traditions of assimilation...

[Mia Kalish]

There IS a tradition of "assimilation," usually no matter what it takes to
get there. There was a story . . . Carolyn, Harrington's ex-wife, found
papers in California that demonstrated the Indians were being "baptized" by
1st, clubbing them over the head until they were senseless and couldn't
protest, and 2nd, being carried to the baptismal ceremony by their guards,
who also functioned as the witnesses or whatever they call them. 
The whole purpose of the boarding schools was to take children away from the
influence of their families and cultures so they would grow up "white."
I think the fact that they wrote this is very Freudian: People are
admitting, albeit subconsciously, that they are deliberately interfering
with the lives of others. 

I heard a speech the other day by one of those Republicans who dropped out
of the presidential race, and he actually seemed to believe that this
country "belongs" to white people. He had no understanding or recognition of
the fact that colonizers engaged in active and sustained genocide to kill
the people who were living here originally. And by the way, he had all these
statistics of the number of "out of wedlock" births by people of color.
Implicit in this is the cultural moré that womens' only function in life is
to take care of men. (NOT.) 

Mia  



-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of Richard Smith
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 10:40 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] traditions of assimilation...

yeah,
did you catch that....?   "a Tradition of Assimilation"
wow...amazing... we have traditionalists in office!
By the way...who's "tradition of assimilation?"

richard zane smith
Wyandotte, Oklahoma


On 2/11/08 8:55 AM, "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU> wrote:

> Momentum Building for Oklahoma Official English Bill
>
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-11
-2
> 008/0004753576&EDATE=
> 
> ~~~
> 
> While there seems to be  respect for Native American languages, these are
the
> words of legislators behind the English-only bill in the Oklahoma state
> legislature:
> 
> "...maintain a tradition of assimilation through our
> common language of English."
> 
> It seems hard to reconcile this position with Native American language
> preservation.  Though I imagine the architects of such legislation view NA
> languages as "preservation at a distance".
> 
> l8ter,
> 
> Phil
> UofA