Native American Multiculturalism

1
Native American Multiculturalism

• Doni Musgrave and Suzie Sells

2
Top 10 Things American Indians Can Say to a White
Person1

• How much white are you?
• I am part white myself, you know.
• I learned your peoples ways in the Boy Scouts.
• My great-great grandmother was a full-blood
  white princess.
• Funny, you do not look white.

3
Top 10 Things American Indians Can Say to a White
Person1

• Where are your powered wig and knickers?
• Do you live in a covered wagon?
• What is the meaning behind the square dance?
• What is your feeling about river boat Casinos? 
  Do casinos help your people, or are they a
  short-term fix?
• Hey, can I take your picture?
• 1From Manataka American Indian Council -
  http//www.manataka.org/page26.html

4
Native American or American Indian?

• Problems exist with both terms, but certain
  people prefer Native American to American Indian
  and vice versa.
• Most American Indians identify themselves by
  their tribe.
• In many cases this may be more than one tribe.
  If in doubtjust ask!

5
Statistics

• The following statistics come from
• PEACE PARTY Authors Forum
• The Essential Facts About Indians
  Today(12/23/00)
• http//www.bluecorncomics.com/essntial.htm

6
American Indians

• "Indian" is a legal and political status, not a
  race.
• Indians have essentially a dual-citizenship
  status.
• Tribes all have separate governments.
• Tribes all have their own tribal constitutions.
• Tribes are different from each other, but have
  some things in common because of their
  relationship to the federal government.
• Indians are contemporary people.
• Indians are not great in numberthere are only
  about two million Native Americans in the United
  Statesbut they can speak effectively about their
  concerns.
• Indians are very diverse, and more than half live
  in urban settings.
• Indians are not all rich because of casinos.

7
Population

• Some 4.1 million Americans said they were at
  least part American Indian, more than double the
  1990 figure, and 2.5 million identified
  themselves only as American Indian, a 26 percent
  increase.
• Christian Science Monitor, 12/6/01
• Do all American Indians live on reservations?
• No. More than 60 percent live away from
  reservations, the U.S. Census reports. However,
  many return to visit family and attend
  ceremonies.
• 100 Questions for 500 Nations," in "The American
  Indian and the Media"

8
Sovereignty

• The United States makes treaties only with other
  governments, and for over 200 years has
  recognized the governments of Indian nations and
  tribes. In relating to tribal governments, the
  federal government acts under authority of
  provisions of the Constitution. In Article I,
  Section 8, the Constitution states "The Congress
  shall have power...to regulate commerce with
  foreign nations, among the several states, and
  with Indian tribes."
• United Effort Trust, Tribal Government

9
Political status and membership policies

• In the mid-1970s, the Supreme Court ruled that no
  federal agency or any entity except an Indian
  tribe could determine who its people are. For
  even longer, the high court has held that Indian
  nationhood and tribal citizenry are political,
  not racial matters.
• Suzan Shown Harjo, Vampire Policy Is Bleeding Us
  Dry, Indian Country Today, 2/14/01
• A giant case of Indian law, Santa Clara Pueblo v.
  Martinez, helped preserve a great principle that
  Native governments retain the sovereign right to
  define and determine their own membership.
• Indian Identity Is Important Matter, Indian
  Country Today, 3/27/02
• A full rundown of tribal membership arcana would
  fill several volumes, as each of the nation's 562
  federally recognized tribes has its own rules,
  typically outlined in their respective
  constitutions. In general, however, tribes use
  either the blood quantum system or the descent
  system.
• Brendan I. Koerner, How Do You Join an Indian
  Tribe?, Slate, 2/24/04

10
Taxes

• Myth  Indian people do not pay taxes.Fact
   Indian people pay all taxes required by tribal,
  state, and federal law.
• "Myths Facts," National Indian Gaming
  Association
• Do Native Americans pay state or federal taxes?
• They pay the same taxes as everyone else with the
  following exceptions Native Americans employed
  on reservations do not pay state income taxes.
  American Indians living on trust land are free
  from local and state property taxes. Generally
  state sales taxes are not levied on Indian
  transactions made on reservations. Indians do not
  pay federal income taxes on money earned from
  trust lands, such as fees received for grazing
  rights and oil drilling.
• "100 Questions for 500 Nations," in "The American
  Indian and the Media"

11
Gaming

• Myth  All tribes have gaming operations.Fact
   Less than 40 of federally-recognized tribes
  have gaming operations.
• Myth  All tribes are rich because of gaming
  revenues.Fact  Only a handful of operations
  make the majority of the gaming revenue.
• Myth  Tribal gaming is loosely regulated.Fact
   Tribal governmental gaming is more heavily
  regulated than commercial gaming and tribal
  governments have developed world-class regulatory
  systems.
• "Myths Facts," National Indian Gaming
  Association

12
As long as there is an us and them, there will
be a problemGrayson Noley

• The following information comes from a handout
  that Dr. Noley gave out during a guest lecture in
  Fall of 2002.
• He adapted the information from American Indians
  Stereotypes and realities by D. A. Mihesuah
  (1998, Atlanta Clarity Press, Inc.). Most of
  the adaptations make the information relevant to
  educators.

