Fellowship of the Blog

It has been interesting to click around and read some of my classmates’ blogs. I’ll be honest and say that up until the point where we received the class blog list, writing these babies felt kind of tedious. It just felt like we were posting them and nobody was seeing them because there was no real sense of feedback. But with the unveiling of the blog list, this feels like more of a community, nay, a fellowship, and I may sound nerdy here, but it is kind of exciting knowing that there is indeed an audience of people out there that might read what you write.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the posts I read. The one thread I see with all of the blogs I read was the fact we all seem to have a greater awareness of American Indian struggles and culture. Andrea noticed the negative American Indian stereotypes at play in the movies she rented while Rob learned from other blogs that there are fantasy fiction novels written by American Indians. These are little things that I think might have slid under our radar if we were not currently involved in this course. I also found it interesting how Ryan G looked at our recent election from the perspective of American Indians while John Trudell made Jennifer question why a person would ever feel entitled to purchase a star. Like I mentioned before, reading these posts has only increased the level of awareness and critical thinking I try to carry while viewing the world. I look forward to reading more of your posts and hope I’m not the only one enjoying these blogging adventures.

2009 Oscars = Hope

The Academy Awards just ended and I’ll be honest, I was extremely happy with the results. A film with a predominantly Indian cast won 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, while Sean Penn won Best Actor for his portrayal of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to a public office. Although this is only an awards show, I really think tonight’s results will go a long way towards spreading the message of racial/sexual orientation equality into a mainstream consciousness. For those of you who watched or saw clips from the show, it was so evident that the cast of “Slumdog Millionaire” were just happy to be there. Their enthusiasm is proof that the American Dream can exist on some level. However, we all know that for others, the Dream is just a myth as a result of oppression.

Sticking with the Oscar theme, it certainly isn’t a new revelation that acceptance speeches are sometimes used to promote a personal cause or agenda of an actor (See Marlon Brando Says "No Thanks"). Tonight was no different, and it was inspiring to hear the overwhelming applause after each speech instead of the awkward silence which is sometimes followed by a mixture of uncertain boo’s and claps. This means our founding words of, “all men are created equal,” are finally gaining a wider audience many many years later. But, as we know, this was not always the case and we still have a long way to go.

Marlon Brando Says "No Thanks"

A few weeks ago I went home for the weekend and somehow John Trudell came up during a conversation with my father. To my surprise, my dad did not know who he was but he was reminded of Marlon Brando’s Oscar acceptance speech back in 1973. Of course, being the responsible blogger/pop culture nerd that I am, I immediately searched for a video of this speech on YouTube. The following is a video of what happened after Brando won Best Actor for his role in “The Godfather.”

Marlon Brando Speech Link (I apologize for the lack of embedding. YouTube won't let me)

I was horrified by the “boo’s” that came raining down upon this poor American Indian woman in the middle of her speech. It’s hard to tell whether they are booing because they disagree with the cause (I would imagine it would be really hard to “boo” for equal rights but the times were different) or if they just despise Marlon Brando. From what I’ve heard and read, Brando had a reputation for being a jerk as far as the media was concerned. Still, while I think Brando should have been there to deliver the message himself, I respect him for making an effort to help American Indians gain equal rights. The full text of his speech can be found here and he states that he did not attend because he felt he could be more useful helping out the citizens at Wounded Knee.

But, I am very curious as to what all of you think about Brando’s address. Is it effective to use an Oscar speech for a message like this? Could Brando have used a different forum where he wouldn’t have alienated as many people? I’ll end by quoting from Batman Begins (or maybe it’s Spider-Man?), that “with great power comes great responsibility.” Brando was an icon who had more resources than us non-celebrities and he used those resources to try and do what was right. More power to him.

Red Jacket - He'll Keep You Awake

So I have been doing some research on the American Indian figure I am presenting and I’m pretty excited about what I am finding. I don’t want to say too much about him, but he is known as “Red Jacket,” and was an Iroquois chief back in the late 18^th to early 19^th century. Everything about this guy reminds me so much of John Trudell and the way he fought for American Indian equality. I found a quote from Red Jacket which states,

“Brother, we do not understand these things. We are told that your religion was given to your forefathers, and has been handed down from father to son. We also have a religion, which was given to our forefathers, and has been handed down to us, their children. We worship in that way. It teaches us to be thankful for all the favors we receive; to love each other, and to be united. We never quarrel about religion.”

After reading this quote, all I can think about is the phrase, “live and let live.” Why should American Indians be forced to convert to Christianity when they hold the same ideas of peace and respect? It seems like the overall message is the same in both religions. They teach to be “thankful for all the favors we receive; to love each other, and to be united.” This ties into the notion of imperialism because the colonists did indeed make an effort to replace American Indian culture with their own. That being said, people like Red Jacket and John Trudell are inspiring because they stood up for their beliefs and created a sense of hope. I look forward to presenting on Red Jacket and will leave you with one last tidbit about his life. He was known as a tremendous public speaker and his native name is “Sagoyewatha,” which translates to, “He keeps them awake.” I will certainly do my best to keep you awake on Monday.

Language Binds Us Together

I found chapter 5 of the Kidwell & Velie readings to be particularly interesting. The chapter deals with “Language” and starts out by saying, “Thought is the inner form that animates speech. Speech is manifest as breath, which is in turn a manifestation of wind. Wind is the breath of the universe, and it is the force that gives expression to human thought in speech” (83). When I read this I immediately thought about the iconic scene in “American Beauty” when Ricky Fitz is video-recording the piece of paper twirling in the wind. That piece of paper is given life because of the wind. The wind is created by humans speaking and learning from one another. The ability to speak is created by the ability for humans to think. The ability to think is created by…?

I may be getting off topic here but the quote above really took me to another mindset and made me look at things from a distance. I mean, look how advanced we are. I’m typing my thoughts into a laptop computer while over 8,000 songs are at my fingertips. 8,000 pieces of art are a click away. That is amazing. Usually, I take all this for granted. But at this moment I can see that none of this would be here if humans were not able to communicate through language.

Language binds us together as a race. It allows us to observe our past and discuss where we are going. The fact that many American Indian languages are dying out is a crisis that needs to be averted. Language is so closely tied to identity that the possibility of one becoming extinct signals not just the loss of words, but the loss of culture and history as well. Like I mentioned in my John Trudell post, I believe part of the problem is that we are not being taught about American Indian culture and tradition in school. I can remember learning about all the terrible things we did, but aspects of culture were always briefly glossed over in order to get to other parts of U.S. history.

If any classmates are reading this, please comment below. Do you feel that American Indian history is neglected or “glossed over” in junior high and high school?