Post by blackcrowheart on Dec 11, 2005 16:23:48 GMT -5
Harjo: Who's making up Indian culture myths?
Posted: December 08, 2005
by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today
The one true thing we used to know about Indian culture myths was that they were born in the non-Indian imagination, but some of the newer ones are being invented by Native people.
We learned from movies that Indians walk without making a sound - even in the woods on those crunchy, noisy leaves. We read in history books that Native peoples ceased to exist at the end of the 1800s and lots of people believe it, despite living evidence to the contrary. And, politicians declare that all Indians are casino-millionaires, but they can't explain away the pesky fact that Indians are the poorest people in the United States.
The culture myth that Indians have no concept of ownership started off as a story about how easy it is to get something for nothing - as in the one about Indians selling Manhattan for $24 in beads - and morphed into a story about how there's enough land for everyone and Indians are just greedy, so non-Indians are justified in stealing it.
Some Native writers are building on that culture myth and asserting that Indians don't even have a word for ''ownership.'' I would be surprised if there were any Native heritage languages without words that mean ''belong'' and ''mine'' and ''ours'' and ''yours'' and ''theirs.''
Another culture myth that seems to have come from Native, rather than non-Native, people is that Indians have no word for ''art.'' That cropped up in the early 1990s at a Native art conference, where you'd expect people to know better, and arose from an older one invented by anthropologists and archeologists: everything in Indian life is functional.
There are all sorts of nuanced words in Native languages that mean art. Some stand for art combined with purpose, such as spiritual beauty; and some are stand-alone words for art for its own sake, such as drawing and design.
It is odd that artists would have come up with such a loopy notion, when there is so much art in Indian life, past and present. Native artists would have to be ignorant about both their tribal art heritage and their traditional language in order to come up with that concept or to agree with it.
I was appalled to see Native reporters on a panel at a national journalism conference a few years ago invent the culture myth that Indians have no word for ''news.'' No word for news? Native languages have many words for news, more than are found in the European languages.
Some Native languages have words and phrases for emergency news, old news, news you can use, news that's being fact-checked and gossip that isn't news but the people believe it. Most Native nations have traditional positions and job titles for news gatherers and news reporters.
In order for Native journalists to have invented this culture myth, they must not have spoken or understood their heritage languages or ever asked any of their Native language speakers anything about a tribal context for their chosen profession.
Two popular and interlocking culture myths are that the Europeans are ''linear thinkers'' and Indians are ''circular thinkers.'' This is supposed to mean that European thought is rigid and analytical, while Native thought is natural and intuitive.
Some have used linear thinking versus circular thinking to illustrate the difference between European and Native American cultures, but both linear thinking and circular thinking are too simplistic to describe or explain away whole peoples. They actually represent the same kind of thinking, except that the straight line never makes a point or connects with anything and the circle keeps covering the same ground over and over again.
The linear and circular models are fine to describe one-track minds and the simple-minded. To represent complex thinkers - healers, philosophers, physicists, cartoonists and the like - you need to advance to spherical models, with interlocking satellites (think ecological interconnectedness), or to lines moving at different levels, angles, directions and rates of speed (think Einstein's parallel universes and theory of relativity).
But, here is something I offer at the risk of creating a new culture myth and sending non-Indian linguists scrambling. It seems that we really have no word for ''mascot.''
That is, in the few Native American languages I've surveyed, there are no words or concepts for ''mascot.'' For my survey, I asked Native language experts if there is a word for mascot in their heritage language.
''There's no word in Tsistsistas [Cheyenne] for mascot,'' said Dr. Henrietta Mann, who is Cheyenne and a leading Native educator. ''The closest concept we have to 'mascot' is 'pet,' but that's not a traditional concept.''
Virginia Beavert, who is Yakama and is editing the Heritage University Yakama Language Dictionary, said that the ''Yakama people do not actually have a mascot.'' She described Coyote as culture hero, but not a mascot. ''Coyote 'Spilyay' made predictions to where certain kinds of roots, berries, medicines and other important survival foods were to grow to benefit the people. He was a trickster who made the laws.''
