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November 24, 2009

Some do's and don'ts in representing Native American culture

AR Sakaeda, who wrote one of my favorite essays for Exploring Race last year, sent me an email recently about issues to consider in representing Native Americans. Because Thanksgiving is a popular time for teaching students about Native Americans, here’s a list of guidelines that come from Oyate, a Native organization that wants to make sure the history of Native Americans is portrayed with honesty and accuracy.

Over the years, more schools have been eliminating the practice of kids dressing up as Indians, but apparently there is still much resistance. The Tribune covered a Skokie school in 2003 that decided to discontinue the costumes.  That same year, the YMCA also decided to end its "Indian Guides and Princesses" program.

Tell me what you think about the list: 

• Do present Native peoples as appropriate role models with whom a Native child can identify. Don't single out Native children, ask them to describe their families' traditions, or their people's cultures. Don't assume that you have no Native children in your class. Don't do or say anything that would embarrass a Native child.
• Do look for books and materials written and illustrated by Native people. Don't use ABC books that have "I is for Indian"' or "E is for Eskimo." Don't use counting books that count "Indians." Don't use story books that show non-Native children "playing Indian." Don't use picture books by non-Native authors that show animals dressed as "Indians." Don't use story books with characters like "Indian Two Feet" or "Little Chief."
• Do avoid arts and crafts and activities that trivialize Native dress, dance, or ceremony. Don't use books that show Native people as savages, primitive craftspeople, or simple tribal people, now extinct.
• Don't have children dress up as "Indians," with paperbag "costumes" or paper-feather "headdresses." Don't sing "Ten Little Indians." Don't let children do "war whoops." Don't let children play with artifacts borrowed from a library or museum. Don't have them make "Indian crafts" unless you know authentic methods and have authentic materials.
• Do make sure you know the history of Native peoples, past and present, before you attempt to teach it. Do present Native peoples as separate from each other, with unique cultures, languages, spiritual beliefs, and dress. Don't teach "Indians" only at Thanksgiving. Do teach Native history as a regular part of American history.
• Do use materials which put history in perspective. Don't use materials which manipulate words like "victory," "conquest," or "massacre" to distort history. Don't use materials which present as heroes only those Native people who aided Europeans. Do use materials which present Native heroes who fought to defend their own people.
• Do discuss the relationship between Native peoples and the colonists and what went wrong with it. Don't speak as though "the Indians" were here only for the benefit of the colonists. Don't make charts about "gifts the Indians gave us."
• Don't use materials that stress the superiority of European ways, and the inevitability of European conquest. Do use materials which show respect for, and understanding of, the sophistication and complexities of Native societies.
• Do use materials which show the continuity of Native societies, with traditional values and spiritual beliefs connected to the present. Don't refer to Native spirituality as "superstition." Don't make up Indian "legends" or "ceremonies." Don't encourage children to do "Indian" dances.
• Do use respectful language in teaching about Native peoples. Don't use insulting terms such as "brave," "squaw," "papoose," "Indian givers," "wild Indians," "blanket Indians," or "wagon burners."
• Do portray Native societies as coexisting with nature in a delicate balance. Don't portray Native peoples as "the first ecologists."
• Do use primary source material--speeches, songs, poems, writing--that show the linguistic skill of peoples who come from an oral tradition. Don't use books in which "Indian" characters speak in either "early jawbreaker" or in the oratorical style of the "noble savage."
• Do use materials which show Native women, Elders, and children as integral and important to Native societies. Don't use books which portray Native women and Elders as subservient to warriors.
• Do talk about lives of Native peoples in the present. Do read and discuss good poetry, suitable for young people, by contemporary Native writers. Do invite Native community members to the classroom. Do offer them an honorarium. Treat them as teachers, not as entertainers. Don't assume that every Native person knows everything there is to know about every Native Nation.


