DEFINITIONS
READINGS
VIDEOS
PEOPLE/GROUPS
TOPICS
100
Define Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). How do institutions comply with NAGPRA?
- Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
- Facilitating Respectful Return since 1990
- Federal law has provided for the repatriation and disposition of certain Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony.
- Museums, Indian tribes, and native Hawaiians
- Compliance: Federal agencies and museums, universities, state agencies, local governments, or any institution that receives Federal funds must comply with NAGPRA.
- On federal or Tribal lands: Federal agencies must follow a process for any excavation or discovery of cultural items since the passage of NAGPRA (1990) on Federal or tribal lands
- On private or state lands: Excavations or discoveries are governed first by local or state laws, but human remains or cultural items removed from private or state land may be subject to NAGPRA as a holding or collection, depending on who has control of them.
100
Describe what Amsterdam (2001) says about hip-hop and how Indigenous youth are using it?
-Asserting themselves as (ab)original- unique, independent, Indigenous
-contribute to the idea of community and enact on it by sharing real accounts of Native life. In doing so, they actively create and shape their future.
-"refusing to reject the past while rejecting a future confined to race and place, artists cast off the shame connected to stolen land and lost traditions by relocating cultural continuity to hip-hop."
100
"Zagar & Steve" commercial
Plays on racial stereotypes of Indigeneity.
- Represents Zagar or Native peoples as stuck in time. In the commercial, Zagar has no understanding of technology & no understanding of current setting. Zagar is only able to connect if he decides to drink a beer.
These assumptions paint Indigenous peoples are backwards and stuck in the past. Meaning they can’t adapt or be creators or technology
100
Frank Waln: Who is Frank Waln and what does he say about music and activism? Frank Waln comes up in lecture, rebel music video, and in the Amsterdam (2013) reading.
-Sicanguu Lakot from Rosebud Reservation
-He describes himself as a "digital storyteller who uses music to communicate a message of hope. Music is an extension of spirit, my heart, my proud Lakota values and my struggles."
-Ex: "Oil 4 Blood"
100
Name an example of Native American stereotypes in media. Why is this a form of misrepresentation?
Examples:
mascots
"Captivity narrative"
"Wise elder"
"Doomed warrior"
200
define survivance & provide an example
-Anishinaabe cultural theorist Gerald Vizenor
-"Survivance is an active sense of presence, the continuance of native stories, not a mere reaction, or a survivable name. Native survivance stories are renunciations of dominance, tragedy and victimry."
-Ex: A Tribe Called Red's Electric Powwow, powwows, etc.
200
Describe how Perea outlines the powwow space?
Powwow space:
1. powwow drum representation, the process of creating the drum, female and male singers behind the drums, etc.
2. the role of the singer, the importance of songs like "Facebook Drama"
3. powwow dancing (ex: women's jingle dress, grass dance, men's fancy.)
200
Proud to be (anti-R*dskins commercial)
Pushback on racial slur used by N.F.L. Team
200
Deborah Miranda
- Deborah Miranda: Born in 1961
- Member of the Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation. A federally unrecognized tribe of Monterey, CA
- Tribal memoir: A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources
- Introduction: California is a story. California is many stories.
- “Culture is ultimately lost when we stop telling the stories of who we are, where we have been, how….” (p. xiv).
- Stories as central to understanding of ourselves. Identity is an ongoing process.
200
what is intersectional identity?
-Theoretical framework coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989 who is now a Professor at UCLA Law School.
-Helps us understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities (ex: race, physical appearance, class, disability, etc) combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege.
300
define decolonization & provide an example
-The act of undoing or unsettling of colonialism. Decolonization also includes repatriating Indigenous land and life.
-Ex: One example could be Deborah Miranda's tribalography. Why? Because she's unsettling California history, with special attention to mission systems and uncovering the true history.
300
King (2001):
- “Popular pedagogy teaches important, and at times, seemingly unchanging lessons about American Indians that created a collective understanding about Indians (what are Indians like, what do they believe, how do they act, and so forth), the history of Indian-white relations (who did what when, what people and events matter, and how we should remember them), and the contours of Indianness (savagism, stoicism, vanishing, inferior, and so forth” (King, 11).
