A Lost Indigeneity

Coming into Muwekma, I was nervous. I was nervous not because of the idea of living with a new community, or meeting new people, or even having a triple :), but rather of having to face the idea of homeland. Of culture. Of one’s people. Of the very meaning of indigeneity. As the descendant of slaves (and unfortunately white men who raped some of my maternal ancestors), I simply do not know where I come from. I do not know what tribe my ancestors were a part of, how they lived, what they ate...anything. It was taken from me and countless others, and frankly there’s not much that can be done to find it again. What I do know, I don’t know if I can claim. I know that I have ties to Togo and Cote d'ivoire, but do I really know anything about them? What connection do I really have to France and Ireland, to the homelands of my forced ancestors? To the Dominican Republic? To the Cherokee nation? Even to New Orleans, where most of my extended family current lives, and their Creole culture? Do I still have the right to embrace any of these ways of life, these cultures, these identities? More so, what would my identity be if it weren’t for slavery? Constantly hearing the phrase “Wakanda Forever” can get annoying, but the movie brought up and recognized a very real and stolen reality of Africa’s unmitigated progression (not to say there hasn’t been progression; simply fragmented). This idea of a lost history has transformed into the idea of a lost identity, something that has plagued my mind since I can remember. Growing up as one of the few Black people in a southern, white, conservative community. I truly didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere. My experiences seemed too different from my Black peers and brothers, I certainly didn’t feel welcome in the white community, and I just didn’t know my past. Often I would be too light-skinned for the Black kids and too dark for the white kids.

As I have grown older, however, I have learned to embrace this uniqueness and hodgepauch of ancestries and identities. As I have lived in Muwekma, I have been inspired to try and discover more about these identities and these cultures to help figure out my own. As an art statement to this idea, I have created a collage representing the melting pot of identities that make up me:

Background​ (Left to right): Wakanda and what could have been and what could still be one day, Stanford and my current journey as a student and as a Tree, and New Orleans as my most immediate and obvious point of culture and identity.

Fashion​: a tuxedo to represent my struggles and aspirations to make it as a successful Black man in America, sweat-ridden rags to represent the unique struggles my ancestors had to endure for centuries to allow me to even be here, black and white suit with a trumpet to represent my ties to Black America and New Orleans and my ongoing attempt to connect with that through jazz and music, and a traditional Togan pair of pants and hat to represent my goal to learn about my deep ancestors and to rekindle the connection between Black America and Mother Africa.

- Posted on behalf of Sean Howard

Community Events

Community Event 1: Global Indigeneity - Late Night Discussions with Hamzeh

To be completely honest, I knew almost next to nothing about Palestine before I came to Stanford. The extent of my awareness and knowledge came solely from the souvenirs and generic stories that my uncle, who had played professional basketball in Israel, would sometimes brought back. So when Hamzeh Daoud was assigned to the room across from mine freshmen year, needless to say my mind and and global awareness were both exuberantly expanded and refined, and this has only increased even more now that we live together in Muwekma for the time that we lived together in Muwekma :’(. Through our countless late nights, I have learned many tough truths that need to be more recognized. I have learned of the oppression, discrimination, and forced removal of Palestinians from their homeland, much like that of indigenous peoples here in America. I have learned and seen the ripples that these historical and ongoing actions done by the US government and other corrupt institutions have had on so many people's lives, no matter how tangential. In that same breath, I have also learned so so many beautiful new ideas, ways of life, and aspects of cultures that have made me a more whole, defined, and empathetic person. From discussions of the problems and attributes of religion to talks of the differences in text and emoji etiquettes, from hookah to marijuana, from Amman to Dallas, I am forever grateful for the things I’ve learned and the time we were blessed with to live together, and I hope he continues to inspire and disrupt in New York and Geneva as he has done here.

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ
As-salāmu ʿalaykum

Community Event 2: Lunch Time - Approaching Ignorance
Earlier in the quarter, I had an amazing conversation during lunch about how best to approach ignorance and microaggression. Hearing each person’s individual and unique methodology to push forward the “woke”-ness of the world has helped me learn more about each person while also helping me reflect on my own strategies and thought process.

