learntoquestion ltq discussions

We need to offer reparations to any native folks living in America. Not to mention the many apologies due, we must offer significant money and land to indigenous people because land was both commodified and stolen by Europeans. Before Europeans settled, land was shared and respected, not something to be sold a commodity. This changed with the colonialism, imperialism, and mercantilism brought by colonists. If Pilgrims will establish that land has a monetary value then they should fairly pay for it even if that is not what happened. In many cases unfair treaties were signed or not even respected which led to colonists massacring and stealing land. Even if we cannot bring back the lives lost or repair the unbelievable atrocities committed we can, at least, compensate natives for every piece of land in America stolen.

One thing Ms. Freeman mentioned in class was learning what tribe someone identifies with and using that as part of their identity. This is important because someone's tribe is similar to someone's nationality, which is something that people often care about. Learning tribes would make someone more aware about which tribes were where and therefore more respectful to those who are in them. Reducing social inequality would go a long way in welcoming Native people to be "fully integrated members of society" but also realizing that white colonists are the ones who pushed indigenous people out in the first place. A population more aware of racism and social inequalities will also be more receptive to the plights of Natives in America. I would personally bring Native stories into elementary and high schools to affect this change because many preconceived biases develop when one is young to combating them in schools would be more successful. Stories like forced sterilizations of Native women and conversion boarding schools (from The Little Known History of the Forced Sterilization of Native American Women) in which 25-50% of native women were sterilized between 1970-76 are important because whey show that the oppressions of Natives continue even after when one may have thought (I was very surprised that so many women were being sterilized so recently).

Moving forward, as with anything we are uneducated about, we should aim to learn more to better understand the experience of Native Americans in this nation. More stories should be heard and more importantly, confronting history by just solely acknowledging the truth would be the best option. From what I’ve learned this week, many people do not care for the history of Native Americans because they are so wrapped up in the entire Christopher Colombus narrative and that America was founded on empty land. I have no doubt that many children also do not care and are probably just thankful to have the day off from school so they do not care to research further. As it states in Recasting Views of Indigenous life, we should be more open to learning and hearing about the various stories Native Americans have to share. First experience stories allow us to have a better understanding of how harmful the idea of not knowing is. If you do not know or learn from history, it is bound to repeat itself. As Sayet said, “we have a greater comprehension for what might be possible, for empathy building and learning and recognizing there are many paths.” Giving Native Americans a voice to be heard and a platform for their stories to be shared is a step forward we can to better understand their experiences.

There’s no way to change the past. To address the stereotypes and misperceptions among the citizens in America, who already have a false ideology about Native Americans, is to first educate them on the truth (or encourage them to learn the truth on their own). While some may be driven by biased or racist thoughts and show to be reluctant, it doesn’t hurt to try. The appropriation of Native American history to cater the idea that America was founded by Christopher Colombus should no longer be taught in schools. The history of this nation should not be fabricated and the very first place to start should be in our education system within young minds starting from an early age. Christopher Colombus did not treat or approach Native Americans with his best intentions. They were extremely mistreated. Unfortunately, this is still evident in this country as “Jane Lawerence documents the forced sterilization of thousands of Native American women.” The Indian Health Service also shared that “in the 1960s and 1970s—procedures thought to have been performed on one out of every four Native American women at the time, against their knowledge or consent.” My classmates and I are now aware of the various offensive terms and stereotypes about Native Americans that often go overlooked. The term “Rednecks”, various statues of Native Amercians dressed/portrayed inaccurately (MFA statue for ex), and other offensive things that follow the stereotypes we have created in this country should no longer be so widely populated. It’s not enough that only a select few of us in this country know about these issues though, more people should know about this .. the original first settlers of this country.

Apologies will not change anything. The damage towards Native Americans in this country is already done. While apologizing does mean taking accountability, it is definitely more meaningful to take action towards making amends. As always, being educated about the situation is number one. Then, if bigger actions can not be taken, we can take steps towards educating others which is just as important.

