Post by Okwes on Jun 2, 2006 8:39:57 GMT -5
Woman seeks native recognition
By Hilary Corrigan Staff Writer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jules Jackson's pale skin comes from her mother's Irish and German roots. So does the curly dark blond hair that she dyes brown to fit an American Indian image.
She avoids wearing the nearly trademark turquoise jewelry, though.
"That's not what our people wore," she said of her father's Nanticoke tribe.
That culture refers to a heritage like Jackson's as walking in two worlds -- the balancing act of operating in a society run mostly by descendents of the Europeans who nearly destroyed them.
For Jackson, the conflict emerges constantly.
She completed JROTC in high school and ROTC in college, yet, based on the technical history of the holiday, refuses to celebrate July 4 or pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag that symbolizes 50 sections of land taken from native tribes.
The 24-year-old graduated from Villanova University in 2003, majoring in political science to learn the structure of the government that has battled her ancestors since its start. She aims to head to law school in 2007 to figure out how to navigate a court system based on European philosophies.
The internal struggle showed again last month, when Lewes marked its 375th anniversary with parties and speeches. Jackson thought about dressing in black and standing on the sidelines in a show of mourning.
"It's not a celebration for us," she said about that founding of the first town in the first state.
Instead, she talked with Lewes Mayor Jim Ford to make sure he mentioned Nanticokes and black people in event addresses. But the city Web site marking the occassion includes no American Indian stories, she noted.
"And forget about the slaves who built everything," Jackson said. "Nobody wants to talk about it. Why? Because it's wrong."
She notes the planning in Jamestown, Va., for a 2007 event to mark the 400th anniversary of Europeans who made the first solid New World settlement in 1607. After groups complained, organizers changed the "celebration" title to "commemoration."
"That's where it's challenging," Jackson said. "It's not just Lewes, Del."
Native start
American Indians lived in the region for thousands of years before Lewes formed. They helped settlers farm, trained them to survive.
"Without the native people," Jackson said of her one world, "the first round of settlers wouldn't have survived."
Through her education in Cape Henlopen School District, though, she explored only her other world.
"I learned all about your people. I know everything about my mom's family, the Irish and German heritage," Jackson said.
She expected to delve into native issues when she reached Villanova.
"Not a single course offered in Native American anything. So depressing," Jackson recalled.
In her sophomore year, she formed the Native American Student's Association, a group geared toward uniting people, promoting the culture on campus and advancing causes. She has targeted her home region with a similar effort.
Nanticokes deserve more, Jackson said, than their annual powwow in Oak Orchard that showcases regalia and dancing. Last year, she set up a booth there to distribute activist information. Some passers-by stopped, curious and asking questions.
At a district school board meeting last week, though, Jackson noted blank stares from the audience when she called for a curriculum expanding on the history and culture of those who lived on the land before European settlers.
"People basically have no idea what I'm talking about," she said.
Curriculum conscious
Jackson has begun forming NativePower, a nonprofit advocacy group, and is creating a Web site that will link to other resources. She also seeks members interested in different areas -- civil rights, environmental causes, politics.
The goals remain as varied -- preserving burial sites, protecting natural resources, removing stereotypes from mass media, changing offensive mascots and sports team names and altering school curriculums.
In one world, Jackson was a student in district classes. In the other, she will challenge the curriculum that those educators craft. She plans to meet with district officials to discuss the teaching framework and at a June 22 school board meeting, ask for changes.
She points to an effort in Philadelphia last year requiring high school students to take an African-American history course, a twist on the perspective taught from the European standpoint. She wants Cape to follow similar steps.
"If you're educators, you don't educate about specific things, you educate about everything," Jackson said. "You can't just cut out a whole part of history and pretend that it didn't exist."
Land balance
In one world, she attended Cape Henlopen High School. In another, Jackson realizes that the surrounding land played host to American Indian settlements and burial sites.
Records from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., refer to surveys done around 1950 on the nearby Townsend property that located bones and remains. Lacking recognition as a group from the U.S. government, Jackson noted, the Nanticokes cannot retrieve them from their resting places in museum cases.