- Posted on behalf of Sean Howard

Make-ups

Week 6: Share something good about being native/being in native communities/going on in the native community (you can also share how it's not perfect, but just generally positive things)

One of the many wonderful perks of living in the native community house is definitely the impromptu stairwell conversations and community board. Being able to see people’s genuine, usually anonymous, and heartfelt passing thoughts as they ponder the question of the week really helps me to connect to both the struggles and highlights of my neighbors. As they usually pertain more specifically to the native community, I also feel like it encourages a constant learning (however small) of both the community as a whole, and how it is experienced with each individual person. Additionally, I really appreciate how people in the dorm remain “real” with one another as we pass by in the hallways. Instead of the typical “I’m good, you?” response usually given when asked how someone is, people really trust each other enough here to give more honest, authentic answers.

Week 8: your post should be about the story that you read from ​The Toughest Indian in the World​ or you can comment on anyone else's post

For my Week 8 makeup, I would like to comment on someone’s Week 8 post of an analysis of Sherman Alexie short story Class, specifically how it pertains to masculinity. In the post, the commenter mentions how “the story does not revolve around racial discrimination”, though I still wonder how it played a role. In far too many false and ludacris narratives is the identity of the Black man corrupted and twisted to nothing but an emotionless, beastly body, to a body with no brain that can only destroy, ravish, and work, to a predator who only chooses to prey upon “pure” white women because those of color are deemed less worthy, that it has actually affected reality, self-manifesting its very creation. I wonder if this is similarly true in this case of Edgar. I wonder what his attraction to Susan was in the first place, and where it came from, especially given she started cheating within the first year of marriage. I wonder if his masculine insecurities stem way before this marriage and the dilapidation of it thereafter; if rather, instead of being a result of his failed marriage, they are partially the cause and blame.

- Posted on behalf of Sean Howard

Community Events

The first was Teebs' reading of his book length Nature Poem, which I was really glad I made it for. I've never heard a book long poem before, and felt he captured the essence of the form remarkably for my first experience. His work was multidynamic, humorous yet pensive and poignant, done convincingly well in part due to his mastery of pitch and tone control.

The second was from what was labelled online as an Incredibles screening during a study break at the NACC, but there were only a few people there during the scheduled time and they put on basketball instead. Still a good time.

- Posted on behalf of Julian Saenz

A Children's Book I Helped Illustrate - Final - Adam

I went to this program back in 2016 called the Shoshone-Goshute Youth Language Apprenticeship Program (SYLAP), which was based at University of Utah, and they recruit high school students that have ties to local tribal communities to participate in language revitalization while learning the language (culture was not intertwined with language for this program).

Through the program, we had an elder come in each week from South Fork, Ely/Goshute, Elko, Fort Hall, and Owyhee, and they shared their stories and took turns teaching the class. Our cohort was the last ones to participate in the program, which is why we transitioned to SCLI at Great Basin College.

We had two hours of instruction and did about four hours of apprenticeship work each day, and the work entailed making teacher materials and children’s print and audio books. Me and my partner Tristen from Battle Mountain worked on this book called Isapaippe Tukkanai Peyen Noyonee U Noopiteppeh; Newenee Tan Paitippeh, which roughly translates to “Coyote brought over the duck eggs from down there, and the Indians scattered.” The story talks about how the Plains and Great Basin tribes were created from the willow basket.

The books help teach learners of any age from the tribal communities the Shoshone language through a series of stories that get released each year. The idea stemmed from a project done on the Goshute Reservation with a children’s book they did back in the 90’s. I feel like these books are contributing greatly for our people because not a lot of people have someone to speak to at home, so they host these language classes like how we do and we take turns reading pages from the book there.

When we were illustrating the book, I wanted it to emulate what real Indians looked like back then. The previous books had the more modern Indian attire that you would have seen in the early 1800’s with buckskin, but since this was a creation story, we would have to go even further than that and gave the lady a sagebrush bark dress and it had some shells on it as well. Since the version of the story came from the Ibapah area, the women around there, Ely, and Duckwater tended to wear basket hats, so we gave her a basket hat. They also didn’t wear braids back then, and they left their hair down and free, usually cutting it by their shoulders. Since she was a duck woman, we gave her duck feet too. It was lit.

On one of the pages, I felt real NDN and painted a page with paint that I made out of berries I got from the side of the dorms we were staying. Overall, the project was really fun to work with. Last year, I also helped illustrate a book and I did a lot better in that book. It should be out by the end of this year or next year, depending. If you guys want resources for language revitalization, hmu.

