A century later, Ishi still has lessons to teach (fwd link)

[Richard Zane Smith]

It was reading the book Ishi in the 70's that sparked me and made me take
notice
of how anthropology,a brand new field, was studying people as rare specimens
in a dish.
The article is good, and it was good to hear aboriginal people respond.
I'm not sure I agree with one of the last comments quoted in the article:

*One reason for the persistence of the “last wild Indian” trope, **Myers
speculated, is the comfort to be found in the belief that if “the last one
is gone,” then “we’ve done our job.”*
well...Though, this might have been the attitude of land grabbing U.S.
government, where any other "nation" is a threat,
Other forces were at work that are STILL having a detrimental effect on our
survival as indigenous cultures.
One was(and is) cultural ignorance from popular novel induced infatuation
with  * "the last of....(fill in the blank")*
feeding a kind of wistful sentimentalism that was being applied widespread
upon traditional cultures facing violent opposition
and even extinction. "aww...the poor little indians" .
Feeling pity is dangerous because it often supplants itself as a substitute
for real action.
"I feel sorry...therefore I'm not the oppressor , and because i feel
sorry...I've done what i can."

there are OTHER forces at work on the powerful down stream flow against ALL
of us working on cultural revitalization efforts.

I think its OUR time to study the studiers, do anthropology on the
anthropologists, archaeology on the archaeologists
linguistic studies on you "expert" linguists!   Might be a new field in and
of itself --- especially within Native colleges!

Sohahiyoh (Richard Zane Smith)
Wyandotte Oklahoma


On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 4:40 AM, Derksen Jacob <jieikobu at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  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.
>
>  > Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:37:46 -0500
> > From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU
> > Subject: [ILAT] A century later, Ishi still has lessons to teach (fwd
> link)
> > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>
> >
> > A century later, Ishi still has lessons to teach
> >
> > By Barry Bergman, NewsCenter | September 12, 2011
> > USA
> >
> > BERKELEY - They came both to bury Ishi — at least the outdated notion
> > of Ishi prevalent in pop culture — and to praise him. They came to
> > learn from him, to remember him not as a research subject but as a
> > teacher, not as an artifact of a vanishing culture but as a survivor
> > and, as Berkeley law professor Karen Biestman put it, “a pioneer of
> > indigenous intellectual property protection.”
> >
> >
> > Earl Neconie, right, gave the morning's traditional blessing (Peg
> > Skorpinski photos)
> > Joseph Myers, a School of Law graduate and lecturer in Native American
> > studies here, put it more simply.
> >
> > “I like the idea of celebrating Ishi,” Myers said. “But let’s
> > celebrate him as a human being. “
> >
> > Access full article below:
> > http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/12/century-of-ishi/
>



-- 
*"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*

richardzanesmith.wordpress.com
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