(More Than) Prayers For Orlando

Photo by Bosque Redondo, 1866. A Navajo two-spirit couple is seen in this historic photo from the collection of the Museum of New Mexico.

Photo by Bosque Redondo, 1866.
A Navajo two-spirit couple is seen in this historic photo from the collection of the Museum of New Mexico.

(More Than) Prayers For Orlando: Taking Accountability For Our Own Role In Anti-Gay Violence.

I’ve told this story many times before. I have a lot of karma to pay, so I’ll probably tell it many more times. When we were children, we used to play a game called “smear the queer.” It was a game where someone would throw a football in the air and all of us boys (it was primarily boys) would scramble to catch the ball. Whoever caught the ball would then run for his life because they were about to get tackled grotesquely. That person was the “queer”; they were about to get smeared. I tell my son about this to show him that I do/have done stupid things in my life and things that I’m embarrassed about. When I told him a few weeks ago he asked me, “Why did you want to catch the ball?”

I don’t know son. Good question.

From what I understand, it was a very common game. I’ve told this story across the country and inevitably men tell me that when they were boys they played the same thing.

I’m a child of the 1960s and 1970s, I was married before the ’70s were officially closed out, in ’79. Way back then, gay wasn’t widely used, and it was not being used as an all purpose insult slur. Back then, queer, faggot, homo and dyke were the specific go tos when looking for something nasty to say about us icky types. Well, those are the ones I remember the most anyway. Oh, there was the ever present bull dyke, too, for when dyke just wasn’t enough. Things change, but they don’t change all that much, either. Implicit in all this, of course, is the always present need to humans to other, the need to be part of a group that can feel superior to that group over there.

I also remember when I was in 8th grade a fight happened in the locker room after football practice. Someone called one of the kids a “fag.” Everybody in the locker room laughed until the kid got so upset/frustrated/angry that he struck the other kid. The kid who was getting teased split the other kid’s nose and both kids got suspended. I wasn’t an active participant as I wasn’t really “cool” enough to pick on anybody. I was a passive participant laughing and watching. I tell my son that story to tell him that we have an obligation to speak up when someone’s getting picked on. I give him this story as an example of when I did not do that.

This is where childhood, and life in general, gets sticky for most of us. Growing up, I didn’t participate in such cruelty, and I remember more than once standing up, but I also remember the times I didn’t. The times I was afraid. The times I didn’t put my own cares on hold for one minute to make someone else a priority. We all need to remember that even the tiniest acts can be crucial, they can literally be the difference between life and death for someone. Small kindnesses, momentary thoughtfulness, a respite of welcome inclusion, those things can cast a very long shadow.

There’s a danger anytime somebody does something singularly horrible and evil. Many times, the person who did that singularly horrible and evil thing suddenly becomes the face of evil. When that happens, it has the effect of lowering our standards down to where pretty much everyone else gets a free pass, or at least the scrutiny is not as tough for others. Thereafter, that face of evil becomes a point of reference and behaviors and actions that otherwise might be seen as outrageous are not nearly as offensive as they might be before the face of evil came around.

I can’t add very much here. Gyasi Ross has this so very right. When a huge evil looms, everyone else gets breathing room, and with a nervous laugh, tell themselves, it’s not like I’m that bad. Whew. We are that bad, though. Every tiny bad act, every act of omission, every name, every blind eye keeps dripping, dripping, dripping, until there’s a flood, preparatory ground for a huge evil.

Similarly, Omar Mateen has become the face of evil in regards to anti-gay violence for viciously massacring 49 people in an Orlando gay club. His actions were so heinous that even people who routinely say hurtful and hateful things about homosexuality have made him a whipping boy and condemned his actions. Good–he obviously should be held accountable! But that doesn’t make those people who say hateful things good—it just makes what Mateen did worse. His actions do not absolve the “smaller” indignities against the LGBTQ community; we still have to take into account all of the people who create an environment that makes Omar Mateen possible and even likely. We still have to acknowledge the accountability of all the little conversations and indignities that forces some LGBTQ members to hide in a closet of shame and fear.

Like when I was a child and we played a game called “smear the queer.” Like when I was a child and I sat quietly by as a kid was insulted. I think about “What if the kid in the locker room was gay? What if any kids in the locker room were gay? Of course they’re not going to be comfortable in that situation. Of course they’re going to hide the fact that they’re gay!” The first step in a revolution is love; the second step is accountability and realizing our role in a problem.

That means that I have to see how I contributed to that. For my part I’ve apologized and I apologize again. But those experiences made me realize that it’s not just the folks who commit these acts of anti-gay violence who have blood on their hands; it’s all of us who create an environment that shames gays (or anybody really, but this is specifically about anti-gay violence). I can’t say that we all have blood on our hands, but a whole bunch of us do and we need to recognize our role in these things and not merely point at the faces of evil, the worst of the worst.

And…what could I do? I was a little kid. I accept that. Yet, I know that I can start to fix that by teaching my son—as young as he is—to accept and tolerate and to love. There is no such thing as “too young” to teach tolerance and respect. We teach them by having honest conversations about Orlando, or Matthew Shepard or about our own past and evolving perspectives. We talk about tolerance, and we talk about intolerance. Honestly. Adults who have intolerant attitudes like Donald Trump or Omar Mateen start as children who are taught intolerance. Conversely, adults who are tolerant, respectful and loving begin as children who are shown and taught tolerance, respect and love.

