People say that Indians have bigger problems than mascots and use of Native American images, but I disagree. If you cant see me as an individual, then how can you understand the problems we have as a people? -- Frank LaMere, Winnebago The use of Native American Mascots are some of the building blocks used with the larger problems we face in our communities. These building blocks create huge walls. Standing up for the respect and dignity of our people is a necessary ACT in addressing all of the issues in Indian Country- because they are all connected; from poverty, foster care, faulty legal systems, third-world-living conditions, to substance abuse, domestic violence, violence perpetuated against us, and violence against each other. These “little issues” do nothing to build the dignity or self respect of our communities and especially our children. If a person does not have a strong sense of self worth as part of their foundation, what do they do? They self mutilate and act out in self destructive ways. “Stereotyping dehumanizes Indians, removing them from our collective consciousness and relegating them to the dust bin of history. If Indians are war-whooping, scalping savages, theyre irrelevant to modern society. No one needs to worry about jobs, healthcare, or law enforcement for a bunch of dirty redskins” - Rob Schmidt, Editor, Blue Corn Comics By not standing up and tearing down these building blocks, we are co-signing the abuse of our people. We are handing over the bullets that non-Natives use to randomly shoot at us. We are giving them the keys to the bulldozers to desecrate, destroy and develop over our sacred sites. We are nodding our heads to the freak ass weirdoes that want to corrupt and exploit our ceremonies and sell them off to the highest bidder.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 06:12:55 +0000
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