Magpie

[nycwriters]

I've always wanted to ask you about your username. In native lore the Magpie was the jokester, the evil little imp that would play pranks and hand down moral lessons from those pranks.

However, the Magpie was also viewed as quite vain (relating to its practice of stealing shiny objects for its nest) -- and that doesn't seem to fit your persona.

Just wondering what made you choose it and whether it was related to native lore.

[Magpie]

Actually, there are other animals and wingeds much better known for their role as "trickster" in Native American legends than the magpie. Most recognized is the coyote, raven, crow, blue jay and spider. I believe most native cultures encorporate a trickster in their traditional legends. I know Africa does pretty promently. With my kids dad being Lakota, they've grown up with "Iktomi" stories (Lakota spider-man, shape shifter). The Zuni have a trickster tanrantua. Sometimes the trickster is an un-defined being. Anywhoooo...

The story behind my user name is far less interesting than any of those stories hehee. When I signed up for my first Internet connect back in 1994, I had to come up for a username quick for my account. I lived in Durango, Colo. where magpies are plentiful (and I mean PLENTIFUL!). I was on the spot, happened to look out the window and saw some magpies and told the Internet person, "Magpie!". No vision, no totem...hehee. I don't have real good short term memory so I've used that name since them for just about everything Internet related...ease of continuity

I will admit though, I like magpies. They are smart, chatty, mischeiveous, resourceful and really beautiful in person w/green/blue irridescent feathers. They are also scavengers known to peck at the eyes of newborn lambs! :O (I like to *think* I can be ruthless when I need to be, but usually fall short of that one).

Austrailia is FULL of magpies, and Perky the Birdman told me magpies are on every continent in different variations.

So there ya go. Not very glamous answer heh!

[Magpie]

Thinking how the story behind my username isn't very "mystical" made me think of a funny story.

My kids' Lakota G'ma, a well known elder on the Rosebud Rez in S.D. (shameless plug: Her Story ) gets lots of non-Indian visitors and wanabes contacting and visiting her.

Years ago, she had this young couple that would bring her supplies and stop by for that brush w/Indian-ness each summer. One summer the wife was pregant. When the baby was born the husband (very mystical guy if ya know what I mean) called G'ma and said, "Ollie, our baby has not one but TWO circular cowlicks on the back of her head! What does this mean?"

Hoping for her to say their new baby was the 'choosen one' or something equally mystical he didn't get the answer I think he had hoped for... With classic deadpan Indian humor perfect timing, G'ma said, "Nahhhhhhh, it means she's gonna have a hellava lot of bad hair days!"

Poor guy.
guess you had to be there heheee!

[sparticle]

[sparticle]

Originally posted by Magpie
Thinking how the story behind my username isn't very "mystical" made me think of a funny story.....

....Hoping for her to say their new baby was the 'choosen one' or something equally mystical he didn't get the answer I think he had hoped for... With classic deadpan Indian humor perfect timing, G'ma said, "Nahhhhhhh, it means she's gonna have a hellava lot of bad hair days!"

Poor guy.
guess you had to be there heheee!

hahahaha!

"Her Story" looks like an interesting book!

[nycwriters]

Originally posted by Magpie
Hoping for her to say their new baby was the 'choosen one' or something equally mystical he didn't get the answer I think he had hoped for... With classic deadpan Indian humor perfect timing, G'ma said, "Nahhhhhhh, it means she's gonna have a hellava lot of bad hair days!"

Poor guy.
guess you had to be there heheee!

HAHAHAHAHAHA! That's brilliant.

Oh that's a shame about the username, I figured I had just discovered something profound. Blah.

I have an awful lot of respect for native culture, having worked with the Sechelt Indian nation when I first started reporting. It took me a long looong time before any trust was gained, but once it was, they exposed me to a culture I was in awe of -- because everything that was done just made so much sense. To me, it just seemed a better way. I actually attended a circle sentencing, which was remarkable.

I remember when the Sechelts were in negotiation to sign the very first post-war peace treaty with the federal government. I was a very green reporter and although I understood the negotiation process, I didn't understand the nuances. The feds came, made an offer, but demanded taxation of the Sechelt people. I knew from previous discussions that this was a no-deal point for the elders and the chief, so when they went out of the longhouse to discuss it, I predicted they'd come back and reject the offer. Sure enough, that's what transpired, and that's what I wrote about.

However, while verbally they rejected the offer, they didn't "reject" it per se ... and I missed the boat on it. I was so mortified I hid under my desk and cried my eyes out because it created an uproar -- both locally and nationally (but put our little paper on the map *cringe*).

