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?  

Will Our Wishes Be Respected After Death?

I took an article from the Indian Country Today Media Network about Jim Thorpe.  Jack McNeel's article, "The Battle Over Jim Thorpe's Remains", is clearly about his remains.  Now, before I go on, I assume that most people, especially those that live in Pennsylvania know who Jim Thorpe is, and that there is even a town north of here that is named after him.  For those of you that do no know about Jim Thorpe, he was from the Sac and Fox tribe in Oklahoma.  He is most known for being an amazing athlete, being quoted as one of the top three greatest athletes of the 20th century.  He also died at the age of 64 in 1953.

Okay, now that we got that all settled, back to the article.  What basically happened was that when he died, his body as taken away from Shawnee, Oklahoma during his funeral and taken to Pennsylvania, in what is now the town of Jim Thorpe (obviously this is how the town had gotten its name).  Clearly, a huge controversy came from this this issue.  The biggest of which is that there is now a Federal Case to have his body returned back to Oklahoma to a place that his two surviving sons have already picked out.  "The basis for this suit is the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).  This Act requires federal agencies and institutions receiving federal funding to return American Indian Cultural items, including human remains, to their respective places.  In this case it's asking that Jim Thorpe's remains be repatriated to the Sac and Fox tribe in Oklahoma, Jim had voiced his desire to be buried on his ancestral homeland and his sons desire to honor that wish."

McNeel goes on to explain that during the three day funeral ceremony for Thorpe his third wife Patrica, along with two Oklahoma state troopers removed the body.  Patrica had contacted these men to take the body of her late husband.  They wanted Jim Thorpe's body in order to create more revenue/business for their town and make their town attract more people and tourists.

So now, their is a rift between the Sac and Fox Tribe in Oklahoma, and those in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.  The people in Jim Thorpe do not want to give up his body, because that is what their town has become.  That is what their town thrives off of.  And to be honest I do understand the argument from both sides. I agree more with the children of Thorpe and the tribe of the Sac and Fox.  I think that a person should be buried wherever the hell they that want to be buried.  I think that it is extremely wrong that his body was pretty much sold out to draw attention to a town.  I honestly hope that his remains are brought back to Oklahoma, not just for the tribe, but mostly for his sons' and family.  His remains should be with his sons and family.  That tribe was and will always be his family.

More Interesting Ways to Educate People

I was looking for new topics to talk about in my blog and I just randomly clicked on one of the links that were posted on the D2L page. That link was for the the newspaper Cherokee Phoenix (well for their online newspaper). I was looking around on the front page for a little, when I saw the beginning of one story that really interested me. To be honest, the name of this article,"NSU Students Create Cherokee Language Happy Hour", is what originally struck my interest. This article. written by Tesina Jackson, is about the students that are enrolled in Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The students that were in the Cherokee language class came up with the idea that they wanted to get more people knowing about the Cherokee language, and educating more people than just the class itself. What they decided to do was make the menus on restaurants in Cherokee language and then on the opposite side of the menu they put a cheat sheet of how exactly to say and pronounce the words, and what the words meant.

NSU Cherokee program director Dr. Leslie Hannah states in the article, “From our perspective at the university, especially my students in the programs that we run at Northeastern, they practice Cherokee all day long in classrooms. They practice Cherokee in the hallways there, but they really don’t bring it outside into the community where they can mix with the fluent speakers, where they can mix with the people that use it everyday out on the streets of Tahlequah, out in the roads of the communities". She continues by saying, “They’ve got classroom Cherokee, so this is our effort to bring that Cherokee out of the classroom into the community and let them get some community Cherokee because it is a community language". I think that this is an amazing thing to do. Not only are these students getting educated, but they too are educating other people. By changing the menus in restaurants from English To Cherokee is a great and smart way to educate people that do not much about the Cherokee's or their language. I know that if I want to a restaurant and saw that the entire menu was in Cherokee instead of English, it would intrigue me and make me more interested to find out more about the Cherokees. And I am sure that many of the people that are seeing these menus are are having to order their food in Cherokee are becoming more interested in learning more and more about the Cherokees. This is a great way to educate people, and to have them want to educate themselves more by speaking that language.

How Close is To Close?

After reading the article "Rhetorical Sovereignty: What do American Indians Want From Writing?" by Scott Lyons.  I found a few things in this article interesting.  I know that I commented about this in class, but what first had me hooked into this article and pushed me to keep reading was how the article started.  Lyons mentions the book My People the Sioux.  Lyons talks about Luther Standing Bear and more specifically when he and other (I'm guessing) Sioux children were taken to the Carlisle Indian School.  I was literally appalled when I heard what these children, who were probably no more that ten or eleven years old were forced to do.  They were forced not only out of the land they were in, not only away from their parents, but not importantly they were forced out of their culture.  They were forced into having new, more "American" names.  These children had to pick out their "new" names from a chalkboard, yet they did not even understand what was on the board, or how to say their new names.  I heard once that people argue that someone's name is their identity.  Their name is who they are.  These children's original names were taken away from them, and they were forced into getting new, "better" names.  They had no idea what their new names meant or even what they really were.  Ergo, one could argue that these children did not even know who they were anymore.  So, not only was everything else taken away from them when they entered this school, now their own selves were taken away as well.

I think that this whole situation is not only demoralizing, it is dehumanizing.  Just look at things from your perspective.  How would you feel if you were taken away from your home.  You were taken away from your family, your pets, your possessions, everything, and were forced to go to this new place that would "better" you.  And then when you do get to said place, they tell you that your name isn't good enough, and make you pick out a new name that you don't even understand what it means, how to say it, or why you even have to pick a new name.  To me, it is just so unbelievably disgusting to think that somewhere that is literally twenty minutes away from where I grew up, from where I live when I'm not at school, did these things.  It really does hit home when I think about how close these things occurred to where I live.