Native American Heritage Month: a time of celebration and contemplation

November is Native American Heritage Month. First sponsored by the American Indian Heritage Foundation through the efforts of its founder Pale Moon Rose, the aims of the heritage month is to provide a platform for Native people to share their culture, traditions, music, crafts, dance, and ways and concepts of life. It also gives Native Americans the opportunity to express to their community, at the city, country and state levels, their concerns and solutions for building bridges of understand and friendship. I’ve been interested and have great respect for Native Americans and their history and culture since the seventh grade. I will touch briefly on the topics of culture and traditions, music, crafts and dance, and ways and concepts of life in this post.  There are approximately 566 federally recognized Native American tribes in the US each with their own culture, language and history, and each with their own unique traditions, housing, dress and food.

I want to address the common misconceptions about Native Americans and there are many; however, I will address a few. First, the Natives weren’t that advanced when the Europeans arrived. They were primitive and similar to a third world country. The truth is they were advanced just different than from what the Europeans were used to. They had a complex society with medical advances that scientists today are using the plants they were as medicines today. The French who traded furs with many different tribes, had a great respect for the Natives and recognized the things they actually did better. Second, Indian Royalty. We’ve all heard people claim that they are descended from an Indian princess. My family was included in this as we were told we were descended from a Canadian Indian princess. While I was excited to be descended from First Nations (as they are called in Canada), I was skeptical of the princess part. Why? Because the Natives had no concept of royalty. Chiefs were not ordained from birth to lead the tribes. They were often chosen for their bravery and leadership and their family may have been well treated and respected but they were not royalty. I think the idea of royalty is how the Europeans tried to explain the Natives’ societal hierarchy and it stuck. Lastly, Native Americans worship nature. While they do have a profound respect for nature and are greatly in tuned with it, they do not worship it. There is usually a god they worship who represent an aspect of their daily lives. For instance, they would pray to the god who would help them with the crops or the hunt or. They also have a concept of a God, usually called the Great Spirit and an evil spirit similar to Satan.

With so many different tribes in the United States and each unique, it is hard to speak in general terms about the Natives’ culture and way of life. The Plains Natives were different from the Natives who lived in the Desert and those who lived in the Northern Mountains. No matter what area of the country, the Natives contributed a great deal to our country both past and present. Many foods were introduced to the world’s diets and became staples were first cultivated by the Natives of the New World. Foods such as corn, potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, chocolate, pineapples and avocadoes just to name a few (Scholastic). Natives were also the first to raise different types of animals for food, for example, turkeys. They also were the first to cultivate cotton, rubber and tobacco. Approximately 60% of the world’s food supply came from the Natives agricultural system (Gibson). Native Americans contributed a great deal to medicine as well. The Canadian Natives knew how to prevent scurvy by eating foods rich in vitamin C and passed the information to European sailors (Scholastic). The Shoshane tribes used crushed stone seed powder as an oral contraceptive while the Potawatomi nation used the dogbane herb for contraceptives centuries before modern medicine developed the birth control pill. The rate in which Native Americans have participated in military service is higher than any other ethnic groups. Most notably the Code Talkers in World War II; however, Native Americans served in the Korean, Vietnam, Desert Storm and the Iraq wars as well (Gibson). The concept behind American Sign Language originated with the hand signals used by the Natives and traders. Lastly, many of our English words are Native in origin such as barbecue, hammock and hurricane as well as many American cities are Native words, for example, Miami, Wichita, Spokane and Seattle (Gibson).

I also understand how many Native peoples would feel conflicted or even insulted at the idea of a month dedicated to people who were systematically abused and still suffer. Sunny Clifford wrote in an opinion article, “As much as I appreciate the gesture of Native American Heritage Month I feel torn about it. I’m torn because this nation needs a month to remember how it came to be. No, if you want to honor Native Americans then teach the real history in your schools.” I understand her conflict. While I think it’s great that a culture gets to be highlighted for a month; however, it is insulting that for the rest of the year, their part in history is largely ignored. I also hate that while I was in school, most of our country’s history is taught by dates and major events. I did not truly learn about Natives in our country’s history until I took history and ethnic studies classes in college. Unfortunately, history is expansive and detailed that it would very difficult to teach it as the individuals who lived it deserved to have it retold and remembered. History is only one subject that American children must take and unfortunately the focus is not on history but on math and science. Another hurdle is the Winston Churchill quote “History is written by the victors,” those who “win” are those who can write about “how” events occurred and who was at fault. Often, the victors or those writing about the victors will ignore or rewrite facts in order to make the victors look better. Some information gets lost to the sands of time and other information gets drowned out by the loud and more powerful. It is will take an extra effort to make sure every voice in American history is heard.

