Human Library

Sunday September 22, 2019 at the Sedona Public Library ~ Sponsored by the Sedona International City of Peace, Rotary Club of Sedona and the Sedona Public Library

I was pleased to present my Human Book entitled “Honoring The Great Spirit”. I shared experiences and conversations centered around my Ojibwa heritage. My aim was to educate, and dispel, some of the stereotypes still associated with First Nation Peoples today.

One of the references in my presentation is from a profound video in TED talks, by Chimanda Adichie from Nigeria. It is titled, “Single Story”. (click to view). I encourage you to listen to her full 20 minute talk.

Anyone interested in understanding more about the Ojibwa language can listen and watch the videos (click to view) of a young man named James Vukelich. His videos often give profound insights of the pre-colonist etymology of the language, the history, the culture, and the spirituality of the Ojibwa.

HONORING THE GREAT SPIRIT

I am Native American Ojibwa ~ a.k.a. Chippewa ~ a.k.a. Anishinaabe, which translated means First People.

We are one of the Algonquian speaking tribes of North American and Canada. There are approx. 180,000 Ojibwa living in the U.S. today. And there are 6.8 million Native Americans, as of the 2018 U.S. Census Report.

I belong to the White Earth Reservation in northwest Minnesota. However, I was not raised on the Reservation. And I do not speak the Ojibwa language fluently. I was also not given an Indian birth name.

My parents met in the Army during the Korean conflict. Their marriage ended in divorce a few years later and my “Euro-American” father assumed custody of myself and my older brother. My father remarried, and for the next 20 years, remained silent about my Native American mother.

I reunited with my mother, and her side of the family, when I was in my 20’s. And in my early 30’s and 40’s I returned to visit White Earth. I reconnected with my mother’s history, the land, and the lakes of Minnesota. It was the beginning of my feeling whole and complete ~ from the inside.

My Ojibwa family tree is well documented as far back as the 1700’s. My relatives are buried in the White Earth Reservation cemeteries, as well as the back woodlands in unmarked “spirit house” graves. My great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother were all born on tribal lands. My aunts, uncles, and cousins still own land and reside in White Earth.

When people first learn that I am Ojibwa, several of them have said to me: “Oh, you don’t ~ LOOK ~ Native American.”And I think to myself, what does that really mean? What are they saying? That I don’t have a flat enough nose? Or that my cheekbones aren’t high enough? Or that my skin isn’t red? Or that my hair isn’t black enough?

Other times, people have said to me, “Oh yes, now that you say you’re an Indian, I can see it in you.” Why? Because I keep my long hair? What if I cut my hair short? Just a few weeks ago someone said to me, “You’re too tall to be Indian.” (I’m 5’ 10”)

I don’t know why we physically stereotype and profile specific groups of people. My concept of “person” transcends human appearance.

Last year someone said to me, “Oh, you’re so LUCKY to be Native American.” Again, I think to myself what does that mean “lucky”? Am I innately more fortunate than any of my neighbors? How different am I from the black man, or the Jewish woman? Is there something ‘special’ in my DNA?

~ The answer is NO ~There is nothing ‘more special’ about my lineage than yours. Spanish. Irish. Italian. German. It’s DNA. It’s cultural. It’s family behavior. Indians are simply human. Just like any other human. Just like you. Each one of us is unique to our own physical form, life choices, and journeys.

Some people have expressed that behind those awkward conversations, or cultural faux pas, the intention is to simply compliment my heritage.

Really? I don’t automatically compliment other minorities about their race. “Oh, it’s so kool that you’re Japanese, or African American!” In fact, during the 1960’s there was a ‘Black is beautiful’ pop culture movement and advertising campaign designed to dispel the racist notion that black people’s natural features such as skin color, facial features and hair were inherently ugly.

(Depending on what part of the U.S. you live in.) The current narrative about Native American Indians is that: It’s more socially in-style, and valued as “kool” to be an Indian. (especially in Sedona AZ?)

I don’t know who decides these trends, or why we unconsciously adopt them.

In less than a century there has been a radical switch in society’s mannerisms ~ from that of past racist & reformation of the Indian, including genocide, to a counter culture of gratuitous flattery towards Indigenous customs. Neither extreme movement is that of true acceptance and equality.