Final: Indigeneity

When thinking of indigeneity, I was immediately reminded by my interactions with Muwekma residents and how they come from different reservations and villages. When thinking of indigeneity, several things occur to mind. The first is how the sense belonging to a particular group or palce renders one with different qualities and a unique identity. When considering native populations, the different reservations that people come from, and the tribes that they grew up in, I’ve grown a stronger appreciation for how indigeneity brings people together. In talking to Kawena, I’ve learned about the  Kanaka tribe in Hawaii and their culture. In talking to Aidan, I’ve developed a deep fascination for life in Alaska and how remote villages function in the extreme weather and wilderness.

This quarter, I had the privilege of relating that understanding to my coursework. In one of my classes, my classmates have been working on developing wind turbine solutions for Igiugig Alaska. Igiugig is a small village in Alaska that is home to around 50 people. During the winter time, Igiugig faces harsh weather conditions and a short supply of energy. My classmates have been working on redesigning vertical wind turbines for their extreme weather conditions so that the people of the village would have a constant power supply through the winter. It got me thinking that indigeneity, while important in bringing people together, carries its own challenges. Unfortunately, indigenous groups in the United States face many challenges in their land, infrastructure, and equality with non-indigenous groups; putting them at a disadvantage despite their rich culture, heritage, and rightful place here.  

Week 3 Makeup: Disadvantaged groups

Women are often placed in a disadvantaged position regardless of their actions. It is easy to imagine scenarios where our understanding of people's behavior radically changes if a woman is involved. Because of that, women cannot escape being understood as women before they are understood as human individuals. This often puts them at a significant disadvantage relative to others because they are a) considered women first before they are considered individuals on the same standing as their male counterparts and b) have to overcome significant barriers to reach the same success/respect/achievements as that of a man.

Community Post

Community Post #1:

MARCH MADNESS!

I had a great time in the lounge watching college basketball with Justin B. and friends. Always enjoyed food + basketball. It feels extra special when its Rosa's cooking.

Community Post #2:

Mario Kart Study night was a blast. Having that around to play with is both nostalgic and relaxing during this tense time in the quarter.

Week 8 Makeup: Sherman Alexie Reading

I will be responding to Sherman Alexie's short story called Class. 

Class is a a story about an Indian man named Edgar who marries a white woman named Susan. The story follows how the couple met and their relationship dynamics as a married couple. Though the story does not revolve around racial discrimination or socioeconomic class(both Edgar and Susan upper middle class and financially comfortable), Edgar soon discovers that Susan had been cheating on him shortly after their first anniversary. Though he was not particularly upset, he is disappointed. When his wife gives birth to a stillborn, their marriage loses its remaining intimacy; and he finds himself seeking that intimacy and gratification in prostitutes and escorts every time he leaves town on his many business trips. With his marriage breaking apart, he eventually finds himself at a bar near the plains he grew up in in Eastern Washington. In an attempt to prove himself, he ends up fighting a tribal man who beats him to a pulp. 

The story explores masculinity, identity, and roots. While Edgar's marriage to a white woman pulls him away from his native background, he finds himself seeking validation in different places outside of his marriage. The fact that he found himself in a bar brawl despite the fact that he doesn't drink speaks volumes about how his cushy job and distant marriage emasculated him. 

Since the story is told from the perspective of Edgar, it is difficult to track the reasons behind Susan's character development. Regardless, it seems that her role is to bolster/reaffirm her husband's masculinity. When she can't provide that, Edgar seeks his roots. 

Personal Narrative

Throughout our history my tribe has had suspicion of western education, and
with good reason. From the early 1900s my ancestors up until my Mother’s
generation were sent to forced education camps run by the BIA and various
religious organizations. in my home village of Klukwan along the Chilkat River my
relatives all grew up going to a presbyterian boarding school and were beaten if
they spoke their language. My Great Grandmother was the first person to speak
English in Klukwan and my Grandmother was the first one to get a college degree.
Thus was born some of the natural prejudices

Naturally during the whole ANCSA process many tribes were very reticent of
the process. The law and change it brought to Alaskan Natives is defined by the
young Natives with western education that had been estranged from their tribes
stepping forward and representing their tribes during a time where if traditional
dealings with the federal government had been followed then we would have lost
all. Men like Emil Notti and Willy Hensly and women like my Grandmother, Irene
Rowan, despised at the time for their western methods of thought saw an
opportunity and seized hold of it before it was too late due to their western
education.

Education, while no replacement for traditional thought and knowledge, can
help our people survive in the modern world, so then why do our leaders in our own
western designed corporations such as Sealaska, Klukwan Inc., or Goldbelt Native
Corporation shun those who have any actual business knowledge and promote
those who rather hold the biggest stick. Those who have good ideas founded in own
personal knowledge and research are bullied out while those who are “elders” take
down potential usurpers at any notice.

