There's some neat stuff that was linked to me on Facebook and by friends. Two links that are totally worth reading as they perfectly express my feelings on a given topic: Stereotypes and cultural appropriation when it comes to American Indians. If you are not up for reading both what I have to say and the articles, I say skip what I write here and just read the articles as they're more eloquently written than what I will write. While I'm writing this more gently than perhaps I've written other journals, I really don't care for people's tone policing and you doing so is useless and gets in the way of the issues at hand. If you can read what I write, I love and appreciate you for doing so, and it makes me feel good to know that my own voice is heard.

http://lastrealindians.com/my-first.....ouise-roetman/

https://iistrawberrychanii.wordpres.....hat-means-you/

Also I can't forget to link this funny as hell skit by the late Native comedian Charlie Hill:



Let me just start off by saying, I get it! You honestly, sincerely don't understand what the big deal is with cultural appropriation and why it makes Indians like me blow our tops. As one of the links there says however, cultural appropriation and stereotyping are forms of oppression against Native people, so now is the time for you to learn. Now, wow Juniper, "oppression"? That's a little too extreme isn't it? No, it isn't. When you perpetuate stereotypes, by form of headdresses, beliefs, and other forms, what you are doing is you are spreading more misinformation and perpetuating the idea that we don't exist anymore. This is a HUGE problem because American Indian communities are struggling to be heard. As the PSA article explains, we go through a "neverending shit-storm of oppression and erasure". Those who say they wish they could be Indians: come talk to me and let me tell you all the shit I've had to go through just because I'm an Indian and tell me if it still sounds like something you want to be. When the idea that we don't really exist anymore is the popular belief, what happens when we protest for land rights in public spaces or in courtrooms? People look at us as our stereotypes and jump to the assumption that we want these lands back to live in tipis again; and for that reason, our demands end up sounding to them like nothing worth even listening to. These are the real consequences of stereotypes.

Now let's talk about stereotypes and appropriation, especially on FA. Before anyone comments, yeah I know your whole spiel about how FA is a porn site and that I can't police it and bla bla bla. Yeah, I can't police it, but I'm still going to call things for what they are. Now I've talked about what these things do, I want to give some examples of these stereotypes. I see so many artists draw characters that are "Native American" as if we are all one homogenous society with one culture and one language. These drawings usually include a loincloth, a choker, generic eagle feathers, a headdress (this is the worst offender), and two horizontal lines of red face paint on each cheek. They then on the description say they did their research. This image is stereotypical of plains Indians, and is a poor representation of them. When people think "Native Americans" they instantly see this image of a Plains Indian. Never do people think of the attire of the Navajo of Arizona who are the biggest current tribe today, or the Apache who are one of the more famous ones, let alone the hundreds of other tribes. This stereotype makes it so that I then have to explain to people after that my own people don't look like that, don't dress like that neither now nor in the past. I'm just going to be upfront about it, it makes me feel like shit because it makes my own existence and culture feel invalidated. What's worse is if I make even a gentle comment about it, there's a negative response to it inevitably. It's like, these people are fascinated with Indians and yet when a real Indian shows up you want to shut me up and hide me? Is it because I'll destroy that pretty stereotype image you have by virtue of existing?

I'm going to talk about the headdress for a moment. The "well known" headdress comes from Plains tribes, not the Cherokee and not anywhere else. Those headdresses were worn by men only, and were (as best as I can make a comparison) as important and sacred as a medal of honor. Every single feather on the headdress is earned by an act of honor or valor. This is why it's inappropriate to just draw one on a character, especially if you are not even bothering to explain what it means (because you likely didn't know to begin with). Just over the last few days I've run into several people drawing headdresses on characters and it's awful, and of course they generically label their art "Native American". Again, homogenizing us and making us one-dimensional. A while back I ran into an artist (who's name and gender I won't mention) on my watchlist, I like their art. One day however they drew their character with a headdress and a loincloth, and the two red paint horizontal lines on each cheek while aiming an arrow. The stereotype to a T. They claim they had just discovered they were Cherokee by way of an ancestor 3 or 4 generations back and that that's why they made their character drawn like that (Even though the character looked nothing like any sort of traditional Cherokee attire). Not only that, but they claimed that that ancestor was a CHIEF! Holy wow... to claim your ancestor was a chief is something you better not be lying about or you would probably be causing massive disrespect. To begin with, if this story is true, then there will be clear documentation about him, being a chief, and second (and I mentioned this to the artist) the Cherokee are really good at documenting their ancestors, and if you are Cherokee then you would be able to find yourself or a family member in the Dawes Rolls. If you can't then you are not really Cherokee. Needless to say, this artist's story doesn't add up at all, and after I offered my help I didn't pursue the matter further. Why did I even comment to begin with? Because this artist was also perpetuating stereotypes, and the comments were super unfortunate, and the talk was about as if we as Indians still live like we did 300 years ago or so. Do I jump in and make my presence known as a real Indian and risk all the anger being flung back at me? Or do I just sit there in disbelief as I am talked about like I am nothing more than an extinct mythical creature?

I do want to make one quick mention about dreamcatchers. Dreamcatchers are not some pan-Indian thing, they're Ojibwe, and as well some of the plains people made them too. To sell them when you're not either of these is to literally steal a culture for your profit. Where is your integrity?

The big take-away is, look at me now, I am typing this here, a real Indian person. I have hobbies, likes, dislikes, I drive a car, I play music, I like Michael Jackson, my favorite movie is Secret of NIMH, etc. even though I also still do my traditional ceremonial and religious practices as an Indian. When you stereotype and draw stereotypical "Native" images and talk about your Native "spirit animals", you make me further invisible. Because no one talks about the fact that American Indian youth have a suicide and depression epidemic. No one talks about the fact that there's an alarming rate of Native women who are raped and murdered. No one knows that our religious and ceremonial practices have only been legal for 35 years. No one talks about the fact that we all have to live double lives, and that we have to worry about land disputes to this day, and tribal politics, and all sorts of other problems that we face that no one is aware about, because when I say "Indian" these are the things that I think of because that's my inescapable reality. But you don't see that. You see feathers and headdresses because stereotypes have replaced us real living breathing people with those images. Please understand xD We're not trying to police, we just want our REAL image and cultures to be visible. Lastly, listen to some of my drum group recordings like this one. Look at my Profile ID drawn by LordDirk, the jingle dancer. This is something of our real culture, and it is something you don't necessarily think of when I say "Indians" but isn't that far more beautiful?

Once again a big thank you for those who read and heard me out. Your listening and reading is more appreciated than you know.