SUNY First Peoples Summer 2 2017

For my post, I reviewed the interview with the Native American author , lawyer and activist Vine Deloria Jr. It was created by Arizona State College in a series titled Native literature from the American southwest. I found the interview with the Late Vine Deloria Jr very interesting, In the interview, he gives his perspective on what it means to be a Native American writer. Well also providing thought to provoke insight into the clash between white and native cultures. “ One of the ideas I'm currently working on is the whole intellectual climate of Western culture over the last hundred years, which is the acceptance of the theory of evolution and its implications in social science. You can go through a lot of Supreme Court cases and discover that they justify the confiscation of Indian lands on the basis that Indians are hunters and you want to give their land to white farmers. This is the order of nature, and, therefore, you don't have to argue legal rights. You ju...

WE SHALL REMAIN -WOUNDED KNEE The massacre that lead to the deaths of 300 Oglala Lakota Indians, including women and children.   The United States Army killed all people of the Native American tribe, without remorse, without any care of age or gender.    This land is now considered to be sacred land. I chose this video due to the emotion I felt while watching the documentary.   The documentary was full of specifics and facts that only those that attended the boarding schools would know.     To hear the now adults, speak of the many tales of fear they had endured in the scattered boarding schools around the United States.   They were forcefully taught the English language and were given no other alternative but to look and speak like a white American.   They no longer were allowed to look as an Indians.   They were torn from the hands of their mothers and father.   The mental and physical torment would and could never be fix...

    While discussing how each of our college experiences are progressing with my Niece in North Carolina, I explained the courses that I am taking, and she stated, did you know that I am going to a Native College.  Well of course that intrigued me.  Discussing more about my class and her experiences I decided to do a little research and here is what I found.      The Lumbee are the present-day descendants of the Cheraw Tribe and have continuously existed in and around Robeson County since the early part of the eighteenth century.  In 1885, the tribe was recognized as Indian by the State of North Carolina. The tribe has sought full federal recognition from the United States Government since 1888. In 1956, Congress passed the Lumbee Act, which recognized the tribe as Indian. However, the Act withheld the full benefits of federal recognition from the tribe.   Efforts are currently underway to pass federal legislation that grants full rec...

I reviewed the video on Educating to End Inequity. I thought this was a very noteworthy source within our resources to acknowledge. It is my opinion this was chosen as the material for this class to show some of the changes that are occurring within Native American Culture and a great example of the preservation of culture by Pueblo Indians. Santa Fe Indian School was opened in 1890 as an Indian boarding school. The Department of Indian Affairs created this school along with several other boarding schools to “Assimilate native children to American Culture”. Joel Spring, Professor of Educational Studies describes the intent of the Santa Fe Indian School as “a way to deculture Indians. (Video). In 1975 The Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act changed the control of such schools like Santa Fe Indian School who gained control of their school in 1976. This allowed contracts with tribal governments to receive Federal Services. These contracts gave grants to tribes to ...

I chose to write about the video “We’re Still Here:  Wounded Knee” written by Marcia Smith as I found this documentary to be incredibly insightful.  It can be found at the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DHFjB-A5Ho&feature=youtu.be&list=PLH9rWywwjjElbYILgixKwhLKOEphSAoT7 .   The significance of the location of Wounded Knee as the protest site is this is where the last massacre of the Native American Indians in their fight against the US government took place.  This location in South Dakota is considered sacred and hallowed ground by the Native Americans.  Russel Means of the Oglala Lakota tribe stated that they “were about to be obliterated culturally” and their “entire way of life culturally was about to be stamped out and this was a rebirth of our dignity and self-pride”.  These Latoka Indian protesters along with some members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) would hold off the Federal government for 71 days.  Duri...

I was very taken with the “We Shall Remain - Wounded Knee” video segment that dealt with the Indian Boarding School Movement. I was especially moved by the firsthand accounts of Indians who experienced that era. You can see in their faces and hear in their voices the trauma of the experience. One man talks about his relationship with his mother and how removal to the boarding house practically severed that precious bond. I’m struck by how inhumane the movement was. What justifies the removal of a child from his mother? How terrible would it have been to let these kids be raised by their parents? Would they have turned out dangerous to American society? Probably no more so than kids raised by white parents. And anyway, once you start thinking that way, you set dangerous precedents for the role of ACS and other government agencies. Pretty soon we’d have children removed from all sorts of homes; immigrant homes, homosexual homes, alternately religious homes… All that emerges from thi...

Alice Fletcher   Alice Cunningham Fletcher’s   field diary from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History had an extremely interesting resources related to the Cuban born female who lived among the Indians for scientific reasons.     Although, Alice was born on March 15, 1838 in Havana, Cuba she had American Parents.   She was privately educated and was able to travel to various places during her youthful years before settling near the Boston area (Smithsonian).   Before the year 1880 Alice had become associated with the Peabody Museum of Harvard University and was listed among the official personnel of the museum.   Alice specialized in the ethnology of the Omaha Indians and other Plains Indian tribes this study lead her to study comparative ethnomusicology as well as allowed her to sought out various   aspects of the Federal Indian policy   of the 19 th century anthropological theory (Smithsonian).   It wa...

For my post I Chose to write about an exhibit at the National museum of the American lndian. The exhibit was called Patriot Nations :Native Americans in our nation's armed forces.      “Native Americans have participated in every major US military encounter from the  Revolutionary War to today’s conflicts in the middle east Middle East serving at a higher rate in proportion to their population than any other ethnic group” http://nmai.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item/?id=959   The contributions of Native servicemen and women have been largely forgotten or overlooked. This exhibit is hoping to change that, One slide I found particularly interesting was regarding Lt. Ernest Childers who fought with distinction in world war 2. He would receive the United States highest Military honor, the congressional medal of honor. It is given out for military heroism above and beyond the call of duty. It is truly a great honor.Lt .Childers was from the creek tribe in Oklahoma...

I reviewed the American Indian Center’s website. It was put together by a team of researchers, most of whom are actually of Native descent. According the the website, the National American Cultural and Educational Authority worked intimately with the Tribal Nations of Oklahoma to produce the American Indian Center. (“Cultural Advisors”). I believe the purpose of the center is to genuinely represent Indian nations, and to ensure that said representation was done with respect and cooperation, the Tribal Nations of Oklahoma played an important role. I believe our instructor chose resource websites that she believed would be educational for us. An educational academic website is one that is documented and sourced, that provides detailed information on the subject matter, and can be cited in turn. I believe the website I explored is in fact a quality academic resource because it provides links to many tribes in the U.S. and Canada, including contact info for each tribe, and if applicable...

I chose to review the content based on Alice Fletchers’ field diary from Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Alice Fletcher was born in Cuba in 1838. Her father had moved to Cuba do to health issues. After his death, her mother moved Alice back to the East Coast so her daughter could receive “the best” in education (Smithsonian). Alice pursued lecturing circuits that focused on the history of human life. She argued “the ancient history of man” was “best uncovered by archaeology and ethnography” (Smithsonian). She was discovered by Frederick Ward Putnam who asked her to become and understudy in Anthropology and Ethnology. He was the director of Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Alice began to research Native Americans. Her curiosity and research led her to live with the Sioux for 6 weeks. She was accompanied by Susette La Flesche, Thomas Henry Tibble, and Wajapa. She documented her experience in her field diary. Her conclusions focused on Americaniz...