Should I really be thankful for Thanksgiving?

Okay, anyone who knows me knows I absolutely hate all the anti-Indian crap that goes on in this country, without most people even realizing it's happening. Thanksgiving is a national holiday that celebrates the burning alive of hundreds (around 700) Pequot Indians, and then the Pilgrims gave an official thanks in honor of their God allowing them to commit murder. It's a horrible day, and yet most people have no idea what they're really celebrating. They think it's about some meeting between First Peoples and Invading Peoples, but that's not the case. And we don't learn about this in our history books... rather the books and the lesson plans and the TV and the media continue this myth, regardless of how it affects Native people. This month I saw quite a bit of Native crap, and I started taking photos. Some were directly linked to Thanksgiving - such as the cute little Indian and Pilgrims standing with a turkey between them. This was on a local banks teller window. Nice, huh? I also saw a character dressed as a " chief" for an episode of my (current) favorite show, The Office. (Sigh... I was soooo disappointed!) Another character in Indian Princess costume was in the Click film, again, I was disappointed. I thought that such stereotypes and offensive costuming was disappearing in Hollywood. No such luck. I also went into a local store in Nelsonville, Ohio to find a HUGE wooden Indian statue greeting shoppers at the door, and inside all the dreamcatchers, toys, dolls, puzzles, figurines, and so forth that you see here. Not once did I see anyone portray Native people as anything more than what you see here. What a shame....

What were they thinking?

Just this week I saw the return of the idiotic "Chief Smoker Friendly" TV ads on our local television channel, and Jamie Foxx wearing a tshirt during a press junket with an Indian skull. Now folks... what the hell? Come on! Wooden Indians speaking broken English to sell cigs and Mr Foxx showing the world his dead Indian tshirt are such bad taste. You should both be ashamed of yourself.

I met my Role Model !!

A dream came true this weekend. I met my professional role model, Charlene Teters. I picked her up at the Dayton, Ohio airport yesterday and was absolutely thrilled to have her all to myself during the 3 hour drive to Athens. She's wonderfully warm and personable, and I really liked her. Today we (my entire family minus the toddler) had brunch with her and some friends and local folks and then we toured a local museum, with Charlene, and then listended to her two hour (inspirational) lecture. For those of you who do not know Charlene, she is an artist and a professor - but she's also called the Rosa Parks of the Native American people. Charlene Teters, from the Spokane nation in Washington, made national (and international) news in the late 80's when she was attending an Illinois college that had a chief Illini as its mascot. She took her children to a game and were mortified when the mascot came onto the arena mimicking their ceremonies, traditions, and leaders (chief). And the "mascot" was wearing 90 real eagle feathers while dancing and prancing to some fictional ideal of what an Indian dance would be like. She stood outside the stadium days later with a sign saying Indian aren't mascots, they're human beings. She is literally the face of the anti-Indian mascot movement and her courage and conviction are admirable. She is my inspiration and my role model and today I accomplished a major professional/personal goal when I not only met her, but I got to know her and, if all things work out the way I hope they do, I will actually get to work with her. (insert huge smile here)

In case you were wondering...

what it is that I do at the Red Roots Educational Project. Well, the purpose of the group is to expose and explore steretotypes and misinformation pertaining to indigenous people and to re-educate the public on accurate Native history, culture, people, traditions, and events. Plus, we show these things from an indigenous perspective, and we celebrate American Indian Heritage Month. This is a banner from a project I'm working on. It explains things a bit more...

my latest project

This is a BIG project I've been working on for more than 2 months now. It's a mosaic (hope I spelled that right) of a stereotypical American Indian image made from nearly 3000 stereotypical images I've either "stolen" from the internet (I can use them as long as the image is in an artistic piece criticizing the actual image itself), photographed myself, scanned in or had sent to me. I've been collecting the images for more than 2 years (and I collect actual steretypical pieces such as Indian toys, games, books, clothing, ads, etc) and then photographed each item. Whew! Then I put them into this program and printed out all 20 panels, glued them onto foam board, and collectively they made this image. So when you get upclose you see thousands of tiny images, but when you're back a ways, you get this. Now I'm finishing up the piece by taking out (in the program files) any and all images that didn't print well (some were blurry) and replacing them with something else. Then, I print again, mount on a foam board and it'll be used in an educational exhibit called Mama What's an Indian.

A Passion for Justice

The majority of my work centers around teaching folks - especially children - to recognize a negative image/ stereotype of our nation's indigenous people... and for all of us to end indigenous cultural theft, learn accurate history from all perspectives, to end generational Native American prejudices (that we've all been brainwashed with), to support those struggling for justice, and to aide in righting all these wrongs. It's something I believe in 100%. This "cartoon" is a perfect example of the problem. This was not retracted, not apologized for... rather it was justified. We would not tolerate this image for any other race - and now there's wars being fought over political religious cartoons - and yet the people in America seem to think Native people overreact when they complain about using their images and names to name sports teams, cars, clothing, beer, butter, and so on. It makes me sick and ashamed of my fellow Americans who believe this is acceptable.

My great grandparents (mom's dad's side)

 An older photo (early 80's)

This is my grandpa and grandma Hiles. He was German and she was part Native American.

Grandma Hiles used to be called the towns Indian Lady and she hated it. She absolutely hated anything that had to do with her indigenous side. Her heritage was a taboo secret that no one was allowed to discuss.. especially around her. She got VERY upset. I wasn't able to ask her anything - not only was she reluctant, but she was also an alcoholic.

She died when I was about 22 and I wanted to know WHY she would hate her Native heritage. Why we couldn't even talk about it. So rather than researching our family history - which was going to be difficult because she hid most of the paperwork - I decided to research what was going on in history and in the American society during the time of her parents and then her childhood. I learned a great deal and it was all so sad and depressing.... I can see why she turned her back on that side of her bloodline.

I still want to learn more about grandma. One day I'll hopefully find the time so I can fill in the rest of the story.

Good for the goose and not for the gander

So our country made some comments about the Mexico stamp and how offensive and racist it is, but they never comment on the indigenous images that are also racist and offensive. The Mohawk one is just something I took here lately and had on hand, so there are many better examples. But I'm sure you get the point.

My first blog

I have a lot of work to do tonight, but my brain just wants to watch television. Granted, it is Sunday and the house is quiet and the kids went to bed early... so by all accounts, I should be using this time to write something more than surfing the internet and blogging. But I've been writing non-stop for the past few hours and my butt keeps falling asleep, so maybe it's time to slowly walk away from the computer and give my brain - and butt - a much deserved break.

But first I will answer the question you, my darling reader, might be asking 'bout now: What are you writing? Well, see, I write a little bit of everything but tonight what is due is my latest Native Truth column. I've been writing The Native Truth (NT) for 5 or 6 years now and I have up to 10,000 readers from all over the world. It's supposed to be a monthly, but sometimes I get real busy with my books (I have one published already) and my organization - The Red Roots Educational Project - that I sometimes let the NT slip. I don't mean to. It's on my to do list every month, but there's only so many hours in the day.

I work from home with my 4 children, 2 "foster" children and a husband who works second shift... and sometimes it's tough just to get through the day with a clean house and clean kids, let alone all the work that needs to be done.My youngest is 3 (see above photo of me and Silas) so you can only imagine how hard it is to write sometimes, with all the screaming and playing and dancing on the chairs... and that's just what I'M doing!And on that note, I should give my head a break, head to the couch, flip through a few channels and enjoy a nice cup of hot tea.

Cheers to you! TJ
ps: you can read copies of my Native Truth column at www.terrijean.com