#eonm

Dear Simon,

               I am a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation from Black River Falls, WI. I have been working with several Native American groups for about a year now to assist with removing Native mascots from our culture. A little history lesson, since settlers came from England, they have been trying to convert the Indigenous people to their beliefs, values, and morals. Native American tribes believed in Earth Maker, the Great Spirit, which is the same deity that you would call God. We never heard of Jesus Christ and the white settlers wanted us to disregard our culture and become who they are. This is called Cultural Genocide; they wanted to take away our culture because they deemed it as inferior to theirs. There was mass murdering of Native Americans and removal of the indigenous people from their homes and put onto reservations, small desolate lands with little capability for agriculture.

Our Culture is very much different than those who came to conquer and enslave us. We are spiritual people; our sacred items come from the land. We believe that there is spirit in all living creatures and in pre-colonial days, we only took from the land what was necessary for survival. We did not kill prey for sport, we used all aspects of an animal for survival and not one part was wasted. We gave thanks to the Earth Maker for the animal’s sacrifice, because without it we would not survive another day. These were some of the universal truths and culture as a whole, each different tribe had their own beliefs but with similar commonalities.

We used items from the earth and from animals in our important ceremonies. Each different item held a different amount of sacredness. For example, eagles are sacred animals to Natives. Seeing one is a good omen, giving the person luck in their world. Their feathers have huge significance to our people. Giving someone a sacred eagle feather was to denote the highest honor. These were symbols of complete gratitude and respect. Many tribal people living on the Plains of the United States would use the eagle feathers to create a beautiful war bonnet. Warriors would be able to count their battles or victories based on every single eagle feather in their bonnet. The fuller the bonnet, the greater respect of the warrior had and this denoted a greater position within their communities.

Why am I telling you all this? As you can see, our values did not align well with the white settlers. They wanted land, to hunt animals for sport, and they did not believe in any other sacred item than the cross. Our sacred items were of no value; they laughed, scoffed, and ripped our sacred belongings from us. We were pushed to reservations, in inadequate housing, because they wanted the land we roamed freely on; they decimated the bison population, which was a huge part of our survival. This is what is considered cultural genocide. They will take our culture, replace it with theirs, and make ours disappear. This term was once their mantra, “Kill the Indian, save the man”.

Now let’s delve into the issues of Native Mascots. The first one that is a major issue with us is the Washington Redskins. Redskins was how my people were referred to by white settlers, it is the description of our skin that bled as we were being scalped or murdered. This name is a constant reminder that around 19 million Native Americans were killed because of white supremacy. Every time we hear that, we think of the old newspaper clippings that stated our dead bodies were worth more than we were alive. The current controversy is also with the demeaning context that people use the mascots. At the rallies, there is a stereotypical war cry that they sing, which is the very vision of what Hollywood says is a Native American or Indian. This is how the world views us, we were savages, we burned wagons, we wore loincloths and every native had a war bonnet. The caricatures of the mascots is racial propaganda in which we are stigmatized as, this is not who we are, this is not what we look like. The other team use slogans in their fight to defeat their opposing team, “Scalp the Indians”, “Send them back to their Reservation”, and “Make them leave in a Trail of Tears”.  I behoove you to learn about the terrible atrocities that just the Trail Of Tears had on the Cherokee Nation as well as the Indian Removal Act, and even the birth of the ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) and what happened to families prior to these changes.

We have honor, respect, and value to bring to this world. Our voices are being drowned out by the rest of the world’s views of us. We cannot speak for ourselves, they say this is an honor, but do not understand the meaning of the word. They do not know what we hold honorable, because they haven’t taken the time to ask. We do not need to be reminded of the atrocities our ancestors had to deal with, every cap, every logo, and every sports channel that shows these mascots is a constant reminder that we don’t exist, and we are only defined by what you think of us as, not what we are.

