Mascots

Even before taking this class I wondered how some professional organizations could call themselves names like the Redskins, Chiefs, and Indians. I knew that no team could get away with a name like the Africans or Blackskins in this day and age, yet somehow it seemed acceptable to profit off of the same generalizations of a different ethnicity.
After listening to the presentation, I still don't understand how those professional teams operate without some class action lawsuit every year. It was interesting, though, to learn about the differences between collegiate and professional associations and their names. Whereas a professional fan buys a hat or liscense plate cover, a college fan becomes the mascot. My friend at Utah is a Ute just like we are Jayhawks, and he identifies his entire college experience with the name of a group of indegenous people. Cliche "war chants" at games aside, I hope that his school's affiliation with native americans at least raises the awareness of the history of Utah just like our schools association with abolitionists raised mine.

Fightin' Whites + Documentary

First of all, I would highly recommend everyone watching the documentary "In Whose Honor?" Here's a clip that I found of the documentary http://youtube.com/watch?v=lEUl2keJK-w . The mascot article touched base with many things that the documentary talked about, but the documentary goes more in depth with how offending Native American mascots are in sports. For anyone who wants to see what the Fightin' Whites T-Shirts looked like I found the website which has them, as well as other items. http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.aspx?s=fightinwhite

Sterilization

The article which discussed sterilization this week was one more thing you could add to the list of stuff that completely shocked me this semester. The tactics that doctors went through to get people to do sterilization was alarming, but that wasn't even the worst part. It's amazing how something so prevalent in Indian communities across the country occurred in recent times. I would understand more if this occurred in middle of the 19th century, but for it to occurr in the middle of the 20th century after our country witnessed the devastation that occurred to Jews in Europe during WWII shows that the leaders of our country are slow learners. I've always viewed our nation in a positive light and believed that we have progressed throughout the last several hundred years in how we treat people of all races, but for something as widespread and devastating to occur in just the last 50 years is pitiful. Considering only 100,000 Indian woman remained who could give child birth, it seems as though many people should have been put in jail for doing such a bad thing. Despite the fact that this occurred during a time where our country was mistreating black as well, I still believe that the practice of sterilization on woman throughout our country was much worse. Obviously both were wrong to do, but it seems that you would learn about the sterilization crisis alongside with Civil Rights Movement in history classes.

Occupation of Alcatraz

Discussing the occupation of Alcatraz was rather interesting to me. We had covered it somewhat in high school during my American History course, but had not gone as in-depth as we did here. It was very interesting to learn that Indians of All Tribes wanted the media attention more than anything else. And the guest apperances by some well known celebrities and other societal dregs (AKA hippies! J/k! LoL! Hippies aren't nearly as annoying celebrities!) added a unique plot twist.

Again, we covered this topic in high school, but it was very brief. My teacher did however share an interesting anecdote. Once Native Americans had secured Alcatraz, media outlets began asking them what their causes was and what their demands were. In a bit of irony and rather dark sarcasm, the IoAT produced a treaty that would purchase Alcatraz from the Federal Government for $24 in glass beads and red cloth! This was a reference to the purchase of the Isle of Manhattan, which Native peoples were cheated out of for the price $24 in glass beads and red cloth. Obviously, given that Manhattan eventually became the thriving, and overcrowded multi-billion dollar investment it is today, Native peoples did not regard this as a good deal.

I found this bit of history a little to classic not to share!

Intercontinental March on Washington

I can't help but mention the historic Indian March across the entire country when discussing this past week's lectures. I thought that was really impressive both from a physical standpoint and as a political statement. Showing up right before a presidential election was an ingenious idea, one that literally forced their concerns onto the mainstream media. I loved the idea of Nixon sweating bullets while waiting out the election, desperately praying that this inconvenience didn't ruin his chance at reelection. And I haven't even mentioned the best aspect of the march: the overtaking of a government building! This was amazing to me, as nothing of the sort could ever be pulled off in today's world. Its a testament to their fierce devotion to the cause that the entire venture was pulled off at all... its really just amazing stuff.

