Hey Kardashians: Why you so obsessed with me?

In cowboys and indians, headdress, Kardashians, Khloe Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Mason, The K in Adrienne K is not for Kardashian by Adrienne K.5 Comments

Another Kardashian transgression to add to the (growing) list: E! Online posted this pic of the Jenner girls with Kourtney Kardashian and Mason, taken at Mason’s 2nd birthday party back in December. Looks like they were uber creative and went with a “Cowboys and Indians” theme. Wow. Adding insult to injury is the fact that E! used the headline “Cute Alert!“–I, personally, don’t find racial drag “cute”.* If little Mason and his mama were sporting some blackface, would that be “cute”? (Answer: no. A Cowboys and Indians Party is just as bad as a Blackface Party)

Here’s how they “came up” with the theme (via an interview in OK! Magazine):

How did you come up with the Western theme for Mason’s party?

Kourtney: Actually, Scott came up with it. We were just walking in the Hamptons, and he said, “Let’s do cowboys and Indians.” I thought it was cute, so I made Mason a little cowboy.

So many points for creativity! ::eyeroll::

But there’s a bigger issue here. I really don’t know what the Kardashians have against Natives, or why they seem to be so obsessed. As a proud Armenian/Cherokee, I don’t appreciate one of my cultures denigrating the other. It creates confusionz in my head. But let’s list off some of the Kardashian fails in the past year or so, shall we?

October, 2010: Khloe sports a headdress and tweets the message “I love playing dress up!”

August, 2011: Khloe has a sexy headdress photo shoot, with an accomanying tweet “What do you think of my tribal look?”

October, 2011: Kourtney and Mason dress up as Indians for the Dancing with the Stars halloween episode

November, 2011: Kris Jenner uses the term “Indian Giver” on national television to signify that Kim won’t be giving her ring back to (other) Kris. (She says it at about 2:58 below)

December, 2011: Mason’s 2nd Birthday Party has a “Cowboys and Indians” theme

…and I rest my case. The Kardashians definitely make it to the worst offenders list.

Earlier:
Oh No, Khloe Kardashian
No Khloe, I do not like your “tribal look” 
Kris Jenner uses the term “Indian Giver”

*Though my sister and I think Mason is adorbs…did you see the Kardashian Xmas card? His baby GQ pose! Squee!

(Thanks Aza!) 

Top 11 posts of 2011!

In all sorts of randomness, blood quantum, Halloween, miley cyrus, spirit hoods, Top posts of 2011, yay life tribe by Adrienne K.5 Comments

Hi Friends,

It’s almost 2012! How are these for some slightly embarassing statistics–my 2010 blog post count: 158 and 2011? only 58. (Where did those 100 posts go?) But don’t worry, my goal for 2012: 5 million blog posts!!! Or at least more than once every three weeks. Also look for a blog re-design in the new year, as well as some other exciting things in the world of Native Approps.

I’ve been inspired by Jessica over at Beyond Buckskin–she’s been doing some great round-up posts to close out 2011, so I thought I would throw together one of my own. Also, if you haven’t already, check out Beyond Buckskin’s new design, twitter, and facebook page. Show the Native blog-o-sphere some love!

So without further ado, here are the most clicked on posts this year for Native Appropriations:



11. A “Cowboys and Indians” party is just as bad as a blackface party.
I talked about the strange world that we live in in which dressing up in redface for a party is A-ok, and blackface is the ultimate taboo. Really, it’s so frustrating when you think about it.

10. Love in the Time of Blood Quantum
The post that originated the term “unicorn” to describe an educated, motivated, culturally connected Native man–a term that has snuck into our everyday lexicon out here on the East Coast. I still want someone to do a follow up on this from the Unicorn perspective, or a non-heteronormative perspective…you know you want to!

(the rest after the jump)

9. The Privilege of the Yay Life Tribe
Oh Tucker Gumber, “Chief” of the “Yay Life Tribe”–how’s that cashing out of your 401K to go to music festivals working out for you?

8. Let’s Talk About Pendleton
Thinking through my own strange relationship with Pendleton, how I love and value my blankets, but got mad when hipsters started thinking it was totes cool to march around town in Pendleton everything.  