The most successful Native Corporation ever, Klukwan Inc., was run by my
grandmother when she was twenty five years old and followed up by her nephew
when he was twenty. Most Native corporations started this way and had a boom of
industry in the eighties. These young Natives in the 70s and 80s are still in charge
today, but their strategies are very different. Now they are the corporation oligarchs
and over assuming “business experts.” Weren’t these the ones who defied their
elders and brought the safety of our people at the cost of western ideologies?
Weren’t they the ones fully embracing new ideas? I ask where these leaders are now
and why are they not ushering on the next generation of new thinkers, and what
makes them so different than us, the young blood of Native Alaska?

- Posted on behalf of Aidan Hellen

Advice from a Native Senior

Stanford is really hard and at times it seems that everybody is out only for himself
or herself, but that is not true. Learning to accept certain parts of people is the most
important skill I have learned at Stanford. I feel that finding a certain group that
understands you is a goal worth striving toward, but it’s not going to happen right
away and will take the effort of years of self-study to truly understand how you
interact with people.

Don’t feel bad if you feel like you’re interactions are shallow and superficial,
they are, but people are just as scared as you so learn to reach past it. My passion at
Stanford has been very hard to discover and even harder to explore. I am an
engineering major, and that means that when your passion is not engineering its
really hard to explore it sometimes. I realized during my sophomore year that
maybe my Grandmother being pushy about getting into the family business was not
the worst thing that I could have experienced. It gave me a burning desire to explore
to ways of thinking and experience as much Native culture outside Alaska as I could.
This passion for understanding my own identity has united me again with the Native
community here.

- Posted on behalf of Aidan Hellen

Makeup Post (Week 6) - Caro

One of my favorite events at Stanford is Pow wow. The dances remind me of the Aztec dancing back home during religious ceremonies and celebrations. The hand-made instruments, toys, and jewelry remind me of the park near my parents' home in Mexico. The art tells vivid stories and invokes feelings of strength and power. Children run around, playing and exploring. It's a place where different Native American communities can meet, socialize, dance, and honor and celebrate their cultures.

It's beautiful to me, and reminds me of home. But it saddens me, that celebrating your culture is accepted at events like pow wow but looked down upon elsewhere. I hope to continue learning of American Native culture and the diversity, and of ways to support the marginalized communities. Muwekma has been so welcoming, and the class discussions are insightful, though-provoking, and honest.

Thanks for offering the sem!! And sorry for such a late makeup post, lol.

Community Posts - Justin B.

Community Event 1:

I attended Kawena's tattoo event. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about the process. The guy who came and performed the tattoo did a wonderful job of explaining the meaning and significance of the tattoos. He did a good job of interweaving traditional stories when explaining why people get traditional tattoos. The actual tattooing action was surprising and seemed very painful. Overall, the experience as a whole was interesting and beneficial to my understanding of Kawena's tattooing culture.

Community Event 2:

I helped grill for the Superbowl event. It was a very fun experience because the whole community came together and exchanged meaningful talk about sports. The house was pumped with energy throughout the game as Tom Brady and co. did not get the win. This event was very fun and I am glad that it was put together.

Community Post - Nizhóní

I spend a lot of time doing community events for Muwekma and the NACC. I wanted to choose two things that really stood out for me this quarter.

I love every part of this picture. I really appreciate when Shoney asks me to babysit Niall and Kieran. This is me on Taylor's bed reading them Thunderboy Jr. by Sherman Alexie. I do not support him or his work by any means but in this moment I loved giving those boys some native. I really love children and what especially these kids contribute to the greater native community. I grew up in a pretty large family I am used to taking care of kids. I am school now and I miss that, I miss my dog too. Moments like these I hold close to my heart.

This picture is a screenshot of a video where my and a few natives, and one non native, decided to play Just Dance at the NACC. By partnering with the sibs program, Will Paisley and I organized this beautiful event "frybread and game night". It was a really draining and hard day for me physically, but the event was so rewarding that I don't think about that when I see this picture. I think about community.

