Racism Against Native Americans Must Be Addressed

A column by Raina Kelley, an African American lady, in Newsweek Magazine, caught my eye this week. She wrote about the code words used to hide the racism that seems to be permeating the American scene.

Less known in most of America, but well known to Native Americans, is the covert racism that afflicts those Americans with "red skin" as opposed to black.

Let me substitute the word "redskin" for the word "black skin" from one paragraph in Kelley's commentary. "Red skin has meant something very specific in this country for hundreds of years. It has meant 'less than,' 'not as good as,' 'separate than,' and even 'equal to.'"

And in those regions of the United States we call "Indian country," there are few Natives who have not experienced the covert, and oftentimes overt, symptoms of racism. To many easterners coming out west to experience a close encounter of the first kind with "Indians," it is so easy for them to slip into using the captivating term, "our Indians." It is almost as if Indians are property, albeit human property, to be possessed by those who would observe, pity, assist or praise them as figments of a vanishing race. Indians can then be safely relegated to the role of mascots for America's fun and games. They can then be honored for what "they used to be" not for what they are today in modern America. They become warriors, chiefs, redskins and braves, everything but human beings.

White national columnists seldom, if ever, write about Native Americans. If they do, it is usually, perhaps unintentionally, to denigrate, much in the fashion of a George Will or a William Safire, rest his soul. An Andy Rooney can use the most racist of terms in describing Indians on 60 Minutes without ruffling a white feather.

Like Raina Kelly, many Native Americans are "mad as hell" and they aren't going to take it anymore. Like the movie that coined this phrase, it is easily said, but hard to implement. Why? America does not want to hear about Indians. Native Americans should be left in the pages of history books or in old Western movies. America is not ready for the "tame" Indian yet because there are still many "shoot'um up" Western movies on the horizon and Americans do not want to destroy this false image with reality.

But let a few Natives occupy a peaceful village like Wounded Knee and the press shows up in droves. Visions of "shoot'um up" scenes of the cavalry (FBI) and Indians flood the stories they send back to the home office. The renegades waving rifles in the air make the nightly news.

Just what is racism? Some of it is indeed hateful and meant to hurt. Other aspects of it are strictly from ignorance. "You can't change stupid," was in the title of a column written for Native Sun News by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, a couple of weeks ago. Liz has seen the top and the bottom of racism not only in South Dakota, but in all of America. At times it has made her bitter and understandably so. Like me she gets angry and frustrated in having to explain right and wrong to non-Indians over and over and over, ad nauseum. But how are we going to change stupid if we don't keep trying?

My weekly column on indianz.com, nativetimes.com, or on Pechanga.net, is read mostly by Native Americans who know Native America and respond accordingly. But I find it terribly frustrating trying to figure out the readership on huffingtonpost.com, where my weekly column also appears. I run into a totally different kind of audience at Huffington. For the most part I am dealing with ignorance, but it seems to be an ignorant audience that not only does not want to learn, but also does not give a damn about Native Americans. Now that is frustrating. But please do not think I mean all readers of the Huffington Post, because there are some that are extremely knowledgeable and don't mind pointing out any mistake I might make.

Raina Kelley wrote a powerful column that pulled no punches. She is angry at a white America that pretends or fails to understand (this is the ignorance I mean, not a book ignorance) that there is an onslaught, or maybe I should say an abundance, of racism today and much of it appears to be pointed at President Barack Obama.

No one really wants to say it and those that have said it have found themselves lambasted to the umpteenth degree.

Let me conclude with, yes, there is racism against Native Americans in much of America and like the racism against African Americans; it needs to be dragged out from under the rug and addressed.

(Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the publisher of Native Sun News. He was the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association, the 1985 recipient of the H. L. Mencken Award, and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1991. Giago was inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2008. He can be reached at [e-mail])

 

Comments

[Jadziya]

I do not think its fair to criticize white Americans and pretend that we are all out to silence and put down Native Americans. A lot of us never come into contact with Native Americans, and those who take an interest are often referred to as wannabe indians and weirdos.

Also its racist to assume that its only WHITE people who make these mistakes when dealing with Native Americans. Most people in this country are extremely ignorant when it comes to customs and cultures that are not their own.

Its also important to note that whenever Native Americans are in the news, its generally with some complaint or another. So referring to people who never take an interest in Native Americans, as stupid, is a sure fire way of getting a lot of people to ignore you when something thats important to you comes to the forefront.

We will all have to remember how stupid we are, and choose not to care!

[Michael Mack]

Post such as this do help to educate, but for real education to occur it has to be done starting in elementary school and continue each year. Curriculum needs to include not only the history but changes in the status of American Indians over the years and needs to be kept current. It wouldn't take that much work if you think about it.

Only then will Indians start to become "real" people, rather than mascots, historical relics, or Thanksgiving curios.

[Tim Giago - Huffpost Blogger]

1will - Please read column until you reach the part that reads, "You can't change stupid," and you will know that your comments fits right into that category. After more than 30 years of writing a weekly column I am well adjusted to comments like yours and that is why I continue to write. If I an educate one person I have succeeded and obvioulsy that one person is not you. Tim

[SelenicMagick]

You speak truth Tim.

I think what frustrates me most is that for many the ignorance is willful... a'la' the "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" statues that abound. If it isn't "seen, heard or spoken" of it doesn't exist for many.

[Stephen Herrington - Huffpost Blogger]

I'm only a quarter Choctaw, but racism has touched my life in ways. My mother traveled 600 miles to find a "safe" place to give birth to me. Where she lived, the local doctor had an infant death rate of 8 in 10 among minorities. Her father, a Marine who served in WWI, spent his entire life passing. He never spoke of his family, ever. There were only whispers. Through research, I verified his name on the Dawes Rolls. My mother, a librarian by trade, amassed a library of 5000 books on the subject of Native Americans, as if she were trying to fill an empty space, a space left by his denial. But I can't blame him. He "passed" because it meant a better life.

A couple of years ago, a woman showed up on my doorstep running for state legislature in the Tulalip tribal area of WA. She was running against incumbent John McCoy. As we talked, she leaned in close and whispered, "He's an Indian". I said, "Is that disqulaifiying?".

[1will]

We don't see a lot of anti indian racism here on the East Coast. Perhaps it's because the numbers are so small that indians are almost a novelty. A great number of white people claim to have an indian ancestor and a large number of blacks claim to be indian. I doubt that the real indians want to claim either group.
Perhaps the anti indian sentiment is greater out West.
By the way, the Indians used as mascots and symbols are generally portrayed as strong or noble. Take the Redskins for example. While the name may not be liked the picture is of a strong, noble looking man. Most of the other mascots are the same. Of course whites have the "Fighting Irish." I'm not sure that's a positive symbol.

[SelenicMagick]

Names like "Washington Redskins" and "Cleveland Indians" are prime examples of racism.

If you would be horrified at names such as "Washington Negroes" or "Cleveland Kikes" (May the ancestors forgive me for saying either one) then WHAT ON EARTH makes you think that it's "okay" as a name when the people in question are Native Americans?

[1will]

I really don't give a crap either way. I hear enough constant reflexive cries of racism from 12% of the US population. That's enough for me. If you decide to name one of your teams the "Fighting Whities" or the "Raging Rednecks" I'll quietly live with that. Just make sure you have a noble dignified looking character on the t-shirts.

[YellerDawg]

As usual, you speak the truth, Tim. On the positive side, you are educating lots of people, and that's important.