If you’re like me–an avid watcher of AMC’s Mad Men–after one episode you’ll think of yourself as quite the advertisement specialist. And really–what’s to know about advertising? Sex. Women. Materialism. The formula for successful advertisements is a simple one.
That’s why I have been so pleasantly surprised by new and innovative commercials. The first is for a Bounty Select-A-Size paper towel. Usually, Bounty commercials or any advertisement of a domestic product will show the housewife, or soccer mom cleaning up after their bratty, inconsiderate kids who make a ridiculous mess. But she always has a super happy face on because she knows with the cleaning product she bought that–all will be fine. (Off camera she takes 3 Xanax and downs a fifth of Vodka). Cleaning products have always been geared to the female demographic until now: The commerical below shows a father–yes, that’s right!–cooking a breakfast, minding his children, and cleaning up when messes are made. The message here: Men can do domestic work like cooking and cleaning. AND they can have fun doing it. Who woulda thunk?
The next commercial goes along with the same motif as Bounty: Men are empowered by doing housework! But the Tide with Downy commercial takes it a step further. This commercial shows a loving father as “Mr. Mom”. He has the cleaning skills to use phrases like, “I use Tide to get out the stains and Downy to get it soft” & “I let her play cowboy once a week so I can wash [her princess outfit]”. Men everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief as they exclaim in unison, “Thank you for giving us some freaking credit! Just because I’m a guy doesn’t mean I am helpless and sloppy.” The world in television and movies show us that men are hopeless and helpless when it comes to cleaning. (Ever see the “Man puts too much suds into the laundry” gag?). Bounty, Downy and Tide won’t stand for that idiocy any longer.
Go advertising! Making the world a little less misogynistic, one paper towel use, laundry cycle and chip gorge at a time.
Monday, the battle for Baby Veronica came to an end. With guns in tow, US Marshals took the screaming child from her biological father—from her Nation—and placed her with the adoptive couple in South Carolina. “The Court of the Great White Father” never allowed a “best interest” hearing, and by doing so, disregarded Native sovereignty and condoned intergenerational -cultural genocide. Therefore, “The Court of the Great White Father” asserts that Baby Veronica’s best interest is to be placed in a world that is better for her—a world only an affluent, white family can give her. Native communities came together to fight for Veronica, to no avail. When the Great White Father wants something to happen—by God, no one can stop it.
This case is all sorts of racism, sexism, and classism being fueled by a Right-wing narrative that the Puritans themselves couldn’t have created. Change the variables of race, gender, and class and you can really see how messed up this case is: Would a mother have to fight this hard and long to have her biological daughter back? Would a white-military man have to fight like this at a chance to have his daughter? Would an affluent biological parent have these issues? The answer is. Hell No!
The funny thing, if you could call it funny, was the lack of outcry from anyone other than Native folks. The Native activists discourse has been a good one, a strong one but–compared to the amount of crap mainstream media has produced—it hasn’t even made a dent. Obviously, this case has marginalization of the classes/races/genders written all over it. So where was the outrage from mainstream activists?
Where were the civil right allies, pissed that a Native man—a soldier even—was fighting for his daughter? Where were the Feminists, pissed that an unwed father had no rights to his biological daughter, pissed of the blatant patriarchy of the case and pissed of the dismissive media who saw the father as a lazy, no-good Indian? Where were our liberal-lefties who saw an Evangelical adoption agency circumvent all laws and ethical protocol in placing Baby Veronica up for adoption?
Where were they? Where are they? I’m not saying that Natives need white Saviors, I’m saying that allies are the greatest invention in history. The more voices, the louder we can be.
This case is the fulfilling of a systematic venture to kill the American Indians. We have been defeated. Without our children—we have nothing left. Laws, like the Indian Child Welfare Act, have been gutted before our very eyes. How does an Indian trust the government? The laws that were enacted to protect us were disregarded and trampled upon. Treaties continue to go unchecked.
Can you imagine how this case has made me feel? Everything I do, my school work, my hope for my people’s brighter future—is futile. I have to come to terms that things like this most likely will happen again. I’m terrified to have children of my own—what if they are taken from me? All I can do is to continue to walk the Red Road, being the best I can be and more importantly, making it possible for my people to reach their goals. I need to come to terms with what has transpired.
