http://www.nativevue.org/blog/?p=368 Native American Film and Media Fri, 10 Sep 2010 05:08:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://www.nativevue.org/blog/?p=368#comment-1890 links for 2007-02-01 at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture Thu, 01 Feb 2007 14:08:00 +0000 http://www.nativevue.org/blog/?p=368#comment-1890 [...] On Stealing a Native Identity - NativeVue Hat tip to Rob. “What typifies most westerns, from the early silent films to today, has always been the white man becoming an Indian. And by doing so, Natives are further led toward extinction while promoting this new amalgam as the American identity” (tags: americanindian nativeamerican movies) [...] […] On Stealing a Native Identity - NativeVue Hat tip to Rob. “What typifies most westerns, from the early silent films to today, has always been the white man becoming an Indian. And by doing so, Natives are further led toward extinction while promoting this new amalgam as the American identity” (tags: americanindian nativeamerican movies) […]

]]> http://www.nativevue.org/blog/?p=368#comment-1840 gregoryptm Wed, 31 Jan 2007 06:17:43 +0000 http://www.nativevue.org/blog/?p=368#comment-1840 you bring up some interesting points here that really hits home.  as a white person who frequently writes about Native American artists as a journalist, I recently found myself reading this passage that I had written::As one artist said to me in interview a couple of years ago, "I'm proud of my heritage and I love my tribe, but sometimes you want to step away from all that and just be a person, with your own voice and your own name." To many dealers and curators, this kind of thinking presents a terrible dilemma of presentation, a difficult pitch for the product, for if the Native American begins to have a voice with their work, then how can we possibly continue to justify the endless picture of the Native artist as a quasi-mystic in a loin cloth incapable of defining themselves and in constant need of patronage from a mostly white art market that dictates so much of what they can reasonably create?"Of course, while I'm arguing for the right of Native Americans to define their own experience, as a white writer I'm still in the position of usurping that right, despite the fact that I'm trying to help.  The irony of it is fairly overwhelming.  And yet, I might ask you the question of what it is that I should do otherwise?  I could step back and say nothing, (and I've thought about, in light of the irony) but then I know that the defining arbiter of Native-ness would not necessarily be a Native person, but probably another white person - and probably one with a much more pastoral and provincial view of Native Americans than I have.c'est la vie.  I try to vet my words with Native people before let 'em fly, but it's still a slippery slope.  Who knows, really?regardsgregory pleshaw you bring up some interesting points here that really hits home.  as a white person who frequently writes about Native American artists as a journalist, I recently found myself reading this passage that I had written::As one artist said to me in interview a couple of years ago, "I’m proud of my heritage and I love my tribe, but sometimes you want to step away from all that and just be a person, with your own voice and your own name." To many dealers and curators, this kind of thinking presents a terrible dilemma of presentation, a difficult pitch for the product, for if the Native American begins to have a voice with their work, then how can we possibly continue to justify the endless picture of the Native artist as a quasi-mystic in a loin cloth incapable of defining themselves and in constant need of patronage from a mostly white art market that dictates so much of what they can reasonably create?"Of course, while I’m arguing for the right of Native Americans to define their own experience, as a white writer I’m still in the position of usurping that right, despite the fact that I’m trying to help.  The irony of it is fairly overwhelming.  And yet, I might ask you the question of what it is that I should do otherwise?  I could step back and say nothing, (and I’ve thought about, in light of the irony) but then I know that the defining arbiter of Native-ness would not necessarily be a Native person, but probably another white person - and probably one with a much more pastoral and provincial view of Native Americans than I have.c’est la vie.  I try to vet my words with Native people before let ‘em fly, but it’s still a slippery slope.  Who knows, really?regardsgregory pleshaw

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