No class = No rest for the weary

The first website took us to Youtube, to watch a video blog posted by a man named Jim Ruel, a Native American who proudly proclaims himself to be “Nerdtastic”. He starts talking about obscure space junk falling in a small town in Siberia, and then quickly moves to Ashton Kutcher and how he wants to pay $200,000 to get some weightless time in space. He is horrified that other poor nerds are not getting the opportunity to get to go up in space. I was personally not thrilled when he started in about the release of The Hunger Games, but I suppose that is to be expected. It is just annoying when people critique books and movies when they have never read or seen them. The irony of course is that Ruel likes the movie Borat, a horrifying excuse for a comedy. The irony of course here is that I have never watched Borat, yet I just judged it. See, two can play that game! Then he speaks about the idea of free will. An illusion or a real decision made by our thoughts and feelings? Then he makes a bad joke about his soul being constipated by the thought. He also speaks about the new season of Game of Thrones coming out, which is very interesting because I just had a friend in my class do a presentation about the books that the TV show is based on. Overall, I really didn’t like this man’s blog. It reminded me of just another blog about people going off about their opinions (or is that the point of a blog?). I found his humor unsatisfactory and I would not voluntarily watch this blog again.

I really liked the second cartoon; I think it said a lot in the fact that it was titled “The Last Real Indians”. The caption above the man in the cartoon says “have you had your identity stolen?” and on the desk is written “identity theft protection here”.  These of course are interesting thoughts because Natives seem to struggle with their identity so much more often than other Americans and that with everyone doing their banking online, there are much more cases of literally identity theft. It really is no wonder with the terrible treatment Natives had faced and still face today that they feel that their identity has been stolen. I love the bottles presented on the desk that say “hipster repellent” it is a standing joke that people don’t like hipsters, so this made me laugh. I also liked that the flyer said will barter, because of course Natives are known for their trading, and you are accused of being an “Indian giver” if you give something to someone and take it back. The Native man looks like he is the “typical” Indian with a headdress and feathers, and even a buckskin coat. I like the nature of this joke because it is not from the 1800’s it is clearly talking about present day issues.

The next video is from the Chiefs of Comedy, the skit is called "Dropped Feather". It is possibly the weirdest video I have ever witnessed. It shows three Native men, all wearing “Native” clothes. Then one of them looses a feather from their hair, and they all stare at it and start dancing to this electronic beat. Then, they grab the feather and run away, only to drop another feather. The same thing occurs, with robotic dancing and yelping, to add to the overall strangeness. I get the point of the fact that Natives can listen to electronic sounding music, generate this music, dance to it, and feathers are a thing of the past, but other than that I was stumped. Maybe I just don’t get the point of this video but I did not laugh once.

The frybread movie trailer was next on the list. Again it was an odd video, all about the art of making frybread, and the Arizona state competition about who makes the best frybread. It shows several contestants in the competition. They also show that the winner receives a trophy, and $10,000. There are rules about the frybread and how large it is, color and smell. There are 22 Native tribes competing, with one representative from each tribe. Apparently this is to become a real movie, which would be interesting to see. I for one had no clue there was such an art to creating frybread. The people participating in the show are very overdramatic, but what do you expect from a reality-tv-esque show?

Charlie Ballard: Being Gay and Native American was next. I had the same problem with Charlie Ballard because I just found the humor sad. I realize that self-deprecation is part of Native humor; however his jokes went beyond that. Things you should not joke about, such as the Trail of Tears were made into farce. Personally, not a fan in the slightest, maybe I am just too touchy, or too non-Native. I would not ever watch Charlie Ballard again. He is just too offensive for my taste.

Overall, I have now realized that on the whole I probably do not have a Native sense of humor. I do not understand about 85% of it, and the rest of it I feel is too offensive. I understand self-deprecation for a laugh, but sometimes things just go too far. I would be the equivalent of making fun of the Holocaust or poking fun at people suffering in Darfur, or even the Irish Potato Famine. Call me touchy, naïve, or accuse me of having no sense of humor, I really am not offended. I have a sense of humor, but it does not include these examples.