It’s not just about the worst of the worst—the face of evil. It’s also about us, the “regular people” who help create the environments that allow those faces of evil to fester. We have the power to change those environments.

I also apologize. And apologize again. As often as I need to, and I will do everything I possibly can to see that continued apologies are not needed.

Gyasi Ross’s full column is at ICTMN.

Pacific Northwest Indigenous Events.

Midnight Sun Intertribal Pow Wow Facebook Page Two dancers at the Midnight Sun Intertribal Pow Wow, which takes place July 8-10 in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Midnight Sun Intertribal Pow Wow Facebook Page
Two dancers at the Midnight Sun Intertribal Pow Wow, which takes place July 8-10 in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Alaska

Midnight Sun Intertribal Pow Wow: July 8-10 in Fairbanks.

The World Eskimo Indian Olympics: July 20-23 in Fairbanks; competitive events include tests of agility, balance, endurance and strength.

British Columbia

Squamish Nation’s 28th annual Youth Pow Wow: July 8-10 at Capilano Reserve Park, 100 Capilano Road, West Vancouver.

The Spirit of the People Pow Wow: July 22-24, at the Tzeachten Sports Field, 46770 Bailey Road, Chilliwack.

The Kamloopa Pow Wow: July 29-31 at the Tk’emlups Indian Band Powwow Grounds, 200-330 Chief Alex Thomas Way, Kamloops.

Idaho

Julyamsh Pow Wow: (Arguably the largest outdoor powwow in the Northwest) July 22-24 at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds in Coeur d’Alene.

The Shoshone Bannock Indian Festival: Aug. 11-14 in Fort Hall.

The Rexburg Native American Contest Pow Wow: Sept. 16-17 in Rexburg.

Oregon

Pi-ume-sha Treaty Days: June 24-26, 2200 Hollywood Blvd., Warm Springs.

22nd annual Wildhorse Pow Wow: July 1-3, 46510 Wildhorse Blvd , Pendleton; Marcellus

Norwest Veterans Pow Wow: July 8-10, 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde

26th annual Tamkaliks Annual Celebration: July 22-24, Pow Wow Grounds, 70956 Whiskey Creek Road, Wallowa.

Richard Twiss Memorial and Living Waters Pow Wow: July 30, 7790 SE Marion Road, Turner.

Nesika Illahee Pow Wow: Aug, 12-14, Pauline Ricks Memorial Pow Wow Grounds, 402 NE Park Drive, Siletz.

The Klamath Tribes’ Restoration Celebration: Aug. 26-28, in Klamath Falls. The pow wow, parade and rodeo take place at 7390 S. Sixth St., Klamath Falls.

The 13th annual Mill-Luck Salmon Celebration: Sept. 10-11, in North Bend.

Washington

The 2016 Canoe Journey: July 30 – Approximately 100 canoes from Pacific Northwest Native Nations will land at the Port of Olympia.

The Nisqually Tribe Medicine Creek Treaty Commemoration: July 31, Aug. 1-6.

Siiddastallan 2016 / Sami People Gathering: Aug. 12-14 in Poulsbo, Seattle located in Suquamish’s historical territory and founded by immigrants from Scandinavia in the 1880s. This is the first Sami gathering here since 1998.

Chief Seattle Days: Aug. 19-21, the Suquamish Tribe’s three-day public festival established in 1911 to honor Chief Si’ahl, or Seattle, leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish people and namesake of the City of Seattle.

Seattle Center Festál: Spirit of Indigenous People: 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 25 at Seattle Center Armory and Mural Amphitheatre (www.sihb.org). The seventh annual event celebrates Native American, Alaska Native and First Nations cultures.

The 22nd annual SpiritWalk – Walk for Native Health: June 25 – 8:30 a.m. at the Mural Amphitheatre. Participants will walk to Myrtle Edwards Park and back to Seattle Center to raise funds for various Native community programs.

Quileute Days: July 15-17 in La Push.

Omak Stampede: Aug. 11-14 in Omak.

Stillaguamish Festival of the River and Pow Wow: Aug. 13-14.

40th Annual Muckleshoot Skopabsh Pow Wow: Aug. 19-21.

Gathering at the Falls Pow Wow: Aug. 26-28 in Spokane.

Skagit Valley College Fall Pow Wow: Oct. 14-16 in Mount Vernon.

Via ICTMN.

25.

William McKinley took office as the Dawes Commission, headed by Henry Dawes, was dismantling the Five Civilized Tribes. Established in 1893, the commission was charged with convincing the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee to accept individual land allotments and register with the federal Dawes Rolls.

William McKinley took office as the Dawes Commission, headed by Henry Dawes, was dismantling the Five Civilized Tribes. Established in 1893, the commission was charged with convincing the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee to accept individual land allotments and register with the federal Dawes Rolls.

One of the last major armed conflicts between American Indians and the U.S. Army occurred during William McKinley’s watch.

Nineteen months after McKinley took office as the 25th president of the United States, the Third Infantry chased an Ojibwe man to his reservation on the shores of Leech Lake, a 110-acre body of water in central Minnesota, where the man sought refuge from white laws. Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, 62, was being transported to Duluth as a witness in a federal bootlegging trial when he escaped, triggering military action to recapture him.

Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, not to be confused with the two Ojibwa chiefs by the same name, was an Ojibwa man who lived on Leech Lake. His escape from unjust arrest kicked off a battle between Leech Lake Ojibwa and a small U.S. Army contingent. (Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society)

Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, not to be confused with the two Ojibwa chiefs by the same name, was an Ojibwa man who lived on Leech Lake. His escape from unjust arrest kicked off a battle between Leech Lake Ojibwa and a small U.S. Army contingent. (Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society)

The incident came as relationships deteriorated between the federal government and the Ojibwe, who subsisted on the sale of timber from the reservation. Timber companies, exploiting a loophole in the law that allowed them to take dead pine and pay a fraction of what it was worth, were setting brush fires on the reservation to make the trees appear dead and harvesting the wood on the inside.

Frustrated, Ojibwe leaders at Leech Lake sought redress from the government. In late September 1898, they petitioned McKinley to stop the practice.

“Our people are carrying a heavy burden, and in order that they may not be crushed by it, we humbly petition you to send a commission to investigate the existing troubles here,” they wrote in a letter. “We now have only the pine lands of our reservations for our future subsistence and support, but the manner in which we are being defrauded out of these has alarmed us.”

McKinley did nothing to intervene.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Marshal arrived on the reservation to arrest two men accused of helping Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig escape, but a group of 40 Ojibwe overtook the marshal and set the men free. The marshal returned to his base and requested military assistance to arrest everyone who helped free the men.

On October 5, 1898, an army of 80 soldiers—mostly inexperienced—descended by boat on the eastern shore of Leech Lake. A soldier fired first and a force of 19 Ojibwe responded in a conflict known as the battle of Sugar Point. Six soldiers and one white civilian were killed.

[…]

McKinley took office as the Dawes Commission, headed by Henry Dawes, was dismantling the Five Civilized Tribes. Established in 1893, the commission was charged with convincing the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee to accept individual land allotments and register with the federal Dawes Rolls.

Prior treaty agreements exempted the Five Civilized Tribes from the Dawes Act of 1887, which allowed the President to break up reservation land and reassign it to individual allottees. But the Curtis Act of 1898, whose purpose was to dismember the sovereign status of the Five Civilized Tribes, overturned those treaties and abolished the tribes’ governments, invalidated their laws and dissolved their courts.

More formally known as An Act for the Protection of the People of the Indian Territory, the Curtis Act also extinguished land ownership claims, allowing the President to break apart tribal lands into smaller portions and open “surplus” lands to white settlers.

A proponent of assimilation policy and the allotment program, McKinley signed the act in June 1898. Six months later, he told Congress that the Five Civilized Tribes were showing “marked progress.”

The act was “having a salutary effect upon the nations composing the five tribes,” he said. “The Dawes Commission reports that the most gratifying results and greater advance toward the attainment of the objects of the Government have been secured in the past year than in any previous year.”

[…]

“Hawaii was an important strategic asset,” Gould said. “McKinley couldn’t have cared less about the Native population in strategic terms.”

In his final message to Congress, in December 1900, McKinley spoke of the “uncivilized tribes” on the newly annexed islands.

“Many of those tribes are now living in peace and contentment, surrounded by a civilization to which they are unable or unwilling to conform,” he said. “Such tribal governments should, however, be subjected to wise and firm regulation, and, without undue or petty interference, constant and active effort should be exercised to prevent barbarous practices and introduce civilized customs.”

Full article at ICTMN.

Reimagining Robin Hood as a Badass Gay Outlaw.

Merry Men cover.

Merry Men cover.

Comic book publisher Oni Press recently released the first issue of a very queer new take on literary hero Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. Titled, simply enough, Merry Men, the comic book is written and created by out writer Robert Rodi, with art by Jackie Lewis, and features a bold new story that recasts the familiar medieval characters as gay men.

Merry Men might sound at first like a delightfully campy series, but it is quite the opposite. The comic is a grounded, realistic look into a world where Robin Hood, still the familiar rogueish leader living in the woods with his band of outlaws with a good cause, is now also a badass homosexual who rises up in the face of discrimination and oppression.

The Advocate chatted up Rodi about his new series, what inspired him to delve into the Robin Hood mythos, and how impactful this comic book is as an allegory for our modern cultural landscape. Also, an exclusive artwork for issue 2!

Read it all here.

Ethnobotany of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians

9780870718526Ethnobotany of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, by Patricia Whereat-Phillips.

Myrtlewood is most often thought of as beautiful wood for woodworking, but to Native people on the southern Oregon coast it was an important source of food. The roasted nuts taste like bitter chocolate, coffee, and burnt popcorn. The roots of Skunk Cabbage provided another traditional food source, while also serving as a medicine for colds. In tribal mythology, the leaves of Skunk Cabbage were thought to be tents where the Little People sheltered.

Very little has been published until now on the ethnobotany of western Oregon indigenous peoples. Ethnobotany of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians documents the use of plants by these closely-related coastal tribes, covering a geographical area that extends roughly from Cape Perpetua on the central coast, south to the Coquille River, and from the Coast Range west to the Pacific shore. With a focus on native plants and their traditional uses, it also includes mention of farming crops, as well as the highly invasive Himalayan blackberry, which some Oregon coast Indians called the “white man’s berry.”

