Kowtow To The Pow Wow

[Douglas Mercer]

Douglas Mercer
June 23 2023

The Indians are coming in to their own right now, really hitting their stride. They got licked in those Indian wars but we forgot to finish them off, let them dwell on reservations on our land, put them as curios in Wild West traveling shows, used them as foil in countless films, and then romanticized the hell out of them as the noble dispossessed. But now their bony grasping red hands have lifted the top of the crypt and they are loose again, taking scalps, wielding the tomahawk, and circling the settlements. The Pope apologized to them, up in Canada they lost their collective national s*** over non-existent brown kids in “unmarked graves,” we change the name of buildings if anyone in the past did them “wrong,” we make so called healing statements. And now every time anyone meets in public someone has to step forward and miserably grovel and state that once upon a time an Indian walked across the land they are standing on in his moccasin; of course the Indian back then wasn’t doing anything of any merit or note, but that doesn’t stop the obsequious regret from oozing out of the official scum.

“A museum said it will close a section devoted to Native Americans because the decades-old exhibit is problematic and reinforces harmful stereotypes. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science shared a letter shared with members that said the North American Indian Cultures Hall perpetuates a white, dominant culture and will be shuttered this summer (2023).”

Harmful stereotypes? Like the propensity for Indians to drink whiskey, beat their kids, and live off the government? That’s not a stereotype, that the gods’ honest truth. Harmful stereotypes? Like the fact that the Indians were blooducurdlingly merciless savages who hounded and harried the White man on his path to destiny? That the Indian was sunk and mired in an eternal stasis and stagnation and was accomplishing nothing? Well, that’s true too. Of course those are not the stereotypes they are talking about. They are talking about the patronizing view of the Indians as simpleminded innocents living a soft life at peace with nature. Really, given the reality that is about as good as they can expect, but they want the big credit about their “culture” and their Indian pride and the great people they allegedly were. And given the horrific trajectory of current year ideology no one should bet that they won’t get it.

“The shortcoming of the museum includes misnaming tribes; painting over historic artifacts; Disney-fying dwellings and textiles; creating stereotypical dioramas; and mashing together diverse cultures and languages as seen through the eyes of the federal government. It had everyday items objectified as art pieces, it romanticized stereotypes behind glass, it had a life sized Hogan facing wrong way, it had Hopi dwellings look like a cheap theme parks, and a Tsimshian totem pole was painted over. The exhibit’s last day was Friday (June 16 2023).”

A Hogan was facing the wrong way? What were they thinking? That was a genocide right there, that was a quashing of a people. A Hogan in case you didn’t know (and why on earth would you?) was a Navajo dwelling and, apparently, they only went one way. They couldn’t get beyond a hand to mouth and subsistence level of existence but they were quite strict when it came to where the door went. As for the theme parkish nature of the exhibits certainly no one wants an imitation Indian. When it comes to portraying squalid Indian life only the real McCoy will do. Of course nowhere is the real tableaux of the Indian descending on White settlers in a murderous raid depicted; that’s more reality than they can countenance. And really they were lucky they got anything but what they were given was not good enough for them and now they dictate that they get more.

“These collections first came together at a time when people thought Indigenous tribes were going extinct, said Chrisjohn, who is now a consultant to the museum and member of the Denver American Indian Commission, which along with tribal input will help guide the museum forward. But we survived, and we deserve to be seen as who we are today, not just who we were then.”

Actually no one thought that that the Indians were going extinct. Too many of them survived due to the softhearted policies of the government including tribal lands, reservations, and of course welfare and the EBT card (without which how would they get their whiskey fix?) What they did think back in the 1970s was that the Indians were the toothless minority. Unlike the negros who were rioting and rampaging and raping to their heats content with that raised fist of theirs, the Indians were a safe and distant memory and certainly not a contender in any grievance sweepstakes. All the Indians had was that squaw Brando put up and that Indian with the tear rolling down his face and so little were the Indians respected that neither of them were really Indians. But a funny thing happened on the way to Indian oblivion, like all members of the Global Majority they got swept along by the deranged hysteria and mania of post George Floyd politics. And now they’ve been stood up straight as something preposterous sounding as “First Nations.” And so they have taken their place in the queue at the trough and are pulling at heartstrings and getting quite a payday considering their claims had for the most part been dead and buried.

