How Red is Your Red?

“How RED is Your RED?”

“As a purely demographic matter ‘White America’ will cease to exist in the year 2042”
-U.S. Census Bureau

“Everybody’s just gotta keep fucking everybody ‘til we’re all the same color”
-Bulworth (Warren Beatty), 1998

Back in the day, a light-skinned, fair-haired Indian amongst a crowd of Indian people stood out like a peanut studded turd floating lazily in a ballroom punchbowl (with no offense intended to light-skinned/fair-haired Indians and with apologies if the foregoing comment may have also offended the peanut studded turd community).

Such was the exception to the norm . My experience was that I grew up in an Indian community in northeast Oklahoma. We were mostly a motley crew of Creeks and Cherokees with a leavening of some of the wild tribes from western Oklahoma. We all pretty much knew each other as our parents predominantly worked at the local Indian hospital, we all went to either the Indian Methodist or Indian Baptist churches and also spent hours standing together in the commodities line.

During this timeframe, during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the vast majority of Indians fit the Hollywood stereotype; dark brown skin, straight black hair and dark brown eyes (well except for the dark brown eyes, most Hollywood actors of the day portraying Indians universally seemed to have blue eyes!).

I still recall my time at Indian boarding school outside of Tahlequah, OK. Every Sunday all of us Indian kids were force-marched single file down the long narrow sidewalks from our dorms to the local Lutheran church. We were all dressed in our “uniforms” of black slacks, overly starched white dress shirts and skinny, narrow black ties [thank God for the Lutherans; had it been a Baptist church we would surely have been made to wear sport coats].

As we made the long, mournful march to church, I remember looking across the way at all of the Indian girls making their way single-file down a parallel sidewalk. To a person, they were all dark brown with beautiful straight black hair. Damn, they were gorgeous! And damn, they would never have a thing to do with me!

Fast forward to January, 2009. I’m sitting in a meeting of the Chickasaw Community Council meeting in Oklahoma City, OK. Our guest speaker that night was an employee from the Chickasaw Language Department who was going to speak to us about the services of the language department and perhaps teach us a few words of pidgin Chickasaw (viz., “hello”, “how are you”, and “where’s my per cap?”).

So in walks the Pillsbury Doughboy; portly, blue eyes, curly blondish hair and skin paler than Crisco Shortening. Turns out the Doughboy…er…uh…ahem!, the Language Department employee, was an enrolled Chickasaw tribal member and he immediately began rattling off an entire opening monologue in Chickasaw!

He wasn’t just mouthing a few Chickasaw words but was actually speaking the Chickasaw language. I was so shocked and surprised I not only shit a klinker brick but also a 5 lb bag of mortar mix!

I think all of the Chickasaws there were equally surprised if not impressed that this otherwise White looking guy could speak fluent Chickasaw. Nevertheless, upon recovering our senses, we then made fry bread out of the Doughboy. Thank God for his portliness because, for once, there was plenty of fry bread to go around.

And so it seems that there is a new breed of Indian on the scene of Indian Country (although this “new breed” has been a generation or two, at least, in the making), in which this new breed doesn’t fit the appearance mold.

Us old-timers who did grow up in Indian Country (and who, I believe, to a person in our youth badly wanted to escape “our miserable NDN lot”) now are confronted with our own perceptions and attitudes about what it means to be Indian in the year 2009.

Particularly we are challenged in our perceptions and expectations of what it means to be Indian in appearance in the year 2009 as opposed to images that were formed in the early 1960’s. Clearly the times they are a-changin (hey that sounds like a great refrain for a rock song!).

So now, increasingly it seems, that we have Indians who are coming back home to their communities and/or reservations to learn and embrace the ways of their tribal traditions and cultures. In many cases these are Indians who were raised not in their reservation communities but in urban areas. These urban Indians may not fit the traditional expectations of the appearance of an Indian. Indeed, in many cases they look white!

Yet, there they are, these lighter skinned/fairer haired Indians who are speaking their native languages, sitting at the drum and singing songs, participating in their tribal ceremonies and dancing at powwows.

This phenomenon oftentimes causes the “homie Indians” (those who were raised on the rez and/or in their Native communities) to squeal like Porky Pig with his seed sack hung up on a barb wire fence in protest. So be it.

As a native person I find it amusing to find that America itself is now undergoing a racial/identity crisis. There is a great article in the Jan/Feb issue of The Atlantic entitled The End of White America?.

In this article the author, Hua Hsu begins by writing:

“The election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of “whiteness’ as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like-and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness is no longer the norm? And will a post-white America be less racially divided-or more so?

