Indigenous peoples of what is now known as The United States of America

I'm waiting for those opportunists who think the word "Indian" or “tribe” is anachronistic, oppressive and racist to file a law suit against the federal government to change to “Pueblo-dwelling peoples” or “Navajo speaking people” or “indigenous peoples.”  Removing and updating government documents could employ a small army for years.  The word Indian appears in thousands of documents, even agency names like Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Just came across it in a gobble-de-gook summary of a section of the ACA aka Obamacare.

“With respect to the other seven exemptions, for reasons set forth below, we proposed that under the program provided for in section 1411(a)(4) of the Affordable Care Act, Exchanges would also issue certificates of exemption with respect to three additional categories (with exemptions also available through the tax filing process) based on membership in a health care sharing ministry, membership in an Indian tribe, and incarceration. In the four remaining exemption categories, however, we proposed that under the program established under section 1411(a)(4) of the Affordable Care Act, certificates would not be issued by Exchanges under section 1311(d)(4)(H) of the Affordable Care Act, and instead individuals would claim an exemption in one of those categories exclusively through the tax return filing process with the IRS.”  Federal Register July 1, 2013

“Dr. Michael Yellow Bird, Assistant Professor and Director of the Office for the Study of Indigenous Social and Cultural Justice in the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas, considers both terms, American Indian and Native American, to be “oppressive, ‘counterfeit identities.’” He prefers the terms indigenous peoples or First Nations peoples to either American Indian or Native American.” http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nc-american-indians/5526

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/04/departments/native-names-interactive

And God forbid you should ever say “hold down the fort,” or “on the warpath” or “low man on the Totem pole” or “Indian style.”

Patronizing and infantilizing members of other cultures

We just love PBS Antiques Road Show, and today are enjoying a rerun from 2005. The guest had a marvelous Native American (aka Indian) painting. The appraiser explained

It's painted by a Native American artist, and he was a Navajo artist by the name of Narciso Abeyta. His Indian name was Ha-So-De. He was born in 1918. And in 1939, he was one of the first classes at the Santa Fe Indian School, to be taught by Dorothy Dunn. When they were sent to Indian schools to Anglicize them a bit, Dorothy Dunn encouraged all the children there, who were taken from their tribal lands, to remember their native ways. And there were many famous American Indian painters from that class. But the interesting twist in Abeyta's life was in the early '40s. He was pressed into service with about 52 other Navajos to be a code talker in the Pacific theater. They were code talkers that helped the Marines, and these people were sent home, sworn to secrecy, all the Navajos, and they were not allowed to talk until it was declassified in 1968. And if you can imagine to be taken from the tranquil grounds that he grew up on and be thrown into the Pacific theater, with all the danger and the change of climate, the jungles. . .Unfortunately, he was shell-shocked, and his paintings suffered for it. So you acquired a painting that was done in his prime. And it's really quite wonderful. He and the other code talkers weren't recognized till 1981 for their service to this country. And Abeyta died in the late '90s. He actually has a son, Tony Abeyta, who follows his father's tradition and works in the contemporary vein, too. Have you ever had any thoughts about this painting and its value? Because it's a little nontraditional.

He was an Indian, an excellent artist, a patriotic American, a code talker in WWII, but the appraiser tries to make his service and experience somehow different than millions of other men and women who sacrificed, interrupted their lives and learned new or unusual skills never to be touched again. Why do that because of his ethnicity? Yes, many Indian children were sent to boarding schools and removed from their culture. Millions of children have that happen every day as they get on a bus and are driven out of their neighborhood and are told in a classroom that their religion, their habits, their values and their behavior are not acceptable. We call it "education" if we believe what they will have is better than what they are leaving. Would Narciso Abeyta and his classmates learned how to preserve their culture in paintings by remaining in the culture? Or did school give them new ways to appreciate and explain their culture?

Small town, rural and urban youth were also pressed into service, "thrown into the Pacific Theater with all the dangers and change of climate" and they too were sworn to secrecy if they had sensitive jobs. My uncles weren't accustomed to jumping out of airplanes; my dad had never lived out of the county and didn't know how to swim--the Pacific Ocean must have been quite intimidating. These Navajo men provided an invaluable service that others could not do--and so it was for many. Let's not make it something it wasn't because of their race.