I will—hopefully.
I will—just give me time.
I want to thank the countless lawyers, activists, tribal members, and allies for their support over the past 2 years. I also want to say a prayer for the Brown family during this difficult time. I pray for Veronica, that she will grow up healthy and strong. Our hearts go with you. Be safe.
Amid the reports of war in Syria, I completely brushed over the news that Irish poet, Seamus Heaney passed away. Heaney was born in County Derry in 1939, on a farm called Mossbawn. In many ways, that place is still the center of his poetic world, its omphalos. Heaney used the word to describe the farm, turning the word itself into a kind of sonic vehicle. In that way Heaney brought a sense of irish renaissance, or more accurately, a rebirth of Northern Irish poetry. Seamus Heaney’s conceptions of powerful informed regionalistic poetry earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995.
Digging
Between my finger and my thumb
The Squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where we was digging.
The course boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.
Between my fingers and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.
From Squarings
xlviii
Strange how things in the offing, once they’re sensed,
Convert to things foreknown;
And how what’s come upon its manifest
Only in light of what has been gone through.
Seventh heaven may be
The whole truth of a sixth sense come to pass.
At any rate, when light breaks over me
The way it did on the road beyond Coleraine
Where wind got saltier, the sky more hurried
And silver lamé shivered on the Bann
Out in mid-channel between the painted poles,
That day I’ll be in step with what escaped me.
The 8th Annual Governor’s Native American Summit was held August 14-15, 2013 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. This was my first time attending the conference and I was extremely impressed with the turn out, especially since the Utah Division of Indian Affairs is led by a woman who epitomizes the word incompetence.
The Summit was held for Utah tribes to showcase the programs that have been successful in their respective communities and to innovate new ideas for the future.
The Salt Lake Intertribal Veterans Association present the colors. Courtesy of Utah Division of Heritage & Arts.
The Buffalo Nation drum group perform the Flag Song. Courtesy of Utah Division of Heritage & Arts.
I went to three breakout sessions. The first session was Dr. Jose Enriquez who had successfully built a pathway for Latino students to gain access to higher education through his organization Latinos in Action. Dr. Enriquez is now working with other minority populations, helping them forge pathways to higher education that specifically meet the needs of each minority’s culture and unique educational challenges. Latinos in Action, or LIA places considerable emphasis on cognitive thinking, social responsibility, and linguistic cultivation. Dr. Enriquez stated that kids get lost, meaning they don’t follow the path to hight education, as early as the 5th & 6th grades, “I want to teach the kids of the Latino heroes, but there were none, so we have to create our own. Our young ones need to see those heroes because if they don’t see them, then what will they see? Everything else.” The high school students involved in LIA are trained to tutor the elementary students in literacy and math. In turn, the mentor-mentee relationship builds the confidence of both involved. Latinos in Action participants:
boast a 98% high school attendance rate
85% college enrollment
3.2 average GPA
Leadership, literacy, and service
The social aspects of LIA are the cool cultural presentations. Dr. Enriquez believes that it so important for the youth to learn to articulate what they are thinking in an intelligent way. LIA participants are required to keep a journal to hone their writing skills. Students are asked, “Do you feel you are worthy of your dreams? If not, then you don’t know yourself”. Tlak about an awesome writing exercise! The last component is linguistic cultivation. LIA students help out at parent teacher conferences as interpreters. I can’t imagine these kids doing such a personal thing without getting stressed out. in LIA, it is important to do this type of service because it will educate the kids and the community and can change how they are perceived. Tight! Southern Utah University and Weber State actually have Latinos in Action courses. I kept thinking. I wish we could do something like this with the Native community. I wish I had the contacts to get something like this up and going for Native students. I hope someone else, somewhere in that meeting, who has those connections, was thinking the same thing.
After the Latinos in Action breakout session it was time for lunch. It was OK. Paiute Tribe youth performed a variety of traditional dances
Adorable! Courtesy of Utah Division of Heritage & Arts
I did some exploring. UVU is huge-normous!
I don’t know if these are up year round or if they are special occasion teepee’s. Either way, pretty cool.