7. Oh Spirit Hoods.
Wearing a decapitated stuffed animal on your head became the newest trend this year. And they managed to throw in some hardcore cultural appropriation in there too…there’s even a response from the owners in here. 

6. Urban Outfitters is Obsessed with Navajos
This one I’m most proud of–remember all the craziness with Navajo Nation and Urban Outfitters with their Navajo-named products? You heard it here first! Much thanks to my “sources” within the Navajo DOJ that gave me the tip initially and let me break the story. 

5. Representing the Native Presence in the “Occupy Wall Street” Narrative
When trying to be inclusive sends the wrong message (a Plains warrior for an occupation on Lenape homelands?), and my early thoughts on the Occupy movements.

4. Oh, (Miss) Canada.
When Miss Canada decided an “Homage to the Haida” should include a full plains warbonnet and a strange take on NW coast art on her dress.

3. Halloween Costume Shopping: A sampling of the racism for sale
The photos and descriptions from the Spirit Halloween store that read like an Onion article. The most in-your-face example of racism this year, hands down. 

2. Miley Cyrus Enjoys Dream Catchers, Apparently.
I think the key word combo of “Miley Cyrus” “tattoo” and “18th Birthday” made this one a winner

And the number one clicked post…drumroll…with almost 25,000 page views (that’s incredible!)

1.  Open Letter to the PocaHotties and Indian Warriors this Halloween
In which I get angry and “emotional” at all the people who decide to dress up as Indians for Halloween. It was shared close to 10,000 times on facebook, and I got called some really mean names. But I think it was worth it!

Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year, and I’ll see you in 2012!!



Much Love,


Adrienne 


Also your annual reminder that your can follow Native Appropriations on Twitter and Facebook–a lot of activity on there between posts!

Students respond to ABC’s "Children of the Plains"

In ABC 20 20, Awesome high schoolers, Children of the Plains, Diane Sawyer, Pine Ridge by Adrienne K.14 Comments

“I know what you probably think of us…we saw the special too. Maybe you saw a picture, or read an article. But we want you to know, we’re more than that…We have so much more than poverty.”
I know many of you saw the Diane Sawyer 20/20 special “Children of the Plains,” and I let it pass by without much comment on the blog. I had plenty to say, but I knew a lot of folks from the community, and some of my friends, thought it was great–so I let it go, and didn’t think it was really my place to barge in with my super-critical lens on the whole thing.

But some awesome kids from Pine Ridge Rosebud, SD put together this short, but powerful video in response to the special, which I love:

Reminded me of this quote from Adam Sings in the Timber: “It often seems as if America has only two frames through which to view its Native culture: ceremony and pageantry or poverty and addiction.”

There’s a lot of power when we get to represent ourselves.

Youtube: More Than That

If you’re interested in some of the criticisms of the special:  
Indian Country Today: Children of the Plains was little more than “Poverty Porn”

The actual special:
ABC 20/20: “Hidden America: Children of the Plains”

Earlier:
Between Pageantry and Poverty: Representing Ourselves

Pepper Ann Follow-Up: Why I’m glad I have readers

In Dances with Ignorance, Disney Channel, follow up, oops, Pepper Ann by Adrienne K.9 Comments

Yesterday I posted about an awesome Pepper Ann cartoon that dealt with Peppy “discovering” her Navajo ancestry. Then, some readers pointed out some even cooler things I didn’t notice upon first watch, and some pointed out how I had made some really poor language choices in my write-up, so I’ll get to that too.


1) Pepper Ann’s best friend Milo (the one who identifies as Native Hawaiian) is actually named Milo Kamalani–and in the first 30 seconds of the cartoon, he says “My family can be traced back hundreds of years to the Kanaka Maoli people of the Hawaiian Archipelago.” The writers on this show clearly knew how to do their research! It’s fantastic that there was a contemporary Native Hawaiian character on the show, considering there are officially like zero representations of Native Hawaiians in the media today. I don’t know how much (if at all) his heritage was worked into the show, but I do think it showed some awareness and foresight to give him a Hawaiian name from the get-go.

2) The voices of Dave and Carol (the Navajo Mom and son) were voiced by Cody Lightning and Irene Bedard–They even used Native actors. Cool.

