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 10th
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.
