Jean Luc Picard
Critics often complain about Indian stereotypes, ranging from the issues surrounding sports mascots to non-Indians playing Native roles in cinema and TV.
Before I talk about the paper, close your eyes. Imagine an American Indian man living in North America hundreds—make that thousands—of years ago. Think about what he would have looked like. Remember that image. Continue reading
Fake Indian
Really?
Too much hand-wringing, too late.
Naming school sports teams Redskins, Indians, Braves and Chiefs has long been on the radar of American Indian activists: hardly a new issue.
But in Oregon, where I live, news reporters have anxiously awaited legislative action to turn thumbs up or down on legislation that would ban Indian names for sports teams. Continue reading
John Sayles
And it’s not the first one.
Sayles, who is among cinema’s most thoughtful filmmakers, came to Portland last year to talk about his book, A Moment in the Sun, set in turn-of-the century North America. Continue reading
Highline Park
How is it possible for someone with Ithaca bragging rights to avoid the Big City?
My only excuse is that I was focused on academics and the kids were little during my Cornell days. Continue reading
Physics class at Carlisle School, 1915
It’s like those visual double-take games in magazines, when they put two pictures side by side and you’re supposed to find the discrepancies from one picture to the other.
Here’s what happened: I was re-reading Vine Deloria Jr. and Daniel Wildcat’s take on Native science: Continue reading
Responses to my conversations about place yielded comments from friends about home being where you find your heart.
When I read Native scholars like Vine Deloria Jr. I am struck by his thoughts that culture—“behavior, beliefs, values and symbols” quite literally emerge from place. Continue reading
An information campaign raised public ire when it produced a billboard that shocked some viewers.
The poster shows a woman without clothing, her breasts (all four) hooked to a pump. She’s on her hands and knees, reflecting the imagery of a cow being milked.
The campaign—how several years old—was spearheaded by a group of women protesting genetically modified milk cows in New Zealand. Continue reading
How do we explain the inexplicable?
Sometimes my honey and I think the same thoughts.
It’s not creepy: in fact, it’s reassuring to share something substantive that dips below the surface.
My Apache pal says there are no coincidences. Continue reading
Today I’m departing from my usual banter about science. And Indians. And ways-of-knowing.
My readers give me permission from time-to-time to lapse into narrative, and I am grateful for the opportunity to wax personal. Wey-wee-nah (thank you).
My honey and I observed that many of the women walking the streets of Portlandia choose to wear thick tights or leggings. Continue reading
Know how sometimes you can hear something a million times but it doesn’t resonate until, one day, it connects?
As an academic I’ve been studying the meaning of “place” in American Indian ways-of-knowing from a distant, theoretical perspective.
Trying to link my personal concept of place doesn’t fit neatly or inform the traditional Native viewpoint, probably because we moved so often my sisters and I could stuff all our belongings and clothing into one suitcase per girl. Continue reading
Cynthia (Ištá Tȟó Tȟó) Coleman Emery's Blog 