The Indians’ Own Story

Thomas Powers, who usually writes about foreign and military affairs and intelligence, has a first-rate piece of work on American Indian history in the April 7, 2005, issue of The New York Review of Books. The 5,548 word article may be read online for $3.00.

What makes Powers’ review essay so valuable is that it discusses American Indian history as it has been maintained — both in the recent and in the more distant past — by Indians.

What the old stories tell us is that Indian peoples lived on the edge, were dependent on animals and weather, respected cunning as much as courage, and at night around the fire invented a literature half about coping and half about mysteries, with lots of jokes.

A valuable and informative article. Highly recommended.

Powers also references this stunning online exhibit of Lakota winter counts.

Offensive teams

Almost a decade after American Indian mascots were banned from Los Angeles public schools, California lawmakers this week are again considering a statewide prohibition on “Redskins.”

Proponents contend that the legislation would banish the mascot from five California schools that use it.

Los Angeles Times

California Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year, saying the matter should be decided locally.

A Rift Among History’s Voiceless

From the Los Angeles Times:

In all his school years, Skokomish tribe member Denny Hurtado heard almost nothing about the history of his own people, aside from cursory mentions of Indians on Thanksgiving and Columbus Day.

“From the eyes of history,” Hurtado said, “we were mostly invisible.”

That could change if state legislators pass a bill that would require all public schools to teach Native American history. It would affect every grade in which Washington state or U.S. history was taught.

The measure, proposed by a Native American lawmaker, has received overwhelming support in the state Legislature. Its passage would make Washington one of a handful of states — including Montana, New Mexico and Wisconsin — with such a law.

…

But in recent weeks, the bill has run into opposition, and the most vocal criticisms have come from an unexpected source: Native Americans.

Several prominent but federally unrecognized local tribes — among them the Duwamish, Snohomish and Chinook — say the measure would exclude them from school curricula and would, in time, result in erasing them from history.

Red Lake

Ojibwe Indian David Treuer writes that “Red Lake is like Cuba: proud, poor, troubled, and independent.”

Bloodshed is what put Red Lake on the map. When my Ojibwe (Chippewa) ancestors arrived in Red Lake in the mid-18th century, the area was occupied by the Dakota. The Ojibwe orchestrated a surprise attack on a flotilla of Dakota canoes heading into the lake from a small tributary. The Ojibwe fired from the steep banks onto the canoes below. The Dakota fell into the water and swam for shore, but none of them made it. There were so many dead that their blood stained the water red far out into the lake, and the Ojibwe named the river Battle River and the lake Red Lake: Miskwaagamiwizaga’iganing.

An interesting and important essay.

America’s first students get a second look

The Christian Science Monitor has an excellent article on the state of American Indian education. It begins:

On a snowy December night, nine teenage girls sit shoulder to shoulder around the kitchenette table, telling stories. Not dorm gossip, mind you, but stories that have been passed down for generations in their native cultures.

One reads a favorite Navajo picture book in English - a modern twist on an oral tradition. When she comes to a part that should be sung in Navajo, she hesitates, then passes it to a friend who remembers - mostly - how to sing it. The singer wears a black T-shirt with white lettering: “You laugh because I’m different. I laugh because you’re all the same.”

The article — the first of two — is highly recommended.

So what did the lobbyist do that was so bad anyway?

Only a genius like Abramoff could make money lobbying against an Indian tribe’s casino and then turn around and make money defending that tribe against himself. Only a giant like Abramoff would have the guts to use one tribe’s casino money to finance a Focus on the Family crusade against gambling in order to shut down a rival tribe’s casino.

Only an artist like Abramoff could suggest to a tribe that it pay him by taking out life insurance policies on its eldest members. Then when the elders dropped off they could funnel the insurance money through a private school and into his pockets.

From David Brooks’ column

Holy water

From the Arizona Daily Sun:

Coconino National Forest Supervisor Nora Rasure has approved snowmaking with reclaimed wastewater at Arizona Snowbowl, setting the stage for a legal showdown with 13 American Indian tribes that hold the San Francisco Peaks sacred. The proposal gives the owners of Arizona Snowbowl permission to make snow on any part of the ski area’s 777 acres of Forest Service land, which accounts for about 1 percent of the San Francisco Peaks area. Flagstaff’s City Council has approved up to 1.5 million gallons of reclaimed wastewater per day to be pumped to the ski area. The artificial snow will be spread on an estimated 200 acres. …

“This is appalling to Arizona tribes,” said George Hardeen, spokesman for Navajo Nation president Joe Shirley. “It’s as great an affront as can be visited upon the native people short of termination.” Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. said in a statement he was “deeply disappointed.”

