Like many anthropologists working with aboriginals, the authors were pressured to act as advocates for native cultural empowerment. But what they saw—sex and child abuse, violent crime, economic and social dysfunction, suicide, substance abuse and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome—soured them on the mantras being peddled by their peers. The most urgent task, they conclude in their book, isn’t heaping more powers and cash on band leaders, but providing natives with the education and cultural formation required to make it in modern society, so they can leave the reserves behind. Widdowson and Howard don’t call this goal “assimilation”—but I do.Comment:  The Widdowson and Howard book is the same one discussed in this video.

Here are Kay's previous screeds against Indians:

Kay:  Reserves are "bastions of...decrepitude" and "hellholes"

Canada's aboriginals are "sedentary welfare-collectors"

Kay:  Indians are preserving "hunter-gatherer traditions"

Kay is a two-time "winner" of my Stereotype of the Month Loser award. I don't know if anyone else has won twice. Congratulations, Jonathan...you may be headed for a third award.

LBJ slighted Indians too

Tim Giago:  Native people out of sight, out of mindWhen President Lyndon B. Johnson was about to sign the Immigration and Nationality Act on Oct. 3, 1965, he chose to do it at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. That day he said, “Our beautiful America was built by a nation of strangers. From a hundred different places or more they poured forth into an empty land, joining and blending in one mighty and irresistible tide.”

Built by a nation of strangers? An empty land? Joining and blending? Every Native American worth his or her salt would bridle at those words of such monumental ignorance and for those paltry words to be spoken by the President of the United States makes it overwhelmingly appalling. Johnson was probably parroting the opinions of the majority of Americans about America’s indigenous people: out of sight, out of mind, out of consideration. What in the hell are Native Americans: chopped liver?

Every human being that landed on the shores of America was an immigrant. They came to this land from Europe bringing along their baggage filled with religious strife and racial prejudice. They discovered that this was not an empty land, but a land filled with thousands upon thousands of industrious and spiritual people. They took from the Natives their industriousness in order to survive and crushed the spiritual because it was not only beyond their comprehension, but a challenge to the teachings of their Holy Bible.

The immigrants certainly did no “joining and blending” after their initial contact with the Natives. Instead armed with guns and the diseases that nearly decimated a race of people, they set out in the name of Manifest Destiny to take by hook, crook and force the lands they deemed to have been willed to them by their Almighty God.

The “joining and blending” was totally one-sided. The Natives either joined or blended or they were obliterated. The “irresistible tide” flowed from east to west until it reached the shores of California and every human being in its path either joined the flow or was drowned in its inexorable journey.Comment:  For more on the subject, see "Settling the West" in the Inaugural Address.

Tanka Bar is editor's choice

Tanka Bar gets national awardThe buffalo-and-cranberry Tanka Bar made by an American Indian-owned company in Kyle has received an editor’s choice award from national magazine The Gourmet Retailer.

The publication focuses on the gourmet and specialty foods industry.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Talking About Tanka Bars and Buffalo Energy Bars.

2008 Creative Spirit competition

Creative Spirit soars at third annual screeningFor the third year in a row, the Creative Spirit Script-to-Screen competition produced two polished films in a frantic week of shooting and editing. On Oct. 11, the exhausted filmmakers showed completed works to an enthusiastic Hollywood audience.

The two winners were “The Migration” and “Liminality.” Along with “Edgar’s Journey,” a Creative Spirit project in New Mexico. The films impressed a theater full of industry insiders and Indians.

“The Migration”

In a future wracked by global warming, an authoritarian government forces siblings to flee with seeds that may save the world.

“Liminality”

A young Indian man gets more than he bargained for when he enters a reservation bar looking for help against a gang of vampire bikers.

“Edgar’s Journey”

An Indian actor lost in the woods helps two children find their way and, in doing so, finds himself.Comment:  Another article I wrote, so read it!

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.

Upstream Battle for dam removal

‘Upstream Battle’:  the movieThe Klamath River basin has been the scene of an upstream and sometimes uphill battle that has resulted recently in an apparent victory for tribes, agriculture and commercial fisheries. The movie “Upstream Battle,” released last year was produced by German filmmaker Joachim Schroeder and directed by Ben Kempas. Tribal members representing their communities in the film are Merv and Wendy George of the Hoopa tribe; Ron Reed, the son of the last Karuk; Richard Myers of the Yurok tribe; and Jeff Mitchell of the Klamath tribe.

The film aptly portrays the evolution of the struggle for dam removal as tribes, local farmers and commercial fisherman join forces to improve conditions on the Klamath River. In the beginning of the film, the tribes stand alone in efforts pitted against the power company, the farmers and commercial fisherman, but as the story develops, these former rivals find common ground and come together to move the cause forward.

This film is notable in its clear and matter-of-fact portrayal of the water use issues on the Klamath River. It clarifies the effect of the network of dams along the river on salmon migration and tribal subsistence fisheries. The filmmakers are successful in portraying tribal members sympathetically without oversimplifying or romanticizing the struggle to regain traditional fishing along the river.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.

Dirty Water at Bear Butte

Michael Bucher’s ‘Dirty Water’ music video delivers strong messageCherokee musician Michael Bucher has released a music video from a track on his independent album “Seven” titled, “Dirty Water.”

In the video, directed by Christopher Crosby, Bucher delivers a straightforward message: The growing popularity of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota is contributing to the deterioration of the sacred Indian site of Mato Paha, also known as Bear Butte Mountain.

Mato Paha has been a sacred ceremonial site to the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota people for generations.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Music Video About Burial Grounds and Sacred Site vs. Biker Bar.