Native American Fashion Trends?

I know that this was talked about in class one day, but I recently saw this as a pin on Pinterest, and I clicked to. If you don't know what Pinterest is, it is basically a website that has pins that have to do with pretty much everything; food and drink recipes, workout exercises, make-up, nail polish styles, and hairstyles, inspirational quotes along with quotes that are sarcastic, and fashion.  These fashion pins have to do with models, clothes, and jewelry.  The pin that I saw was a pair of earrings.  The comment that was left with these earrings was "This spring it is all about tribal inspirational pieces".  (Here is a link to said pin http://pinterest.com/pin/175710822931708528/).  I then clicked onto this pin to take to to the website that sells this "tribal inspiration piece".  This took me to a website called Bubble Bar.  It is all about "Tribal Quest".  Apparently according to this website, "It's spring, it's all about the tribe vibe, from Maasai beading to Navajo charms".  There is a whole set of jewelry that is supposed to be "Native American Fashion".  What is so wrong with this is that they are taking what is perceived as "Massai beading and Navajo charms" and making it a fashion statement.  They are making it a trend; so that it is popular today, and irrelevant in the near future.  Do you realize how many Massai and Navajo tribes probably take serious offense to this?  Not only is this demoralizing, it is just plain wrong.  Not only is this in a way mocking these tribes, it is also extremely ignorant towards them as well.  This is taking their culture, and trying to make it publicized and a trend.  Along with this "trend" being ignorant, it is as well being racist.  Just think about it; are there fashion lines out there that are publicized as "Ugandan trends", "Russians trends", etc.  And the fact that the call it a "tribe vibe".  That is really something that is extremely ignorant and racist, for all Native Americans, and more specifically for the Massai and Navajo tribes.

Below is the website for "Tribal Quest" that the pin on Pinterest took me to.
http://baublebar.com/index.php/fashion-shop-trends/tribal-quest.html

Using Reservations Without Asking

In the article "Keystone Blockade on Pine Ridge Reservation Leads to Arrests", written by the ICTMN Staff is about five American Indians that were arrested.  After a six hour blockade they were arrested on March 5 on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  This blockade tries to stop two trucks that were carrying parts of the Keystone XL Pipeline that tried to cross through the reservation.  Debbie White Plume, one of the five people that was arrested, stated that her, along with the other four American Indians, were arrested and cited for disorderly conduct.  She also stated that there were fifty to seventy-five people that took part in the blockade.  This blockade was held in Eagle Nest District of Wanbi, which is on the northern side of the Pine Ridge Reservation. According to Debbie White Plume, "We formed a blockade to stop tarsands oil mine equipment from passing our land".

What I am failing to understand is that this reservation, is their land.  I have also done some research on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and they are one of the poorest reservations.  They are in poverty.  So, how does it make sense that people can come into their reservation, their land, and most importantly their home and put pipes and oil mine equipment in order to obviously get oil from under their land?  And other than that, they do it without even asking.  If this was any other person's land, the oil companies would have to ask the owner's if they could use their land.  Just because they are trying to mine oil on a reservation, on land that we "gave" to Native Americans they don't have to ask.  That is complete crap to me.

Included is a clip from the blockade.

http://youtu.be/9OsHPnffvYI

It's 2012 and We're Still Trying to Oppress Native Americans

I have currently read a few different articles involving one story. This story is about a twelve-year-old girl named Miranda Washinawatok. The first article that I read, "Student Suspended for Speaking Native American Language', (written by the ICTMN Staff) told the story about Miranda Washinawatok, a seventh-grader at Scared Heart Catholic Academy in Shawano, Wisconsin. According to the article, Miranda, which is Menominee, was teaching one of her follow classmates and friends how to say "hello" and "I love you" in her Native language when her teacher had suddenly snapped on her. According to the article. her teacher, Julie Gurta, reportedly yelled at her and said, "You are not to speak like that! How do I know you’re not saying something bad? How would you like it if I spoke in Polish and you didn’t understand?” Miranda, who is an active member on the basketball team, was benched during the game that night. When her mother asked why she wasn't able to play in the game, Miranda told her, for the first time that, "...she was only told by her assistant coach she was being benched because two teachers said she had a bad attitude. I wanted to know what she did to make them say she had a bad attitude.”

The article goes on to explain that,"There is dispute over who actually did the suspending, but the school has admitted it 'failed miserably in its handling of the matter.' Deacon Ray DuBois, the communication director for the Diocese of Green Bay, which operates the school..."  So, no one really knows who suspended Miranda.  There are so many different issues with what has happened here.  The first, and the most obvious, is why is this girl getting in trouble for being able to speak her native language, and for sharing and teaching it to other students?  If anything, Miranda is educating her fellow classmates.  Secondly, why was Miranda's mother not notified about what had happened in the classroom that day?  I know that (not from my personal experience, but because of others at my high school) whenever a student gets into any sort of trouble, they are sent to the Principle's office, and their parent's are called and notified.  So, why wasn't either of Miranda's parents notified about what happened?  Thirdly, why wasn't her teacher punished in some sort of way?  What her teacher did was wrong in so many different ways.  Why was she punishing a student for speaking her native language?  Why did she say such horrible things to her student?  

What this article is showing is that there is still so much racism out there.  It shows that Native Americans are still being oppressed.  It is showing that the "White Man" is still trying to change them and turn them more like us.  I was personally so appalled and offended that a teacher would do such a thing.

Reservations: Third World Countries?

During our discussion in class today, we were talking about the Awareness Week, and some ideas or possibilities that we could possibly do. It was Taylor that offered the idea of having a sort of donation center for the Native American's that were on reservations. Like most people, I was aware that the living conditions on these reservations not pleasant, but I had no clue just how bad they were. I'm not really sure how many people are actually aware of not just the poor living conditions, but the horrible ways of life that are on the reservations.


I knew that, as I have stated before, living conditions were not the best reservations. I also (thought I) knew that most, if not all, reservations are either just at the poverty line, or actually impoverished. Well, I did some research. I went to Google and began typing in the search box. I typed in, "poverty on" and before I could finish my search, the first three choices that I could have chosen from were: "Poverty on Indian Reservations", "Poverty on Native American Reservations", and "Poverty on Reservations". Clearly, that states that, I'm assuming, a lot of people have at least have been interested enough on said topic to look it up. After looking through a few Wikipedia articles to get some basic information, I began to look at some "actual" articles. The first article I clicked on, which ironically was the one that Taylor had also mentioned in class today, was about the National Relief Charities. NRC is a non-profit organization that helps the Native Americans that live on remote/ poverty ridden reservations, specifically those living in the Southwest and in the Plains. Their mission is, "...to help Native American people improve the quality of their lives by providing opportunities for them to bring about positive changes in their communities".  

What I have basically gotten from reading the numerous Wikipedia articles and the NRC website is that they are one of the most poverty-stricken places in America.  On some of the reservations, such as Pine Ridge, they don't even have enough money for beds for everyone.  To me, it is absolutely so absurd that we are not only forcing these people to live on these reservations, but we are leaving them there, completely helpless, and dying.  I support the idea that we have a sort of donation center for the American Indian's that are on the reservations (obviously we can decide on which reservation and which tribe).  I think that it is more than obvious that they need the help.  Their conditions are the same as or even worse than those of those in Third World Countries.  So, my main question is why is there so much publicity about the people in the Third World Countries and helping them, rather than helping the people, the Indigenous People of our country?