AIM Support Group of Ohio & N. KentuckyUpdates and Announcements
Wednesday, November 27, 2002Letter spotlight: Christopher W. Schmidt & Gregory A. Reinhardt http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/4/003115-5944-022.html Respect true Indian heritage, not the holiday stereotype November 24, 2002 Most of America's citizens know we owe much to American Indians -- for lands taken, for lives lost, for many injustices. Here is a simple way to recall that national debt: Stop treating them as holiday novelties. A recent U.S. Civil Rights Commission recommendation said it is wrong to use American Indians as school mascots. The commissioners felt that Indian mascots are damaging to native peoples. We no longer wear blackface and pretend to be African Americans or don sombreros and act like Mexican Americans because that's bigotry. But we still see no problem with playing "Indian." Team names such as Warriors, Chiefs and Redskins emphasize the fighting spirit of some Native Americans. However, many tribes were not warlike, and most did not dress in feathered war bonnets and beaded buckskin. Yet, we continue to think of "Indians" as if all were fierce fighters on horseback, with rifles or bows and arrows in hand. We believe it respects American Indians when we make them into cartoon characters that emblazon banners or into dress-up figures that prance around arenas. Stereotypes also persist about American Indians from the past. Colonial-era natives are commonly portrayed as bloodthirsty savages attacking innocent pioneers. Early American Indians have been described as ignorant, sickly people. In 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus' New World landing, Rush Limbaugh even said Europeans saved Indians from their morbid existence. Rarely, if ever, are early American Indians presented as engineers or scholars living generally peaceful, healthy lives in well-designed cities. Moreover, magazine articles today claim that Indians could not create the large earthen mounds found across the eastern United States. These authors argue that another group of "moundbuilders" migrated to the United States centuries ago and constructed the great mounds such as those at Anderson's Mounds State Park or Evansville's Angel Mounds. However, one particular resource that early American Indians left behind, their own bones, allows archeologists to show these stereotypes are baseless. Today's archeologists still find Indian bones and treat them with great respect. The fact is, not everyone wants to see ancient bones excavated. But when they are, often in cooperation with Native Americans, they give information that is not provided in any other way. For example, ancient bones indicate that warfare was uncommon, especially among those who lived the longest ago. It is rare to find prehistoric American Indians who clearly died from conflict. Most bones also lack signs of disease, and people commonly lived long lives. Unfortunately, after European contact, health declined remarkably. As for who erected the mounds, all bodies buried in these amazing structures are clearly Native American. It was intelligent American Indians, not foreigners, who designed and built these tremendous cities, long roads and temple mounds. This Thanksgiving, it would glorify all Americans if we vanquished some unintended racist traditions. We can begin by looking at what our children learn in school and by telling them it is wrong to dress up as American Indians. Stop cheering make-believe "Indians" who entertain crowds at halftime. Ask teachers to quit making funny-colored construction-paper feathers into "Indian" headdresses. Insist that administrators halt holiday pageants with Virginia's Pocahontas dressed like a Great Plains "Indian princess" who attends a Pilgrim picnic in Massachusetts. Life is difficult enough for American Indians today. Why burden them further with having to fight lingering stereotypes while tolerating questions about why they don't fit those stereotypes? This Thanksgiving, don't forget American Indians; instead, remember them better. Let's sincerely commemorate Native Americans: a proud part of America's cultural cornucopia. They aren't objects to be stereotyped but real people to be respected. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reinhardt is professor of anthropology and Schmidt is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Indianapolis. posted by Webmaster@ AIM Support 4:18 PM Last updated:
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