- “These lessons often reinforce and reproduce a sense of inevitability (a fatalism about a tragic past and inescapable present- things had to turn out this way), a sense of ownership (which transfer entitlement to land, history, and culture to white society), and a sense of empowerment (permission to uses these possessions to tell stories and sell products). Sociologist Joe Feagin argues the totality of these lessons and their everyday applications constitute the “white racial frame,” the assemblage of interpretive and existential propositions through which our society makes sense of events, actors, institutions, and identities” (11).
300
NY Times Op-Doc
Compilation of Native voices talking about how they choose to define themselves and the problems with misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in history, society, and media.
300
Cook Intel Tribal Council: what is their mission and their vision for Indigenous futurities?
Our Mission: To work in partnership with Our People to develop opportunities that fulfill Our endless potential.
Our Vision: We envision a future in which all Our People—especially Our youth, the stewards of our future—have access to vast opportunities, and have the ability, confidence, and courage to advance and achieve their goals, infused with an unshakeable belief in Our endless potential.
Our Values: Our People have always understood that no one lives in isolation—individuals depend on each other, as well as themselves. In a world that presents both challenges and opportunities, we must work together, and be resilient. Each person has a responsibility to themselves, to their families and to their community. We need to treat each other with respect. These cultural values are summarized in the organizational values of CITC, which guide us in everything we do:
We are interdependent. We trust one another and work as a team toward our common goals. We recognize that each of us has an equally important role in the community, and that we are stronger together than as individuals.
We are resilient. We look to the future with steadfast optimism, hope and faith in Our People. We adapt to change with persistence and determination. We engage in creative solutions and endure adversity with courage.
We are accountable. We are ultimately responsible for fulfilling our mission and serving Our People. We are reliable, work with integrity and lead by example. We honor our obligations and correct our mistakes.
We are respectful. We treat one another with dignity and kindness. We value and embrace our diversity, respect ourselves and understand boundaries. We approach each experience with gratitude and humility.
We are humorous. Through humor, we laugh, connect, and build relationship; we use humor to share joy and bring relief; humor is honest, liberating, and contagious, allowing us to be human and meet each other where we are on our journey.
300
why are sport mascots important?
You can bring in the New York Times article, King (2013), and Susan Shawn Harjo online chat.
400
describe what the California mission system was and the impact it had on Indigenous generations.
- Missions (1769-1834): Spanish control for several decades.
- Life in the Missions:
- Forced labor: People who came to the missions were not free to leave.
- Violence: Sanctioned (corporal punishment, sometimes severe) & Unsanctioned but unchecked
- Genealogy of Violence: Describes before the arrival of settlers. Carried the violence from the mission systems.
- Make sure to bring in an example from Miranda's collections.
400
How We Became Human: what does Harjo say about Indigenous identity? Provide an example.
For example:
"I Am a Dangerous Woman" & themes of resistance.
400
Describe a powwow dance style video
Ex:
1. Jingle Dance
2. Women's Fancy Shawl Dance
3. Men's Fancy Dance
4. Buckskin Dance and more!
400
Who is Jack Forbes and what does he say about the Native American/Indian identity?
- Jack Forbes (Powhatan-Renápe, Delaware-Lenápe and other background) was one of the founders of NAS at UC Davis.
- In this piece, he discusses the different ways that “Indian” identity has been constructed and heavily monitored since first contact with the Spaniards.
- Indigenous identity in Latin America: “Likewise, the person of mixed racial descent is never considered to be an Indian in Latin America unless he resides in an Indian community and speaks an Indian language. In brief, from the Latin American perspective, to be Indian is to live a way of life. This means that Indianized Europeans and mixed-bloods have on occasion been thought of as Indians” (Forbes, 29).
- Indigenous identity in the U.S.: “The conquest of American Indian tribes by the United States tended to deprive these tribes of the ability to absorb aliens, as they had done when they were still free. Because the resources left to the tribes have not been enough to support their own people, tribal group have generally attempted to restrict ‘membership’ rather than to welcome those outsiders who might wish to assimilate in an Indian direction. But perhaps more significantly, the Federal government and certain governments have assumed the authority of defining what an Indian is” (Forbes, 29).
- Mixed-Race in the U.S.: “What one must do, perhaps, is to simply describe the different ‘kinds’ of ‘Indians’ who reside in the United States without attempting to resolve the contradictions apparent between the various groups…. Quite obviously, these hybrids are not ‘racial Indians’ but constitue, in reality, a new mixed ‘race’ of their own. They have been called metis (in Canada), mestizos, ladinos and cholos (in Latin America), half-breeds, half-bloods, and Eurindians” (Forbes, 31).
