Getting Off the Black Path

Although Joe Flying By, Dave Chief, and Leroy Curley, said some stuff that I didn't totally agree with such as their dissing of modern medicine, I did agree with their message of peace. He talked about how Americans need to get off of the Black Road and start walking on the Red Road. From what he described, the Red Road is one that acknowledges the connection of men to other humans, to the Earth, and to the universe. It acknowledges that men are not above anyone else but equal to everything. The Black Road on the other hand, is about external controls such as money, organized religion, and modern medicine. While I definitely agree that money contributes to greediness and is a contributing cause for some of the evils of the world, I can't agree with the part about modern medicine. When he was talking about how Native Americans go to nursing homes and the medicine makes them forget, I am inclined to believe he was talking about alzheimer's. What do you guys think? Was there a deeper meaning to those words? I also enjoyed the part where he was talking about friends or "colas". For me, he made it quite clear that colas are not your facebook friends. Colas are people that you actually know. They are people that you'd be willing to give your life for. Along those same lines, I once had a friend who didn't take hugs so lightly. He believed that a hug signified that you were willing to give your life for that person as a hug normally entails that you wrap your arms and body like a shield around that person's vital organs. Did you guys enjoy his cola talk? Did it make you think of friends in your own life?  

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's Maps

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is an artist who paints pieces that encourage aesthetic resistance with their message. She was born on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Indian Reservation in Montana in 1940. However, she now lives in New Mexico where she paints stuff that reports on a wide range of topics, not just Indian country. Some of her most famous pieces are derived from maps, pieces such as The State Names maps, Echo and Tribal maps, Where do We Come From? map, Memory map, The Browning of America series, and Indian Country Today. Smith's maps are of particular importance to the aesthetic activism movement because they "become a kind of contested space where contemporary and traditional Native issues take the foreground- not unlike the contested geographic spaces of early America” (53).

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's State Names I

As Rader perfectly points outs, “her maps function particularly well as sovereign sites of engaged resistance because they force us to reconsider visual demarcations of identity. For example, when I first looked at State Names I & 2, I thought that the running color represented blood lines fusing together. However, after reading Rader’s text, I understand now that it is meant to visually represent the whitewashing of America. I also saw the blank states but immediately thought they might just be covered by paint and that was the reason for their absence. Now I come to find out that they are absent because they are the only state’s whose names are either not derived from original Indian names or are not Indian names. Knowing now that Smith pays special attention to every detail of her painting, I see the significance of her paintings. Each one holds a special meaning that can be unlocked if one only stops to consider its implications. I think the State Names paintings struck me the most because I understood the whitewashed concept. Due to assimilation and takeover (legal or not) of Native American land, the white influence has taken over the United States. Due to the overwhelmingly large and collected group of white people that entered the country, they had complete control for a while. However, minorities cannot be permanently silenced and thus, they continued to grow and have voices, a fact exhibited by Echo Map I and II. I think those maps were powerful for me just because of the large diversity of America. This is no longer just “our land” but it belongs to the large population of people that inhabit its borders. All of these people deserve equal rights and attention because they are the faces of America.

Now I am definitely not hating on white Americans with these words. I am a white American. I am just pointing out what I feel when I look at these painting. Obviously Native Americans cannot be given back their land, especially now as it has been so altered from its original state, like Smith's United States maps that were altered to create articles of aesthetic resistance. But we can reflect back on some of the mistakes made by the United States government at the time. We can reflect on these mistakes and in the future, work to make sure that they do not happen again. In the meantime, we can work to fix those mistakes. We can work with the Native Americans on the reservation to enhance their quality of life, particularly in the alcohol realm. Perhaps we could somehow work to build safe houses on the reservation for battered women and places of treatment for the abusive males and females on the reservation. I guess what really should be done is research into why these situations even occur in the first place. Can things during the present time be changed? Can our ways of thinking and knowing possibly change so that we can identify with those on the reservation. These are all questions that I think should be a main focus in the present day.

