Just about a month following what I will from now on refer to Indigenous Peoples Day, comes the start of an entire month of reflecting upon our history concerning those very same people. When I began this blog, relations between indigenous peoples and the dominant whites, as well as those who conform to the greater society, were where they always have been: on the verge of either resulting in great change, or causing worsening conditions for the Natives.
What gives me heart is the growing desire of the general populace to learn more about people of color and, more specifically, indigenous peoples. I have been watching people coming out in defense of Native Sacred Lands, that are threatened by the greed of corporations. These people who have come forward to lend a hand have zero investment in those lands and will continue to have zero investment. As we learn about our real history, and not some History Channel vignette of it, the people are looking for ways to change the flow of the legacy that has been left by that history. They are also seeking to do what is right.
For them, I share the following article, and I hope that they too will share it with their friends and family. Although we may hear some tender words back, the many times we do this, we’re chiseling away the old coarse skin of hate and replacing it with equity and tolerance. We can forge the promise of All Men Created Equal, though we have yet to do so. To start, ridding of our hypocrisy would go a very long way. If that’s too much for you, and you want to dismiss it as PC crap, then please remember that you’ll be remembered as just another bigot who stagnated the glory the United States struggles to achieve—one of the bad guys, withering all that is great from within.
This time of year is wrought with stereotypes of Native people. Thankfully, November is also National Native American Heritage Month and offers many opportunities, from the classroom to the kitchen, to move past one-dimensional representations. Here are 6 suggestions of how to de-stereotype Native American heritage.
