Advertisement
When I was a kid, me and my Dad belonged to the YMCA's Indian Guides. We had fake Indian names, and made fake vests and feathered headresses, we met in one of our members' living rooms, sitting on the floor, around a fake fire (made out of some logs, an electric light and some clear red plastic).
The intent was laduable: "fellowship, camping, and community-building activities". But we were fake Indians.
Most real Indians that I ask usually have a lot of contempt for such practices. They have deep respect for their own traditions, and don't normally want it to be cheapened and commercialized.
The ones that I have the closest contact with, tell me that I have my own European traditions, that my people have abandoned centuries ago.
Personally, I think of it as if our ancestral ways destroyed by an explosion. It's as if a car exploded and all we have is some bits and pieces, an owner's manual, pieces of similar cars, and maybe old photographs of the factory where it was built.
We can look to tribal peoples for hints and clues, but most of us do not really belong to these tribes. I love the American Indians and other tribal peoples, and I learn all I can from them, but I refuse to insult their ancient traditions by doing the fake Indian game.
My original tribe, the Papitantrists, started in this way. We looked at what tribal traditions survive from Europe, and we looked at them in a new light from our lessons among the Indians. Although our members are all aging quickly, and we are spread out all over country now, we still stay in touch and remember the tribal traditions that we re-discovered together.
The intent was laduable: "fellowship, camping, and community-building activities". But we were fake Indians.
Most real Indians that I ask usually have a lot of contempt for such practices. They have deep respect for their own traditions, and don't normally want it to be cheapened and commercialized.
The ones that I have the closest contact with, tell me that I have my own European traditions, that my people have abandoned centuries ago.
Personally, I think of it as if our ancestral ways destroyed by an explosion. It's as if a car exploded and all we have is some bits and pieces, an owner's manual, pieces of similar cars, and maybe old photographs of the factory where it was built.
We can look to tribal peoples for hints and clues, but most of us do not really belong to these tribes. I love the American Indians and other tribal peoples, and I learn all I can from them, but I refuse to insult their ancient traditions by doing the fake Indian game.
My original tribe, the Papitantrists, started in this way. We looked at what tribal traditions survive from Europe, and we looked at them in a new light from our lessons among the Indians. Although our members are all aging quickly, and we are spread out all over country now, we still stay in touch and remember the tribal traditions that we re-discovered together.
posted by:
|
SF Bay Area
|
Advertisement
Advertisement
-
Re: Fake Indians
Wed, January 2, 2008 - 5:02 PMThe tracks of our ancestors have been wiped away by the Great Forgetting. It's not up to us to replant their exact footprints, but to make our own, equally original tracks.
Carl Cole
* or to imitate the footsteps of others!
Well said, thank you, i've been saying this a lot lately, it's good to be reminded of the connection when we see other's are thinking the same things as us. -
-
Re: Fake Indians
Thu, January 3, 2008 - 3:05 PMInteresting quote. Who is Carl Cole? -
-
Re: Fake Indians
Thu, January 3, 2008 - 9:42 PMThis quote was in a Daniel Quinn manuscript online, it just said 'Carl Cole, age 19' -
-
Re: Fake Indians
Thu, January 3, 2008 - 11:40 PM -
-
-
Re: Fake Indians
Tue, January 22, 2008 - 7:18 PMhahaha i like
yo check it out
fake indians
uh
the fake part... Fake things will be real when krsna comes so, due respect to the faux.
check out, religeons have been held in trust since before any current languages were thought of or spoke.
That said, you were lucky to have a real fake indian experience. Because that's something we should hold in trust
from the false egos. It can obviously fuck you up!
So let's just hold this in trust because we don't want to mess up our really good real tribal experience. -
-
Re: Fake Indians
Tue, January 22, 2008 - 7:20 PMDid you find any thing in Europe? I'm from a European tribe.
-
Re: Fake Indians
Tue, January 22, 2008 - 7:33 PMMost real Indians that I ask usually have a lot of contempt for such practices. They have deep respect for their own traditions, and don't normally want it to be cheapened and commercialized.
The ones that I have the closest contact with, tell me that I have my own European traditions, that my people have abandoned centuries ago.
Right you know since religeons are just held in trust
you know what I'm saying? I don't want to give you a fake indian experience. I could give you a fake experience that would be more real than anything you've ever known, like that would be really aweful so I wouldn't do that, so, I just hold this in trust from the people even though it's like what the man does, it's something I gotta do to make you jump through hoops! You might think I'm clowning but it get's results. I'm from the Keep it Real era of Hiphop heads, so I'm keeping it real. It's neo-tribal. Is it neo though? is it tribal?
new? well intentionally not. Tribal? No affraid not so it's held in trust....
wack let me clarify; there are people doing rituals but it's kept quiet. These people possess rights. their land is held in trust. that's exactly wackness. I can't tell you what it's like to keep someone else's religeon in trust. -
-
Re: Fake Indians
Tue, January 22, 2008 - 7:35 PMOoh your tribes didn't abandon them. They made a mistake when they sold their land back to the Romans.
I learned that tribes without contact with Rome have unique folk dances...Dances. -
-
This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
-
-
Re: Fake Indians
Fri, February 20, 2009 - 9:04 AM"wack let me clarify; "
There's your answer, I guess.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Re: Fake Indians
Sun, May 24, 2009 - 6:51 AMKortoso, I think alot of people feel the same. Especially in America, where so many of us lose any ethnic/cultural identity we might've had by getting mixed up and watered down in the big melting pot. The story and identity of America is meant to be the story we can all share and be proud of, but unless you whitewash out all the slavery, genocide, and imperialist war-mongering, it's a history that's hard to be proud of. If you were fortunate enough to be born with a trong ethnic/cultural identity you can be proud of, I can understand not wanting to trade it for the vague, materialistic monoculture of America. Myself, I've got an Alsation surname from my Granddad, a full Irish Grandma on my Dad's side, and on my Mom's side, a Polish Grandfather, and a Spanish/Indian Grandmother. ...so which part of my ethnicity am I supposed to call my own if I want to "reclaim my roots"? Given a choice (and what else can I do?), I would choose to identify with the Native American part. But, like it is for many true Indians, after having their people's culture forcibly removed over the years, it's hard to trace and recover the connection in this day and age. Even those who know what tribe or nation they are related to, often don't know their native traditions or language. So now, since I have no clan or tribe or nation to claim, and cultural tradition to revive, I feel like the only alternative is to invent an original tribal culture. So I'm looking for the people that could be my tribe, and I'm learning the "primitive" skills that the Indians of my area used to live off the land, so that I can live with a closer relationship to the land around me, and know how to provide myself and my family with the essentials of life, given a breakdown in the civil structure, or some other kind of emergency. This is one way we all can get back in touch with our roots, because it's a part of human history we all share. Wherever in the world our particular people came from, they relied on primitive technology to survive.
