From: GC.NBA@forsythe.stanford.edu (Lakota Jester)
Subject: Re: NativeNet Chat's Direction
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 00:13:04 GMT

In article <9209300501.AA24984@anchor.esd.sgi.com>,
beaver.cs.washington.edu!gnosys!anchor.esd.sgi.com!lyn (Lyn Dearborn) writes:
>Original-Sender: anchor.esd.sgi.com!lyn (Lyn Dearborn)
>
>Regarding Gary's posting about setting up a separate list deal with JUST
>North American Indians and their issues:
>
>"     B. Are we talking about information channels open to anyone who is
>        interested, or should it be limited to actual Native people?  If
>        the latter, how would it be determined that someone qualifies,
>        and what standards would be used, and how would the restriction be
>        enforced?  Personally, I would not want an exclusionary kind of
>        network, and I doubt that others would either, but I can and do
>        see there being some great value in establishing private elec-
>        tronic mail and news (conferencing) links between given organi-
>        zational entities of given groups of Native people,..."
>
>I acknowledge that I can only truly speak for myself, and I ALWAYS speak from
>the heart, no matter how vulnerable that may make me .... but I'm also
>reflecting the views of a half a dozen other Native Americans of mixed blood
>quantum who have similar fears of my own ... None of "us" wants to be
>"studied" by scholars of Native American culture, Psychology, Cultural
>Anthropology, Sociology, Comparative World Religions, etc.  MOST of the
>postings on NativeNet are coming from sincere sources; many are from those
>wishing to increase their knowledge base .... I'm not saying there is anything
>wrong with this.  BUT there is a limit of how many of your concerns you wish
>to air to not only perfect strangers, but to those outside your cultural
>experience who MIGHT use this information to make judgements, etc.  Whether
>or not this judgemental crud is a reality is irrelevant.... it isn't how
>you are judged by others that counts diddly-squat in the Book of Life, but
>rather how you PERCEIVE that you are judged by others ...  A wonderfully
>wise woman from Washington named Anita Mayer goes around the country teaching
>weaving classes to weavers and "want-to-be-weavers".  So what you may ask?
>As a person of "old ethnic traditions" herself, and perhaps just because she
>is from an island in the Pacific Northwest, she has used her "life knowledge"
>to put together classes teaching weavers "how to live" rather than "how to
>weave" -- if you know how to live, the art of weaving can follow more
>clearly.  In a wonderful book she has written entitled "Clothing From Hands
>that Weave" she quote many wonderful people, mostly women, that would really
>help US learn a lot about predjudices, fears, and the constrictions we place
>on ourselves as a result.  THIS IS A REAL BARRIER FOR SOME OF US on the Net --
>seeing the INCREDIBLE possibilities to reach out for consolation, support,
>emotional strength, or whatever, but SOME OF US really need to know
>WHO WE ARE REACHING OUT TO ... and right or wrong, there are social barriers
>that limit our possibilities .... no, I'm not a racist .... culturally
>paranoid perhaps, but not a racist (I can't tolerate JERKS of any race). I've
>had close friendships in ALMOST every race I've encountered until recently.
>
>Sorry for the endless tangents I tend to get off on ... Where was I ... oh
>yes, limiting ideas and how that relates (if at all) to Native American
>interests and NatNet as my Directory calls it...
>
>I was speaking of the Wisdom of elders, and in particular, that of Washington
>State Elder Anita Luvera Mayer.  Her second book was called on weaving and
>more importantly "getting a life" is called "Handwoven Clothing Felted to
>Wear" ... sounds innocent doesn't it... but its filled with subliminal
>messages ..NOT... Nothing subliminal about her messages and I get the
>strangest feelings about them at times ... like how they can relate to
>Native American issues today; women's issues today; heck, oppressed people
>everywhere today PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO CREATE THEIR OWN OPPRESSION.
>
>Her dedication might just as easily been directed to the Clan elders:
>"For the women of yesterday and today, whose hearts nurture and love and
>whose hands pass on the traditions of a people."
>
>There's more:
>        "That is called freedom when a person does in their work what they
>love to do and in their spare time that which is required of them."
>                Author unknown
>
>"No man is free who is not master of himself."
>        Author unknown.
>
>"What other people think of you is none of your business."
>        Author unknown
>
>"A morning needs to be sung to, a new day needs to be honored."
>        Byrd Baylor, "The Way to Start a Day"
>
>"If your loom is empty for more than three days, it loses its spirit"
>        Navajo saying
>
>Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have
>drawn them there.  What you choose to do with them is up to you.
