This is all a hot mess, but I find stories like Joseph M. Pierce's authenticate the harm being done by rigidity within populations that should embrace the complexities of heritage and identity, especially to the vast population who are products of non traditional relationships that carry a heavy burden, stigma of legitimacy of worth as human. I was told recently that I should shut up because I'm not a "practicing native". No one cares what I have to say. It's amazing how people will use a culture to culture shame another person. Hmmmm...
We need to be careful who we drag along with Elizabeth Warren's condemnation besides her, which is unacceptable and vicious, in my view. Discovering MORE about the past, who we are, what courses through our blood is important for many reasons regardless of whether "you" personally care or not. Many people don't care about the past and that's ok, but it is not ok to condemn others that do and not realize it is why we have historical dialog in the first place. It also represents a white dominate past that many cannot see, viewed through white eyes, as anything but racist, with a valid point.
Yes, there are reasons to fight this past, but it is there and cannot be erased. I am not a racist purely decided because I have predominantly Irish and British heritage, BUT there are many things I have been allowed to be oblivious of because of my whiteness and privilege. There were many white people much more privileged than I as well. My immigrants were poor Irish, Scottish, not so poor-not so rich British, German, Swiss, etc...
Many families, including mine and my wife's were a huge melting pot of culture, and suppressed culture. My step-dad from the age of 6 on was Mexican, my twin sisters 1/2 Mexican, my wife 1/2 Vietnamese, born in Vietnam. My nephews 1/2 black, 1/4 Vietnamese. Who the hell are we all?? Does my embrace of bloodline discoveries demonize other "legitimate" populations? Why? These are valid questions that don't have definitive answers.
You can judge me on my authenticity more by my actions and ability to change. You will get nowhere by telling me my whiteness means I don't have a clue before you know anything about me. Who is the judge and jury? No one seems to care that what is genuine is Elizabeth Warren's family story. She distances herself from tribal councils probably because it will be viewed as her attempt to claim something she doesn't want to do because how it will look. What the hell is she supposed to do when everyone has a different opinion about what is the right thing to do?
What defines families for better or worse through many generations is what we are talking about. It's a huge mucky mess, but we should talk about it. As a genealogist it's a double edged sword. Oral histories are wonderful starting points that many times turn out to be not what they seem. Misconstrued information by just common error, or downright made up to
hide other unpleasant events, or a variety of scenarios many times leading to having to change the "oral history" documentation to match real documents. This doesn't mean there is not a purpose for oral history, without it the indigenous population is left with a scarce history.
Sally Hemmings had children with Thomas Jefferson proven through extensive research, AND DNA. That is important to history. Documentation aided by DNA testing can be very important tools. Diluting this by trying to say her descendants can't claim blackness or whiteness is a silly argument. Elizabeth Warren will probably be able to find the exact grandfather or mother, in time, who was full blood indigenous, it may prove to be Mexican indigenous, Cherokee indigenous or many of the other tribes that were forced into Oklahoma by white settlers, but not all whites. It's a messed up stew to make huge generalities. What is White? That term is a slippery slop.
How much blood is enough? DNA is a starting point to lead to more documentation, not a diffinitive test like all the testing sites claim it to be. They were in the business of selling kits with bad marketing ideas. We are all paying for this greed.
How much blood is enough can never be answered, but yet we all seem to have an opinion on that. Why is the Dawes Roll, which was a government controlled census, used to determine authentic Cherokee admittance to the Cherokee Nation when history tells us how many people rejected this "white man's" census and were not counted? Why is this the gauge for purity? How do we all understand and parcel out heritage and culture? Are they definitively separate and un-mutable? Much of this is taken out of historical context. Much of this is about helping a deeply depressed population have access to more opportunities.
How do we meld all the good intentions together without demagoguing individuals with good intentions? I have lots of questions, while everyone around me seems to have deep opinions that don't answer these questions. At least, not in ways that speak to a large swath of the population that is trying to understand this and not loose more connections to people.
I understand we are dealing with a hugely, enormous problem with a disparaged indigenous population that is on reservations. We are also dealing with people who want to use ethnic cleansing using this info for harm. I'm not going to say "so and so" is an expert on all of this, because quite frankly it could not be more complicated for experts as well. But, we do need to listen. All we have that is genuine and human is intent. Does a person intend harm with claiming a heritage ever so distant? We can call a person on their mistakes and ask for a dialog about what this brings up. BUT, what has happened here is the ugliest form of tribalism from all sides. I hate joining clubs, religions, social groups.
I have many reasons based on "heritage" to belong to soldier groups from the most prestigious to common ones among big wars. I come from a long line of warrior patriots that were very white. I don't need to join an exclusive
other attributes I'm not so proud of. BUT, that is not why I don't join. It's a huge complicated mess for me that causes me anxiety. I'm uncomfortable with people wanting to join the Mayflower Society. But, I don't see why people can't celebrate this heritage, even though it is white, represents people who clashed with the native population. I think people would join the Iroquois Confederacy Society if they could prove lineage, and it existed. You can honor the past and see it's horrors as well. It's when used as a weapon to suppress people that we have an issue. BUT, for some damn reason we can't seem to parcel out the differences. We judge...it's our damn nature.
What we need is MORE space to be authentic to our experiences, not less.
Thank you, Joseph, for sharing your experiences. I'm hoping to spread your authenticity a little further. Cheers!
What we need is MORE space to be authentic to our experiences, not less.
Thank you, Joseph, for sharing your experiences. I'm hoping to spread your authenticity a little further. Cheers!
Joseph M. Pierce"In the end, I am writing this to attempt to be authentic
to my experience of self in the face of this unknowing but also this new
knowledge. It seems to me that to deny this legacy, this heritage, however
distant and bureaucratic it has been, is to participate in the erasure of the
Indian populations of the Americas. It is to continue to silence that history.
It is inauthentic. My choice is not to do that. So I do say now that I am
Indian. But I say those words with humility. I say those words knowing that
they are part of a circuitous path toward Indigeneity. I say those words
knowing that I do not speak Cherokee, knowing that I do not know so
much about what it means to be Cherokee. But I also say those words
knowing that not having access to our oral history is an authentic
Indian experience."
No comments:
Post a Comment