Native people also face problems of cultural appropriation, misappropriation, representation and misrepresentation: terrorism on our identities. Stereotypes haunt our daily lives. I can hardly watch television anymore without some stereotypical reference to Native Americans. Applebees has the lone Indian figure at its entrance; the party store down the street has a red-faced Indian with a nose larger than his entire face. Outkast ends the Grammy Awards with a performance that begins with a stolen Navajo song and a "red-face" performance, while Beyonce coins the phrase "Imagine me an Indian princess, dominate this" in her song "Baby Boy". Peter Pan makes a comeback, equating Indian people with fairies, pirates and mermaids. Even at the University of Michigan, an organization previously called "the Tribe of Michigamua" has, since 1902, based its organization on pseudo-Indian practices. This organization has given each member an "Indian Name" and had initiation practices that called for members to paint themselves red, to wear loin clothes and "duck walk" through the diag. Now, when someone tells me, my family or friends, "Oh, you don't look like a Native American,", "Do you live in a teepee?", "If your hair was black, I could see you as a Native American,", "I thought all Indians were dead", "you wanna go smoke the peace pipe?", I know what they are thinking and I know what is wrong with this country. Value is placed on being the stereotypical Indian in order to reinforce the symbolic death of Native Americans. If wHowever, Native American People are not a fairy tale; our past, present and future are very real and we have been and will be fighting the many forms of terrorism that DESTROY our communities and families. Whether by asserting tribal sovereignty or forming pan-tribal coalitions, Native Americans do not accept the theft of their lands or sovereignty. Women of All Red Nations (WARN), since its inception, has been fighting for sovereignty, treaty rights, proper representation, environmental justice, restoration of traditional women's roles in Native Communities and has been fighting against the effects of colonialism such as poverty, alcoholism and violence. It is estimated that during the 70s, 40% of Native women were sterilized without informed consent. WARN has been fighting against sterilization abuse and the many other forms of genocide that plague our people. The men and women of the American Indian Movement have been combating racism, racial profiling, police brutality, disproportionate incarceration rates, and threats to Native American Sovereignty. Today, we remember the stands at Alcatraz, the trail of broken treaties and the occupation at Wounded Knee, but the struggle did not start nor end there. In every instance that has challenged our sovereignty - arrival, removal, extermination, relocation, allotment, boarding schools, assimilation, and sterilization - Native Americans have stood shoulder to shoulder with their allies in protest. Many others have fought against the atrocities of racism, genocide and threats to sovereignty including each individual tribe, early pan-Indian movements, National Congress of the American Indian, Indigenous Women's Network, Indigenous Environmental Network, college organizations, community organizations and individuals.
Today, the fighting body sent by the United States to fight in Iraq is overrepresented by people of color and the poor, including Native Americans who are the most overrepresented in the services. We are torturing people, killing innocent men, women and children, and exposing our soldiers and Iraqi citizens to an experience that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. So, as the United States continues to invade the Iraq, bringing democracy and Christianity, "making them like us," terrorism runs rampant in our own country. Genocide, racism, classism, heterosexism and many more inequalities continue to exist here, IN AMERICA. But Native people will not sit back and endure these threats, this terrorism. We have been fighting for justice, sovereignty and representation and will continue to do so. This is not just a fight for Native people; it is each person's responsibility to fight for justice, Native or not. As Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. explains: "An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Become an allye are not real, the past and present of Native America is nothing but a fairy tale.
