Tuesday, August 02, 2005
What's an Indian?
The word "Indian" is a bastardization of the phrase used by Columbus to describe the first people he saw when he landed in this hemisphere. The phrase was "in dios," "with God."
Many Indians prefer to be called Indians, many don't. Same with the term Native American. There are many arguments for both sides. Both "Native American" and "Indian" are used to legally describe the Indian race.
There are many types of Indians. There are Indian adoptees who have no idea about their ancestry. There are Indians whose families, fearing for their safety, denied being Indian. The U.S. government prefers to define who we are because it keeps a firm grip on everything they stole from us. We are defined by mathematics and blood-quantums, part of the genocide to "define" us out of existence. Indians are comodified. Indians will tell me other Indians aren't Indian. Many Indians are described as not Indian enough. Recently, I was even told that I am not an Indian, but a "white man." Growing up, a white cousin informed me I wasn't Indian because I didn't have a horse, eagle feathers, or a bow and arrow. I am always being defined by others, and few want to understand or hear about how I define myself. My tribe, the Siletz, tells me I'm only 1/4 Indian, but actually I'm 1/2. They don't count my grandfather because he was a full blood Lower Umpqua, which wasn't recognized by the master race on our particular reservation. There are so many lords and masters to tell me who and what I am. They know better than me because I am just a stupid Indian and therefore am incapable of telling what is and isn't Indian. All of this hurts. But who cares? I'm just a stupid fucking Indian even though I'm told by yet another lord and master of all the Indians that I am a "white man." In seventh grade, I was told by a teacher (a white man), that there were no "real" Indians left. Thank goodness that there are so many gods and goddesses around to tell me who and what I am, otherwise, how would I know.
My Indian family tells me I'm Indian. I am Alsea, Lower Umpqua and Klickitat. I am also Finnish, English, Dutch, and Scots/Irish, but I'm not forced to get "federal recognition" for that mathematical infraction. My daughter and I were both also adopted by the Blackfoot Nation, so though we have no Blackfoot blood, we are recognized as Blackfoot by other Blackfoot. However, like I said, a new god has come into my life and told me that none of that matters, I am a "white man."
Being Indian means many different things to many different people. We are, however, officially defined by the master race, the white men that run this country.
Here's what that wonderful christian white man, Pat Robertson, one of our many masters, tells us Indians what we are. This is extracted from Andrea Smith's book, "Conquest: Sexual Violence and the American Indian Genocide," pg. 57:
"These tribes are...in an arrested state of social development. They are not less valuable as human beings because of that, but they offer scant wisdom or learning or philosophical vision that can be instructive to a society that can feed the entire population of the earth in a single harvest and send spacecraft to the moon... Except for our crimes, our wars and our frantic pace of life, what we have is superior to the ways of primitive peoples... Which life do you think people would prefer: freedom in an enlightened Christian civilization or the suffering of subsistence living and superstition in a jungle? You choose."
Now that I know my true race is white, since a member of a superior race has told me so, I know what I am. Since white people have constantly told me there are no "real" Indians left, knowing better than some stupid Indian, I know what I am. Thank you all of you others for telling me who and what I am, for how would I have ever known. Just kidding... Here's what I really will say to you: "fuck off."
The word "Indian" is a bastardization of the phrase used by Columbus to describe the first people he saw when he landed in this hemisphere. The phrase was "in dios," "with God."
Many Indians prefer to be called Indians, many don't. Same with the term Native American. There are many arguments for both sides. Both "Native American" and "Indian" are used to legally describe the Indian race.
There are many types of Indians. There are Indian adoptees who have no idea about their ancestry. There are Indians whose families, fearing for their safety, denied being Indian. The U.S. government prefers to define who we are because it keeps a firm grip on everything they stole from us. We are defined by mathematics and blood-quantums, part of the genocide to "define" us out of existence. Indians are comodified. Indians will tell me other Indians aren't Indian. Many Indians are described as not Indian enough. Recently, I was even told that I am not an Indian, but a "white man." Growing up, a white cousin informed me I wasn't Indian because I didn't have a horse, eagle feathers, or a bow and arrow. I am always being defined by others, and few want to understand or hear about how I define myself. My tribe, the Siletz, tells me I'm only 1/4 Indian, but actually I'm 1/2. They don't count my grandfather because he was a full blood Lower Umpqua, which wasn't recognized by the master race on our particular reservation. There are so many lords and masters to tell me who and what I am. They know better than me because I am just a stupid Indian and therefore am incapable of telling what is and isn't Indian. All of this hurts. But who cares? I'm just a stupid fucking Indian even though I'm told by yet another lord and master of all the Indians that I am a "white man." In seventh grade, I was told by a teacher (a white man), that there were no "real" Indians left. Thank goodness that there are so many gods and goddesses around to tell me who and what I am, otherwise, how would I know.
My Indian family tells me I'm Indian. I am Alsea, Lower Umpqua and Klickitat. I am also Finnish, English, Dutch, and Scots/Irish, but I'm not forced to get "federal recognition" for that mathematical infraction. My daughter and I were both also adopted by the Blackfoot Nation, so though we have no Blackfoot blood, we are recognized as Blackfoot by other Blackfoot. However, like I said, a new god has come into my life and told me that none of that matters, I am a "white man."
Being Indian means many different things to many different people. We are, however, officially defined by the master race, the white men that run this country.
Here's what that wonderful christian white man, Pat Robertson, one of our many masters, tells us Indians what we are. This is extracted from Andrea Smith's book, "Conquest: Sexual Violence and the American Indian Genocide," pg. 57:
"These tribes are...in an arrested state of social development. They are not less valuable as human beings because of that, but they offer scant wisdom or learning or philosophical vision that can be instructive to a society that can feed the entire population of the earth in a single harvest and send spacecraft to the moon... Except for our crimes, our wars and our frantic pace of life, what we have is superior to the ways of primitive peoples... Which life do you think people would prefer: freedom in an enlightened Christian civilization or the suffering of subsistence living and superstition in a jungle? You choose."
Now that I know my true race is white, since a member of a superior race has told me so, I know what I am. Since white people have constantly told me there are no "real" Indians left, knowing better than some stupid Indian, I know what I am. Thank you all of you others for telling me who and what I am, for how would I have ever known. Just kidding... Here's what I really will say to you: "fuck off."
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