Twice Told Tales and Other Ramblings

Our first rendering of the oral tradition went well in class I would say. From Rose hips to bare-behind possums, everyone was great. I noticed great eye contact, fantastic props, and above all, humor. Trickster tales are funny. They are told funny, written funny and are supposed to be performed funny. I believe there was a bar set last week for all of the later tellers.
     Now, the sad part of my blog. Our class will be ending soon. While I am a senior, I will still be around for a couple of more semesters. That being said, I can honestly say that having been a part of this class, I come away from it having been affected in the desired manner of its creation. Connection. The Indian storytellers instinctively tap into a psychological connection that all human beings must have. That is, when stories are told orally, there seems to be a bond between the teller and the listener. I am a super senior, meaning I have been at this school off and on for almost 6 years starting in 1998. I can't tell you the names of about 5 people I have ever been in class with, but this class has been different. The trip to Cherokee really didn't connect me to the Indian culture of WNC, but it did let me experience that telling of stories...magic. The group I had in my car seemed to be the perfect amalgam of life experiences and culture. We related tales and thoughts from our lives that will equate to more than a head nod and wassup on the quad. In this way, the Indian tradition works, and worked beautifully. I can't believe that any of us will be naming our children after one another, but there is definitely a tremendous amount of respect for each other and our incredibly diverse thoughts on life, culture, ethnicity, faith and viewpoints. Thank you, fry-bread for your incredible mystical properties that defy all gastro-logic.

My creative project for the class

I thought I would go ahead and post my creative project on the blog. It's an original trickster tale I just wrote. Enjoy.

Coyote and the Rainbow

One day Coyote and Crow were sitting in Starbucks having coffee together. All around them were people going about there business. Some were ordering triple caff, caff, whippy, latte. Some were on their laptops Facebooking their friends and nearly all of them were on their cell phones.

"Crow, I do not like this. No one here seems to see us. It seems that we are forgotten in the world," said Coyote.

"I too have noticed this. These human beings we have created no longer seem to need us. They have forgotten the old ways. They have forgotten how to fish. They have forgotten how to hunt. They have forgotten how to sing and dance at the fire," Crow replied. "What shall we do about it?"

"Crow, we must wipe them out and start over. These human beings are bad. They hurt each other, and they hate the world we gave them. See how they pollute it. Yes, we must rub them out and start over."

"No, brother. That has been done before and did not work. We must find a way to punish them and let them know we still exist."

"But how?", Coyote howled.

"We must take away something important to them. It must be something they cannot do without. Then when that thing is taken away, they will cry out to us and beg for it back."

"I see," said Coyote. "But what is the thing they love the most?"

Crow thought and thought. He looked around and saw everyone on their laptops and cell phones, so he decided on something. "I know. We will take away their technology. Once they are without Facebook and Twitter and Verizon, they will cry like babies and will come to us and plead for them back. We will say no. You have been very bad and we will not give this back to you."

Coyote pondered this in his heart. He said, "No that will not do. They are too smart and will only develop an alternate way to do these things. We must think of something else."

Crow thought and thought and then said, "I have it. We will take away their language. If they cannot communicate, they will not be able to work together and will have to come to us for help. They will cry like babies and will come to us and plead for them back. We will say no. You have been very bad and we will not give this back to you."

Coyote again pondered this. "No that will not do either. They will indeed not be able to speak to each other, but they will also not be able to sing and worship us. No something else must be thought of."

Crow then thought. And he thought. He flew up into the rafters and sat upon the beams. He hopped to and fro looking down on the human beings trying to get an idea. He noticed the technology, he noticed the language and the noise. He hopped back down to Coyote and said, "I have nothing."

Coyote scratched his ear and looked around. His keen eyes darted back and forth. His nose wriggled with scent. He panted. Then he slurped his tongue and licked his muzzle. "Aha! I have it!

"Please, brother. Tell me so that I can begin the destruction," cawed Crow.

Coyote placed his paws on the table and leaned very close to Crow. "We will take away all the color."

"Whaaaat?", Crow screeched. "What will that do? This is a foolish idea Coyote."

"No. It is a great idea. You will see. I will gather all of the color in the world and put into a great ball and hide it."

"I still don't see what this will do," said Crow.

Coyote ran around in circles and jumped with joy. "It is the best idea ever! I must start at once." Right then Coyote ran around the Starbucks and began taking color out of things. He took the color from the clothes on the human beings. He took the color from the walls. He took the color from the laptops. Then he ran down the street taking more and more color as he went. Faster and faster he ran until he was just a blur of color himself. Soon he has gathered all of the color in the world into a giant shimmering ball. There was no color in the world. Everything was black and white. This pleased him and Crow was pleased too.

"Brother! I see now what you have done. You are very smart. Soon all of the people will complain that things are dull and colorless. They will cry like babies and will come to us and plead for them back. We will say no. You have been very bad and we will not give this back to you."

Coyote's tongue wagged in his mouth, "Yes, I too, am pleased with my idea."

Crow put a wing over his beak and squawked, "Oh, no! There is a a problem.Where will we hide the color so that the human beings will no be able to find it?" Coyote had not thought of this. He quickly had an idea. He went to find Possum.

"Possum, we have taken all of the color from the world and we need you to hide it," said Coyote. "You are very good at hiding and this will be a good job for you."

"I can do this," said Possum. "I have the perfect place." Possum climbed up onto the massive ball of color and began to roll it back and forth, and back and forth. Soon he had worked the color ball into his pouch. "See? I can keep it here in my pouch and no human being will be able to find it."

Coyote wagged his tongue and Crow cawed. They then went and listened to all of the human beings who were complaining. When the human beings begged Coyote and Crow for the color, Coyote would say, "You have been very bad and we will not give this back to you." He and Crow would then laugh and laugh.

Meanwhile, Thunder came and began to rain on the ground. He brought the rain for the crops and the streams and lakes, but his favorite job was to bring water to the flowers. He would look down and at their beauty and would even take pictures with his lightning. However when he came to water the flowers, there was no color. Thunder became very angry and he rumbled greatly and sent mighty winds and lightning bolts to strike the earth. "WHERE IS THE COLOR!? WHO HAS TAKEN ALL OF THE COLOR?"