“The hall was created in the 1970s in collaboration with Indigenous representatives. Even though Indigenous people helped create the hall, museum officials say it still fails to rise above harmful stereotypes. Despite collaboration with Indigenous representatives during its creation and ongoing efforts by curators, conservators, and others to update and improve various parts of the Hall, we acknowledge that it remains problematic, the vice president, Liz Davis wrote.”

For all intents and purposes this museum was an Indian gig, they got what they wanted back then, and the liberals of the day thought they were doing a good deed. They tried and they tried, they made the Indians look defenseless and showed the noble squaw with her papoose and little ones; the Indians were shown at one with nature unlike the industrial behemoth of the White man; the Indians were shown (totally unrealistically) as peaceful nature lovers who wouldn’t, and couldn’t, hurt a fly. The Indians were the noble savage in the canoe and taking no more than they needed. This was a Margaret Meadish look at them, and the unsubtle message was that they were the moral superior to the White man. But now what the Indians object to (which is their meta objection) is that they are depicted at all, that they were dioramized as museum pieces and relics, relegated to a exhibition or a memorial, when what they want is to take pride of place as modern day players, with enough victimhood to leverage to hit the apex of exaltation.

“The healing statement has been installed at the start of the North American Indian Cultures exhibit hall, as well as online: We acknowledge the harm we have caused, we have developed and agreed upon a healing statement in collaboration with Indigenous consultants, and with input and guidance from conversations with community members. Within this space, the Museum perpetuates racist stereotypes by portraying indigenous people in dioramas as if they exist only in the past, using inaccurate names for sovereign nations (regardless of government recognition), and displaying their belongings without ongoing consent or respectful attribution, a letter reads on the doors to the exhibit now. The the museum is working toward healing since the hall harms Indigenous people of North America.”

This of course is no less than a land acknowledgment on an industrial scale. This is an acknowledgment of country, it belongs to them---let’s give it back. That’s the theory at any rate, a total renunciation of what our forebears did, a total rejection of their great efforts. Indeed it was Otto Von Bismarck who said the greatest moment in world history was when the first Englishman set foot in America, and it was no less a hero than Adolf Hitler who said that the conquering and settlement of the North American continent was the greatest moment of White Supremacy worldwide. Indeed, he said that the White race was the master of this continent and would remain so unless they fell prey to racial mixing. So they want to take the greatest achievement of the White race and erase it from collective memory.

“Together with Indigenous community members, we will reimagine exhibition curation, collecting, programming and conservation practices with respect to Indigenous culture, heritage and belongings. We recognize that there is more work to be done, and we are committed to working with, and for, community members as we move forward in reimagining our practices.”

That’s a heap big lot of reimagining but no, we had it right the first time. By rights the Indians should have remained behind the frozen glass in frozen gestures, a curiosity for children to gawk at. So it’s a lesson well learned, when you have a mortal enemy on the ropes finish them off forever. Having taken the alternate route they will have an un-Thanksgiving, pulverize Columbus, replace his day with indigenous peoples’ day (whatever that is), in Mexico City have the Jew mayor replace the great explorer’s statue with that of the face of an insect like indigenous woman, in Canada have the White kids lay out the ubiquitous shoes in honor of phantom dead Indian kids, and in America say every step we take is on occupied ground. For sure the Indians represent one of the oddest and most insidious spectacles of our sordid time, a people with one foot planted firmly in the grave they went rummaging around the attic of a dead past and found gold in the form of White Guilt.

[Supremely White]

Yep, I remember in 5th grade, in addition to the White guilt of black slavery, the crying for the Indians was drummed into our heads, in addition to the Anthrax song “Cry for the Indians “. The only reason I know what a hogan is and their superstition about where the door should face, is because I’ve read a number of the Tony Hillerman mysteries, all set in the “Navojo Nation “, what they call their rez. The author knows of their alcoholism, superstitions, peyote and sweat lodge and other rituals, and his books are about Injun cops solving the crimes that take place on their rez.

As a race that’s facing a similar extinction, I wonder if we should have our reservations, therefore keeping our own spaces White only.

[Douglas Mercer]

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