It never bothered me before...

I was listening to the article about the mascots and listening to our discussion afterward got me thinking.
Being Native, I personally never cared that much about Native mascots. My parents had season tickets to the Chiefs games for over 10 years and still an avid watcher of (Tony Gonzalez, I mean of the game) football. I've seen fans dress up in Indian regalia and just laughed at them.
The example that the article gave the Fightin Illini' and the documentary that was brought up did bother me. Its one thing being excited over a sporting event and an other dressing up, degrading the regalia and saying racial slurs is another.
I was happy to hear that the University of Illinois changed their mascot and that the Seminoles can go to school for free. Good article!!

Movement and Sterilization

So many people have already said this, but I agree that this week was really great in bringing Native American history full circle. One thing I really don't understand is the overshadowing (or lack of public knowledge) of the Red Movement. I mean, these people came together and stood up for their rights and beliefs just like people were doing during the women's and civil rights movements at the same time. Throughout this class I have continued to find myself asking the question "why was this not taught in history class?". This week continued this questioning.

Another deeply disturbing lecture was on the sterilization of women. Those numbers are unfathomable to me, and especially to think that it directly affects out generation and that of our parents. How can anyone allow them self to unethically and illegally sterilize women? It makes me wonder what they were receiving in return- some kind of outside payment or compensation? Its hard for me to believe that it was a coincidence for thousands of women all over the country being victimized by their physicians in the same way...

Indians Ignored

Jake Thibodeau

My Rant:
I found it interesting that I had only vaguely heard of the incident at Alcatraz. Again, this shows that when we talk about American history, we tend to leave out the only true Americans. For a future history teacher, this is very frustrating. This protest at Alcatraz was a big deal and at least equal to anything that the hippies did during their protests and rebellions during the 60’s. Why do we as teachers only teach what the whites were doing during these time periods? I know the answer is that whites write the history, but again I ask more vehemently, why do we as teachers only teach white Anglo history? I would like to be able to teach about these things, but will I be punished because I am not sticking to the curriculum or not teaching to the standards? It seems we could do a better job of bringing up minority issues and relating minority history to our students. This too is our history and to ignore it is at the least shameful and at most racist.
I would have liked to have heard more about the Native American Movements throughout school, but at least I heard them this week. These were very interesting and showed that Indians played a role in the developing counter culture that was so powerful during the 60’s. It seems ridiculous that the Indian story would be left out while discussing the counter culture because so many hippies were influenced by Native American perceptions. Most were stereotypical in their perceptions of Native Americans, but they were influenced none the less. In the future, I hope to learn more about these times and be able to pass them on to my future students.

Black, White, & Brown

I think this week held some of the most interesting class periods for me. Maybe it's because we discussed more recent issues, such as the Indian movements and measure they were taking to gain back rights and ways of life that they deserved. I think I am still a little in shock about the unethical sterilization that was going on and affected entirely too many Native American women; well, I guess this even happening to one person is unethical. I should have known about this issue long ago. And, to think it was going on at the same time my own parents were growing up, makes it even bigger in my mind.

I am also taking a class this summer on the history of Kansas. This week, we have discussed many more recent minority issues, particularly segregation. Yesterday, we viewed a documentary on the Brown v. Board of Education; I was finally able to find out more specific events that led up to the court case. I think, in both classes, this last week has been a great wrap-up for the summer semester. While both classes were very informational, it was also great to be become better educated on more recent issues, some that continue even in today's world.

