If you were at the discussion at the end of class you do not have to respond. But if you have more thoughts we'd love to hear them :)
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Naturally Native part 2
For those who weren't in class when we finished Naturally Native we talked about how the movie touched upon issues such as alcoholism, MMIW, growing up on the reservation v not (urban), tribal sovereignty, selling your indigeneity, tribal enrollment numbers, etc. We also came to the conclusion that this movie sort of beat around the bush when it came to these issues. If you were to update the movie now, what would that look like? OR What native issues would you include in the movie that weren't touched upon.
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I think some major issues with Native Americans in today’s society revolve around politics and governance. More recently, Natives have become involved in US politics, with the first Native women earning seats in Congress (Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids). This stirred some controversy since many people tend to undermine Natives’ capability to lead professional careers. I think this would be a really great add-in if the movie were to be remade or updated, since Native Americans are often faced with stereotypes that undermine our capabilities to lead successful lives on and off of our reservations. Also, I think addressing Native student success and controversies regarding that would be extremely important. In high school, I was asked by a non-Native peer if I would dropout at 16 to get pregnant... the stereotype that Native women are bound to have teen-pregnancies still exists today, and it is discouraging to hear things like that. Though it is a large part of our demographic, I think it’s important to address that for a huge percentage of us, school is important.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of other things that could be addressed too, like blood quantum policies and how the Canadian government is now issuing Native status to people who had an ancestor wat back in the 15th century..... but I’ll save that for a longer paper.
I think a native issue that should have gone more into depth is tribal sovereignty. Native people, I believe, should have more power when it comes to their lands and tribes. In Alaska, we do not have tribes so the native people have little to no control. It's crazy considering we were here first and we were just fine before colonization. Looking at things today, power to Native people has definitely been lost and I feel this issue needs to be brought more into the light. If the movie were made up to date, I feel it would encompass intergenerational trauma as it affects native populations all over the united states. As society advanced, we are learning more and more about it and I feel it definitely would have made its way into this movie.
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