Humor: the undefinable, the untangible, the hilarious

               Humor is a very elusive thing. Not everyone has the same sense of humor, or even finds the same things funny. I for example, do not think that comedians are funny about 85% of the time. Disgusting comments, racial slurs, and cursing do not qualify as humor to me. Anyone can use profanity, only the people who do not use is should be taken seriously. This being said, until recently I never really thought about the fact certain cultures think that certain things are funny, or have a particular kind of joke. We have learned, through reading Me Funny that Natives in particular, like to reverse the situation. So instead of saying the obvious, they turn it inside out, and make it funny. I really like this concept because when I saw Markus Zusak (author of The Book Thief and I am the Messenger) in the fall, he made a point of saying that humor derives from the unexpected. A story is not funny until something you have not foreseen occurs. He even told us a story where he was sick of being bullied by his brother, so he sets him up for revenge. He switches his brother’s hardboiled egg for a regular egg, and he watches in horror as his brother cracks the egg on his head and is immediately covered in yolk. The funny part of the story is when Markus went to confess the deed to his father, to prevent the disastrous consequences, his father does not reprimand him, he congratulates him on his scheme. Hence, the unexpected reaction from Markus’ dad makes the story funny.

               I personally do not have a Native sense of humor. I realize that part of the reason that I do not is that I am not, in fact Native. But, there are people out there that are not Native that have the same sense of humor; I am just not one of those people. Probably the reason behind this is that I do not understand a lot of the innuendos and the humor that goes in between the Native Nations. I have also never lived on a reservation, so that could indeed be another aspect of the problem.

               I have also discovered that I fall into the category of non-Natives that feel bad about laughing at Native jokes. I am one of the people that always second-guesses my laughter when it is at the expense of other people, regardless of who it is. I feel bad when I laugh at a joke that is about Natives, even though obviously the comedian is saying this for a laugh. This also happens to me with African-American comedians as well; yet I have no problem laughing when the comedian is a white woman. Some white men also bother me, when they make rude jokes about their wives, or things of that nature. I think that honestly what this boils down to is the fact that my own brand of humor is lightly teasing someone about something, self deprecation, and a heavy dose of sarcasm.

               This all being said, I do think that Native humor is at the very least entertaining, and I particularly like Don Kelly and his jokes. My favorite of his jokes is when he is talking about being Ojibway and Swedish- and his name should be "Dances with Bjorn". The rest of Me Funny that I have read so far has been a little bit of a letdown, I had expected it to be a little funnier, and once again that could be due to the fact that I don’t get the humor or don’t have that sense of humor. We shall see though, if the book takes a turn for the hilarious, I am only on Chapter 6.

Finally the Outcast

During my professional semester, I have learned many valuable things. The thing that I feel is most applicable to this class; however, is the feeling of being in the minority. In my personal life, I have never been the outcast or in the minority based solely on my appearance. I grew up in a place where more than 90% of the population is white. You could literally sit there and name the students in your grade who were not white. So, this was an entire new experience for me, when I walked into Reading High School for the first time. Reading is ethnically split up like this: 80% Latino, 15% African American, and the rest are white. So, I was finally in the small number of the statistic. I was no longer in the largest and most dominant group, I was the pariah. This made me think about Native Americans. I feel like I got a small taste of what their everyday is like, even in a small way. I am obviously not even close to feeling how a Native person must feel, because there is probably a much smaller percentage in most schools of Natives, except in places like Oklahoma. However, I finally know how they feel, at least a little.