Final Project (statue and song) - Maya

Final Project: 

For my final project I made a small sculpture and an altar. The sculpture is an unidentified wooden figurine of an African figure, tied around a Catholic candle, in emulation of the crucifixion of jesus. This piece is supposed to represent the intersections of my religious and ethnic identity. My mother is Tooro from Western Uganda, and is a part of a tribe that is historically animist. Her people were colonized first by islamic civilizational missions, then catholic missionaries. So the catholic part of my identity actually comes from my black mother, even though it is something thematically and socially associated with my white ancestry through my dad. I placed this figure at the top of an altar in my room. It is not an attempt to glorify either aspect of the 2 piece sculpture, but just to acknowledge that the mental frameworks and social relations that led to my existence and the positions from which I started in experiencing the world are complex. Whatever my value system or sense of spirituality in the future, I need to be aware of who I am and where it is I come from.

I also wrote a small song about my experience living on stolen land, coming from stolen land.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dqyRASwKdKoJ4CAeJs_X82ezL23WodaJ/view?usp=sharing


lyrics:

I ran too far from my hometown
can't go back now
followed you so far can't get out
need to somehow

where will I go
It pushed me out

can't tell what I want anymore
can't be too sure
stolen land that I'm livin on
like where I come from

Week 6 Make-Up - Nizhóní

Week 6: Prompt: Share something good about being native/being in native communities/going on in the native community (you can also share how it's not perfect, but just generally positive things)

I love coming home to Muwekma during the day or at night and feeling loved. Whether it's a person I love to see like Taylor or someone I love to hear speak like Mia or some babies I love to play with like Niall and Kieran. I love my life at Muwekma. Sometimes I feel like our community is closed off to outsiders. But that's how home is too. Not saying that it's perfect or right, but it's real. I love bashing colonizers in and out of my life. I love being able to cry myself to sleep next to a native woman. I love sharing a meal with a beautiful soul who I can't stop smiling at. The community we foster is one that I can't compare anything else to. It's like we are these poor rodents on one of those wheels, running all day. Finally stopping to rest and relax. Stanford is stressful, but I love every part of being native here.

Week 5 Make-up - Nizhóní

Week 5: Share your thoughts on the title story in our class' book, The Toughest Indian in the World - or just about the importance of engaging with texts written by community members when learning about a group/your thoughts of him as a writer.

I do not support Sherman Alexie or his writings.

That being said, at a time in my life when kids were reading Harry Potter and Twilight, I read Sherman. I constantly found myself in his poetry lost but somehow found. My family was so proud that I was reading a Native author. We religiously put on Smoke Signals every other week just in the background because it made us happy. With everything that has happened recently, remembering all those fond memories has been difficult. I felt like I knew him. When he came to Stanford, pointed out me, talked to me, smiled at me, spoke to ME… I felt star struck. By far my favorite writer who related to ME. In light of the recent news, I am devastated. But the toughest indian in the world is a resilient indian. That Indian is me. I can divorce myself from his writings, but I cannot divorce myself from some of my best moments of my life. And so I walk away in peace, but still. I am sad.

Makeup Post Week 6 - Maya

my mother is tooro, indigenous to western Uganda, and whilst my blackness is what defines me on the surface to people, my mother's indigneity and its intersections with my fathers white/irish background is what is most defining in my internal experience. I have felt somewhat disassociated with the black community here at stanford, so it's been nice getting to know people who are a part of the native community on campus because I feel most in solidarity with the native community, and appreciative of the events and programming (like this class) within it, and am really grateful for the friendships i have made. I am always learning when talking with native students or at community events, and I recognize that this is not a patience that anyone has to be exercising. I would like to support the native community as much as possible without taking up unnecessary space. Being involved with the IDA and co-op community has taught me a lot about varying intersections of non-native identities with natives and non-natives. Ideally the non-native poc community could align itself in solidarity and support of the native community here. something that I see lacking on campus are more intentional alignment from non-natives. I would like to investigate/learn more about how these networks of solidarity and support can come to be, and be sustained without non-native students overstepping their bounds in the native community.