A long throw of the dice

From an article in The New Mexican:

While other tribes are building resorts, golf courses and casinos on their land, Jemez Pueblo has only two economic developments in this isolated community: the Walatowa convenience store and a visitors’ center.

So the tribe is looking 300 miles south — to Anthony, N.M. — to build a casino.

The pueblo and Santa Fe art dealer Gerald Peters have an option to buy a privately owned parcel of land at a busy location next to Interstate 10 between Las Cruces and El Paso.

The pueblo is seeking to put 78 acres of the property into federal trust. In 2004, it submitted a trust application to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs regional office in Albuquerque. If approved, the land would become part of the Jemez reservation.

…

McCain’s bill would prohibit tribes from acquiring land in another state for gambling operations, according to the Times Union newspaper in Albany, N.Y. Although Jemez’s proposal doesn’t involve land in another state, other members of Congress want to add a measure requiring a tribe have an ancestral connection to land before it is put into trust.

Best line of the day, so far

“But at bottom lurked a basic conflict about the future of the Ohio Country: Washington believed it was open to settlement; the British government believed it was closed; and the Indians believed it was theirs.”

Joseph J. Ellis in His Excellency: George Washington discussing the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River after 1763.

Coming soon to Hawaii — Casinos

From Indianz.Com:

A bill to recognize a Native Hawaiian governing entity is on the fast track in the Senate after seeing years of delays.

Hawaii’s Congressional delegation introduced S.147, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, last month. Sponsors cited the bipartisan support they have garnered over the years for a measure that would clear up legal doubts about the relationship between the United States and Hawaii.

Tribal Casino Revenues Surpass Nevada’s

From The Washington Post:

Indian gambling pulled in $18.5 billion in 2004, nearly double the take for Nevada’s gambling industry, as tribal casinos boomed ahead.

The 10 percent increase extended more than a decade of double-digit growth for the nation’s Indian casinos, which have mushroomed since Congress passed a law creating the legal framework in 1988.

There now are 411 Indian casinos in the United States, operated by 223 tribes in 28 states. More than half the 341 federally recognized Indian tribes in the continental United States operate casinos.

Black Eagle

From The Santa Fe New Mexican:

Black Eagle, a drum group from Jemez Pueblo, is making history today at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards.

According to the group’s producer, Tom Bee, the musicians will be the first American Indians in history to perform at the Grammys, which celebrates artistic achievement in pop, jazz, blue, rap, classical, folk and other musical recordings.

The group is scheduled to be the opening act at the ceremony, which begins at 1:30 p.m. at Staples Center in Los Angeles. [But not part of the telecast.]

The Jemez drummers, who have been nominated each of the last three years, won a Grammy in 2004 in the Best Native American Music Album category. Their album Straight Up Northern is up for a Grammy this year in the same category. …

[Last year] OutKast’s Andre 3000 and his backup dancers performed the song Hey Ya! clothed in neon-green outfits and wearing feathers, fringe and war paint. To many American Indian viewers, including the Black Eagle drummers, the performance came across as a derogatory portrayal of American Indian culture and suggested American Indian music is sung with only the words hey ya.

News Flash: AP writer uninformed

The first two paragraphs of an AP article by Joseph B. Frazier —

Representatives of Northwest Indian tribes from seven states are in Portland this week to seek common ground on issues affecting them, and possible infringement on tribal sovereignty by the Bureau of Indian Affairs is near the top of the list.

The Office of Special Trusts, formed five years ago to improve accountability in the BIA, is drawing much of the acrimony.

Facts:
1. It is the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (not Office of Special Trusts).
2. It was established by federal statute in 1994 (that would be 11 years ago, not five).
3. It is not part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (though both are part of the Department of the Interior).

Ernie Stensgar, president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, said the formation of the office was announced at a meeting of tribal leaders five years ago by Interior Secretary Gale Norton with no tribal input.