The cultures of the Coos Bay, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw are distinct from the Athabaskan speaking people to the south, and the Alsea to the north. Today, many tribal members are reviving ancient arts of basket weaving and woodworking, and many now participate in annual intertribal canoe events. Ethnobotany of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians contributes to this cultural renaissance by filling an important gap in the historical record. It is an invaluable resource for anyone who wishes to learn about the indigenous cultures of the central and southern Oregon coast, as well as those who are interested in Pacific Northwest plants and their cultural uses.

The Melding of Ethnobotany with Language and Story.

If you’ve ever studied a second language, you’ve probably heard, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” While some people may feel unaffected that they no longer remember the language they learned in secondary school, entire cultures suffer when the last speaker of that language dies and the language is lost. There is a great importance behind understanding cultures and their practices. This includes how the culture connects with the environment around them. Today Patricia Whereat-Phillips discusses her introduction to research focused on indigenous languages and how she became interested in ethnobotany. In her new book, Ethnobotany of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, Whereat-Phillips documents the ethnobotany of western Oregon indigenous peoples.

Growing up in the hills near the eastern shore of Coos Bay, I spent much of my childhood playing out in nature – playing in the stream at the bottom of the draw, watching deer eat apples in our yard, helping mom fill the bird feeders, and spending all summer wandering the land around our house picking berries. As a child, I learned that I was descended from the Milluk people of lower Coos Bay. I wondered what the old language was like, but no one seemed to know. The last fluent speaker of Milluk died before I was born, and the last speaker of its sister language, Hanis, died when I was 2 ½ years old. I never met her.

For years my research focused on indigenous languages – mostly the Coosan languages of Hanis and Milluk, and Siuslaw, and traditional legends. My interest in ethnobotany began when I received a letter from an undergraduate who was researching medicinal plants of Oregon Indians. It wasn’t a question I’d looked in to before, and I began to do some research. I found a few mentions of medicinal plants, and answered her letter. By now, my curiosity piqued, I tried to do some more research and found (probably as this student did) that there is little published on western Oregon ethnobotany (unlike the rest of the Pacific Northwest and California).

So I spent years trying to research the ethnobotanical knowledge of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw. Not only did I gain a greater appreciation of the beauty and diversity of the temperate rainforest that I had grown up in, but a greater appreciation of the breadth of indigenous knowledge of the landscape and the melding of ethnobotany with language and story.

You can read more here. I don’t have my copy yet, but I am looking forward to it, and learning more about these peoples. The book can be ordered here.

Thoughts, Prayers, and Momentary Pondering.

People embrace during a vigil in Orlando for the mass shooting victims at the Pulse nightclub (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

People embrace during a vigil in Orlando for the mass shooting victims at the Pulse nightclub (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

From pulpits in Orlando and beyond, church leaders are reckoning with religious views often hostile to homosexuality after a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub, with some wondering if they are contributing to breeding contempt.

At a prayer service soon after the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Reverend Joel Hunter confessed he did not know how to pray for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community targeted in the attack.

“I have been searching my heart: is there anything I did that was complicit in that loss?” said Hunter…

I can answer that. Yes.

The show of support from church leaders, including denominations that reject homosexuality and same-sex marriage, raised hopes that the shooting could mark a turning point for acceptance of the gay community in religious circles. […] But fears persist that the warm embrace could end after a few sermons. “Stand with the community when there isn’t a crisis,” said Terry DeCarlo, executive director of the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida.

I’ll stand with Terry DeCarlo here. Where have all the thoughts and prayers religious leaders been, when there aren’t bodies littering the ground? Have they been supportive? Have they been preaching love and acceptance? Have they joined the fight for basic human rights for all people?

Patty Sheehan, an openly gay city commissioner in Orlando, choked back tears standing alongside local Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders at a news conference held as churches planned burial services for victims. “They did not die in vain because of what is happening right now,” Sheehan said. “If you are softening your hearts, and there has been a change of heart, thank you.”

This is a warm and touching moment, and perhaps I’m just too world weary and cynical, but I don’t see this as a softening of hearts. The Abrahamaic God is much bigger on hardening hearts. What I do see is a thoughts and prayers photo op. Most religious leaders don’t want to be seen as ignoring all the bodies on the ground, and of course, the whole praying in public business is important, but there isn’t much about actually changing their stance.

The bishop of the Catholic diocese in St. Petersburg, Florida, two hours from Orlando, wrote a poignant blog post acknowledging that religion can lay the groundwork for the violence seen in Orlando.

“Sadly, it is religion, including our own, which targets, mostly verbally, and also often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people,” Bishop Robert Lynch said.

Unfortunately, among Catholics, Bishop Lynch seems to be standing all alone. The Schiavo family, who has disliked Lynch for a very long time, is happily using this opportunity to denounce Lynch.

On Sunday, First Baptist Orlando Pastor David Uth plans to use his pulpit to remind his 19,000-member congregation that even if they do not agree with people’s lifestyle, they should remember that God’s love encompasses all.

“We’re the worst at really, genuinely loving like Jesus,” he said of Baptists, calling it a church failure that gays and lesbians feel unwelcome in its pews. “That we own completely. We apologize.”

This week, the Southern Baptist Convention at its annual meeting passed a resolution rejecting same-sex marriage and transgender bathroom rights, even as it separately condemned the mass shooting in Orlando.

