I need to bring this up. Tired of my issues being swept under the rug. Tired of not being the "apparent minority." Tired of exclusion in the activist community. Tired of being labeled as a women of color but being treated as otherwise. Tired of judgment. Tired of censorship of Native issues in the mainstream news. Tired of being Invisibly Native.
I have noticed that in the blogosphere that other women of color blogs outshine Native ones. You don't hear about Native issues in the news. You don't read about Native issues. You may have never even met a Native person. You may have never been to a reservation or reserve. Then if we bring up issues in our communities we get dissected in our identity, not honored, questioned if we are Native, etc. I am frankly still exhausted from trauma in activism and in the workplace. I feel many Natives choose to remain invisible even if they are visible because they are not taken seriously. They are not even taken seriously in "safe" people of color spaces. I have experienced not being taken seriously in several women of color spaces.
From my experience I feel that other people of color want to blend in with the majority society while the Native community wants to stay out. The Native community has far less money to invest in the majority society so we stay on our own or try to stay together in their communities the best that they can. There is no reason to try and blend with a society that doesn't care about you.
Some way we need to move beyond this invisibility. I have a few questions that I welcome all of my blog readers to answer, even if you are not Native.
QUESTIONS
1. What do you know about the term "invisible minority" in the Native community specifically?
2. Do you feel Native/Aboriginal/First Nations women's issues are not addressed in women of color spaces? If they are addressed, do you think they are addressed fairly and equally? Or do you think other women of color groups outshine Native/Aboriginal/First Nations women's groups/issues?
3. Do you think the Native/Aboriginal/First Nations communities receive less social services and money for social services than other communities of color?
4. What are your experiences as a Native/Aboriginal/First Nations person in the majority society around other people of color? Do you feel included in your community?
5. Do you feel that your tribal traditions and values in your community/reservation are different than the values of creating change, justice and healing in other communities of color?
8 voices speak:
I think that we should be discussing First Nations issues more. I believe that even the term WOC if often taken by default to mean Black women, thus creating many groups of women as invisible. I know that I have made a small effort but I certainly go do better in this regard. I think that people get caught up pushing their issues because they are so very pressing they forget that even though marginalization effects us differently as WOC we are bonded in our struggle for emancipation from oppression.
1. My impression of "invisible minority", as a white person who has had the privilege to know a few Native American/First Nations people, that other people forget they exist and simultaneously have a messed-up impression of who they are from the media (the idea that all Native American/First Nations peoples live(d) in tipis, for instance).
2. I definitely do not feel as though Native women's issues are dealt with on a regular basis by most people who aren't Native, and that plus the small size of the Native community means that Native women are rarely treated as part of the community of women of color. Not all women of color have the same things working against them, obviously, so I think that the problems of Asian and Black women - since they are the largest of the minority groups - often outshine any other women of color.
And I can't speak on the other 3 issues, since I don't have enough experience with them and am not Native myself. I do try to address Native women's issues on my own blog when I can, but it can be difficult, not only not being one myself but also rarely seeing any discussion of Native women in the news or elsewhere that I can build on.
As an African American woman, I know that whatever happens to us also includes my other sistahs who are Latino, Asian and First Nation. We all suffer under a white male society.
Because we have been the most vocal of the minority groups, I could imagine that First Nation/Native women would feel invisible.
In most communities where my people are, you rarely meet anybody First Nation. So The connections aren't there in a way that it should be.
I do have to say all the African Americans I know do not want to blend in at all. We just want to be recognized we are here just like the First Nation community.
Renee - Yes, we are definitely bonded together in the struggle. We can push for our issues because we know them well. I like this quote and thought I would share it with you - "If you are coming to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you are coming because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
-- Lila Watson, Aboriginal educator and activist
EHR - Thanks/Miigwech for answering the questions. Mainstream news has an agenda so issues affecting people of color and women of color - you won't really hear about these. Native issues are completely censored. I knew someone that worked for a news station and asked about why Native issues weren't talked about. She basically replied, "it won't happen..." referring to the fact that Native issues will never be brought up in the news.
Shell - It is a conundrum because all of us have to survive in this society. Yet, to survive we often have to hide or attempt to vanish in some way or another. I don't mean to make sure a broad generalization about all people of color blending in society better than Native people. But, from what I have observed and experienced the Native people I know have struggled with living in the mainstream society - because of so many issues at hand. For instance, they may not have a community in a big metropolitan area that they have moved to. They may be the only Native family on the block. They may want to maintain cultural traditions but are not supported by the community that they live in with these cultural traditions. I do know that some of these issues are the same in other communities of color. Does that elaborate on what I was saying well?