I carried that weight around for a while as I continued to work and live there. One day an elder pulled me aside and drew a circle with a lot of bumps in it. He explained that life is like a wheel ... the more burdens you carry the more rough or bumpier the wheel and the less fluid you live your life. He said if you let go of your burdens, the wheel becomes smooth again and your life becomes smooth. Then he gave me the forgiveness I needed for the mistake I made -- he whispered conspirationally that while politically what I had written about rejecting the offer was not good; it WAS exactly how the chief and the elders felt about the deal the feds offered -- and many on the residence cheered when they read the story. So he released me from the burden of guilt.

And I left for the USA the next week.

Remarkable experience. Truly.

[Clytie]

wowow nycwriters... that was very inspiring...i think im going to cry

[zenbabe]

they treat the Indians like crap here....they are all poor and diabetic..

I was on my way to Phoenix the other day and looked off the freeway....there were these little shacks set up...off the freeway...it made me sick. That is where some of them live. I have heard stories about the reservations here and it isn't pretty.

I haven't been to any of the reservations here yet..but there is definatly a local stigma against them (Native Americans)here...it's wierd here..I don't like it...

Tons of drunk indians and mexicans..lots of immigrants..lots of theft, especially cars....lots of hatred.

Lots of poverty.

Poverty makes people do stupid things and hate. It is scary.

I drive around and feel blessed here..and hope to God that I won't get killed......

[Smartypants]

What great story, NYC! Thanks for telling it.

[Hyakujo's Fox]

Originally posted by Magpie
Austrailia is FULL of magpies

Yes! The sounds they make in the mornings, I think it's just about one of my favourite sounds in the world.

I used to be "magpie" a long time ago, on a bulletin board far far away.

Also my football team is the magpies!

[Magpie]

N.Y.C. is that BC? Cool story. Traditional native culture has a lot to offer... especially kids.

Zen... the sickest thing about where you are is take a look at all those upscale galleries. Sure not afraid to mark up those Indian made items and make a profit off them are they? You'd shite if you knew how little they pay the Indian artists for some of their work, and how much they make selling it.

[Smartypants]

Zen, are you in Santa Fe? I thought you were somewhere in Arizona.

I was in Santa Fe for the first time a few years ago, and had this bizarre conversation with some neighbors of the friends I was staying with. They were a couple of middle-aged guys, quite well-off financially, and someplace in the conversation the subject of the nearby Indian casino came up.

One of the guys, in a completely sarcastic voice says, "Well I wish I could have my own casino."

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"Well," he tells me, "if I were an Indian, I could own a casino, but since I'm a white man, I'm not allowed. White men in New Mexico are second-class citizens."

My friends' house (and this guy's) are actually on Indian lands, and to get to them you drive past the dwellings of people who live in heartbreaking poverty, and this guy is telling me he feels like a second class citizen!

I say, "well , seeing as ALL of this was once theirs, and the white man just came in and took it, it hardly seems like they've gotten the better deal here. Isn't the idea that the reservations are not technically considered U.S. land, but rather sovereign land of the Indian, so that's why they can do what they wish on them?"

The man EXPLODES with rage. "Have you read the treaties?" he asks. "Is that what it says? Well isn't that just too bad!. Boo hoo! We took this land because we could. Human conquest is human nature, and they'll just have to get over it."

"Well, I think you might feel differently if it had been your land. I don't think you or I could imagine what it would be like to have men arrive at our door and tell us, 'you don't live here anymore, this is our property now and you have to leave.'"

"But that HAS happened to me!" he yells.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I lived in LA, and a guy came to my door and served me papers that said the bank had foreclosed, that I didn't own it anymore, and I had to leave."

"Um, you mean you defaulted on your mortgage?" I ask him. "That's a bit different, wouldn't you say? I mean, you had a contract with the bank, and you didn't hold up your side of the bargain."

"It's the same thing!" he says. "I don't see why it's OK to kick me out of my house, but these Indians complain and all the white people fall all over themselves and say awww, poor Indians, and let them do all these things that if the white man did them he'd go to jail!"

The next day, my friend has to drop something off at these guys' house, and it turns out they live in a huge mansion that has a gate house that's bigger than my 2BR house in SF!

Unbelievable. Anyway, that's the story that left the biggest impression on me from my Santa Fe visit.

(Not true -- I did have a great time at the Museum of International Folk Art. INCREDIBLE!)