Dr. William Demmert, who is Tlingit (which means ''people'' or ''human beings'') of the Eagle/Wolf clan and a well-respected educator and language expert, said, ''I am not aware of any name for a mascot or pet - no such animal - animals would have been referred to as 'beings.'''
Albert White Hat, whose nation is the Sicangu Lakota Oyate (Lakota Burnt Thigh Nation or Rosebud Sioux Tribe), is a Lakota language instructor at Sinte Gleska University. He said, ''I don't believe we have a concept of a mascot. We have different societies that use the name of an animal nation, like Elk Society. These societies are for any need or request of the tribe. They also compete in sports and other activities. The animal-nations they use[d] were their spiritual guides or inspirations.''
''There is no name for mascot in Tewa,'' said Dr. Tessie Naranjo, who speaks Tewa and is from Kha P'o Owingeh (Singing Water Village or Santa Clara Pueblo).
Dr. Ofelia Zepeda, who is Tohono O'odham and a professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona, answered the question about the existence of a word in her language for mascot with a resounding ''No.''
Jimmy Arterberry, who is a Numunu (meaning ''the people'' or Comanche) tribal culture and arts activist, answered in the same way.
Bill Means, who is Oglala Lakota and one of my co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the name of the Washington football club, responded to an assertion by a non-Indian linguist that one mascot - ''Redskins'' - came from Indians.
''The word 'redskin' is strictly from the interpreter,'' said Means. ''The literal translation to Lakota would be 'Ha Luta' or 'Ha Sha,' which I have never heard used. After contacting several family members and one Lakota language expert from Oglala Lakota College, we have all come to the same conclusion: that the word 'redskin' can only be the word of the translator.''
This may be news to the National Football League, but we do have words for ''news'' and we don't have any for ''mascots.''
Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C. and a columnist for Indian Country Today.
Posted: December 08, 2005
by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Indian Country Today
The one true thing we used to know about Indian culture myths was that they were born in the non-Indian imagination, but some of the newer ones are being invented by Native people.
We learned from movies that Indians walk without making a sound - even in the woods on those crunchy, noisy leaves. We read in history books that Native peoples ceased to exist at the end of the 1800s and lots of people believe it, despite living evidence to the contrary. And, politicians declare that all Indians are casino-millionaires, but they can't explain away the pesky fact that Indians are the poorest people in the United States.
The culture myth that Indians have no concept of ownership started off as a story about how easy it is to get something for nothing - as in the one about Indians selling Manhattan for $24 in beads - and morphed into a story about how there's enough land for everyone and Indians are just greedy, so non-Indians are justified in stealing it.
Some Native writers are building on that culture myth and asserting that Indians don't even have a word for ''ownership.'' I would be surprised if there were any Native heritage languages without words that mean ''belong'' and ''mine'' and ''ours'' and ''yours'' and ''theirs.''
Another culture myth that seems to have come from Native, rather than non-Native, people is that Indians have no word for ''art.'' That cropped up in the early 1990s at a Native art conference, where you'd expect people to know better, and arose from an older one invented by anthropologists and archeologists: everything in Indian life is functional.
There are all sorts of nuanced words in Native languages that mean art. Some stand for art combined with purpose, such as spiritual beauty; and some are stand-alone words for art for its own sake, such as drawing and design.
It is odd that artists would have come up with such a loopy notion, when there is so much art in Indian life, past and present. Native artists would have to be ignorant about both their tribal art heritage and their traditional language in order to come up with that concept or to agree with it.
I was appalled to see Native reporters on a panel at a national journalism conference a few years ago invent the culture myth that Indians have no word for ''news.'' No word for news? Native languages have many words for news, more than are found in the European languages.