When academics and experts do this, they not only infantilize minorities, but they are speaking from the perspective that their own lofty view in 2010 is somehow superior to that of the 1930s and 1940s. How biased and narrow (you only have to look through the newspaper headlines or entertainment pages to see how absurd that is!). Dorothy Dunn herself later came under criticism for limiting the self expression of her art students by insisting they do art the "indian" way. Sigh. You just can't please these people.

If taxpayers question subsidizing casino tribes' gaming interests

they are called racists and hate groups. Indian casino gaming is expanding across the nation, including new sites in urban areas driven by "landless or rural area tribes shopping for land in or near cities that can be put into trust and used to site huge new casinos." Stop urban casinos

"Bottom Line: The American taxpayer and the growing number of disenrolled tribal members have become collateral damage to our government in a disastrous experiment that began with a train called the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) and given “run away status” when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) was passed in 1988. Promoting inequality and separatism through granting gambling monopolies and allowing tens of thousands of acres to be placed into federal trust status to expand “sovereign” tribal territories within our borders because of past persecution is misguided at best and at worst will undue the constitutional protections secured to all people, tribal and non-tribal." Story here at Capitol Weekly

Gambling as easy money for the state is always a false promise whether it's in Mississippi on floating cruise ships or California eating up thousands of acres that could be producing something worthwhile and honest. Throw in a lot of guilt and greed, and you've got a volatile mix.

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Religion in the schools

Last week when I was on my blogging hiatus, I came across two cases of spiritual/religious advocacy in our schools, one at Stephenson Elementary in Grandview Heights, the other at Ohio State. On May 24, Channel 10 ran a story on using yoga to fight obesity in children:

More and more public schools, yoga centers and gyms across the U.S. are beginning to offer yoga classes for children, 10TV's Heather Pick reported.

"Yoga for kids is a little different than yoga for adults," said instructor Julia Sims Haas. "We use a lot of the same poses but it's presented in a fun way."

Sims teaches young children yoga techniques as part of the Afterschool Adventures Program at Stevenson Elementary School.

"It really encourages kids to learn about their body, learn about the world around them, and get in touch with themselves so they can have a healthy approach and lifestyle," Haas said.

Kathleen Lemanek, a pediatric psychologist at Columbus Children's Hospital, said that everyone, including children, has some stress in their lives.

"What is going to stress a second grader is going to be very different than a tenth grader or, for us, but anything that's unexpected, unpredictable that can be stressful," Lemanek said.

She said that yoga teaches children to breathe more efficiently, calm their minds and strengthen balance, gain flexibility and improve posture.

They recommended that your pediatrician give approval, but you might also check with your pastor. Yoga is an integral part of the Hindu religion. It is not just an exercise program, although it is presented that way. It's about as honest as having the children gather for afterschool story time and then finding out the only stories presented were from the Bible, and at the end of each story, there was prayer time. That would never make it past the school board or principal, would it? But Yoga? Oh, it's just about fitting your body into prayerful positions to worship various Hindu dieties.

Then I was researching digital archives at Ohio State. The fancy name for it is "institutional repositories," or at OSU, Knowledge Bank. So I was looking through the list, noting how inconsistent the catalog subject terms were, learning that each department makes up their own (unfortunately), when I came across a video presentation of a lecture on the battle between Black Hawk and Keokuk back in the early 19th century. That sounded pretty interesting, so I brought it up. Imagine my surprise when the faculty member of Ohio State who introduced the guest speaker, gave sort of a laudatory praise to "Our Grandmother", who by definition in that culture is the Creator, Supreme Being and Author of Life. A lecture on some aspect of Christian history or literature or Crusades battle would not open with a prayer to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (whom Christians accept as Creator, Supreme Being and Author of Life). At least in my many years at the university, a department sponsored event didn't open this way, although special invited guests for para-church organizations using a university room might.

So why the double standard for Christianity and other religions?