You’ve GOT to check out this brilliant website created by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes: The Rez We Live On. I just finished reading Sherman Alexie’s amazing YA novel, which addresses many of the challenges of reservation life; this website is a powerful example of how marginalized groups can use technology and media to counter outsiders’ misperceptions about their community. Thanks to Debbie Reese for posting this on Facebook!
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OK, just I watched the video on government checks. A-mazing. When it comes to knowing about other cultures, how often is the problem that we choose not to know? Because, I choose to know about my own culture, I make that effort. Thanks for the wake up!
This website makes me want to take a course on filmmaking and web design! We could all tell our own stories in innovative ways if we just had the skills…
Very cool site. I was just out in Lakota country, and you should hear some of the whites there go on about the Lakota Souix, with whom they’ve lived (albeit separately) forever! They’re drunks, they don’t like to work, the Souix wish they had more white people to come over and do the work, they should get over the injustice done to them, they don’t have to obey the laws, they are prejudice against whites [my personal favorite], they rip off the whites, etc., etc.
There are some people out there who don’t hold these attitudes; we found two, who run a little indie bookstore. (My husband decided that therefore they were worth patronizing and supporting so he added some 800 pounds to our suitcases!!! Or at least it felt that way!) (He also tried to explain about Indian law to some of these white people and they looked at him like he was so benighted….)
But it was truly shocking. I thought people would at least PRETEND not to think that way! Apparently they don’t even think they need to PRETEND – THAT was a real eye-opener!
I wonder if that happens anywhere else, with any other group of marginalized people. I’ve heard news reports lately that insist far-right nutjobs are crawling out from under their rocks due to Obama, but I think they’ve been with us all along. The whites in this area clearly feel no one will refute them, which is why website like this are so important….