Indigenous Rights
Goals:
• For participants
• For participants
United States &
• For participants
to break down the “Thanksgiving” myth
to understand the struggle of indigenous people in the
globally on a historical and present-day level.
to understand and analyze cultural appropriation
Agenda:
I.
Ice Breaker, Review Agenda & Intro
II.
What does Indigenous mean?
III.
Debunking the Thanksgiving myth
IV.
Cultural Appropriation
V.
Game/Break
VI.
Taking it Global
VII. Evaluation & Announcements
Total
15 min.
10 min.
15 min.
30 min.
10 min.
30 min
10 min.
time – 2 hours
Materials:
• Quarter Sheet on Myths of Thanksgiving
• Appropriation Sheets
• Workshop planning
• Computers w/website opened!
• Butcher
• Markers
Icebreaker & Agenda/Goals Review
•
•
•
•
15 mins
Welcome people & thank them for coming
Ice-Breaker: Hog Call
o Break the group into pairs. Each pair must choose 2 things. A
machine and an animal. They then have to decide who is which.
The pairs then divide up on opposites sides of the room.
Everyone must close their eyes and by only making the noise of
their character, they must find their partner. (Have the group
raise their hands in front of their chests as bumper guards)
Review workshop goals & agenda
Review CFJ agreements (posters)
Defining Indigenous
10 mins
SAY: Before we start, how many of you know what indigenous means?
SAY: Indigenous means that something or someone is native or originated
from a certain place. There are trees, plants, and animals that are indigenous
to California as there are indigenous people in North America. So, today’s
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workshop is addressing indigenous rights, thus the rights of Native peoples,
AKA Native Americans and indigenous people around the world.
ASK: Who are Indigenous Peoples?
People who inhabited a land before it was conquered and colonized,
and who consider themselves separate from the people currently
governing that land, are called Indigenous Peoples.
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/studyguides/indigenous.html
ASK: What does that mean???? What does “colonized” mean? Who were
colonizers?
• A dominant society – who “finds” lands and cultures and forces them
to assimilate into their culture (to be like me).
• Ex: Europeans – in Africa, Asia, & the Americas. Saving the
“primitives or savages”
o “discovered” “virgin” territory. Even when there were people
already living there!!! Imagine, someone coming to your house
& neighborhood, and saying, it’s MINE! I claim this land.
o Christian missionaries – wanting to “civilize” and introduce
Christianity to the savages.
SAY; I am going to pass out papers to everyone. Divide it in half. On one
half of the paper, write down everything you’ve heard about indigenous
people. Stereotypes, images, whatever. On the other half – write down
what you think is TRUE.
Take 5 mins.
OK, let’s all raise up our papers, look around, peek at your neighbors’. This
balance of what is stereotypes & what are truths, is what we want to change
today.
Debunking the Thanksgiving Myth
15 mins
ASK: First, what comes to mind when you think of Thanksgiving?
ASK: Who can tell me the Thanksgiving story?
Have one or two people give their version of the story
ASK: How many of you learned about this story in elementary school? How
many think it’s true?
SAY: Thanksgiving is the great American myth story. So we’re here to give
you the REAL low-down on Thanksgiving.
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SAY: We are going to divide into 2 teams – the “school book history team”
and the “people’s history team.” School book team – please stand here to the
left. People’s team, please stand here to the right.
I am going to read, and your team must act it out as I read [pass out
handouts: thanksgiving myth]. The school book team will go first.
(summarize the long parts! read slowly, and help them with gestures if
needed!)
HANDOUT:
School Book (there’s are short, so let them act for a little
before you send them off stage)
• Pilgrims came to America to escape religious persecution in England
People’s Team
• Not all the pilgrims left England to escape religious persecution;
most of them came to build a new “perfect” society to be the
“Kingdom of God”. Others came just for adventure or profit from
the new world.
School Book Team:
• Samoset & Squanto appeared out of nowhere and became friends
with the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. Squanto helped the Pilgrims
survive and joined them at “The First Thanksgiving.”
