what you'll find here: pictures of awesome people, fashion, social justice, history, art, quotes i like, articles i found interesting, fannish stuff, and other random miscellany.
warning: i post a lot of gifs. also, some content may possibly be triggering. i will put a trigger warning on some posts.
i co-mod queerautistics with tal9000, marikunin and gifoverit. you can check it out at http://queerautistics.tumblr.com
I got dressed in my traditional Indian regalia, but there was a man, he was the producer of the whole show. He took that speech away from me and he warned me very sternly. “I’ll give you 60 seconds or less. And if you go over that 60 seconds, I’ll have you arrested. I’ll have you put in handcuffs.”
- Sacheen Littlefeather in Reel Injun (2009), dir. Neil Diamond.
TW - racism, white supremacy, forced sterilization, rape culture
As the title says, this article is about just one more totally disturbing example of how the continual efforts to finish genociding American’s native population, it’s a wonder there’s any of us left after 300 years of them trying their best to.
Please read the entire article to help understand the real magnitude of what’s now leaking out about what, if done to any other minority in this country, would have even ordinary white folk storming the gates of the castle demanding justice.
FSAUFJPEFJ!! WHAT?!
White girls in hats made of feathers: you don’t understand how you’re seen as racist, mocking NDN peoples in the face of this and countless other modern oppressions? REALLY?
- Bo
Now, this is a real map.
you never see my tribe on these maps even though we had a good chunk of land lol :(
What’s that? No honey, the fact that the okimâwastotin (that headdress worn by clueless hipster girls all the time) is generally reserved for males in Plains cultures is not sexist or patriarchal. You can stop trying to ‘save us from sexism’ thanks.
In fact, we were centuries ahead of you in the gender equality department. There are of course a great diversity of socio-political traditions in our various nations, but one thing comes through loud and clear…our women held positions of power. Not merely over hearth and home, but politically as well. In some nations, women run the roost, and this without denigrating or subjugating men (in case you were worried).
Centuries of racist and sexist interference by European powers has taken its toll. We do indeed face sexism in our communities, to an extent unthinkable before Contact. It is sadly the case that the oppressed often internalise their oppressor, and the oppressor for us has always been racist, and sexist.
To combat this, we look to our traditions, which are egalitarian. Where men and women are respected and venerated. We do not fumble towards equality as sameness, as so many settler feminists insist we should (in our context only, as they often recognise this is a ridiculous approach otherwise). We revive equity. We acknowledge different gender roles, and recognise that the female is not subservient in our cultures.
When we discuss ‘women’s power’ and ‘women’s roles’, you hear echoes of your history. But your history is not ours. Our history speaks proudly of the strength of our women and our men. Gender roles were not created in our societies to elevate men and turn women into chattel.
You settler women have much to overcome. Your history is fraught with inequality and abuses. I am sorry that you come from such twisted traditions.
Do not attempt to transplant your historical circumstances into our Nations. You have no idea what the headdress means in our cultures. To claim that the restrictions on who can wear it are ‘sexist’ merely highlights this ignorance…your inability to see outside your own cultural norms, outside your own sad, sexist cultural history.
Colonisers always believe they have the right to define reality, particularly for those they have colonised. What kind of feminist are you, when you take part in these inequalities of power, and proclaim for us the meaning of our own symbols and traditions?
In case you’re not sure, it makes you a racist feminist.
Uktena is a historically accurate (well, with the addition of a few supernatural elements) free PC roleplaying game created by Toye Heape and based on native cultures that lived in Tennessee about six hundred years ago. It really, really needs some funding help to get off the ground! As to why this game is awesome and important, here’s what Heape has to say:
“When the game is finished I want to make it available as a free digital download. I have plans for future games that I’d like to create and possibly sell, but it’s important to me that as many people as possible have access to Uktena. Here’s why: When many people hear the words Native American they think of teepees, war bonnets, and other icons associated with the great horse riding, buffalo hunting cultures of the American plains, but you won’t be seeing those things in this game. Uktena is about a different Native culture and a different period in American history, neither of which is very well known to most people. I believe Uktena has the potential to help change that by immersing players in that prehistoric world and letting them participate in that civilization while having a fun gaming experience. […] In recent years road projects, housing developments, shopping centers, and even libraries and museums, along with illegal looting, have impacted or destroyed major Native American archaeological sites in the Nashville area. It may seem inconceivable that America’s heritage could be wiped out like this, but I believe a major reason is because most people aren’t aware of it. This was one of my main motivations for creating Uktena. I think a video game can have a powerful impact on the imagination in a way that other media can’t, and once the player has ‘experienced’ the history he or she will be more likely to object to what little is left of it being crushed under the treads of a bulldozer. […] At the same time I want you to know that, like most people, my main objective when playing a game is to have fun, and I’ll do my best, with your invaluable assistance, to make Uktena a fun and exciting game.”