…and here’s the part where I kinda messed up. I got an email in my inbox this morning (edited for punctuation, it was from an ipad):

“Why is it better indian people change their names to “Northern European White names.” And dress in “white clothes.”  We know Indian people don’t walk around in headresses all day and beat drums, but we shouldn’t sell out and conform to the white norm.  You seem proud they have “normal ” names. That’s kind of insulting. So traditional native names are not normal?  I see this totally different–why not be proud of who you are? I am.” 

So she’s referring to my paragraph where I excitedly said: “Look, they’re in normal clothes! And they’re named Dave, Carol, and Bob. The grandpa (not pictured) is named Andy (no sterotypical names!).”

I’ll admit “normal” was probably the exact wrong descriptor. I completely agree with the email too, and I’m clearly not advocating that every Native person shun their traditional name or burn their regalia. I was more excited that it was a contemporary representation of Native people that broke stereotypes and didn’t have the flute music in the background, or a “mystical” element, or a character with a stereotypical name. The whole point of the episode was to point out how ridiculous Pepper Ann looked in her quest to discover her heritage, and the contrast made it that much clearer.

I also liked that the family clearly still had a lot of pride for their culture and a lot of cultural ties (as you can see in all the scenes from their house–pictures of the southwest on the walls, Navajo baskets, a portrait of a Navajo woman in traditional clothing, etc.–Even though they lived in suburbia.

I like when people point out my missteps, I write most of these posts really quickly, so sometimes things come out in the exact opposite way of what I mean. Keep the emails coming! (Unless you’re really mean. Cause that doesn’t help anything. It just hurts my fragile self-esteem.)

But the bottom line is this cartoon is still a great teaching tool, and you should watch it.

Earlier:
Pepper Ann “Dances With Ignorance”: Quality TV for an Indian Appropriator Near You!

Youtube: Pepper Ann “Dances with Ignorance”

(Thanks RJ and “guest”!)

Pepper Ann "Dances with Ignorance": Quality TV for an Indian Appropriator Near You!

In Apparently Disney can properly represent Indians, Dances with Ignorance, Disney Channel, Must see TV, Pepper Ann, stereotyping 101 by Adrienne K.7 Comments

I spotted this video on My Culture is Not a Trend last night, and had to share. Pepper Ann is/was(?) a cartoon on the Disney Channel, featuring a super awkward, kinda oblivious, but nearly always endearing main character, Pepper Ann. I had flashbacks to the theme song when I started watching this…Pepper Ann, Pepper Ann, she’s much too cool for 7th grade…no one’s greater than Pepper Ann! She’s her own biggest fan, Pepper Ann!…But I digress.

This quick episode (only 11 minutes! watch it!) features the exact same plot as Running Zack, the episode of Saved By the Bell when Zack discovers his “Indian” heritage, but this one is much more well done.

Quick synopsis: teacher tells the class they’re doing heritage reports, Pepper Ann decides all of her European ancestry is “boring” and then her Dad informs her she’s actually 1/16 Navajo, and gives her a concho belt that belonged to her ancestor. Pepper Ann then gets super excited, relying on every stereotype possible to represent her new “Indianness”–war whooping, crying a single tear for littering, putting her brother in a cradle board, beating “war drums”, etc. The whole time her friends are telling her she’s being offensive and wrong, but she’s too caught up in her ficticious identity to care.

Then she invites a “real” Navajo family over for dinner, she makes a complete fool out of herself in a plains Indian costume, building a tipi out of bed sheets, making smoke signals, suggesting they do a rain dance. The family gets offended and leaves, and later Pepper Ann eventually goes to apologize, learns the truth about Navajos, and gives a culturally correct and sensitive classroom presentation. I’m not really doing it justice. You should watch it.

Here’s the Navajo family:

Look, they’re in normal clothes! And they’re named Dave, Carol, and Bob. The grandpa (not pictured) is named Andy (no sterotypical names!). The whole episode is pretty awesome and spot on. Clearly the writers actually talked to some Navajos (what a novel idea). And I love that Pepper Ann’s friends are totally informed about cultural sensitivity and the proper way to represent–and her friend is also Native Hawaiian, which is cool. At one point he says “I’m Native Hawaiian, but I don’t walk around in a grass skirt and dance the hula everyday.” Sounds like we should be friends.