1. What do you know about the term "invisible minority" in the Native community specifically?
I believe the Native Community is silenced by being “ghettoized” by a problematic necrophilic mentality that they exist in a dead history, extinct and naturally so from disease and conquest. America is a country consumed by death and war, we value aggression and violence over kindness and vulnerability. Many native peoples and other oppressed groups and their allies threaten this mentality. Our history books do not include a true representation of native peoples., only the docile stories that fit into our misconceptions of a people and a land that was essentially invaded. Now that follows us into the present where American’s are all suffering from some form of amnesia, whether it is a story of native peoples or some other oppressed group. Today neoliberalism and patriarchy compound these issues and it doesn’t help that some media hosts claim we live in a “post-racist” society. It’s as if, if we can all become blind then the differences we have will not matter and we wont have to deal with the histories we carry inside us. Difference scares people.
From interpersonal experience I have watched my best friend’s mother essentially hide being half Mohawk and how my friend carries this repression with her as she struggles to claim any aspect of her multicultural heritage as she could be considered white. I have watched my former partner be questioned and harassed because he didn’t fit into anyone’s conception of African American because he was also Cherokee. And the long long process of convincing him of his beauty and humanity when other’s wished to steal it and break it by dismissing his whole identity as a multicultural person. I’ve noticed in my own school setting as people compartmentalize their identities to fit into a larger group of people.
2. Do you feel Native/Aboriginal/First Nations women's issues are not addressed in women of color spaces? If they are addressed, do you think they are addressed fairly and equally? Or do you think other women of color groups outshine Native/Aboriginal/First Nations women's groups/issues?
I am not a woman of color but I can say that Native Women’s oppression should not be placed as a dichotomy among other women of color. I believe that all women should be making an effort to understand their differences but combine in solidarity.
3. Do you think the Native/Aboriginal/First Nations communities receive less social services and money for social services than other communities of color?
I think that there is an unequal distribution of wealth in this country in general. However, based on the recent lack of resources being given to the Cheyenne River Sioux after the ice storm as thousands lack basic necessities is a reminder of Native peoples being rendered invisible.
As for the last two questions I am unable to give an authentic personal experience so I will leave that to others with the experiences. I have indirect experiences but I won’t speak for my friends and former partner.
I wandered over here from a comment you left on womanist-musings. I enjoyed your posts immensely and am subscribing.
1. As minorities, First Nation Peoples are mentioned, but since when did we address your issues? Why are the Cleveland Indians...er, f*. From pro-sports...popular media...Txgiving...
You are a sister, but I know nothing of you. I read about WOC all the time, but rarely do I read about a modern Aboriginal/First Nation/Native woman.
2. I'm deeply saddened to say that this is the first time I've encountered Aboriginal/Native/First Nation Feminism. This should help with the answer of #1 too.
3. I know that you are treated by the powers as a self-reliant "other", not like tax payers, not like voters, not-one-of-us. You are not even as important as New Orleans.
But you're important to me. And as a WOC, I will learn what I'm doing to leave you out when I talk of women's issues. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your blog. I was born and raised in MI :), I love your photos of Lake Michigan.
***SORRY, IF THIS IS A DOUBLE POST!***
These are really great questions. Not sure I can answer them one by one, but here are my general thoughts:
I'm only just starting to "come out" as Native (mostly on the internet & with a select few close friends). In the back of my mind I'm still scared people will think I'm ashamed of my Blackness. But, for me, my Native (and Euro) ancestry is EXACTLY what makes me Black American.
And being Black Indian makes me feel invisible in a lot of spaces. When I got to college I started taking Native American studies courses, but ALWAYS felt left out of the discussion. There was only one time that a professor mentioned Freedmen, but he quickly added that none of "us" were entitled to discuss that issue. I guess he decided for himself that either there were no Black Indians in the room or that our issues weren't relevant.
I haven't done a lot of activism in multiracial WOC dominated spaces, just identity-specific ones. Predominately-Black groups do focus a lot on specifically "African American" topics and integration/access to the mainstream is DEFINITELY the main focus. In Latin@-dominant spaces I think indigenous rights are talked about more-- especially land rights.
Whenever I do activism related to sexual violence I always, always make sure to center the specific ways colonialism carries out violence. When people talk about it that way, they're less likely to marginalize Native women and other WOC victimized by systems/institutions.
I actually think more Black people would expand their activism to cover more indigenous issues if we were allowed to honor our Native ancestry too. A lot of us are estranged from that part of our heritage. For me, my grandparents REFUSE to talk about their Indianness. My grandmother intentionally gave up tribal membership for herself and her kids and I have no idea why. I want to get more involved in Native activism, but I'm till scared that I'll feel like an outsider.
@shelbygoodwin,
I know you feel estranged, as do so many people from their identities, but nomatter your background, nomatter your beliefs, your identity is a truth. The 'groups' that represent this truth should be trying to make you feel welcome, not exclude you. If they exclude you, then they too are interested in oppression...
So pls don't fear even though the enemy is vast; we are all beautiful and unique, you have something that only you can share. Even those bigots do, they teach us what not to do.
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