Let’s talk about the war bonnet again; this is the most widely used caricature, an Indian in a war bonnet, for high school mascots and even some major league sports. Did you know that there are over 500 Federally  recognized tribes in the United States alone, this does not count the Indigenous People of Canada, also called the First Nation’ People. Each Tribe has their own set of laws, their own morals, their own beliefs, and their own culture. What is acceptable in one tribe may not be acceptable in another. Some Tribes are Patrilineal while their neighbors are matrilineal. Each Tribe is considered their own entity, their own nation and the war bonnet was only really popular with the Plains Indians with Sioux Ancestry, but since this is the type of picture Hollywood has painted for you in old Westerns, that is the only tribe that is represented. How is a Tribe supposed to feel honor, when they are being misrepresented by people who don’t take the time to understand what it’s like to be Native, to learn our different cultures, and to accept us for who we are, diversely? Think of how many different religions, cultures, and families are in Colombia. Would it be fair to forget that everyone has differences and lump every single person to the same set of stereotypes? You, as an individual, have a lot to offer the world based on your perspective, on your own set of ideals, your own beliefs, and morals. This is how we feel about mascots and several issues that are plaguing our world, we want to be heard for who we are not who you believe us to be. Thank you for taking the time to read. I hope this gives you a good perspective and please don’t hesitate to ask any additional questions! Good luck and I would love to read your finished report!

Very Respectfully,

Martie Simmons

It is not a matter of over sensitivity. The ideas that are perpetuated by these representations are a very real issue that affects many others in Indian Country. We have children being taken from fit homes & removed from their tribes--government sanctioned kidnapping. Human trafficking is a huge issue & federal laws makes it extremely difficult for tribes to protect their members, because they cannot enforce criminal laws against non-Natives. The suicide rate is shocking. Poverty. Health. On & on & on.

There are very real, disturbing issues that are still ongoing. These are every day realities in Indian Country. As long as the institutionalized racism & marginalization that exists & is perpetuated by these mascots & other stereotypical representations in pop culture continue, it creates continued barriers to progress.

http://reappropriate.co/?p=5096

List of Posts in Week of #Solidarity with #NotYourMascot | #AAPI #Native #NDN

April 7, 2014

Recent events have allowed mainstream media to paint a picture of Asian American and Native American communities as being at odds in #NotYourMascot: the fight to call on Washington R*dskins owner Dan Snyder to change the name and mascot of his NFL team, both of which are deplorable examples of redface stereotypes against Native peoples. Sadly, in the aftermath of the last two weeks and the attention placed on Asian American advocacy, Native peoples have been functionally “edited out” of their own campaign.

Yet, anti-racist work is a work that should bring together people of colour, not divide us. This week, the AAPI blogging community is dedicating a week of posts in solidarity with our Native brothers and sisters to try and raise awareness for #NotYourMascot and the R*dskins controversy. Many AAPI blogs have committed to writing posts in support of #NotYourMascot, and we will also be re-tweeting the powerful and compelling writing of Native writers.

Please check out all the blogs participating in this week of solidarity and bookmark this post, which will be aggregating all the writing done this week.

Please also check back for updates.

Posts Written in Week of Solidarity with #NotYourMascot

Jennie Stockle (@Indigenius_Ideas) at BlogHer #Not4Sale: How a Group of Native American Women Are Speaking Out Against Buying Silence

When I became a parent, I kept my children as underexposed as possible from faux-Native American images and portrayals. I didn’t want them knowing what any of that felt like. Frankly, it’s impossible. The imagery is everywhere, and so are the Native mascots. I tried to combat them on my own, with no success. Regular Americans didn’t see the harm, not even after the research backed by the 2008 American Psychological Association study stating that American Indian mascots were harmful to American Indian students’ self-esteem. Dismantling other people’s “innocent fun” was too much trouble, no matter how worthwhile it would be to help out the group of Americans with the highest suicide rate.

…Dan Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redsk*ns, created an odious foundation to help Native Americans last week. Yet again, I felt like that teenage girl sitting up in the bleachers. I didn’t cry this time, and I wasn’t alone. I was live chatting with other EONM strategists. Reading what they had to say about what we all felt was an obvious ploy to buy us—to silence us with money.

We wanted to do something. I told the group that I was going to tape money over my mouth, take a picture, and add the hashtag #Not4Sale beneath it, to illustrate our responses to the “Washington Redsk*ns Original Americans Foundation” in a single picture. It is what I did, and what we did. Then it became what other Native Americans did. However, these actions only lead to a happier childhood for American Indian children if change is what follows.

Act Now!

Here are many ongoing ways you can participate:

Send an email ([email protected]) or a snail mail letter (Dan Snyder c/o Redskin Park; 21300 Redskin Park Dr.; Ashburn, VA 20147) to the Washington R*dskins administration asking them to change the team name.

Participate in the #Not4Sale campaign to protest Dan Snyder’s offensive creation of a “philanthropic” organization to purchase the goodwill of Native people. Retweet photos shared to this hashtag to help send the message that Native people are not for sale.

Please add any additional links you think would be useful to the comments section below as an additional resource.