Directly following lunch, representatives Rex Lee Jim, Vice President of the Navajo Nation, and Vice-Chairman Madeline Greymountain of the Confederated Tribe of the Goshute Reservation gave us an update on the cool things they are working on:
Rex Lee Jim introduced himself in Navajo which is cool. Not only is it Navajo tradition to introduce yourself in Navajo, including your clans, but he wanted to emphasize the language revitalization projects through Rosetta Stone. In addition, the Navajo elders who speak the language are being certified to teach it through the school systems. The Navajo Nation is setting up a Navajo virtual university. It sounds like it would be a website or Wiki-page so Navajo members, around the world, could have instant access to anything Navajo. I feel that it would bridge the gap between the worlds on and off the reservation. In other news, the Navajo Nation will begin a program that will teach traditional, peace-making communication skills to deter the use of alcohol, drugs, and domestic violence. Rex Lee Jim said, “We have forgotten how to sit down and talk things through”. The plan will, with the help of social services and religious institutions, teach effective communication skills to deal with personal, family, and career miscommunications. As a member of the Navajo Nation I was proud that there were so many cool things in the works. We still have a lot to work through.
Madeline Greymountain emphasized the resiliency of the Goshute youth. Kids are bussed 140 miles round trip, everyday! The Goshute tribe is trying to better serve the kids to make sure that they know they are valued, appreciated, and to get them to graduation. They have tried various plans and all have failed. Greymountain asked the audience if they had any ideas. A classic sign of humility on behalf of the youth. The last issue affecting the Goshute Indian Reservation is ensuring their water rights. Right now there is piping going on to take their federal reserved water and ship it to Las Vegas. This is why I hate Las Vegas and St. George, Utah, the cities can’t sustain themselves. Read more about it here: Goshute Tribes Fight for Water Rights in Face of 300-Mile Pipeline to Vegas.
The last session I went to was about a program called LIBERATE! through the University of Utah’s Department of Education.
Ryan Walker, M.Ed from The University of Utah
The Live Interactive Broadcast Equalizing Rural Access to Teacher Education (LIBERATE) is designed to address the critical shortage of highly-qualified special education teachers in rural and remote areas of Utah. Specifically, during the project period, LIBERATE will deliver a comprehensive post-bachelor teacher licensure program in severe disabilities to two cohorts of 15 teacher candidates located in a minimum of three distance sites. Which is great for the up and coming innovation of distance education. The ultimate goal is for American Indian students to have free education and to work in their own communities, and on their own reservations. We had a treat as one of the first student cohorts Skyped us. Byron Manycattle from Navajo Mountain High school is in his second year of teaching there. He learned, through LIBERATE, how to view students with disabilities and to engage his students with disabilities. “Educators are so vital to the small communities. I have been able to use the Navajo language and culture in daily lessons. When I first came here, the hooghan on campus was boarded up. Now that’s where we hold class. I see that the students become focused and become engaged.” A San Juan School District Board member was present who told her story. Her son is disabled & non-verbal and works with Byron. She was grateful for Byron and his hard work. It was wonderful to hear that we are taking care of our own.
The conference ended with a special showing of the movie Smoke Signals. The next day was going to be full of presentations and lectures but unfortunately, I couldn’t go. I was so grateful that I was able to go. I hope I get invited next year.
Mid-August was a fun time for me. I was asked by my favoritest, most awesome professor to collaborate on a lecture for The Summit County Library One Book, One Community Program in Park City, Utah. Our topic would be Sherman Alexie’s, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-TIme Indian and The Lone Ranger and Tonto’s Fistfight in Heaven.It was smashing! I really could talk about literature all day. So…
Sherman Alexie and Native Literature, in general:
Native Authors whose work has created a renaissance for the genre include M. Scott Mamaday, Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, and Sherman Alexie. I call them the Furious Five. Others may call them that too but I called them that first! Sherman Alexie is a pretty cool dude. If you haven’t heard of him, you should look him up. At least follow his twitter feed. It’s hilarious! He is hilarious, irreverent, and creative. Alexie is a poet, screenwriter, teacher, and father. He’s known for his in-your-face rhetoric of contemporary Indian life. Native American/American Indian not Indian from India. Alexie is Spokane Indian born to a very hard-working mother and an absent-tee father. He studied at Gonzaga University and majored in American Studies. Random. Since then he has published a butt-load of novels, collections, and poetry. Most notably is his collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto’s Fistfight in Heaven which was adapted by Alexie into the movie, Smoke Signals directed by Cheyenne-Arapaho director, Chris Eyre. (Look him up too!)
