Wilma Mankiller - One of the Pioneers for Native Americans

Wilma Mankiller is a former Chief of the Cherokee Nation and was the first woman Chief and served in that capacity for ten years beginning in 1985.   She began working for the Cherokee Nation in an entry level position in 1977.   By 1983 she was a Deputy Chief and in 1985 she succeeded Ross Swimmer when he resigned to become the first female principal chief.   She was subsequently elected in 1987 and re-elected in 1991 receiving 83% of the vote which was no small feat in a typically male dominated role.   She was a tireless worker for the Cherokee Nation as well as for all native people in their legal struggles with the government and the dominating white culture. 

In 2008 she spoke at Sonoma State University at the invitation of the Associated Students and the Intercultural Center of the University.        Her message and the stories in her presentation reflected many of the feelings of the native people on various topics.    She stated that very few Americans know very much about native culture, issues and ideas and in particular the government to government relationship with the Native Americans and the U.S. government.    She pointed out that when American children learn of the New World in their schools few teachers let those children know that the Native American people were already there in the “New World” when the white people arrived.    The white people named it the New World because it was new to them.    What the children in this country still learn for the most part is a version of “history” that has been skewed and perpetuated in large part toward the white culture.  This is a topic that is central to the feelings of the native people’s whose history has been and continues to be misrepresented.     Prior to my studies of Native Americans I was one of those people.   I thought I knew information about that culture but I realize now (and as we all should know) there are two sides to every story.    It never occurred to me that what I was learning could possibly have another side.  

Wilma Mankiller has worked to do her part to make people such as myself aware of the native culture over the years.   Her presentation explained the various qualities and beliefs of the native people and how they have been able to continue to stay in the fight for the issues that have not as yet been resolved after all these years.    She explained how the native people have adapted to all that has been dealt them over the years and their tenacity and resolve to do so is what has allowed them to continue to flourish today.  

 As their numbers continue to grow year by year the native people are working together on the issues that they continue to face such as treaty rights and the protection of their tribal governments and sovereignty.      Their survival success story has been based on their cultural beliefs and traditions that have remained with the native people since the beginning of time.    Ms. Mankiller stressed the importance of maintaining a sense of interdependence and responsibility for one another.     She stressed the importance of living by a set of certain values that has been passed down from generation to generation through the oral histories of their elders.    She passed on what had been told to her by a Cherokee elder about important traits a person should possess.   Those include being respectful to others, respecting yourself, keeping your word and helping other people.

 My take away from the Mankiller video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVLgwpHSYv0)

 reaffirms what I have been learning about native people in that the values taught and followed by the native people are ones that I should strive to follow.    I admire these qualities that are used in every facet of their lives including their personal and their business relationships.    The perspective I have gained from listening to people like Wilma Mankiller has changed the way I view things in my own life now and certainly the way I think of Native Americans.     It's a lesson we probably all can learn from!

 

Native and Non-Native Information and Perspective Resources

One of the resources that I took advantage of in module two was the American Indian Civics Project website (www.americanindiantah.com).   The website provided a great deal of information on a number of topics that I learned a great deal from but one that caught my eye and probably opened up my thought process the most was related to the area of Native American stereotyping.    There have been other resources provided us in this study that showed the various forms of stereotyping over a timeline but the you tube link that was provided in the section I was reading really made me stop and think about what perspective I personally held rather than focusing on someone else’s version.    The link leads to a fantastic short video created by a 10^th grade student for a creative Native American project for their 2006 English class.   The video entitled Native American Stereotypes and Truths starts with a scene from Seinfeld that I remember finding amusing.   Jerry brought Elaine a cigar store Indian as a peace offering because they had had an argument earlier in the day and he wanted to “bury the hatchet and smokem peace pipe”.   The scene from Seinfeld went on to show some additional Indian chanting and the like.   When I watched that Seinfeld episode I know I did not find it as uncomfortable as I might have if it had been about another ethnic or cultural group.   I don’t know why that didn’t offend me as it would have done if it had been another group of people that were the butt of the joke.   Thankfully getting to know more about this group of people through my studies has changed my level of sensitivity.    The rest of the video is equally enlightening as it provides visuals of the stereotyping and actual truths and I would certainly recommend viewing it at http://youtube.com/watch?v=e15YDqt9n9M&feature=related.    