Now Coyote and Crow were frightened and hid from Thunder. The wind and lightning smote the tree where Crow was sitting. "I must go and hide with Coyote!" Crow flew and fluttered and was tossed about violently. "Coyote, where are you brother?" he cawed. But Coyote was afraid and would not answer so Crow was beaten up by Thunder's fury.

Thunder asked Crow, "WHERE IS THE COLOR?! TELL ME OR I WILL RIP OFF YOUR WINGS!" Of course Crow blamed everything on Coyote saying it was all his doing. Thunder dropped Crow who had fainted and went to look for Coyote.

Coyote had hidden in an old fox den deep under the ground. "You cannot get me in here, Thunder," he shouted up the hole. Thunder sent the wind and lightning but could not reach Coyote. Coyote laughed and laughed. About that time, Possum fell out of his tree and began to roll around on his tremendous belly. Thunder noticed and asked Possum, "WHY ARE YOU SO FAT POSSUM? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING IN YOUR POUCH?"

Possum was no fool like Crow and Coyote, so he answered right away. "I have all the color in the world in my pouch. Coyote told me to keep it there." Thunder rolled and flashed, "SO IT WAS TRULY COYOTE. I SHALL PUNISH HIM BUT I CANNOT GET TO HIM WHEN HE IS DEEP IN THE EARTH."

Possum spoke up, "I know how you can get him great Thunder." "SPEAK IT THEN,"Thunder roared. "Make it rain and rain and rain. Let it rain for days until the water reaches deep into the hole and drowns Coyote."

Thunder laughed a loud booming thunder peal, "HO, HO HO! THAT IS AN EXCELLENT IDEA." Thunder let it rain for one day, two, three, four. After one week, Coyote finally floated up out of the hole, dead. Thunder revived him with his breath, "YOU HAVE BEEN VERY BAD, COYOTE. BUT I FORGIVE YOU. NOW GO AND GIVE ALL OF THE COLOR BACK TO THE WORLD. POSSUM WILL HELP YOU." Both Coyote and Possum started to complain that the job was too big and would take forever. Thunder grew angry and shot down a lightning bolt. It singed Coyote's tail, which is why it has a black tip, and it burned all of the hair off of Possum's which is why it is bare. Possum was blown so high into the sky that he left a streak from one end of the world to the other. To this day when Thunder comes by, if he sees Possum not doing his job, he will send lightning to make him jump into the sky and leave a rainbow.

THE END

We've walked far and seen much.

Today in class the question was put forth by Dr. Hobby, "What have you learned so far?" A simple enough question but one full of complexity when it comes to the writings and films we have viewed in this class. I'd like to be able to nail it down to one thing such as, "I learned that there are written texts by Indians and they are good." Or maybe, "Hey there are funny and raunchy stories in Indian folktales." I honestly cannot tack this whole course on just one thing, one concept that will define Indian literature. 
     That being said, I can admit to learning dozens of things. I can also admit that many of my preconceived notions and prejudices have been shaken and removed. I learned that if I set aside these constructs of human nature, mainly, race, education, progress, that my mind can open and more readily help me to understand American Indian culture.
     The most helpful author so far in this venture has been Sherman Alexie. I was brought up watching westerns on TV and at the movies and they were my whole viewpoint on how Indians were supposed to be. Warbonnets, bow and arrow, half-naked fire dancing, these were my experience. Who knew they had a language that could be put down on paper? Why would I even care; they're savages, right? Alexie brought for me a modern sense of humanity about American Indians. A connection of people to people, heart to heart. I caught myself saying, "Hey, that happened to me." or "Wow, that is totally a reservation thing and I have no reference to understand it,".  His poetry, stories and website are full of not stories, but life. Just life. I can see myself easily being friends with him and his people. I can also see myself in deep meaningful debate with some of his ideas. But that's what friends do.
     People become friends because they have a shared experience. Whether it's school, church, family or even something traumatic, people need  connections. When it comes to a connection with the American Indian our connection is unfortunately the tragic. One can only hope that we could use this connection in a positive manner. Set aside the guilt, the horror and just be people, just be friends.

Two missing speeches in The World Turned Upside Down

Tecumseh

Red Jacket   

I was quite surpised when I read, The World Turned Upside Down, that there were two key speeches that were left out. Noted, that there is a lot of Indian writing left out of this novel and that in itself made me laugh at the thought of, "there's just not enough written by Indians to justify a course study in it," theorem. However, two powerful speeches were made around the same tribe. One is made by the chief, Red Jacket and is addressed to the U.S. Senate. It is peaceful if not firm call to the Senate to stop the advancement of whites into indian lands. The second speech is made to the Indian nations in an attempt to unite the tribes. Tecumseh, was unsuccesful in uniting all of the tribes against the whites, but his speech here is still effective in it's point.
  I am particularly impressed at how these "savage uneducated" human beings, so eloquently express themselves. If these men were alive today, they would make millions on the speech circuits. The would probably have there own talk shows.  Enjoy.