13
Dos and Donts

• Avoid Inappropriate terminology
• Do not use uncivilized when comparing American
  Indian cultures to Euro-American cultures. Use
  different. The tribal and Euro-American
  cultures were different from one another, no one
  being inferior or superior.
• Do not say Lakota Indians or Choctaw Indians.
  This is redundant.

14
Dos and DontsAvoid inappropriate terminology

• Use myth to describe tribal creation stories
  and folklore only if you clearly have defined the
  term otherwise myth implies a made-up story to
  most students and some adults as well. Use
  account instead when in doubt.
• Do not use the terms brave, buck, squaw, or
  papoose when referring to American Indian men,
  women, and children. Men, women, and children
  are appropriate terms.

15
Dos and DontsAvoid inappropriate terminology

• Do not use heathen to describe those American
  Indians who were and are not Christians. That
  implies that they had and have no religions. Say
  American Indians are religious instead.
  Impress upon students that they do not have to
  believe what others believe, but they do need to
  respect others right to believe as they wish.

16
Dos and DontsAvoid inappropriate terminology

• Do not use the term prehistory use
  precontact instead. Pre-columbian also is
  used as an alternative to prehistory.
  Prehistory implies that American Indians had no
  history worthy of recording until contact with
  Europeans. It is ironic indeed that American
  Indians were here for thousands of years prior to
  the arrival of the Europeans, yet United States
  history texts usually only discuss the last 500
  years.

17
Dos and DontsAvoid inappropriate terminology

• Do not call American Indians redskins. No
  American Indian had or has red skin, in spite of
  the fact that the name for our state literally is
  translated as red people and that our states
  name was given by a Choctaw.
• Do not use the singular when referring to a group
  of people. For example, using the singular the
  Cherokee when referring to more than one member
  of that tribe is incorrect. It begs the
  question, Which one? The singular is how we
  refer to animals (the mule, the horse, etc.) and
  is demeaning to humans.

18
Dos and DontsAvoid inappropriate terminology

• Do not allow students and children to imitate
  American Indian people by saying how or ugh.
  How is a Lakota word for hello, but all
  American Indians did not hold up their hold up
  their hand and ask How? How what? How is an
  English word. Asking how? or grunting ugh
  are insulting, nonsensical, verbal symbols of
  Indianness. So is yelling Geronimo when
  jumping off a diving board.
• Do not tell students to stop acting like wild
  Indians. American Indians were and are no more
  wild than any other ethnic group.

19
Instill a sense of diversity

• Students should understand that American Indians
  are not all alike. Give pupils examples of
  tribes that lived on the coast, in the deserts,
  the forests, the Arctic, etc. All had different
  languages, religions, clothes, housing, food,
  etc. American Indians are multifaceted peoples
  who should not be generalized. Each tribe has
  its own complex history, culture, and name for
  itself. It is a mistake to generalize American
  Indians, just as it is incorrect to generalize
  Europeans, Africans, Hispanics, or Asians.

20
Tell students about American Indians today.

• Because of movies that romanticize the
  horse-riding, bison-hunting Plains tribes (i.e.
  Dances With Wolves), many Americans have the
  impression that not only are all American Indians
  alike, but they also still exist only in the
  past. Students must learn that American Indians
  are alive in the present and are working in every
  segment of society.
• Also, American Indians do not all look alike.
  Many of the men do not have long hair and many
  American Indians are mixed-bloods with lighter
  coloring. Most American Indians do not live on
  reservations and those that do, do not have to
  stay there.

21
Do not have students dress as Pilgrims and
Indians for Thanksgiving.

• This is as dishonest as playing happy mammy and
  plantation owners wife. After all, Pilgrims,
  Puritans, and other colonists thought that
  American Indians were heathens and savages, and
  according to some, the Devils disciples. Within
  50 years of the Thanksgiving Feast, thousands
  of American Indians were dead at the hands of
  colonists and diseases. Thanksgiving indeed. In
  fact, many American Indians recognize
  Thanksgiving as a Day of Mourning.