Some Native languages have words and phrases for emergency news, old news, news you can use, news that's being fact-checked and gossip that isn't news but the people believe it. Most Native nations have traditional positions and job titles for news gatherers and news reporters.
In order for Native journalists to have invented this culture myth, they must not have spoken or understood their heritage languages or ever asked any of their Native language speakers anything about a tribal context for their chosen profession.
Two popular and interlocking culture myths are that the Europeans are ''linear thinkers'' and Indians are ''circular thinkers.'' This is supposed to mean that European thought is rigid and analytical, while Native thought is natural and intuitive.
Some have used linear thinking versus circular thinking to illustrate the difference between European and Native American cultures, but both linear thinking and circular thinking are too simplistic to describe or explain away whole peoples. They actually represent the same kind of thinking, except that the straight line never makes a point or connects with anything and the circle keeps covering the same ground over and over again.
The linear and circular models are fine to describe one-track minds and the simple-minded. To represent complex thinkers - healers, philosophers, physicists, cartoonists and the like - you need to advance to spherical models, with interlocking satellites (think ecological interconnectedness), or to lines moving at different levels, angles, directions and rates of speed (think Einstein's parallel universes and theory of relativity).
But, here is something I offer at the risk of creating a new culture myth and sending non-Indian linguists scrambling. It seems that we really have no word for ''mascot.''
That is, in the few Native American languages I've surveyed, there are no words or concepts for ''mascot.'' For my survey, I asked Native language experts if there is a word for mascot in their heritage language.
''There's no word in Tsistsistas [Cheyenne] for mascot,'' said Dr. Henrietta Mann, who is Cheyenne and a leading Native educator. ''The closest concept we have to 'mascot' is 'pet,' but that's not a traditional concept.''
Virginia Beavert, who is Yakama and is editing the Heritage University Yakama Language Dictionary, said that the ''Yakama people do not actually have a mascot.'' She described Coyote as culture hero, but not a mascot. ''Coyote 'Spilyay' made predictions to where certain kinds of roots, berries, medicines and other important survival foods were to grow to benefit the people. He was a trickster who made the laws.''
Dr. William Demmert, who is Tlingit (which means ''people'' or ''human beings'') of the Eagle/Wolf clan and a well-respected educator and language expert, said, ''I am not aware of any name for a mascot or pet - no such animal - animals would have been referred to as 'beings.'''
Albert White Hat, whose nation is the Sicangu Lakota Oyate (Lakota Burnt Thigh Nation or Rosebud Sioux Tribe), is a Lakota language instructor at Sinte Gleska University. He said, ''I don't believe we have a concept of a mascot. We have different societies that use the name of an animal nation, like Elk Society. These societies are for any need or request of the tribe. They also compete in sports and other activities. The animal-nations they use[d] were their spiritual guides or inspirations.''
''There is no name for mascot in Tewa,'' said Dr. Tessie Naranjo, who speaks Tewa and is from Kha P'o Owingeh (Singing Water Village or Santa Clara Pueblo).
Dr. Ofelia Zepeda, who is Tohono O'odham and a professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona, answered the question about the existence of a word in her language for mascot with a resounding ''No.''
Jimmy Arterberry, who is a Numunu (meaning ''the people'' or Comanche) tribal culture and arts activist, answered in the same way.
Bill Means, who is Oglala Lakota and one of my co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the name of the Washington football club, responded to an assertion by a non-Indian linguist that one mascot - ''Redskins'' - came from Indians.
''The word 'redskin' is strictly from the interpreter,'' said Means. ''The literal translation to Lakota would be 'Ha Luta' or 'Ha Sha,' which I have never heard used. After contacting several family members and one Lakota language expert from Oglala Lakota College, we have all come to the same conclusion: that the word 'redskin' can only be the word of the translator.''
This may be news to the National Football League, but we do have words for ''news'' and we don't have any for ''mascots.''
Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C. and a columnist for Indian Country Today.