Fact:
Gale Norton has been Secretary of the Interior for just four years, not five.

NMAI

From tequila mockingbird, mother and daughter discuss the National Museum of the American Indian — sorta. It begins:

“so, i went to the museum of the american indian a couple of weeks ago.”

“you did? how was it? i hope they didn’t screw them on their museum. the least they could do is give them a decent museum.”

“the cafeteria is awesome! really, it’s so cool. …”

Read it all.

Ei Baa Hashne’

From the Flagstaff Arizona Daily Sun:

Tribal leaders lashed out Tuesday at efforts by some state lawmakers to enact English as the official language of Arizona.

Vivian Juan-Saunders, chairwoman of the Tohono O’odham nation, told a special joint session of the Legislature that English will continue to be the primary language of this country.

“Our children learn it in our schools and we have no desire to change that,” said Juan-Saunders, who also is president of the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona. She said native Americans want their children to learn English.

“However, making people use only English in government-transacted business is reminiscent of the boarding-school era for American Indians when speaking one’s own language, which resulted in physical and verbal abuse administered by teachers and employees of the school,” she told lawmakers during the annual event at the Capitol.

Kathy Kitcheyan, chairwoman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, was more blunt.

“In plain English … to the state of Arizona, we don’t like it and we don’t want it,” she said to legislators. “We as the first Americans never asked our visitors to speak a specific language.”

… [Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa,] said, it simply requires “official functions of the government” to be conducted in English. That, however, includes not only laws, public proceedings and regulations, but also publications, orders, actions, programs and policies.

“If you’re going to come here and be successful, you have to assimilate,” Pearce said. “You can’t come here from another nation and demand services in that language.”

Just One More Tribal Tale of Abuse

Writer Paul VanDevelder writes in the Los Angeles Times that the lobbyist scam of several Indian tribes is just the latest in a long line. He begins with a story as told by Indian elders:

A black man, a white man and an Indian arrived at the Pearly Gates, begins one of their favorite tales. After welcoming them to heaven, St. Peter invites each man to pick the afterlife of his dreams. The black man asks for great music and lots of friends. St. Peter grants his wish and sends him on his way. Up steps the Indian, who asks for beautiful mountain streams, deep forests and plenty of food. “Say no more, chief,” says St. Peter, sending him off. Lastly, he turns to the white man and asks, “What do you want heaven to look like?” And the white man says, “Where did that Indian go?”

Wounded Knee

On December 29, 1890 at Wounded Knee Creek, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, some 500 soldiers of the United States Seventh Cavalry opened fire on approximately 350 Lakota (Sioux) Indians of Chief Big Foot’s Miniconjou band. At the end of the confrontation, between 150 and 300 Sioux men, women, and children, including Chief Big Foot, were dead. This event marked the end of Lakota resistance until the 1970s. Apart from the few minor skirmishes that followed, the Wounded Knee massacre ended the Indian Wars.

In many ways, the massacre resulted from the Ghost Dance movement. The movement was led by a Paiute named Wovoka who claimed to have had a vision that the “Old Earth” would be destroyed and a new one created in which Native Americans could live as they had before the coming of the European. He preached that the only way to survive the impending apocalypse would be to faithfully perform the Ghost Dance and the ceremonies associated with it.

Wovoka’s movement began as a peaceful one, which did not exclude other races from participating. Unfortunately, certain followers, most notably Kicking Bear, a member of the original Lakota delegation sent to learn of Wovoka’s teachings, changed the non-violent message into a call for the destruction of the white man that resonated with many members of the Lakota tribes of South Dakota. Many of the more traditional Lakota, with memories of better times still fresh in their minds, took up the Ghost Dance on these violent terms. In October 1890, the Ghost Dance movement reached Sitting Bull’s Hunkpapa Lakota nation on the Standing Rock Reservation in Northern South Dakota. Although it is unlikely that the powerful Lakota chief took an active role in spreading the Ghost Dance doctrine, he was pleased that the movement banded his people together and he allowed its practice.