Sherman Alexie
This book turned 20 this year!
Here is a clip from Smoke Signals:
I lectured on Alexie’s YA novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. If you haven’t read it. Go out to your local bookstore and buy it. DO IT NOW!
Buy it, or die!
The lecture was quite an experience. My parents, sister, and I made the trek from Kearns to Kimball Junction. It’s about a 45-minute drive up the canyon but it’s like leaving/entering 2 different worlds. A lower-income, diverse community to an affluent, upper-class, hoity-toity, white community. Interesting enough, I was living the book I would be discussing.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, let’s call it Part-Time Indian, is a coming of age YA novel set in Alexie’s hometown of Wellpinit, Washington. The protagonist is Arnold/Junior Spirit.
My name is Junior,” I said. “And my name is Arnold. It’s Junior and Arnold. I’m both. I felt like two different people inside of one body(60).
Junior/Arnold decides to leave his reservation, the physical epicenter of his cultural identity, for the more affluent, white school at Reardan. As Junior/Arnold leaves for school each day he is metaphorically and literally crossing from one world into the other. On the Rez, Junior sees himself as a nerd who can’t play basketball, who loves his family despite living with the trauma of alcoholism and poverty, and as someone without hope or a future. Off the Rez, Arnold, identifies himself with the antiquated and racist stereotypes of Indians, a basketball star, and a person who has hope and a future. As Arnold or Junior, the kid is as funny as hell and has the insight of a 55 year old medicine man.
My lecture included the idea of Reservation Realism, ( a literary genre specific to Native American authors who implement literary techniques to create realistic elements of reservation life) that Alexie is known, and often criticized for. In response to the criticism Alexie has said, “I got a lot of criticism because alcoholism is such a loaded topic for Indians. People thought I was writing about stereotypes, but more than anything I was writing about my own life”. Alexie does have a penchant for deconstructing Native American stereotypes. He wrote a poem, How to Write the Great American Indian Novel about it. Hilarious!
The themes within the text are pretty deep. I’ve narrowed it down to three: Identity, Poverty, and Hope.
I’ve touched on Arnold’s identity. Half of himself is tied to the Rez, half of it off the Rez. He’s a Part-Time Indian. He comes to realize that he is more than his race and his culture:
I realized that, sure, I was a Spokane Indian. I belonged to that tribe. But I also belonged to the tribe of American immigrants. And to the tribe of basketball players. And to the tribe of bookworms. And the tribe of cartoonists. And the tribe of chronic masturbators. And the tribe of teenage boys. And the tribe of small-town kids. And the tribe of Pacific Northwesterners. And the tribe of tortilla chips-and-salsa lovers. And the tribe of poverty. And the tribe of funeral-goers. And the tribe of beloved sons. And the tribe of boys who really missed their best friends. It was a huge realization. And that’s when I knew that I was going to be okay (217).
Poverty is so prevalent. Reservations across the United States are overwhelmingly impoverished. Why is that? Well, let’s look at the history. The US government was all, We don’t want your kind here so we’re gonna put you on shitty pieces of land, without assistance. EVEN THOUGH WE PROMISED IT TO YOU. and you can live there until you die, or we decide to kill you. And then they were forgotten. Not just for a few months. For decades. For generations. We’re still trying to overcome the problems from 200 years ago. Arnold has a heartbreaking experience with poverty. His dog, Oscar, is sick. No money for the vet. Can’t let him suffer. The dog is shot because “a bullet only costs two cents”. It’s sad because it’s true, Indian kids learn about life this harshly. Poverty is a vicious cycle and sooner or later it will affect how you perceive yourself:
It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you’re poor because you’re stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because you’re Indian. And because you’re Indian you start believing you’re destined to be poor. It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it (13).