And here’s the moral of the story, after the Navajos leave:

Pepper Ann: What happened? I thought I was just learning about my background!
Moose: That’s just it, Peppy. You weren’t interested in learning anything. They barely got to talk.
Pepper Ann: All I wanted to do was show them how much I knew about our culture from stuff I picked up on TV, and in the movies, and in comic books…
Mom: Yes, but that’s what stereotyping is, Peppy. Even when it’s done with the best of intentions. You can’t believe things about any group of people without getting to know them first!

Cue the sappy music. Anyway, watch it. You’ll be glad you did. I think every person who’s been dressing up as an Indian and uses the “honoring” argument should be forced to watch it, or every person who thinks discovering an Indian ancestor means they can walk around in full buckskin and feathers.

Youtube: Pepper Ann “Dances with Ignorance”

(Thanks adailyriot!)

Cambridge 5K Yulefest Postcards, Really?

In Cambridge 5k, christmas Indians, stereotyping, Yulefest by Adrienne K.20 Comments

“Yulefest” is a Cambridge, MA tradition of sorts, a Holiday-themed 5k race through the streets of Cambridge, ending at a big tent full of beer. It’s considered to be irreverent, silly, and (from what I’ve heard) an overall good time. “Creative holiday wear” and costumes are encouraged, and everyone has a grand ol’ time. Until now. Cause I’m not having a grand ol’ time after seeing their promotional materials.

Here’s the description from Cambridge 5k (the organizers):

Long before Christmas, there was a quirky winter festival named “Yule” that people really loved. Join us 12/18/11 for a 5K race that takes the holidays back to their old school roots!

Run the race in your most creative “holiday-wear” and you could win a prize at our post-race party (sponsored by Clover Food Lab, Pretty Things, Notch Session & Peak Organic)!

Registration includes a great shirt + admission to our post-race Yulefest Party (21+) featuring great music, craft beers & awesome awards! > You will LOVE this race!

I’m not against fun. In fact, this sounds like a lot of fun. And I would totally participate, if I weren’t an overly-critically-fun-destroying-troll who finds joy in ruining your ignorance defense. I’m talking about the postcard above.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

Two vintage-looking Indian women, waving/saying “how”, wearing stereotypical feather headbands, accompanied by a tipi wrapped around a Christmas tree. Fantastic. I assume they were going for “cute” “clever” maybe even a little “hipster” or “ironic”?  Or maybe it’s a weird reference to the taking the “holidays back to their old school roots” in the description? But, what, I ask you, does the stereotyping of Native people have to do with running, or even the holidays for that matter?

So I tweeted it to the organizers, and here’s how it went down (it’s really not that exciting so don’t anticipate too much, but I included some snarky commentary from my followers too):
 
<a href=”http://storify.com/nativeapprops/cambridge-yulefest-postcard” target=”_blank”>View the story “Cambridge Yulefest Postcard ” on Storify</a>] …and the apology, of sorts. “Didn’t mean to offend anyone. Thanks for the schooling, we agree with you.” They only had 140 characters, so I can’t expect a novel. But admittedly, it was a little anti-climactic.

But did they agree with me enough to go pull the postcards from the various shops around town? or retweet my tweet to their followers? or post something on Facebook? That would probably be asking too much, right? Who knows.

Now, the overly-critically-fun-destroying-troll needs to get back to her end of semester grading. Hooray!

If you’d like to send them a note:

Twitter: @Cambridge5k
Web: http://cambridge5k.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cambridge5K

(Thanks April and Megan!)

Have a Happy Indigenous Holiday Season: Part 1

In Buy Native, happy holidays, holiday shopping, Indigenous arts by Adrienne K.14 Comments

It’s a good season to be Indigenous! I hope everyone had a safe and happy Turkey Day (or You’re Welcome Day, or Thanks-taking day, or Day of Mourning, however you chose to celebrate/not celebrate). I’ve had an incredibly busy month, which I’m sure you noticed, given the lack of anything up here. But back to the blog!

