They Shall Remain: Native American Art

20Jul09

Just as they talk about marijuana as a gateway drug to other sinister substances, music has been my gateway to delving into some rather disagreeable subject matter.

No, I’m not talking about Rick Astley. I’m referring to those exceptional bands that come along in life and reshape your view of the world.

I have often said I’ve learned more from song lyrics than I have from schoolbooks. The Doors introduced me to Aldous Huxley and William Blake. U2 gave me Martin Luther King at a young age. The Dead Kennedys and The Clash filled in the rest of the gaps. Why this idea hasn’t been extensively capitalized to make school more interesting is beyond me.

My biggest debt of gratitude goes out to Rage Against the Machine, a band who, in 1993, shattered my young mind with their video for “Freedom”.

They didn’t exactly illuminate a novel idea to me. I knew about Indian issues and oppression after seeing it firsthand in Peru. In the early 90’s I was knee-deep in reading about many of the indigenous struggles of Central and South America, largely due to having recently seen the excellent movie Romero – again, another case of art begetting knowledge.

The “Freedom” video galvanized me to explore the Native American history here, stateside, a topic I had foolishly believed was adequately covered by school.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee chronicles a 30-year period in American history and reveals accounts more disturbing than anything offered by any school system. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse meticulously unravels the story of Leonard Peltier while also describing the volatile century of Native American affairs leading up his tale.  Between both books, I saw that the atrocities didn’t end with Wounded Knee or the implementation of the reservation system. They were not the final travesties.

…

(Summarized from Native American Times)

On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents entered the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. A gunfight ensued and at the end of the gunfight, two federal agents and an Indian man were dead.

[Leonard] Peltier fled to Canada and fought extradition, causing him to arrive back in the U.S. too late to be tried with [Bob] Robideaux and [Dino] Butler, who were found innocent on the grounds of self-defense by a federal jury in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Since then, every appeals board has found the government used misconduct, coercion, hid evidence, used threats and [a]gents testified falsely, [and] perjured themselves on the stand during Peltier’s trial. He convicted in 1977 and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

Peltier has received support over the years from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winners Nelson Mandela and Rigoberta Menchu, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, several European parliments, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Rev. Jesse Jackson and several American Indian nations and organizations.

On July 28, 2009, the U.S. Parole Commission in Lewisburg, Penn., will review his case while supporters stand in vigil outside the federal prison. He has been incarcerated for 33 years.

…

I instantly became an ardent supporter. With one song, all of my lifetime zeal for the marginalized coalesced into a mania that is matched only by my love of art and music.

Justice remains incomplete as long as Leonard Peltier remains incarcerated.

But really, the grievances have not ended.

They continue everyday through apathy and silence. This article from NPR examines how Native Americans try to break the shackles of decades of stereotypes in Hollywood and the media. Last month clashes over land rights between the indigenous groups and the Peruvian military left in its wake dozens of dead Indians and even more unanswered questions.

And how long will it take to realize that using Native American images and terms as sports mascots or team names is dehumanizing?

…

For this behavior to continue, there must be an environment of apathy present. An environment where it’s easy to overlook the headlines that flash across a website for a few days before they fade off to a murky state of limbo. An environment where the issues and struggles feel a million miles away, tucked and hidden from view.

The danger, however, is all the beauty missed when an entire culture is placed on the periphery.

Tony Abeyta

Tony Abeyta

Tony Abeyta

Tony Abeyta

Nathan Solano

David Chethlahe Paladin

Tillier Wesley

Jesse Hummingbird

Jesse Hummingbird

Jesse Hummingbird

Jerome Bushyhead

Michael Kabotie

Michael Kabotie

Michael Kabotie

Michael Kabotie

Patrick Sanchez

Norval Morrisseau

Norval Morrisseau

Mark Jacobson

Filed under: Inspiration, Literature, Misc., Musings, News, Opinion, Random, Rants, Society, Writing, art   |  2 Comments
Tags: activism, American Indian design, American Indian art, American Indians, art, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, culture, David Paladin, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Indian issues, Indian sports mascots, indigenous rights, injustice, Inspiration, Jerome Bushyhead, Jesse Hummingbird, Law, Leonard Peltier, Mark Jacobson, Michael Kabotie, Misc., Musings, Nathan Solano, Native American art, Norval Morrisseau, Oscar Romero, Patrick Sanchez, Rage Against the Machine, Random, Rants, Society, Tillier Wesley, Tony Abeyta