James Luna is a (pardonmyfrench) Badass.

 Who wants to take a picture with a Real Indian?
How about now?

How about now?

What about now?

The contemporary artist, James Luna, identifies with both his Mexican and Pooyukitchum heritages. In one of my favorites of his pieces he forces a (from what I can tell) a mostly white audience to face their prejudice and assumptions about America's "real Indians". Wearing several different outfits he invites them to step forward into the camera and photograph themselves with him, invoking ideas of the old "curiosity cabinets", the rare, voyeurism, tourism, and the souvenir. Guests are welcomed to keep a photograph as a memento of their encounter. You can see the whole experience in this video here:

My favorite line he says is this:
"American's like romance, more than they like the truth."
I just wish that the camera had been turned on the audience when he said it.

a short video of a Cherokee storyteller circa 1960(ish?)

Slightly older quality, but still lovely to watch.

Nez Perce

Just a sort of side note while browsing the internet I came upon this photo here

"Nez Perce's Chief Joseph (left) & Red Thunder pose with Edmund S. Meany, Washington, ca. 1903"
 
I also found quite a few compelling quotes from Chief Joseph himself, here are a few of my favorites:

"All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases."

"I am not a child, I think for myself. No man can think for me."

"It does not require many words to speak the truth." 

 "The earth and myself are of one mind." 

 As moving as these quotes are, their power is often lost to time. I'm surprised that it was hard to even find myself reading Chief Joseph's words, and how much easier it is to look up famous quotes from many well-known "white" leaders. Why is it that I feel so uneducated in the areas of American history when it comes to the people that were here before my family? It makes me sad to think that a huge part of the story is being continuously left out, and at the same time glad that I am able to at least now learn more about the important history of these people who are so seemingly foreign to me, and yet live (lived?) on the same land as I do.

I won't lie to you, after viewing the film in class all I could think about was this video I had seen through an NPR interview with a man named Ryan Red Corn, who was quoted as saying "The prevalence of humor in any country is just right here on the surface,"... "All the Indians I know are smiling Indians."

One of my favorite things about this video is its tongue-in-cheek dedication to Edward S. Curtis (a known early 1900s photographer who we have to thank for much of our earlier photos of some very serious looking Indians.) And I believe it pretty much speaks for itself. So here it is:

Also something else I didn't notice the first time was the name "the 1491's"...Hohoh.