100 Ways to Support Native folks, Not Appropriate Them- Vice

Urban Scholar · Nov 22, 2018

100 Ways to Support—Not Appropriate From—Native People

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/arti...an-ally-to-native-americans-indigenous-people

A native writer shared with vice 100 ways we can be better allies to Native people and respect them going forward.

Her opening statement:

Natives have been so cancelled out of the American conversation that people don't even know where to begin to include us. "What do we call you? ... American Indian? Native American? Do you guys still live in tipis?" These questions are still asked today—and they will continue to be asked unless we put together some kind of list, a collection of do's and don'ts, and share it widely... Wait. Hang on a tick. What do we have here?

A lot of this is of course recognizing and respecting them. The following are some highlights. Again keep in mind there's 100.

10. Do not speak with smug entitlement on issues that affect Native communities just because you claim to be a quarter Indian or whatever. For example, do not tell a Native that racist mascots aren't racist because you are allegedly Cherokee and you, yourself, don't find them offensive. Instead, listen to us when we tell you what is and what isn't offensive.

11. Contrary to what movies will tell you, we don't need rescuing. Tell Kevin Costner: Dances With Wolves and other Hollywood westerns perpetuate the white savior narrative. Instead, watch films written, directed, and/or produced by Natives.

14. Share Native voices. Please and thank you.

15. Expose your children to as many Indigenous activities as you can. The more children are exposed to the truth of a people, the less they will be affected by stereotypes.

16. Don't allow schools to dress your kid up as an Indian. Playing Indian is always racist, and. my traditional regalia is not a costume.

18. Don't correct the way people choose to identify. Native American, Indian, American Indian, Indigenous, or our tribal names—it's our choice.

It's an interesting read from the Native perspective. I know that I personally learned a lot.

Note:

Also what we won't do is ask/pretend why something very listed as rude, racist, and problematic to Native folks are. That's highly disengious and makes this article all the more relevant.

Hope you find this informative Era.

gozu · Nov 22, 2018

Those points sound pretty obvious but..yeah, i guess they are needed all the same. How many native americans currently live in the U.S ?

Plainswalker · Nov 22, 2018

I haven't gone through all of them yet (working on it in another tab!), but as someone who is First Nations myself, it's fantastic to see an article of this type making the rounds. Native American issues and narratives are so often overlooked. I saw a lot of #10 with the Elizabeth Warren debacle recently, with many progressives saying that they don't care and don't see an issue with what she did and therefore it didn't matter, ignoring and erasing the viewpoints of actual Native Americans, many of whom who very much had an issue with that. So hopefully, with articles like these, maybe people might be a little more respectful and listen to Native American voices.

a Master Ninja · Nov 22, 2018

Take #18 seriously.

My roommate in college insisted on "American Indian" and strongly disliked when anybody referred to his heritage as "Native American", which defied my initial expectations.

TSM · Nov 23, 2018

Being a quarter american indian I think a big problem they have is that members that marry out of the tribe are basically absorbed into the general whiteness of this country. So decendants that could be advocates or partners fade into the wood work within a couple generations. I don't feel any connection to my heritage, and unless I told you otherwise, I'm just another white guy.

Urban Scholar · Nov 23, 2018

a Master Ninja said:
Take #18 seriously.

My roommate in college insisted on "American Indian" and strongly disliked when anybody referred to his heritage as "Native American", which defied my initial expectations.

That had to be pretty damn frustrating

100 Ways to Support Native folks, Not Appropriate Them- Vice

Urban Scholar

gozu

Plainswalker

a Master Ninja

TSM

Urban Scholar