Why are natives ignored ?

STR said:
The Zuni tribe in the USA speak ancient Japanese.
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This is true, I heard about this some time ago.

As for blue eyes, some Ainu had/have brown eyes, green eyes, and blue eyes. Although my father's side looked very much Ainu, his eyes were brown. As for every blue-eyed person having one common ancestor, I don't know about that. It's like the assumption of many scientists that everyone descended from a single female ancestor, "Lucy", in Africa. It sounds sketchy to me. Life, and mutations, likely occurred in many different places, at least IMO.

Jim
 
Lucy was a "missing link," the first skeleton found of Austrolopithecus Aforensis.
... I don't think it's widely thought that we're all, literally, descended from her.
 
Why are natives ignored ?
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Hopefully it's because we're past the point that someone is a perceived expert in something because of their ethnicity, or that people are suited to certain jobs because of their ancestors' nationality.
 
Bob W said:
Hopefully it's because we're past the point that someone is a perceived expert in something because of their ethnicity, or that people are suited to certain jobs because of their ancestors' nationality.
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sooo
I can run for prez of the USA then ? or is that still restricted by place of birth ?
1/2 kidding
 
Dan57 said:
Lucy was a "missing link," the first skeleton found of Austrolopithecus Aforensis.
... I don't think it's widely thought that we're all, literally, descended from her.
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Lucy was also not found together but "found" in different strata which, in and of itself, begs more questions than it answers.
 
Myal said:
Bob W said:
Hopefully it's because we're past the point that someone is a perceived expert in something because of their ethnicity, or that people are suited to certain jobs because of their ancestors' nationality.
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sooo
I can run for prez of the USA then ? or is that still restricted by place of birth ?
1/2 kidding
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Being born in the USA isn't an ethnicity.
 
Bob W said:
Hopefully it's because we're past the point that someone is a perceived expert in something because of their ethnicity, or that people are suited to certain jobs because of their ancestors' nationality.
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:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Stereotypes will be with us as long as there are humans. But that doesn't mean we should perpetuate them. Everyone born in America is a native American, and every American's ancestors immigrated from somewhere, including those of so-called "native Americans". Contemporary "native Americans" are no more adept at skinning buffalo than I am. When we start making assumptions about people based on where their ancient ancestors lived, it ends up biting us in the rump because it opens the door for someone to make unwarranted assumptions about us too.
 
Native Americans consider their knowledge and history to be sacred. Their history is mostly oral, and passed down through the generations using stories/songs and teaching, the knowledge becomes a part of each individual person/family/tribe. In order to have that knowledge shared with you, you have to earn it.
 
Why are natives ignored ?


Bob W said:
Hopefully it's because we're past the point that someone is a perceived expert in something because of their ethnicity, or that people are suited to certain jobs because of their ancestors' nationality.
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upnorth said:
I still wonder why native North Americans are more or less ignored by outdoor television.
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.................. My focus wasn't ethnic stereotyping, but rather the irony of not trying to gather traditional outdoor knowledge from people that live or die by their knowledge\skills. It seems obvious to me that these individuals are an incredible TEK resource. I watched the food gathering\preserving with my own eyes in the north. And to be honest I would rather gain outdoor knowledge from an Indigenous person, than a non Aboriginal from Toronto or Chicago, if I have a choice. But outdoor television rarely gives me that option. I see this as a missed opportunity and possibly a loss of skills\knowledge for all people in the future. Many northern children want zero to do with a trap line today. They would rather play Grand Theft Auto on a couch.
 
91wm6 said:
Native Americans consider their knowledge and history to be sacred. Their history is mostly oral, and passed down through the generations using stories/songs and teaching, the knowledge becomes a part of each individual person/family/tribe. In order to have that knowledge shared with you, you have to earn it.
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That was basicly one of my previous points, and I agree with you to a certain extent. But I have also seen cultural diversity between communities of the same northern people. Northern Canadian Indigenous cultures are experiencing rapid change as we speak. Even the most isolated communities have satellite TV. I can promise you that most northern Aboriginal youth up here are more tech. savy than I am, and cell phones\hand helds are everywhere. I just don't see modern Aboriginal youth as walled in by rigid traditional values as their parents. Of course I cannot generalize though with so much diversity in North American Native cultures. I see a day when much more traditional knowledge is shared freely, as is done by most world cultures. Kids up here are more interested in world culture now than containing traditional knowledge. It sure would be nice to see a bit more traditional knowledge of the land shared on television.
 
