No Harry, I had a misprint. I said:
There was also that key word about culture in the
article. I was interested in why they didn't mention that (the
people in the article were or were not Indian) but all of the
articles about Tar Creek and the Quapaw Reservation (where I'm from) always
mention the town and never anything about it being
Indian either. I assume that is because they are in
denial about Indians being from a different place than White Folks.
I was saying that the use of the word "culture"
always means something other than the dominant culture.
Otherwise they don't use the word. Like "Alcoholic" it is
often a code word. The reason the program worked in our school was
because of the different culture and its willingness to enter into the dominant
culture from a special place. Our code word was "Picher"
or the town on the reservation. Our culture was Picher and our
way of being in the world was "from Picher". What I learned
later was that being "from Picher" really was a different culture from the
dominant culture and that it was Indian. I learned that from Jews in
NYCity and from the Iroquois and the American Indian Community House in New York
who I was a lot more like than any of the others. The Jews
demanded to know who I was and where I was from? They could
see that I was different even though I was an artist, another kind of
different. When I walked into the American Indian Community
House I knew that I had returned home to my own culture or one very much like
the one I knew in Oklahoma.
As for the article. Many people that I
have sent it to on the web come back with the statement that it can't work
elsewhere because it seems too specific to that place, i.e. culture.
My statement was that I grew up in a similar situation that came from our
culture and in point of fact from the Cherokee in my
family. I also said that when Indian people want to maintain
their culture, the best way is to find some White Man who does something similar
and hire him to come in and teach us since the dominant culture generally won't
fund anything Indian that is not very conventional and
stereotypical. As an example, the way they justified the Chugach
experiment was to quote the President saying something that Indian people
believe intensely. " Leave no one behind."
The President is not an Indian and he generally
doesn't follow that rule except maybe with children. However,
like Jews in the world, we are very few. We are committed to every
Indian making a difference. That is why we
don't fire people from their jobs. We consider jobs to be a part of
a person's life path and their learning. When they are finished with
that learning they will move on. The job is for the person and not
the reverse.
We really don't relate much to what you say at all
Harry and it is because you are from a different culture with different values
that we don't believe. However, I would say that there are people
who are your culture and who both believe and live by what you say.
Remember, though, Cherokees were and are very good at business when we
don't have the issue of governmental monopolies and Capitalist lobbying against
ownership of our properties. Remember they blamed us as FOLLOWERS of
Henry George just before they stole our lands, disbanded our courts and
governments and banned our religion in 1883-1893. It seems that
there were White Folks out there that didn't relate to you or George and they
used it against us. I think it all comes down to an issue of
sovereignty and a willingness to walk in the other person's shoes until you
really can be and think like them. Once that happens then culture is
not as important because you have become a translator and can understand it
as a space that you inhabit and not some vague story that you use to
advertise and sell snake oil with.
Peace,
Ray
P.S. You said you read that 1491 article and
then you used an example about Indians knowing the forest as if we didn't design
it. We did and that was why we knew the forest. Until
you design the market you will always be at its mercy. The question
is whether you are capable of intelligent design or not. We
were in the forest and in agriculture and our process of "market" at
Tlaxcala was the most successful in the world. The idea of Capital
is translated in most Indian languages as "Power." The
difference is you percieve it economically while we percieve it
holistically. REH
----- Original Message -----
From: "Selma Singer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Keith Hudson"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
"futurework" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "mcore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 10:49
AM
Subject: Re: Schools/education
> cultural learnings that do not fit into the standards of the dominant
> society, I believe you are making the same point Brad made about the
> individual-i.e., that the program is tailoring the standard expectations of
> the dominant society to the individual child so that she/he will fit in
> better.
>
> Please correct me if I am misinterpreting or misconstruing anyone's
> statements.
>
> Selma
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "Selma Singer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Keith Hudson"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "futurework" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: "mcore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 8:22 PM
> Subject: Re: Schools/education
>
>
> > > I am particularly interested in the response some of you may have to the
> > > idea that each child should have a program individually tailored to
> > her/his
> > > needs and that some children will graduate at 14 and others at 21.
> > >
> > > Selma
> >
> >
> > This is the same as musical instruction. My daughter's good friend in
> the
> > third grade was playing the Mozart A Major Piano Concerto which I played
> in
> > High School. My daughter had the same Earth Sciences course in middle
> > school that I had as a non-science student at the University of Tulsa,
> while
> > others at University had the "Music Appreciation" course in college that I
> > had on the reservation in 9th grade. The only order to learning is
> within
> > the discipline and is limited by psycho-physical considerations, otherwise
> > we are speaking of social realities. The social realities are also the
> > issue with Campbell in British Columbia.
> >
> > Does anyone know whether the Chugach program is Aleut, Indian and Inuit?
> > Those communities up there are Native. There was also that key word
> about
> > culture in the article. I was interested in why they didn't mention that
> > but all of the articles about Tar Creek and the Quapaw Reservation (where
> > I'm from) always mention the town and never anything about it being Indian
> > either. There was also the comment about alcoholism which is another
> code
> > word for Indian used by the media. The program resembles a program used
> > on our reservation as I said and another that I read about at a
> reservation
> > in Washington State. Often the Tribes go out looking for a White Man to
> > come back and teach us our realities because the government will not allow
> > us to use our own. So if we want our own processes then we must find
> some
> > White Man who has developed a business around that "white" version which
> is
> > then authenticated and OK to us on the reservations. It happens
> regularly
> > and the politics of it is well known in Indian country and is assumed.
> >
> > By the way, wampum is made from a shell, is a Lavender purple and comes
> from
> > a particularly difficult part of the shell to harvest and work with. It
> is
> > easier now with machines and one can imagine how difficult it was before
> the
> > use of metal tools. The color is sacred and the value is both that and
> the
> > extreme difficulty in manufacturing it from the shell that has little
> color
> > in it. The confusion is with the belts which are a form of heiroglyph to
> > record contracts. They are called Wampum belts whether they have wampum
> > beads in them or not. But the conversation was interesting.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > REH
> >
> >
> >
>