Red Jacket Speech to the U.S. Senate. Around 1808 or 1809

Friend and brother; it was the will of the Great Spirit that we should meet together this day. He orders all things, and he has given us a fine day for our council. He has taken his garment from before the sun, and caused it to shine with brightness upon us; our eyes are opened, that we see clearly; our ears are unstopped, that we have been able to hear distinctly the words that you have spoken; for all these favors we thank the Great Spirit, and him only.
Brother, this council fire was kindled by you; it was at your request that we came together at this time; we have listened with attention to what you have said. You requested us to speak our minds freely; this gives us great joy, for we now consider that we stand upright before you, and can speak what we think; all have heard your voice, and all speak to you as one man; our minds are agreed.
Brother, you say you want an answer to your talk before you leave this place. It is right you should have one, as you are a great distance from home, and we do not wish to detain you; but we will first look back a little, and tell you what our fathers have told us, and what we have heard from the white people.
Brother, listen to what we say. There was a time when our forefathers owned this great island. Their seats extended from the rising to the setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of Indians. He had created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals for food. He made the bear and the beaver, and their skins served us for clothing. He had scattered them over the country, and taught us how to take them. He had caused the earth to produce corn for bread. All this he had done for his red children because he loved them. If we had any disputes about hunting grounds, they were generally settled without the shedding of much blood. But an evil day came upon us; your forefathers crossed the great waters, and landed on this island. Their numbers were small; they found friends, and not enemies; they told us they had fled from their own country for fear of wicked men, and come here to enjoy their religion. They asked for a small seat; we took pity on them, granted their request, and they sat down amongst us; we gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return. The white people had now found our country; tidings were carried back, and more came amongst us; yet we did not fear them, we took them to be friends; they called us brothers; we believed them, and gave them a larger seat. At length, their numbers had greatly increased; they wanted more land; they wanted our country. Our eyes were opened, and our minds became uneasy. Wars took place; Indians were hired to fight against Indians, and many of our people were destroyed. They also brought strong liquor among us; it was strong and powerful, and has slain thousands.
Brother, our seats were once large, and yours were very small; you have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets; you have got our country, but are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon us.
Brother, continue to listen. You say you are sent to instruct us how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to his mind, and if we do not take hold of the religion which you white people teach, we shall be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right, and we are lost; how do we know this to be true? We understand that your religion is written in a book; if it was intended for us as well as you, why has not the Great Spirit given it to us, and not only to us, but why did he not give to our forefathers the knowledge of that book, with the means of understanding it rightly? We only know what you tell us about it. How shall we know when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people?
Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit; if there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agree, as you can all read the book?
Brother, we do not understand these things. We are told that your religion was given to your forefathers, and has been handed down from father to son. We also have a religion which was given to our forefathers, and has been handed down to us their children. We worship that way. It teacheth us to be thankful for all the favors we receive; to love each other, and to be united. We never quarrel about religion.
Brother, the Great Spirit has made us all; but he has made a great difference between his white and red children; he has given us a different complexion, and different customs; to you he has given the arts; to these he has not opened our eyes; we know these things to be true. Since he has made so great a difference between us in other things, why may we not conclude that he has given us a different religion according to our understanding. The Great Spirit does right; he knows what is best for his children; we are satisfied.
Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion, or take it from you; we only want to enjoy our own.
Brother, you say you have not come to get our land or our money, but to enlighten our minds. I will now tell you that I have been at your meetings, and saw you collecting money from the meeting. I cannot tell what this money was intended for, but suppose it was for your minister; and if we should conform to your way of thinking, perhaps you may want some from us.
Brother, we are told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbors; we are acquainted with them; we will wait, a little while and see what effect your preaching has upon them. If we find it does them good, makes them honest and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will then consider again what you have said.
Brother, you have now heard our answer to your talk, and this is all we have to say at present. As we are going to part, we will come and take you by the hand, and hope the Great Spirit will protect you on your journey, and return you safe to your friends.
Source: Daniel Drake, Lives of Celebrated American Indians, Boston, Bradbury, Soden & Co. 1843), 283–87.

Now compare that peaceful one to the one presented here by Tecumseh.  Although this speech comes to us through a second hand source. It is considered a very reliable one. This one too is written in the early 1800's.

Tecumseh's Speech to the Osages.

[1] Brothers, we all belong to one family; we are all children of the Great Spirit; we walk in the

same path; slake our thirst at the same spring; and now affairs of the greatest concern lead us to

smoke the pipe around the same council fire!

[2] Brothers, we are friends; we must assist each other to bear our burdens. The blood of many of

our fathers and brothers has run like water on the ground, to satisfy the avarice of the white men.

We, ourselves, are threatened with a great evil; nothing will pacify them but the destruction of all

the red men.

[3] Brothers, when the white men first set foot on our grounds, they were hungry; they had no

place on which to spread their blankets, or to kindle their fires. They were feeble; they could do

nothing for themselves. Our fathers commiserated their distress, and shared freely with them

whatever the Great Spirit had given his red children. They gave them food when hungry,

medicine when sick, spread skins for them to sleep on, and gave them grounds, that they might

hunt and raise corn. Brothers, the white people are like poisonous serpents: when chilled, they

are feeble and harmless; but invigorate them with warmth, and they sting their benefactors to

death.

[4] The white people came among us feeble; and now that we have made them strong, they wish

to kill us, or drive us back, as they would wolves and panthers. Brothers, the white men are not

friends to the Indians: at first, they only asked for land sufficient for a wigwam; now, nothing will

satisfy them but the whole of our hunting grounds, from the rising to the setting sun.

2

[5] Brothers, the white men want more than our hunting grounds; they wish to kill our old men,

women, and little ones.

[6] Brothers, many winters ago there was no land; the sun did not rise and set; all was darkness.

The Great Spirit made all things. He gave the white people a home beyond the great waters. He

supplied these grounds with game, and gave them to his red children; and he gave them strength

and courage to defend them.

[7] Brothers, my people wish for peace; the red men all wish for peace; but where the white

people are, there is no peace for them, except it be on the bosom of our mother.

[8] Brothers, the white men despise and cheat the Indians; they abuse and insult them; they do

not think the red men sufficiently good to live. The red men have borne many and great injuries;

they ought to suffer them no longer. My people will not; they are determined on vengeance; they

have taken up the tomahawk; they will make it fat with blood; they will drink the blood of the

white people.

[9] Brothers, my people are brave and numerous; but the white people are too strong for them

alone. I wish you to take up the tomahawk with them. If we all unite, we will cause the rivers to

stain the great waters with their blood.

[10] Brothers, if you do not unite with us, they will first destroy us, and then you will fall an easy

prey to them. They have destroyed many nations of red men, because they were not united,

because they were not friends to each other.

[11] Brothers, The white people send runners amongst us; they wish to make us enemies, that

they may sweep over and desolate our hunting grounds, like devastating winds, or rushing

waters.

[12] Brothers, our Great Father [the King of England] over the great waters is angry with the

white people, our enemies. He will send his brave warriors against them; he will send us rifles,

and whatever else we want—he is our friend, and we are his children.

[13] Brothers, who are the white people that we should fear them? They cannot run fast, and are

good marks to shoot at: they are only men; our fathers have killed many of them: we are not

squaws, and we will stain the earth red with their blood.

