From: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us (Gary S. Trujillo)
Newsgroups: alt.native
Subject: Re: Geography Help Needed
Date: 7 Jan 93 23:15:19 GMT

In <20715@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> darsie@eecs.ucdavis.edu (Richard Darsie) writes:

> In article <1992Dec31.112943.4791@spcvxb.spc.edu>,
>	surrey_d@spcvxb.spc.edu writes:

> > I am starting a  new graduate Geography course for k-12
> > teachers and will include as much as possible on Native
> > Americans. One of the things that might help teachers
> > teach their students is the taking of names for both
> > current cites - Missouri, Mississippi, etc - and for
> > products - Pontiac, Cherokee. I need more such examples
> > as well as any other ideas you might have.
> > 
> > Thank you.

> The taking (one might say "ripping off") of Native American names for
> places and products (and professional sports teams) is the most
> superficial way in which we have been influenced by Native American
> peoples and culture...

I have to agree with Richard about the triviality of the use of American
Indian names as an example of contributions by Indian peoples to U.S.
society, since these names were largely "stolen" by the same society
which has visited such cruelty and inhumanity upon the those same peoples
during the history of this country, largely destroying the societies we
now mockingly "honor" by the use of these names for household products
and the names of sports teams.

We had a discussion of this subject on NativeNet a couple of years ago.
My apologies that most of the senders' addresses have been lost.


| Subject: INDIAN NAMES FOR PRODUCTS
| Message-ID: <5A091C0B3A2A0192-MTASATURN*Peter.dErrico@LEGAL.umass.edu>
| Date: 28 Sep 90 15:59:18 GMT
|
| Mark Towfigh asks:
|
| >Has anyone else noticed, and is anyone else offended by, the new
| >onslaught of products on the US Market which use Native American
| >names?
|
| >What do others think?  And can we think of other examples of such
| >marketing?
|
| I would like to compile a list of all such products, including whatever
| local examples might exist. (For example, there is a chain of Shawmut
| banks in this part of New England.) To this list of products I would
| like to add the use of American Indian names in other situations, such
| as street names, sports team names, mascot names, etc., etc. What to
| do with these lists is another question, which I am not particularly
| concerned with at the moment. (How about a lawsuit for royalties....?)
|
| I add my request to Mark's: will anyone out there who has examples please
| post them in one or more messages? (Don't worry about redundancy. We can
| deal with that later.)
| Thanks.
|
| Peter d'Errico


| Subject: INDIAN NAMES FOR PRODUCTS
| Date: 28 Sep 90 21:20:55 GMT
| In-Reply-To: <5A091C0B3A2A0192-MTASATURN*Peter.dErrico@LEGAL.umass.edu>
|
| Peter d'Errico writes:
|
| > I would like to compile a list of all such products, including whatever
| > local examples might exist...
|
| OK, let me get it started, and perhaps people can add to it?
|
| > From before:
|
| Jeep Cherokee
| Isuzu Navajo
| Cherokee clothing
| Shawmut Banks
|
| New ones I thought of:
|
| Red Man tobacco
| Cleveland Indians
| Washington Redskins
| Apache trailers
| Pontiac cars
|
| [ Let me add "Calumet baking powder"  --Gary ]


| Subject: Re: INDIAN NAMES FOR PRODUCTS
| Date: 29 Sep 90 15:04:00 GMT
|
|
|         Hi,
|           I apologize for not sending something earlier but school has
| taken me by the throat and having to hook my modem up to the line across the
| apartment everytime I want to get on VAX has kept me from such things for
| a while.
|         I read the few bits about Native American names, tribe names being
| used for commercial products, team names, and team mascots.  I have to go
| through the store again to think of some others besides the ones already
| mentioned. But, how about the stereotypical portrayal of Indians in
| Walt Disney's Peter Pan?  How about toy Indians--the facial expressions,
| clothing, weapons, villages--as if all Indians have big noses, ugly
| expressions and are villainous warriors who all live in tepees?
| Also, the thing which really irks me, how about all the summercamps with
| Native American names?  I know that the myriad of camps along the
| Guadalupe in Texas all have the campers split into tribes--Kiowa, Tonkawa,
| Apache, Kickapoo, Comanche..  The camps always drew upon the warrior
| aspects, or stereotyped warrior aspects of these tribes to attempt
| to instill in us a type of braveness, comraderie, fierceness, and loyalty
| to the 'tribe' to which we 'belonged'.  We attended secret campfires once
| a week in secret places the other tribe about which the other tribe did not
| know.  But all the tribe captains had the long feathered bonnets.
| The bonnets were passed every year to the new Tribe captains.
| I don't believe any of these tribes had feathered bonnets in their traditions
| at all.  I guess it goes back to the stereotype that you are not an Indian
| unless you have some type of feathered bonnet or feathers in your hair
| (regalia of the Blackfoot or Sioux? the most 'romanticized' of the Tribes).
|         There's my contribution to Peter's list.
|
|                 --Nicole Glanville


| From: ekemper@cdp.UUCP
| Subject: Re: INDIAN NAMES FOR PRODUCTS
| Message-ID: <1136600090@cdp>
| Date: 12 Nov 90 11:53:08 GMT
|
|
| I thought of some more car names of Indian tribes:
|
| Winnebago trailers
| Chinook Trucks
| Mazda Navajo (not Isuzu)
|
| Also, many military planes are named after "fighter" tribes.  In fact, the
| White Mountain Apache Tribe got a contract to make the uphostery for the
| Apache Fighter Helicopter.  They wanted to be a part of it just because of the
| name.
|
| I am trying to find Indian products, and I mean products made by Indians, to 
| include in a hotel being built by one of my clients, the Picuris Pueblo.  Does
| any one have any constructive contributions for me?
|
| Ellen Kemper   (ekemper on peacenet)


> Good luck with your course.

Yes, I'll add my good wishes to those of Richard.

Gary
--
    Gary S. Trujillo                            gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts              {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst
Newsgroups: alt.native,news.groups