I often extol the merits of “buying Native” or purchasing from a Native artisan whenever possible, and as the holidays approach, it’s a wonderful time to put that ideology into practice. Jessica Metcalfe at Beyond Buckskin has been putting together a fabulous series of posts on the Native artists on Etsy, and I wanted to share some of her resources on here as well. She’s going to be continually posting for the rest of the month, so be sure and check back in! (lots more after the jump)

Jessica’s Posts:

Post 1: Holiday Shopping Guide: Support Native Artists and Small Businesses on Etsy

Beautiful beaded cuff from Sparkle and Bead‘s Etsy shop

Post 2: Spotlight on Etsy Seller Ndnchick

 Gorgeous beaded necklace–only $50!

Post 3: Etsy Treasury Lists (Jessica put together some beautiful themed lists!)

“Native American Red Red Christmas” (my personal favorite)
And, for those of you in the New England area, there is also an awesome Native Arts Show going on this Saturday (Dec. 3rd):
Then there is the always great Demockratee’s site (by Ryan Redcorn, of the 1491’s and Buffalo Nickel Creative):
And Native Threads, a great family-run Indian clothing and apparel company, located in my hometown of San Diego:
Finally, Cheef Clothing, the maker of my favorite sweatshirt (It says “I was here first”): The website is down, but hopefully will be back up soon!
If you have other websites, Art shows, resources, or companies that will help us all Buy Native this holiday season, please leave them in the comments! Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll share some amazing Native organizations/causes that would love your holiday support. 
PS- a FB commenter from NZ pointed out that many Etsy sellers don’t ship internationally, so any global resources would be very much appreciated too. 
PPS- I made that “Buy Native” logo in Microsoft Word! I’m such a techie! ha.
Beyond Buckskin:
Harvard Native Program:
(Thanks Dr. Metcalfe!)

Kris Jenner uses the term "Indian Giver"

In Indian Giver, Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner by Adrienne K.19 Comments

(It’s a two-post day! omg!)

I just saw this on my Facebook feed and felt the need to share. So for those of you who don’t spend 90% of your day reading celebrity gossip blogs (I’m incriminating myself here), Kim Kardashian got married 75 days ago. Her wedding cost anywhere from $10-20 million dollars. She filed for divorce 3 days ago. Now people are speculating whether or not she’ll give Kris Humphries (the ex-hubbs) the ring back. And here’s what Kim’s mom, also named Kris (that’s creepy, right?) had to say about it:

“I hate an Indian giver. It’s a gift, you know.”

This was on Good Morning America, if you were wondering. Awesome, Kris Jenner. Thanks for that. Here’s the video clip, the “Indian Giver” line is at 2:58:

There’s no real consensus on the etymology of the term “Indian Giver” on the internets, but I thought this was a good summary (source here):

Meaning: 
One who gives a gift but later takes it back.
Origin:
Indian giver derives from the alleged practise of American Indians of taking back gifts from white settlers. It is more likely that the settlers wrongly interpreted the Indians’ loans to them as gifts. This term, which is certainly American, may have been coined to denigrate of the native race. Historians would now agree that, where deceit was concerned, it was the settlers who were the front runners. It isn’t uncommon, and it could be argued that it is customary, for the conquering race to attempt to justify their invasion by dismissing the conquered as dishonest and stupid.

The phrase is quite early in the history of the the USA. Thomas Hutchinson described the term as proverbial as early as 1765, in his The history of the Province of Massachusetts Bay:

“An Indian gift is a proverbial expression, signifying a present for which an equivalent return is expected.”

Basically, I think we can all agree that it’s probably not the best term to use to describe a negative act, considering it stereotypes Indians as deceitful and un-generous (not generous?), which, if you’ve ever been in a Native community, is about the farthest thing from the truth. Ever heard of giveaways? or Potlatches?

The Kardashians don’t exactly have an awesome track record with sensitivity towards Native issues. Khloe wore a headdress a few months ago, twice, and for Dancing with the Stars on Halloween, Kourtney (and Mason, her son) wore Indian costumes. Though they claim Native heritage (vomit).

Annoying, right? Also annoying is that currently on Google news there are over 40 articles with “Indian Giver” in the headline. /headdesk

USA Today: Kris Jenner on Kim’s Ring ‘I hate an Indian giver’

Let’s debrief what happened with Halloween

In anti racist halloween, Halloween, how awesome is that emoticon pumpkin, reflections by Adrienne K.50 Comments

This isn’t going to be a story about how I chased some Pocahottie down the street yelling about the history of colonialism and subordination of Native peoples, or how I ripped a headdress off a huge guy and stomped it in the mud in the name of justice (Actually, I did that one time at a football game. Not recommended.). This is me needing to get some stuff off my chest about the way that my series of Halloween posts were received on the internet, the way I approached the issue of Indian Halloween costumes, and how I’ll move forward (and do better) from here.