Yes, you’re the worst alright, and would it ever be good if the crusted scales of bigotry and hate actually fell from you, and you had a true realization of how awful you are. Unfortunately, this is yet another example of “oh hey, we don’t want to look like compleat evil fuckers, so here’s a quick sorry, then it’s back to business.” LGBTQ2S people will only be allowed to sit alongside in those pews if they admit that being queer is bad, against god, and yes, if they try really hard, they can be straight, just like God intended.

The Reverend Terri Steed Pierce is senior pastor at Joy Metropolitan Community Church, which serves the gay community, about one mile away from the club where the shooting took place. She was incensed after being left off the roster of pastors at the service earlier this week that was attended by the region’s top elected officials.“I’m a gay pastor of a gay church, and our people were the ones gunned down, and yet we weren’t invited to the table,” she said. “We continue to be relegated to the margins, even in the faith community.”

The organizers of the event said it was hastily planned and Steed Pierce was not purposefully excluded.

Of course it was a mistake! It’s not like religious leaders have ever had a problem with MCC, no. :eyeroll:

After a separate news event a day later, Steed Pierce said only one other religious leader came up to talk to her. He remarked that he was a sinner, too, she said.

“I am stopping you right there,” she said, recalling their conversation. “I am not sinning. I am being who God created me to be.”

Good for you, Rev. Steed Pierce.

Via Raw Story.

Whitewash, Workin’ at the Whitewaaaaash…

Rumi

CREDIT: Wikipedia, KGC-03/STAR MAX/IPx/AP.

The lack of diversity in Hollywood isn’t exactly news to many — but the creators of an upcoming film about the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi clearly aren’t getting it.

David Franzoni, an American screenwriter who worked on the film Gladiator, and producer Stephen Joel Brown told the Guardian that they hoped their upcoming film about Rumi would challenge the stereotypical portrayals of Muslims in Hollywood.

But for the two lead characters — Rumi, and his spiritual adviser, Shams of Tabriz — they said they were hoping to get Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey, Jr., respectively. “This is the level of casting that we’re talking about,” said Brown, apparently seeing no irony in believing that whitewashing a film will help dismantle stereotypes.

[…]

As many on social media rightly pointed out, one thing about Rumi’s life, then, is clear: He wasn’t white.

Rumi1

Rumi2

While Hollywood has long taken an interest in other parts of the world, it hasn’t done enough to make sure that the people from those regions get a chance to tell the story. Lead roles have been whitewashed in many movies about the Middle East, including Gods of Egypt starring Gerard Butler, Prince of Persia starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and Exodus: Gods and Kings starring Christian Bale. The full list of movies that have been similarly cast with white actors — despite the characters clearly being of other backgrounds — is far too long, but recent examples include Aloha, Ghost in the Shell, and Doctor Strange, among many, many more.

As ThinkProgress has previously reported, there is a serious lack of opportunity for non-white actors in Hollywood. When it comes to Muslim and Middle Eastern actors specifically, they’re often typecast into roles such as “Terrorist #4” — making it that much worse when a lead role they can actually play is given to a white actor instead.

In an in-depth GQ interview with some of the most famous Middle Eastern actors — like Maz Jobrani, Ahmed Ahmed, and Sayed Badreya — Jon Ronson found that pretending to hijack planes and kill infidels were usually the only roles available. As Ronson noted, the lack of opportunity is so warped that many of the actors actually have tips for how to stand out at terrorist auditions.

“If I’m going in for the role of a nice father, I’ll talk to everybody,” Badreya told GQ. “But if you’re going for a terrorist role, don’t fucking smile at all those white people sitting there. Treat them like shit. The minute you say hello, you break character.”

“But it’s smart at the end of the audition to break it,” clarified Hrach Titizian, an actor who appeared on Homeland. “‘Oh, thanks, guys.’ So they know it’s okay to have you on set for a couple of weeks.”

Oh, but we’re post racist, you betcha! :Insert an enormous, spine-popping eyeroll here: If the casting of this movie goes as planned, I certainly won’t be watching it. I have never been a fan of DiCaprio, it’s a mystery to me what people see in him, the most I can elicit is a meh. Having read a fair amount of Rumi’s work, I would love a movie about him and his life if it was done well, and doing it well includes accuracy. That leaves Hollywood out.

Full Story at ThinkProgress.

There will also be a 21 Bow and Arrow Salute.

I thought of Arlington National Cemetery. Would they allow this young man to “play through” there? (David Rooks)

I thought of Arlington National Cemetery. Would they allow this young man to “play through” there? (David Rooks)

That was the last line in a post about remembering those buried at Hiawatha Asylum. The ceremonies and remembrances were carried out early this month, but there is a weight of unbearable sadness. Not just over the crime of locking people up in the asylum. Not just over the maltreatment of those locked up in the asylum. Not just the terrible weight of grief borne by those who suffered the poisonous touch of the asylum. Yet another weight is the ever ongoing disrespect shown to Indigenous people across Turtle Island. Where are the dead of Hiawatha Asylum? In between the fourth and fifth fairways of the Hiawatha Golf Club course. Golfers waited to play through while the 21 Arrow salute took place.