[daverbee]

I feel very fortunate that the tribe I have had the most contact with has been the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation.
Everyone knows the story of the Trail of Tears, but they have managed to rebuild themselves, both in WNC and in Oklahoma with the Western Band.
I go to
the Museum of the Cherokee Indian whenever I'm near Cherokee. Probably one of the most interesting museums I've ever been in. btw,they use Water Spider as their logo since in Cherokee mythology, Water Spider brought fire to man and saved him.
The Qualla Arts and Crafts Co-op, although dedicated to Cherokee arts and crafts, stocks work by Native American artisans from all over the US. Everyone who stocks in their store gets a fair price for their work.
Unlike many Indian Casinos, the one in Cherokee is there to benefit the Cherokee and is not siphoning most of it's profits off somewhere else. They had a major blow up in the Nation when they first broached the idea of opening a casino and had a referendum put up on how to run it for the benefit of all. Althugh it is run by an out of state company (Bally's, I think) there were hard negotiations done to make sure they weren't fleeced like has happened in so many other places.
They have problems, just like all other communities, but there isn't the widespread poverty you so often see and they truly are trying to live cooperatively and for the benefit of all.
I have to admit the most meaningful conversation I ever had with an Indian there was when an older gentleman working at the ticket counter of the museum and I talked about all the blackberries around the Courthouse Creek area in Pisgah NF. His family had gone there when he was a child to pick blackberries waaaaaay back in the '20's and I had numerous scratches on my legs and arms from hiking through a field of them in shorts and a tee shirt! Well, that's the way the trail went, so that's the way I went!
Also, read any of the books by Sherman Alexie for a view of life on a Rez. And listen to the music of Ulali! Don't have links readily available, but Google 'em and check 'em out!

[sparticle]

Originally posted by Magpie
N.Y.C. is that BC? Cool story. Traditional native culture has a lot to offer... especially kids.

Zen... the sickest thing about where you are is take a look at all those upscale galleries. Sure not afraid to mark up those Indian made items and make a profit off them are they? You'd shite if you knew how little they pay the Indian artists for some of their work, and how much they make selling it.

Thanks, NYC, for an amazing story.

Mags, if you look on my web page, I have a page of stuff that is inspired by my visits to NM. In the copy on the page, I come right out and say that I am NOT Native American (I believe I am, a little bit, on my mother's side way, way back, but nothing disgusts me more than somebody who pulls out that "My grandmother was a Cherokee" bit just to sell stuff). I go on to say that if you are in an area that sells Native American handcrafts, to be sure to buy them from the People themselves on their land and not from some upscale gallery in town.

Last time I was in Taos, the Dineh (Navajo) Pueblo was closed for sacred ceremonies. Of course, there are all kinds of stores and galleries in Taos, some selling "genuine Native American Indian" jewelry, some of it evidently made by Native Americans who have apparently emigrated to China. LOL Mags is right; the ratio of what the artisans are paid versus what the galleries charge is disgusting. (I sell some of my work in galleries, but I am not dependent on it for a living, thank God, and I shudder to think what kind of robbery goes on -- and of course some gallery people will gladly tell you that they are "helping the Natives improve their standard of living" -- jeezalus!). To be fair, there are also a number of Native owned galleries and shops in town, but I still prefer to buy direct from the Pueblo. There are great shops at each of the Pueblos in NM.

Anyway, outside a cafe in town was a Native American elder, accompanied by his great-granddaughter, who may have been eight or ten. They were sitting at a table selling jewelry, as the Pueblo was closed to the public and there was no outlet for direct sales of their work. I bought a bunch of stuff, spent some time in pleasant conversation, and came back the next day and bought some more. Matthew (we had exchanged names and had a wonderful time talking; he is a WWII veteran and a philosopher at large ) complimented me on the earrings I was wearing and I told him I had made them; we spent some time talking about materials suppliers, work techniques, etc.

That is why, on my website, on the Southwest Inspirations page, there is a link to the Taos (San Geronimo) Pueblo and the phrase, "If you see Matthew, tell him I said 'hi'!"

[Gatsby]

I'm from Okla., and I'm part Cherokee. I've grown up around the Cherokee Nation, and they're very well accepted - the whole "drunk Indian"/marginalized group thing isn't as prevalant around here.

The Cherokee Nation is an incredibly well-organized "government," with schools for Indian children, legal help for its members, etc. It's a prominent organization in the local economy. The reason Indians can own casinos is because they are unique, self-governing bodies that have a symbiotic relationship with the US government. To a certain extent, they are free to make their own laws, and casinos fall under this. Casinos are a major source of income for these tribes, and the money goes back into Indian support systems, like the schools and legal aid mentioned above, a well as other things.

As far as reservations being stigmatized, here it's just a matter-of-fact thing. Living on a reservation is just like living in another other housing addition or park.

There is some resentment about the tax breaks that the Indians get (e.g. they don't pay for car tags in Oklahoma, even though Indian children go to public schools, which means schools miss out on a lot of potential funding), but the general sentiment is that, at least for the time being, the Indians deserve this beneficial treatment due to the "Trail of Tears" and other bad treatment by the American government.

But part of the controversy is that are these benefits "reparations" in a sense? And how will this impact the current movement for reparations for descendents of slaves?