David I'm sorry but I fail to see the problem being an educated person, Native or not. You are incredibly condescending to assume that you and you and you alone understand what it is be educated and Native. I would make the argument that your ideas are by and large not accepted as Native so perhaps this is the most ironic thing of all, in regards to this dicussion. Ever think about that?

Also my problem with the mean spirited poster with the inferiority complex had NOTHING to do with modernity, again another anglo term (my how you use those terms but feel that other Native people can't!) it's with his very lame argument that Native people have to live in a teepee or hogan on a rez to have any valid complaint with all of the exploitation, stolen lands, etc.

This I am sorry, is total B.S., an uneducated, ignorant argument. Is this perhaps an indicator of the education of people who post here?

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.

It is a holiday based on christian white american ancestors, but, the thought can apply to any group who has a reason to be thankful for their survival!!

Here is an interesting discussion of "nigger" :

http://www.answers.com/topic/nigger

Basically, I see the elevation of the word to its current weaponised level as a tool of the Leftard movement. A word only has the meaning you give to it. You can call me a pedophile, stupid, lazy, baby eater..., but, if I do not accept the insult, or do not act representative of the accepted definition of the insult, it is just another word. Whether it is my ethnicity or some other attribute you are trying to apply to me, I am not forced to accept it.

The idiotic criminalisation of terms simply locks them into use and raises their ability to cause trouble. When you tell a child not to use a word, it becomes IMPORTANT to them whether they understand it or not. When you get excited or lose your composure over its use, they suddenly know they have a weapon!!!

Allowing the thought police to create word weapons is more than unfortunate. It is corrosive to the society.

Aids and HIV in the American black commmunity is so dreadfully high--those of you in public health are aware of this--that ANY and I mean ANY distraction about false racism is self-destruction.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are the two biggest jerks in black history. They refuse to discuss, help, or assist the AIDS catstrophe in black America. It is a bigger catastrophe than Katrina and Mike Tyson combined. Literally, black people are comitting suicide through drugs and promiscuity. I think whites care more about black people than blacks care about themselves.

Grayfoot,

just so there is no misunderstanding between us.

I am just as thankful, this nation is not being ramroded by ancient white men.

All of our races have skeletons in the closet, and we were all land grabbers when we had the advantage and thought we needed the other poor slobs land.

Ah!

A lesson for us all.

"ma'nak-woon'it!" could easily be translated to mean..."Remember you also have a nose to see past."

Pretty cool!

I notice you are always first to attack the person, GF, if you disagree. Trying to debunk a person's thought in abstract terms is ineffective. Remember you also have a nose to see past.

I think Frank Zavisca is only pointing out the irony of Indians living in the modern age, using modern technology and modern psychological jargon, modern socio-political jargon, to make a point of protest about modernity.

I also find this ironic. Perhaps worse, is the irony of Indians condemning the white man for failing to keep his own Christian standards, when the protesting Indian denies the universality of those same standards. Like, what difference does it make to the so-called protesting Indian?

Unless I believe in the same moral standards of the white man, why would I care whether he keeps them or not? Why would I protest his failures?

Much of the natural resentment that Indians feel about history is articulated in borrowed terms, white academic, political terms, and therefore beclouds the Indian soul, and causes deep confusion and frustration.

Indians need to evaluate the efficacy of resentment itself, not only the efficacy of its articulation in white man's terms.

This is only projection to those who cannot see past their own noses.

As far as the world being "run" by the "ancient" Comanches, I wonder what the good doctor has to say about this offensive statement on his own website?

I for one never put forth this idea. Frankly I don't know where this tangential remark comes from. Again I refer to sad little people needing a reason to feel better than others.

Well Lenapis Indians in the valley here welcomed the whites and gave them land and supplies. The dutch and english (part of my bloodline) backstabbed them. A very sad story of the valley history. Thats the way it goes tho. The Indians were brutal as well. The Lenapis were not however. They just thought there was enough to go around. Their breeding rates were lower and non anthroplacentic. So the comanches were brutal so what. In a perfect world wed breed far less and have consideration for all living things. Respect. End of f&****( story.

I totally agree with u grayfoot! And Im a honkie!

You see, what Keith Richards is really steamed about is Elaine has had, what, 50 chances at having another successful sitcom, and George is like fly crap, he's everywhere.

Personally, I want to know what the black hecklers said to Crammer before he lost his temper and called them niggers.

Splendid example of "projection" Grayfoot!

I'll tell you another thing I am profoundly thankful for; Living in a country not controlled by the ancient Comanchees.

A more condescending tone could not be posted by this Frank Zavisaca or whatever the heck your very foreign born name is.

Bitter is the approach you take, mean spirited is the life you most likely lead. Chip on your shoulder is something I would guess you have, a gigantic Conservative chip.

How having a car or watching television has anything to do with arguing against exploitation or greed is beyond me.

People like Frank Zafiscuta are sad little men who are just looking for a reason to look down upon others.

Well Doctor,from what I understand the word is the corruption of the Spanish ''negro'',i.e ''black'' I believe Southern whites further corrupted that by pronoucing it 'niggra''. What ever its origin,it certainly seems to have always been used to denigrate blacks. Its a very corrosive word,always harsh sounding to me when I hear it.I just don't understand why blacks would refer to each other this way. I've always felt that the flip side of racial hatered is self-loathing and words like ''nigger'',''mick'',chink'''Polack'' etc' to me,often say more about the person saying it then the target its intented at.Have yourself a very Happy Thanksgiving Doctor,I'm very thankful to live in this beautiful,free country. Enternally grateful my people caught the boat!

I am always amused at "Angry Indians" express their displeasure by using inventions of the White Man.

They use the radio and TV to protest Columbus Day and Thanksgiving.