[14] Brothers, the Great Spirit is angry with our enemies; he speaks in thunder, and the earth

swallows up villages, and drinks up the Mississippi. The great waters will cover their lowlands;

their corn cannot grow; and the Great Spirit will sweep those who escape to the hills from the

earth with his terrible breath.

[15] Brothers, we must be united; we must smoke the same pipe; we must fight each other’s

battles; and, more than all, we must love the Great Spirit: he is for us; he will destroy our

enemies, and make all his red children happy.

I am not an Indian I am a starship captain.

I'm a trekkie.  I know every line and detail about the series, movies and even the books. Complete nerd.I am also a foremost authority on sci-fi in general. I believe that it is an awesome platform to discuss societal themes and problems and bring them to the forefront. I have discovered one thing that is a common thread throughout most sci-fi series or literature, and that is the oppression of other cultures.
    When Gene Roddenberry first pitched his idea to the networks, he had to couch it as a "space cowboy" type show. Even the name, "Star Trek" is a variation on the original working title of "Wagon Train to The Stars".  Roddenberry had written several episodes for TV westerns of the day and wanted to address the ideas of Indian oppression but was not allowed to do this, not because of any prejudice per se by the network censors, but because no one would watch a show where the Indians won. The image above is from a scene from the original series, where Kirk loses his memory and is adopted into an Indian culture of a distant planet. The episode is terrible and badly written, don't waste your time. However, it is the only overt mention by Roddenberry of what he wants to show the world, we need to get along.
  Roddenberry was raised Baptist but his shows were largely agnostic in nature, showing diverse faiths, beliefs and teachings. His ideas sparked a common leaning in most science fiction produced even today. Pick up any sci-fi novel an most likely you will see where a ferocious alien race seeks to come and rid our planet of the virus that is humanity so that they may deplete our resources or stop our spread or merely because we're different and not them. Sometimes they seek to enslave us or even worse, re-educate us into their way of thinking.  This last part is ironic in the Star Trek genre in that the newer series, Star Trek The Next Generation, finds the Federation at peace with the Klingons and even allows them to serve on Federation vessels. The Federation's greatest enemy later became a species known as the Borg. They sought not really to conquer but to "assimilate" every world into their collective. There tag line was, "We are the Borg, resistance is futile. We will add your cultural distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile." All you would need at this point is for someone off to the side piping, "Garry Owen" and you would have a Wounded Knee all over again.
     I was raised on this golden age of television and never realized until adulthood how rampant this theme would become in most of the sci-fi that came out. There is not one sci-fi series that I know of that has not based there program on this theme of exploration at the cost of humanity or it's enslavement. Below is a list of series and the enemy or oppressive cause. This list is by all means not all inclusive.

Star Trek-Klingons, Romulans, Borg, Cardassians
Battlestar Galactica:  Cylons
StarGate: G'uual, Ori
Buck Rogers: Draconians
Space Above and Beyond: Chigs
Dr Who: Daleks and about a million more.
  The list goes on and on. Most of these series start out with the battles just being your basic cowboys and Indians type fights. They are a menacing race and we must defend at all cost. Usually, however, about the 3rd season when a series has snuggled in to a secure spot with the network, we see changes. We see an episode where the "Indians" are not so bad. They even show a hidden humanity. Eventually we find a common goal or want or for the most part a common enemy to battle. This leads the "cowboys and Indians" to start playing nice with each other and eventually mutual support and friendship.
    I know it's unusual and weird to find a rant about sci-fi on a blog about indigenous people, but it is worth a look into the fantastic to see a reflection of the real.
    

Fancy Dancing

I went ahead and rented, "The Business of Fancydancing" before class today. I wanted to watch it first and not feel rushed as I often do in our class when watching films. I feel I need to dive right in to the critique, however.
  I think the movie was good for the most part. Evans is a fantastic actor, the story was well told and I found myself laughing out loud in many parts. The one part that I felt was ill handled was the homosexual aspect. The story itself is about a homosexual Indian poet, yet I felt that the film after a while tended to emphasize more on that aspect than the story seemed to really need. By that, I felt that the director and producers were more interested in making a gay film than they were about telling Sydney's story. While the story does center around Sydney's poetry and how gay life influences it, I think the director was more interested in showing more of the sex aspect than was necessary. We find this a lot in many heterosexual films as well. You only have to pop in any rom-com DVD to find that out.
  My main point here is that Alexie's poetry is astounding. I felt that the director did fantastic in translating the poetry aspects in to the film. In fact he excelled at this. It was the non-poetry, and the in-between portions that I thought lacked cohesion. If felt like a fine cabinet with all the boards cut perfectly, but no nails to assemble it with. Not even a cameo by Alexie could save this aspect.
    That being said, I am going to watch it again in class and carefully pick it apart this time and look forward to listening to other comments.

Question 15

 

 

In class we were assigned a group and given a set of questions to blog about the book, Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. One of the questions stood out to us in the group. 15. In "Someone Kept Saying Powwow," Junior describes Norma as "a cultural lifeguard." After he revealed to her how he had joined with others to mistreat a struggling black basketball player during college, why was she finally able to forgive him?  Where else in the collection does the theme of forgiveness play a role?  Early in this chapter, Sherman states that he is outside of his culture. He identifies with the homosexuals, (no one wants them either) according to the general thinking. He identifies with the black basketball player that he himself berated and taunted, much to the attention of the entire nation. He doesn't understand why he did that except to try and fit in with his white teammates. Through all of this he talks of a girl/woman named Norma who seems for lack of better words to keep him anchored in his heritage. She does not accomplish this through pride of nation but with examples of what it must feel like to be shamed. How is it okay for him to shame others when so much of it is being done to the Indian? She gives the example of Pete Rose, one of the greatest players of all time being remembered for his exploits off the field rather than on it. In some way, Alexie can connect here. The Indian people as a whole are judged by their past and stereotypes, drunks, lazy, dumb, fierce. Throughout this book, however, we see him connecting with outsiders, like 7-11 clerks, and dumb kids who blow there fingers off.

