Tribal identity
By Santee Ross, University of Montana
Remember when you were a little terror running around? You knew who you were and there was no such thing as an identity crisis. You were native because you just were. Things were so much simpler at that age.
Blood quantum never even crossed your mind. Not just because you didn’t know the definition but being a 1/16 or 1/ 8 of some other tribe didn’t change the fact that you still considered yourself native.
By Lee Longhorn
“Under the direction of Mr. Brian Britt, Director of the Pride of Oklahoma and assisted by Mr. Jeff Jahnke. The University of Oklahoma proudly presents the 2006 PrrrrrRRRRIIIIIIIDDDDEEEEE of Oklahoma!”
By Lee Longhorn
“You should say you’re multicultural.”
“I like saying I’m biracial.”
I worked with American Indian middle school students my final year of college. I enjoyed every minute of it. If you haven’t worked with middle school students, I suggest you give it a shot. They’re worth it. Most of my students were multicultural. For the purposes of being politically correct, I prefer the term multicultural instead of mixed or biracial. That comes from my training in my undergraduate career.
By Lee Longhorn
Hensci. Estonko? Lee cvhocefket os.
By Lee Longhorn
I once had a complex that use to drive me nuts in high school. In college, I got rid of it because a new one came into my life. I’ll talk about the latter in another entry, but the complex I had in high school was about skin color and being an identifiable American Indian. I used to think that you had to be a certain degree of tan to actually look Indian.
The smaller the quantum and darker the skin gets you more noticeable?
By Lee Longhorn
Howdy. I think it’s time that I explore some language issues and how being multi-tribal can have its ups and downs.
I have spent most of my life growing up in suburban America. It had its own perks at times. There were times when I realized that my own accent was more “white,” proper and not filled with slang. But, just because you’re “Indian” doesn’t mean that you sound and act like someone else who is American Indian.
“Why don’t you sound Indian?”
By Lee Longhorn
“Up in the sky, grandmother sits and weaves a basket. Beside her is her small dog. Whenever grandmother gets close to finishing the basket, the dog jumps in her lap and tears the basket apart. Grandmother has to start all over again weaving the basket. It is said that when grandmother completely finished the basket, she will swoop down from the sky and collect all the Shawnee up in her basket. She will take them up into the sky and she will then destroy the Earth.” -Shawnee story, told to me by Darrell E. Longhorn