Community Posts (1&2) - Maya

Community Post 1: Two Spirit Pow-wow

On February 3rd I went with a few friends from campus to the Bay Area American Indians Two Spirit Pow Wow in San Francisco. The pow wow was at Fort Mason Center. The building was on a pier overtop the bay. I recognized the emcee, L. Frank. They were a visiting artist in a course I took with professor Cherrie Moraga last year. They announced changes in the dances and events on the main stage, which was in the back of the building. In the front half of the building there stands set up with people selling handmade soaps, candles, shoes, as well as hats, clothing, jewelry etc. On their website BAAITS describe the event as "a space for Bay Area two-spirits and friends to come together to "socialize, share and network in an alcohol and drug-free environment. BAAITS sees itself as an organization for Two-Spirit people to explore their rich heritage in a safe environment. To that end, BAAITS is committed to offering culturally relevant activities for LGBT individuals of Native American ancestry and their families and friends." while at the event I remained in the periphery, and found myself at many moments uncomfortable with the space I may have been taking up in my presence. This discomfort was benign however and very likely a form of non-native guilt that did not need to be entertained by any one other than one of the other black students I came with, as this is a feeling I should be feeling all the time as a guiding mindset for strategic alignment with native communities since I am always embodying a taking up of space on occupied land. while at the pow wow I was mainly in a state of analyzing interactions through a racial/gendered lenses. I attended with 3 students who are also black, and was aware of other visibly black identifying people present. I am interested in where the experiences of black and native communities overlap and have historically overlapped, but try to remain constantly aware of the ways the black experience dominates the mainstream racial conversation in ways that further marginalize native experiences and issues. there were also many white people in attendance. the presence of non-native people there led me to thinking of the public and fundraising nature of the powwow, which was interesting and personally helpful, because I would like to support more native businesses, but it is a dynamic that seemed like could be potentially stressful or annoying to have to do. it's a weird position to be in, as a diasporic indigenous African person in another place that has been colonized and is still occupied. While I face particular disadvantages in this country, there is still a considerable amount of privilege I embody with there being more visibility for anti-blackness in the public consciousness. As a black indigenous person in someone else's home, I am working towards committing my life to being in alignment with indigeneity in the place that I am living. I hope to be a political organizer one day, and will work towards supporting indigenous communities in my adult life. the fund raising aspect of this powwow is connected to the ways that the native community is actively disenfranchised, and in my hopes/priorities in my future I want to work towards eradicating these practices of disenfranchisement and oppression, and redirect resources and structures to financially and socially support native communities. Native people should not have to fundraise to be in a place where people get fat on the spoils of their stolen land. While it was inspiring to see members of the Bay Area two spirit community coming together in celebration and fundraising efforts in the wake of continued state racism, it was personally inspiring and motivating to continue to work to dedicate my life to work aimed at dismantling anti-ingenuous racist/financial/state systems.

Community Post 2:

The reading and q&A with poet Tommy Pico at the Nacc was a truly stunning time. Pico read continuously for about 30 minutes from his book titled Nature Poem. Nature Poem is book length poem where Pico speaks about living in the city, interacting with people, writing about nature and actively "NOT writing about nature". His reflection and illuminations of the environments he is in is poetic in a way that almost makes me forget that what I am hearing/reading is mediated. The images and dialogue and truisms and dreams interwoven so neatly and also so messily that, when delivered in his voice, was transformative of the space. He challenges expectations of what naive artists should be writing about, exemplified in the lines "I can't write a nature poem, bc its fodder for the Noble savage." thoughtout the piece he "doesn't" write about nature and writes about nature, seemingly making a satirical point about the absurdity of separating life in the city or social sphere with life in nature. A friend that I attended with said afterwards that he would forget where he was for minutes at a time, so immersed in Pico's reading. Pico's work was refreshing and really challenged my understanding of form. Throughout his work he has dialogue of him shutting problematic people down in real time with to how he is treated regarding his indigenous and queer identities.

Final Project

For this final project, I am submitting a small art piece I created. This idea was inspired by the fact that I am into indigenous arts/crafts and by a workshop held at Casa Zapata last year. A freelance artist visited the dorm to teach us how to make a yarn painting. "Huichol yarn art" involves creating figurative designs of nature - animals (real and fictional) and most commonly the sun or moon. The colors used in the paintings are vibrant and very beautiful. They are found in northern Mexico and made by the Huichol native community (see more at http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1074-huichol-art)

I wanted my specific design to mimic the ones found in traditional Oaxacan clothing. My parents are both from Oaxaca, a state in southern México with a very high indigenous population. Nearly one-third speaks an indigenous language and the state itself holds 53% of the total indigenous population of México (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Oaxaca). My main source of inspiration for possible designs was based on the stunning photographs of Diego Huerta - a Mexican photographer who takes powerful portraits of Mexico's indigenous communities in their everyday lives and clothing. His Instagram page is a must see https://www.instagram.com/diegohuertaphoto/?hl=en . I ultimately chose to go for a design similar to the one found on the clothing of this young indigenous girl:

My final art piece comes nowhere near the intricate ones that are typically created. The limited variation in colors was due to the fact that I only had four colors of yarn, so I attempted to mix up their locations and combinations on the canvas.