MotherSkadi :

sometimes the blood of the innocent is needed to cleanse the earth

If you're a parent or teacher of a young child and you want a great children's book explaining Thanksgiving and the relationship between the Wamponoag tribe and the Pilgrims, I heartily recommend "Richard Scarry's The First Thanksgiving of Low Leaf Worm" (out of print, don't use Amazon and it will be inexpensive - try Abebooks). I'm an enrolled tribal member and teach Native American studies, and I'm completely impressed with how historically accurate this book but it still completely appropriate for the very young reader – which is an extraordinary achievement.

Kate..."cowboy" isn't totally "white" any more than "indian" is unique only to the American Indians. All Indians don't have "red-Skins", they weren't the first to use axes, shoot an arrow or use feathers as decoration, or make pots, or have dances for celebrations.....that's the point. From this article...there seems to be nothing left but nodding that PC acceptable....and I'm sure there's some other group out there who will find that "offensive" as well. That's why I say this is PC gone insane.

Indian Culture is not only for Indians, but certain things must be respected. It would be like taking communion in a Catholic church if you weren't catholic. Plus, many Indian communities have dances which anyone can watch. Other communities have done away with this because so many people would show up with cameras, it turned a cultural expression into "a performance."
rwilymz: Many American Indian cultures developed trade routes which covered thousands of miles, spoke more than one language and developed canal systems still in use in cities like Phoenix today. Cherokees did develop a system of writing, and Indians are going nowhere. Families on reservations and in urban areas are growing. Please get your facts straight.
Regular Guy: There were many Indian Wars, but those moving onto this continent made resources scarce, which did force people to fight over land, but it not fair to portray all Native cultures this way. Its important to list reasons why people went to war. For example, many Apache people were starving and so they raided farms for food.

KW: a "Cowboy" is not race of people. Also, while you can lump white people into one group, it would be like asking a Polish person to speak about all of the cultures in Europe. it wouldn't be smart to ask them to do so. Just like al countries in Europe and those from Europe don't make up all of the culture...the same is true for Indian culture. I'm Irish and not thrilled about "I'm Irish today" t-shirts, but I do my best to educate those about my real culture.

Let us not forget that Indians were forces to go to Boarding Schools in order to erase their culture. Let us not forget that American Indians have the highest rate per capita in serving this country. I think that whatever Indians today are doing to have a say in how their culture is portrayed, is the best we can do.

I can't believe what I just read. Talk about PC correctness gone mad. That's like saying when you talk about "white Americans", you can no-longer use the word "cowboy", Pilgrim, "don't allow your children to learn to "square dance". No more "cowboy outfits", stick ponies, "cowboy hats, chaps, etc. There will be no more "Levi" jeans, no mention of covered wagons, forts, log cabins, saloons, gold rush, farmer, no "yee-haw", white-lightening, musket, gun, "mountain man", trailer, "gunslinger", "saloon girl"...heck the list is endless. Let's forget any "stories" of Calamity Jane, the "wild west" and any stories which makes people think whites were nothing less than absolutely perfect. Not to mention, no Indian crafts made without "original materials"....excuse me? The average person can't get certain items because you have to be Indian to get them....like the stone used to make "peace pipes", no Eagle feathers...yet they'll sell the cheap junk at their "reservations" as souvenirs.

There isn't a group of people on this planet that doesn't have some un-flattering things or practices in their past...but to literally deny it's existance, or falsly glorify it, or deminish it, etc....is just wrong. Love how they like to lump "white people" in one group...but traditions and beliefs and history and dance, and music are "different" between the white ethnic groups as well. All of whom came here...some more civilized or educated than others....yet we ALL get lumped into a steroe-type of slave owners and killers, with nothing but conquoring on our minds, and total hatred for everyone else. That's not true either.

You can honor us Native People by demanding that some Afro-Americans stop insisting that they are part Cherokee or Seminole because they have a lighter complexion due to the slave master interfering with their African DNA. We detest this culture-vulture mentality even more than coloring book depictions of us.

rwilymz," two generations from now there will be no Indian culture. It's disappearing fast enough."

when was the last time you visited a reservation? the same ignorant views were said in the 1600's, the 1700's, the 1800's, the 1900's, and thanks to you, the 2000's. wake up and educate yourself instead of showing yourself as a typical ignorant racist, we can smell the ignorance off your breathe.


