Support Native Americans, part 4

[credit to Simon Moya-Smith, Vice magazine]

31. Speak out against Columbus Day. Columbus was a murderer and a rapist who set into motion one of the world's worst genocides.
32. Don’t dress up as an Indian on Halloween. If you see a non-Native person playing Indian, i.e. wearing “war paint” and donning a faux–feather headdress, ask the person, “Would you dress up as an Indian in a room full of Indians? Then why would you think it’s OK any other time?”
33. Push for inclusion of Native American history in schools, especially the histories of local tribes.
34. Every racial diversity list, like the ones your company uses to tout its inclusivity, that excludes Natives is an incomplete diversity list. When this happens, speak up; ask them why Natives have been excluded—and maybe why none have been hired.
35. Know how many tribes and nations are in your state and what tribes and nations are local to your specific area. Learn about them. You’re on their land. [note: Nine in Oregon; Burns Paiute Tribe, 349 members; Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw, 953; Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, 5,200; Confederated Tribes of Siletz, 4,677; Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, 2,893; Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation, 4,306; Coquille Indian Tribe, 963; Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe, 1,536; Klamath Tribes, 3,700. Also note, the 1950’s federal  termination of native tribal recognition for 190 tribes included 62 in Oregon. Six of our nine tribes had to fight to be ‘restored.’]
36. Not every Native was born on (or is from) a reservation. More than 70 percent live in big cities. [note: our tribe, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, does not have a reservation.]
37. Speaking of, don't visit a reservation for one week/one month/one year and assume you know everything about the struggles and problems of the people that live there all the time.
38. Don’t come to powwows and touch anyone’s regalia or take photos without asking.
39. Stop buying “sage wands” at grocery stores. Sage, for traditional purposes, is not to be purchased. Sage, or “smudging,” as we call it, is meant to bless and cleanse a person or place. Purchasing some hippie sage wand diminishes its sacred meaning.
40. None of our medicines are to be sold for profit. Please don’t purchase any and call out those who attempt to sell them. [note: our medicines are sema/tobacco, sage, cedar, and sweetgrass.  I wrote about them earlier briefly in Medicine Wheel and again in Sweetgrass, but still need to delve deeper into each.]

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