<div>It was reading the book Ishi in the 70's that sparked me and made me take notice</div><div>of how anthropology,a brand new field, was studying people as rare specimens in a dish.</div><div>The article is good, and it was good to hear aboriginal people respond.</div>
<div>I'm not sure I agree with one of the last comments quoted in the article:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, san-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; text-decoration: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">
<i>One reason for the persistence of the “last wild Indian” trope, </i><i>Myers speculated, is the comfort to be found in the belief that if “the last one is gone,” then “we’ve done our job.”</i></p><div>well...Though, this might have been the attitude of land grabbing U.S. government, where any other "nation" is a threat,</div>
<div>Other forces were at work that are STILL having a detrimental effect on our survival as indigenous cultures.</div><div>One was(and is) cultural ignorance from popular novel induced infatuation with <b><i> "the last of....<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">(fill in the blank")</span></i></b></div>
</span></div><div>feeding a kind of wistful sentimentalism that was being applied widespread upon traditional cultures facing violent opposition</div><div>and even extinction. "aww...the poor little indians" . </div>
<div>Feeling pity is dangerous because it often supplants itself as a substitute for real action.</div><div>"I feel sorry...therefore I'm not the oppressor , and because i feel sorry...I've done what i can."</div>
<br>there are OTHER forces at work on the powerful down stream flow against ALL of us working on cultural revitalization efforts.<div><br></div><div>I think its OUR time to study the studiers, do anthropology on the anthropologists, archaeology on the archaeologists </div>
<div>linguistic studies on you "expert" linguists! Might be a new field in and of itself --- especially within Native colleges!<br><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Sohahiyoh (Richard Zane Smith)</div>
<div class="gmail_quote">Wyandotte Oklahoma</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 4:40 AM, Derksen Jacob <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jieikobu@hotmail.com">jieikobu@hotmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
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Thanks for sending that along. It was the 1978 tv movie, Ishi: Last of His Tribe, that acted as the spark that ignited my interest in endangered languages. Just last month I had occasion to be in San Francisco and happened to find a copy of Theodora Kroeber's book of the same name. <br>
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> Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:37:46 -0500<br>> From: <a href="mailto:cashcash@EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU" target="_blank">cashcash@EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU</a><br>> Subject: [ILAT] A century later, Ishi still has lessons to teach (fwd link)<br>
> To: <a href="mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU" target="_blank">ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU</a><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>> <br>> A century later, Ishi still has lessons to teach<br>> <br>> By Barry Bergman, NewsCenter | September 12, 2011<br>
> USA<br>> <br>> BERKELEY - They came both to bury Ishi — at least the outdated notion<br>> of Ishi prevalent in pop culture — and to praise him. They came to<br>> learn from him, to remember him not as a research subject but as a<br>
> teacher, not as an artifact of a vanishing culture but as a survivor<br>> and, as Berkeley law professor Karen Biestman put it, “a pioneer of<br>> indigenous intellectual property protection.”<br>> <br>> <br>
> Earl Neconie, right, gave the morning's traditional blessing (Peg<br>> Skorpinski photos)<br>> Joseph Myers, a School of Law graduate and lecturer in Native American<br>> studies here, put it more simply.<br>
> <br>> “I like the idea of celebrating Ishi,” Myers said. “But let’s<br>> celebrate him as a human being. “<br>> <br>> Access full article below:<br>> <a href="http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/12/century-of-ishi/" target="_blank">http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/12/century-of-ishi/</a><br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div><div><i><span style="font-size:x-small">"this language of mine,of yours,is who we are and who we have been.It is where we find our stories,our lives,our ancestors;and it should be where we find our future too" Simon Anaviapik ... Inuit</span></i></div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://richardzanesmith.wordpress.com" target="_blank">richardzanesmith.wordpress.com</a></div></div><br>
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