I remember in one of Cody Lundin's books that he has been hired on numerous occasions to teach "Native" people what they have forgotten.

I don't worry about ethnicity either. Nobody gets a reserved seat on my pedestal, you've got to earn it, no matter where you are born or what your ethnicity is. I don't consider such things sacred, just practical. YMMV.
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
Your comment reminded me of a lady I met about 30 years ago that was from a Island in the Philippines.

When people asked her where she was from? She would politely reply. I am from the Philippines and I grew up in a house much like yours with plumbing and a telephone!:D
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My mother in law is from the Philippines......dirt floor shacks.....curtains in the shacks to act as doors and walls. Only a few houses have power. Most just use the ocean as the bathroom.
Only survival thing they teach over there is "go to bar...find white man....set for life"
 
Some of the comments about natives adapting to modern culture really just reminded me of history. A lot of people say the great thing about history is "you can learn from the past mistakes" but it's actually quite the contrary. The great thing about history is you can see patterns where people really do the same things and patterns throughout history, and you can apply this to anything no matter how far you go.

Whether you're looking at the state of the Us governtn you can see examples in the past where the same thing has really been going on over the last 100 years or the Romans did the same thing 2000 years ago. When it comes to this subject, Ghengis Khan and the Mongols were the fiercest and most advanced military during their reign. Although Ghengis Khan was illiterate and 'uneducated' by practical standards he knew that past mongol empires failed when the people who once lived these rugged and tough lives forcing them to learn and master unique skills became too comfortable and civilized they would kind of blend in with these civilizations they conquered and lose those skills and further generations never learned or came close to what they once were. He developed different ways to keep these warriors sharp and true to who they were, this is what separated them from other mongol armies that sooner or later diminished.

When you surround these natives, who once were great at all these skills out of constant use and necessity, and put them in a modern society - they becomes just like everyone else and adapt to the easy and comfortable life. They may learn these skills out of respect for their history, but they are not practicing them very day out of necessity. You don't need to master tracking animals and foraging when you can go to the grocery store. In the end most of the people who are experts in this stuff are experts because they chose that lifestyle or have a sweep interest in it, not because previous generations were masters. Survival skills are not unique to native Americans or some other people, all of our ancestors have great histories where all these skills were required, obviously the environment dictates much of them. I don't think race or ethnicity really matters anymore when it comes to this sort of skills or lifestyle. It all depends on how you were raised and how you live, not what your grandfathers did.
 
True story...

I was in Thailand one summer, helping to set up a school library (I'm a librarian). A guide took us out to meet a monk who was living in a bat-filled cave (literally) was out in the boonies. We had to take a one-hour boat ride to get near there. The monk slept on a blanket on the floor of the cave, and spent 8 hours a day meditating in what can only be charitably described as a big crack in the wall. He had no electricity, no running water, no plumbing, no outhouse, etc. - just some food, basic utensils, a blanket, and his clothes (and lots of bats for company). Some villagers from somewhere in the area brought him food once a week.

While he was showing us around, we heard a phone ring. Sure enough, he whipped a cell phone out from under his robes and started chatting on it. I never found out how he charged the thing or how he got reception in the jungle (maybe a satellite phone?).
 
Just a thought from a Washingtonian very close to several reservations: I wonder if it doesn't have to do with how ugly reservations and villages generally are. Rampant alcoholism, crime, and poverty make for scenery sharply contrasting the romantically envisioned tee-pees and wig-wams people hope for. And many natives on reservations and in villages wouldn't survive without the federal assistance they receive anyways. I don't care who you are, Black, White, Asian, or Native: poverty is ugly. And though it is wrong, nobody wants that heartbreak on TV.
 
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