MetaFilter posts tagged with nativeamerican

Petoskey Stones or "Crown Jewels"

Deathalicious — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:03:16 -0800

Petoskey Stones are stones of fossilized coral (Hexagonaria percarinata ) that can be found along the shore of Lake Michigan near the town of Petoskey (Population 6,000). Once polished, they can be beautiful, and are often made into jewelry. It is the state stone of Michigan and is celebrated in an annual festival. The origin of the name of the stone, however, is under contention. According to a common story (the one in the Wikipedia article as well as the official booklet provided by the Geological Survey Division of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality), the stones and the town are named after Petosegay, the son of Antoine Carre, a French trader who married an "Indian princess" and later became an honorary chief. His son was born at sunrise, and he held the boy up and gave him the name (Petosegay is traditionally translated as meaning "morning rays"). Later, Petoskey bestowed his name on the (white settler populated) town.^* This story and other legends about the stones have been retold in two childrens' books, The Legend of the Petosky Stone and Tears of Mother Bear which have been strongly criticized by Native critics (both critiques are worth a read). Among the arguments is that "chiefs" and royalty did not exist in that culture, and thus neither the "honorary chief" nor "Indian princess" labels made any sense. There is also the issue that the authors are not Indian and are appropriating or misrepresenting Indian culture. This is more than just quibbling:

Some of us find ourselves so deeply appalled by these books that we actually wash our hands after handling them, trying to perpetually cleanse ourselves.

These stones, are called "crown jewels" and considered sacred by the Anishinaabek people. * Petoskey is coincidentally also a surname given to many of the Indian people in that area by white settlers.

The Education of Little Fraud

reenum — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:12:49 -0800

Many kids read The Education of Little Tree in school, but the author of the book, Forrest Carter, was actually Asa Carter, a staunch racist and charlatan.

Bloodless war game

twoleftfeet — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:26:47 -0800

Oral histories indicate that slahal is an ancient game, dating to before the last ice age. At times discouraged, this gambling game is still being played. Also known as the bone game and the hand or stick game, the rules are simple: guess which hand holds the unmarked bone. But while your team tries to guess, the opposing team will confuse you with chants and drumming and music. And you do the same to them. An entire game can be quite loud and quite subtle. A short documentary.

Without using the words “man” or “good,” can you please define what it means to be a good man?

Non Prosequitur — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:36:10 -0800

War Dances: “I wanted to call my father and tell him that a white man thought my brain was beautiful”. Sherman Alexie doing his thing in The New Yorker, excerpted from his upcoming book (early review; interview 1, 2.)

Secret Archaeology

univac — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:32:10 -0800

Archaeologists and Native Americans race against the border fence. The REAL ID act authorized government agencies to bulldoze long-standing environmental, cultural and anthropological standards. But a team of activists worked delicately behind the scenes to win millions of dollars in federal funding and the go-ahead for a last-ditch effort to study ancient artifacts. Archaeologists have faced similarly rushed projects elsewhere along the fence route.

HI I'M ON METAFILTER AND I CAN OVERTHINK A WORLD OF BEANS

JHarris — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:32:04 -0800

Tales of the Beanworld ("A most peculiar comic book experience") recently resumed publication after a long hiatus. It's a strange and abstract mix of Native American mythology and culture, with a strong ecological focus, into an wonderfully charming cosmology. While it certainly invites, uh, overthinking, it's also entertaining on a purely casual level.
A sample short Beanworld story is on the Dark Horse Comics Myspace page.
If you have questions about it, the BeanWeb just may have answers, along with illustrations from the comics. There is now a Beanworld Wiki to supplement it, and creator Larry Marder keeps a blog where he talks about things bean.

Okay, now that it's properly introduced... the real point of this post is to link to this awesome Beanworld Flash cartoon, animated by Fashionbuddha and with music by They Might Be Giants!