Activism and Women and Children

This week was extremely interesting because it showed that Native Americans were effectively using the media and the public to gain results for their people. However, I would have like to have heard more about what groups such as WARN (Women of all Red Nations) were doing to combat crimes against Native American women and children. Following my presentation on the sterilization of Native American women, Vonnie brought up a good point. She stated, "What was AIM and other organizations doing about all this?" I realize that the larger organizations such as AIM were busy during this period responding to events such as the Alcatraz seizure, Wounded Knee, the murder of Raymond Yellow Thunder, etc. but this was a methodical killing off of Native people and a horrendous abuse of Native women. The book and my article does not state how effective the activism of WARN was but I can't help but wonder how much difference it would have made if other organizations had joined this fight.
Just as a side note, I was also disappointed to see that the Indian Child Welfare Act only received one sentence in our textbook because I consider it to be a very important piece of legislation. That could just be because I am a social welfare major but this legislation stated that tribes had ultimate jurisdiction over children removed from their homes by social services. Native Americans did not agree with the social services' policy of removing Native children and placing with the non-Native adoptive and foster parents, where they would not be exposed to their culture, relatives, etc. As a person that works with children in the custody of the state, we are required to notify the tribe if we have a child from that tribe needing to be placed elsewhere due to an unhealthy situation at home. The tribe then decides if they want to take over the case and they have every right to step in. It's very interesting so I recommend anyone that works with children like in a social services or teaching position should be familiar with it.

Charles Curtis

Staying with the theme, “Can Indians be Modern and Maintain Their Identity,” I would like to write a bit about President Hoover’s Vice-President Charles Curtis. Born in Topeka, Curtis was almost a half-blood Indian and spent a majority of his youth on the Kaw Indian reservation where he learned the Kaw language. When he was still young, his white grandmother convinced him to leave the reservation and get an education so he would not end up “like most of the men on (the reservation).”

Curtis was elected to the US Congress in 1892 and quickly earned the respect of his peers in Washington. He had a "poker face" that masked his feelings, which some attributed to his Indian ancestry (major stereotype!). Curtis devoted most of his attention to his service on the Committee on Indian Affairs, where he drafted the "Curtis Act" in 1898. Entitled "An Act for the Protection of the People of the Indian Territory and for Other Purposes," the Curtis Act actually overturned many treaty rights by allocating federal lands, abolishing tribal courts, and giving the Interior Department control over mineral leases on Indian lands. Having reinstated his name on the Kaw tribal rolls in 1889, Curtis was able, through his position on the House Indian Affairs Committee, to calculate the benefits he might receive from government allotments to his tribe. In 1902, he drafted the Kaw Allotment Act under which he and his children received titles to Kaw land in Oklahoma.

Eventually, Curtis became a US Senator and was one of the men who was involved in the infamous "smoke-filled room" meeting where the Republican Party nominated Warren G. Harding as their Presidential candidate. In 1928, Curtis made a bid for the Republican Presidential nomination but eventually settled for the Vice-Presidency under Hoover. However, Hoover and Curtis never really got along and Curtis often felt bored with his new position. But Curtis enjoyed the status of the vice-presidency and made much of his rise "from Kaw tepee to Capitol." As the first American of Indian ancestry to reach high office, he decorated his office with Native American artifacts and posed for pictures wearing Indian headdresses (talk about irony). After Hoover lost his re-election bid in 1932, Curtis left politics and died in 1936.

(I got the above information from: http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Charles_Curtis.htm)

I find it shocking that Curtis, who greatly enjoyed his time on the reservation, not only turned his back on his ancestry but also used it to gain land for himself. Curtis was a respected man and had ability to win over crowds. Instead of using these qualities to help the people he enjoyed, grew up with, and the people who raised him once his mother died and his father went to prison (check the link for this info), he decided to backstab them. Maybe he could have downplayed his ancestry to help him rise in the political arena (I know this sounds bad, but it could very well be true), but once he had established himself, he could have used his position to help the Indians.

Complications

When we talked about the Mascots of the universities we only looked at how natives fought against this and how people who were not Indians misrepresented them. I went to Shawnee Mission North. They are the Indians. When all of this went public, the school district got a letter from a local tribe that said that no matter what happened we were to keep our mascots.
Now I understand why it is that some tribes get upset with schools, but why are there no studies done on the tribes and the people that want to let the schools keep the mascots that they always have had? There has to be a reason why some tribes are wanting the schools to keep them and others don't.

