"Extinct" tribes

[David Robertson]

Lhush tEnEs-pulakli!

Peter, I liked your message very much.  Thank you.

Again disclaiming personal knowledge of the book being discussed, I'd put
in this comment:

In absolutely innumerable sources, including scholarly ones, from previous
times including very recent ones, you'll find the assumption and the
declaration that a given tribe "is no more now".  You'll read old
newspaper reports solemnly noting the noble or pathetic death of someone
who was "the last of her people".  Sometimes linguists will call a given
language "extinct".

Usually it's perfectly safe for you to laugh at these statements.

The frequency with which outsiders jump to such sweeping conclusions based
on plain lack of contact with the people in question is pretty staggering.

Add to this racialist thinking, which has been so popular as to be the
rule among Whites in America.  This feature of our culture (yes, I'm a
BastEn Man) is characterized by a belief that there are distinct types of
"blood", and that one's heritage is reflected in the "purity" or
uniformity of one's bloodline.  If you aren't of demonstrably exclusive
Chinook pedigree, for example, you're liable to be sized up as being "this
much" Chinook, "this much" Finnish, and "this much" Chehalis, a
hairsplitting way of denying your ethnic identity, says I.

(And let's not forget the custom of marriage outside one's tribe, which
would hopelessly confuse racialist efforts to classify indigenous folks.)

That's one way that claims of "extinction" have been used against the
Chinook people; they're one classic example among quite a lot.  I know a
woman of Esselen heritage who's becoming connected with that people's
efforts to become recognized again as a tribe, they having been considered
in many cases non-Indian for years!

I daresay there are plenty more Indians out there than most folks
realize...

Dreht thIl nayka qhanchi na munk c'Em ukuk, I'm very tired as I write
this, so please excuse if I ramble a little.

Alta na lhatEwa.
Dave



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