U.S. government officials became deeply concerned about the popularity of the Ghost Dance movement and its increasingly destructive message. And because of Sitting Bull’s notoriety, the government mistakenly identified him as a major leader of the movement. On December 12, days after Sitting Bull asked for permission to leave the Standing Rock Reservation to visit with uncooperative Ghost Dancers, General Nelson Miles issued the order for his capture. Hearing of the warrant for Sitting Bull’s arrest, Buffalo Bill Cody, a confidant of Sitting Bull’s, volunteered to facilitate the arrest, presumably, to assure Sitting Bull’s safety. He was rebuffed by the Standing Rock Indian Agent, James McLaughlin. Then on December 15, a scuffle erupted outside of Sitting Bull’s home between Ghost Dancers and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officers sent to arrest the Lakota chief. During the fight Sitting Bull was shot and killed by BIA officer Red Tomahawk. In the aftermath eight Lakota and six BIA officers lay dead.

Sitting Bull’s death created confusion and anger among many Lakota bands. Big Foot, leader of one of the most fervent bands of Ghost Dance practitioners, feared that the Army was ready to retaliate forcefully against the movement’s practitioners. To avoid capture, he and his followers wandered through the South Dakota Badlands for several days. Once his people’s supplies became scarce, he began a trek toward the Pine Ridge agency. His ultimate goal was to reach the protection of Chief Red Cloud, who had a reputation for negotiating well with the U.S. government. On December 28, during what would have been the last leg of their journey to Pine Ridge, Big Foot and his followers were intercepted by cavalry troops under Major Samuel Whitside and escorted to the Wounded Knee army camp. There the Lakota camped under a flag of truce, surrounded by Seventh Cavalry troops under the command of Colonel James W. Forsyth.

On the morning of December 29, Colonel Forsyth ordered the disarmament of Big Foot’s band. The disarmament proceeded slowly as the Miniconjou were reluctant to give up their only means of protection. The slow progress of disarmament frustrated the cavalry officers, increasing the already heightened tension. The conflict came to a head when a young deaf Sioux named Black Coyote resisted the seizure of his brand new rifle. In the ensuing struggle between Black Coyote and the two cavalrymen who were attempting to disarm him, the rifle discharged into the air. Almost immediately after this first shot, the cavalrymen returned fire with an opening volley that struck and killed Big Foot. Hearing the fire in the Sioux camp, soldiers posted on the ridges overlooking the camp opened fire with light artillery. The soldiers fired indiscriminately on men, and women and children who were unarmed and fleeing the battle scene. The Lakota suffered hundreds of casualties; twenty-five soldiers perished mostly due to their own crossfire. One Lakota survivor was an infant who was found at her dead mother’s side. Named Lost Bird she was adopted by Brigadier General Leonard W. Colby, commander of the Nebraska National Guard.

The Wounded Knee massacre was the last major confrontation between Indians and the American military until the late twentieth century. On February 27, 1973, conflict erupted again near the site of the massacre eighty-three years earlier. This time members of both the Lakota tribe and the American Indian Movement seized control of Wounded Knee to protest the U.S.-sanctioned Lakota tribal government, and to demand a government review of all Indian treaties. The protestors were confronted by officers of several federal agencies including the FBI, U.S. Marshals, Bureau of Indian Affairs police, as well as the National Guard. By the end of the ensuing seventy-one-day stand off two protestors were dead and twelve others injured, including two marshals. Over 1,200 people were arrested.

Source: The Library of Congress

Cowboys and Indians

Tonight NewMexiKen happened upon the made for television, Canadian film Cowboys and Indians:The Killing of J.J. Harper. It’s an intriguing, informative, moving, entertaining work.

The film stars Adam Beach (Windtalkers, Smoke Signals) as J.J. Harper, and Eric Scheig (Skins, Last of the Mohicans) as his half-brother Harry Wood. The film begins with the fatal shooting by a Winnipeg constable (police officer) of tribal chairman Harper, then traces the police reaction and its ultimate unraveling under pressure from Wood and the tribe. The movie was produced in 2003; the actual events it depicts took place in 1988.

Despite having that made-for-TV look, this film is well worth seeking out. I promise you that — half way in — you will be pushing the reverse button to go back and see the action leading up to the shooting. More importantly, the movie succeeds at portraying both the Indian and police point of view with unusual understanding, and with genuine compassion for the people involved.