Sunday morning, June 5, this hallowed ground was fairly warm by 10 a.m. Standing by the lone granite marker, whose bronze plaque carries the names of 120 of those buried somewhere close beneath it, I heard a soft rustle behind me. Ten feet west of the split rails stood a young man with a golf club who appeared to be waiting, more or less patiently. Lying in front of him was a golf ball.

I exited the cemetery on the west side and stopped by a tree. After a few practice swings, the young man approached his ball and then struck it. It skittered beneath the rail, through the cemetery, and out the east end, headed for the fourth green. I thought of Arlington National Cemetery. Would they allow this young man to “play through” there? I then thought of the mass burial site at Wounded Knee, and how nice it would be if it were surrounded by Hiawatha’s manicured lawns and lush and well-pruned trees. But not if it came with golfers.

[…]

Before the salute, Dr. Erich Longie, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Spirit Lake Dakota Sioux Tribe in Spirit Lake, North Dakota spoke. Longie reminded everyone that it is the nature of tribal peoples to keep their ancestors with them always; in their hearts, their minds, and their prayers. Longie also pledged to go back to Spirit Lake and see if he could get his tribe to help fund the purchase and construction of a new fence around the cemetery.

Given the golfer earlier that morning, Longie’s pledge seemed timely.

At the close of the ceremony, a 21-arrow salute was given by an archery team of students from Nebraska Indian Community College.

At the close of the ceremony, a 21-arrow salute was given by an archery team of students from Nebraska Indian Community College.

David Rooks has an excellent 2 page article about the ceremony, and about Hiawatha Asylum: A 21-Arrow Salute: ‘Come See the Crazy Indians’

Four More Heads.

Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. This front page of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper ran with portraits of 11 Modoc Indians, who ended up as federal prisoners.

Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
This front page of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper ran with portraits of 11 Modoc Indians, who ended up as federal prisoners.

The four Modocs dangling from the gallows at Fort Klamath, Oregon, on October 3, 1873, had barely been cut down when the ghoulish souvenir-taking started. Soldiers auctioned off a hank of hair shorn from the head of Modoc leader Kientpoos (a.k.a. Captain Jack) to fit the noose around his neck, and they sold unraveled gallows rope for $5 a strand. Thomas Cabaniss, a physician from nearby Yreka, California, who had worked for the army during the Modoc War, claimed two halters. Other spectators snatched pieces and parts from the gallows. Meanwhile, in a nearby tent, military medical officer Henry McElderry was taking the army’s share of hanging-day mementos.

This image of Kientpoos (Captain Jack) was among those taken by Louis Herman Heller during and after The Modoc War. (Housed at: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

This image of Kientpoos (Captain Jack) was among those taken by Louis Herman Heller during and after The Modoc War. (Housed at: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

In 1868, George Otis Alexander, then assistant surgeon general of the United States Army, circulated an order among military physicians requiring them to help the Army Medical Museum’s effort to build its collection of Native crania. The museum had already amassed 143 skulls and wanted to add more.

“The chief purpose … in forming this collection,” Alexander explained, “is to aid in the progress of anthropological science by obtaining measurements of a large number of skulls of aboriginal races of North America.”

The official purpose for collecting Indian skulls was comparative study of racial differences. George A. Otis, MD, of the Army Medical Museum, after studying the “osteological peculiarities” of the skulls collected up to 1870, announced that America’s Native peoples “must be assigned a lower position in the human scale than has been believed heretofore.” Lewis Henry Morgan, a pioneering physical anthropologist who had sought unsuccessfully to be appointed Indian Affairs commissioner, wrote that Native Americans “have the skulls and brains of barbarians, and must grow toward civilization.” Thus did the crude, pseudo-Darwinist science of the time support herding Natives on to reservations to learn English and farming.

This image of Black Jim was among those taken by Louis Herman Heller during and after The Modoc War. (Housed at: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

This image of Black Jim was among those taken by Louis Herman Heller during and after The Modoc War. (Housed at: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Army doctors in Indian country could augment the collection by gathering skulls and forwarding them to Washington and the Army Medical Museum. Accurate statistical analysis required as many specimens as possible: “… it is chiefly desired to procure sufficiently large series of adult crania of the principal Indian tribes to furnish accurate average estimates. Medical officers will enhance the value of their contributions by transmitting with the specimens the fullest attainable memoranda, specifying the locality where the skulls were derived, the presumed age and sex….”

The army’s medical officers responded enthusiastically, swelling the collection to more than 1,000 skulls by the time of the Fort Klamath hangings. Some remains came from ancient burial sites, such as the mounds of the eastern United States, others from tribal cemeteries captured during military operations. Epidemics were a boon for the collectors, since, besides felling Indians in droves, they tore apart Native societies and made it difficult for survivors to protect their dead against white grave robbers. And then there were the many battles and executions.

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This image of Boston Charley was among those taken by Louis Herman Heller during and after The Modoc War. (Housed at: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Military medical officers enjoyed easy access to all these opportunities. Plus, they had the surgical skills to dissect away soft tissues and prepare heads for boiling in water or steeping in quicklime to leave only the bare bone the Army Medical Museum wanted.

The Army Medical Museum collection had grown to 2,206 skulls by 1898, when it was turned over to the Smithsonian Institution. The collection had fallen into disuse as academic anthropologists adopted different modes of study, and the museum no longer wanted to maintain it. Almost a century later, the skulls became part of the more than 6,000 individual human remains offered for repatriation by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of Natural History through federal legislation passed in the 1980s and 1990s. The Modoc skulls were among the remains repatriated.