These people are not a story, they are alive and living today. Just as some people's ancestors were from Ireland or Poland or Africa or even came over on the Mayflower, some of us have ancestors who were Native American. Some people still live on reservations, celebrate native traditions. An "Indian" isn't about beans on construction paper, just as leprechauns don't tell the story of Ireland. The point is that we need to say "these people still exist and these are the realities of their cultures", instead of generalizing and re-telling myths. It's not about political correctness, it's about education.

The Frist Thanksgiving With Squanto An American Indian Who Was Taken to Europe for Ten Years and Returned To Find His People Had All Died. Imagine Squanto walking into the Pilgrims encampment and speaking English.

Introduction: The Pilgrims came here in a 26’ by 113’ boat. They arrived too late to plant and properly prepare for the winter. The first winter their rations consisted at times of 5 grains of corn per day. One half of them died of disease or starvation. In the fall of 1621 they reaped a harvest of 21 acres of corn. The little band led by Governor William Braford, marched through the cornfields singing Psalms 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, world and they that dwell therein.”

Most of us know the story of the first Thanksgiving; at least, we know the Pilgrim version. But how many of us know the Indian viewpoint? No, I'm not talking about some revisionist, politically correct version of history. I'm talking about the amazing story of the way God used an Indian named Squanto as a special instrument of his providence.

Historical accounts of Squanto's life vary, but historians believe that around 1608—more than a decade before the Pilgrims arrived—a group of English traders sailed to what is today Ply­mouth, Massachusetts. When the trust­ing Wampanoag Indians came out to trade, the traders took them prisoner, transported them to Spain, and sold them into slavery.

It was an unimaginable horror. But God had an amazing plan for one of the captured Indians: a boy named Squanto. Squanto was bought by a well meaning Spanish monk, who treated him well and taught him the Christian faith. Squanto eventually made his way to England and worked in the stables of a man named John Slaney. Slaney sympathized with Squanto's desire to return home, and he promised to put the Indian on the first vessel bound for America.

It wasn't until 1619—ten years after Squanto was first kid­napped—that a ship was found. Finally, after a decade of exile and heartbreak, Squanto was on his way home. But when he arrived in Massachu­setts, more heartbreak awaited him. An epidemic had wiped out Squanto's entire village. We can only imagine what must have gone through Squanto's mind. Why had God allowed him to return home, against all odds, only to find his loved ones dead?

A year later, the answer came. A shipload of English families arrived and settled on the very land once oc­cupied by Squanto's people. Squanto went to meet them, greeting the star­tled Pilgrims in English. According to the diary of Pilgrim Governor William Bradford, Squanto "became a special instrument sent of God for our good. ... He showed us how to plant our corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities ... and was also our pilot to bring us to unknown places for our profit, and never left us till he died."

When Squanto lay dying of a fever, Bradford wrote that their Indian friend "desired the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen's God in heaven." Squanto bequeathed his possessions to the Pilgrims "as remembrances of his love."

Who but God could so miraculously convert a lonely Indian and then use him to save a struggling band of En­glishmen? It is reminiscent of the bib­lical story of Joseph, who was also sold into slavery—and whom God likewise used as a special instrument for good.

Squanto's life story is remarkable, and we ought to make sure our chil­dren learn about it. Sadly, most books about Squanto omit references to his Christian faith. But I'm delighted to say that Eric Metaxas has written a won­derful children's book called Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving. I highly recommend it. It will teach your kids about the "special instrument sent of God," who changed the course of American history.

Copyright (c) 2001 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Used with permission.




George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789









William Bradford's Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1623:



--William Bradford, Ye Governor of Ye Colony

While I don't think it is appropriate to teach very young children about the atrocities that humans visit on each other I do think that high schoolers are a different matter. Rosseau's "noble savage" never existed, except in his mind. Unfortunately, the Do's and Don'ts appear to appeal more to Rosseau's myth than to reality.

