Heh, snuck off the path, eh? I remember talking to a friend who's Chippewa, I think it is, and his comment was, "you know how the trail of tears, all those people walked? well, the history books don't talk about the rich indians. My family didn't walk. We chartered a boat and took that to get to Oklahoma."
CP (the other half around here) lived on the Rez for awhile after graduating from HS, and normally it's a source of some intriguing information. Sometimes it's just amusing, like the fact that he has an ear for languages and when we went to see that (otherwise really sucky) movie about the Navajo in WWII, he spent most of the time wincing at the mangled pronunciation on the part of the main actor. (This is also why I refrain from speaking Mandarin around him, as well, sigh. Or even French, at that, even though in that case it's because I have a south-of-France accent and it sounds so sing-songy to him.)
Ahahaha don't even get me started on the whole "huge headdress of eagle feathers is Generic Indian"! ...or the other stick in my craw, Stupid White Man Nicknames that always seem to be dignified like "Running Bear" or "Yellow Wolf" or whatever. Big contrast with the Indian friends I've known, whose nicknames translated to stuff like "Sleeps with Mouth Open" and "Can't Run for Shit".
(Or the classmate in college who said his sole reason for learning his mother's nation's tongue was to find out what his grandmother had been calling him every summer when he'd go back to the rez to visit family. Turns out it was something along the lines, "Too Short To Ever Get Laid." I really did just about die laughing, and his disgruntled look was no help.
He did say the nickname changed when he started pointedly bringing home a different girl each visit. Wouldn't tell me the meaning, though, only that he'd still not, uh, really parsed out the, uh, verb endings, and, uh, stuff. UNH-HUNH.)
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Date: 3 Dec 2008 08:27 pm (UTC)CP (the other half around here) lived on the Rez for awhile after graduating from HS, and normally it's a source of some intriguing information. Sometimes it's just amusing, like the fact that he has an ear for languages and when we went to see that (otherwise really sucky) movie about the Navajo in WWII, he spent most of the time wincing at the mangled pronunciation on the part of the main actor. (This is also why I refrain from speaking Mandarin around him, as well, sigh. Or even French, at that, even though in that case it's because I have a south-of-France accent and it sounds so sing-songy to him.)
Ahahaha don't even get me started on the whole "huge headdress of eagle feathers is Generic Indian"! ...or the other stick in my craw, Stupid White Man Nicknames that always seem to be dignified like "Running Bear" or "Yellow Wolf" or whatever. Big contrast with the Indian friends I've known, whose nicknames translated to stuff like "Sleeps with Mouth Open" and "Can't Run for Shit".
(Or the classmate in college who said his sole reason for learning his mother's nation's tongue was to find out what his grandmother had been calling him every summer when he'd go back to the rez to visit family. Turns out it was something along the lines, "Too Short To Ever Get Laid." I really did just about die laughing, and his disgruntled look was no help.
He did say the nickname changed when he started pointedly bringing home a different girl each visit. Wouldn't tell me the meaning, though, only that he'd still not, uh, really parsed out the, uh, verb endings, and, uh, stuff. UNH-HUNH.)