Despite the federal government’s latter-day efforts to make this wrong right, the Army Medical Museum’s collection marks the United States as the only national government ever to officially use warfare to collect human skulls.

This image of Schonchin was among those taken by Louis Herman Heller during and after The Modoc War. (Housed at: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

This image of Schonchin was among those taken by Louis Herman Heller during and after The Modoc War. (Housed at: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Full Story at ICTMN. And before anyone tsks, shakes their head and murmurs, thank goodness we’re past that now, we aren’t. We’re currently surrounded by so called ‘race realists’ and white nationalists who think this is great science, and we should probably do more of this sort of thing. Don’t go dismissing it, everyone thinks it can’t happen to them.

The Art of Marketing Guns.

This Bushmaster ad ran in Maxim magazine, according to Mother Jones (Bushmaster)

This Bushmaster ad ran in Maxim magazine, according to Mother Jones (Bushmaster)

While large ad agencies these days shy away from working for gun manufacturers, it turns out that they have a little secret to boosting sales. Gun manufacturers obviously and openly pander to toxic masculinity, appealing to every lousy, dangerous trope out there, shamelessly amping up male insecurity and fostering the idea that one can be a manly man if you just get yourself unnecessarily armed to the teeth. And of course, women can be a womanly woman right alongside their manly men, guns for all!

To entice potential customers to purchase its high-powered assault rifle, Bushmaster, one of America’s largest gun manufacturers, uses the slogan “Justice for All.’’ Its print ads tell prospective buyers: “Consider your man card reissued.” Sig Sauer, another major gun manufacturer, advertises its MCX rifle in a dramatic video of a single shooter, calling the gun the “start of a new era.”

In the wake of the massacre at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida, many politicians are demanding stricter gun laws. But a lot less attention is focused on the marketing tactics of American gun manufacturers, who can — unlike cigarette and alcohol companies — legally and freely market their products with little to no regulation.

“If you look at the gun industry’s advertising today, it’s militarized,” says Josh Sugarmann, the founder and executive director of the Violence Policy Center, an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control. “It’s focused on two things: assault weapons and high-capacity semi-automatic pistols.”

I was a around for the major societal shift and restrictions on tobacco and alcohol advertising. Those were considered to be good and necessary restrictions, but once again, it seems guns are exempt.

Ever since the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, put assault weapons back in the spotlight, the amount of money spent on gun advertising has increased dramatically. From 2012 to 2013, the amount spent by five of the largest assault weapons manufacturers on advertising their own brands leapt more than 33 percent, according to Kantar Media data.

Remington’s ad spending nearly doubled, from $740,000 to more than $1.4 million in those years; Sig Sauer’s soared from just $30,000 to $230,000, according to Kantar.

Source: Kantar Media Get the data.

Source: Kantar Media Get the data.

Regardless of who’s writing the copy or executing the campaigns, these manufacturers are hardly reliant on ad strategy to drive sales; Smith & Wesson pulled in more than $551 million in revenue last year, thanks mostly to a dedicated, enthusiastic population of loyal gun buyers.

“If you focus on manufacturer advertising, you are missing the larger picture,” Terrence Witkowski, a professor at California State University, Long Beach, who has studied the visual language of gun culture. “American gun culture is a form of consumer culture where much influence flows from the grassroots, bottom up, not top down.”

The sad truth is tragedies like the ones in Orlando or Newtown are actually their own best advertising. While most gun manufacturers will never admit it, the demonization that is rained down on their products is good for business, as sales boom in the aftermath.

In 1993, reports that the weapon used in a mass shooting in San Francisco was a Tec-9 set off waves of people condemning the gun. To Intratec, the gun’s manufacturer, those howls of anger were music to its ears.

“I’m kind of flattered,” Mike Solo, Intratec’s marketing and sales director, told the New York Times. “It just has that advertising tingle to it. Hey, it’s talked about, it’s read about, the media write about it. That generates more sales for me. It might sound cold and cruel, but I’m sales oriented.”

“I’m sales oriented”. Yeah, who cares about all those dead people, there are sales to be made.

Via Raw Story.

Sen. Murray Sinclair Speaks Out.

Justice Murray Sinclair, who served as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission inquiry into residential schools, opened up on the Senate floor about his openly gay daughter in a tribute to victims of the massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. ADRIAN WYLD/CANADIAN PRESS FILES.

Justice Murray Sinclair, who served as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission inquiry into residential schools, opened up on the Senate floor about his openly gay daughter in a tribute to victims of the massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
ADRIAN WYLD/CANADIAN PRESS FILES.

Then Sinclair got up and spoke.

Hon. Murray Sinclair: Honourable senators, shortly after midnight on Saturday night, our openly gay daughter sat and laughed with us, as my wife and I and her sisters sang her Happy Birthday, badly I might add, as all families do, but with huge amounts of love. She turned 33 on Sunday, June 12.

At almost the same moment, an American filled with hate for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered, queer and two-spirit people carried his legally purchased machine gun and pistol into a bar in Orlando, Florida, and started killing everyone he could.

Eventually, over a period of three hours, he hunted down all those he could find in the bar and killed 49 young men and women, whose only reason for being targeted was that they were celebrating Pride month and were openly gay.