The author notes the term “Wigger”, a pejorative term popularized in the early 1990’s to describe white, mostly suburban, kids who steep themselves in black culture. Think Vanilla Ice demanding sprinkles on his gelato in the suburban Dairy Queen. So today we may have the “Rigger” as Red kids who wish to steep themselves in the gangsta culture.

In any event, Hsu concludes by noting that American is on the verge of “post-racialism”. He states that whiteness now has no inherent meaning and that it is but a vessel that most Americans now fill with their own hopes and anxieties. Finally he poses the questions; does being post-racial mean that we are past issue of race completely, or merely that race is no longer essential to how we identify ourselves?

He states that Americans will increasingly define themselves not by race but by lifestyle choices but that even these lifestyle choices may still be racially coded. Thus the lifestyle choices may be to attend NASCAR races, be an evangelical Republican and shop at Bass Pro Shop. Hardly ever a brown face to be found in those places.

I have to admit that as a Native person I will enjoy the show of America wrestling with issues around whiteness or lack thereof and their grabbing on to any racial/ethnic culture in which they may find give their lives meaning and context (except, of course, for the wannabe’s).

It all gives new meaning to the term “white flight”. That term was coined during the 1950’s as white people fled in droves from the urban centers of big cities to the new outlying suburbs. Now it seems that whites are fleeing in droves from “whiteness”. What a joy to see!

But I digress. Back to redness.

As one who was raised in Indian Country and in my Indian community I can empathize with those Indians who were raised in urban areas with little exposure to their native ways and culture. Even more so with those who Indians who are light or lighter skinned and perhaps fair-haired.

In the end it seems to me that what matters most is that Indians carry the bloodline and that they approach their reintroduction into their tribe or tribal community with respect and in a good way. Expect resistance from your fellow tribal members or other Indians but be persistent in a respectful way.

Finally, it seems to me that it is then up to you to “own your Indian-ness”. Know that your Red or tribal bloodline conveys to you a birthright: a right to learn your ways that is part of your heritage. Own it, claim it in a good and respectful way and never look back. Always be proud of your Indian-ness, never be insecure about it nor ever defend your Indian-ness.

To have the bloodline and to be claimed or owned as a member of a Native community or tribe are to me the two most important elements of being Indian.

How Red is Your Red? If you have the bloodline and are willing to reclaim your heritage in a good and respectful way, it is as Red as you make it.

Reefer Madness a/k/a The Man on the Grassy Knoll

Reefer Madness
a/k/a
“The Man on the Grassy Knoll”

It took only one toke off of this movie to have me laughing my ass off and reaching for the bag of Doritos! The egregious propaganda of this movie is astonishingly amusing. At turns preachy, self-righteous, and xenophobic, the acting is so wooden and comically over-the-top that this surely had to be either a Nazi or Soviet propaganda film.

But alas, it appears as though Reefer Madness is the tip of the iceberg of a classic American governmental/industrial conspiracy. Raise your ganja toting right hand if you've ever heard of Harry J. Anslinger. Harry served as the first director of the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Narcotics. He was appointed to that position in the 1930's by his father-in-law, Andrew Mellon, who was then the Secretary of the Treasury.

Anslinger is the Man on the Grassy Knoll behind the demonization of Grass in the 1930's. The Dupont Company had recently invented a process for producing raw cellulose for use in the production of paper. At the same time the hemp industry came up with its own cheaper, more efficient process for cellulose. Dupont’s future millions of profits were very much threatened by the hemp industry.

Enter Harry Anslinger as the lap dog for Andrew Mellon and Mellon Bank (one of only two banks to handle Dupont’s accounts). Anslinger led the way in demonizing marijuana thru a concerted public relations campaign predicated upon the notion that America was under imminent threat of invasion by the demon weed which was a weapon of mass destruction (stop me if you've heard that recently!). Not to mention America’s racist and xenophobic attitudes towards Blacks and Mexicans (hence the derivative Spanish name for grass “marijuana”) who were portrayed as drug addled barbarians intent on overthrowing the white power structure (and, even worse, seducing the White Woman!).

Reefer Madness helped to stop the hemp industry in its tracks and to making weed illegal. Beyond the unintended comedy of Reefer Madness, the film played the role of The Patsy who was set up by the Man on the "Grassy" Knoll, Harry J.Anslinger. As such, Reefer Madness may be considered the Zapruder film in the assassination of the hemp industry. Many are its victims.

What Is An Indian?

What is An Indian?

"Indian is as Indian Does"

What is Indian? And What Does it Mean to be an Indian in the year 2008?

