Watch Patterns: Examining American Indian Imagery in La Crosse

Transcript:

“I am a Ghibli Native American.”
“I’m part Oneida and part Chickasaw.”
“I’m a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation.”
“I'm Mohawk; from the Bear Clan.”
“We’re just know it as the ‘Big Indian.’”
“I'm thinking about the old Hiawatha Indian legend. And I assume that is what—to me that’s kind of what the statue represents.”
“I look at it and I see something that’s offensive to others. I also wanted to just mention that my mom is part Native American. So in a way, it also offends me.”
“I guess it's different. it's interesting I feel like it's outdated... but because its historical I feel like it's okay.”
(in the background) “what makes it feel outdated?”
“The paint’s faded. Yeah, it's not bright.”
“I like that it's a historical piece of art. “
“It's a good use of culture, for people coming down here to see how the land grew up before them.”
“The Hiawatha statue standing 25 feet tall in Riverside Park. The statue was completed in 1961 by a local artist. It is commonly referred to as ‘The Big Indian.’”
“It's… a monstrosity. The problem is that the statuary, just like the big Indian, or all other representations as of overwhelming rule, Native America is always presented in the past. We lack modernity, and that causes a huge problem in the way that we vote, or just generally think about Indians.”
“The native imagery that we have around town, specifically the Hiawatha statue, isn’t accurate. So I think when people go down there and they see it, and then they want to go learn more about it—they could be reading inaccurate information. Things just don't align up. So then you have the wrong idea and then you're just going around spreading more wrong information.”
“American Indian imagery spreads further along crosses river shores. For many years, the University of Wisconsin La Crosse Eagles was represented by a different mascot - the Indians. Originally there was strong opposition when it came to changing the 52 year old nickname. When given the chance to choose a new mascot from a list of suggestions, over 900 University students wrote in - they keep the mascot, as the Indians.”
“One of the arguments that fans tend to make in favor of American Indian mascots is, ‘Well you know it's a tradition. It's a long tradition, you know. It’s been 50 years - it's been 75 years - that this particular team has had this mascot and why should someone have to change a 75 year old tradition. It's going to cost them money to revamp an image. It's going to cost them money to revamp a name." And I often think to myself, "well how old - are the traditions that are potentially being mocked or mimicked right? Those are hundreds of years old when you're talking about people's cultural traditions or their dress.”
"However, the university felt a moral obligation to recognize the need for change, and in 1989, the eagle became the new mascot. While UWL seems to have made progress, there are still many that feel the use of this imagery is harmless. American Indian imagery is used as a symbol in La Crosse, because of the lands historical context.The images portrayed represent American Indians in general, but failed to represent the Ho-Chunk tribal nation that occupies the La Crosse area.”
“I think it's something that everybody could understand. -and-and-and-and was supposed to be just- Here's what we think all Indians look like and it's a big one.”
“The Chamber of Commerce wanted to use the name Hiawatha, to identify La Crosse, as the starting point of the Hiawatha Valley. Also, members in favor of the statue felt Chief Hiawatha, "Embodied the noblest qualities of the red man." However, people opposed-to the name Hiawatha feel that in combination with the statues dress, it is an inaccurate representation of the people in the area. The city chose Hiawatha, a mohawk chief dressed in Plains Indian attire, to represent the Ho-Chunk people.”
“Hiawatha wasn't Ho-Chunk. So first of all, I think that's a little weird to have him like as a giant statue, on Ho-Chunk land historically. He was like part of the Iroquois Confederation. As far as I know, he was never even in the area. And it just doesn't really make sense. It's a nice idea, of having him standing out over the river, but it's kind of a misrepresentation, of the people who do live here.”
“Generalizations like these, although may seem harmless, are often reflected upon negatively, by the people they represent. La Crosse is also home to a large German population. But the community does not represent Germans with offensive imagery as they do with American Indians.”
“But I am German and I don't drink, and I don't eat brats you know. So - and I don't play accordion. So I mean what what what what does that sayabout my my German heritage? So we all have our ideas... of what what each nationality or ethnicity is and it maynot conveniently fit into something and thank God there isn't a beer-drinking accordion playing lader hosen clad German guy up here at this out of the park. I mean if I was a German guy I would- I would say, ‘that's not me.’”
“At the turn of the century, an effort was made to remove the statue. Along with the harmful imagery, community members voiced that the statue was deteriorating, and therefore hurting the city's image. Originally, the city did not have enough funds to restore the statue and along with the public opposition it seemed that Hiawatha did not have a place in La Crosse.”
“In the early 2000s NASA teamed up with DOC, the diversity organization coalition, and attempted to take down the Hiawatha statute on at Riverside Park.”
