Who is kidding whom here. I have been out west a good numbers of times, I have seen a lot of so called native you get to see a fair number of Indians in places like New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Wyoming, Montana Washington and Oregon. I have also seen a fair number of them in New York, Connecticut, South Dakota and Florida. When you see them, you sometimes get to see what they do, how they act, what work they have, what clothing they wear, how they talk and so on. Reading up on history and watching educational television shows also clued me into their history and some of their cultural aspects. Talking to many of them also gave me further insight.
In all of my encounters with so called Native Americans, speaking with them, working with them (yes I have worked with a few), being a customer in some of their businesses (no not to buy smokes), interviewing them a few times in my career, arresting them (yes I did that too) and many other types of interactions, I came to realize there are basically two types of Indians. There are those who have adapted to the fact that Europeans came to this land in 1492 and kicked their asses and took their lands and changed their lives forever (which is in essence they did) and that life is different now and they can and should work for a living and try to get along with European, African, Asian, and Australian Americans. Then there are those who have not adapted to the hundreds of years old reality and who insist on being on the warpath all of the time.
It is that second type usually, who take or claim to take high offense whenever they say someone has slighted the Indians. They howl with hypersensitivity if a high school or college football team has a logo that represents an Indian or a name of a tribe, yet many have European names. They are highly offended if a film is made that shows anything about them with which they disagree yet they portray other Americans negatively quite often. They also frown upon anyone claiming to have Indian blood who in essence cannot prove their lineage or have not been DNA tested, yet seemingly push for they hoot and holler hurray when a whole tribe of, what are, I think, little more than Fauxahontises is established to beat the tax man out of tax dollars or when someone with 1/16th (or whatever amount is now required) of Indian blood is made a tribal member to skew the political and economic balance in their favor. They go out on what could almost be considered a rampage over anyone who dons Indian apparel, like the Victoria’s Secret model and apparently said that this is seen as misuse and theft of their heritage yet they stroll around in Levi’s Jeans, while wearing cowboy boots, and Stetsons. Or how about those waitresses, at some Indian owned establishments, dressed in cowboy hats and boots with hot-pants wedged right up their cracks - as I see it, much attired along the lines of the model at the lingerie show. Then, what about those casinos! They are against development of sacred Native American lands until it is they themselves who are building a casino or cigarette shop on it. They oppose big business but are more than happy to take your money from you at those casinos and tobacco stores. They are against things like Indians working off of the reservations yet claim to be against reservations saying they own the whole continent. They are against things like Indians working or living off of the reservations yet claim to be against reservations. They oppose others hunting or fishing certain animals, then claim to have been one with nature and say they still commune with nature more so than others, but yet they still hunt and fish for endangered species and call it their right (all the time saying they have rights that others do not and forgetting that all men are created equal and share rights alike). They claim reservations are dumps yet it is they who trash them (I have seen it firsthand several times.) They claim America is not fair to them but step right up in line, hands out, for the dole.
I could go on and on about these contradictions, this hypocrisy, this bogus over sensitivity, but you should know what I am writing about, you should be pretty familiar with it by now. Well, that is if you have half a brain and pay just a wee bit of attention to current events now and again and maybe read a newspaper (or online news articles) or watch educational TV now and again.
Now let me ask you a few things about Native Americans. Didn't they migrate from Asia, so aren't they immigrants too! Could or should other Americans take offense at them using the term native American since there was no America, so to speak, until it was named after Amerigo Vespucci (aka: Americus) by Europeans. Should I feel offended because they could be said to have misappropriated cultural identity. Should I come out and say they have misappropriated cultural attire when I see them dressed in cowboy clothing or in a tuxedo or in a police officer's uniform or one of the uniforms of the United States military services? Should I be ever so sensitive if they call me a white man because I am supposedly not to call them red men.
I have two words for the type of Indian who is supposedly super-sensitive and offended by things like that Victoria's Secret outfit, or by a sports team portraying a native American in its logo, while all along being a racist hypocrite: Get real.
All the best,
Glenn B
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