American History without the Natives

It was interesting this week to learn about the various protests conducted by Native Americans. In particular, I was interested in the occupation of Alcatraz Island. I have watched various documentaries about Alcatraz Island on television and do not ever recall hearing anything about this occupation. This serves as another example of how Native Americans are often not included in American History.

Another interesting point about the occupation of Alcatraz, is that it portrays Native Americans as active reform seekers, rather than passive victims as is usually the case. The occupation of Alcatraz Island, as well as the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington DC, demonstrate the strong ability of Native Americans to take initiative in improving their situation.

Occupations

I thought that talking about the occupation of Alcatraz was really interesting. I visited Alcatraz a few years back and we got a short "history" lesson on it. It was really just a list of dates and events that are supposed to keep your interest on Alcatraz so you want to get on a ferry and go around the island. However they didn't discuss its occupation in the 70's. I think thats interesting because they tell you about films about the island and tourist attractions and who was warden but not about the occupation. Now it could have just been an overlooked subject by our tour guide but it seems like a pretty big thing to overlook personally.
Its pretty awesome that the people on the march were able to occupy the BIA building. I was thinking about the difference in times and the action of occupying a federal building probably means more to us today because it would be pretty impossible to do without a lot of violence and bloodshed. That occupation makes a huge impact on the movements of the time period and its an action that cannot be duplicated which I feel helps it to make an even more significant statement.

The Indian Movement

The 1950's through the 1970's provide some of the most important examples of protest and change in America in which many minorities where fighting for social justice. It is less well known that the Native American population of the time was struggling right along side other major groups for change and it was this very aspect of the time that I found most interesting this week in class. At time it was hard to learn about many of the hate related crimes that went on against the Indian population and even harder to learn that many times no action at all was taken to bring the suspects to justice. The story of Raymond Yellow Thunder's murder in Gordon really shed light on the fact that Indians were treated very poorly and often not even cared about. I also didn't know about such events as the occupation of Alcatraz Prison and I found this to be a strong point in the collective effort to raise awareness among the American people. This semi-militaristic takeover ended up as peaceful way of letting the media know that there were issues among Native Americans that needed to be looked at.
The presentations this week also provided me with informative/disturbing knowledge. It is hard to believe, in my opinion, that nearly a quarter to half of all Indian women were being sterilized and that public awareness was so low that no one either knew about it or cared about it. This sounds like a prime way to erase a culture from the planet and I wonder how the doctors performing these operations felt about their dishonest, corrupt work. The mascot presentation was also very interesting and I do feel that some colleges do use Native American images in negative ways and was happy to hear that some attention was being payed to this topic. I would like to know more about the colleges that still do support Indian images which have had some agreement with the tribes involved and some of the advantages that the tribe might gain from lending their icons over to some university.

Social Responsibility

There's a guy I work with who loves to talk about how the government controls us. He believes that the reason drug laws exist, is simply because it can milk out lots of money for town governments. He was explaining how the income tax amendment, the 16th, is unconstitutional. I thought this was ridiculous at first, but then I did some research into the topic, and apparently a few states weren't qualified to vote on amendments, a couple other states that voted, voted illegally. It winds up, that the states that legally voted for this amendment were not enough to actually pass it.
In my other class I've been doing a project on the civil rights movement. And then in our class we'vebeen talking about the American Indian Movement. I find it interesting that the reason Indians became much more political in the 70s is because they had become much more collective. And we've talked almost non-stop about how the government suppressed the Indians through out history. It really frustrates me and makes me want to find out what all atrocities the big bad government still does today to limit our freedom.
But the big question is, How can we take action? The US is supposed to be a government by the people for the people. It's a huge step to get legislation changed, but as we know, it's possible and sometimes takes radical steps. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a pro-hemp rally I need to attend.