Hope is the element that ignites Arnold/Junior’s life. The book takes slow turns, dips and dives, all the while elevating our protagonist to a higher level of hope. Doing well in school, on the basketball team, and with his girlfriend confirm what Arnold/Junior had been so afraid to ask, Am I worth the effort to get out of this place and make something of myself? To convey the hope Arnold/Junior has for his future, Alexie juxtaposes Arnold/Junior’s plight with that of the immigrants who come to America. I know right? Indians and the colonizers in the same boat? But Alexie pulls it off. Arnold says:
I realized that I might be a lonely Indian boy, but I was not alone in the loneliness. There were millions of other Americans who had left their birthplaces in search of a dream (217).
How interesting it is to have the comparison of immigrants and Indians. It drives home the themes of finding oneself in a strange land, and through self-determination create a future that was never before available. This is the plight that so many Native youth are experiencing today. It warms my soul to the core to hear of all of the wonderful and innovative ideas Native youth are creating. We never do find out if Arnold will continue to call himself Arnold or go with Junior.
Part-Time Indian and other Native Literature is pretty cool. Craig S. Womack, Creek-Cherokee scholar has said, “A key component of nationhood is a people’s idea of themselves, their imaginings of who they are. The ongoing expression of a tribal voice, through imagination, language, and literature, contribute to keeping sovereignty alive in the citizens of a nation and gives sovereignty a meaning that is defined within the tribe rather than external sources”(Red on Red). The political component of sovereignty infuses itself within Native Literature empowering Native communities to fight colonization and break those vicious cycles of alcoholism, poverty, and hopelessness.
I was invited back to the One Book, One Community Program. This time it will be with the teens whom I will speak to. I will let you know how that goes!
Hitler v. Obama: Same in the Eyes of Some
A long-running tactic of winning an online argument is to equate the opposition to Adolf Hitler. It goes something like this: “I hate your opinions, you’re Hitler!” Game, set, and match. You may have noticed that President Barack Obama is constantly compared to Hitler. I see a lot of this going around and it’s completely reductive. Hitler orchestrated the most horrific mass suicide in all of history. Comparing him to a Noble Peace prizewinner reduces the genocide that actually did happen. And it’s a lazy, sleazy way to try to win an argument.
Family Decals in Utah.
Families are large here, I think the average household in Utah is like, 40. JK, it’s like, 6. The family decal is Utahns favorite car art for their SUV’s and minivans. Each one a mini-plastic representation of the family, Mom, Dad, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7. Even more annoying, sometimes they have the name of the kids as part of the decal. It makes me nervous, what’s to stop a pedophile from memorizing the names and gaining the trust of the kids and then steal them?
Cashiers Who Call Me Honey, Hun, and Sweatheart & They Are YOUNGER THAN ME
I seriously hate this. I ain’t yo’ hun! I have only ever experienced this by people who are taking my money. I. ain’t. yo’. Hun.
Pedestrians
I know they have the right away. As a pedestrian, as I’m walking across the street, I think of all the distracted drivers who are texting, not paying attention, lost, dealing with kids, etc. I book it like Benny Hill character! So it annoys me when pedestrians: don’t look when crossing, take their sweet time, or don’t use the crosswalk. Don’t trust strangers to see you, they will kill you with their stupidity
Mormons who Hate Muslims
First, if you need a refresher, I am Mormon, so don’t think I am picking on something I am not part of. I can, however, view my religion objectively and see where it needs to change. That said:
I think it’s weird that some Mormons hate Islam and think that it’s a dangerous religion. I posted a Facebook status about it: “Alanis Morissette needs to write a song about hardcore Mormons who hate Muslims. Ironic pt. II feat. Pharrell Williams”. A lot of the responses came from fellow Mormons who had to deal with their Mormon family &/or friends that proclaim Islam is dangerous. This is extremely baffling. Hello? Irony calling…yes, I’ll hold. Mormons have a shared history with Islam; shared in the fact that Islam and Mormonism have been perpetually misunderstood, scrutinized and feared. Since its establishment in 1830 in Fayette, NY, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its doctrine and its members have been catapulted to the forefront of religious persecution. The post-9/11 mentality has tainted the lens the Western world views Islam and its followers. Especially in Utah. Mormonism and Islam, down to the core, are religions of peace, love, and service. I have noticed a few Utah Mormons, not all, post and share anti-Muslim, memes, pictures and statuses. These are two examples that some of my Mormon buddies on Facebook are posting:
This one from a Tea Party members website: “Right now it’s still legal to speak against the religion of Islam and its converts, the Muslim[s] who are trying to destroy our nation, and overtake every western nation on the planet.”
