Call For Proposals: Harvard University's Nation Building Course

Hi Everyone,

I hope the holidays have been treating you well! I, personally, am quite happy to be home in California and not in the blizzard currently happening in Massachusetts.

I wanted to share something that comes from the academic side of my life, this spring I'm the teaching fellow for the Harvard University Native American Program's course called "Nation Building II". The course is for graduate students across the university to perform independent projects with tribes, communities, and Native organizations. I took the course last year and worked on a great project with Haskell in Kansas, helping to work on some monitoring and evaluation plans for their summer youth program. It was fun, rewarding, and (I hope) helpful for Haskell!

So, if you work with a tribe, community, or Native organization and have a project that would benefit from some collaboration with Harvard graduate students, please read the call for proposals below.

Some sample projects from years past can be found here (scroll down a bit): http://www.hunap.harvard.edu/academics/teaching

Feel free to comment if you have any questions, or email me at the blog address (nativeappropriations@gmail.com) and I'll get back to you ASAP!

Programming Notes

(The Indian Head test card, a symbol of programming breaks, AND an appropriation. Clever, right?)

Hi Friends,
It's finals time at school, which means, of course, I've putting extra time into the blog (procrastination!). I realized I've been making subtle updates to Native Appropriations over the last few months, but hadn't really shared...so I thought I'd let y'all know:

• www.NativeAppropriations.com: I bought the domain name! For now, it just auto-redirects to the blogspot address, but it leaves the door open for the future, and makes it easier for you to tell your friends, neighbors, colleagues, and random hipsters on the street about Native Appropriations. So update your bookmarks, and share away!

• Subscribing by email: If you look over to the right side of the page, there's a little box that says "subscribe via email". If you put in your email address, feedburner will deliver an email every time the blog gets updated. Since I sometimes get sporadic with the posts, it's a way to guarantee you'll never miss anything. I post (at most) once a day, so it's not like you'll be getting 8 gazillion emails, and you can always unsubscribe via a quick link on the bottom of the email.

• Other ways to engage with the blog: For those of you who haven't checked out the Native Appropriations Facebook Page yet, I recommend it. Fans post some great links and images, and I sometimes post articles and links over there between posts. There is also a Native Appropriations twitter account, if you're into that. 

• Changes on the Way: I go on winter break in 5 days (yay!), and over the break am planning on pulling together some improvements, such as a form for easier submissions, going through my major backlog of awesome tips (thank you so much for sending them), maybe some t-shirt designs (any ideas?), and a big ongoing project that will involve a lot of reader help. I'll keep you posted.

As always, any advice, feedback, submissions, suggestions, ect are always welcome! nativeappropriations@gmail.com (might be making a new @nativeappropriations.com email too...)
   

Random Appropriation of the Day! ("Native American Teepee for fluffy little critters")

This "Teepee" for your pets has been making the rounds on all sorts of design blogs on the internet in the last week or so. So random. And it's cardboard, not exactly a plush hangout for your "fluffy little critter". The description reads:

This Tipi, entirely made of recycled corrugated cardboard, distinguishes itself through its innovative design inspired by a classic symbol of Canadian iconography, The Amerindian culture and the collective imagination associated with it.

Which is actually kinda interesting. Note they used the correct spelling in the description, but not in the title, and the phrase "collective imagination," which could be interpreted that they realize that the stereotype this tipi represents is not necessarily a true depiction of Native culture...but that might be giving them more credit than they deserve.

Here it is without cats:

And the website: https://us.loyalluxe.com/show-all/the-native-american-teepee.html

(Thanks Annie, Stacy, Sarah, Dianna, and Veronica!)

An Acceptable Ignorance

(Photo (c) Adam Sings in the Timber)

AK note: when I get frustrated in my courses at school, or I have a lot to get off my chest, I write narratives like the one below. They're an outlet for me, I write them like I'm writing to post them here, but then I usually keep them to myself, in a folder on my computer. I know it's outside of my normal content for the blog, a bit more personal and reflective rather than snarky and sarcastic, but I thought I'd start sharing some of them, interspersed with more normal content. If you find this totally boring and annoying, let me know (comments are anonymous!). But, more importantly, if you have an experience or narrative you'd like to share, send it over. nativeappropriations@gmail.com

I sat in class a few weeks ago, presenting to my small research seminar. I tried to speak in a strong, unwavering voice, relying on my earlier life as a college admissions officer, where talking to crowds was my day in and day out, to mask my state of utter panic and nerves. I was passionately describing the reasons why we, as researchers, needed to be aware and reflective when working with "actors" (this course's term for "subjects") who were from marginalized communities, who were at risk for further exploitation and otherization by our research. I drew on examples from early anthropology, I spoke about the painful legacy that research has left behind in Native communities.

Random Appropriation of the Day! ("Tiger Lily Teapot")

Reader Michaela spotted this one while christmas shopping online. Called the "Tiger Lily Teapot", she sports the awesome stereotypes of braids, a headband, a feather, and "indian" designs and colors. The description (via Fred Flare) reads:

This darling lil' lady is outfitted with a small interior metal steeper and her head becomes the tea cup when you remove her feathered top! Bold colors and a happy face will brighten your kitchen even on the coldest day.

yeah. you drink out of her head:

I'd call that a bit de-humanizing.

Fred Flare: Tiger Lily Teapot

Earlier:
Random Appropriation of the Day (Totem Cups)

(Thanks Michaela!)

Ridiculously Maddening Quote of the Day: Rush Limbaugh Blames Indians for Tobacco-related deaths

 
Rush Limbaugh saying ridiculous things is kinda par for the course at this point, but this one definitely takes insensitivity and stupidity to a whole other level. It's a little old, but I thought it was still worth it.

He begins by talking about the "un-Thanksgiving" and "Day of Mourning" that Native activist groups celebrate rather than "traditional, American" Thanksgiving, and that they "claim" it is their response to the democide (a new vocabulary word for me! it means any person or people killed by the government, including genocide) of Native peoples in the Americas. Then he goes on to this:

This is just wrong.

This picture was taken by my friend Kelsey at a Victoria's Secret store in DC. I can break it down, but I think the image speaks for itself. What kind of society do we live in that this type of overt racism is not only accepted, but celebrated in our nation's capital?

Earlier:

Nudie Neon Indians and the Sexualization of Native Women
Tommy Tomahawk and the Issues with Indian Mascots
Thanks for the Severed Head, You've Proved my Point

(Thanks Kelsey!)