Much has been made of the shooter’s connection to Islamic terrorism and his ability to purchase, own and carry guns, despite his history of mental disturbance and violence. American politicians and others will line up in one camp or the other to denounce those who they say caused this to happen, whether close at hand or remote. The number of political footballs this event presents for use is significant. You need only look at the headlines today to get a flavor of that.

But yesterday and today, I thought only of the 49 mothers and fathers whose hearts are broken and whose lives have been torn asunder, and I think every day of the fact that I could have been and could be one of them. I think of the dozens of brothers and sisters born into the victims’ families, whose anger and tears may never end, and I think of the fact that my other children could be among them also.

Society’s dislike and disrespect for those who are gay and transgendered has been a part of Western thinking for many generations. The enhancement and recognition of their right to be who they are and their right to public protection of those rights does not sit well with far too many people, the shooter in this case being representative of that.

When my daughter spoke to us as a young teenager of her recognition of who she was, we stood beside her and gave her every assurance of our love and of her right to be open about what she was.

What my wife and I could not bring ourselves to discuss with her, or between ourselves, at that moment was that she had just enhanced her risk of danger. She was already living a life of enhanced danger just by being female. That danger was increased by the fact that she was in a higher at-risk group because she was an indigenous woman.

We told her about the fact that among Indigenous people, being a two-spirit was traditionally a position of respect and honor. Ceremonies, we have been taught, are enhanced if done by or with two-spirit people present, for it is believed that they embody the strengths and spirits of both man and woman and bring a special healing power and medicine to every special event.

She has brought great respect to our family. We are said to be blessed by having her as a daughter because she is two-spirit, and we feel so. We adopted another two-spirit daughter into our family as well, whose partner just gave birth to our newest grandson. He will be raised by two-spirit parents.

As parents of two-spirits, we want to protect our children from the bullying, the offensive comments, the disparaging remarks and the physical and verbal abuses that every member of the LGBTQ2S experiences. We have learned to shield them and to heal them when our shields prove insufficient.

What we fear the most is that someone will murder them just for being gay. The belief that such an event could occur would be enough for many to discourage their children from coming out, and it would also discourage the children themselves.

So in our moment of silence, I thought of the parents. We as a society have all lost something as a civilized people in this act of mass murder, but they have lost more than we can ever know.

Thank you, Senator Sinclair, for speaking up. Thank you for your message of inclusion and love.

Via ICTMN.

Reggae on the Oregon Rez.

Left to right: Benny Pezzano, Michael Sorensen, Kenny Lewis, Scott Guasco and Michael Lennon are Sol Seed. (Photo: Athena Delene)

Left to right: Benny Pezzano, Michael Sorensen, Kenny Lewis, Scott Guasco and Michael Lennon are Sol Seed. (Photo: Athena Delene)

Many bands in mainstream rock have a connection to Native communities through one of their musicians. The Band’s Robbie Robertson, Testament’s Charles Billy and the many contributions of Jesse Ed Davis to various groups are some examples. Sol Seed—a reggae-fusion band out of Eugene, Oregon—has a relationship with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde through its guitarist, Kenny Sequoia Lewis.

Through Lewis, Sol Seed – only two years old at the time – found itself performing at the 2012 Native American Music Awards at the invitation of Grand Ronde flute player Jan Michael Looking Wolf.

“I think it was one of those moments that validated what we were doing,” said band member Benny Pezzano. “Something was written in the stars for all of us together.”

Lewis played as a studio musician for Looking Wolf’s album Breaking Free. For Lewis, the Nammy experience showed him the depth of genres within Native American music.

[…]

Performing with Looking Wolf created for him a “smoother experience” that he would take to Sol Seed. Now with six years of experience as a band, member Pezzano says Sol Seed has a message of “universal love, universal acceptance and reaching across cultural or national boundaries.”

“Live music is one of the best medicines for anyone,” Pezzano said. “It’s right up there with laughter. Someone once told me that reggae music is what positive feelings sound like. Most importantly, it brings everyone together.”

Sol Seed spends its time between touring nationally and regionally in the northwest. Growing up in Medford, Oregon Lewis says he enjoys playing at the Grand Ronde reservation for their youth.

“It’s really cool to see the smiles light up on their faces,” Lewis said. “I get to connect with them because I’m the only tribal member in Sol Seed. It’s a huge honor for me. I really enjoy it.”

To find out more about Sol Seed and their music, go to www.solseedmusic.com. They can also be found on Facebook, Reverbnation and Soundcloud.

Via ICTMN.

Grateful Dead Tribute Album Could Break HIV Fundraising Records.

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Day of the Dead, is a love letter to the Grateful Dead, curated by The National rockers Aaron and Bryce Dessner. A tribute to the eclectic and iconic band from the era of psychedelic music, the album took four years to collect and compile.

Featuring over sixty artists from a variety of musical backgrounds, (including Mumford & Sons, Wilco, Courtney Barnett, and The National) the set reinterprets the songs and sounds of the Dead for a whole new generation.

A project of Red Hot, the international organization dedicated to fighting HIV  through pop culture, Day of the Dead,  is expected to break the organization’s previous fundraising records.

The 5-hour, 59-track album features artists from Mumford & Sons to Wilco, and Courtney Barnett to The National. Full Story Here.