Similar to what many of my classmates suggested, the best way we can help Native peoples become fully integrated members of society is by supporting them; giving them a voice to be heard and using our voice to help share their stories. They have been ignored and silenced for too long and it’s important that they are able to share their experiences with us to educate people on what they don’t know. We can do a lot by just listening.

1. What do we need to do, moving forward, to better understand the experience of Native Americans in this nation? How do we fully confront that history?

In order to confront the history of the Native American experience in this nation, we need to intervene in the earliest forms of the glorification and simplification of this history. Since we were children, many of us have been taught a story that has glossed over most parts of the Native American experience and the atrocities committed against Native Americans, and this has only been reinforced by the education system. In order for our society to have a more accurate understanding, we need to make reforms to early education that misrepresents the Native American experience. A lot of people also must let go of ideas of “nostalgia” and “tradition”. As we have seen in class, many objections to the reform of sports team names and other company names revolved around the notion that people grew up with these degrading depictions of Native Americans and it is therefore rooted in American tradition and is not a big deal. Non-indigenous people must consider the complexity of Native American culture and history, and listen to their perspectives.

2. How do we address the stereotypes, misperceptions, the “twistory” that has been passed down among non-Native Americans about this population?

I think we must direct a lot of attention to stereotypes that have placed their roots clearly in the federal government. As seen in the article “Deb Haaland seeks to rid U.S. of derogatory place names”, there are many degrading terms and references to Native Americans used by US authority, which is especially damaging since the idea of authority gives a lot of legitimacy to its actions. Another way to confront misperceptions is to truly listen to the perspectives of the misperceived. We need to take time to be quiet and listen to indigenous experiences more often.

3. How do we address the fact that Native peoples were murdered for who they are—the very definition of “genocide”? What apologies and amends do we need to make, if any?

I think it is hard to apologize for the direct action of genocide since no one alive today was responsible for that. We must be able to address the gravity of the Native American genocide. Patriotic pride is a large barrier for that, since it causes people to look back on U.S. history with rose-tinted glasses, and drives them away from the more “unsavory” parts. Non-indigenous people must see the fact that the effects of the Native American genocide can be seen today. I believe that there is no way to fully amend the genocide of Native Americans.

4. How can non-indigenous folks become allies so that Native peoples become fully integrated members of society? What concrete actions can we take to move forward and build a nation with Native peoples?

I think an important part of the integration of Native peoples into society is political representation. As seen in the article “Native Americans are recasting views of indigenous life”, more and more Native Americans are running for public office, two indigenous women becoming a part of U.S. Congress. Representation is crucial since Native Americans have been actively pushed to the margins of U.S. society for all of U.S. history. A problem with some claimed allies of indigenous people is that talking or speculating about a problem is not enough to make a change. This is ironic since we are doing this right now, but I think many people have been talking about the problem enough, and it is time to take more concrete actions. There are many things that we know we should do, like taking down the “Appeal to the Great Spirit” in front of the MFA, but people choose to avoid that prospect by just opening discussions and speculations about it.

Moving forward, Americans as a whole need to educate themselves on the true history of Native Americans and how they have been wronged. We also need to understand that there are still ways in which indigenous peoples are wronged today. The statue in front of the MFA and racist team names like the Washington Redskins are prime examples of this. They showcase people’s inability to listen to Indigenous people. To truly understand the experience of Native Americans, schools need to teach children the truth about their history. America has a habit of trying to sensor history that paints the white man or America as less than perfect. Because of this, a lot of history gets buried and erased. An example of this is the sterilization of native women in the 1960s and ‘70s. We need to begin a process of uncovering this history and teaching it in its entirety, no matter how awful it is. To start, schools can stop teaching young children about the "happy" origin of Thanksgiving.

