There are signs on Bascom Hill signifying all the tribes that are represented (by individuals) on the UW campus. I sort of think it looks like a graveyard sort of reinforcing the stereotype of the Indian as dead. To further reinforce this stereotype The Badger Herald, who wrote a cover story on Native November events, placed a picture of a non-Native next to the story. Granted these events are meant to educate non-Natives about Native culture and issues and this picture may highlight this but it also denies the physical existence of Native students who are doing the teaching on campus. It is hard though since many of the Native students on campus are in fact so called "halfbreeds" and do not physically appear like the stereotypical Indian, thus making the community even more "invisible".
I was at this "graveyard" taking a group photo for Native November. Every Native student,faculty and staff had to stand by their Nation's sign. On grad student, who was actually the one taking the picture, had his two daughters along. I think they were two and five years old. These girls are Choctaw, form their mother, and Sac & Fox from their father. The older girl was holding the Choctaw sign and the little one was holding the other, except she wasn't doing a good enough job, according to her sister. So the older one ripped the sign out of the little one's hand and a fight ensued. Everyone else thought this was funny and talked about how it was a war between the tribes. Needless to say they disrupted the photo shoot, because their dad needed to separate them.
When the shoot was done, everyone was standing around and talking and cleaning up. The little girl (the 2 year old holding the Sac & Fox sign) was about 20 yards away from everyone else rolling around in the wet leaves. I found this really funny because I think I was the only one who noticed this. I did not try to stop her because she looked like she was having so much fun laying on her back with her white tight dressed legs kicked in the air.
1 comment:
correction: Just because you are white does not mean you are not allowed to have an eagle feather. The restriction on eagle feathers is that an elder or a chief or something has to give it to you and you have to do something extraordinary to get it.
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