RE: "The Call"

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

<<<< Or, "I have always been interested in Indians, I want to find my roots
and maybe even get involved in some Native groups
(always in
the urban areas in which they live and never on the rezes) or do
some Indian
ceremonies like Sun Dances etc">>>>

 I can understand your annoyance at persons trying to make use of
the race-based criterion of being a native imposed by the
governments of Canada and the U.S. Yet, is there something
conceivably wrong with some someone who is just simply trying to
find out  their roots, and who so happens to believe that it might
include having a native ancestor?


DOQ

Depends upon their approach, the context in which it occurs, and their
apparent or self-described purposes. If their purpose is to "find out" about
supposed Native roots and claim them, and yet do nothing for the communities
they are claiming to be a part of, then yes, there is something wrong with
that. In any case, why call me? Why not take a trip to those communities and
"find out" there? Further, even the notion of "Native blood" somehow
measuring or legitimizing degree of "Indianness" or even any "Indianness"
plays right into the hands of those who have calculatingly used
blood-quantum as an instrument of extermination of Indians. Whenever someone
says they are "part" Indian and then make reference to some supposed
"blood-quantum"--also potentially legitimizing "race" as a biological
construct--I have to wonder what they really know and what their intentions
are. Often it is nothing more than attempted "instant identity" and "instant
legitimation" and but another manifestation of a culture of instant
gratification, microwave it, pop a pill to lose weight etc.

As my dear departed mother used to say: "No one chooses 'their blood'; it is
a matter of what one does with it.
Any Indian who does not respect the worthy Elders, any Indian who does not
protect the children, any Indian who does any form of corruption is doing
'Custer Work' and is aiding and abetting the extermination of what they DARE
to call their own 'blood' and People.

Jim C.


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