Feds, tribes may co-manage bison refuge

From AP via The Seattle Times:

The only federal wildlife refuge set aside to protect bison will be managed by the Interior Department and Indian tribes in an unusual partnership that conservationists fear could lead to more development of public lands.

Under an agreement signed yesterday, the department and the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council will split budget and management duties for Montana’s 19,000-acre National Bison Range, which is within the tribal homeland on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Training is to be provided to the tribes, which must consult a federal manager with Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service before waiving regulations on the range. The deal takes effect in three months if Congress does not object.

The deal, negotiated over the past two years, is only the second of its kind under a 1994 law that lets tribes with a cultural, geographic or historic link to a federal refuge apply to run it.

Renaming ‘Squaw’ Sites Proves Touchy in Oregon

From The New York Times:

“Squaw” originated in a branch of the Algonquin language, where it meant simply “woman,” but it turned into a slur on the tongues of white settlers, who used it to refer derisively to Indian women in general or a part of their anatomy in particular. The settlers liked the word so much that there are now more than 170 springs, gulches, bluffs, valleys, and gaps in this state called “squaw.” All must be renamed under a 2001 law that was enacted after two members of the confederated tribes persuaded the Legislature that the word was offensive to many American Indians and should be erased from maps. But only 13 places have been renamed so far. It is a problem familiar to Indians and government officials in several states where attempts to outlaw “squaw” have been caught in a thicket of bureaucratic, historical and linguistic snares.

In Maine, one frustrated county changed all “squaw” names to “moose” in one fell swoop to save on hassle, while in Minnesota, disgruntled residents suggested new names like Politically Correct Creek and Politically Correct Bay. But often the stumbling block has been questions over what Indians themselves would prefer instead of “squaw.”

Every historian who studies Lewis & Clark falls in love with Sacagawea

But they can’t agree on her name.

The problem was that Sacajawea was Shoshone, but Sakakawea was captured at age 12 by the Hidatsas. So is her name Shoshone or Hidatsa? The problem is further compounded by the fact that Lewis and Clark couldn’t spell. Clark was the most creative — for example, he spelled Sioux no less than 27 different ways in the Journals.

Sacagawea is the official federal spelling. It is considered to be a Hidatsa word meaning “Bird Woman,” though apparently that is not how the Hidatsas spell it.

Sakakawea is the Hidatsa/North Dakota spelling. According to the North Dakota Historical Society:

Her Hidatsa name, which Charbonneau stated meant “Bird Woman,” should be spelled “Tsakakawias” according to the foremost Hidatsa language authority, Dr. Washington Matthews. When this name is anglicized for easy pronunciation, it becomes Sakakawea, “Sakaka” meaning “bird” and “wea” meaning “woman.”

Sacajawea ia the spelling adopted by Wyoming and some other western states, relying on the Shoshone. According to the web site Trail Tribes:

The Lemhi Shoshone call her Sacajawea. It is derived from the Shoshone word for her name, Saca tzah we yaa. In his Cash Book, William Clark spells Sacajawea with a “J”. Also, William Clark and Private George Shannon explained to Nicholas Biddle (Published the first Lewis and Clark Journals in 1814) about the pronunciation of her name and how the tz sounds more like a “j”. What better authority on the pronunciation of her name than Clark and Shannon who traveled with her and constantly heard the pronunciation of her name. We do not believe it is a Minnetaree (Hidatsa) word for her name. Sacajawea was a Lemhi Shoshone not a Hidatsa. Her people the Lemhi Shoshone honor her freedom and will continue using the name Sacajawea. Most Shoshone elders conclude that her name is a Shoshone word: Saca tzah we yaa which means burden.

Lewis and Clark (or at least Clark) called Sacagawea Janey. Clark raised the boy, John Baptiste Charbonneau (called Pomp by Clark) from age six and arranged for him to be educated in Europe when Pomp was 19.

The best evidence suggests that Sacagawea died in 1812.

Interior funding

The Washington Post has a quick look at the federal appropriations recently passed. Of particular interest to NewMexiKen:

Congress gave the Interior Department a nominal increase, upping its budget to $9.88 billion. The National Park Service was one of the agency’s big winners. Lawmakers increased its funding by $90 million — slightly less than what Bush had proposed — to $2.35 billion. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was another winner, receiving about $2.33 billion, a $29 million increase and $76 million more than what Bush had requested. The Bureau of Land Management received the brunt of the agency’s cuts — its funding was cut by $137 million — coming in with $1.77 billion.

