Wilma Mankiller

Hearing Wilma Mankiller speak was a wonderful way to finish this course in Native American history as she touched upon many of the things we have been reading about, almost as if synched chronologically with our research conducted throughout the course.

 

Wilma talked about the devastating effects of land allotment in the past, why there are Tribal Governments inside the territory of the United States. Wilma then explained how there were peaceful, semi-autonomous governments as well as Confederacies like the Haudenosaunee long before any Europeans had "discovered" the new world. Wilma also talked about the power of women in Native American cultures such as the Navaho women and their "control" over their society.

I also found the story of Wilma Mankiller's name interesting. Her ancestor in the 1700's wrote not his actual name down in the census, but what most closely could be translated to "Mankiller" in English!    

***What I found most interesting from this talk was the story about a Comanche woman who says that she doesn't live in "two worlds" for she is in the Comanche world, always. Even if she is meeting with the President of the United states or the Queen of England, she is still "filtering" all of the things she is hearing through the Comanche values which is the culture imbedded within her being. Following this, Wilma noted that just because people may look similar, and dress similar and live in similar looking houses, their values and their view of the world can be very different.

Her concluding portion of her speech was a positive look at how various Nations were bringing their languages and culture back through education.

Wilma says she believes that after what her people have been through, there is nothing that they cannot handle that the Creator would throw at them. She is looking towards the future, without tears in her eyes, to see her people living in peace 500 years from now.

It was a pleasure hearing her speak.

This video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVLgwpHSYv0

Resource Review - Onondaga Nation -

 

1)               The Source I reviewed is Onondaga Nation - People of the Hills. http://www.onondaganation.org/land/complaint.html.
 
I looked closely at this particular page because it has been created by the Native American Nation of the Onondaga who is part of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois which is where I reside. The perspective it is meant to convey, I believe, is that there is still a lack of respect for Native peoples who reside on reserved land. The reason there is this frustration with the government and corporations is because of pollution and the lack of responsibility for the actions of those at fault.  From this site we find the following:

The Nation and its people have a unique spiritual, cultural, and historic relationship with the land, which is embodied in Gayanashagowa, the Great Law of Peace. This relationship goes far beyond federal and state legal concepts of ownership, possession or legal rights. The people are one with the land, and consider themselves stewards of it. It is the duty of the Nation’s leaders to work for a healing of this land, to protect it, and to pass it on to future generations. The Onondaga Nation brings this action on behalf of its people in the hope that it may hasten the process of reconciliation and bring lasting justice, peace, and respect among all who inhabit the area. (www.onondaganation.org/land/complaint.html)

I feel like this is evidence of such maltreatment and a lack of respect for Native Americans that is reflected by something I found in American Indians and U.S. Politics by John Meyer. In the final chapter of this book we find the following,

In 1985, in one of the leading cases in environmental law, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals observed, “Indian reservations may be considered as potential locations for hazardous waste disposal sites… because they are often remote from heavily populated areas.” To those in dominant culture, Indian Country is still sparsely inhabited by rude hunters. The environment of Native lands can be sacrificed to the greater good of society because both they and those who inhabit them are of lesser value than more densely “settle” areas (Meyer, 186).

As we can see in Meyer, “The environment of Native lands can be sacrificed to the greater good of society” (Meyer, 186). This disposition spreads the devaluing prejudice view of Native peoples as savage, or of a lesser value than those of European Americans.

We currently have a cleanup in process in Onondaga Lake as it has been polluted to such an extent that it was at one point the most polluted lake in the world and has held second place for quite some time.

2)                  I believe these web sources were put in this course for review because they are created by Native people themselves. It is much easier to find opinions of Native American life created by people other than Native Americans. It is important that we find resources that are created by Native Americans so we hear their voice. The European American voice has dominated and suppressed or misconstrued the voice of Native peoples ever since their arrival centuries ago. I believe Onondaganation.org is a quality academic website as it is information relayed from those in the Onondaga Nation expressing their culture and continual fight for sovereignty and protection of their land. A piece of their history can be found on the site. Here is an excerpt illustrating the joining together of the 5 Nations, “They replanted the tree and the Peacemaker placed an eagle on top to warn the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) of any dangers to this great peace. The Hiawatha wampum belt was made to record the event of the Five nations joining together in peace. Each nation is represented with the Onondagas symbolized in the great white Tree of Peace” (Onondaganation.org/aboutus/history.html).

3)                  This information has changed my perception of reality as a whole. I had not seen what is happening under the radar in terms of pollution effects on Native peoples and the land that is rightfully theirs to live on. It is it seems, in hindsight, a continuation of the devaluing of Native Americans and their culture. It is as if they are the unseen and unheard people in our own country (which was rightfully theirs). The right to live the way they intend to live, off the land and equally with the land is and has been denied from them by way of negative impacts from industrial development and government expansion. In other words, the greed and ethnocentric intolerance for native peoples is still here today and the Onondaga are voicing their experiences with injustices served to them.




Work cited

Meyer, John M.. American Indians and U.S. politics: a companion reader. Westport, Conn.:Praeger, 2002.   Print.

Onondaga Nation - People of the Hills."Onondaga Nation - People of the Hills”. N.p., n.d. Web.14 Apr. 2013. <http://www.onondaganation.org/land/complaint.html


All images found at the link below:

*All images found at: http://www.onondaganation.org/aboutus/history.html