According to Heape, the game will be a single-player RPG featuring a story that “combines warfare, political intrigue, magic, and the supernatural world.” The player character is a young warrior who begins the game completing mundane tasks in the real world, but eventually must cross over into the supernatural world.
Unfortunately, the deadline for funding this project on Kickstarter has passed, and only 10% of the needed funds were raised. But I never saw the project being promoted on Tumblr or any gaming forums, and it did little to promote itself on Facebook as well. So it’s possible that there are enough people out there interested in donating to the game in order to make it actually happen - they just don’t know about Uktena yet!
If you are still interested in donating to Uktena, please send Mr. Heape a message and let him know. You can message him on Kickstarter, on Facebook, on the Uktena homepage, or by emailing uktena@nativenashville.com. There’s been no official announcement of the game being dead yet, despite the Kickstarter deadline having passed. So maybe - just maybe - if we can show a groundswell of support for the game, if we can get it back on Kickstarter for another round of fundraising, then maybe we can actually make this happen!
When is it appropriate to tag things #Native American:
Are you posting in an NDN language(ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, etc)?
(I’d have examples here but I cant find any posts near the top of tags I follow and google’s being made of fail about searching. Anyhow…)
THE MOST APPROPRIATE. CARRY ON.
Are you, the poster, NDN - and posting something pertaining to your life or your family?
Examples:
Nakkyy posts about a summer program called “Math and Science for Minority Students”
Stuffmayalikes posts a family photo
Moniquill posts beadwork in progress and snark
Nativeamericansdoingstuff posts exactly what it says on the tin.
SUPER APPROPRIATE! In fact, you probably don’t have to read further since anything you post becomes relevant to #Native American by default!
For everyone else:
Are you posting photos, videos, or legitimate quotes of/by NDN people (even if they are not you)?
This kid flipping a skateboard
This popular indigenous musician
This vintage shot of a Skokomish woman
APPROPRIATE!
Are you posting photos of art or works of fiction created by NDN people?
These beaded, quilled earrings
This pottery, and the Yuma woman who made it
APPROPRIATE!
Are you posting about events in the tumblr/larger online NDN tags/community?
This discussion of a person who had an NDN skull as a curio
This blog about shit people say to NDNs
The post you are reading right now
APPROPRIATE!
Are you posting about events/facts concerning the NDN community offline?
This post about a gay NDN woman elected to state legislature
This post about the appropriation of Lakota spirituality
This post about the housing crisis in Wasagamack
This post about teen suicide on the rez
APPROPRIATE!
Are you posting legitimate quotes ABOUT NDN people or communities, even if they are not BY NDN people, because they’re relevant to historical record and ongoing conversation (microagressions and discussions of racism qualify here)?
This post about the appropriation of War Bonnets
This 1830’s quote about manifest destiny
This De-Occupy Rattlesnake Island post
This post about the problematic language of the Occupy movement at large
APPROPRIATE!
All of the above is totally legit for #Native American! This list is not exhaustive, but you should get the idea.
Now on the other hand….
Are you posting pictures of dreamcatchers that were probably made in china (also applies to all other ‘native art’ not made by natives) because you bought it?
It’s four baby pink dreamcatchers strung together with chicken feathers, for fuck’s sake.
A really shitty chicken feather ‘war bonnet’
NOT APPROPRIATE.
Are you posting shit clearly made up by white people that’s attributed falsely to NDN people that you found on google and are SO DEEPLY MOVED BY?
That ‘two wolves’ bullshit (Why it’s bullshit)
This ‘Native American Proverb’
This asspull assertion about Native American Shamans
NOT APPROPRIATE.
Are you posting art clearly made by non-NDNs which depicts Hollywood Indians or Appropriators? I AM LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU, CECILY.
The OP who thought she looked Native American because she’s with a wolf
White-haired chick in Hollywood Indian attire has animals in her hair.