The bill also includes legislative language allowing the government to continue charging various fees at some national parks, to permit the slaughter of some wild horses roaming the West and to continue to allow snowmobiles at Yellowstone National Park.

Celebrate American Indian Heritage Month

The National Museum of the American Indian has a wonderfully attractive entry page.

Bless us all Chester

Albloggerque posted this Wednesday (sorry I missed it before now):

DOWNTOWN–Chester Nez rests on a plaza bench after the Kerry rally. Many in Boston credit Mr. Nez for breaking the Curse of the Bambino with a Navajo blessing. The WWII Code Talker and Congressional Gold Medal winner blessed the Kerry campaign in Albuquerque Tuesday night.

Apparently the Boston Red Sox called on Chester Nez to come to Boston and give a Navajo blessing to the Red Sox last April. After the team lost its 3 games to the Yankees in the ALCS they called him again. The local story goes that he walked out of his Albuquerque home, faced Fenway Park, and gave a blessing.

Now the Kerry campaign has him on stage with JK. And last night in Albuquerque’s Civic Plaza there he was extracting corn pollen from a little leather bag and letting it sift into the air in all 4 directions. The thousands of people at the rally were hushed during the brief ceremony…

Albloggerque has a couple of photos.

Hyperbole

From the Gallup Independent Monday:

U.S. Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton was characterized Monday as a 21st Century reincarnation of 19th Century U.S. Army Gen. George Armstrong Custer.

The comparison came during the latest update [at the Navajo Nageezi Chapter House] of the largest class action lawsuit in American history. …

Lead lawyer Dennis Gingold told a reporter, “She’s worse (than Custer) and should be given the same treatment.” …

Gingold predicted, “We know the government will violate the injunction,” saying the court can then take the trust operation away from the administration and put it into a receivership.

This would be Norton’s Little Bighorn, as the department would lose control of Indian trust functions.

More Sherman Alexie

After all, Lewis and Clark’s story has never been just the triumphant tale of two white men, no matter what the white historians might need to believe. Sacagawea was not the primary hero of this story either, no matter what the Native American historians and I might want to believe. The story of Lewis and Clark is also the story of the approximately 45 nameless and faceless first- and second-generation European Americans who joined the journey, then left or completed it, often without monetary or historical compensation. Considering the time and place, I imagine those 45 were illiterate, low-skilled laborers subject to managerial whims and 19th century downsizing. And it is most certainly the story of the black slave York, who also cast votes during this allegedly democratic adventure. It’s even the story of Seaman, the domesticated Newfoundland dog who must have been a welcome and friendly presence and who survived the risk of becoming supper during one lean time or another. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was exactly the kind of multicultural, trigenerational, bigendered, animal-friendly, government-supported, partly French-Canadian project that should rightly be celebrated by liberals and castigated by conservatives.

Excerpted from What Sacagawea Means to Me by Sherman Alexie for Time (2002).

The whole essay is well-worth reading.

Novelist, poet, story teller and screenwriter …

Sherman Alexie was born on this date in 1966. Alexie’s father is a Coeur d’Alene Indian and his mother is a Spokane Indian

The Writer’s Almanac has quite a bit about Alexie concluding with:

His first big success was his collection of short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993). It was one of the first works of fiction to portray Indians as modern Americans who watch all the same TV programs and eat the same breakfast cereal as everybody else. He has since written about Indians who are gay intellectuals, basketball players, middle-class journalists, elderly movie extras, rock musicians, construction workers, or reservation girls whose cars only go in reverse because all the other gears are broken. His most recent is the story collection Ten Little Indians, which came out last year.

Sherman Alexie said, “All too often, Indian writers write about the kind of Indian they wish they were. So I try to write about the kind of Indian I am. I’m just as much a product of ‘The Brady Bunch’ as I am of my grandmother.”

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven was adapted for the excellent and amusing film Smoke Signals.

I will fight no more forever

I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say “Yes” or “No.” He who led the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are - perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

Chief Joseph of the Nez-Percé surrendering to Gen. Nelson Miles on this date in 1877.