“The numerous attempts to remove the statue were ignored. Many people expressed that the statue honors the people it represents, and therefore its intentions outweigh its inaccuracies.”
“We say well, you know, if you really are trying to honor a tribal nation, or if you're really trying to honor an individual, what seems to me that you would want as accurate as a representation as you could possibly get- to you know- to honor that person. You know, you don't - you know you don't say, "oh, you know, we're honoring Chief Little Crow" and put up a statue that resembles, you know, a different chief like Red Cloud or something like that. I mean you just don't do that sort of thing. Or, you know the African American equivalent. Say, you know, okay we're gonna - "we're gonna honor Malcolm X" but then you put up a statue of Frederick Douglass.”
“Stereotypes may appear to be harmless at first but when they become the only knowledge a person has about an ethnic group people begin to rely upon those stereotypes as factual information.”
“Problems are associated with it, is it it kind of locks people into a certain identity. It locks people into a certain place in time, as well. And when you stereotype somebody especially with imagery insensitive humanism, they are no longer people they are simply the image.”
“There are numerous stereotypes in which American Indians are depicted as. Including the Savage who is wild, uncivilized and a dangerous. The warrior is a brave soldier and always ready to fight and the noble savage is peaceful yet unrefined. These stereotypes have left lasting impressions on society.”
“My dad used to take me to like the pow-wow, or show me how we would actually do things or some of our cultural events. And I would go to those, and I would see how that's done. And then I would see something on TV like portraying Native Americans, as like savages or riding around on horseback, and - and knowing that's not who I was. And I really had a problem believing or seeing that as a fictional symbol.”
“These stereotypes will continue to be perpetuated, as long as native voices are being ignored and manipulated by whites who remain in control of media production.”
“Does a group have the power to control the presentation of their own image or their own representations in the media? Because the history, of both federal and state governments interactions with American Indians is it's always whites, that are in control. And people don't necessarily understand that even in its debate, if we are not listening to, if we are not consulting, if we are not paying attention to - to what indigenous folks are saying about these things, even if they're disagreeing amongst themselves, the danger is that then we're simply replicating the power dynamic.”
“White Americans like to have need for economic use. They like to actually dress up like Native Americans, because it gives them a claim to being American. It gives them claim to the physical continent.”
“Throughout the history of the United States, American Indians have been categorized as one homogeneous group of people, rather than individually acknowledging different tribal nations and their cultures.”
“When we take measurements of the public and the perception of Native Americans, one glaring fact is that the public has no understanding, that there are over 500 different Native American nations. As different as the Spanish are from the Welsh; as the Polish are from the French. The thing is that we have different languages, different religions, different food, etc. But in the American perception, it's an amalgamation. We're all the same. And so that is a problem with having Native American from a thousand miles away, representing.”
“It’s much more important, my clan and my tribal identification, than the fact I belong to this fabricated group called, ‘American Indian.’ I'm Mohawk, which is far more important than being an American Indian, which is kind of a generalized racial category. It's like the difference between- If you're from Jamaica, in the United States you're considered black. But to that person, being from Jamaica is far more important than the created racial class of black. One's a culture Group, and the other is very much a racial - an artificial racial category.”
“Inaccurate portrayals have damaging effects that formulate at a young age and may carry lifelong repercussions.”
“And the American Psychological Association has put out a position paper on mascots that I think would apply to the big Indian, in that he's sort of the mascot of the city. And there's a measurable drop in self-esteem between American- before and after American Indian children are exposed to these images.”
“Kenneth and Mamie Clark, in 1939, proved to us that marginalized groups or oppressed groups internalize that oppression. So we no longer need an oppressor, we start oppressing ourselves. And that's what that kind of imagery does when it's all - when it's always the same. It's always in the past. It’s never sophisticated. It's never modern. It really doesn't present Native America in a varied light; that we’re possible of all the other things. We have the same capacity that everyone else does. Now it’s extremely limiting. And so, as I see all these- And the statues we're talking about, there's plenty of advertising signs around town, as well, that do same thing. So, I don't want my children growing up the way I did, hating myself, because I started to believe all this ‘you choose your own adjective’ around us.”
“We're seen as invisible people. People don't think that we're still here. And people don't understand that like, a Native American can just be walking down the street, in jeans and a t-shirt, just like any other person. I think people associate Native Americans with like traditional clothing, and music, and if they're not seeing that, they don't think of natives."
“One thing they need to recognize is that we are here. There are American Indians in the city and that we are here as American Indians. 21st century American Indians are still tribal people. And we respond and think of ourselves as tribal people. And they need to stop trying to put us onto cave walls.”
“Most of what I know about my culture is modern. I do know some of the traditional things, but they're not really reflected here.