Relocation

This week was my favorite in class. i say this because I feel like my understanding of the Native American plight was fully understood and presented to me. I really now understand how crappy the services that the government provided were and how many people suffered because of these terrible treaties and Acts that would drive natives to take action and to suffer the consequences. The question "Can you be Indian and live in the modern times?" really shines through with what we learned in respect to World War II, Termination, Relocation, Reserved Sovereignty, Red Power Movements, and the rising problems and conflicts of the BIA and OIA.
The Red Power Movement was very interesting to me. I felt that it was very ironic that Dillon Myer, who apparently had been in charge of developing and maintaining, the U.S. Japanese interment camps during World War II, could be in charge of so many Indian programs. I feel that these times were rampant with corruption in government and with government officials. With all his new things that he brought to the table, such as the Relocation Program in 1948, from 1950-1970 seventy-five percent of the Indian community ended up moving to cities on their own terms, increasing Native communities in the cities.
All in all, this week was important in my understanding of Native peoples plights for equality and life outside of the U.S. expectations of them. However, its important to note that some Natives did try to conform and live in their new lives without their previous connection to their homelands.

Occupation

The idea that Native groups were able to occupy government property in three instances during the Red Power movement fascinates me. The Natives used media exposure at Alcatraz, Wounded Knee and the BIA building to further their goals. Because Natives used the media in the manner they did represents to me that Natives are more than capable of being modern, while still being Native. The use of media brought National and International attention to the causes which, puts pressure on the government to handle the situations so as not to harm their image. 

My favorite occupation is the occupation of the BIA building. I can't imagine the occupation of a government building in Washington, D.C. by protesters for any amount of time in today's society. The occupation of the BIA demonstrates how far Natives were willing to go to obtain better treatment from the government. This is what we need now, more radical protest, marches on Washington like the 60's and 70's. Or we can all just blog about it.

Navajo wage workers

Some additional comments about the article I would like to mention.
The government was still trying to "assimilate" the Indigenous people in the 1940's, but after 100 years, why did they think it was still possible?
And I wondered why the government didn't add land to the reservation, instead of taking away cattle.
It seemed to me that these communities and labor colonies that the BIA wanted employers to establish would be just like smaller reservations, just in a different place.
In regards to the poor housing conditions on the mining camps, I wondered why if they wanted the Navajos to assimilate and stay in these communities, why didn't they provide them housing equal to that of the Anglo workers? Not that it would have made a difference with the strong ties the Navajo had to the reservation (after all, don't we all go home to familiar places and have strong ties to a place)but it would have given them a better view of Anglo life.
I just wanted to emphasize that wage work allowed them to maintain and preserve their life on the reservations and preserve their culture, instead of assimilating to the white world. The Navajos were in control of their lives and economic status, much like earlier Indigenous Peoples in trading with French and British. They made the wage work for them without changing their identity.

Native Mascots

So I think that article from today about the use of Native mascots is a very interesting topic that can be argued about from several different views. Mainly we think of the groups that either say the mascots are disrespectful to Indians or that there is no real harm coming from them. Whatever side you may be on, I think this whole issue falls very nicely into our class discussion about what it means to be an “Indian” in present day. I am going to use Florida St. as my example. When the arguments about the correctness of using Indians, and in this case the Seminole chief, as mascots were going on, most of these arguments were coming from nation Indian organizations. Although Seminole members were probably involved, people from many others tribes were fighting too. The Florida St. mascot however is not enveloping ALL native tribes, only the Seminoles. So the question is should only the Seminoles be concerned with the Florida mascot because it is a direct connection to their tribe alone, or should all Native Americans be involved because they now see themselves are “one big tribe”? Personally I would like to see the different tribes maintain their sovereignty (another of our big words) from each other. If the Seminoles want Chief Osceola to stay and the Illini want Chief Illiniwek gone, let the individual tribe decide.