The Library of Congress tells us:

With 2,000 U.S. soldiers in pursuit, Chief Joseph led fewer than 300 Nez Percé Indians towards freedom at the Canadian border. For over three months, the Nez Percé outmaneuvered and battled their pursuers traveling over 1,000 miles across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. On October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph, exhausted and disheartened, surrendered in the Bear Paw mountains of Montana, 40 miles south of Canada.

The National Museum of Ben Nighthorse Campbell

Timothy Noah doesn’t much like the new National Museum of the American Indian:

The new museum stubbornly refuses to impose any recognizable standard of scholarship, or even value, on the items in its galleries. Precious artifacts are mingled with present-day kitsch, with few if any clues provided about what makes them significant. The museum’s curators regard the very notion of a Native American cultural heritage as anathema because it clashes with the museum’s boosterish message that Native American culture is as vibrant today as it ever was. This isn’t a museum; it’s a public service announcement.

NewMexiKen hasn’t been to NMAI, so I don’t know what to make of Noah’s criticism (other than it has been a common lament among the published critics). Indeed, one wonders what the reaction was when the National Museum of American History first opened — perhaps all new museums need a time to mature. Whatever, Noah’s essay is worth reading.

A New-Style Indian Village Rises From the Dust

Informative and interesting article in The New York Times on housing development on Winnebago Indian Reservation (Nebraska).

In mid-September the National American Indian Housing Council released a report on the health risks that overcrowded housing on reservations poses to children, including infectious diseases and breathing problems from tobacco smoke. A report last year by the federal Commission on Civil Rights cited an immediate need for 200,000 housing units for Indian families.

In Winnebago about one-third of households are overcrowded, including the home of David and Robin Redhorn. They live in town with their three children in a house they share with Mrs. Redhorn’s sister, her husband and their child. “There’s about eight of us,” Mr. Redhorn said. “It’s kind of crowded, but we’re managing.”

In October the Redhorn family will become the second to move to Ho-Chunk Village. With guidance from a 40-hour home buyer course offered by the housing authority, Mr. Redhorn, who works at the Heritage Food Store in town, paid off overdue debts to improve his credit record, which qualified him for financial assistance.

All Winnebago families are eligible for $15,000 in down payment assistance from Ho-Chunk Inc.’s nonprofit arm for houses on the reservation if they complete the course. Families earning $45,200 or less may qualify for an additional $5,000 from the housing authority.

“We’ll have a three-bedroom house, a full basement with a two-car garage, central air and central heat,” Mr. Redhorn said. “And a fireplace so we can have a real Christmas. I’m kind of fired up about this.”

Most Indians aren’t even Indians

Scary jibberish from Tom Coburn, Republican candidate for U.S. Senator in Oklahoma —

All right, listen, I know the tribal issues. I was a congressman where most of the Indians are in this state. The problem is that most of them aren’t Indians. The average Cherokee quantum is 1/512. All right, most people in this room have more Cherokee in them than the Cherokee. All right, and they want to grow that because as they grow their rolls, what happens is they get more money from the federal government. The worst thing that can happen is to have 37 DEQs, 37 EPAs, and 37 tribal courts that you’re going to have to deal with in this state, and I won’t let that happen if I’m a U.S. Senator.

— Altus Town Hall, 8/21/04

The Democratic candidate, Brad Carson, is a member of the Cherokee Nation.

Thanks to Ralph for the info.

Bush on tribal sovereignty

In case you haven’t heard the audio file or seen the video, here’s the President on tribal sovereignty —

Tribal sovereignty means that, it’s sovereign. I mean, you’re a — you’re a — you’ve been given sovereignty and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.

Update: Democracy Now! has the full Bush response in audio and video, including Jesse Jackson’s hilarious, but also well-informed, follow-up response. (Thanks to Ralph.)

American Indian or Native American?

The Executive Editor of Indian Country Today answers the question.