Amerinds are part of an ancient culture whose development was prodigious as shown by the Maya, Aztec, Inca, mound people of Ohio, the St. Louis people who left behind a mound city, the farming tribes in the Ohio/Pennsylvania area that maintained orchards, the totem builders of the Pacific Northwest, the Dine (Navaho) and Hopi (heirs to the Anasazi?) to name a few. The advent of the horse profoundly influenced the direction of development for the western tribes, both Plains tribes and those further west, especially the Nez Perce. These tribes should be named and their accomplishments celebrated.

But let us not forget that violence and superstition were as much a part of the Amerind culture as the European. I think now of the Pawnee who would occasionally kidnap a young woman from another tribe, treat her well, and then sacrifice her in a ritual involving a tribal myth about the planet Venus. I think of one tribe - name escapes me at the moment - who kept a part of the body of a dead enemy believing they then controlled that person's soul and could direct it to accompany dying friends to the afterlife. I also remember Father Isaac Jogues and his companions who were horrifically killed and their organs eaten so the power of the Jesuits could pass to the eaters.

Let's be honest by all means, but let's be totally honest.

Well let's just forget the Indians even existed.

I find it interesting now that Indians from India are important to our culture and economy that our own Indians sre now bumped down to "Natives", "Indigenous" and other names convenient for the established corporate culture. Shoved aside again but for their own good of course, always for their own good.

And by all means, let's re-write history such that Native Americans are only portrayed as kind, gentle people who live in harmony with nature. Erase all that stuff about the tribal wars and associated killing.

Then let's make sure that in every Native American story we include tales of indifferent white people who are cruel and dishonest.

There's no problem on the planet that we can't blame white people for.

I have read several books about the noble native americans who practiced genocide on other tribes, stealing their lands, and enslaving the conquored group. I notice we never hear about that only the evil Europeans. The Lakota Sioux were native to Minnesota, and declared war on the Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa and stole their lands. It seems they did the same things that the Europeans did, but only not was well.

Amerinds -- particularly those of North America -- were neolithic people who had largely failed to get to even basic cryptographic writing or the wheel. And while some very famous Mezoamerican cultures had progressed to what is usually defined as the Copper Age and writing and math, they hadn't developed the wheel themselves.

Any depiction of Amerinds which places any type cultural equivalence of this to Europeans as far as "sophistication" and ignoring any objective definition of "superiority" is a finely honed self-deception -- which, when given to others, becomes a lie.

Sorry: Amerinds were culturally inferior and unsophisticated. Deal.

To suggest, or outright deny, that Europeans -- three or more cultural rungs beyond Amerinds -- would not cross eventually the ocean and take advantage of them is intellectual evacuation.

And the fantasy that women and children were nothing more than helpmates to the bulk of the tribal Amerinds is another grotesque dishonesty. While tribes like the Iroquois were more likely to have women as their leaders, this was rather unique; most tribes had the typical woman-as-subservient social model; and some tribes, such as the Mandan, would farm their women out as sexual payola to Great Hunters passing through.

This whole list reads like some sour grapesing "taking my ball and going home" pout. Indian culture is only for Indians. You realize what an enactment of this ideology will bring? two generations from now there will be no Indian culture. It's disappearing fast enough. Why would anyone claiming to support it be wanting to accelerate the process?

I'd add something. Instead of talking about Indians as distinct from "us", talk about natives as a part of us. When discussing conflicts in the past, make sure to emphasize that "we" are on both sides, since both sides became parts of American society, and still are today.

I thought I'd offer you and your readers this link to a website about Native American dance -- I saw a wonderful performance several weeks ago at the College of DuPage:


I'm posting this because I anticipate you're going to get a lot of commentary about political correctness, and thought this might help people see what a wonderful, spiritual culture this is. It's easy to forget that we're talking about people when reading these comment boards.

I would like to know if it is OK to bring up the fact that Native Americans were also some of the worst slave-holders of African Americans.

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