Indians in the War

For anyone who has not seen the movies, Wind Talkers and Flags of Our Fathers, I suggest that you do. It really shows how the Navajo helped the war efforts in the Pacific with their language. It really stumped the Japanese who could not, for the life of them, figure out this "code". Whats great is that it was just their language and nothing really all that special. Now on to Ira Hayes, one of the heroes of Iwo Jima who raised the last flag. The movie, Flag of Our Fathers, was surprisingly matter of fact. What had happened was that after the initial flag was raised, during combat, one of the commanding officers wanted the flag for some purpose, and ordered that the flag be taken down, but it was really a moral booster for the troops, so they switched out the combat flag for a new flag, but the only thing they could find to raise it again was a huge pole and it was a big flag and it took 6 of them to raise it, and that made for the most famous photograph in history. While Ira was a hero for being in a war, after he got out, he could not get the help that he needed and ended up being a disgrace. The depictions of the Navajo talkers on the other hand seemed to be very noble and righteous. Oh and about the class, I think trying to relocate the Indians off of their reservation land to of all places Colorado seemed horrible. Just a thought.

Allotment of Land

We had an interesting lecture on 7th, in which we went over the allotment of land and the good and more bad things that came from this "ingenious" idea. Tai talked about the Dawes Act of 1887, and how allotment was issued throughout the reservations; More for the men in the family and progressively amounts of land for each succeeding member of the family. I found it interesting though was different tribes did with the land. In the Northern Midwest the land was leased for timber, which turned out to be very lucrative, as well as the Salmon farming and catching in the Pacific Northwest. It stinks though that it was not well regulated, and therefore ended up dying away because of over fishing or deforestation. Good information.

outsmarting the europeans

There were many topics from last week that interested me, and gave me information that I was not aware of. I was particularly impressed after reading the article I presented in class on Thursday. I would say it has been a bit more uplifting than a lot of events we have heard about lately. I enjoyed reading the article on the Tlingit people because it was a great example on how europeans really failed to christianize or force native people to adopt european culture. The Tlingit were very clever on first allowing Orthodoxy into their religion in culture, but manipulating people so it appeared that they had christianized; in the end, they were really able to keep a lot of their traditional ideas and culture. After hearing so much about allotment, christianization, and the horrible ways in which most natives were treated by europeans settling in the United States, it is nice to hear a story in which that didn't entirely happen.

This week was interesting because I learned a lot about the education of Native peoples. I especially enjoyed reading and presenting my article. I learned alot about the Columbia River Indians and how they were an example of how they resisted allotment and reservations through diplomacy and their own unique understanding of the treaties that had been settled with them. I thought it was interesting how there was conflict between the reservation indians and the Natives who chose to stay on the outside of the reservations. The ones that chose to stay were catching all the heat from the ones that were resisting allotment and the reservations. 

Our talk in class about peyote and its uses in the Native American Church reminded me of Sherman Alexie's book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. The work is basically a collection of short stories centering around Alexie's experiences growing up on a reservation in
Washington state. In one chapter, he and a few friends stumble upon some psychosylabic mushrooms and head off into the woods to try to reconnect with their ancestors in the spiritual world, or as his friend says, "do some real Indian shit." The point of the story was to show how disconnected his generation had grown from their tribal roots, reverting to popular drugs to try and reaffirm their Indian identity.
I think drugs such as peyote and other natural psychedelics carry with them a misconception about tribal life before the Native American Church. Alexie's tribe had no history of ceremonies involving psychedelics (only tribes in Mexico and Texas, where the cactus grows naturally, involved the drug in their religion), yet he felt that to truly be an Indian he had to trip into some other dimension and talk with spirits and ghosts. I know that I have had multiple discussions with my friends about trying peyote, going out in the woods, and doing some real Indian shit, man. Just last week I was watching Reno 911 and the guest character, who was an Indian, tripped peyote with the officers.
I am not trying to smear the tenants of the Native American Church or anything, but I think popular culture has embraced an incorrect image of pan-Indian drug use. Regardless of geographic location or tribal history, peyote has now become synonymous with all native spiritual practices, and that is wrong. I think it's just another example of how society at large ignores the diversity of native culture, and instead just lumps them all together as "Indians."