>        Richard Bach "Illusions"
>
>"Almost anything you do will be insignificant, but it is very important
>you do it."
>        Ghandi
>
>"Four things come not back ... the spoken word, the sped arrow, the
>past life, and the neglected opportunity!"
>        Arabian Proverb
>
>        **The difference between what you are and what you want to be
>          is simply a matter of how hard you work.**
>                        Joe Jones
>
>Joe Jones?  who's he? ... sorry
>
>        You must do the thing you think you cannot do!
>                Eleanor Roosevelt
>
>More poignant Native advice:
>        "Do not try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time
>                and annoys the pig."
>                                        Author unknown
>
>****** Your LIFE is not in advance of you.  You are not pushing a cart; you
>are riding one ***
>                        Hugh Prather\
>
>This is it!  Your LIFE is not a Dress Rehearsal!
>        Prarie Home Companion
>
>What does this have to do with NativeNet????  A lot.. Its about REALITY,
>not the world of PCs, C programming, SUN work stations, Cultural Anthro-
>pology Thesis subjects, and all the other B.S. that feeds us but has
>nothing to do with LIFE and most of us don't realize it before we hit
>40.  "WE" as people of Native background need to "get back to our roots"
>if only to extract from it a lasting REALITY that will help us in this
>fantasy world of technological existence.  WE need to be/feel grounded,
>somewhere ... all the studies ever conducted show that to kill a native
>american (or at least drive him batty) all you have to do is remove him
>from his cultural "knowledge" base and deprive him/her from contact with
>mother earth.  It IS possible to be "grounded" without going to sweats and
>eating peyote buttons and other things that legends are made of, but alone?
>without others in the same predicament?  Not as likely.
>
>Gregg Saris started a "mentor" program with incoming Native American Freshmen
>a few years ago with a grant from somewhere/someone (I think) that had these
>new Freshmen coming to campus early and working with mentors to learn about
>survival on Campus .... and until recently survival for Natives was not a
>great prospect.  They helped the "kids" with academic skills to "catch them
>up" where necessary, with learning "study habits" they may not have needed
>previously ... many of us are brilliant enough that we don't have to study
>until somewhere around the 2nd year of college where our innate intelligence
>isn't quite enough to get good grades, and memorization of zillions of pgs
>of "stuff" isn't possible.... if you haven't LEARNED to sort out the important
>from the fluff you may fail (don't ask me about my physics grades).
>
>Well, NativeNet can't replace Gregg Saris (neither can Stanford..) but it
>COULD do a LOT if the natives knew there were potential mentors out there to
>assist with LIFE trials ... not just school trials.  I hate to use old
>racist stereo-types to state a problem but
>        You Can't Win a Whiteman's Game in the Whiteman's World if
>                        You Don't Know the Rule
>
>Of course, if you look at the rate of growth in the US and where our
>economy goes and comes, statistically it is no longer a whiteman's world
>but I THINK the sentiment remains because while we are now surrounded with
>multi-racial invaders/alien cultures, they haven't set out to "conquer us"
>or "discover us" and I THINK that is where the difference lies.
>
>IF the "Natives" at least know who "we" are, we can make our own distribution
>list if we want to ask other "peers" their opinion on something.  I'm only
>speaking for myself, but if I encounter something I really want feedback on
>from other Chippewas, for example, and I'm 3 ro 4 thousand miles from home
>and I'm scared to go to the Oakland Indian Ctr cause its in a "creepy"
>neighborhood, and all the Chippewas at Stanford are too young, where can I
>turn?  That takes courage to turn anywhere ... which could lead to depression
>drug abuse, etc., etc..... not with me of course, cause I can't drink,
>tolerate smoke, etc... I could just get over depressed and do something
>crazy like jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, or something equally dangerous
>like entering the dating scene again!  I hope you get my point.  A Native
>American support group could be a wonderful thing -- not just the spreading
>of information, but aiding each other to grow... Can we do that with "other"
>cultures as effectively?  Occasionally, but its not predictable -- especially
>not over electronic wires where you can't "read" body language, down cast
>eyes, embarassment, etc.
>
>How do the other "native links" feel?
>
>Lyn Dearborn
>< dearborn@anchor.esd.sgi.com>
>
>"Listen to yourself and push yourself as far as possible, BUT REMEMBER
>that you can't go forward without going backwards historically."
>                        Cynthia Schira
>
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