Today in class we watched a documentary called “In Whose Honor.” While watching I would say that there were some strong feelings brought up by the issues portrayed in the film. What I noticed about the people in favor of “The Chief” is that they were mostly ignorant of the topic at hand. There was a lack of understanding, but more than just lacking information, it was a lacking of empathy towards the people who are hurt by this showing of a fictitious Native Chief.
If ever I had to sum it up in a few words I’d say that racism through ignorance is still racism.
Now I have to ask, what did any of you feel about this movie? Did it bring up any anger, or perhaps any sadness? What do you feel about these people supporting “The Chief” and their arguments for keeping him?
There are no wrong answers, just how you feel.
In Whose Honor
Today we watched a documentary that features Charlene Teters. The title of this documentary was “In Whose Honor” and it was about the mascot issue that Charlene had endure when she was at the University of Illinois. This film was a heavy topic and it made me feel bad watching it because of how the people, who did not understand why the mascot issue is a problem,treated Native Americans. My heart goes out to those that have had to go through things like this so that I might not of had to… even tho we have not completely made it to a point where racism is not extinct I can say that the activist work that others have done before has helped out. This documentary hits me because I have experienced the whole mascot controversy in my lifetime. In college I had a public speaking class and I presented this issue and I had to defend my argument more than any other student. It was mind blowing how many students commented saying that the mascot issue made no sense because it is not offensive… but how can something that makes me feel like nothing and feel this horrible… not be offensive?
Alexandra
In Whose Honor? :American Indian Mascots In Sports
This movie really hit me. Just seeing Charlene Teters (Spokane) ,the person who the movie is documenting, work hard for our culture is really inspiring. Also today we had a work shop on making resumes and how to write an essay for applying to jobs and colleges.
In Whose Honor?
That movie was really upsetting because people are so uneducated about native americans. So to see how these people are treating us gets me flustered and just overall angry. At one point i almost had word vomit and stopped myself from calling a man in the movie a “something” bag. But then i’d be no better than them, so we can only forgive and continue to fight for our rights because they don’t know what they do is wrong and offends people deeply.
Questions For Georgina Lightning
How did you cope with making a movie with so much history and meaning behind it?
What kind of content might be addressed in films you will be making in the future?
And thank you for putting the subject of Boarding Schools out there! It was portrayed in the best way so that people who may not understand the concept previously could.
– Elka
Questions for Georgina Lightning
1. Was there a lot of pressure when making this movie?
2. What inspired you to start making movies?
3. Have you ever had any bad experiences for being native american?
— Fabian
I’M STILL NOT SURE!!???? -_-
I understand the fact that Sovereignty is about higher ultimate power or something like that… I’m not really sure exactly If I quite understand the whole concept of it.? Deron Marquez came to Pitzer for the second time as one of our teachers, and his main topic that he heavily tried to imprint on us was SOVEREIGNTY!!! I love to hear him speak…hahaha It was funny because he was telling everyone that we were all soooo quiet! I mean but It was basically only because we were trying to listen to everything he was saying, and I mean not just listening but taking in the depth of the point he was trying to get across. I believe he is a very experienced, intelligent, and a wise man who has a deep love for his culture. I believe another one of his points he was trying to get across was that his reason for sharing the history with our generation and others was to let people know that…. you need to know these things not to be angry or sad or to really express our feelings in such a way that it would not benefit us, but that it’s what we do with all the anger hate courage faith sadness and knowledge that we would channel it into a good and positive action that would help people, the world, our tribe. He said “It’s what you do with with those feelings, It’s how you channel those feelings that makes a difference!” – Deron Marquez. I reallly enjoy learning from him!!! Especially since I love History!!! 😀
today!! thursday, 28th
Today was pretty good! Last night we were playing around in Native Narnia and having a blast. Later in the day we had 2 classes. One was meeting some students from San Manuel (sorry if I spell it wrong 😦 ) and we played a game together and had a sort of writing exercise. our next class we had a guest speaker, his name was Deron Marquez, and he talked a lot about sovereignty……i was really confused, but i learned a lot at the same time :D. and now i am blogging haha.
Oh, and since the actress/director, Georgina Lighting, wasn’t able to come but is able to view our blog, i have some questions for her!
First, How did you get into the acting career ?
Second, Did you always wanted to be an actress/director?
And Third, Do you have any pets?
– Christa
Discussion piece
Today during class with Deron we discussed about Sovereignty and I brought up a certain point that I thought I’d share with everyone. I felt that part of the reason for Europeans having viewed Natives as being savage and sub human was due to the Native Perspective of being just as important as the animals and every living thing on the Earth. That Native people still maintained their connection with the Earth as stewards of the land rather than just takers of resources. Like in European culture and still to this day America and most of the world has viewed itself, and human beings as being a separate entity from Nature, rather than acknowledging that we came from the Earth, that it is our Mother, and not simply a resource to be taken and used as we please. This is what I feel to be true, if you have any questions regarding my perspective on this issue, or if I was not clear enough, then feel free to ask questions. And just be sure to tell me how you feel about this, what your point of view is, etc.
I want to see some comments or posts people GO GO GO.
Sharing and Indian Politics
Today we were about to share a class with other people, Mr. Deron Marquez taught us about sovereignty… well I don’t know much about that term but it was showed in many ways (which I didn’t get as much), I seen a short clip that Indians weren’t allowed to govern themselves and so forth. So why can a tribe can make treaties but not the federal government? that I don’t remember as much ;3
~Jessica Chang~
nativeyouth2college.org 