     Forgiveness is an abstract concept at its most powerful. "I forgive you", is a simple unpronounceable phrase. It is seldom said and even more seldom, acted upon. Even in this book, it is seldom seen and more than once placed with blame and shame. Responsibility should be an ongoing process, but progress cannot be made with a blame anchor attached. Knowledge of atrocities should be taught in the realm of not letting it happen again.

 

Tonto, go to town.

There is an old Bill Cosby routine where Lone Ranger tells Tonto to go to town and Tonto gets the snot beat out of him. After a while, Tonto should just say, "Heck, no! You go to town! I'm staying here!
Jay Silverheels was born Harold Smith. A Mohawk Indian and a tremendous athlete. Most of his early career was playing the standard Indian/stuntman, fitting the profile as it were. Only during his stardom as Tonto, did he gain any notoriety. He became the ideal Indian. I always played Tonto when when I was a kid. Mainly because I was the one with the homemade bow and the dark hair. My cousin wore the mask. Neither one of us had horses, just bicycles and miles of mountain trails and logging roads.
      In the title story Alexie tells of having a fight with his (white) girlfriend and deciding to drive off and blow off some steam. He ends up in a upscale neighborhood where he is promptly checked up on by the police. They claim he doesn't "fit the profile" of the neighborhood and that folks were nervous. It seems that most of these stories are just that, not fitting the profile. He makes connections only with other people who don't fit the profile like the 7-11 clerk. He states it best by quoting an Indian poet who says Indians can reside in the city but they can't live there. The whole chapter is essentially about not fitting the profile. Alexie in Seattle, the white kid basketball player, him and his white girlfriend, the job at the student exchange.
     As an older student, I don't fit the profile of UNCA. I'm cool with that. In most ways my life experience gives me an edge in my learning process. Alexie and I are almost exactly the same age. His humor and mine are similar, he has a passion for basketball while I like football. Both of us are writers. The big difference is that I "fit the profile" and yet he has taken is adversity and turned it into an asset.
I'm still probably better shooting a bow from a bicycle though.

Sherman Alexie on Colbert

I can't say I'm am not the biggest fan of Colbert. He's funny and sarcastic, and incredibly sharp. I can't say I'm a fan because I haven't watched enough to make a judgement. However, out of the few shows I have caught, this is one of them and it featured Sherman Alexie. If you think Alexie comes across as funny and smart in writing, wait until you see him live. Take note of what he says to Colbert about not allowing his book to not be on Kindle.
    http://www.fallsapart.com/sherman_on_the_colbert_report_2009
Colbert's response to Alexie calling himself Indian is especially hilarious. This point got me to thinking, though. What do we call ourselves. Let's explore.
   All my life I have been called white, Caucasian, honky, cracker but I am all of these and none. I was raised in a prejudiced home with prejudiced siblings and relatives and was corporate to it myself. The irony of the whole thing is, that my grandparents on one side were of Cherokee lineage. My other ancestors were of Scots-Nordic-English heritage. And have you seen my hair? My great grandfather was named Gasperson (Jewish name). With this being said, most of this genetic make up was well known in my family. While it was okay to speak bad of other "races" it was not mentioned about our own dubious blood soup. Even following the traditional Christian time line of creation, at the least we should have acknowledged the fact that we all (people) started out brown. Ahh, that wonderful skin tone that I always longed for. My whole family on my father's side and even my sibling all inherited the strong Aryan features of blue-grey eyes and blond hair not to mention the fine beach tan ability. While I, on the other hand inherited all the Cherokee features of dark hair, big teeth, alcoholism. My skin however, never tans. If I had to choose an Indian name, it would be "Burns Like Bacon". One good thing is that whenever we have a family reunion photo, my mom and I are easily spotted. In one photo we look like some people that might have wandered over or came as friends of the family. My cousin and I were born a few days apart and couldn't have looked more alike. However, he inherited the Aryan features and got all of the girls.
    My point is, why do they call it racial equality? What is the white race, the black one, the Indian one? I always mark other on applications. Or if they have a blank, I write human. Once on an application for a job I did not really want I wrote; Human/Klingon. They called me to offer me the job. I didn't call back but I should have and said that I was having a B'atleth tournament that week and needed to decline. Race is stupid. Our cultures, especially the U.S. is so mixed that any body that is anybody can say, "I'm Scots-Irish-African and nobody would dispute it. I have a friend who is Russian-Peurto-Rican. He's married to a Japanese woman. He calls his kids, Russianicanese. Why can't people just embrace the soup.

Skins by Chris Eyre

I just saw the movie, "Skins" by Chris Eyre this weekend. My sister in law heard that I was taking an Indian Lit class and suggested the movie to me. I have to say that I was entranced. I had seen "Smoke Signals" a few years back and loved it but I had never even heard of this movie. I think this was a better movie by far. Eyre set out not to make a movie about Indians but to make a movie about people who happen to be Indian. It could be argued that Eyre threw every type of stereotype into this film and that he should be ashamed. but in the interview I posted below, he states that these are not stereotypes, this is how things are. I agree. The character of Mogie, played with Oscar caliber by Graham Greene, is easily the most believable character in any Indian film I've seen to date. I see in him not just another drunk Indian, but another drunken Human. I myself am a recovered alcoholic. I have been dry since 1987. I was just like Mogie in most ways, maybe worse because funds were readily available and so was the booze.
    I think the best thing about Eyre's movie is his strive to give Indians a story. Storytelling is pivotal and key in all native cultures. Every tribe we've read and heard of, has a tale to tell. It seems that over the past 150 years, those stories have been taken away, Tales have been replaced by "accounts". Accounts of massacre, accounts of starvation, accounts of poverty, accounts of extinction. The movie is based on a novel by Adrian Louis, a half-breed, as he calls himself, but a writer and voice for many tribes in Nevada. Louis and Eyre seem to want to create tales to fit the modern aspect of the Indian. In fact, the movie seems to center around the "trickster" in the form of a spider, who every time a spider shows up, bad things happen, really bad things. That voice is important. It gives us all a voice in the matters. Whether that voice is condemning or condoning, it is still a voice. That is what I hope Eyre continues to strive to do. Give all of us human-beings, a voice.
 I have posted the interview below with Chris Eyre, I hope you enjoy.

