From: jammer@eskimo.com (Lyle Harwood)
Subject: Re: Question of Nativity
Organization: -> ESKIMO NORTH (206) For-Ever <-
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 10:31:41 GMT

michael bruce mcdonald (s1mbm@isuvax.iastate.edu) wrote:
: In article <9301061453.AA16852@mamia.tecumseh.edu>, Peshewegunzh
<beaver.cs.washington.edu!gnosys!mthvax.cs.miami.edu!mamia!peshe>
writes:
: >Original-Sender: Peshewegunzh <mthvax.cs.miami.edu!mamia!peshe>
: >
: >Besides being incorrect, genetically and otherwise, this is an
: >attempt to diminish us as merely another facet of the new European
: >order rather than being the rightful owners and occupants of this
: >continent. Send this idea back to the Hell it must have come from.
: 
: Peshewegunzh, I think I understand the anger which prompts this
statement,
: and certainly agree that "Siberian-Americans" is a foolish and
: unfortunate formulation.
: 
: Even so, does it really further your cause to insist on the notion
that Native
: Americans are the "rightful owners and occupants of this continent"? 
Is such
: ownership--and the sort of understanding of occupancy that follows
from the
: notion of ownership--consistent with the traditional worldview of your
: people?  Does our discussion of the justice and dignity your people
: require--and that Euro-Americans had damn well better learn to see are
: required of *us*--truly depend on this notion of "rightful ownership"?
: It just seems to me that an ideological position that insists on
justice in
: accordance with this idea of "rightful ownership" is bound to be self-
: defeating as a point of discussion with Euro-America, however
important it
: is to insist on this point within your community.
: 
: Respectfully,
: 
: michael mcdonald
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
:  
: 
: 
: 
: >
: >American Indians are  *not* "Siberian-Americans". Get real. Learn
: >some history (if it still has any meaning in academia).
: >--
: >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: >Peshewegunzh
: >
: >peshe%mamia.UUCP@mthvax.cs.miami.edu
: >mthvax.cs.miami.edu!mamia.UUCP!peshe
: >peshe@mamia.UUCP
: >mthvax!mamia!peshe
: >
: >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: >

Round and Round we go.
Remember that we are speaking English. This is not my ancestrial
language, although it is my native one.
Do any of us belong to a circle whose traditional name
does not translate into "Human" or "Human Being"  or "Man" or
"Mankind" or "People" or "The People" or some such?
And didn't the Grandfathers consider everyone else to be not only
not of the circle, but less than Human?
And were there not, in fact, other circles that were and are human?

So.

My point is this. These are labels. They have no power.
The only power they contain is that assigned by the listener.
If I call you a fool, you can assign no power to it, or you can go
to war over it.
The power does not reside with the word.

People can call me by my name, or they caal me San Poil, or they
can call me Colleville, or they can call me American Indian, or they can
call me Native American, or they can call me Native, the First Native,

or they can call me fool.

None of it matters.

How I react is what matters.

Even if "they" are trying to take that-which-is-mine, the words, the
labels,
have no power. "They" can never own that-which-is-mine. Nor can anyone
change what I am, by assigning yet-another-label.

Be carefull, Brothers, you are fighting for nothing.

Jammer