A Conversation with Native Americans on Race

New York Times

The New York Times brings you “A Conversation With Native Americans on Race,” an installment in their wide-ranging “Conversation on Race” series. Directed by Michèle Stephenson and Brian Young, the film grapples with the racist contradictions of a country that, many feel, would prefer it if Native Americans didn’t exist.

6 minutes and 23 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siMal6QVblE

0:14

I’m Apache, but really that’s the government’s name,

0:18

because they can’t say “Dził Łigai N'dee.”

0:21

They will tell me how awesome they

0:23

think it is that I’ve decided to be a part of my culture.

0:27

And it’s funny to me.

0:29

It hits me really weird, and I don’t like it.

0:31

And I didn’t know why at first, but it’s

0:33

because I haven’t decided to be a part of my culture.

0:35

I live it every day.

0:37

I’m more comfortable with the term “native,” divorced

0:41

from “Native American.”

0:44

I know there are people who use “indigenous.”

0:47

If there is one term I do not like to be called,

0:49

it is “American Indian.”

0:51

And for me, to be indigenous is to have

0:55

an intimate and interconnected relationship to a homeland.

1:00

And so that’s really important, because land is, you know,

1:02

tied to every aspect of who we are.

1:06

Being native in a city is almost a daily reminder

1:11

of your people’s erasure. Of the fact

1:13

that people don’t even remember that you’re here

1:16

and that you exist.

1:17

But what I did encounter was just this preconceived notion

1:22

that all Native Americans are dead.

1:25

I’ve had older white men come up to me

1:28

and say, “Oh, man, if this was 40 years ago,

1:32

I could just do whatever I wanted to you.”

1:35

You know, the cattle outside doing

1:36

the work and the dog inside the house, those are property.

1:42

Those are the black folks in America.

1:44

They are property to white men.

1:46

Then the exotic antelope on the wall or the exotic —

1:51

that’s how natives are perceived in America.

1:55

We’re treated like animals.

1:58

They monitor our blood quantum.

2:01

I mean, besides dogs and horses,

2:03

I don’t know of any other animal

2:05

that they monitor the blood quantum.

2:08

The way I explain it to people is,

2:10

imagine a pizza with different slices,

2:12

and let’s say 32 slices.

2:15

Of the 32 slices, I’m 28 Apache.

2:19

That’s my particular blood quantum.

2:21

And Native Americans in the U.S. are the only minority group

2:24

who have to prove their nativeness on an Indian card.

2:28

It’s used to divide native people against each other,

2:34

because it can be used as a way to say,

2:36

I am more native than you.

2:38

And I was a part of that, too.

2:40

I used my 4 fourths to kind of make myself feel better

2:44

against other people.

2:46

The one drop rule, meaning that one drop of black blood

2:49

makes you black, that was to keep as many people oppressed

2:56

or legitimize their oppression as possible.

3:00

But on the other side, one drop of anything else

3:04

completely dilutes you as a native person.

3:07

So if you’re a native person,

3:09

you have the one drop of something else,

3:10

then suddenly you’re less native.

3:12

So it’s the opposite.

3:13

Traditionally, within the Apache society, you go by the mother.

3:18

And if the mother is recognized as Apache, she has her clan,

3:23

the children are unquestionably Apache.

3:26

Not in the American context, not when

3:28

patriarchy trumps matriarchy.

3:32

So what does that mean?

3:33

My sisters are short 1/16 of a degree.

3:36

What does that mean?

3:37

Does it mean their pinkies aren’t Apache?

3:39

What does that mean?

3:41

You know, being a mixed race person is

3:42

a whole other side of it, but that’s

3:47

a very common experience in our tribe.

3:49

So it’s not as if we’re unusual in that way.

3:54

What is unusual is the admixture of black.

3:57

My grandfather actually doesn’t want people —

4:02

if he hears that somebody from the tribe is coming over,

4:05

he won’t come out of his room.

4:08

Because he doesn’t want them to know that he’s that complexion,

4:14

that he doesn’t —

4:16

I guess he doesn’t want me to be affiliated with having

4:22

African-American blood.

4:23

But I mean, I say it.

4:25

It’s not going to change anything.

4:26

If it were up to the American government,

4:28

natives wouldn’t be around.

4:31

Because after a certain time, that blood will dilute.

4:34

It will go out.

4:36

And so if there’s no native peoples to provide benefits,

4:41

then we’re not obligated to meet these treaty rights.

4:44

And if we’re not obligated to meet these treaty contracts,

4:47

then the land is available, the resources are available.

4:52

And I think that that essential point

4:55

about our claim to sovereignty, our claim to land,

4:59

our claim to a culture, our claim to resources

5:01

is one that gets lost if we don’t insist upon the fact

5:05

that we are nations.

5:06

And we have taken huge steps to decolonizing,

5:10

and that proof comes from people being

5:12

able to have the opportunities to speak their language,

5:16

to be on their ancestral land.

5:18

But the thing with decolonization

5:21

is that it’s an ongoing process, just like grieving,

5:27

just like any loss.

5:29

As much as possible now, I try to tell people

5:31

that I have a Native American name,

5:33

and maybe it doesn’t mean anything to you,

5:34

but it means everything to me.

5:37

My name, maybe, doesn’t have a romanticized, Hollywood Indian

5:41

name, but my name has more meaning than that.

5:44

My name means that my family survived.

5:48

My family survived disease.

5:50

My family survived Catholicism.

5:53

My family survived settler colonialism, and my family,

5:58

they survived.

5:59

I survived.

6:00

My existence is resistance.

6:03

Me saying my name is Skiumtalx,

6:06

that is resistance in and of itself.