 

While that video enlightened me when I first saw it I realized more of the truth about myself at least and perhaps a few other members of the white culture when I listened to A Conversation with Vine Deloria, Jr. linked at http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/wordsandplace/deloria.html.    Mr. Deloria was a published Native author of more than twenty books and worked very hard through his writings and his activism in various groups to change the way the white culture thought about Native Americans.   One of his statements in the conversation concerned the lack of native authors.   He felt that a native author was chosen to be published maybe once every twenty years due to what the commercial market could bear.   He felt that in those twenty years eighteen of them dealt with white fantasy about Indians and the other two years providing some form of direct Indian perspective.   He felt that minority groups stood outside the white culture awareness and “every once in a while whites feel guilty about something and let someone write something”.     Now that I understand a little more of the seemingly endless struggles of the Native Americans I can understand that Native American perspective and I can see some truth in that statement.  

 

The web resources that are provided are done so to show various perspectives and views of different people.      I think the American Indian Civics Project website, as would any other quality site, would strive to provide opposing views that would challenge the readers/viewers thought process.    The website TurtleTalk (http://turtletalk.wordpress.com) which is a site that provides Indigenous Law and Policy Center blogs for the Michigan State University College of Law is a site that contains a great deal of information and perspectives from the various blog authors.    Some are written in a style of perspective that I could be comfortable with and some challenge my thinking.   I’m okay with that as I feel that once you know more about something you can begin to broaden your thinking and perhaps take on a whole new perspective about a topic.   I have learned a great deal about the Native American people so far.  While I know I have a lot more to learn I know I have come to admire the cultural ethics of this group of people and have taken some of what has been offered through native testimonies to heart.

Emotional Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools

Through my recent readings on various Native American topics I came upon one about the attempts to Americanize and civilize indigenous people that was closely related to a book I recently began reading (The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo by Kent Nerburn) so I delved into that resource a little further to perhaps add some perspective to my leisure reading.  Through the online resources offered by the American Indians Civic Project surrounding Indian boarding schools I found information regarding the board schools, the intended purposes of these institutions and the resulting treatment of the Native Americans who were sent or brought to these schools (Indian Boarding Schools:  Tools of Forced Assimilations, 1870 to the 1960s http://americanindiantah.com/lesson_plans/ml_boarding schools.html.)

 From what I have read so far in my study of Native Americans I have found that at least initially the Native American peoples were curious, interested and for the most part welcoming to the initial Euro-American settlers arriving in this country.   It seemed to me that at least some of the Native American groups were at least considering the possibility of a peaceful co-existence with these newcomers.   Native American tribes had co-existed with other tribal groups for a very long period of time.   They had done so without trying to change the beliefs or cultural traits of the other tribes and gone about their lives with acceptance of others.    While many of them may not have been allies and did engage in warfare or raids with each other they allowed the other tribes their cultural lives.   The attacks or raids on other groups were mostly in retaliation for a wrongdoing initiated by the other group or as a way to demonstrate a greater level of power over others.      The Native Americans found a way to live with those who lived differently than they did.  It was as if enemies “agreed to disagree” with each other and let each person to their life.   I suspect that initially the Native Americans expected the same from the white settlers.   Unfortunately it would seem that the white people had different ideas than the Native Americans and were not as willing to be open to learning Native American ways, languages or beliefs.  Instead they expected the Native Americans to change their ways and become white.   The white settlers believed the white way was the best and most civilized way to live.   They did so because they did not understand the Native American culture and practices and were more than likely intimidated by the unknown and therefore determined it was wrong.    

