Need some advice - Beadwork Dilemma

I've heard a different rationale for the "always make a mistake" thing: that if there's a flaw in it, that proves it must be handmade, because machine-made pieces are always perfect. I don't agree with this argument, but I do see where it comes from.

Celine

machine-made

All of my medicine bags are done in square stitch. I had a booth at a pow-wow once and a native american woman was arguing with me that they couldn't be done by hand because they were "too perfect." After I pointed out the "flaw" in each, I had her watch me while I worked on one. She then believed me.

Linda2

1/64th creek indian (plus some cherokee or comanche). In Oklahoma, I am part of the Tribe, and qualify for tribal benefits there...

Mary

I am some percentage of something, LOL, but not sure what. It is high -- my dad's grandmother was full blooded. You can really see it in him and my little sister.

Becki "In between the moon and you, the angels have a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right." -- Counting Crows

As you may or may not know, I'm an "Urban indian", a person of tribal descent who has, through birth (in my case) or resettlement, adopted an urban, non-tribal lifestyle. There is a little friction (in my area anyway) between the Urban contingency, and the Tribes. Urban indians are really a tribe of our own, regardless of extraction - I'm a lot Apache and Cherokee on my dad's side, a little Paiute on my mom's, but I'm really a Portland OR indian. My dad is a recognized elder and a chairman on the council for the Portland Urban Indian Association. That said, I can't speak for anyone beyond relating my own experience, and stuff I've heard indians talking about getting outraged over.

Some tribes are really sensitive aboyt stuff like this, and further, some specific individual members of tribes are super-hyper-off the charts sensitive about it... like, apparently, the person who happens to be in charge of PR for that tribe. I'm a little bemused by their response... usually people are taught to be more polite by their mothers, but well, maybe it was a hot button for them. I don't think they understood your request at all.

Many tribes, and I would even go so far as to say most, really have no problem with certain "public" motifs being used for purely personal enjoyment by non-indians. As you have observed, they do all have a problem with people using them for financial gain, but that is obviously not your intent! A few tribes do, however, feel as their official stance that ANY use of ANYTHING indian by non-indians constitutes "culture theft". Although I understand the roots of this sentiment, I still feel that i t's rather extreme! The fact that you ASKED should have been enough for you to be given a little respect, as most people don't ask, they just find a book in the library and copy a picture. By asking, by it *occurring* to you to ask, you have defined yourself as a respectful person, and, IMHO, deserving of a respectful explanation as to why your request could not be honored by that particular tribe.

Traditional ornamental motifs are owned usually not by entire tribes, but by families, and often by single individuals (because so many traditional family lines are down to one last person now - usually because everyone else moved to Seattle to get a job in publishing) so in a way it's really just a matter of talking to the right person. And it is, truly, a matter of talking... making that one-on-one connection and explaining your project, and why you're doing it, and how much you love what you're doing. Indians are often funny on the phone, not to mention in email, so I would suggest you go there in person... but in your case, since this is not a viable option, you might even explain why you can't go there to talk to them face to face, even though you wanted to.

Lastly, some people are closed-minded jerks and once they've decided you're trying to rip them off, they won't allow themselves to believe anything different, in which case, contact someone else! There are thousands of tribes, and plenty of them share willingly... many even have community outreach programs to help non-indian people in their area learn about and participate in their culture! Here in Oregon the Grande Ronde seem to have some sort of public cultural event every 10 minutes... they're very open and friendly, and do a lot of public works like donate to our libraries. If you can't find someone on the East Coast, try the West.

Good lock, Kathy!

My great grandfather couldn't get a job at all, when he first went off-rez; then he moved East and STILL couldn't get a job because "We don't hire indians". So he shaved his head and started telling people he was black... and they believed him! (They must have though he was an awfully funny-looking black dude...???) He was able to get a job. Later he got smart and joined the military, and ever since then the men (and recently, the women) in my family have been soldiers, then gotten an education when they got out. My grandpa worked as a chemist for Dow Chemical! Imagine a full-blood Apache working for Dow Chemical in the

1930's! He did a lot of amazing things. He jumped out of planes in WWII, and he played trumpet in a jazz band. I never got to meet him, for which I am sorry... he was a remarkable man!

On my grandmother's side, I guess they probably lied a long time ago to keep their land. They were landowning Eastern Cherokees who did not go on the forced march west, so they either paid off the local government or flat lied or both. My great-grandmother Julia Winston was the daughter of black landowners when she met John Hicks and married him, and had my grandma Ida Bea. Both families were well-off and despite what you hear about black women in the 1800's, Julia, and all the other women in my family, received a college education. Ironically, my best friend is the descendant of white slaves; not many people know this but colored landowners had slaves like any other landowners, and so sometimes we speculate about whether any of my ancestors owned any of her ancestors! Slavery was primarily a class issue that descended to a race issue toward the end of its days.

That is the great secret in my family... or, it was until my dad did some family research and discovered that he'd been lied to about our sorry origins. Passing fo white isn't an option in my family. Being descended from privileged, land (and slave) owning blacks and indians was NOT something my grandmother and aunts wanted to have people know! Seeing pictures of my beautiful, haughty great-grandma as a young woman on the family estate, dressed in silks and carrying a parasol (to protect her complexion??) is very interesting. I wonder if she blamed her husband's side of the family when their wild flapper daughter married a lowly Apache soldier-cum-chemist she met in a jazz bar?

It certainly opened my eyes, though, to a cultural dynamic I was unaware of growing up. Also, discovering that white slavery was very common in the US was interesting, and shocking on many levels. Why is the true history of slavery not taught in schools?

Bluntly, because the PTB have an agenda which would be imperiled by doing so. The agenda is "America is the greatest country in the world, and everything we do is right." Learning the truth about slavery (or about many other things, like the number of times the US sent military forces into South/Central America in the late 1800s and early 1900s) would be embarrassing and would make people wonder what *else* we might be doing that's wrong.

See if you can find a book called "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen. He goes back to original sources and produces a *very* different version of American history!

Celine

The majority of tribes have 1/8 or 1/16 as the cut off. Some tribes will not enroll anyone who is not the child of a currently enrolled member, no matter what.

Because popular "history" isn't just about the truth, its about the story the winners of the battle tell.

Same reason we as school kiddies didn't exactly get the truth about Mr. Columbus and his trip to "America" (Cuba!!). Same reason we were told that Russians were eaters of children attempting to take over the world---which is also pretty much what Russian children were told about us Americans in the '50s and '60s!!! Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery

The government only lets the textbooks say what they want us to think. I think almost every ethnic background has been enslaved at one point or other. Karen

It's not just the government. There are also powerful business interests which are committed to presenting *their* pet version of history -- and they have representatives on the textbook-selection committees.

Celine

This is what I have been taught too.

Tina

"Kyla" wrote