Occupying Alcatraz

For almost two years, from November of 1969 to June of 1971, the Native Americans occupied the island of Alcatraz. Their occupation was a symbol of Native American history with the U.S. government. The island of Alcatraz was symbolic of Native history with the U.S. government for a variety of reasons. Most of these reasons are stated in the Proclamation that was written by the Native Americans who occupied the island for two years. The similarities between Alcatraz and the Native American reservations are huge in number. Derived directly from the Proclamation, these similarities are:

(1) Both are isolated from modern facilities and, and without adequate means of transport

(2) Both have no fresh running water

(3) Both have inadequate sanitation facilities

(4) Both have no oil or mineral rights 

(5) Both have no industry and so unemployment is very great

(6) Both have no health- care facilities

(7) Both have soil that is rocky and non-productive, and land that does not support game

(8) Both have no educational facilities

(9)  Both have a population that has always exceeded the land base

(10) Both have populations that have always been held as prisoners and kept dependent upon others

 In addition to the similarities stated in the Proclamation, Dean Rader in Engaged Resistance also talks about other more obvious similarities. First off, the land was taken from the Native Americans and claimed although the Americans really had no entitlement to it. Second off, the inhabitants of the reservations were placed there by the government just as the prisoners of Alcatraz were sent there by the government. Thirdly, due to the geography of the island, the prisoners were isolated from the rest of society, much like the Native Americans were isolated on their own little patches of land. 

The occupation of Alcatraz was symbolic of Native American history with the U.S. government. While they were on the island, the Native Americans made use of it, adding their art and poetry to the walls of the decrepit buildings.The island wasn’t being used and so the Native Americans took it over and made it their land of symbolism. Through occupying the island, they were able to share with the U.S. government just a sliver of the dissatisfaction that they felt for the ruling elite. They got to share with the world how unhappy they were with having their land taken away from them at only a fraction of the cost. They were unhappy with the way in which they were pretty much kicked out of their homelands to go live on reservations that pretty much only had the basic amenities of a prison like Alcatraz. Through their occupation of Alcatraz, they were able to practice aesthetic activism. They were able to nonviolently engage the U.S. government that had taken away some of their basic human rights, reducing them to mere prisoners of the system. Through their “graffiti”, they were able to call Native Americans to arms. Playing off of the Black Power rallies of the 1900’s, they spread the message of Red Power around the island. Playing with national symbols such as the bald eagle, they announced “this land is my land”. Claiming their right to the island through discovery was just one more way through which they mocked the system that had so unceremoniously taken their land from them by right of “discovery”. Today, their graffiti-ed occupation of the island stands as the as the longest occupation of any federal facility in the history of the United States" (10). The symbolism of it is quite remarkable. Just as the prisoners of Alcatraz were confined to an island so also had the Native Americans been confined to the reservations for quite awhile. Not only was the symbolism rich in this act of engaged resistance but it also led to art and literature that continue to give a voice to the Native American people.

                                                A picture from the occupation of Alcatraz. 

                                                Notice the symbolism of the occupation to 

                                                Native American history with the U.S. 

                                                government.

Cited Literature

Rader, Dean. Engaged Resistance: American Indian Art, Literature, and Film from Alcatraz to the NMAI. Austin: University of Texas, 2011. Print.

   

Alcohol Abuse Statistics

Alcoholism and the Native American

One of the biggest problems for the people of Pine Ridge is alcoholism and the many problems (fetal alcohol syndrome, death, etc) associated with it. There are various reasons in existence for why Pine Ridge people have a drinking problem. Among them are unemployment and the coinciding poverty and despair. Unemployment is over 75% on the reservation.  Two thirds of people live below the poverty line. Partially because of the risks associated with alcoholism, the average life expectancy for men is 48 and for women it is 52. When this is compared to the average life span of 78 for Americans living off of the reservation, it is easy to see just how bad the situation is on Pine Ridge. Because of the alcohol problem, the sale and possession of alcohol on the reservation has been banned. However, just across the border exists a town with the name of Whiteclay whose sole purpose for existence seems to be for the sale of alcohol to reservation inhabitants.  Whiteclay is a small Nebraska town on the border of South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation which probably owes its survival to the Pine Ridge inhabitants who frequent its alcohol-selling stores. Each day, over 11,000 beers are sold in White Clay alone. Why haven’t they shut down White Clay? It’s referred to as the skid row of Nebraska so obviously they realize it’s not doing the already boring landscape of Nebraska any favors. Part of the reason for its existence rests in the fact that at least three people have liquor licenses and own stores in town. When the documentary was made, the town had four stores but it was reduced to three stores after an arrest was made. However, not long after the arrest, there was yet another person applying for a liquor license in the hopes of replacing the owner of the fourth store. He wanted to “expand his interests”, or so he said, but by that, I believe he really just meant that he’d like to expand his pocketbook. So it is at the expense of disillusioned reservation Indians that Whiteclay continues to sell its firewater.