People’s Team:
• Samoset and Squanto were sent by the Chief of the Wampanoag
nation to keep an eye on the European settlers. Since the
Wampanoag people have a deep tradition of providing food and
help to those with empty hands - even those they did not trust, the
settlers learned how to plant corn, identify poisonous plants, and
hunt. Without the help from the Wampanoag, they would have
starved to death.
School Book Team:
• Thanksgiving was a celebration of a good harvest with sharing of
food between Native Americans and the Pilgrims.
People’s Team:
• First, people have been giving thanks for as long as people have
existed. Indigenous nations all over the world have celebrations of
the harvest that come from very old traditions; for Native peoples,
thanksgiving comes not once a year, but every day, for all the gifts
of life.
• Second, it is very unlikely that the settlers fed the Native
Americans for three days due to their lack of skills in catching game
and getting food during this time. Most, if not all, of the food came
from the Wampanoag people.
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•
Only 1 generation after the “First Thanksgiving”, the vast majority
of Natives had either been wiped out, enslaved, or fled to Canada
for safety. The settlers at this point had completely stolen all of the
lands of the Northeast.
School Book Team:
• Thanksgiving is a happy time.
People’s Team:
• For many Native American people, “Thanksgiving” is a time of
mourning, of remembering of how a gift of generosity was
rewarded by theft of land and crops, extermination of many from
disease and guns, and near total destruction of many more from
forced assimilation. As currently celebrated in this country,
“Thanksgiving” is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal
returned for friendship.
ASK: Why don’t we learn the People’s Team’s version of the story of
Thanksgiving in schools?
Who has heard the quote: history is written by the winners? What
does that mean? Did this story happen just in Massachusetts? Where
else? (everywhere…)
SAY: At this year’s thanksgiving with your family, think about what this
holiday really represents for many indigenous peoples. And as you give
thanks for all the things in your lives, also recognize the struggles and
genocide thru which this country and so many others were built.
Cultural Appropriation
30 mins
SAY: So the struggle for Native Americans continues even after that fateful
“Thanksgiving” period.
We are now going to split up into groups to discuss different Native American
cultural icons that have been appropriated.
ASK: What does appropriated mean?
Yes! So appropriating is when you take some cultural object, dress, or
tradition from another culture for your own use without knowing or
honoring any of its significance.
Our activity will focus on this topic and why it’s important to understand that
cultural appropriation is a problem.
INSTRUCTIONS: Each group will get a paper with a description of one
of the categories on this poster paper. Your job is to answer the
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questions on your sheet. Then act it out for the audience to educate
them on this form of cultural appropriation. You will have 10 mins for
discussion, and 10 mins to create your skit.
We need a group for each category, so please count off to into 3-5 groups
(depends on the number of people) and get in your groups!
Give them 10 minutes to read & answer their questions.
10 mins for skits.
SAY: Ok, let’s get back together!! Ok, let’s have the first group go up and the
audience will guess what it is!
Have each group go up and perform and then the audience will guess
where it matches to the categories.
ASK: What other examples of appropriation of other cultures have you seen
in society?
SAY: So what’s in common or messed up with all of this?
Game/Break
10 mins
Fighting Back
30 mins
To recap – can someone review what we’ve covered so far about indigenous
people in the US???
• The myth of Thanksgiving
• Cultural Appropriation & racism
Time to take this internationally: There are approximately 370 million
indigenous people spanning 70 countries, worldwide. Historically:
• they have had their lands stolen
• their native knowledge stolen & commercialized (think native
medicine….turned into brand name pills)
• high proportion of people in jail, illiteracy rate, unemployment rate,
etc.
• they’re not allowed to study their own languages in schools.
• Sacred lands and objects taken from them (let’s carve the faces of the
Presidents who stole your land, into your sacred mountain…AKA mt.
rushmore).