Screencap from Disney’s Peter Pan
NOT APPROPRIATE*
Are you posting shit with pendleton patterns or random geometric patterns on it? How about random items made of leather, fur, or feathers? And this stuff is not specifically identified as being made by NDN people?
This machine-printed felt blanket
NOT APPROPRIATE
Are you posting photos of yourself/your friends wearing busted-ass stereotype clothing/dressed as 50’s style Hollywood Indians? Or reblogging others’ photos of the same? HINT: IF SOMEONE IS WEARING A WAR BONNET OR OTHER HEADDRESS AND IT ISN’T AT A FORMAL, REVERENT OCCASION (POWWOW COUNT), IT IS PROBABLY THIS.
These two girls in war bonnets sitting on the floor
These hipsters sitting on a wood pile
This girl squatting in a riverbed
These little children at a ‘Thanksgiving’ event
This naked white woman in a chicken feather war bonnet on a horse
These photos of a woman and her child in ‘war paint’
NOT REMOTELY APPROPRIATE. CUT THIS SHIT OUT. THIS IS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD.
*Can be totally appropriate if you’re posting for the sake of discussing the problematic portrayal of Native Americans in the piece. Yes, this includes snarking the fuck out of it.
This list is also not exhaustive, but you should get the idea.
#NATIVE AMERICAN IS FOR THINGS PERTAINING TO ACTUAL NATIVE AMERICANS.
Frank Lamere (Winnebago)
Like F.A.I.R. Media - (For Accurate Indigenous Representation) on Facebook.
(via bannockandbutter)
It’s no exaggeration to say that American Indian women are missing from most media coverage, history books and classroom discussions. But at least journalism students, instructors and state educators in Nebraska are doing something to help end America’s ignorance of Native women and the contributions they make to their communities, their tribes and to the nation as a whole.
Last year, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications published the magazine, Native Daughters. With a grant from the Carnegie Foundation and under the guidance of five university professors, students spent 18 months reporting and writing about American Indian women who are artists, activists, lawyers, cops, warriors, healers, storytellers and leaders.
Now the Nebraska Department of Education has also released a companion curriculum for the magazine. You can download it for free here.
Can’t wait even one minute more to learn about Native women? Here’s a teaser of what you can learn more about in Native Daughters—and what you can share with your students via the new curriculum.
1. “A lot of people think that us women are not leaders, but we are the heart of the nation, we are the center of our home, and it is us who decide how it will be.”–Philomine Lakota, Lakota language teacher, Red Cloud High School, Pine Ridge, S.D.
2. The art forms Native women practice stand as reminders of cultural endurance. “Their crafts survived the Greasy Grass (Battle of Little Big Horn), Wounded Knee One (1890) and Two (1973),” writes Christina DeVries in Native Daughters. “Their spirits survived the Trail of Tears, the Relocation and Termination program and continued struggles against cultural annihilation.”
3. In 1997, Ms. magazine named Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabeg) Woman of the Year. That same year, the activist also debuted her first novel, Last Standing Woman.
4. Of nearly 2 million women enlisted in the U.S. armed forces, 18,000 are American Indian women. Their representation in the military is disproportionately high—and Native women are more likely to be sexually harassed, which increases their chances of developing post-traumatic stress disorder.
5. The number of Native women applying to medical school has increased since 2003, peaking in 2007 when 77 Native women applied nationwide.
6. In 2007, when Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet (Diné) was named president of Antioch University, she became the first American Indian woman president of a mainstream university. Not only that, but about half of the nation’s tribal colleges are led by Native women presidents.
7. Cecelia Fire Thunder (Lakota) became the Oglala Lakota Tribe’s first woman president. She has fought against domestic abuse, saying it’s not a part of traditional culture, and been a leader for women’s reproductive rights. In 2006, when the South Dakota state legislature prohibited abortion, Fire Thunder announced plans to build a women’s clinic on the reservation, and therefore beyond state jurisdiction. She was impeached by the tribal council, who said she was acting outside her duties as president.
8. Women lead nearly one-quarter of the nation’s 562 federally recognized tribes.
9. “Through the late 1700s, Cherokee women were civically engaged. They owned land and had a say during wartime,” writes Astrid Munn in Native Daughters. “But this changed after the tribe ceded large tracts of land to the U.S. government in 1795.” Since the mid-1980s, though, a generation of Native women activists, lawmakers and attorneys have been changing that history and working to empower women again.