Years ago, they used a truck to dump sand on Plymouth Rock.

Canadian Indians protesting "disruption of their ancestral caribou hunt by an oil pipeline didn't mind filling their snowmobiles with gasoline to hunt caribu with a modern rifle.

Many have satelligt dishes on their roofs.

Nah, nah. You wanna listen to music
of the oppressor, you go right ahead, man.

How in the lunacy of your mind
is hip-hop music of the oppressor?

Listen to it, man!
"Nigger this, nigger that."

You think white people go around calling
each other honkies all day, man?

"Hey, honky, how's business?"

"Going great, cracker.
We're diversifying."
----------------------
Above a scene from the movie "Crash".

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Called my bro's black work rig last night "The Nigger". It fits it well. Italian Grandpa and family were called niggers when they picked fruit and vegtables with the blacks. What is the freaking problem here? Is this more pathetic whining from the gynocracy?

You are right, it is ludicrous to make such a big deal over a word.
I had a gun pointed at me on the road by two very well-dressed black people in an expensive car. Boy, did they laugh it up when I got scared. I didn't know them, didn't cut them off, nothing.
Other races have been abusive to me, for no reason, simply because (I think) I am an American woman. I am patriotic.
My abuse, however, does not get recorded nor will it ever make the news.
In general, the quality of life is getting crappier by the minute so hold on to the kindly, sensitive people you know, they are disappearing fast.

The tangable items that people cherish and possess, is what has destroyed our way of life as an Indian. I am thankful just for life and a right not to trust our government and to trust the Creator. What else do you need?

How ya doing doc?

In as much as this is a Thanksgiving post, I'm going to take up the matter of Michael Richards on the forums, the Law Forum.

As for Thanksgiving, I'm quite sure that, although thanks might seem a passive response, an intellectual comprehension of a pleasure or a happiness of some kind, I think that Thanksgiving is also a very pro-active kind of thing as well. We act upon things we value. We are thankful for things we value, but we do act upon them as well.

Pro-active Thanksgiving. Yeah. That's it!

Now you see, this is what happens when an aging, old druggie guitar player for the Rolling Stones, tries to brake into stand up comedy.

JM, What does "nigger" mean? What does it refer to? When everyone says how marvelously offensive it is, no one says why. Why?

I know nobody wants to be condemned from something he can't help. Is that part of this?

Well, maybe this is not a fruitful path to go down...

I just think it is neurotic and preposterous to make the sky fall because somebody says "nigger," or any other one single word. It is ludicrous, in fact.

I could never understand why some blacks take offense at the word ''nigger'',certainly as a perjoritive,its a horrible word but their expalntion of using it to ''take the sting'' out of makes no sense to me. How do engender respect for yourself while at the same time disrespecting yourself? I'm an American,first,foremost and last. Generations of other Americans for for my right to call myself that,including members of my own family. My people left Ireland over a hundred years ago,to come to America,to be Americans. And while I'm proud of that heritage,Ireland ultimately means nothing to me. Yet at the same time,I've never refered to myself as a ''mick'' nor would I take offense if called one. Names,epithets only sting if you allow yourself to own them

CM, you know you are a precious friend to me. I have the best interests of Comanches--and all Indians in mind. My ideas just sound new. They really aren't. They're just old.

I thankful for the old ways. I'm hopeful that they can be re-incorporated into our modern times. The days when we were free, when we came and went like the wind, those are the best days. To bring them back, in some real way, to be as we were, in some modern, practical way, this is what I see. Not the Comanche that carries all the cultural baggage of the last 70 or 80 years, but the Comanche who were purely human, without adornment, without superfluity, without pretence. The glory lives within us all. We must find again our way with the wind.

I am thankful for these things, for these hopes, for these visions. I am very thankful. My heart is singing.

Hey Doc,

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING, Don't eat too much Turkey. For me I have to watch the intake of Dressing, I love it, and the cranberry relish my sister makes and Pistachio salad I have to make for my son and...........................
.

I'm going to try to forget all I've learned bout the REAL THANKSGIVING and just appreciate what I have right in front of me. Sometimes knowledge hurts too much, but the true History of all the Native American People needs to get out, enough said, I don't want to burst your bubble. I know you probably are still on a high from the people you met last week.

HAVE A HAPPY!

CM

I will post this here as well - seems as it fits! So, now I am on the 20th, 19th and here again, sorry

Hi all - been a while but have done some reflecting and we will be moving back to my tribal territory of Ohio soon. I cannot stand this country they call California much longer.

My reflecting comes from a Cherokee story I seen a bit back and one line that came into the story that caught my ear.

"We need to have every tribe heal." WOW - you know she was right, even for a Cherokee. (No comment please, it is a Shawnee thing).

HOW, would a little person like myself, get the word out to many nations, for healing? We used to morn for 1 year on a loss. Why can't we heal from our past? How can I get a word out to heal, without other native people getting involved with their anger? We used to be 50 million strong - and now, within 25 years, we as Shawnee, will not exist for there will be no more full bloods.

The Shawnee have not done this, the Choctaw, Commanche, no tribe has reflected and healed. I wonder how, and what would be the result of this, if we all got together as proficy stated and heal as one people, then went back to our people and healed? Would we become more powerful? Would we become what we were suppose to be? Just questions that I will not have the answer for, for people would not listen to me.

I, on the other hand, have started the process. It is not fun, nor a "feel good" thing. It hurts to think of the atrocities of the past. Right now, I do not know where this will lead, but at least I can talk with myself, and I will listen, unlike many tribal leaders that think to keep to themselfs and it will be OK.

Vent over - How is it going all?

tr

Aka ana huk pa - nassasa eh meshima eh Indians.

Posted by Two Raven at November 21, 2006 08:53