It bothers her that nearby construction continues without state or county preservation experts monitoring finds and she questions the enforcement of a federal law meant to protect the remains at unmarked burial sites. And that at the end of May, Delaware's Archaeology Month, Sussex County officials had not replaced a historic preservation planner who last year left the job overseeing county projects that could affect archaeological sites.
Since county sewer projects are coming to a close, officials are reviewing whether that position is needed, said assistant county engineer Russell Archut.
To Jackson, one world is swallowing up the other.
"You can't separate the urban sprawl issue. That's just like Manifest Destiny," she said, calling local development patterns an accepted modern-day sequel of the nation's expansion mission of the 1800s.
It bothers her when people refer to old Indian burial grounds.
"It's a human burial ground and it deserves to be respected as such," she said.
Native respect
A Lewes-area resident who works as a coordinator for state treasurer Jack Markell, Jackson has noticed a lack of respect in her one world.
She compares the hunters she knows who take photos with trophy prey to stories of Native Americans thanking the animals that they killed and using all the body parts for food and clothing. She points to crop rotation techniques that Native Americans practiced to keep from overusing the land that they farmed.
"There was some sort of balance," she said. "Keeping the balance of earth."
Jackson wants school lessons to include such philosophy.
"They really had the whole world concept, the whole holistic concept," she said. "It was firmly ingrained in them."
To Jackson, though, one world mocks the other.
She points to the Washington Redskins, the football team of the nation's capital with a name on par with degrading terms for black people. She notes Chief Illiniwek, the mascot for the University of Illinois who, decked out in the regalia that Native Americans revere, performed at half-time shows until an NCAA review this year. Closer to home, she finds the Indians at Indian River School District.
"It's appalling," she said.
Jackson expects a challenge in reaching those who don't care about such issues.
"People that don't do anything because they don't want to rock the boat," she said. "You're saying things they don't want to hear."
She plans to help her one world gain more ground than it has so far.
"We were here first," she said. "We need to stand up."
E-mail Hilary Corrigan at hcorrigan@gannett.com.
By Hilary Corrigan Staff Writer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jules Jackson's pale skin comes from her mother's Irish and German roots. So does the curly dark blond hair that she dyes brown to fit an American Indian image.
She avoids wearing the nearly trademark turquoise jewelry, though.
"That's not what our people wore," she said of her father's Nanticoke tribe.
That culture refers to a heritage like Jackson's as walking in two worlds -- the balancing act of operating in a society run mostly by descendents of the Europeans who nearly destroyed them.
For Jackson, the conflict emerges constantly.
She completed JROTC in high school and ROTC in college, yet, based on the technical history of the holiday, refuses to celebrate July 4 or pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag that symbolizes 50 sections of land taken from native tribes.
The 24-year-old graduated from Villanova University in 2003, majoring in political science to learn the structure of the government that has battled her ancestors since its start. She aims to head to law school in 2007 to figure out how to navigate a court system based on European philosophies.
The internal struggle showed again last month, when Lewes marked its 375th anniversary with parties and speeches. Jackson thought about dressing in black and standing on the sidelines in a show of mourning.
"It's not a celebration for us," she said about that founding of the first town in the first state.
Instead, she talked with Lewes Mayor Jim Ford to make sure he mentioned Nanticokes and black people in event addresses. But the city Web site marking the occassion includes no American Indian stories, she noted.
"And forget about the slaves who built everything," Jackson said. "Nobody wants to talk about it. Why? Because it's wrong."
She notes the planning in Jamestown, Va., for a 2007 event to mark the 400th anniversary of Europeans who made the first solid New World settlement in 1607. After groups complained, organizers changed the "celebration" title to "commemoration."
"That's where it's challenging," Jackson said. "It's not just Lewes, Del."
Native start
American Indians lived in the region for thousands of years before Lewes formed. They helped settlers farm, trained them to survive.
"Without the native people," Jackson said of her one world, "the first round of settlers wouldn't have survived."
Through her education in Cape Henlopen School District, though, she explored only her other world.