This one takes the cake as it was an internet hoax by a supposed Spanish newspaper editor, but is still being circulated: “… and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride. They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts. And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.“
Mormons know a thing about persecution. After its organization the Latter-day Saints were driven out, quite legally, from New York, Ohio, Missouri, then Illinois. Anti-Mormon militiamen killed Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the LDS Church, and his brother Hyrum Smith. Shortly after their death, thousands of mob and militiamen drove the Mormons from the state of Illinois and destroyed their temple. A few hundred miles and few years later, the Saints illegally settled in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The Saints would continue to experience persecutions in SLC, this time from the Federal government. If Church leaders believed they would be driven from their homes in Salt Lake, they would direct the Saints to destroy their homes at a moments notice. Luckily, that didn’t happen and we can fast forward to this beautiful city:
Courtesy of Stampingsharon.com
So, why are Mormons, especially in Utah, constructing a culture of intolerance? I’m sure there are a ton of reasons, I’m sure there are some Ph.D. nerds out there who can really figure it out. Utah is a bit stifling; culturally, religiously, artistically, and especially in the attempt of a non-Mormon world-view. True story: It wasn’t until I went to college that I met and became friends with a Muslim, a Jew, and a refugee from South Sudan. Sheltered much? Actually, no. It’s just hard to meet different people in Utah because there are so few of them here. You could pass your whole life and never share in someone else’s world view.
A lack of diversity leads to an automatic lack of understanding and open-mindedness. Mormons hating on Muslims need to remember that their religion was once the feared and loathed, & still is a feared and loathed religion. Perceiving the world through the eyes of another is the most worthwhile practice humanity can engage in. To walk in someone else’s shoes, and to see yourself in their life, willing to listen to cherished opinions, thoughts, and ideals different from your own. Easier to say than to do but I have to believe that it is possible.
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. -Anne Frank
June was a fun month for the Supreme Court. ‘The fellowship’ voted on the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, an both were slammed down to oblivion. Yipee! While I am ecstatic and overwhelmed with pride that the Supreme Court made two awesome rulings to support Americans and equality, I have a sour taste in my mouth from the Supreme Court’s ruling of the Baby Veronica case known officially as Adopted Couple v. Baby Girl. (For a full overview please read: Part I,Part II,Part III, Part IV and Part V.) Baby Veronica has raised a lot of issues… like, a butt-load. Indian sovereignty, colonialism, the adoption community, and the systematic problems the Native community is facing, & I’ve been doing a lot of thinking…
Therefore, I will use my skills of levity and humor to express my thoughts ramblings. ** I am not a speaker for Natives, only myself. Mmmmkay?**
5. Custody is the PC term for property
As you know, Baby Veronica’s biological parents were not married and her adoptive parents are. That was a point reiterated by the media, no less by the SC, as a factor to where the child should be, Put the child with an affluent, married couple or Put the child with the father who didn’t even know she was born. Natives and non-Natives alike need to be worried about the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision especially for any parent who has children with someone who they didn’t marry, and are no longer together. If Dusten Brown, the father of Baby Veronica, was married to the biological mother then by law, his biological daughter would be his property & in his custody. If the parents wanted a divorce and in this case, the biological mother did not want her, then the Family Courts would have given Dusten Brown his property daughter to look after. Marriage, crazy institution that it is, has a lot of important legal perks. So that’s why everyone should have the right to enter into it.
4. Don’t be a man, just, don’t be one.
Let me tell you 2 stories about some men I know.
Chris, good guy, funny as hell, knocked up his girlfriend, and tried his hardest to be part of his child’s life after he broke up with the mother. The Ex decided to use the kid as a pawn to manipulate him for money. Chris was smart and went through the courts to set up child support payments, but the Ex blackmailed him and made him pay by the hour to see his kid. After a tumultuous few years inside and outside the courts, Chris decided that it was better if he signed his rights away. His greatest hope is that he will get a visit from his kid on their 18th birthday and they can repair the damage.