There is another social phenomenon my grandmother used to call: “Indian want-a-bees”. These are people so enamored with Native American Indian folklore, and regalia, and ceremony, that they imitate the indigenous lifestyle.

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU for honoring tribal customs, and for making and playing our drums, and collecting sage and smudging, and for singing our family prayer songs …

But I’m also sorry. Because being Native American Indian isn’t like a religious conversion. Changing hairstyles, clothes, and language, or wearing indigenous jewelry – doesn’t alter your ethnicity, or change the body’s genetic codes.

Practicing the customs of a people of color, doesn’t change your original color. Indians are a race of people. This is human DNA. This is who we are. Even when I’m naked, or if I were to dye my hair purple, I’m still Ojibwa!

A gentleman sitting behind me in church approached me afterwards and grabbed at the eagle feathers and shells I had attached in my hair. He sarcastically said, “And WHAT is THAT supposed to symbolize?” I simply remained silent and did not answer him. He continued to poke at me, “Ah come on, I know it means something!” My regalia is not a simple decoration, nor is it a costume up for discussion. (My grandmother gifted me the shell and feathers hairpiece.)

I can’t even count the number of times I heard as a child the concept of being an “Indian Giver”. The notion that something is given, and taken back arbitrarily. The true meaning in Ojibwa is a lesson in non-attachment to materialism.

First you have to understand that Ojibwa did not compliment each other gratuitously. (Oh, nice shirt you have on today, or I love your shoes.) Because if I tell you I like your shirt, you would be obliged to give it to me!

However, if I know your grandfather gave you your shirt, or your mother beaded your shoes, I would not compliment your attire. I could never ask you to give up something you held as a keepsake. My silent admiration honors the giver and the gift.

But this “Indian Giving” behavior could also be a game among the First Peoples. A benign item might pass thru the hands of several people as a game of words and playful trade. The early colonist saw this behavior of passing an item back and forth and dubbed it “Indian Giver”.

(How ironic that it was the government reservation land treaties that were often given and retracted to benefit the early colonists.)

So how does an entire consciousness of people change?

There is a profound video in TED talks, by Chimanda Adichie from Nigeria. It is titled, “Single Story”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg&feature=youtu.be) Chimanda says, and I quote: “Show a people as one thing over and over again and that is what they become.”

In school we read that Native Americans were savages, or as depicted in Hollywood movies; the Indian scout, or the cowboy and Indian fights. We heard all Indian Reservations are poor. We all learned the word ‘fire-water’. American Indians are all _______________ what? (fill in the blank). Poor? Casino rich? Dirty? Warriors? Alcoholics? In-touch with Mother Earth?

“The consequence of the “single story” narrative is that it robs people of their dignity and truths. It emphasizes differences rather than similarities.”

Historically, in the early 1900’s the discrimination of Native American Indians was so rampant, that some of the people hid their ancestry.
Often those stories spoke of desperation to assimilate into a white American society – to secure jobs, to marry, and co-exist without prejudices.

There were yet other people who fraudulently personified themselves to be Native American Indian in order to tap into the government treaty allotments and dry good distributions still in existence in the early 20^th century.

One of my friends once said to me, “Oh do you get money from the government because you’re Indian?” (No, the days of government allotments and treaty money is expired.)

Like many nationally recognized tribes in the U.S. White Earth Reservation has achieved territorial sovereignty.  W.E. has schools that teach the language, and they have a thriving community college. The tribe built wind turbines for electricity as early as 2014. They have their own Police Force, Judicial Services, Hospital and Healthcare Services, Public Safety and Natural Resource Departments (to name just a few).

(In an effort to change some of the preconceived “single story” narratives.) Some of my grandmother’s stories also do not follow stereotypical beliefs.

When she was 9 yrs. old at the beginning of the Great Depression decade, she didn’t go hungry, and she had no reference or comparison of being poor. Her family still lived primarily off the land; hunting, fishing, gathering wild rice, canning berries and tapping maple syrup.

My grandmother also shared with me that she enjoyed going to the Catholic Missionary School as a young girl. She learned to speak English at school, but she also continued to speak her native Ojibwa at home.