So, a quick recap. Wednesday, October 26th, I posted an “Open Letter to Pocahotties and Indian Warriors this Halloween.” I wrote it in about 30 minutes or so, writing completely from a place of  borderline activist fatigue. I knew that a post where I attempted to reason with the dominant discourse that says “dressing like Indians=totes ok” wouldn’t work. So I went for the purely emotional argument, knowing full well that I was baiting the haterz, and would probably not receive an overwhelmingly positive response.

What I didn’t expect was nearly 6,000 shares on Facebook, 19,000+ pageviews, and over 300 comments (before I shut them down). All of a sudden, people who don’t know me, don’t know this blog, don’t know the things I talk about day in and day out, were saying things about me that were harsh and horrible (I know, woe-is-me, wah wah, I-put-it-on-the-internet-I-should-deal-with-it), and I’ll be totally honest, it scared me a bit.

So I followed the emotional appeal with a post that showed the in-your-face racism for sale in the form of Indian costumes, and surprise, surprise, none of the people so eager to hate on my feelings and my opinion ventured to tackle the actual costumes that I find so egregiously offensive.

But I want to go back to some of the things I said in the original post, and clarify. Most of you don’t know this, but my doctoral work is in education. My research focuses on access to higher ed for Native youth, and my goal is to produce research that re-frames the stories about Native students from a deficit perspective to a positive, success based approach. I’m sick of everything that paints Indian Country as this solely desolate and hopeless place, when I see so much strength, joy, excitement, and hope coming from the kiddos I work with. That being said, I totally went for the deficit approach in my Open Letter, and it’s been bothering me.

I played the Oppression Olympics card–“You don’t know what it’s like!” “Hunger! Unemployment! Sexual Assault!” “We have it so bad!” “You are oppressing me!!” When plenty of other communities of color and marginalized groups do know what it’s like. It doesn’t do us any good to fight over who has it worst.

I also feel like I mis-represented myself a bit too. I am a proud Native woman, and I know what it feels like to feel invisible, to feel marginalized, and to feel silenced. But I’ve also written many times before about how I also have a whole-lotta privilege of my own, being really mixed (i.e. looking white), growing up in a suburban area where I was afforded a gazillion opportunities, and attending prestigious universities for my education, where I’ve been able to sit and read piles of critical theory and develop my angry/activist lens. So I know what a lot of it is like, but I also can walk through my life without anyone ever knowing I’m a Native person. I don’t know what it feels like to live on a reservation, to experience the direct effects of racist governmental policies. So I don’t like being seen as  “the voice” of Indian issues. Because my voice is only one Indian voice, one perspective. There are 4.1 million Natives in the US, and there are 4.1 million different ways this blog (and that post) could be written. 

But I was just so tired of fighting. I just wanted someone to not only hear me, but to listen. Do I regret posting it? Absolutely not. If I managed to start 6000 conversations about Indian costumes, I did my job. Would I have approached it differently today? Probably. But I still stand by everything I said. That’s how I feel. Do I feel better having clarified things in this post? Absolutely.

Moving forward, I want to make sure I re-frame many of my discussions away from a deficit perspective. I think it’s important for my non-Native readers to understand the realities of contemporary Native life, but I also think that only relying on those tropes furthers negative stereotypes as well. So I’ll try to strike a balance. I’m also going to develop a commenting policy, probably a lot like Racialicious’s, so we can have actual, productive conversations in the comments, rather than dealing with racist trolls who don’t know what they’re talking about. yay.

TL;DR version (aka a summary):
I wrote a post about Indian costumes. It went viral. People were mean. I felt like I relied too much on negative stereotypes of Indian Country to make my point. I feel like I wrote like I know everything about being Indian and Indian issues. I don’t. Now I feel better. Thanks.

PS- This is my 250th post on Native Appropriations! Cue the confetti!!

