Posted by Native Carolinian (other posts) on January 31, 2017 at 03:32:18 Previous Next
In Reply to: Re: Perfect Native Mane! posted by Yadgar on January 28, 2017 at 19:30:25:
: Hi(gh)!
: Let me put forward first: I am no expert on Native American peoples and cultures. Nevertheless, I am aware of the immense diversity among the "500 Nations", also when it comes to hair styles - traditional Iroquois wear it much different then, let's say Plains tribes or Navajos.
This is true.
: The notion of unfetteredly growing long smooth black hair als "typical Indian" probably was first installed by the famous-infamous paintings by George Catlin;
I am familiar with George Catlin. He was painting Plains Western Cultures only. Due to his paintings and the Bill Cody Wild West Show, most people think that this is what Native Americans look like.
in my country, Germany, this was also reinforced by late 19th/early 20th century adventure novelist Karl May, whose wild west novels were mostly set in a south-western (Apache) Native context and whose character "Winnetou", a young Apache chief, afterwards became the most popular fictional Native American in German-speaking countries. This fictional Apache, in the original May books as well as in later TV and cinema adaptions, is described/depicted as having smooth black hair of mid-back length...
As typically happened amongst whites and European societies/cultures, Karl May did not get it right. Not that he was out to get it wrong. I speak German and have been to Germany. I encountered the "Winnetou" stuff there. I was extremely confused because things did not seem right with it. It seemed like there was a general respect for all things Native American, but the Germans just expressed it strangely. "Winnetou" does not belong at all to Apache culture. Winnetou belongs to North East Algonquian culture. In Lenape culture and language, Winnetou was a spirit and was prayed to by my people.
: : I checked out the web-site. I find it very disturbing on the whole. I am Native American. I speak Lenape as my first language as well as Cherokee, and English as my 3rd.
: : Let me explain some things about Native Americans and our hair. There is no such thing as "Native Hair". Each culture has its own hair styles. People within these cultures some times have different hair styles depending on their social standing. Many times it has to do with their religion how they have their hair. It may also have to do with their spirituality how they have their hair.
: : As regards that web-site on the whole, I find it very disturbing. Native women have been objectified for 500 years now. That site objectifies Native men to a large extent. That is not progress. The site actually makes me sick to my stomach. I find it very disrespectful that the person did not take the time to put names to the pictures as well as to which Nations these men belong. That is wrong. It is exploitation.
: Yes, I also regard it as a major flaw of the site not to state the names and tribal allegiances
We do not have tribal allegiances on an individual level. When I say that I am Cherokee and Lenape, it is the same thing as you saying that you are a German. Nothing less.
of the men depicted
The men are not being depicted. They are being shown. This has been one of the most despicable things that whites have done to Native peoples across the board. Native peoples are humans and not animals. We are not endangered animals. We are human beings. We are not circus curiosities to be shown to a paying public.
- but this is with most photo blogs on the Web, just a flood of impressive pictures with hardly any background information. Internet culture generally seem to be outstandingly exploitive, not only when it comes to ethnic minorities, but with each and every subject, it begins with the very disrespect of image copyright. Images and texts and music and videos, all this is just anonymous "material" to make use of, without paying any respect to its creators.
Ethnic minorities are not a subject. We are people. Human beings and our cultures do NOT need copyright protection, only objects and things created by man need copyright protection. We are created by the same God Who created you.
Sad, but true.
It is sad that human beings are objectified and that this continues. Native American peoples have been on the receiving end of this for 500 years now. Columbus was not a hero. He was a genocidal enslaver who used his religion to justify killing millions of people and stealing the land on which they lived from under their feet to which the were intimately connected for millennia. He didn't see Native Americans as humans. He objectified Native Americans. The only debate that the Roman Catholic priests had was whether the Native American people they encountered with Columbus had souls and whether the Native Americans they encountered should be baptized before being killed. The Roman Catholic priests were ok with the Native Americans being killed. Look at the historical documentation. They were trying to decide whether Native Americans were human beings or not. Native Americans are human beings with souls.
: : Please take time to investigate Native American cultures and find out about how and why we look like we do and do what we do. We come from over 500 different Nations and do not have a monolithic culture. Our cultures are living and evolving just like yours is. Some Native Americans are very traditional, and some are not. Many Native Americans live in cities today due to the latest attempts by the U.S. Federal Government to break up out cultures and Nations. Urban Natives may not have traditional hair styles because we have to blend into the majority population and get jobs and pay the bills like everyone else.
: So of course this admittingly awesome looking black-maned wet guy easily could be a non-traditional Native (and thus probably of mixed ancestry)
Non-traditional does not indicate mixed ancestry at all.
who either tries to emulate White stereotypes about Native Americans and their hair or perhaps his long hair is just a non-ethnic subcultural statement (metal, alternative or whatever). He even could be no Native American at all but just a Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, (Northern) Indian or even East Asian young man (his face is not visible, so we cannot tell)
Very few if any Native American people try to emulate white stereotypes of what whites think Native Americans look like. Native Americans do not need whites to tell Native Americans how whites think that Native Americans should be seen whether stereotiypically or not.
with long black hair and fondness of frolicking about in water...
We cannot assume he has a fondness for frolicking about in water. He is in the water and that is the most that we can say based on the picture without talking to him.
I appreciate that you did not intend to offend any one I know that the German speaking principalities did not have colonies in North America and neither did Prussia or Austria-Hungary. The German speakers were just not organized for it like other peoples in Europe were. I actually admire Otto von Bismark for his anti-colonial stance. He was right, the Prussian nobles were wrong. Von Bismark was absolutely correct that the colonial ventures were money losing on the whole. I do know the sad story of the Herero genocide perpetrated by German firms in Deutsche Suedwest Afrika, current Namibia. I am hoping that the Bundestag and Kanzlerin Merkel can acknowledge the history.
: See you in Khyberspace!
Definitely see you again Yadgar :)
: Yadgar