Lawless Lands: Justice Denied to Native Communities

fourcheesemac — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:11:50 -0800

"Lawless Lands": Michael Riley, writing in the Denver Post, investigates the dysfunctional state of law enforcement on Native American reservations, and the shocking consequences for crime victims. Bill Moyer's Journal has followed up with an excellent documentary expose entitled "Broken Justice." Amnesty International reports on a particularly heinous aspect of the problem -- one in three Native women will be raped in her lifetime, and the perpetrators are rarely punished. N. Bruce Duthu's Op-Ed on the subject from the NY Times, 8/10.08.

H.H. Cool J

cashman — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:47:50 -0800

Helen (Hunt) Jackson was an author and an activist. Her mom died when Helen was 14, her dad 3 years later. Helen's first child died at 11 months, her second at 10 years old. In 1879 she was inspired after hearing Chief Standing Bear describe how the U.S. government took Native Americans' land. She began to publish in support of Native American rights. 1881 brought her book A Century of Dishonor [pdf], branded with the words "Look upon your hands! They are stained with the blood of your relations". In 1883, she published her most famous work, Ramona, a novel about racial discrimination set in California. If that's too much to take in, and now you need some kitties, she's still got you covered. Letters from a Cat (1879) is being featured at Archive.org today. Her husband, Edward Bissell Hunt, died in 1863. He held various positions in the United States army, producing a pamphlet urging the "energetic deportation" of Black people so that land could be "reclaimed for the sole use of the white man". Parenthesis around "Hunt" in Helen's name because apparently she went either by Helen Hunt or by Helen Jackson.

Killing The Indian In The Child

chuckdarwin — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:39:51 -0800

Canada has apologised for forcing more than 100,000 aboriginal children to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools aimed at assimilating them. Controversial former Minister Kevin Annett has written two books on the subject of residential school abuse in Canada [Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust and Love and Death in the Valley]. Unrepentant - Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide reveals Canada’s darkest secret - that the Canadian residential school system, the Christian churches along with state authorities implemented a policy of genocide against Canada's native population. Related: Deliver Us From Evil

What Did We Call This Place When?

mmahaffie — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:23:24 -0800

Native Names Projects by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe GIS Program and the Hawaii Board on Geographic Names are adding audio pronunciation guides to geospatial place-name datasets in several on-line mapping formats. Both groups have small grants from the Federal Geographic Data Committee. The Hawaii folks have already been adding diacritical marks to USGS maps to guide pronunciation. The Coeur d'Alene staff have posted traditional names and links to audio files on a flash-based map site, the National Map site and (most usefully, I think) via Google Earth (KMZ).

Red Crow goes to the next world

rednikki — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 12:28:39 -0800

Actor/folk singer/Native American Activist Floyd Red Crow Westerman died of complications from leukemia on Thursday. Westerman, a member of the Sisseton-Wapheton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, was best known for his roles in Dances With Wolves, The X-Files and Hidalgo, but apparently viewed acting as an avenue to make money to apply to his other endeavors in support of Native American issues.

Outsourcing Permutations

StrikeTheViol — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:42:43 -0800

Indian company to outsource its outsourcing. Outsourcing in Ghana, where the government takes English very seriously indeed. Finally, Native American outsourcing.

The Sand Creek Massacre

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:56:47 -0800

On November 29, 1864, John Chivington led the Colorado Volunteers in a dawn attack in which at least 150 Cheyenne men, women and children were slaughtered (many of their corpses grotesquely mutilated), bringing a new wave of Indian-white conflict to Colorado's high plains along the Santa Fe Trail. The Sand Creek Mass acre National Historic Site was officially dedicated today. See photos of some of the people involved, read some contemporary propaganda concerning the event, as well as actual testi mony from witnesses and perpetrators.

Trail Trees

DU — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:46:03 -0800

Say you live in a forest and have limited resources. You need to make signposts to point out trails, water sources, meeting places and the like, but your readers might speak a variety of languages. Also, you want the signposts to last a really long time. What do you do? Create trail trees! Now say you live in the 21st century. What do you do? Create a database! And blog about it!

