Another Proclamation - Sherman Alexie
When
Lincoln
Delivered
The
Emancipation,
Who
Knew
that, one year earlier, in 1862, he’d signed and approved the order for the largest public execution in the United States History? Who did they execute? “Mulatto, mixed-bloods, and Indians.”
Why did they execute them? “For uprising against the State and her citizens.” Where did they execute them? Mankato, Minnesota. How did they execute them? Well, Abraham Lincoln thought it was good.
And
Just
To
Hang
Thirty-eight
Sioux
simultaneously. Yes, in front of a large and cheering crowd, thirty-eight Indians dropped to their deaths. Yes, thirty-eight necks snapped. But before they died, thirty-eight Indians sang their death songs. Can you imagine the cacophony of thirty-eight different death songs? But wait, one Indian was pardoned at the last minute, so only thirty-seven Indians had to sing their death songs. But, O, O, O, O, can you imagine the cacophony of that one survivor’s mourning song? If he taught you the words, do you think you would sing along?
micro-nano:
“I was looking forward to telling you that I have Indian blood, that the reason I’m so good at catching fish and hunting birds and roasting corn and doing all sorts of things is that I have Indian blood. But now, I don’t know why, I feel I shouldn’t tell you that. I feel you will take it the wrong way.”
This really surprised me. What way should I take this? Wrong way? Right way? What could she mean? To look at her, there was nothing remotely like an Indian about her. Why claim a thing like that? I myself had Indian blood in me. The Carib Indians were good sailors, but I don’t like the sea; I only like to look at it. To me my grandmother is only my grandmother, not an Indian. My grandmother is alive; the Indians she comes from are all dead. If someone could get away with it, I am sure they would put my grandmother in a museum, as an example of something now extinct in nature, one of a handful alive. In fact, one of the museums to which Mariah had taken me devoted a whole section to people, all dead, who were more or less related to my grandmother.
Mariah says, “I have Indian blood in me,” and underneath every thing I could swear she says it as if she were announcing her possession of a trophy. How do you get to be the sort of victor who can claim to be the vanquished also?
- Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy
Your favorite playground growing up were all the broken down cars in your yard #NativeProblems
If she can squeeze 4 loads of laundry into one double loader just to have extra money for going out, then she’s too rez for you bro
Even your laugh has the rez accent #NativeProblems
If she lives less than 100 ft from her aunties, her uncles, and her grandma, she’s too rez for you bro
If she uses pendleton blankets as a table cloth, comforter, and a curtain, she’s too rez for you
If she says, “Let’s go to the club” and pulls up at a casino, she’s too Rez for you bro!
If she is only wearing one moccassin and didnt realize the other one fell off somewhere, she’s too rez for you bro
People say that Indians have bigger problems than mascots and the use of Native American images, but I disagree. If you can’t see me as an individual, then how can you understand the problems we have as a people? We have taken much heat, and the backlash has been tremendous, but we can take it. If our children do not have to endure the insults we have endured, then our efforts will have been worth it.
If she walks around barefoot in the winter, she’s too rez for you bro!
If she just laughs when they call her “nasty auntie”, she’s too rez for you bro
marinazoe:
(Vegan) Green lentil soup with curry butter drizzle, red pepper and scallions. From my Super Natural Every Day cook book I got at Christmas!