This project gave me a nice study break, but more importantly an opportunity to experience what it was actually like to make a yarn painting which must be handcrafted very carefully and which requires time. I truly admire the work done by the native people who design these clothing and other crafts.

Community Post - Ski Trip and Conversations about Indigeneity - Hamzeh

 My first community experience is about the ski trip we took with both Muwekma residents and the greater native community. That weekend was probably the most wholesome time I've experienced in my sophomore year. There was hella snow, hella love, and hella people. The icing on the cake was definitely the cafe night. So many beautiful talented people sharing a moment of appreciation and fun in a judgement free setting. (Also p sure everyone thinks I have a crush on Jacob, which granted everyone in this house does).

My second community experience is the conversations I often had with people around the dorm about being indigenous to lands outside of the land I'm on currently. Indigeneity is such a wide concept that deals with so many identities, and having conversations specifically with Kawena about my Palestinian identity, her Hawaiian and Japanese identities, and how Indigeneity plays into those were one of the most fulfilling conversations I've had here. (LOOOK AT HERRRRR)

Final Project: Tommy “Teebs” Pico and Art as a Platform for Native Voices - Sam

Tommy “Teebs” Pico is a writer known for his books IRL, Nature Poem, and Junk. He grew up on the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Pico uses poetry to reconcile two identities that he has difficulty fitting together: “being a poor, queer kid from the rez, and being a pleasure-seeking, technology-addicted New Yorker who would rather chase the boys he meets on apps than think about centuries of pain passed from one generation to another.” He juxtaposes stories of lighthearted flirtations with really heavy stuff like friends wanting to commit suicide and historical trauma, and throughout his writing he struggles with guilt for having left the rez. When he first began writing, he stuck to romance but eventually became comfortable writing about issues like historical trauma.

In “Junk,” through his beautiful handle on language, he calls for change, saying “I’m descended from a group whose culture history language gods cosmology calendar stories government gait was capital ‘O’ Obliterated I’ll stop writing this when it stops happening.” I’ve heard multiple people express that they feel that the wave of activist writing is undermining the artistic value of poetry and stories, which I fundamentally disagree with. Pico is living proof that activist art can be just as, if not more poignant than stories without political tension. After all, most art has a message to send, so why would that message be less valid just because that message is political? Conflict is emotionally-charged and drives storytelling, and I think the time is ripe for more writers to address political and identity conflict through their work. As “Junk” continues, Pico begins to reflect more on the influence colonialism and loss of control has had in his life, in both broad and more personal ways. In the end, he seems to reach a sense of recognition and catharsis though, saying, “We call complication a knot A knotted life that doesn’t get to be undone Who here has a clear, linear rope? Denial! You have to love yr knots You have to shout them out Curate if need be Janet turns her knots into songs.” Reading Pico’s work has helped me reflect on my own literary exploration of identity and consider how writing about racial issues are perceived differently from more “neutral” stories. Regardless of its reception, I think writing is a really strong avenue for exploring identity because it’s an opportunity to have a conversation with yourself and has personally helped me better understand family tensions, the privileges and dangers of the model minority label, internalized racism, and more. Pico’s writing is courageous and powerful, and his ability to navigate such complicated and multi-generational pain through poetry is bringing Native voices to the mainstream in a new and striking way.

Community Posts 1 and 2 - Keoni

For my first communtiy event, I attended Kawena's tattooing during Family Weekend.  While, I was unable to get to see the actual tattooing due to my family's schedule, I was able to stay for a while and I had talked a lot with Kawena about the process of getting tattooed in the traditional Hawaiian way. I learned a lot that I didn't know about the history of tattooing in Polynesia and how the tradition has been revived. I was also lucky enough to get to see the diagram of the meaning behind her tattoos, which I felt was really special. I hope to in the future follow in her footsteps and get a tattoo myself in the same way and so it was really cool to be able to experience it in real life.

My second community event was the SPAM dinner. It was really cool to see so much SPAM in the same place because it reminded me of home and I was able to engage with the Native community a bit more because I don't typically get to. Overall, it was a really interesting idea and I was happy to get more than my fair share of SPAM for that day.

Final Project - Austin

For my final project, I chose to engage with a topic relevant to my native Quechua community and take this opportunity to speak up about an injustice that has persisted for two decades and is still actively being fought.