  

So how can one go about legally removing the temptation and the alcoholism that plagues Native Americans? From Skins, we learn that you can’t just try to burn the liquor stores down. They just pop back up and often, in the case of the liquor store in Skins, come back even stronger. The only definitive answer is through legal action. However, programs such as AA and the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program, or even a restoration of Native American powwow dances to the reservation could also be probable solutions.  As one Native American shared, he had been sober for at least 30 years partially due to the fact that he had started dancing again. Moving past those simple solutions, maybe if we knew more about how Whiteclay and the alcohol situation were born in that area, it would help us to find successful solutions for the problems occurring in and around the Pine Ridge Reservation. According to one Native American, battles which plotted Native Americans against white soldiers such as the Massacre of Wounded Knee in 1890 were a major reason for the building and maintenance of Whiteclay as a “buffer zone”.  According to Alcohol Problems in Native America, “suppression, oppression and colonization of Native people by a radically different cultural group, and that group’s deliberate use of alcohol as a weapon of colonization, is an underlying cause of indigenous alcohol problems in North America” (Simonelli 74).  This article also reveals that there have been various “movements throughout Native history working towards resistance and recovery from Indian alcohol problems. These include the Delaware Prophets, the Indian Christian Preachers, the Handsome Lake Movement, Indian Temperance Societies, the Indian Shaker Church, the NativeAmerican (Peyote) Church, the Ghost Dance, the “Indianization” of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Indian sobriety movement, the rise of community recovery movements, and especially, the modern Wellbriety Movement, which is thriving in Native America today” (Simonelli 73). The Wellbriety movement was inspired by “Handsome Lake, a Seneca, who began to teach about alcohol recovery following his own successful sobriety and recovery from the effects of alcohol” (The Story). The early movement used both AA and cultural practices to try to curb the alcoholism. The movement then began to evolve, finally becoming today’s Wellbriety movement. “The Wellbriety movement was born with Hope Journey I in 1991 and is carried through each succeeding Hoop Journey” (The Story). In addition, Firestarter Circles made up of Native and non- Native people emerged. Firestarter Circles consist of “communities who work the Medicine Wheel and the 12 Steps program of sobriety, recovery and cultural healing with the help of learning videos for both men and women” (The Story). According to a post on Addiction Blog, Native Americans drink for a variety of reasons. These reasons include endemic alcoholism, family dysfunction, generational drinking patterns, increasing distance from traditions and language, isolation, little hope, no communication within the family, no personal support or role models, personal trauma (abuse and sexual assault 2-3 times national average), social pressure, and unemployment (at 80% on many reservations). Most of these issues stem from past actions of the U.S. government.

As we have discussed in my Native American class, the U.S. government caused a lot of these problems through their actions of land theft, mistreatment, and the buildup of lies. They were also involved firsthand in introducing a patriarchal society that had almost no use for women when the children were sent off to boarding schools. This is where a lot of the current and past violence against women arose from. All in all, the past actions of the U.S. government and other settlers have led to the breakdown of families and culture and the consequential problems with alcoholism. After initial disbelief at the claims of boarding schools leading to dysfunctional families that was presented in the article, The Women of Standing Rock, my thoughts have now changed. I now think those claims no longer warrant as much disbelief as boarding schools do contribute to a more patriarchal society which results in alcoholism and women being abused.

In conclusion, through watching the documentary The Battle for Whiteclay , I have discovered that alcoholism is still a persistent problem in places like the Pine Ridge Reservation because of factors such as unemployment, easy access to the liquor in Whiteclay, past decisions of the U.S. government and the nonexistence of a place to drink the alcohol.  However through programs such as AA, the Wellbriety movement and emerging cultural inclusion programs, Native Americans can overcome the disease that is alcoholism. And Whiteclay doesn’t have to be all that bad. As the activist Webster Poor Bear said at the end of the documentary, “surrounding cities don’t know about the reservation but maybe Whiteclay will expose us to them and we can start moving toward solutions”.

Simonelli, Richard. Rev. of Alcohol Problems in Native America. Winds of Change Summer 2006: 73-75. Web.19 Mar. 2012. <www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/pdf/White/WOCreview.alcoholbook.pdf>.                                                                                                                                                                                         

"The Story of the Wellbriety Movement." White Bison. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. <http://www.whitebison.org/wellbriety_movement/index.html>.

"Native Americans and Alcohol: Why Do Native Americans Drink so Much?" Addiction Blog. 11 Oct. 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. <http://alcohol.addictionblog.org/native-americans-and-alcohol-why-do-native-americans-drink-so-much/>.