It is really very interesting to walk around and see no one who looks like you. I mean I could tell you the students that I helped teach that were white. Instead of hearing conversations that started off with “well this African American girls were saying” I now heard “well this white girl is weird for washing her hair everyday” I actually laughed to myself first thinking about telling this girl that it is actually really common for white girls to wash their hair every day, and then thinking just how wonderful labeling is. I am a big advocate, even among my friends, of people not being described by their race or ethnicity.  You should not start off a sentence with well my black friend Myron said…Now, here I am thinking that I am protecting those very people, but the people who were in the minority in the majority of my life are saying the same thing about white girls. It was a great moment of clarity. White people, in this instance are not being overtly rude; we as Americans apparently just have this obsession of labeling and describing people based upon their appearance. Well, at least it isn’t one of those things that people in the dominant majority of the group slip into, it really is just a thing that we do. This we is the collective whole of everyone, not just Americans, not just anyone apparently every one labels others-this was news to me! Not really sure when this trend started, or where but it was and continues to be an eye-opener when you are the only person around of that particular race.

The only difference with me, versus Natives, is that I actually like being the only white person. I’m sure some Natives feel that way, they like the fact that they are different. However, I don’t know if I would like being different all the time. For a two week period, it’s okay to be the oddball. For my whole school existence? I don’t think that I could handle that; I would need some camaraderie, someone who was like me. But, what if you were like Natives, what if there wasn’t anyone else like you? What if you felt isolated, alone, and like no one understood? I think that that would be how I felt if I was a Native American, and quite frankly, that does not sound like a fun time, in fact it sounds like quite a tight spot to be in.

Apparently, at Reading High School, I am the outcast, I am the little white egg. This picture seems oddly fitting of that fact.

Alcatraz- Prison or Sanctuary?

Alcatraz Island is an interesting place, full of history. Alcatraz is the Island also knows as “the rock”. It is located 1.5 miles off of the coast of California. It was a federal prison until 1963 and was also equipped as a military base. That all changed though, when somewhere in the range of 80 Native Americans started an occupation of the Island. It lasted for 19 months. The Island is now a historic and national landmark, and is a top tourist destination for those visiting the San Francisco area. Most of the Natives were college students (at first) that went to school in San Francisco and wanted to start a rebellion that was similar to the ones going on around the country by other Natives.

Personally, I think that the most interesting thing about Alcatraz is the relationship and irony between Natives seeing the location for a federal prison to be the site for their “liberation” or freedom. It is intensely weird to think about. In what way does a prison promote these feelings of jubilation? They by their very definition are supposed to do exactly the opposite! So, this is why I find it very interesting that Natives today still visit Alcatraz as a historic landmark of something good for their people. Some even go apparently twice a year, on Thanksgiving and Columbus Day, the two times a year where non-Natives celebrate travesties done towards the Native people.

The other interesting part is that Natives don’t see Alcatraz as a victory; they see it as a failure in many ways. It was a success in the fact that it did gain national attention; it just didn’t hold the attention for very long. They also feel that no real good or change had come from the occupation; it was a silent protest, in many ways. Then, after it was all done, the story was told in a much different light than of a peaceful protest. It was told that the Natives were “destructive rebels” and other such things that were not told in a positive light, in the slightest. Of course, outsiders are always the ones that get blamed for things being crazy, or unruly, or they get accused by these critics who probably don’t know the whole story. It reminds me of the Civil Rights Movement, when many peaceful protesters had tear gas used on them, or were even shot. They were not doing anything accept meeting peacefully, but because they were not only the minority in numbers but also ethnicity they are seen as bad.

Alcatraz is a very interesting symbol for the US as a whole. There is an air of mystery based on the fact that it was a prison, and that a lot of interesting things and people were kept there. However, I think the most interesting part about Alcatraz is one of its least known facts, that for 19 months, it was occupied by Native protesters searching for their own identity and their place in life.  They were searching for sanctuary from the judgment, the hate, and the oppression they faced on a daily basis that is still present today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2TXvRpdDTw
This link goes to a youtube video that is a collage of all different pictures taken during the Native occupation of Alcatraz.