“Take a look at the patterns. They're very clear. We never see Native America is anything but archaic. It's always in the past. It's walking around town, in our textbooks, in our commercials, in our movies etc. Yeah, let's- let's do something about that."
“But why are we somehow expected to uphold this antiquated view, or this antiquated- antiquated technology that somehow makes us authentic? I deeply resent that, and I think most Native Americans do.”
“Native Americans have not disappeared. Their issues are real. Their concerns are real, and their perceptions of how they're being treated are real. And continuing to put them in the past, has real implications on what’s gonna happen to them, today.”
“Combating the problems associated with racial marginalization, starts with people acknowledging their own privileges.”
“They've gone through this world, & existed in a world of whiteness, and- and white privilege and racial privilege. Where they don't have to be concerned with things, at least in their minds, that are not directly related to them, that don't directly affect them. And yet I try to emphasize that- that racism, that ethnocentrism, that racial marginalization, impacts all of us. Even if it seems to not directly affect someone."
“Today the struggle to remove the Hiawatha statue continues. The Ho-Chunk community leaders and the city are working together to create probable solutions, for the statue. Some say repainting the statue would be suitable. However other solutions are more favorable. "
“I think possibly replacing it with something even better, something more representative, would be much better for everybody.”
“Better option would be to temper it; to compliment it. Let's have some contemporary modern images Native Americans in fruit of Loom underwear just like everybody else.Or the other option is to eliminate it all completely. I prefer the first option.”
“Really what needs to happen, in terms of respectability, is being in dialogue with a number of, and a diversity of American Indians who can give some input on this issue. Right? And so that we are making informed, and smart and wise choices.”
“It is imperative to have the city support, and to listen to one another.”
“I think that the community can start just by listening. Everyone so fast to defense those because they think they're historical. But just listening to the people, the Ho-Chunk people, the native people in the area. If they're saying it's misrepresentation, or they don't like it, hear them out. Because they're not saying it for no reason.”
“And I also think it's important that, as a city, we show that we're changing, and we're doing things different than they have in the past, and moving the culture forward. Especially with what you have going on in the country. You have a lot of things going on where things are coming to a head, and they're being called out, and you need to change that.”
“Another effective way to tackle imagery issues, would be to cease mocking American Indians through one's own personal choices.”
“Maybe at first, dealing with the problems on small levels. Having people make personal choices, not to wear things that are offensive. Not to dress in ways that are offensive &- that mimic, or in a sense, mock Native Americans. I think those are the best places to start. The example of you see somebody on campus who's wearing a Washington Redskins jersey, or some other Native American mascot under clothing. Just approach them, and very nicely say, ‘do you know that what you're wearing is very offensive and harmful to people.’”
“The Native American Student Association, also known as NASA, provides an opportunity for students to learn more.”
“The main thing that students, whether you're native or non-native get out of NASA, is just educating yourself more on Native issues. Whether they're here in La Crosse, or on this campus or more like nationwide. Just Native American issues.”
“Another option for students at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse is to enroll in an ethnic Racial Studies course. The course is aimed to foster an understanding of the histories, cultures, and contemporary issues of ethnic and racial groups in their national context.”
“One of the things I hope students come away with after taking a class with me, is I hope that they come away with being able to look at things from multiple perspectives. Right? Often the prospective students come in with their first year, it's largely a perspective that has been shaped by their parents, their grandparents, their siblings. But they don't necessarily have views, or ideals, of their own, that are very developed. And so, one of the things, I try to do is offer multiple perspectives. Sometimes that is a counter perspective, or a counter narrative to that, which they may have. Sometimes I take a position that may be opposite of that which I believe, just in an effort, to try to challenge them about their own ideas, their own views.”
"One course in particular focuses on stereotypical imagery in contemporary media.”
“One of the things that we try to do in that particular course, while the emphasis and the focus is on stereotypes, and the origins of those stereotypes; how those things evolved, how those stereotypes came about. It is also our attempt to try to be conscious of, and present images of those groups as they want to be represented themselves. Right? Rather than from just the perspective of whites in the media, or in the mainstream media.”
"Students should inform themselves about harmful imagery. But it starts with the educators in our school systems. The knowledge usually obtained in a classroom about racially diverse groups is insufficient.”
“Teachers schools K - 12 and even higher, they have to fall back, if they are called upon to discuss these issues- They have to fall back on what they know. And often what they know are the stereotypes. We probably have to be better at not only talking about Native American issues, but just racial issues in general. Issues of difference & diversity in general, I don't think we always do a very good job.”
“These are the faces of American Indians today. They deal with these obstacles daily, and their struggles are real. It is true that awareness is the first step. But knowing that there is a problem, doesn't solve the problem. Education should evoke action, and these actions are the key to changing these Patterns.”