Native American Film

Over the past month, I've had the opportunity to watch a grand total of four Native American films. As a person who had originally only claimed Pocahontas for her Native American film experience, I'd say that's pretty good. The four Native American films that I've watched as of now are Naturally Native, Skins, Smoke Signals, and The Business of Fancydancing. Of those, I'd highly recommend Naturally Native and Smoke Signals. Both movies were written and directed by Native American people. As I stated previously, Naturally Native was written and directed by Valerie Red-House. Smoke Signals, on the other hand was written by Sherman Alexie and directed by Chris Eyre. Both movies have a lighter feel to them in comparison to the other two movies that I listed. If you're interested in learning more about the cultural imperialism plaguing Native Americans in a straight forward manner, I would recommend Naturally Native. If you're looking for a roadtrip movie about a man trying to figure out who his dad was, I'd recommend Smoke Signals. If you're looking for a movie about a poet confronting the reservation he abandoned, I'd recommend The Business of Fancydancing. And finally, if you're gung ho for a film that turns a stark light on the perils of reservation while also telling a tale of vengence, I'd recommend Skins.   

Now a few comments on the movies not previously mentioned in this blog, Smoke Signals, Skins and The Business of Fancydancing: 

Both Smoke Signals and The Business of Fancy Dancing explore a storyline concept that has been done several times before in the past. In Smoke Signals, the story is of a man whose father ran out on their family when he was young and is only able to reconcile with his father after his death. In The Business of Fancy Dancing, the story is about a gay poet who returns to the reservation after a friend’s death. However, unlike the typical movie they use their uniquely hidden storyline as an entrance into aesthetic activism and engaged resistance. As Rader asserts in chapter 7 of Engaged Resistance, “participating in these genres is a form of engagement with their assumptions, techniques, and traditions, even though Alexie’s refusal to succumb to their easy formulas, cultural predictability, and middle-class values remains a powerful form of resistance" (149). When I watched The Business of Fancy Dancing, I found that aesthetic activism was definitely transparent throughout the film. From the lesson that Native Americans need to stick up for the people who are trying to help them through aesthetic activism to the lesson that they need to learn to accept their Indian heritage in a healthy way, Alexie’s movie was a strong dose of aesthetic activism. It was especially hard for me to see the part at the end of the movie when Seymour physically and metaphorically turns his back on his culture. Not only does he turn his back on his culture but with that action, it seems that his people will most likely turn their back on him. I think the lesson in this movie is to not be found copying its storyline because it is important that both people on the rez and people out making money off the rez band together. All in all, I found the movie to be even more depressing than Smoke Signals which at least had some humorous parts, but also full of lessons of what not to do. 

 

However, Skins plays with a somewhat less familiar plot.  At first glance, it would appear that Eyre’s Skins is a message about the hopelessness of life on the reservation and the inability for circumstances to change, but a deeper glance reveals that this is not the case. As Eyre states on the biographical section of his website “cultural aspects of a film mean nothing if you’re not personally and emotionally engaged in the characters you are watching”. Therefore, I think his film has a deeper meaning than merely the fact that life on the reservation is gloomy and hopeless. I think the whole point of that film comes from the desecration of Mount Rushmore. Rudy’s character is not only feeling exhilarated in that scene but finally feels a real sense of empowerment. When all of his acts of vigilantism seem to go wrong from  a bigger store being built in place of the one that he burned down, to the scarring of his brother’s face due to the fire he started, and to his inability to prevent his brother’s death. In all of these cases, the vigilantism that should have empowered him only ends up hurting him and showing him just how powerless he really is. However, at the end, it seems as if something has finally clicked with Rudy and so when he creates the red tear running down Washington’s face, he realizes that there still is hope despite his failures and that he does have the ability to fight back the against the metaphorical demons plaguing the reservation. I believe this is the message the Eyre is trying to send; that despite the apparent hopelessness on the reservation, there is a happy ending in store for them and that they should feel empowered. One website that I visited stated that “Chris Eyre’s determination to eliminate “humiliating” stereotypical representation of Native Americans in film and television stems from his childhood movie-going experiences.” If the point of Eyre’s filmmaking is to eliminate humiliating stereotypes, then I believe that the stereotype that he is trying to eliminate is the one in which Native Americans are seen as hopeless to taking action against their problems, and he eliminates this one through the use of Rudy. Rudy tries so hard to make things right in his community but seems to fail at every turn. It is only near the end with the desecration that we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. We see that change can happen and it can come through political statements and reasoning. Overall, I thought that this was more of a thinking movie than one that I would actually sit down to watch just for fun.