Vince Deloria jr


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 just say, "Well, the farmer is destined to take over from the hunter, and since he is going to do it anyway, we'd just as well give it to him now." As long as people are trained in evolutionary thinking they are going to look at Indians as a previous state of existence, and they're going to look at their own culture as if it were superior. See, you're always going to get the BIA educational mentality, that we've got to teach these people to speak English, because if they speak English then they are partially civilized. “Vine Deloria, Jr
The Native American people lost a powerful voice when he passed on November 13, 2005

To me personally, this theory made a lot of sense to me and really resonated with me. If you believe that your culture is superior then it's easy to justify the destruction of another culture that is believed to be an inferior by virtue of giving the people native to that culture a superior replacement.This ideology has been present throughout our country's history.From native Americans to foreign policy in places like South east Asia and the Middle east. Culture and politics by force.
I just ordered his best selling book Custer Died For Your Sins. I am excited to read it.
http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/wordsandplace/deloria_transcript.html





Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 22, 2017 at 8:28 PM

    What a powerful message that is sent in your post. However I would have to agree. We have to stop thinking as one culture being better than another culture and star getting back to what Oren Lyons says in his interview with Bill Moyer in the Video entitled” Oren Lyons the Faith Keeper” and that is something to that effect of needing to bring back community. The fact is that at the current rate in which the earth is moving with regard to Global Climate change it is going to take everyone working together and probably a blessing from God or the Great Spirit to stop let alone reverse the damage that has and continues to be done to the earth. Without the earth being able to support life it won’t matter who thinks who is superior. We will all be dead (McCarthy).

    Works Cited
    Oren Lyons The Faithkeeper. Dir. Betsy McCarthy. Perf. Bill Moyers Oren Lyons. Prod. Bill Moyers. 1991. Film. 4 June 2017. .

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