Chris Eyre Interview Transcript (Sep '02) CHRIS EYRE INTERVIEW interview page 1 | e-mail Chris Neumer Chris Eyre's: article | interview transcript | photos | imdb page CHRIS NEUMER: I saw your recent film Skins and I really enjoyed it. I tell you that because I actually reserve that statement for films that I have seen and enjoyed. Everyone is talking about how this is a Native American project and it seems that lost in all of this press is that the movie is pretty damn solid. I just keep reading about how you are Native American and it just seems that people continually overlook the fact that this is a good work of cinema. CHRIS EYRE: Yeah, I’m glad that you noticed. I think it is. I thought Smoke Signals was. I think ultimately it’s more about the story. I think it has to be provocative and interesting people cinema, but more than that I’m more interested in where the movie ends. Where the movie ends is really a beginning point for a lot of the Pandora’s Box as it were of what is Indian country and how does it relate to America. I see the movie as a reflection of our Native American fabric of America. I appreciate the fact that it’s a solid movie and a good movie, but really for me I’m trying to strive for touching something that doesn’t exist in cinema and that is representation of contemporary Native America. I think that we live in segregated places in this country and I don’t think that we are harmonious. Administrations would have us believe… CHRIS EYRE: We’re really invisible especially when it comes to movies and television. We’re actually invisible. I’m not trying to make that an article with you or an interview with you that’s about victimization, but just like my movie, I think that there are certain truths and we aren’t being objective about those things being truths. CHRIS EYRE: Like alcoholism. People act like it’s a stereotype. It’s not a stereotype, it’s a truth. There’s no secret. People who think it’s airing dirty laundry aren’t strong enough to be objective and say this is something that has been an affliction not only in Indian country, but throughout a lot of America. In my movie I just try to be honest, find that truth. CHRIS EYRE: Certainly my goal was to make a person; I didn’t think of him as an alcoholic. If you think the movie’s about alcoholism, you really miss the boat. Alcoholism is only a symptom of the condition on that reservation. The movie is not about alcoholism. I never thought about it in terms of making an alcoholic character. I thought about it terms of making a story about a man that I care about. It’s interesting. We’re talking about some things that are paradoxes. On one hand we’re talking about stereotypes and on the other hand we’re talking about things that shouldn’t be stereotypes. Strange. We’re walking a fine line here. CHRIS EYRE: The fact that I’m trying to portray these characters as people. That shouldn’t be novel. CHRIS EYRE: That was Justin Lin. CHRIS EYRE: I think it is very progressive in the sense that. I feel that in order to move forward you really have to own the good, the bad and the ugly of yourself. It’s about me as an artist or an individual owning all the parts of myself that I don’t like, but that is what makes me whole as a person. Know what I mean? And by that same token I think whether it was Justin’s movie or Skins, I hate political correctness. I was making a movie that was about people. It wasn’t about am I scared to talk about alcoholism or am I scared to talk about patriotism or backlash of patriotism. Even in this day and age, I think that you can get away with all that stuff when you add the humor. Graham is really the trickster in a large way. His humor is the thing that carries people through all the hard times. That’s the saving grace of anybody. I haven’t seen Justin’s movie but certainly it’s always about the humor, how you can tell a group of people being themselves, being authentic. Especially in this case, oppressed people because they know how to make light of their situation. They know how to make light of themselves. CHRIS EYRE: One of the marks of being Indian is always the ability to make light of your situation because there is an alliance in that. There is an alliance in always being able to laugh at just your circumstance and situation. That was the same way with Smoke Signals. I think that this one goes a step further because… Smoke Signals was a charming movie to me. This movie I would say is a powerful movie. It’s a real movie. Maybe it’s not the Indians that people want to see, but these are Indians that are real to me. One of the interesting things to me was Hollywood’s version of this movie was Dances With Wolves because these are Lakotas. There are Lakotas in Dances With Wolves and there are Lakotas in Skins. Only in my version we are talking about Indians and in Hollywood’s version they are talking about Native Americans. CHRIS EYRE: Indians weren’t the ones who said, "Hey, we want to be called Native Americans." ‘Indians’ is an adopted word also, but the fact of the matter is it is one that we own. ‘Native American’ is about distance, about segregation. When people stop coming up to me and asking what I want to be called then I’ll know that things are starting to be unified in terms of America. When people ask what I want to be called, I tell them ‘Chris.’ That’s what we’re talking about here, right? Everybody’s too sensitive, too touchy-feely and too politically correct. In terms of Indians being noble, somewhere after the 1960s when everybody smoked a lot of pot, Indians became Native Americans because Blacks became African Americans. I’m not saying all the Indian people bought into that, but it was an effort to show respect to people. You can show respect to people… I mean these guys call each other ‘skin’ because I know that’s what real people call each other. My movie is not about romanticizing Indians. That’s what Dances With Wolves with its Native Americans was about. My characters are flawed in the most beautiful way. They are flawed in the human way. CHRIS EYRE: That’s what makes us all the same. That’s what I’m talking about. I love Bogie??? I made the movie because I love Bogie. I want the world to love Bogie because he’s a person who is important to me. Because he is me. CHRIS EYRE: In a metaphoric sense. I couldn’t have made the movie unless I had those projections that could have been me. Certainly that isn’t me. CHRIS EYRE: (Tells Chris his battery may go dead, but to keep going) CHRIS EYRE: Graham said that this role was daunting to him at first because it was real. All of a sudden it was like, wait a second, it was like buckskin and playing Indian, you know what I’m talking about? You’re talking about these are real people. Relatives or community members or people that we’ve all known and he confessed it himself that he didn’t want to do this role. It was too dark and what he brought to it was comedy. He elevated the whole thing with the comedy. Eric was the same way. He said he was so happy to put on a pair of Levis and go to work and not a loincloth. CHRIS EYRE: There was a lot. Graham was somebody that I was really learning from and Eric is a great actor. We were cutting lines left and right just because they didn’t feel like those were right. They could convey what they were trying to convey without the dialogue. Look at Eric when he’s in the truck after he burns Mogie. That was improv and it’s a testament to the fact that these Indian actors deserve good material. I don’t think that Indian actors get good material. CHRIS EYRE: Really we were challenging ourselves. Graham and I talked about it later. I want to challenge myself and I want them to challenge me. I think that’s when everybody is at their best. CHRIS EYRE: I think that you are right and I’m learning that. CHRIS EYRE: I love voyeurism. Voyeurism, a long lens. That’s the way you learn. That’s the way that I really see things. I didn’t use a long lens as much as I wanted to but it’s about being privy about something that you are not supposed to be privy to in a lot of cases. And also wee didn’t have a chance to do a lot of coverage. Graham and his son inside the shack, that was just a wide shot. We just let it go and I didn’t have coverage of that. Graham and Noah Watt???? can carry that scene in a wide shot. It was beautiful because it was all real. That house wasn’t designed. That was a real guy’s house on Pine Ridge. That’s the way it was. Graham walked in and looked around. He looked at the bed he was going to lie on and he said, "Are those going to be part of the production?" because it was a real house. I told him yes. That was all he needed to know to be comfortable and lie down and do a scene. The rest of the house was ‘as is.’ We paid $150 for that location and that’s a guy’s house. Those were people… There’s no substitute, you know. CHRIS EYRE: What was it? CHRIS EYRE: There’s a lot of setup in this movie. The first act ends really late. You know where he sees the green shoelaces at the Texaco? That’s really where the second act begins and that is very, very late. There’s a lot of stuff at the very beginning, acclimation. That’s why I started out with that documentary footage with the voiceover because after I finished the movie I realized that not everybody knows where Pine Ridge is. Not everybody knows all about Pine Ridge, or the proximity of Mount Rushmore. I pulled that stuff from NBC Nightly News. It’s all real stuff and real statistics. I thought in the spirit of the movie, the tone of the movie, I’m trying to make something real. I was trying to scratch the surface of the reality, so to marry it with the documentary footage and the voiceover to acclimate people. If people in Germany see the movie… There are so many disparities of education regarding what people know and don’t know about Native America, that you have to have a common starting point. There’s so much information at the beginning that the second act starts really late. I’m glad that you thought it wove together okay because I was like, "I’ve got to get this movie going by the first 20 minutes." It only starts moving once he sees those green shoelaces the second time. CHRIS EYRE: Revolving. CHRIS EYRE: You know what’s interesting about what you are saying? That’s what I’m saying. The end of the movie is really the beginning. You’ve opened up the Pandora’s box of why. Why do the Third World conditions exist? It’s not about alcohol. It’s about the 120 years of the reservation system. CHRIS EYRE: Same as Smoke Signals. It ends in the beginning. It ends with Victor taking the first steps to healing. CHRIS EYRE: Go see Smoke Signals. Will you rent it for me? CHRIS EYRE: Yeah, because I think that you will see some similarities. CHRIS NEUMER: The last thing that I wanted to talk to you about was to ask if you ever encountered any problems with the way you were talking about defacing Mount Rushmore? In these patriotic times if you say one bad word about (end of tape) CHRIS EYRE: Patriotism for me is about exercising your right to speak or to exercise the democracy that you have in an effort to make what we have better in this American family. We do live in the best country in the world. That’s not bias, that’s truth. What we’re going through is changes all the time. If we can’t dialogue about how to make our country better… If we’re going to be the humanitarians of the world, the first thing I think we need to do is to know our history of this country. What I don’t think we’ve done is know our history of Native Americans in this country. It’s something people sweep under the rug. My movie is like you were saying, it evolves. The end is really about a Pandora’s Box. CHRIS EYRE: I’m too young to get on a perch and wave a flag and for that to be my patriotism. STUMPED? Magazine | Columns | Quotes | Interviews | Subscribe (c) Stumped, 1998-2006 CHRIS NEUMER: You do like that image of the Pandora’s box. For what it’s worth, I thought the poster art was pretty cool. I thought it was a good image and would probably grab a few more people to take a look at the film. CHRIS NEUMER: I will rent it for you and if you are interested, I’ll even give you a call back and give you my impression of it. CHRIS NEUMER: I must confess that I have not seen Smoke Signals. CHRIS NEUMER: It’s like life in that respect you know. Even though this might be the end of your particular job, tomorrow brings on new challenges that today has set up. CHRIS NEUMER: Exactly. CHRIS NEUMER: You kind of get the feeling when he comes across the guy in the deserted house that this might be a mystery. Then you see the vigilante aspect and I wondered if this was going to be something like Unbreakable. And then, no, it wasn’t that. Is it going to be like a brother drama like this. And, no, it wasn’t. It constantly seems to be… CHRIS NEUMER: The way the characters go off in several different directions. They are dealing with one over-arching principal, but they are dealing with this in several different ways. CHRIS NEUMER: No, there isn’t. It comes across with an authenticity that you’re not going to see if it’s on a sound stage somewhere. One thing that I liked about the plot was the fact that it goes in a couple of different directions. There’s sort of the vigilante aspect, dealing with Mogie and his chronic problems and coming to grips with where he is in comparison with other people. Even the memories that both boys had with their father. It all comes back together in the end when everything gets sort of connected. Usually when you see a film that goes in several different directions at the same time, you instantly think of some film like Batman Forever that is just a mess. In this particular case it was quite fluid the way everything interwove together. I am curious to know if that was a purposeful interweaving or if that was the original intent. CHRIS NEUMER: I liked it because you had a very subtle directorial presence there. It wasn’t intrusive. There were a couple of different shots that really stuck in my head. There’s one shot of when Rudy is driving in his car and you are shooting this from about a block away. There was another, the P.O.V. shot when Rudy looks out in front of the liquor store. Little things like that… CHRIS NEUMER: It’s interesting too that you wrote and directed this. It just seems like that’s what you have to do, create your own project unless you want to fall prey to the stereotypes that are rampant within the studio system. CHRIS NEUMER: I think that you could extend that statement to even some other minority groups. It’s like you have to write your own. CHRIS NEUMER: I think that was what really came through in the final product too. Roles like that seem like they are pretty hard to pass up as well, just from an actor’s standpoint. Was there a lot of improvisation on the set or was what you guys shot, what showed up in the final cut, was that what you had written? CHRIS NEUMER: It was just amazing to me to see Eric and Graham completely embodying these roles. CHRIS NEUMER: You got two very, very commendable and solid performances with the two leads. I haven’t seen Eric in any movie since Last of the Mohicans whenever that was, 12 years ago. It just seemed like both of them morphed into these roles and just captured everything. CHRIS NEUMER: Oh, really? CHRIS NEUMER: That’s the best kind of flaw. CHRIS NEUMER: I have to ask. What do you see as the difference between the two terms when you say Native American and Indian? CHRIS NEUMER: That’s a very interesting point that you don’t hear very much. Once you can make fun of it, it seems that’s going the right way, but of course that would conflict greatly with the politically correct version of what the media portrays. CHRIS NEUMER: This is the one that got the big shouting match among the film critic audience members at the end. It’s interesting to think, and I compared Skins to that in as much as people are saying, "How can you do this to Asian Americans. Look at what you are doing to them." My reaction to both films was, I’m not sure if I’m being naïve or I’m being super enlightened, but when I watched this movie, I just saw people. Granted they were American Indian people, but to me they were just two guys going about, doing their thing. It just seems interesting that that is not the collective opinion of this film in the American mainstream. CHRIS NEUMER: No. It’s interesting too because there was a film that was out at Sundance this year called Better Luck Tomorrow. It was… CHRIS NEUMER: And what is it that shouldn’t be a stereotype? CHRIS NEUMER: I thought it was very interesting because there are so many different alcoholics that you see in Hollywood films, they stumble around and fall down, swear a lot, but Graham Greene and Mogie??? Seemed to be a more realistic alcoholic with his character. Was there any conversation about that before you guys started shooting? CHRIS NEUMER: If I could just interrupt you to ask you, what are these truths that you are speaking of? CHRIS NEUMER: It’s almost as if the American Indian isn’t even a minority any more, even smaller than that.