10. Indian Country could never survive without Native women.
- Laura Paskus, from Ms. Magazine
When is it appropriate to tag things #Native American:
Are you posting in an NDN language(ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, etc)?
(I’d have examples here but I cant find any posts near the top of tags I follow and google’s being made of fail about searching. Anyhow…)
THE MOST APPROPRIATE. CARRY ON.
Are you, the poster, NDN - and posting something pertaining to your life or your family?
Examples:
Nakkyy posts about a summer program called “Math and Science for Minority Students”
Stuffmayalikes posts a family photo
Moniquill posts beadwork in progress and snark
Nativeamericansdoingstuff posts exactly what it says on the tin.
SUPER APPROPRIATE! In fact, you probably don’t have to read further since anything you post becomes relevant to #Native American by default!
For everyone else:
Are you posting photos, videos, or legitimate quotes of/by NDN people (even if they are not you)?
This kid flipping a skateboard
This popular indigenous musician
This vintage shot of a Skokomish woman
APPROPRIATE!
Are you posting photos of art or works of fiction created by NDN people?
These beaded, quilled earrings
This pottery, and the Yuma woman who made it
APPROPRIATE!
Are you posting about events in the tumblr/larger online NDN tags/community?
This discussion of a person who had an NDN skull as a curio
This blog about shit people say to NDNs
The post you are reading right now
APPROPRIATE!
Are you posting about events/facts concerning the NDN community offline?
This post about a gay NDN woman elected to state legislature
This post about the appropriation of Lakota spirituality
This post about the housing crisis in Wasagamack
This post about teen suicide on the rez
APPROPRIATE!
Are you posting legitimate quotes ABOUT NDN people or communities, even if they are not BY NDN people, because they’re relevant to historical record and ongoing conversation (microagressions and discussions of racism qualify here)?
This post about the appropriation of War Bonnets
This 1830’s quote about manifest destiny
This De-Occupy Rattlesnake Island post
This post about the problematic language of the Occupy movement at large
APPROPRIATE!
All of the above is totally legit for #Native American! This list is not exhaustive, but you should get the idea.
Now on the other hand….
Are you posting pictures of dreamcatchers that were probably made in china (also applies to all other ‘native art’ not made by natives) because you bought it?
It’s four baby pink dreamcatchers strung together with chicken feathers, for fuck’s sake.
A really shitty chicken feather ‘war bonnet’
NOT APPROPRIATE.
Are you posting shit clearly made up by white people that’s attributed falsely to NDN people that you found on google and are SO DEEPLY MOVED BY?
This ‘Native American Proverb’
This asspull assertion about Native American Shamans
NOT APPROPRIATE.
Are you posting art clearly made by non-NDNs which depicts Hollywood Indians or Appropriators? I AM LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU, CECILY.
The OP who thought she looked Native American because she’s with a wolf
White-haired chick in Hollywood Indian attire has animals in her hair.
Screencap from Disney’s Peter Pan
NOT APPROPRIATE*
Are you posting shit with pendleton patterns or random geometric patterns on it? How about random items made of leather, fur, or feathers? And this stuff is not specifically identified as being made by NDN people?
This machine-printed felt blanket
NOT APPROPRIATE
Are you posting photos of yourself/your friends wearing busted-ass stereotype clothing/dressed as 50’s style Hollywood Indians? Or reblogging others’ photos of the same? HINT: IF SOMEONE IS WEARING A WAR BONNET OR OTHER HEADDRESS AND IT ISN’T AT A FORMAL, REVERENT OCCASION (POWWOW COUNT), IT IS PROBABLY THIS.
These two girls in war bonnets sitting on the floor
These hipsters sitting on a wood pile
This girl squatting in a riverbed
These little children at a ‘Thanksgiving’ event
This naked white woman in a chicken feather war bonnet on a horse
These photos of a woman and her child in ‘war paint’
NOT REMOTELY APPROPRIATE. CUT THIS SHIT OUT. THIS IS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD.
*Can be totally appropriate if you’re posting for the sake of discussing the problematic portrayal of Native Americans in the piece. Yes, this includes snarking the fuck out of it.
This list is also not exhaustive, but you should get the idea.
#NATIVE AMERICAN IS FOR THINGS PERTAINING TO ACTUAL NATIVE AMERICANS.
I updated the links; they should all go to posts that actually exist now. I also made them more descriptive and differentiated from one another as per someone’s ability request below.
Zitkala Sa. I am in love