"I learned all about your people. I know everything about my mom's family, the Irish and German heritage," Jackson said.
She expected to delve into native issues when she reached Villanova.
"Not a single course offered in Native American anything. So depressing," Jackson recalled.
In her sophomore year, she formed the Native American Student's Association, a group geared toward uniting people, promoting the culture on campus and advancing causes. She has targeted her home region with a similar effort.
Nanticokes deserve more, Jackson said, than their annual powwow in Oak Orchard that showcases regalia and dancing. Last year, she set up a booth there to distribute activist information. Some passers-by stopped, curious and asking questions.
At a district school board meeting last week, though, Jackson noted blank stares from the audience when she called for a curriculum expanding on the history and culture of those who lived on the land before European settlers.
"People basically have no idea what I'm talking about," she said.
Curriculum conscious
Jackson has begun forming NativePower, a nonprofit advocacy group, and is creating a Web site that will link to other resources. She also seeks members interested in different areas -- civil rights, environmental causes, politics.
The goals remain as varied -- preserving burial sites, protecting natural resources, removing stereotypes from mass media, changing offensive mascots and sports team names and altering school curriculums.
In one world, Jackson was a student in district classes. In the other, she will challenge the curriculum that those educators craft. She plans to meet with district officials to discuss the teaching framework and at a June 22 school board meeting, ask for changes.
She points to an effort in Philadelphia last year requiring high school students to take an African-American history course, a twist on the perspective taught from the European standpoint. She wants Cape to follow similar steps.
"If you're educators, you don't educate about specific things, you educate about everything," Jackson said. "You can't just cut out a whole part of history and pretend that it didn't exist."
Land balance
In one world, she attended Cape Henlopen High School. In another, Jackson realizes that the surrounding land played host to American Indian settlements and burial sites.
Records from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., refer to surveys done around 1950 on the nearby Townsend property that located bones and remains. Lacking recognition as a group from the U.S. government, Jackson noted, the Nanticokes cannot retrieve them from their resting places in museum cases.
It bothers her that nearby construction continues without state or county preservation experts monitoring finds and she questions the enforcement of a federal law meant to protect the remains at unmarked burial sites. And that at the end of May, Delaware's Archaeology Month, Sussex County officials had not replaced a historic preservation planner who last year left the job overseeing county projects that could affect archaeological sites.
Since county sewer projects are coming to a close, officials are reviewing whether that position is needed, said assistant county engineer Russell Archut.
To Jackson, one world is swallowing up the other.
"You can't separate the urban sprawl issue. That's just like Manifest Destiny," she said, calling local development patterns an accepted modern-day sequel of the nation's expansion mission of the 1800s.
It bothers her when people refer to old Indian burial grounds.
"It's a human burial ground and it deserves to be respected as such," she said.
Native respect
A Lewes-area resident who works as a coordinator for state treasurer Jack Markell, Jackson has noticed a lack of respect in her one world.
She compares the hunters she knows who take photos with trophy prey to stories of Native Americans thanking the animals that they killed and using all the body parts for food and clothing. She points to crop rotation techniques that Native Americans practiced to keep from overusing the land that they farmed.
"There was some sort of balance," she said. "Keeping the balance of earth."
Jackson wants school lessons to include such philosophy.
"They really had the whole world concept, the whole holistic concept," she said. "It was firmly ingrained in them."
To Jackson, though, one world mocks the other.
She points to the Washington Redskins, the football team of the nation's capital with a name on par with degrading terms for black people. She notes Chief Illiniwek, the mascot for the University of Illinois who, decked out in the regalia that Native Americans revere, performed at half-time shows until an NCAA review this year. Closer to home, she finds the Indians at Indian River School District.
"It's appalling," she said.
Jackson expects a challenge in reaching those who don't care about such issues.
"People that don't do anything because they don't want to rock the boat," she said. "You're saying things they don't want to hear."
She plans to help her one world gain more ground than it has so far.
"We were here first," she said. "We need to stand up."
E-mail Hilary Corrigan at hcorrigan@gannett.com.