Sunday, March 17, 2013


 "Where today are the Pequot?  Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people?  They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man, as snow before a summer sun.
    Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us?  I know you will cry with me, Never, Never!”
                                                               —Tecumseh of the Shawnees

     The “Ghosts” in the title of this blog are metaphoric. "Ghosts of America's Genocide", symbolize the race of people we now refer to as the Native Americans whose ancestors were subject to the greatest genocide in human history (Lewy 1).  They are like ghosts because the plight of their ancestors still haunt the collective consciousness of every citizen of the United States who enjoy the benefits of their once sacred lands. Their specters appear on Thanksgiving Day or arrive as a mascot for a sports team and most Americans misunderstand the message that the spirits are bringing.  

     Thanks to our social constructs of the "American Indian" many non Native Americans in this country have either an idealized or unrealistic view of  these people.  Some Americans view the Indian as head-dressed warriors, drunken clowns, or even as mystical shamans that can summon swarms of butterflies at will like the character in the 1982 horror film "Poltergeist".   Then there are the closet historians who have an apologetic take on history, telling themselves and others that a just war was waged against the savages and that there were only the isolated tragedies that occur in any war. Some Native Americans even exploit these misconceptions to make a living at "Pow wows" or as ghost hunters giving much credence to the saying, "If you can't beat them, join them." 
     None of these social constructs have much basis in fact.  The constructs. however, live on and get repeated generation after generation until the truth does not matter anymore.  This blog will examine and deconstruct the pervasive and damaging social constructs that label the surviving proud tribes that still exist.

     In future posts we will look at some very important issues facing Native Americans and the country at large.  My next post will examine the use of Native American mascots and team names in a variety of sports.  Fans and owners of these teams will undoubtedly defend their use of Native American symbolism as paying their due respect to the "American Indian".  While Native Americans and others may argue that it is an American double standard to have it be acceptable to have a sports team named the "Washington Redskins", but that it would be totally unacceptable to have a sports team named the "Newark Niggers".

I appreciate any and all feed back you would like to offer and promise to read all posts to this blog.

 
References:

1. Guenter, Lewy. (Monday, January 22, 2007-23:16). Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?. In George Mason University History News Network. Retrieved Sunday, March 17, 2013, from hn.us/articles/7302.html.

10 comments:

  1. Very powerful first post and I love the look of this blog and the graphics you chose...I am excited to learn more and read your thoughts on the horrid discrimination and demise of the American Indians. It really is a history that most of us are shamefully ignorant of.

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    1. Thank you, I am walking a fine line here. I do not want to add to any one's sense of pity for the survivors of genocide but what happened cannot and should not be forgotten. It is easy to write about the Holocaust and it is only controversial to Holocaust deniers. We live in a country whose mythology and narrative is about the denial of genocide and the discrimination that persists toward Native Americans today has a lot to do with them being a living reminder of our shameful history. There is also a lot of self-loathing that Native Americans feel about being a conquered people and I do not in any way want to add to that.

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  2. Personally I have never had the privilege of meeting a Native American and I for one would love to have the honor just be in their presence. And its not because of the way our media makes them seem to everyone in our society but just based on the history that I have learned about their people. I think it would an experience.

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    1. Amanda thanks for the reply. I will leave you with a poem that one of my Native American sisters wrote and was published in Aloud: Voices of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

      Sure You can Ask me a Personal Question
      by Diane Burns

      How do you do?
      No, I'm not Chinese.
      No, not Spanish.
      No, I'm American Indi..uh, Native American.
      No, not from India.
      No, we're not extinct.
      No, not Navajo.
      No, not Sioux.
      Yes, Indian.
      Oh, so you've had an Indian friend?
      That close.
      Oh, so you had an Indian lover?
      That tight.
      Oh, so you've had an Indian servant?
      That much.
      Oh, so that's where you got those high cheek bones.
      Your great-grandmother, eh?
      Hair down to there?
      Let me guess...Cherokee?
      Oh, and Indian Princess.
      No, I didn't make it rain tonight.
      No, I don't know where you can get Navajo rugs real cheap.
      No, I don't know where you can get peyote.
      No, I didn't make this... I bought it at Bloomingdale's.
      Yes, some of us drink to much.
      Some of us can't drink enough.
      This ain't no stoic look.
      This is my face.

      Keep this poem in mind if you ever encounter a person of Native American heritage. They are not their history or any social construct they are whoever they are and nothing more or less give them the same respect you give others and you will get along fine.

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  3. Interesting! I think back on my entire life, and why have I yet to meet an Indian of any tribe? Hmmm...makes me think that I havn't yet "really" experienced DIVERSITY in America...or maybe do I need to get out- and venture into the U.S. and really experience other cultures. You made me think about how boring my life has been, thanks :)

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    1. You probably have met Native Americans but just never realized it. Many do not look like the typical movie Indian or have darker features like the Sioux people. Believe it or not many tribes on the Northeast have whit or nearly white skin.

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    2. I have been to New Mexico three times and visited some reservations, but they were like tourist places where they were making wares and fire cooked bread to sell to visitors. I remember feeling sad. I love their crafts and art. The Reading Art Museum actually has a good collection of Indian Artifacts, if you ever get out this way.

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  5. Mike
    I’m very interested in reading your thoughts on the discrimination of Native Americans. I can’t say I know a lot about their history but I did take a course at Albright on Native American Literature. You may find the book we studied from interesting and useful. It was an anthology of Native American Literature titled Nothing but the Truth, John Purdy and James Ruppert. I will bring it to class. I found some on the non-fiction stories interesting. We did discuss some history during the course and how the white man wanted to do away with the race which included an organized governmental policy in the 1950s to terminate reservations and relocate dwellers into large cities. You may also want to read a fictional novel called Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge inspired from his experiences on the Navajo reservation. LaFarge won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel in 1926.

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