To unravel the false history that non-Native people have learned, we need classes, like this one, that tell the true story. For example, we learned that the real origin of Thanksgiving was that the pilgrims had a feast to celebrate the mass murder of a Native group. We also need to listen to Native people when they tell us that we are practicing something that harms their community, like to Omaha Chop. We need to have conversations that teach people what harmful stereotypes and misconceptions they have learned about indigenous people.

To address the history of Native people, we must teach the fact that they were indeed victims of genocide. There are no apologies that can rectify this horrible act, but there are amends that can still be made. This country needs to take the next step to actively help Native people. This can be in the form of banning derogatory terms like “squaw” from street names and government proceedings. To build a nation with Native people we need to take the steps to understand and begin to mend the pain their community has been subject to. We need to recognize them and work to help them in any way that we can. We need to recognixe their history, help protect their land adn resources, and begin to dismantle the racist systems that still harm their communities.

1. Moving forward, instead of ignoring their views or overlooking what they deem offensive, we should acknowledge it. In class, we looked at various ways that Native Americans had been blatantly disrespected racially, and to even begin to understand their experiences, we should begin to change what offends them so they feel valued. If it were any other race, I feel like there would be a bigger public outburst such as the Clevland African-Americans that were shown in class (the different drawings of the Clevland Indians) because people are used to the negative image of Native Americans. In the article titled, Native Americans are recasting views of indigenous life, Madeline Sayet describes how Native Americans in media are always portrayed inaccurately. One way we can understand their experience is to treat them as we would treat any other race. I believe that racism towards Native Americans is often overlooked due to how normalized it is. To understand their experience we need to realize that it was never okay and it never will be.

2. To address all the different misperceptions, we need to move forward and accept that it was wrong then make changes. For example, all the various sports teams with offensive names should acknowledge how it's offensive and move forward by changing it, keeping the Native Americans in their mind as they write it. It is also not your job to accept their statement/apology if you're not in their community. In a similar way, we should move forward and keep their opinions/beliefs in mind. If a Native American expresses how something is offensive, then you should respect that and change what you've done. Deb Haaland shares that federal names shouldn't be offensive and shouldn't be used, to begin with, let alone in a federal context. I fully support this because if it was offensive to me, I would want this to be changed. As far as stereotypes, I feel as though we can never escape stereotypes if they've been made however we should know that these stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. Stereotypes are simply assumptions and are never an appropriate way to judge a group of people. We should essentially leave all stereotypes in the past so that we can move forward as a community. If they were to be represented, they should be represented positively and accurately, unlike the way that Pocahauntus was shown in the Disney film. I understand it's a children's film but the clothing, the songs, and the way they act could have been done a lot better.

3. We need to address it. Period. We need to teach students about it in schools, we need to get rid of the whole thanksgiving miseducation. We need to educate the younger generations and ourselves so that they can then pass it on until that's the story with no changes. There should be less sugar-coating about this topic, younger generations will be okay and they deserve to know.I think as far as apologies or amends they should get way more government support due to their possible displacements as well as get a significant amount of their land back. I think that people assume that 300 square miles as we talked about in class is a lot but not in comparison of the land that they had before.

4. We honestly need to treat them with respect. The community would never feel safe if the non-Native American community had an underlying racism towards them, it can't be expected. I understand that judgement is enevidable but judging based on sterotypes is different. You're making an assumption off of an assumption, it's not fair. Moving forward, I think we should listen to them and see their opinions on these issues and take them to heart. We should educate, understand and learn from their experiences.

1. What do we need to do, moving forward, to better understand the experience of Native Americans in this nation? How do we fully confront that history?

2. How do we address the stereotypes, misperceptions, the “twistory” that has been passed down among non-Native Americans about this population?

3. How do we address the fact that Native peoples were murdered for who they are—the very definition of “genocide”? What apologies and amends do we need to make, if any?

4. How can non-indigenous folks become allies so that Native peoples become fully integrated members of society? What concrete actions can we take to move forward and build a nation with Native peoples?