• Denied the right to live in and manage their traditional lands
http://www.globalissues.org/article/693/rights-of-indigenous-people
INSTRUCTIONS: You have 15-20 mins to get online and research a current
global indigenous rights issue and create a 5 min workshop (give out
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handout). Everyone should have a speaking role. The website is open on
these computers. http://www.survival-international.org/ Let’s count off by
___ to divide into groups.
Give them a 10 min, and 5 min warning.
SAY: Now, I want to have each team present their workshop (if you have a
lot of teams, break into 2 rooms, and have them present simultaneously to
staff, or to another group as the audience).
Take 1-2 questions after each workshop. Or have the audience give
feedback.
SAY: Great work everyone! We hope you all learned something today. Now
it’s time for our evaluation…
Evaluation
10 mins
Heads, Hands, Hearts: Have people share one thing that they learned, felt
and will walk away with.
Announcements:
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THE MYTHS OF THANKSGIVING
Turkey? Pilgrims? Native Americans? Lots of food and cranberry
sauce? And family? Those are the images that often come up when we
think of Thanksgiving. But what is the REAL low-down on this classic
American holiday? There is a tragic and untold truth that surrounds
this long and traditional mythology.
•
Pilgrims came to America to escape religious persecution in England
o Not all the pilgrims left England to escape religious persecution; most of
them came to build a new “perfect” society to be the “Kingdom of God”.
Others came just for adventure or profit from the new world.
•
Samoset & Squanto appeared out of nowhere and became friends with
the Pilgrims. Squanto helped the Pilgrims survive and joined them at
“The First Thanksgiving.”
o Samoset and Squanto were sent by the Chief of the Wampanoag nation in
Massachusetts to keep an eye on the European settlers. Since the
Wampanoag people have a policy of providing food and help to those with
empty hands even with mistrust, the settlers learned how to plant corn,
identify poisonous plants, hunt, and adapt to a land that without the help
from the Wampanoag, they would have starved to death.
•
Thanksgiving was a celebration of a good harvest with sharing of food
between Native Americans and the Pilgrims.
o First, people have been giving thanks for as long as people have existed.
Indigenous nations all over the world have celebrations of the harvest that
come from very old traditions; for Native peoples, thanksgiving comes not
once a year, but every day, for all the gifts of life.
o Second, it is very unlikely that the settlers fed the Native Americans for
three days due to their lack of skills in catching game and getting food
during this time. Most, if not all, of the food came from the Wampanoag
people.
o Only a generation after the “First Thanksgiving”, the Natives had either
been wiped out, enslaved, or fled to Canada for safety. The settlers at this
point had stolen completely all of the lands of the Northeast.
•
Thanksgiving is a happy time.
o For many Native American people, “Thanksgiving” is a time of mourning,
of remembering how a gift of generosity was rewarded by theft of land
and seed corn, extermination of many from disease and gun, and near
total destruction of many more from forced assimilation. As currently
celebrated in this country, “Thanksgiving” is a bitter reminder of 500
years of betrayal returned for friendship.
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Indigenous Rights Workshop
Usually used by punk rockers as a form of
style to express their music and culture.
It’s name and origin came from a group of
Native Americans from the areas of
Canada and New York. Do you think
people who have this style understand
where it’s usually from?
Actually a Mohawk is a person--a person from a nation of people
that white folks have been trying to, and continue to try to
obliterate. The word Mohawk is a racist derogatory label put on
us by the invaders. It means "man-eaters", an insulting
reference to one of our sacred spiritual stories. We call ourselves
Ganyengehaka. In your language it means "people from the
place of the crystals."
It's a deeply meaningful practice connected to our hearts, our
spirituality, and our culture. Nations of people hold this practice
(what you call a hairstyle) close to our hearts.
http://www.confluere.com/column/20030619-anen.html
1. How many people do you know with Mohawks? How many of
them know the significance of it to Indigenous culture?
2. What are other examples of clothing or styles that are
“appropriated” from other cultures?