22
Playing dress up continued

• Do not have students make headdresses to wear.
  The style, materials, and significance of
  headdresses varied from tribe to tribe and not
  every tribal member wore one. American Indian
  men certainly did not wear headdresses to play in
  , nor should non-Indians.
• Do not ask the students to sit Indian style.
  This implies that American Indians only sat on
  the ground or on the floor and were uncivilized
  in their everyday demeanor.

23
Use caution when expounding on Americas heroes
and use sensitivity when celebrating American
holidays.

• Do not teach students that Columbus was a hero
  without examining his relations with American
  Indians. He forcibly took American Indians to
  Europe and put them on display as though they
  were exotic animals. George Armstrong Custer,
  Andrew Jackson, George Washington, William Henry
  Harrison, Teddy Roosevelt, and others who
  believed American Indians to be inferior to
  Europeans also should be thoroughly examined
  before being described as American heroes in
  various contexts.

24
Heroes??

• While we might agree, for example, that Theodore
  Roosevelt was a hero of the Spanish-American War,
  he comments in his book, The Winning of the West,
  that American Indians are filthy, lecherous,
  and faithless, in addition to living lives that
  were but a few degrees less meaningless,
  squalid, and ferocious than that of the wild
  beasts with whom they held joint ownership.
• The Declaration of Independence refers to
  American Indians as merciless savages. George
  Washington bought sold American Indian lands
  without the tribes permission, fought and killed
  American Indians without mercy, and owned almost
  500 African American slaves.

25
Teach students the contributions of American
Indians to the growth and development of the
United States.

• These range from new foods and medicines to ideas
  of democracy. Thousands of American Indians have
  fought for America since the colonial period.
  There was an American Indian General in the
  Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, two in the
  Civil War, and one in World War II. There were
  three Congressional Medal of Honor winners in
  WWII and two in the Korean conflict. American
  Indians contribute considerably to the arts and
  sciences in spite of the fact that their images
  are the focus of entertainment and revenue for
  non-Indians.

26
Fight for more well-rounded curricula that
include minority people.

• This includes critically reviewing textbooks that
  claim to but do not include a complete history of
  this country and the trade-books used in
  elementary schools that frequently advance
  stereotypes of the worst kind. Teachers also
  should push for multi-cultural curriculums. It
  is important for all of us to attempt to correct
  false history, for today there are approximately
  2.5 million American Indians in this country and
  millions more in Central and South America.
  Their histories and cultures deserve to be
  portrayed as accurately as those of any other
  race or culture.

27
Use caution when utilizing American Indian
artifacts for instruction and screen students
show and tell items.

• Certain items should not be used for educational
  purposes and many should not even be in the
  possession of non-tribal members. For example,
  many tourists collect pottery shards from
  American Indian ruins, but these items are part
  of the ruins. So many tourists have walked off
  with these souvenirs that forest service
  officials are considering closing selected sites.

28
Artifacts

• Skeletal remains should never be exhibited even
  if they were found on private property. In many
  states, it is illegal to excavate your own
  property.
• Other items such as medicine bundles, pipes, and
  pipe bas are sacred items and should not possess
  them. Often, drums, jewelry, kachina dolls, and
  clothing were obtained from burials and teachers
  should ascertain the origin of these items.

29
Animals

• Class projects that require handling or
  dissecting animals may be in conflict with
  certain American Indian religious beliefs. While
  one cannot be expected to know every nuance of
  other cultures, it does not require much thought
  to be sensitive to the students who shy away from
  participating in some activities and respectfully
  inquire about their reluctance.

30
Socio-Linguistics

• Be careful to not interpret quiet or less active
  students as inattentive. In some cultures, it is
  disrespectful to be loud verbally and physically
  aggressive.
• Many students may be bilingual.

31
Cognition

• Avoid one-sided teaching that encourages simply
  analytical, as many students come from an
  environment that encourages holistic learning
  instead.
• Use instructional conversations.

32
Motivation

• Often materials presented represent only the
  dominant culture.
• Students may appear to lack motivation simply
  because they have learned materials from a
  different perspective.
• Student motivation can be increased by using
  multicultural materials that include their
  ethnicity.

33
Conclusion

• No two students are ever alike.
• Use a variety of different methods in all classes
  regardless of the cultural makeup of the
  students.
• Be respectful, and research cultures you are not
  familiar with, but make sure you use resources
  that are generated from within the culture, not
  just ones from the dominant cultures perspective.