The Little Box We Never Fit Into

The little box we never fit into is the box you are forced to check on standardized tests. The one that makes you pick what ethnicity you are. There are always about 6 or 7 choices that are something like: Native American, Latino, White/Caucasian (What is Caucasian anyway?), Pacific Islander, African American/Black, Asian, and Other.

So, I looked up exactly what Caucasian was and according to the dictionary, it is: “relating to people who are light-skinned or of European origin “ and also “belonging to the light-skinned peoples of Europe, northern Africa, and western and southern Asia, formerly considered a distinct ethnic group”. Well that cleared things up considerably, didn’t it? So, if I am a light skinned person from Algeria, then I am Caucasian. What about if I am a light skinned person from South Africa? Am I Caucasian? Am I African? Or, do I go by the fact that I am technically a white African? Good Lord, how can any one person fit into this?

What if we don’t fit into the little box? What if we are more than one of these? What does it matter if we are Pacific Islander? What if we don’t want to be in the box? As a person whose ethnicity is 100% Irish, I know which box I am supposed to fill out. White. But, you know what? I always felt cheated. I wasn’t a person that was interesting, and got to pick one of the more complicated choices, I was the white girl. But, you know, I never really liked being called white. It doesn’t say anything about who you are or where you are from. The more interesting part is that if I feel this way, then how in the world must someone feel that is Chinese-American and Nigerian? Then what do you choose? What if you are from Iraq? You are from the continent of Asia, but would not always be considered “Asian”, you are Iraqi. Or what if you have dual citizenship from America and Canada? Does that still only qualify you as only white?

What is white? My skin tone is much peachier or even pink in color, certainly not just plain old white. White is boring, and non-interesting. White is the majority white is bland. You know what is much more interesting? Colors are much more interesting. But at the same time, Natives have been called red, Asians have been called yellow, and Africans black or brown. What is this obsession with color? And, why must we say what “color” we are on standardized tests? It is honestly infuriating to be pigeonholed into one tiny little box.  If I feel that way, then how in the world must the other people feel when they are forced to fill out the box? Humiliated/confused/proud/racist/baffled?

The dreaded standardized test.

This woman came up when I googled "Caucasian"

The apparent region where "Caucasians" hail from, notice that it is in ASIA!

 A Nigerian woman and an Asian American man. What box will their child fill out on the SAT?

"A Pacific Islander woman"  Whatever that really means. 

The Girl Who Relates Everything to Books

So, I am the girl that relates everything back to books, partly because I am a library science major, and thus am literally immersed in literature on a daily basis, but partly because I am one of the people that are constantly reminded of other things. I could be watching a movie and I will say to myself “oh, that character reminds me of the one in this book!” or something of the sort. But, after this long ramble, I just kept being reminded of books today in our class discussion. I think that today was one of our better discussions, simply because the whole class was there and was seemingly more willing to participate than usual. We were also talking about a lot of interesting topics, of course all relating to Native Americans.

The interesting thing is that I kept being reminded about Banned Books through the discussion. Banned books are something that are talked about quite frequently in the library world, due to the fact that we often have to deal with those who wish to ban the books, and that we have an entire week dedicated to celebrate banned books. The reason that today’s discussion reminded me of banned books is because banned books are often the forgotten, but never really gone. They are also often taught in schools, and the people who are banning them usually have never even read the book or if they have they miss the greater purpose the author was trying to portray. In many ways, as saddening as this sounds, banned books remind me of Native Americans.