These are questions that have echoed through my own lifetime and thus are likely questions that have been asked within and outside of Indian Country at least since the first shipment of commodities reached even the remotest regions of Indian Country.

Does "Being Indian" mean a state of mind? A cultural/historic tribal awareness? An ability to speak one's tribal language? Or does "Being Indian" mean possessing the requisite amount of blood quantum so as to qualify for a tribal pedigree? Does it have to do with appearance? Does it mean conforming to a Hollywood depiction of an Indian?

Does it mean qualifying for tribal social services, a per cap, driving an Indian car or powwow van and never having a fixed address but migrating from Rez house to Rez house among friends and family? Perhaps it may also mean being recognized as a member of a community or nation of Indians?'

In answering these questions, it is illuminating to ask: "Even amongst today's most 'Indian of Indians' (viz., our recognized "traditional people") would their tribal ancestors of 600 years ago recognize them as Indians? Would the Indians of 600 years ago recognize and invite even contemporary "traditional" Indians to be full-fledged members of their tribal/Indian Community as it existed 600 years ago"? Or would our Native forebears reject even our contemporary traditional Indians as being, well, "non-Indian" because these modern traditional Indians had become too different?

The vast changes wrought by the coming of the White Man has fostered wrenching changes among the indigenous peoples of North America since the first boat peoples washed ashore over 500 years ago. Indigenous peoples have had to adapt and change in response to the cataclysmic impacts of White Civilization upon the millennia old ways of Native peoples.

Perhaps one of our tribal ancestors from 600 years ago who may be "beemed up" or "fast forwarded" 600 years into our present day America, may recognize in our contemporary traditional people, essentially the same words and language as was spoken so many years ago. Perhaps this long dead ancestor may recognize and feel kinship with the dark skin, the dark brown eyes, the black hair and the facial features of a contemporary Native American (assuming, of course, that the contemporary Native American has dark skin, dark brown eyes or black hair).

Perhaps our Native visitor from time past might also feel at home in the songs, the dances and the drumbeat of contemporary tribal culture.At the same time, our atavistic Native visitor, especially if he or she might hail from today's plains tribes would surely not fail to notice that even amongst the most traditional of contemporary native peoples, there is not likely even one who today could fell a buffalo with a single arrow fired from horseback. That being said, there was not, of course, any horses that roamed the Great Plains 600 years ago at the time of our ancestor's life nor are there today many buffalo roaming the wild who are available to hunt. So many things different, yet so many things the same.

As for me, I rather think that our time- warped Native visitor from 600 years ago would likely tend to have an attitude of acceptance and understanding of our contemporary Native peoples despite the vast differences that exists across 600 years of time. While no historic documents exist (at least as defined by the White Man), I rather think that events in the natural world across the millennia of time has forced significant changes for Native peoples. All of our Native forebears necessarily had to adapt and change their ways and culture even some 600 years ago.

What we know of our traditions, customs and even language had to continually evolve in response to changes in the natural world. I thus think that our Native visitor would recognize if not appreciate that contemporary native peoples were forced to adapt and change largely as result of the coming of the White Man. I think then, that our Native visitor might deduce from all of this that, "Indian is as Indian Does".

Native peoples will always change and adapt to fit and survive natural and human changes and conditions. Blood lines, ceremonies and language will continue to be important but traditions and ways change and adapt. Who we are as Native people is a continually evolving thing. We who see and define ourselves as Native people in this year 2008 may not recognize much as "Native " if we ourselves were able to come back to life in the year 2608 to walk amongst those people who will then call themselves as Pawnee, Ponca, Chickasaw, Cherokee, etc.

Yet again, however, I think we would recognize the impact of human and natural change upon our Native people and just as us modern Natives in the year 2008 are very different from our Native forefathers in the year 1408, so too will there be marked differences in the future native generations of the year 2608.

So, among other things, to be Indian in this year 2008 means that one stands squarely at the center of this lengthy, and ongoing, evolutionary thrust across many generations of Native forebears and Native ways and traditions. It must necessarily mean a chain of blood ties throughout generations past and a reverence and respect for these long gone Native ancestors.

Finally, I think it means that our Native visitor would also be heartened and filled with pride at his descendents resolve to keep fighting for a way of life "an Indianess" and that at the heart of this fight was an effort to continue to find a connection to the sacred through the evolved and inherited language, ceremonies and traditions of their tribal community.

Given the above, in the end I think like our presumptive Native visitor from 600 years ago, that regardless of any moment or period in history, that being Indian or what is means to be Indian simply boils down to "Indian is as Indian does".