REVITALIZING
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NATIVE TRADITIONS:
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Are tribes going “back to the past”
by “reclaiming” their cultural heritage?
Are tribes “going backward” by
“reviving” their traditions?
Dr. Zoltan Grossman
Faculty member in Geography & Native American Studies,
The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz
Model of Linear “Progress”
Past
Present
“Going backward”
“Reclaiming past”
Future
A Tale of Two Birds
1. Chickaloon, Alaska
“STUPIDCHICKEN”
“STUPIDCHICKEN”
A Tale of Two Birds
2. Muscoda, Wisconsin
A Tale of Two Birds
2. Muscoda, Wisconsin
1,300-foot wingspan
Ghost Eagle
in Wisconsin
River Valley
A symbol & allegory
of Native survival
and continuity
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Continuity
of stories
Ho-Chunks’
Red Horn legend in
Gottschall rock shelter
Continuity through the “Dark Ages”
• After suppression of Native culture
and before modern revival
• Little awareness of Native history
from 1890s to 1960s
Wounded Knee massacre, 1890
Wounded Knee siege, 1973
Continuity through the “Dark Ages”
• Boarding schools assimilated youth
• Reservation land allotted
• Off-reservation harvesting banned
• Religions outlawed
• Languages repressed
Yet cultures practiced
in secret, survived and adapted…..
Frozen in time?
Edward Curtis photo
in a Piegan Lodge, 1910
Spearfishing
Lac du Flambeau = “Lake of the Torch”
Motorboats, halogen lamps, metal spears
Birchbark canoes, torches, wooden spears
State outlawed treaty spearfishing in 1908 but Ojibwe practiced secretly
Wisconsin Walleye Wars, 1986-92
Ojibwe treaty rights
rights upheld, 1983.
Anglers protest
spearing as harmful
(yet only 3% of walleye)
Criticize technology
as “nontraditional”
(not in use at time of treaty)
Makah whale hunting
1855 Treaty recognized importance
of whaling to ancient Makah sea culture.
Non-Indian commercial whaling
depleted grey whales, 1920s
(Recovery in 1980s)
1997 agreement
for non-commercial
Makah harvest
5 out of 20,000 grey whales;
Quota released by Siberian tribe
Washington Whaling Conflict, 1999
Save a Whale Harpoon a Makah
Animal rights groups
join anti-Indian groups to
protest harpooning/
shooting of one whale.
(Yet rifle brought quicker death).
Gaming as
nontraditional?
Casinos in U.S. cash economy
Gunpowder
and fireworks
from the Chinese
Western culture
constantly adopts
and adapts to
new technologies
Clocks from the Germans
Why do only Native
Peoples have to
be museum pieces?
Christians?
Americans?
Right to bear arms ?
Living, evolving cultures,
not resurrection of dead cultures
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“New traditions”:
Jingle Dance
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Cultural Mixing
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Grand Entry
Flag Song
Traditions of Governance (Cornell)
• Does modern tribal government
resemble older traditional form?
• Trouble if decentralized before,
but centralized today, etc.
• Tribes with successful economic development followed
precolonial government form (e.g., Pueblos)
• Start of a “Native Renaissance”?
Greco-Roman Era
Italian Renaissance
( = “Rebirth”)
Selective revitalization:
Drawing from the past, but
different from the past (Alfred)
Negation of the negation (Hegel)
Past
(Precolonial)
Negation
of past
Negation of
negation
(Colonialism)
(Decolonization)
Moving forward to a reconstituted culture.
(Closest idea that Western thought has to Indigenous circular thinking.)
“Tradition”
• Not about technology but consciousness
• Not about form but substance
• Not about appearances but values
Native Renaissance
Applyingxxxx
past values
to present problems
to build a better future
“Miner’s Canary” analogy
By Felix Cohen, 1953
(Modern founder of federal Indian law)
“The Indian plays much the same role in our American
society that the Jews played in Germany. Like the
miner's canary, the Indian marks the shift from fresh air
to poison gas in our political atmosphere; and our treatment
of Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities,
marks the rise and fall of our democratic faith.”
“Greenhouse” analogy
Tribes are in a position to apply
their traditional values to solve
21st-century problems
• Reservations at least partly shielded by
tribal sovereignty, federal trust relationship
• Can “grow” their own forms of social organization
and environmental sustainability
• Can develop solutions that benefit Native and
non-Native communities alike.
Wisconsin Anti-Mining Alliance, 1993-2003
Mining companies
threatened fish, wild rice
Sportfishing groups
joined with tribes to
fight Crandon mine
Two tribes defeated plan
by purchasing mine site
Continuing Native
traditions & sovereignty
benefited non-Indians too
“Greenhouse” analogy
Reservations as “testing grounds”
for new ways of relating to the land
• Sustainable Development
– Land purchases; put into trust for projects
– Stables, Deer farms, Organic farms, etc.
• Tribal policies
– EPA “Treatment-As-State” status
– Gaming enables technical/legal environmental work
“Greenhouse” analogy
Reservations as “testing grounds”
for new ways of relating to people
• Development from gaming on some rezes;
Reverse migration from cities for new jobs
• Slow reversal of festering poverty & inequality
• Tribal employment for non-Indians
“Greenhouse” analogy
Not just casino money,
but also cultural resurgence
• Local cooperation
– Tribal investments in local festivals, tourism zones
– Tribal radio stations provide alternative
• Tribal models
– Tribal laws precedents for new local, state laws
– Potential areas of healing & “disinfecting”
for the entire society