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.