While it is true that the term “Indian” does not accurately describe the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, its usage, particularly when incorporated into the term “American Indian” has been largely (although not universally) accepted by most tribal officials. Also, as a matter of style usage the term “American Indian” seems to be gaining favor over the term “Native American,” since it carries with it a more specific identification. For example, anyone born in the United States could technically call themselves “native Americans,” but cannot identify themselves as “American Indians.” Our newspaper prefers the term “American Indian,” and we will often use the single word “Indian” for subsequent references within a story. Although language evolves through time and usage I would suggest that the term “American Indian” will likely become more commonplace nationally and internationally. One factor is because national publications such as ours, Indian Country Today, have made it our style choice. Other factors include its use in nationally and internationally renowned organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and the National Congress of American Indians, etc.

Bush on tribal sovereignty

Here’s the video.

Link via Scaramouche Blog via Sideshow.

The Rock

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary accepted its first prisoners 70 years ago today.

Alcatraz is a 22-acre rock island in San Francisco Bay, 1½ miles from shore. For 29 years the federal prison system kept its highest security prisoners there, including Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and the famous Birdman, Robert Stroud (played by Burt Lancaster in the film Birdman of Alcatraz). Reportedly, no one was ever known to have successfully escaped from Alcatraz.

From 1868 to 1934, Alcatraz was a military prison. In 1969, American Indian activists occupied and claimed the island. Their occupation lasted 19 months.

Alcatraz Island became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area of the National Park Service in 1972.

Alcatraz, for the original Spanish Alcatraces, is usually defined as meaning “pelican” or “strange bird.”

Click photo to enlarge.

Bush on tribal sovereignty

It seems a number of visitors to NewMexiKen are searching for the President’s answer on the American Indian tribal sovereignty issue. Here it is [mp3 file].

Update: Type “tribal sovereignty Bush wav” into Google and you get NewMexiKen as the first pick.

National Museum of the American Indian…

opens on the Mall in Washington September 21st.

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the U.S. Capitol building on the National Mall, the museum’s location symbolizes a deeper understanding and reconciliation between America’s first citizens and those who have come to make these shores their home. The opening of NMAI on the National Mall marks an unprecedented cultural achievement as Native Americans from North, Central, and South America realize a long-awaited dream to share and honor their vibrant cultures with visitors from throughout the world.

Learn about NMAI, a part of the Smithsonian Institution.

How could anyone vote for this man?

Listen to the President of the United States answer a question about American Indian tribal sovereignty. [mp3 file]

Link via Daily Kos.

The Creek War…

ended on this date in 1814, when Major General Andrew Jackson signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson. According to the Library of Congress:

The agreement provided for the surrender of twenty-three million acres of Creek land to the United States. This vast territory encompassed more than half of present-day Alabama and part of southern Georgia.

The war began on August 30, 1813, when a faction of Creeks known as the Red Sticks attacked a contingent of 553 American settlers at Lake Tensaw, Alabama, north of Mobile. In response, Jackson led 5,000 militiamen in the destruction of two Creek villages, Tallasahatchee and Talladega.

On March 27, 1814, Jackson’s forces destroyed the Creek defenses at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Eight hundred Creek warriors were killed and 500 women and children captured.

American Indians Expand College Hopes

From The New York Times —

Sometimes white people can seem really ignorant, says Alistaire MacRae, a 17-year-old Navajo high school student, noting the time he and his family vacationed at Yellowstone National Park and were soon surrounded by tourists snapping pictures of them, as though they were a herd of elk.

Still, Mr. MacRae wants a college education and knows that some good universities are predominantly white, far from his homelands in the Arizona desert, and hard to get into. So his parents paid $50 for Alistaire to join 50 other American Indian students this summer, meeting with representatives of Harvard, Stanford and 19 other schools for a crash course on how to apply to elite colleges.

“This has really opened up my mind,” said Kyle Hegdal, an Eskimo who is a high school senior from Fairbanks, Alaska, midway through the course on the Carleton College campus here. Mr. Hegdal said he had not previously contemplated applying to any Ivy League school. “But now I’m thinking East Coast, maybe M.I.T. or Cornell,” he said.

American Indians and Alaska Natives, who make up about 1 percent of the nation’s population, are underrepresented at many highly selective colleges, contributing well below 1 percent of undergraduates.

Even those who enroll often drop out. On average, fewer than one in five Indians who enroll in college earn a bachelor’s degree, said Norbert Hill, executive director of the American Indian Graduate Center of Albuquerque.

The article continues.