Natives are often all but forgotten, although they are not in fact gone at all. (Is it sad that Natives are less prevalent and heard about now than they were when they were an almost extinct population? They really are never in the news, that’s the truth.) There are some 3 million Native people in just the US alone, but there must be millions more if you count the whole of just North America. So, why are they all but forgotten? (I think that that should actually be the new title of the course, because I’m pretty sure that we have more questions now, as time goes on, than ever.) Natives are also often taught about in school, albeit the information is usually much fabricated and usually about Pocahontas or Thanksgiving, with maybe a little Sacajawea thrown in for good measure. The people who are censoring/excluding/banning/segregating/ignorant about Natives are often the people that have never actually met a Native person in their lives. These are often the ignoramus type of people that would shout things such as “Go back to the reservation” or other convoluted things. They have no real sense of who Natives are, or the fact that they do not want to simply be categorized by a name that was made up by Christopher Columbus, in his own misguided adventurous way. An Indian is a person from the country of India, so why did the incorrect and often rude name stick? Anyway, in many ways I feel like Natives are the banned people of America. Still very much present, but no one seems to really know what to do with them. They are the outcasts, the mysterious, and the often celebrated for entirely the wrong reasons.

Now this is what we should be teaching in schools!

Some censored books

This is ironic considering Natives always have to carry identification and often how "Indian" they are is determined by how much Indian blood they have.

This so true but so sad.

This looks like a good source of information on Native Americans

Banned books, what are you so afraid of?

Then What?

So, after all of this talk about how Native Americans are disappearing, I decided to do a little research, because I was curious about if people were really exaggerating or if Natives were really not in the news. I was also intrigued when I read Hallie's blog about Natives being "missing". This got me into an investigative mode. So, I googled "Native Americans". The only things that came up were Wikipedia articles about Natives from the past. (We are seeing the whole Plains Indians with buffalo circa 1890 again.) Then there was a project from some person's elementary class about "the first thanksgiving" and how natives and the Pilgrims were friends. About 10 links down was a website with actual current information about Natives. It was the Indian Country Today Media Network, which of course I had never heard of. So now I am googling things I google. Thank God we live in a technological time or otherwise I would have had no information at all! So What I learned is that this website, Indian Country Today is actually a legitimate organization that is run FOR Natives BY Natives. They actually include indigenous peoples everywhere, not just in America and Canada. They include: " Canadian First Nations, South and Latin American Indigenous Peoples, Pacific Islanders, Australian Aboriginals and Indigenous Peoples in all corners of the world" according to the website. The more interesting part is that this organization was actually founded on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,  which is owned and operated by the Oneida Nation of New York. The newspaper was headquartered in Canastota, New York until 2011, when it was moved to New York City, also according to the newspaper. This is the poorest reservation of them all and one of the ones that we have specifically mentioned in class. I also seem to remember that this reservation is the same one where Crazy Horse was killed. This reservation, seemingly is an important place, because it keeps coming up in conversation. First with the fact that that is where the Lakota people were forced to go, then the monument to Crazy Horse, and now the only actual website I could find about current natives was started on the Pine Reservation. If this reservation is of such importance, why have I never heard of it before? I think it is one of the moments we have also been taking about in class, that it's not that it wasn't important, it was just that it wasn't taught to us. Maybe that's how the government want us to think about it? Maybe that's how the Natives feel? Just leave us alone... you have already done enough damage. I'm not sure, but it is something that I will be thinking about, that I can assure you of.

So basically, my googling of Native Americans really only gave me more questions then it answered (no surprise there, it seems to be a reoccurring theme these days, and with all Native studies for that matter). Now I honestly want a more concrete reason why we hear so little of Natives in the news. Yes, it may be easier, but is it right? Probably not. Maybe the reason that Native don't want to be apart of the mainstream is because of all of the injustices they just have had enough and want us to just leave them. But what if we can't, what if now that we know we feel like we just can't sit by and ignore them any longer? Then what?

Native Map (which I wouldn't be surprised if it was incorrect). Notice the natural resources depicted by the little images. I really like the tipis and the log homes that are depicted, as well,  and the totems that are going on up in Canada.

Yet we have huge monuments for generals of every war ever, and this great leader gets a hastily thrown together rock formation? I guess I should be happy he got some recogniton right? (sarcasm)

Not really sure how to feel about this one...

Typical Plains Indian depiction of what "real Indians" look like (apparently even today)