One of the many ways that the white culture chose to indoctrinate the Native Americans into the white culture was to remove Native American children from their homes and bring them to boarding schools.   Or they convinced the Native American parents to send their children to these schools.   The approach of the boarding schools was to civilize the “savage” through education.    Some Native Americans felt that in order to get along with the white culture and protect themselves they did need education.    One Cherokee elder told the younger members of the tribe to “Remember that the whites are near us.  With them we have constant intercourse, and you must be sensible, that unless you speak their language, read and write as they do, they will be able to cheat you and trample on your rights” (Nabokov, Page 215).     Unfortunately the boarding schools treated the Native Americans very badly in an attempt to remove all traces of Native American spirit.   There were punishments for speaking their own languages or practicing any of the native cultural or religious rituals and traditions.   They were not allowed to wear their own clothing.   The legacy of the white mistreatment of some of the Native Americans sent to boarding schools is painful to hear and witness.     

 Andrew Windyboy, a Chippewa Cree, gave an emotional testimony shown in an online video “Our Spirits Don’t Speak English” about his treatment at a boarding school.    He was not allowed to speak his native Cree.  He couldn’t speak English and when he spoke his native tongue he was hit.   He cried when he told the story that he got hit so many times “I lost my tongue.  I lost my native tongue”.   He felt it was a shame that the white people treated them so badly because “we are a people.  We just need to be accepted.”     This testimony is given by a now older man who still obviously struggles with the treatment he received.   His greatest loss was the attempts made to remove his culture from his life in particular his language.   He quite emotionally stated about the Native Americans “we have to have our own language because when we talk to our spirits they don’t understand English” www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDshQTBh5d4 .    What the white Euro-Americans did not understand was that the removal of language was not just changing the Native American vocabulary and method of speech.      Everything in the native people’s lives was strongly tied to their culture and religious beliefs and their very essence of being.  If the white culture had taken the time to understand that they would have seen that they could not totally remove or change those basic core beliefs ever.

 Nabokov, P. (1992). Native American Testimony. New York: Penguin Books. Print.

My Reflections on Native American Imagery

 I thought I knew at least something about Native Americans or Indians as I came to know them in my early education years.    As with many other things in life I have now come to know that what I learned previously is more a culmination of other people's ideas and information provided only from their perspective and not necessarily totally factual or accurate.       We all know that there are two sides to every story and the truth is somewhere in the middle.    When you go looking into history whether personal or as I am doing while reading the information provided in the First Peoples of North America study at Empire State College you come to learn things that can provide some personal satisfaction, pique further interest or even bring disappointment.   My readings so far have definitely developed further interest and also created some disappointment.  The socially accepted perspective of disdain for the Native American way of life portraying Indians as aggressive savages so different from the white settlers has been documented in various media including paintings and advertising media.  While there are documented photographs and images that artists have created that depict the Native Americans in a more friendly manner there are many more that depict them otherwise and that I found to be so terribly wrong.    The Bancroft/Berkeley art exhibits Images of Native Americans    contained marketing media that I found so derogatory to the Native Americans.    And these marketing posters would be offensive no matter what ethnic or cultural group they depicted.  One media type included in the gallery was a cartoon, created by Gilbert Shelton, that told a story of "The Indian that Came to Dinner".  The crux of the story was that a white couple invited an Indian man to their home for dinner.   The Indian killed the family dog and served it as dinner.  This cartoon shows that the inequity between the white and Native American culture was just as strong in 1968 as it was 200 years earlier.  Gilbert Shelton Feds 'N' Heads cartoon 1968

 

Through my First Peoples study I have found that fortunately there are those in the world who are attempting to provide documented balance to the stories of the Native Americans.   The American Philosophical Society has promoted the study of indigenous peoples, their cultures and their languages for over two hundred years.   Their website American Philosophical Society Native American Images Project provides information and historical documentation of the Native Americans stereotypical and prejudice suffering journey through American history and at the time the displayed photographs and portraits were created.  Fortunately the work done through this Native American Images Project is helping to support and revitalize many Native American communities in collaboration with the community members.     In looking through all the material on this website I appreciated their sensitivity to the Native American culture while attempting to provide balanced historical references as an educational and enlightening experience for those visiting their website.

 

 

References:

American Philosophical Society, www.amphilsoc.org

University of California, Berkeley, www.Bancroft.Berkeley.edu

 

 

First Peoples of North America

Hello all!

This is my test to welcome you to my First Peoples blog!   I am very much looking forward to our discussions on this topic!

Karyn