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Native American history needs retelling
Thanksgiving portrays stereotypes that some find offensive

BY LINDA DeNICOLA Correspondent

November is American Indian Heritage Month and also the month when people
across the country remember the Native Americans who are part of the
Thanksgiving story. But some Native Americans are not happy about
Thanksgiving because the stereotypes of their people are often caricatures
and don't reflect the complexity of the tribes and nations that lived on
the lands that stretch across this country long before the Europeans
settled here.

"For many American Indians, the holidays are bittersweet. On the one hand,
it's wonderful to get together with friends and family, but all that joy is
overshadowed by the assault of stereotypical images of Indians that begin
to appear on TV, in newspapers, and on greeting cards around Halloween and
continue throughout Thanksgiving.

"It's very painful," said Helen Rende, who is a Kahnawake Mohawk and vice
president of Intertribal American Indians of New Jersey, (ITNJ), a group
that is dedicated to educating the public about American Indian culture,
and history. ITNJ provides programs for schools, corporations, universities
and health-care organizations.

She explained that the Kahnawake Mohawk is a nation as opposed to a tribe.
By definition, tribe refers to a group of people of any size who have no
specific rights, while nation refers to people who, over centuries, occupy
an area, have and speak the same native language and have had their
government in place since time immemorial. They know who their people are
and where they come from.

ITNJ meets monthly in the log cabin at Thompson Park in Monroe. Last week,
the discussion focused on an article written by the prominent Native
American writer Michael Dorris, "Why I'm Not Thankful for Thanksgiving."

Dorris says in his article that feasting was an important Native American
cultural tradition. He noted that it is most likely that there had been a
Thanksgiving feast with Pilgrims and Native Americans, but it would have
been the Native Americans who prepared the meal of pumpkins, turkey, corn
and squash.

He writes that "Thanksgiving, like much of American history, is complex,
multifaceted and will not bear too close scrutiny without revealing a less
than heroic aspect. Knowing the truth about Thanksgiving, both its proud
and shameful motivations and history, might well benefit contemporary
children. But the glib retelling of an ethnocentric and self-serving
falsehood does not do one any good," he writes.

Mary Anne Ross, whose husband was Lakota, said she lived on Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation in South Dakota for a while. Although she is not a
Native American herself, she has been closely associated with them, and her
children are part Lakota. She noted that there are still about 500
different tribes and village groups that speak about 140 different
languages.

"I did volunteer work in South Dakota and got used to the Dakota Indians,
but when I came back here and met Mohawks, I realized that they are a very
different group," she said.

Ross added that most people don't know that each nation is a separate
ethnic group with its own culture, even though there are some
commonalities.

"They each have their own identities. But Thanksgiving kind of glosses over
that and many of the horrific things that happened to the Native American
people," she said. "Thanksgiving shows the Pilgrims and the Indians getting
together. But it doesn't show what happened afterward when there was a lot
of fighting with the Indians and Indians were massacred.

"The stereotypes are very painful for my friends. It discounts what the
American Indians suffered within this country," she said.

According to the Web site NativeAmericans.com, when the Europeans came to
America, there were probably about 10 million Indians populating America
north of present-day Mexico. It is believed that the first Native Americans
arrived during the last ice age, approximately 20,000-30,000 years ago
through a land bridge across the Bering Sound, from northeastern Siberia
into Alaska. The oldest documented Indian cultures in North America are
Sandia (15,000 B.C.), Clovis (12,000 B.C.) and Folsom (8,000 B.C.)

Although it is believed that the Indians originated in Asia, few, if any of
them, came from India. The name "Indian" was first applied to them by
Christopher Columbus, who believed mistakenly that the mainland and islands
of America were part of the Indies, in Asia.

When the Europeans started to arrive in the 16th and 17th century, they
were met by Native Americans who regarded their whitecomplexioned visitors
as something of a marvel, not only for their outlandish dress and beards
and winged ships but even more for their wonderful technology, i.e., steel
knives and swords, cannons, mirrors, earrings, copper and brass kettles,
and so on.

However, conflicts eventually arose, especially over the land, which, for
the Native American, has its own rhythms and spirit. Nature to the
Europeans was something of an obstacle, even an enemy. It was also a
commodity: A forest was so many board feet of timber, a beaver colony so
many pelts, a herd of buffalo so many robes and tongues.

According to the Native American Web site, the Europeans brought with them
not only a desire and will to conquer the new continent for all its
material richness, but also brought with them diseases that hit the Indians
hard. Conflicts developed between the Native Americans and the invaders,
the latter arriving in overwhelming numbers.

At the last ITNJ meeting, member artisans demonstrated the differences
between genuine American Indian arts and crafts and false imitations.

"We want people to understand why it's important to know the difference.
American Indian arts and crafts are actually protected through federal
law," explained Brenda Davis, treasurer for the group.

Intertribal American Indians of New Jersey is a nonprofit organization that
also provides social activities and support to American Indians living in
New Jersey.

"We feel it's important to educate the public to counter stereotypes. We
develop presentations to meet the needs of our audiences, using different
modalities. Sometimes we may do a craft workshop, a demonstration of dance
and music, a lecture or film presentation. Our programming for schools
meets the curriculum guidelines for grades K-12," Rende said.

InterTribal American Indians of N.J. is an organization, created circa
1980, to meet the needs of American Indians from across North and South
America who are now living in New Jersey. Members have represented nations
including Mohawk, Cayuga, Seneca, Cherokee, Delaware, Apache, Lakota and
Hopi.

Programs include language (Mohawk and Lakota) speakers from different
reserves/ reservations, on current issues affecting American Indians, and
American Indians representing different professions and agencies discussing
their purposes or possible opportunities.

On Dec. 15, the public is invited to a demonstration of American Indian
toys and stories about Mohawk holiday celebrations. Children will be
encouraged to make an American Indian item.

On Jan. 19, during a presentation called "Winter Games," families will
learn about the Snow Snake and how and why snowshoes were made.

For more information about ITNJ meetings or to arrange for a speaker,
contact Mary Anne Ross at (732) 238-3792 or e-mail her at
maryanneross123@....