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:
Hi Josh,
ReplyDeleteI love how you explain things in your blogs! I too enjoyed Wilma Mankiller's speech, and yes it did seem to follow the order of our course! I really liked when someone had asked her why it's necessary for Native Americans to have tribal governments/councils and she replied by saying that tribal governments have been around thousands of years before the American government! It's a great way of saying that the indigenous people were quite capable pre-Columbus, and I think that sense of capability is lost among non-Natives because our perceptions of them are frankly, not capable. We have been taught that they were "savages," we have been told that they were held as slaves, then replaced by African Americans. We are told that they are poor and suffer high rates of substance abuse. Now we hear that some are rich because of casinos. But these lies and stereotypes are based on a system of oppression since our government started.
I'm so glad I took this course because although I was not one to say "they are this or that" I can correct others when they make stereotypes. I can now, based on my knowledge, make sure that I continue to learn about Native Americans and I intend to follow their stories now from their perspectives instead of not thinking of them because they are not incorporated into news stories or articles. it's almost like out of sight - out of mind. But that attitude isn't good enough. Just because there aren't positive things out there in the news about Native Americans, doesn't mean that there aren't positive things going on - it just means that I have to take it upon myself to research credible websites that can keep me in the loop about their strides in the present day.
Looking at the future without tears in her eyes was my favorite part of her lecture. I think it sums things up nicely for all of us really. By the way, that is a great picture of her you selected for your post!!!
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading your post and I also enjoyed all the pictures you have shared with your blog very nicely done.
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