h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For my American Studies course we're studying therelationship between different ethnic groups in America, including attitudes towards native americans.

If it's not too much trouble, I'd be interested in knowing your thoughts on the matter, and whether you've ever suffered any prejudice.

What a wonderful thing to study!!! (I've studied many cultures...I firmly believe that the ONLY chance the World has is through multi-cultural education)

I really haven't had any problems as I'm very liberal and tend to be surrounded by liberal thinkers. Plus being a flirt and outgoing...never hurt. My mother, however, full blooded Cherokee did suffer. I really don't know her entire story.
She always said she wanted me to write a book about her life, but suffered a series of strokes that left her unable to speak before she could tell me everything.

I know that as a small child, about three years of age, she was forced to pick cotton 10 hours a day. Her mother was very poor and I never heard tell of her father. (not uncommon on Native Reservations & the like) Mama also had an uncle who could find no work and became a hobo during the depression in the 20's.
He was killed hopping a train. Didn't have a good grip I would guess.

Mother picked cotton until her only brother J. Terry begain school. She refused to let him go without her...so, my uncle carried his little sister on his shoulders to the one room school house. As a result she graduated high school at the age of sixteen, with honors.

Mom was so ashamed of her heritage that she dyed her dark hair auburn. She worked in a bomb factory during WWII and met my bigot of a father, a Navy Air Corpsman on leave. He literally swept her off her feet and onto a bus during a downpour.
Back then, she should have sat at the back of the bus with the negros.

At a young age she instilled in me that I have just as much right to go and be anything, anywhere in this World that I wanted. I have 'just' as much right as the next person, but no more! So my travels have been rather extensive. I like to travel alone. (no witnesses )

My mother was such a beautiful woman it's a shame that she denied her ancestery. But, I guess the last laugh was truely hers, as my bigoted father went to his grave never knowing that he had married a Cherokee...what he thought of as a lower class person.

I am proud of everything my family has had to endure. The Cherokee walked The Trail Of Tears. A gental people...always mistreated. I am the first in modern history in the: Brown -Rainwater family to be in the census as Native American. My Native name is Two Feathers.
As an adult, after my father became senile, I changed my legal records, to reflect my heritage. The elders wanted to give me a Native name. The feathers reflect the lives I have saved. There was much arguing. As a therapist, it was argued that I have samed many lives and should therefore be named: Many Feathers. I said, that since I had only actually saved two people by the use of CPR after a car crash & diving into deep water to retrieve a small boy...that I should only by named Two Feathers. (And that if others were saved it was because thet had saved themselves by seeking help.) And so it came to pass. (I have two feathers tattooed on the front of my left shoulder...above my heart...one feather blue & one pink as one person was a boy & one a girl... that I was lucky enough to revive.

These days, at least around these parts...being an Indian is almost a statis symbol!!!!! I've had many people stop me to ask if I am a Native. The long black hair, bare feet & features gives me away.
There are times when people think me strange as I tend to follow my instincts. For example the day my motehr died...w/o any training in Native ways...I took bread outside and offered bread to the four winds and to Mother Earth. Much later I found that is the exact thing that I would have done had I been taught in the ways of the Cherokee. (I've been psychic all my life...it's not odd...it's only natural) I've also always made certain hand jesters when saying good-bye to a friend...I put out my left hand, palm up...and pass my right hand across & upward. In 'my' language, it means: go in peace.
I guess I do these things for the same reason birds know to fly South as Winter approches.
I also know that my Earth journey will not last much longer. I can tell. And I am excited to be going to the happy hunting ground on the other side.
I don't know if any of this is of help to you.

I can tell you that the American Government has taken nearly all the land from all the Indians. They are forced to live in poverty. Drunkeness and gambeling are the two major problems in the USA today with regard to Natives.
The Blackfoot use some of thier land in Montana to allow rebels to train there...for a price. Turn left in Crazy Horse Montana and
pray to the Great Spirit you are not killed. I've been there. I've been places that other women just don't go. I've seen things that most people are lucky enough to not even know about. All on Native soil as a way to profit and support Native families.

Go in peace young Egon.

Thanks. you said there that you didn't know if any of this could help me- I think it certainly has. It may not be the basis for an essay or the answer to an exam question, but it's interesting and informative and it tells me a lot about you and the Cherokee.

Do you think your mother hiding her roots was a reflection of attitudes at the time? Because it seems to me from my studies on this subject that for the first couple o'centuries the US was largely the white men mistreating everybody else as much as possible.

To be honest, this is the bit of American studies I find most interesting- I mean, yeah, the political system, the history, the literature are all fascinating, but I like to see how the people are affected.

Us Europeans really screwed up eh? Find ourselves a beautiful country rich with tribal cultures and do our best to tear it apart.

Just out of interest, i was in another thread a few days ago about Mount rushmore and the question came up of what the collective term should be for the NAtive American tribes. Native Americans? Red Indians? american indans? etc., or whether there shouldn't be a collective term at all, as they are all unique. What do you reckon about that?

I also found your tale of how you came by the name "Two Feathers" fascinating.

Thanks for sharing your own story, and your mother's.

Go in peace, Two Feathers

<--- you'll find these everywhere on the wet lands the Government says I own, although I know no "man" can truely 'own' land.

Yes, Of course the way my mother reacted was a result of many years of being treated as low class.
It's odd that she taught me not to have any type of predjuce(sp?)
(bit too much wine with pizza)
My father's family, which lived across the Courtyard from us, not far from where I am now...were all ethnic Hungarians. My poor mother. That's how I was raised...however...my paternal grandmother...straight from The Old Country...also had VERY strong psychic abilities...and she told me would not be a 'domestic'...hell, I didn't even know she knew that word. The other 21 grandchildren were all taught to cook, knit, etc.. I was only let in on the gardening aspect of their lives. I was encouraged to go lie on the mossy patch of lawn and see where my mind would take me...what shapes the clouds would make...feeling the trees as they were breathing...it was agood childhood.
At times I feel that I didn't deserve such a good upbringing, as others had suffered so much.
But my mother made certain I had EVERYthing she missed out on. Everything from dining in fine resturants, theatre, music, art, charm school...stuff like that. Even a red pogo stick.

The question about what to call Natives has been haunting me as well. I have many black friends and I feel they should be addressed as Black Americans. The PC thing to say being, African Americans. But that can't be right! Not all the black folks came from Africa...are the dark skinned people from various Islands to be left out?
I can't give you an answer...Indian isn't correct...Columbus thought he'd found India......hellova' navagator, hey?

From a European point of view, I would guess that Native American is as close as you'll be to getting things PC. After all...
the term implies what we are...Natives from America......
or I guess North American Natives, if you wanted to speak to the region. After all...there are many tribes in the South Americas.
...*scratches head...wonders how Shirley will ever pull things together...*
Too much debat goes on about what to call people instead of how to unite people.

I think it unfair to blame any one culture for misdoings here or elsewhere. Hopefully it's all part of some wonderful journey we all take to get where we need to be. The Everlasting part...just as our family is here to greet us whe we are born, so shall our family be on the Other Side to welcome us Home to be with them.

It would be a good idea for you to practice some deep breathing & relaxation...you will find your Spirit Guide if you allow it to come.