3. How does this affect cultural stereotypes & racism?
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Indigenous Rights Workshop
From the Obijiwa culture, it is handmade
with a willow hoop on which is woven a
loose net or web. Then it is decorated with
sacred and personal items such as beads
and feathers. It is hung above the bed
and believed to protect sleeping children
from nightmares. Do you see this sold a
lot in malls?
The dreamcatcher is from the Ojibwe (Chippewa) culture. It is a handmade hoop
(traditionally made of willow), incorporating a loose net, and decorated with items
unique to the particular dreamcatcher.
While dreamcatchers originated in the Ojibwa Nation, during the pan-Indian
movement of the 1960s and 1970s they were adopted by Native Americans of a
number of different Nations. They came to be seen by some as a symbol of unity
among the various Indian Nations, and as a general symbol of identification with
Native American or First Nations cultures. However, other Native Americans have
come to see them as "tacky" and over-commercialized.[1]
Traditionally, the Ojibwa construct dreamcatchers by tying sinew strands in a web
around a small round or tear-shaped frame (in a way roughly similar to their method
for making snowshoe webbing). The resulting "dream-catcher", hung above the bed,
is then used as a charm to protect sleeping children from nightmares. The Ojibwa
believe that a dreamcatcher filters a person's dreams - the good in their dreams is
captured in the web of life and carried with them, but the evil in their dreams
escapes through the hole in the center of the web and is no longer a part of them. It
is hung above their beds or in their home, to sift their dreams and visions.
In the course of becoming popular outside of the Ojibwa Nation, and then outside of
the pan-Indian communities, dreamcatchers are now made, exhibited and sold by
some New age groups and individuals. This, however, is considered by most
traditional Native peoples and their supporters to be an undesirable form of cultural
appropriation.
1. Are you told this history by vendors in the mall? Why not?
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2. Are there other examples of appropriated items that are sold at the mall?
3. How does this reinforce cultural stereotypes or racism?
Indigenous Rights Workshop
They misuse the symbols of Native
American identity for games and as
mascots. Examples: The Chiefs, The
Redskins, The Tomahawks, etc. What’s
wrong with this?
“Many schools around the country exhibit Indigenous mascots
and logos, using nicknames and doing the tomahawk chop in
sports stadiums with inauthentic representations of Indigenous
cultures. Many school officials claim they arc honoring Indigenous
Peoples and insist their schools' sponsored activities are not
offensive. I would argue otherwise. There is nothing in
Indigenous cultures that aspires to be a mascot, logo, or
nickname for athletic teams.”
“So-called Indian mascots reduce hundreds of Indigenous tribal
members to generic cartoon characters. These "Wild West"
figments of the European-American imagination distort both
Indigenous and non-lndigenous children's attitudes toward an
oppressed and diverse minority. The Indigenous portrait of the
moment may be bellicose, ludicrous, or romantic but almost
never is a realistic person.”
http://www.hanksville.org/sand/stereotypes/pewe.html
1. What is your school mascot? Are they usually real
people?
2. What is the role of mascots at a sporting event (what
do they do)?
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3. What does having an Indigenous Person or cultural
symbol as an icon do to student’s understanding of
Indigenous cultural?
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Indigenous Rights Workshop
A daughter of a chief that “fell in love”
with a white settler in Massachusetts. But
in reality was forced to marry him and
move to London in which she converted to
Christianity. Is that how Disney wrote the
movie?
In 1995, Roy Disney decided to release an animated movie about a
Powhatan woman known as "Pocahontas". In answer to a complaint by
the Powhatan Nation, he claims the film is "responsible, accurate, and
respectful."
We of the Powhatan Nation disagree. The film distorts history beyond
recognition. Our offers to assist Disney with cultural and historical
accuracy were rejected. Our efforts urging him to reconsider his
misguided mission were spurred.
"Pocahontas" was a nickname, meaning "the naughty one" or "spoiled
child". Her real name was Matoaka. The legend is that she saved a
heroic John Smith from being clubbed to death by her father in 1607 she would have been about 10 or 11 at the time. The truth is that
Smith's fellow colonists described him as an abrasive, ambitious, selfpromoting mercenary soldier.
