Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Students respond to ABC's "Children of the Plains"
I know many of you saw the Diane Sawyer 20/20 special "Children of the Plains," and I let it pass by without much comment on the blog. I had plenty to say, but I knew a lot of folks from the community, and some of my friends, thought it was great--so I let it go, and didn't think it was really my place to barge in with my super-critical lens on the whole thing.
But some awesome kids from
Reminded me of this quote from Adam Sings in the Timber: "It often seems as if America has only two frames through which to view its Native culture: ceremony and pageantry or poverty and addiction."
There's a lot of power when we get to represent ourselves.
Youtube: More Than That
If you're interested in some of the criticisms of the special:
Indian Country Today: Children of the Plains was little more than "Poverty Porn"
The actual special:
ABC 20/20: "Hidden America: Children of the Plains"
Earlier:
Between Pageantry and Poverty: Representing Ourselves
Monday, December 12, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Pepper Ann Follow-Up: Why I'm glad I have readers
Yesterday I posted about an awesome Pepper Ann cartoon that dealt with Peppy "discovering" her Navajo ancestry. Then, some readers pointed out some even cooler things I didn't notice upon first watch, and some pointed out how I had made some really poor language choices in my write-up, so I'll get to that too.
1) Pepper Ann's best friend Milo (the one who identifies as Native Hawaiian) is actually named Milo Kamalani--and in the first 30 seconds of the cartoon, he says "My family can be traced back hundreds of years to the Kanaka Maoli people of the Hawaiian Archipelago." The writers on this show clearly knew how to do their research! It's fantastic that there was a contemporary Native Hawaiian character on the show, considering there are officially like zero representations of Native Hawaiians in the media today. I don't know how much (if at all) his heritage was worked into the show, but I do think it showed some awareness and foresight to give him a Hawaiian name from the get-go.
2) The voices of Dave and Carol (the Navajo Mom and son) were voiced by Cody Lightning and Irene Bedard--They even used Native actors. Cool.
...and here's the part where I kinda messed up. I got an email in my inbox this morning (edited for punctuation, it was from an ipad):
"Why is it better indian people change their names to "Northern European White names." And dress in "white clothes." We know Indian people don't walk around in headresses all day and beat drums, but we shouldn't sell out and conform to the white norm. You seem proud they have "normal " names. That's kind of insulting. So traditional native names are not normal? I see this totally different--why not be proud of who you are? I am."So she's referring to my paragraph where I excitedly said: "Look, they're in normal clothes! And they're named Dave, Carol, and Bob. The grandpa (not pictured) is named Andy (no sterotypical names!)."
I'll admit "normal" was probably the exact wrong descriptor. I completely agree with the email too, and I'm clearly not advocating that every Native person shun their traditional name or burn their regalia. I was more excited that it was a contemporary representation of Native people that broke stereotypes and didn't have the flute music in the background, or a "mystical" element, or a character with a stereotypical name. The whole point of the episode was to point out how ridiculous Pepper Ann looked in her quest to discover her heritage, and the contrast made it that much clearer.
I also liked that the family clearly still had a lot of pride for their culture and a lot of cultural ties (as you can see in all the scenes from their house--pictures of the southwest on the walls, Navajo baskets, a portrait of a Navajo woman in traditional clothing, etc.--Even though they lived in suburbia.
I like when people point out my missteps, I write most of these posts really quickly, so sometimes things come out in the exact opposite way of what I mean. Keep the emails coming! (Unless you're really mean. Cause that doesn't help anything. It just hurts my fragile self-esteem.)
But the bottom line is this cartoon is still a great teaching tool, and you should watch it.
Earlier:
Pepper Ann "Dances With Ignorance": Quality TV for an Indian Appropriator Near You!
Youtube: Pepper Ann "Dances with Ignorance"
(Thanks RJ and "guest"!)
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Pepper Ann "Dances with Ignorance": Quality TV for an Indian Appropriator Near You!
I spotted this video on My Culture is Not a Trend last night, and had to share. Pepper Ann is/was(?) a cartoon on the Disney Channel, featuring a super awkward, kinda oblivious, but nearly always endearing main character, Pepper Ann. I had flashbacks to the theme song when I started watching this...Pepper Ann, Pepper Ann, she's much too cool for 7th grade...no one's greater than Pepper Ann! She's her own biggest fan, Pepper Ann!...But I digress.
This quick episode (only 11 minutes! watch it!) features the exact same plot as Running Zack, the episode of Saved By the Bell when Zack discovers his "Indian" heritage, but this one is much more well done.
Quick synopsis: teacher tells the class they're doing heritage reports, Pepper Ann decides all of her European ancestry is "boring" and then her Dad informs her she's actually 1/16 Navajo, and gives her a concho belt that belonged to her ancestor. Pepper Ann then gets super excited, relying on every stereotype possible to represent her new "Indianness"--war whooping, crying a single tear for littering, putting her brother in a cradle board, beating "war drums", etc. The whole time her friends are telling her she's being offensive and wrong, but she's too caught up in her ficticious identity to care.
Then she invites a "real" Navajo family over for dinner, she makes a complete fool out of herself in a plains Indian costume, building a tipi out of bed sheets, making smoke signals, suggesting they do a rain dance. The family gets offended and leaves, and later Pepper Ann eventually goes to apologize, learns the truth about Navajos, and gives a culturally correct and sensitive classroom presentation. I'm not really doing it justice. You should watch it.
Here's the Navajo family:
Look, they're in normal clothes! And they're named Dave, Carol, and Bob. The grandpa (not pictured) is named Andy (no sterotypical names!). The whole episode is pretty awesome and spot on. Clearly the writers actually talked to some Navajos (what a novel idea). And I love that Pepper Ann's friends are totally informed about cultural sensitivity and the proper way to represent--and her friend is also Native Hawaiian, which is cool. At one point he says "I'm Native Hawaiian, but I don't walk around in a grass skirt and dance the hula everyday." Sounds like we should be friends.
And here's the moral of the story, after the Navajos leave:
Pepper Ann: What happened? I thought I was just learning about my background!Cue the sappy music. Anyway, watch it. You'll be glad you did. I think every person who's been dressing up as an Indian and uses the "honoring" argument should be forced to watch it, or every person who thinks discovering an Indian ancestor means they can walk around in full buckskin and feathers.
Moose: That's just it, Peppy. You weren't interested in learning anything. They barely got to talk.
Pepper Ann: All I wanted to do was show them how much I knew about our culture from stuff I picked up on TV, and in the movies, and in comic books...
Mom: Yes, but that's what stereotyping is, Peppy. Even when it's done with the best of intentions. You can't believe things about any group of people without getting to know them first!
Youtube: Pepper Ann "Dances with Ignorance"
(Thanks adailyriot!)