All of my mother’s generation spoke fluent Ojibwa. It is MY generation that has begun to lose the language, and that is primarily because I choose to live outside the White Earth community.

Anyone interested in understanding more about the Ojibwa language can listen and watch the videos of a young man named James Vukelich. His videos often give profound insights of the pre-colonist etymology of the language, the history, the culture, and the spirituality of the Ojibwa.

Another topic we often attribute to the Native American Indian single story narrative is that of recycling and taking care of the earth’s natural environment. I am guessing we have all heard stories of how the American Indian hunted buffalo and used all of the materials for food, clothing, and shelter. There was no waste.

I remember a 1970’s t.v. commercial of an iconic Native American Indian with a tear rolling down his cheek, used as a public call to stop littering.

Perhaps closer to the truth is that the ancestors from all over the globe were living off the land and recycling their natural resources.

It is only in our modern industrial evolution, with the invention of synthetic materials and plastics, that the contamination of our water resources, and the methods of trash disposal have become a global epidemic.

Ojibwa are typically a humble people. We understand dominion. We do not believe mankind – the 2 legged ones – are the dominate species. i.e. the belief that human beings are at the TOP of the food chain.

Anyone who has ever found themselves alone in the woods, without a weapon, face-to-face with a bear understands a basic reverence for wildlife. ~ I felt this when I came face-to-face with a wild boar in my campsite in the late 1970’s.

I believe it is weaponry than empowers the arrogance of superiority.The introduction of rifles and bullets to the First Nation Peoples holds the same allure today for (misguided) power and domination over others.

I would also argue to say the modern innovation of assault weapons, chemical weapons, and nuclear weapons are far more “savage” than any historical Native American Indian warfare.

In response to the idea that American Indian discrimination is ancient history, I have created a timeline of MY life’s national and political events:

I was 5 years old in 1962 when Native Americans were first guaranteed the right to vote in every U.S. state.

I was 11 years old in 1969 when ‘The Indians of all Tribes’ occupied Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay to draw attention to Indian civil rights violations.

I was 15 years old in 1972 during the Trail of Broken Treaties where more than 500 Indian activist traveled to Washington DC to establish a government commission to review treaty violations.

A year later, over 200 American Indian activists took over the village of Wounded Knee declaring themselves independent from the U.S.

I was 27 years old in 1984 when The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs finally became permanent.

I was 33 years old in 1990 when The Indian Arts and Crafts Act was established. This is a truth-in-advertising law protecting genuine American Indian products made and sold in the U.S.

We have yet to address copyright infringement, and prohibit the import of American Indian art replicas, such as dream catchers made in China.

By the way, Dream Catchers are proprietary to the Ojibwa, but every other Indian tribe has adopted and sold their version of the Dream Catcher legend.

The list goes on…

The Dakota Pipeline protests and Water Protectors Movement in 2018. The Mauna Kea protests this July 2019 in Hawaii. And currently a Canadian energy transportation company is attempting to put yet another $8.2 billion dollar pipeline thru White Earth Tribal Treaty lands.

[Here is a link to a supporting Canadian news article on July 27, 2020]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/non-indigenous-healers-appropriating-selling-dceremony-1.5660790

In closing: The Great Spirit – The Great Mystery – IS LIFE

It is essential to reconcile within yourself all of life, and respect all people. LISTEN to your own stories, your own genetic history. Ask questions. And open your mind to LEARN from “human books” as we doing here today.

Understand where we have been – and then ask where we are going?

Is the aim to create a homogenized human race? I think not. Ask yourselves, where are you at NOW in your assumptions about people. Ask yourselves if you’re imitating other cultures that aren’t your own.

I encourage you to HONOR YOURSELF, as well as your community. And let’s put an end to the ‘single story narrative’. Let’s sing new songs! While I encourage you to VALUE the standard that “All of Life is Consciousness” … The Rocks, the Trees, the Animals, and your fellow Humans.

WE ARE ALL CONNECTED.

It’s not only about what you receive from Life, it is equally as important to KNOW what you are giving to sustain Life.

You DO have impact.

BE Authentic. BE Aware. And BE Kind.

Migwetch! (thank you)

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