In conclusion, there is no denying that the Native Americans were not a backward or primitive society that many European settlers would have history believe. The Native peoples contributed not only to the United States but the world as well. I still have a deep respect for the Native peoples and I continue to discover new things about their culture, their way of life and their contributions to my life in ways I never knew before. Unfortunately, there are many myths about the Native tribes which are still believed by a vast majority of people. Whether it is by design or it’s by ignorance, our educational system has ignored the voices of those who lived through historical events. Only through education can we dispel these myths and see the Native Americans as great contributors to our country and our world. For the next couple weeks I will feature a post about an aspect of Native Americans in our country through books, films and sports.

References

Clifford, Sunny What Native American Heritage Month Means to Me. Indian Country Today. November 24, 2013. http://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/what-native-american-heritage-month-means-to-me/ Retrieved November 4, 2017.

Gibson, Kelly Native American Contributions to the U.S. September 22, 2011 http://blog.nativepartnership.org/history-of-native-american-day-part-2/ Retrieved November 5, 2017

Scholastic Native American Contributions www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/native-american-contributions/ Retrieved November 5, 2017.

My reflections on Hispanic Heritage Month

As I begin my final post for Hispanic Heritage Month, I reflect what it means to me. I grew up in Southern California in a highly Hispanic and Latino area. My best friend from junior high and high school is Hispanic/Latino. Her parents graciously opened their home to me so I could graduate high school with my friends. Her mother taught me how to make taquitos and fried burritos. To make chile and refried beans. It is no surprise to me that I would fall in love and marry a Hispanic man. I’m often wondering, especially with the high tensions in society right now, how does the Hispanic community view me?

I married my husband 8 years ago. At our wedding, one of my husband’s cousins came up to us as we said our goodbyes and told him: “Hurt her and you will not only have to answer to her family but yours as well.” It’s a statement that has stayed with me ever since. I felt truly welcomed into the family. Even while we were dating, I felt overwhelmingly accepted by his family. It may have been because he finally found someone. Sometimes though I feel like an outsider looking in. I often wonder if my efforts to learn their culture, their family history, to participate and understand their culture, I’m seen as trying too hard, an outsider trying to atone for sins of the past. In my head, I know this is not true because my family has only been in California since the 1940s and grew up knowing that my family truly never treated anyone differently because of the color of their skin. However, is my family lumped together with the Anglo-Americans who oppressed Hispanics and other minorities? I don’t know. I’ve never asked.

I do know that my husband has been given disapproving looks and even comments because he married a white woman. He’ll have comments made to him about my cooking Mexican food along the lines of “Not bad for a white woman.” As if my skin color would affect my cooking ability or my ability to follow a recipe. I do know that we still gets looks when we are out in public especially when we are with our daughter. The looks are especially harsh from Hispanics from an older generation who probably believe we should all stay with our own kind. I would love to learn to speak Spanish fluently; however I am self-conscious about my accent and horrible pronunciation. It keeps me from trying. My fear of ridicule from native speaks if I were to make a mistake. I do feel I’ve proven myself worthy of the family as I love and adore my husband. It is obvious that we care very deeply about each other. And I have taken good care of him. Stood by him in good times and especially in the bad.

I feel we need to understand the truth in history. Acknowledge and embrace the Hispanic and Latino influence in our state, our country and our lives. As well as other cultures that have helped make America who we are. To ignore their contributions would be to ignore everything about our great country. We eat the food but criticize the people who brought it here. Hispanics and Latinos have touched every aspect of our lives and may not be aware of it. They are award winning authors who open our eyes to a different point of view. They are musicians who touch our hearts with their music. We may not understand the language but it can speak to you in so many other ways. They are the actors and actress who make us laugh, make us cry, and makes us cheer for those have overcome. And in many, many areas of life that we may never know their names. How do we move forward? We acknowledge and learn from the ugly truth in our history, we work on the present and focus on the future. We cannot fix the past but we can shape the future.

In conclusion, I will continue to embrace my husband’s heritage as it is a part of my daughter’s heritage too. The common sentiment I have read in Latino literature is the sense that they are straddling two culture and not truly belonging to either one. I want my daughter to know and be proud of both sides of her heritage. I want her to know her ancestry and where her family has come from and been through to get to America. I remember in school, America was called a melting pot of different cultures. I see now that statement is not true. Throughout history, those in power have taken bits and pieces of other cultures as a way to prove we are a blend. I see now that we are more of a mixed salad. Multiple cultures together in the same bowl. Cultures blending together where possible but still distinct.