Coyote and Man

The performances in class on Thursday were to say the least, outstanding. Although, impromptu they were just the right amount of catharsis that the originators of these tales intended. Reading the tales and visualizing them in my mind, while engaging, in no way had the same impact that the actual performances had. I've read the entire book already, yet the tales I remember best are the ones, we enacted in the class. I can understand while oral tradition is a much more effective means of transferring these stories from generation to generation.  Changing the subject slightly, I want to talk about one thing I noticed in these "trickster" tales. Although Coyote can be somewhat malicious, he genuinely cares about his people. While he is can perform all of these tricks and sometimes violent acts and attacks, he does not seem to tolerate other spirits, to do them. This ties in why "human beings" can immediately relate to these tales. Hey, he's just like us. He laughs, eats, cries, makes love and farts. Critic and writer Barbary Babcock says, 
"Although trickster's actions and personality may seem ridiculous or extreme, some scholars have noted that he/she serves an important purpose in traditional and contemporary narratives. Trickster may work as a kind of outlet for strong emotions or actions in which humans cannot indulge. These actions are at the margins of social morality and normal behavior, so humans can express and feel things through the trickster that would be unsafe to express or experience outside of stories."
I could not agree more. But my favorite quote it this one,

Tricksters are real in stories but not in the flesh. Tricksters are not blood or material, but imagination. Tricksters are the kind of thought that raises hope, that heals, that cures, that cannot be traced. The power of a trickster would be diminished, even abolished, by human representations. Humans are not tricksters, but tricksters can be human. Tricksters are not moral but live forever in imagination. And the trickster is not immortal either. Tricksters liberate the mind, and they do so in a language game. Tricksters do not represent the real or the material. Tricksters are not alive in tribal imagination to prove theories of the social scientists. Tricksters have become anthropologists, but no anthropologist has ever understood a trickster. Tricksters have become anthropologists if only long enough to overturn their theories and turn them into cold shit. But tricksters are not moral or functional. Tricksters are not artifacts. Tricksters never prove culture or the absence of culture. Tricksters do not prove the values that we live by, nor do they prove or demonstrate the responses to domination by colonial democracies. Tricksters are not comsumables. Tricksters are not breakfast cereal. Tricksters are ethereal. Tricksters only exist in a comic sense between two people who take pleasure in a language game and imagination, a noetic liberation of the mind. . . . 

                                                    ~ Gerald Vizenor, 1993


 

Wiley one

As a big admirer of Chuck Jones, I can't for the life of me, keep from seeing the image of Wile E. Coyote when I read these tales.

Just as all kids of my generation know this character, all native American children must have gotten up on Saturday, grabbed a bowl of Corn Pops and sat down in front of the village elder for some rollicking fun of story telling. In most cases they were probably acted out, sang about and in the case of the Zuni, action figures were made.
I am really, really enjoying the trickster tales in that they in no way read like western, or for that matter "Western" literature at all. The stories are sometimes stream of conciousness almost, as if to just guide the listener along with the story. The key word here being "listener". The stories are meant to be told. While I am glad to read these and I am glad they are available to us to read, I really would like to experience the catharsis of having them told by a real stroryteller in the indian tradition.
One of the coolest things I have found in reading these texts is the different styles of the narrative. Although the characters in general are the same, the personality of Coyote differs greatly. In some he is a fool, others he is on par with the Creator in power and in some he starts out the fool and becomes the powerful creator type in the same story! But one thread is common in all the stories, Coyote is for the people. He fools and tricks his People but no one else can. He seems at times to be almost a Prometheus type character displaying fatherly and loving traits.
I look forward to reading more.

The night chant

I usually find things of this nature, simplistic to say the least. I am guilty like most whites, or as I like to be called, Appalachian American, of putting my modern views and revisionist theories on this kind of poetry. I'm a literature major and that makes me dangerous when reading things of this kind.  I look for meter, tone, meaning, "what is the author telling us". I find that when I do that, I come away with a handful of crap. So, I sat and read the chant as a poem, then as a song, then  I just read it. Simply read it aloud. I placed no meaning other than just simple respect of beauty, no faith but simple love of the creator. It is a beautiful peace. The one thing that saddens me is that I still have a lot of filters that keep me from feeling the full effect.

Phfft!!

What a great line from the film, "Reel Injun". There are times when a Phfft! is needed.

Getting Started

Well, this is officially my first blog. Probably, not the last. -David