CW: reproductive health, medical abuse

In the late ‘90s, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori initiated a “Compulsive Family Planning Program” aimed at countering the poverty crisis through population management. This program was pushed through by using misleading information (pamphlets, radio ads, etc.), food incentives, and financial threats, and ultimately resulted in the forced sterilization of almost 300,000 women and over 20,000 men, mostly from rural, predominately indigenous communities. Not only were these thousands of sterilizations performed without the informed consent of the individuals involved, but many of the medical procedures involved were haphazardly managed including improper pre-surgery evaluations, little to no after care, and no proper anesthetist. People have pushed for justice for the individuals and families affected by this atrocity as there is no reparation law in place, but the case has been closed and re-opened over three times since 2001. Recently, the case was brought to the UN Human Rights Council by ONAMIAP (link below), Peru’s National Organization of Indigenous Andean and Amazonian Women. However, despite all of this work, very few individuals and families have been awarded settlements. Fujimori has been in jail since 2007 on charges of human rights abuses and corruption, but this has hardly provided enough justice for the families and individuals who have passed away as a result of the improperly handled operations and for those who still live with the trauma of the event.

This fight for justice and reparation is ongoing as no court has managed to provide support for the people affected. I encourage you all to check out the Quipa Project (link below), an interactive documentary that provides a platform for the voices of this injustice to be heard. It has information on how these individuals have been seeking justice, and it also provides first-hand stories on the operations and life after. As the fight for justice continues, we must remain diligent in lifting up the voices of these marginalized native communities.

Quipa Project: https://interactive.quipu-project.com/

ONAMIAP: http://onamiap.org/

Week 6 Make-up Post - Austin

Prompt: Share something good about being native/being in native communities/going on in the native community (you can also share how it's not perfect, but just generally positive things)

I was a part of a transplanted native community. My grandparents, Quechua people from Bolivia, immigrated to Missouri with several of their friends. They immediately formed the Bolivian Society of St. Louis, open to native and non-native people of Bolivian descent, and within a couple of years they managed to find many other Bolivian families and create a large family of sorts. However, none of us lived close to each other, so the community only came together several times throughout the year.

Considering the lack of native and latinx communities in the greater St. Louis area, the Bolivian Society became and has remained a very important part of my identity and that of my family. It has been difficult for much of my family to adapt to the predominately white communities near St. Louis, but the Bolivian Society has allowed us to be much more intentional about our involvement with the Bolivian and Quechua communities and to not take these communities and traditions for granted. Being a part of this community has helped me understand that wherever I find myself in the future, whatever communities I find myself surrounded by, there are pieces of my communities all over, I just might have to put in a little bit of work to find them.

Community Post 2 - Austin

Muwekma Tah-Ruk Native Alumni Speaker Series: Javier Stell-Fresquez

Javier is a recent Earth Systems alumni who came to talk about their recent work with Two-Spirits Powwow and Dancing Earth Indigenous Contemporary Dance creations. We had the pleasure of watching some of her recent work on Mother the Verb produced this year, and she touched on the introduction of more fluid gender roles in native performance through her work with Two-Spirits Powwow.

The talk became much more of a conversation as Javier wanted to understand what was going through our heads when it came to our communities, our engagement, and our activism at this university. I appreciated how they explained their thoughts as they navigated their identity at Stanford and how there is still a lot to figure out. The way we choose to engage with our communities might change from time to time, and I appreciate how Javier presented this as an ongoing conversation, not something that we should figure out before we leave Stanford or something that should be developed shortly after.

Community Post 1 - Austin

Volleyball!!

Although I do not have photographic evidence, I enjoyed a lovely game of sand volleyball the other week with some Muwekma residents and friends. When the warmer weather starts to come around next quarter, I hope to play a lot more sand volleyball and would love to see y’all hang out!

Community Post - Sam

Wind River was a heartbreaking movie that shed light on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and the challenges in pursuing those cases. Native women are far more likely to go missing than other women but the U.S. has not made nearly enough of an effort to address it. The investigators in the movie faced obstacle after obstacle in pursuing the murderer—the medical examiner who refused to list the death as a homicide, the FBI unit Jane could not call in as a result, the arguments over who has jurisdiction over the land, the vulnerability of being in such a remote area, and more. It powerfully portrayed these difficulties and the devastating grief of the families affected. But throughout, it also emphasized the moving strength and resilience in Native communities and the capacity to recover. Though it was really hard to watch, this is such an important story with an arresting call to action.