Isaak, great guy, really cool, knocked up his girlfriend, and tried his hardest to be part of his child’s life. When he heard that his Ex was arrested for possession of heroine and spent more than a month in jail, he quit school, got a full-time job, hired a lawyer and sued for custody of his son. The courts were on the verge of ruling in Isaak’s favor and then the Ex did the unthinkable and accused Isaak of rape, molesting the kid, neglect and abuse. The accusations were baseless but still needed to be investigated which meant more time Isaak was away from his son. This cycle repeated and repeated. A ruling was close, the Ex made accusations, the accusations were investigated and dismissed, and Isaak was becoming less financially stable as the years of fighting went on and on, and on and on, and he still was not given custody of his son. It’s been a few years and Isaak is still fighting for his child, who will be celebrating his 10th birthday this year.
These stories illustrate the bias that men are experiencing within the Family Courts. Bias from patriarchy and antiquated social norms. Our courts can be a huge disadvantage for fathers. In the Baby Veronica case that is ever so evident. The father’s rights were completely unaccounted and would only be addressed as part of a federal law. Just imagine if the roles were reversed and the biological mother was fighting for the child. I know that’s kind of hard to imagine in this case since the child was placed for adoption before the dad met her, but you get the idea. Gender equality is leveling all aspects of society for development, especially in situations when one gender has traditionally domineered over another.
3. If you’re Cherokee, Make sure everyone knows your Grandma was an Indian Princess.
The Indian Child Welfare Act is an anti-colonial weapon that emphasizes a tribal nationhood and promotes nation-to-nation government. Sovereignty is a pretty interesting thing and it is so heartbreaking clear that people still don’t get what it is. The Cherokee Nation traced Dusten Brown’s heritage revealing that he is a tribal member and therefore receives all the perks of being a Cherokee citizen. Funny, for the media and the Supreme Court, that wasn’t enough. People still wanted to know how much of an ‘Indian’ he was and speculated accordingly. Is he full-blood? Is he half? NPR said he was 2%, other media outlets reported one-fourth. So, here is a quick lesson in Sovereignty 101 and lets get some perspective here: If I was born in Germany, was a citizen of Germany, and identified myself as German, I would, in fact be German. Would my nationality be questioned if I didn’t wear lederhosen, eat sauerkraut, or whether my ringtone was set to Ride of the Valkyrie? Of course not! So why is Dusten Brown, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, who identifies himself as Cherokee, and has social and cultural ties to the community being questioned? The Supreme Court’s decision equated ‘Indianness’ to antiquated appropriations of culture.
2. Nomadic is the way to go
The Supremes Court said that the ICWA wasn’t applicable because Baby Veronica was not physically taken from her Indian home and placed in a non-Indian home because she had never physically lived with her Indian father. Do you follow the logic? You see, Native people’s introductory lesson with the white man was that they were an undignified, subhuman race that should be controlled and manipulated to become civilized. So the U.S. Government executed a mass intergenerational assimilation project spanning across the United States and targeted every tribe. The goal was to ‘kill the Indian and save the man.” Indian children were ripped from their homes placed in boarding schools to experience what it meant to be white. Children experienced PTSD, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, self-doubt and anger. Stories are slowly surfacing to document the effects of the Federal government’s sanctioned cultural genocide. Some accounts tell of infants, hours after birth, that were taken from their mothers. Those children never physically lived in an Indian home, but they still had one. We’re not talking about this happening 100 years ago, The Indian Adoption Project, and government and church controlled residential/boarding schools were used as the colonizer’s weapon of choice and continued to be until 1978. Let that sink in…1978. Can you guess what also happened that year? The Indian Child Welfare came to fruition. It’s no wonder why the Native community is up in arms about Baby Veronica, it happened, like, yesterday.
1. Get the peace-pipe out and wield it like a Game of Thrones character would against the media.
At the end of the day and no matter what side you are on, one thing is crystal clear: The system is broken. I am still reeling with the media’s coverage of the case. Pinning the biological father and adoptive parents against each other was the lowest blow and was not journalism. I wish this case could have been used to shine the racket that is the adoption system and the ludicrous amount of money that prospective parents have to cough up to make a family. There are so many reasons why we need to continue raging against the machine. We need to raise the discourse within our circles and discuss issues of race, legislation and civil rights. So…let’s go!
Rambling Navajo Girl 