Coast Salish Influences in Seahawks Fan Gear

In 12th man, appreciation, appropriation, art, Coast Salish, Seahawks by Adrienne K.13 Comments

Welcome guest blogger, and one of my BFF’s, Marjorie J (Tulalip and Swinomish), she’s a current law student and I’ve clearly gotten in her head with the Native Appropriations talk. If I’ve gotten in your head too and you’d like to guest blog about an issue, just send me an email!

I have mixed feelings about The 12th Man design by one of my favorite t-shirt companies, Casual Industrees. I am not sure if the artist is from a Coast Salish tribe, which either heightens or ends the debate. Based on my personal aesthetic alone my first reaction is: this looks awesome. Of course being one of Adrienne’s friends and a devoted fan, I question my endorsement after my analysis naturally evolves into larger questions about art, identity, acceptance, and what happens when Native cultures live harmoniously (or at least not so adversely) with others? 

The Amateur’s Art Analysis and A Peek Into My Thought Process:
The artist extended the theme of the stylized Seahawks logo on a foam head and added wings, not previously found on the logo or the foam heads. The style of the wings is clearly contemporary and does not follow the customary rules of any Coast Salish art forms I know. Rather, the wings incorporate customary shapes used in Coast Salish art by modern and traditional (Native) artists alike. 
Where we start to move away from imagery of a fan’s foam head towards a fan’s headdress or mask is the face: the two green paint lines on the cheek suggest the 12th Man is wearing “war paint” instead of mimicking the black grease or tape the players use on their cheeks to cut down on glare. Now it’s starting to look more like a hipster appropriation and misinterpretation and I wonder – was the inspiration for this design a transformation mask? 
Let’s assume the artist is not from a Coast Salish tribe. Generally as to the entire design and specifically as to the shapes used in the wings, how offensive is this appropriation? Consider…
Native Identity and Regional Identity: 
One day a few weeks ago, a fellow Washingtonian (who does not identify as Native) and I were discussing how Coast Salish art is not hard to come across in the day-to-day life of a non-Native person in Washington and especially Seattle. It is commissioned as public art by Seattle (sculptures, 2-D designs, and even manhole covers among other things). It’s bought up and displayed by universities, airports, art museums, hospitals, private non-native collectors, tribes, and Indian casinos alike. My friend mentioned how she didn’t realize until moving away from Washington how accustomed she’d come to seeing it. I realized that the images I find so comforting are also reminiscent of home to her. 
Because of this day-to-day presence of Coast Salish art through the region, the art is not only Native, it might also be a component of regional identity. 
Because of this, I started to think about the extent of local tribal influence outside of art. Anyone with nominal familiarity with my tribe will probably tell you that our ‘presence’ in the past 30 years has grown like crazy. The success of commercial investments has translated into economic and political influence that reaches far beyond the reservation borders. 
Now, any tribe with economic success is an exception and not the norm. However, keeping in mind that most tribes are probably working towards more economic success and political representation…
Let’s Compare Another Regional Identity: 
Looking at this, I started to compare it to what I saw in New Zealand. Check out the use of shapes in the 12th Man and compare it to the appropriation/incorporation/influence of common Maori art and shapes throughout New Zealand (look at the Rugby World Cup logo for Wellington and official ball, this place name sign for the Kapiti Coast, and a logo for a University of Auckland event & tell me if you see any similarities). The Maori culture is an undeniable, unique, and influential component of the broader New Zealand culture and identity.  I wonder how the prevalent use of Maori art and themes by non-Maori has evolved to what it is today? Does it matter that Maori make up a larger percentage of the NZ population than Natives do in the U.S.? That the Maori language is one of the official languages of NZ? Or that the Maori have devoted seats in Parliment?  If it’s not appropriation, is it incorporation – suggesting the non-Maori with power are acting more cooperatively than entitled? Or is it influence – a result of political and cultural power? The extent to which any or all Maori people believe it is appropriation, I obviously have not inquired. But if my questions are answered, how do they inform my last question? 
Yup, finally my last question: 
So, for me at least, it all begs the question: When Native cultures actively work to increase artistic, political, and economic success in a region and have thus become a component of both Native identity AND regional identity, is there a point at which we, the local Natives accept non-Native interpretation/incorporation of our culture (i.e. art) as something that unites us as a region of people?
 

(Thanks Marjorie!)