I attended the September 7th Ballrooms lecture with LaDonna Harris on "Global Indigeneity and Indigenous Value-Based Leadership in the 21st Century." I was very pumped for this lecture given my interest in Indigenous studies as well as my great respect and appreciation for Dr. Tahmahkera’s work. However, I found myself actually coming away with more from Dr. Tahm’s introduction of Ms. Harris than from her actual lecture.
Her lecture was co-sponsored by nearly every department and its brother – apparently everyone wanted in on this rarer of the minorities action. Ms. Harris herself is a Comanche activist and stateswoman with the organization (she founded) called Americans for Indian Opportunity. She’s an older woman and beautiful, and she had a wonderful way of speaking and storytelling. However, it ended up being more story than informational substance within her lecture. There’s was a great deal of discussion about her family and personal experiences – which is cool, I have no problem with that, but I was expecting a much more detailed discussion about her activist organization’s history, it’s current work, and how we could potentially get involved.
She did discuss some of the issues with the “browning” of America and “how we have to change our literatures to be inclusive of others.” – a quote I actually found very cool given my thesis which also discusses the necessity of better including both Native American and Beat literatures within the general American literary canon (as it is taught within schools private and public) in order to improve general inclusiveness of both cultures. She had another good quote-moment: “I don’t have all the answers but I have some ideas.”
And while I greatly appreciated that sentiment, as I mentioned, I also found myself frustrated by the fact that she didn’t mention any ways for us – the bulk of “us,” her audience, being white and relatively wealthy – to get involved with helping bring those ideas into fruition. Also, I took a friend with me who posed some interesting questions about the lecture material and who discussed with me the issue facing most of us well-intentioned non-Natives:
How are we supposed to help without becoming a detrimental or assimilating force?
Some other poor kid managed to choke out something like this question before I could but even then her answer was less than satisfactory. I believe it had something to do with us finding and nurturing our medicine. And I do understand and appreciate the sentiment because if everyone continued to nurture their education throughout the entirety of their lives then perhaps we’d have a much more peaceful and tolerant world, but I just wanted wanted wanted something concrete.
I suppose, though, concrete is too easy – if there was a concrete answer or way, after all, I’m sure these sorts of prejudices and ignorance would no longer be such a plague and problem for our globalizing societies. But the problem of how to get further involved with the Indigenous cause without becoming a detrimental force or overstepping my boundaries continues to haunt me.
I just read this poem by Sherman Alexie (a Spokane author/screenwriter/filmmaker) from his collection “War Dances” entitled, “Go, Ghost, Go,” and though it’s probably illegal for me to post it up here I’ll just give a little snippit of the ending since it’s just so piquant and has spoken to me so cleanly:
(he’s discussing how strange it is for a white professor to speak so excitedly or agreeably about the Ghost Dance which is a dance that would, if performed properly, send all white men to hell and resurrect all Indians)
“I think that he thinks he’s the new Jesus.
He’s eager to get on that cross
And pay the ultimate cost
Because he’s addicted to the indigenous.”
As hard as it may have been (and continues to be) to think on the vagueness of Ms. Harris’s lecture and advice, perhaps it’s me who needs to reevaluate what exactly it is that I’m hoping to achieve or accomplish. Perhaps I simply need to narrow down my focus – that does seem to be the reoccurring issue within my statement of purpose for graduate school – I just want to do too many things and become a greater force than I am.