- Forbes on Indigenous identity:
- “Perhaps the most important criteria are self-definition and how the individual is categorized in the community where he resides, but neither of these yields a classification which will be accepted by all Indian communities” (Forbes, 31).
- “The use of the term ‘Indian’ in the way in which it is commonly used (as will be discussed subsequently) implies that the natives of the Americas were one people, which is not true, linguistically or politically” (Forbes, 32).
- This approach of ethnic definition has the virtue of taking away from whites the power to determine the identity of a person of native descent or affiliation and giving that power to the local tribal community, where it in fact belongs” (Forbes, 32).
400
Powwow origins
Associate Professor of American Indian Studies, San Francisco University. John-Carlos Perea (Mescalero Apache, Irish, Chicano, German) is an ethnomusicologist and associate professor of American Indian Studies in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University.
Describes powwows as “intertribal Native American social gathering built around a shared repertoire of songs and dances…Pow-wows have become interactive spaces for Native and non-Native communities to educate each other and, as a consequence, to create new forms of culture relevant to the needs of the people who attend powwows” (18).
Historical context: “In the face of genocide, forced assimilation, and relocation to reservations, Native Americans were left with limited options as to how they performed their music and dance. As individuals and tribes negotiated this complex historical moment many songs and dances began a process of transformation into what we now call ‘pow-wow’” (Perea, 20).
From 1880s-1934: Period of dance prohibition
1930s: Native American religious dance was legal.
“Pow-wows became prominent forums for the honoring veterans during World War II. Families would sponsor a dance for a loved one entering the services and, on their return, they were welcomed home as a warrior with a dance… the relationship of pow-wow dancing to warrior societies was not lost; it was transformed over time in ways that remain relevant” (21-22).
1950s: Federal Relocation program period.
A policy offering incentives to American Indians who chose to leave their reservations, but had political implications as the U.S. government continued to appropriate Indigenous land. (see pg22).
1950s-1960s: pow-wows became prominent as an urban community organizing tool (Perea, 22).
1970s: American Indian Movement
New politicization linked pow-wow music and culture with national events through actions like the creation of AIM (23).
500
Define who J.P. Harrington is and the importance of his work:
- Linguist/ethnologist employed by the Buereau of American Ethnology
- Worked extensively with California’s Native Americans in first half of 20th century
- Produced nearly 1 million pages of field notes
- Some of the best, sometimes the only, documentation of some of California’s indigenous languages
- Notes filled with people’s stories:
- Oral histories of California
- Counter-narratives to history as told in textbooks: such as Dear Jacinta.
- J.P. Harrinton’s Chochenyo Notes:
- One of the only notes on the language.
- A lot to work with but difficult to read.
500
Bad Indians: How does Genealogy of Violence 1 help readers understand Miranda's tribalography and topics?
connect it to any passage that Miranda includes in her tribalography collection.
500
Vince Medina lecture: what does Medina say about California Indian life and culture?
How are California Indians infiltrating institutions that were not created for them and continuing their cultures.
Talks about the mission system and the mission projects 4th graders have to complete in California. Ex: describes the "You gotta do what you gotta do" project creation, this is an example to resilience.
Acknowledges that Indigenous nations have civilizations and institutions of their own.
Living connections to the land. How are California Indians fighting today? Infiltration. Infiltration a Catholic institution and we have to do it in universities and in other places. We're noticing that we are infiltrating in meaningful ways to meet the expectations and needs of the community.
500
Ashlee Bird: What does Bird say about Indigenous representation in video games? Provide an example.
Breakdown stereotypes of Native Americans in video games. Such as "captivity narrative," "the
500
Never Alone
Never Alone uses the interpersing of play and documentary style clips.
The game’s lead writer - Ishmael Angaluuk Hope, is an Inupiaq poet.
The game’s story, art, and voice acting are all derived from the community.
The game forces you to pay attention to the landscape- the wind, the direction the snow is blowing. If you don’t pay attention and work with it, you cannot succeed.
All narrated in Inupiaq language.
All aspects of the game incorporate the culture- owls are save points, the cultural meaning of the Northern light is brought into play.