…
The truth of the matter is that the first time John Smith told the story
about this rescue was 17 years after it happened, and it was but one
of three reported by the pretentious Smith that he was saved from
death by a prominent woman.
Yet in an account Smith wrote after his winter stay with Powhatan's
people, he never mentioned such an incident. In fact, the starving
adventurer reported he had been kept comfortable and treated in a
friendly fashion as an honored guest of Powhatan and Powhatan's
brothers. Most scholars think the "Pocahontas incident" would have
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been highly unlikely, especially since it was part of a longer account
used as justification to wage war on Powhatan's Nation.
Euro-Americans must ask themselves why it has been so important to
elevate Smith's fibbing to status as a national myth worthy of being
recycled again by Disney. Disney even improves upon it by changing
Pocahontas from a little girl into a young woman.
The true Pocahontas story has a sad ending. In 1612, at the age of 17,
Pocahontas was treacherously taken prisoner by the English while she
was on a social visit, and was held hostage at Jamestown for over a
year.
During her captivity, a 28-year-old widower named John Rolfe took a
"special interest" in the attractive young prisoner. As a condition of
her release, she agreed to marry Rolfe... Thus, in April 1614,
Matoaka, also known as "Pocahontas", daughter of Chief Powhatan,
became "Rebecca Rolfe".
Two years later on the spring of 1616, Rolfe took her to England where
the Virginia Company of London used her in their propaganda
campaign to support the colony.
Rolfe, his young wife, and their son set off for Virginia in March of
1617, but "Rebecca" had to be taken off the ship at Gravesend. She
died there on March 21, 1617, at the age of 21. She was buried at
Gravesend, but the grave was destroyed in a reconstruction of the
church. It was only after her death and her fame in London society
that Smith found it convenient to invent the yarn that she had rescued
him.
During Pocahontas' generation, Powhatan's people were decimated
and dispersed and their lands were taken over. A clear pattern had
been set which would soon spread across the American continent.
Chief Roy Crazy Horse
http://www.powhatan.org/pocc.html
1. Have you ever heard this side of the “Pocahantos” story? Why
or why not?
2. Why is the Disney version of the story still being told?
3. What does this do to people’s belief’s of Indigenous Peoples?
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Indigenous Rights Workshop
You can be this for Halloween! You can be
a “brave”, “Indian princess”, “Chief”, etc.
Whew… didn’t know you could be a
ETHNICITY for Halloween.
• What types of ethnic Halloween costumes have you
seen?
• How do ethnic costumes maintain racial stereotypes?
• What do these costumes or game playing (cowboys &
Indians) do to people’s ideas of Indigenous Peoples and
other ethnicities and races?
Originally, there were many different traditional clothing styles in
North America. Nearly every Native American tribe had its own
distinctive style of dress, and the people could often tell each other's
tribal identities by looking at their clothes, headdresses, and
ornamentation. In most tribes, Native American men wore
breechclouts or breechcloths (a long rectangular piece of hide or cloth
tucked over a belt, so that the flaps fell down in front and behind),
sometimes with leather leggings attached in colder climates.
After colonization, Native American clothes began to change. For one
thing, as Indian tribes were driven from their ancient lands and forced
into closer contact with each other, they began to borrow some of
each other's tribal dress, so that fringed buckskin clothing, feather
headdresses, and woven blankets became popular among Indians
outside of the tribes in which they originated.
Some traditional Indian garments, such as buckskins, ribbon dresses,
and beaded moccasins, are still worn in many tribes, particularly to
formal events. Others, such as breechcloth, leggings, headdress and
dance shawl, are only worn at powwows and religious ceremonies. In
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general, American Indians use the word "regalia" for traditional
clothing which is used for ceremonial occasions. Some native people
find the phrase "Native American costume" offensive, due to long
association with hurtful red-faced Halloween costumes.
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