Native Art in Embassies

aletheia — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 07:25:51 -0800

Established by the US Department of State, the Art in Embassies Program (AIEP) is "a global museum" exhibiting works by U.S. citizens in "approximately 180 American diplomatic residences worldwide". Recently, the AIEP began a collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) to bring limited edition works by five important contemporary Native American artists to embassies around the world.

The Native artists selected for the project include internationally exhibited Mario Martinez, who was recently given a major retrospective at the NMAI in New York City, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, a pioneering artist and art activist, as well as Marie Watt, Larry McNeil, and Norman Akers.

Ice Burn!

Snyder — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:12:11 -0800

"So take that to your next rain dance and STFU" vs. "YOU GO BACK TO AFRICA AND DO YOUR GAY VOODOO LIMBO TANGO AND WANGO DANCE AND JUMP AROUND AND PRANCE AND ALL OVER THE PLACE HALF NAKED..." Emails between a gay black man and a Native American army recruiter. Copy of the email exchange here. (Quote at the bottom format, so read from the last page up.)

Pink fix !

NaturalScinema — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:37:52 -0800

Chile Pepper's Lonely Endorphins Club Cinema: I, II, III

Can all this be explained by Dr. Paul Rozin's Benign Masochism / Constrained Risk theory? I, for one, am not buying it, but any way you slice it, hot cock sauce is here to stay.

Recording history by whatever is handy

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:24:14 -0800

The white man brought disease, war and...accounting ledgers. The Plains Indian warrior switched from previous art materials and used the ledgers to create Ledger Art to record the glory of the hunt and battles between tribes and against whites. But as the Native American life deteriorated, Ledger Art recorded a vanishing way of life and the dramatic change in their culture. Some of that art has been lost or fallen apart, but The Plains Indians Ledger Art Website exists to preserve the images for the future.

Forever-Flying-Bird

madamjujujive — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:48:01 -0800

When Everybody Called Me Gah-bay-bi-nayss - an ethnographic biography of Paul Peter Buffalo, son of Ojibwa medicine woman and grandson of the great chief Pezeke. Buffalo died in 1977, but spent his last dozen years chronicling his heritage and the things the elders told him. Be sure to check out the entry on John Smith, a wonderful character more popularly known as Wrinkle Meat.

It all comes down to Cobell v. Norton?

jefgodesky — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 13:20:45 -0800

Just how far does this Abramoff stuff go? Sure, we've heard all about the charges of political corruption, but Wampum has been diligently putting the pieces together, and some strange things are coming up, like the Dawes act of 1887, Cobell v. Norton, and $176 billion owed by ranchers and the oil and gas industry to Native Americans. Dustin Wax at Savage Minds concluded that "Abramoff and his peers both in Congress and the business world are working to undermine the last vestige of autonomy Indian peoples possess."

What do you mean "we," white man?

LarryC — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:02:56 -0800

Indian Country Today is the national newspaper for American Indians. With news from tribes across the United States and around the world and articles like "Qitsualik: The last great polar bear hunt." And they were down on Ward Churchill before it was cool. Don't have time to add another newspaper to your reading list? Try the podcast.

Native American Exploration

LarryC — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 18:41:16 -0800

A Native American Scoops Lewis and Clark. Moncacht-apé, a Yazoo Indian, traveled up the Missouri and to the Pacific 100 years before Lewis and Clark. He told his story to the Frenchman Le Page du Pratz, who recorded it as part of his 1758 Histoire de la Lousiane (new translations here). Thomas Jefferson owned the book, as did Meriwether Lewis. But a walk to the Pacific Ocean was no big deal for the Mississippi native--after all he had walked to Niagara Falls a few years earlier.

Edward Curtis & Native American Photography

.kobayashi. — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 08:44:40 -0800

Selling the American Indian: The controversial work of Edward S. Curtis

An Anthropology of the Future

jefgodesky — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 06:17:21 -0800

Afterculture

21 story tall American Indian statue

jmccorm — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:03:52 -0800

21 story tall statue of an American Indian to tower over the central US. Builders believe it will be as significant a monument as the St. Louis Arch, Seattle Space Needle, Mt. Rushmore.