"Several Native influencers, performers, and academics took to social media this week to criticize Beyoncé or decry the shirt’s language as anti-Indigenous."

"'Do you think Beyoncé will apologize (or acknowledge) the shirt?' indigenous.tv, an Indigenous news and culture Instagram account with more than 130,000 followers, asked in a post Thursday. Many of her critics, as well as fans, agree. A flood of social media posts called out the pop star for the historic framing on the shirt...."

From "Fans criticize Beyoncé for shirt calling Native Americans 'the enemies of peace'" (AP).

What shirt? It was a T-shirt depicting the Buffalo Soldiers that stated that "their antagonists were the enemies of peace, order and settlement: warring Indians, bandits, cattle thieves, murderous gunmen, bootleggers, trespassers, and Mexican revolutionaries."

ADDED: The only Indians mentioned by the shirt are "warring Indians," so by definition they are against peace. If there were some Indians who were pro-peace, the shirt has nothing to say about them. I'm not seeing the NRA complaining about "murderous gunmen" or Mexicans complaining about "Mexican revolutionaries."

"Civilizations age and die. It’s acknowledged in one of the most beloved charades of wokeism: apologies to (selected) preliterate civilizations..."

"... that once were based in the area now inhabited by the apologists. What, however, would the enlightened have happen? Their fantasy casts them as champions of the Stone Age folks who once enjoyed the real estate we currently inhabit. But stone axes and buffalo hunting could have continued only as behaviors protected by a civilization not only technologically superior but of sufficient surplus of goods and Christianity to still the westward American migration in service of an ideal. The fantasy, in effect, of a historical reenactment or theme park. The fantasy was attempted in 1870 when the U.S. Department of the Interior put the Quakers in charge of various Indian reservations for the maintenance and order and the distribution of government welfare. The results were malfeasance and theft greater than the previous administration’s crony capitalism, since the peaceful Quakers were laissez-faire fools. Do homo sapiens seek out descendants of Neanderthals and apologize?"

Writes David Mamet, in "The Disenlightenment: Politics, Horror, and Entertainment" (p. 230)(commission earned).

"Museums, monuments, and public institutions should be spaces where these stories are held with care, not suppressed for political convenience."

"When we interrogate systems of power and challenge historical narratives that center whiteness and colonial dominance, we do not divide, we restore balance."

Said Nicholas Galanin, a sculptor of "Indigenous heritage" who produced a work called "The Imaginary Indian (Totem Pole)" ("a wooden totem disappearing into floral wallpaper" (image here)).

From "Taking Aim at Smithsonian, Trump Wades Into Race and Biology/His executive order faulted an exhibit which 'promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct,' a widely held position in the scientific community'" (NYT).

What are you holding with care and not suppressing? What are you interrogating and centering?

Was sculpture disappearing into the floral wallpaper of academic jargon?

Mount McKinley.

I'm reading "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness," one of the executive orders Trump signed yesterday. Excerpt:

President William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, heroically led our Nation to victory in the Spanish-American War. Under his leadership, the United States enjoyed rapid economic growth and prosperity, including an expansion of territorial gains for the Nation. President McKinley championed tariffs to protect U.S. manufacturing, boost domestic production, and drive U.S. industrialization and global reach to new heights. He was tragically assassinated in an attack on our Nation’s values and our success, and he should be honored for his steadfast commitment to American greatness.

In 1917, the country officially honored President McKinley through the naming of North America’s highest peak. Yet after nearly a century, President Obama’s administration, in 2015, stripped the McKinley name from federal nomenclature, an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice....

Obama changed the name to Denali, and Trump opposed the change at the time — "Great insult to Ohio. I will change back!" With this order, he's done what he said he would do — though now it's about recognizing a man as a hero and not about a particular state that supposedly cares a lot about that man. Note that "Denali" was not a person's name, so Trump isn't elevating one state's hero over another.

"The problem with eating out in America today is that it’s making us fat."

"Studies done at my laboratory at Tufts University showed that the relationship between eating out and weight gain is very straightforward: The more frequently you eat out the more likely you are to carry excess pounds.... Our metabolism, hunger, and even the synthesis of addiction neurochemicals like dopamine are controlled by our environment.... When we see, smell, or taste something good, the sensory signals that get into our brain through our eyes, nose, and mouth activate what is known as the cephalic (preparatory) phase of digestion. Our saliva secretion increases; our blood glucose drops; our stomach muscles relax (so we have a larger stomach that needs more food in it to feel full); and our digestion accelerates (so we can put away that food more quickly to get ready for more)....."

From "Why Restaurants Make You Fat/Restaurant Syndrome: 1. Eat out. 2. Eat too much. 3. Feel bad. 4. Repeat" by Susan B. Roberts (The Daily Beast).

By chance, last night, I was watching a movie where there were characters who regarded a restaurant as a strange new form of business that was going to wreck the good thing that they had going (a saloon). 

Dialogue: 

"Have you ever seen a restaurant? They serve food. Next, the church will open up again...."

"The Judge is losing his grip. He's afraid of a place that sells vittles. Vittles and a pack of calf-faced girls...."

The "calf-faced girls" were the wholesome women who were coming to town to work in the restaurant — so different from the saloon women. 

"We are on Day Five of journalistic insistence on canceling an elementary school student by any means necessary."

We are on Day Five of journalistic insistence on canceling an elementary school student by any means necessary. https://t.co/Z3hvTe8UrT

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) December 1, 2023

"The parentage of Buffy Sainte-Marie, a folk singer known for her activism on behalf of Indigenous people, was questioned..."

"Sainte-Marie, considered the first Indigenous person to win an Oscar, has said for decades that she was born to an Indigenous mother before being adopted first by a white couple near Boston and then, as an adult, by the Piapot First Nation. The CBC investigation... pointed to documentation, including Sainte-Marie’s birth certificate and marriage certificate, to show she was born in Stoneham, Mass., as Beverly Jean Santamaria. Sainte-Marie did not speak to the CBC, but in video and written statements, she said the woman she called her 'growing-up Mom' had told her that she was adopted and was Native...."

From "Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous Parentage Is Questioned/An investigation by the CBC disputed a key part of Sainte-Marie’s story, saying that a birth certificate shows she was born to a white family in Massachusetts" (NYT).

2 important considerations:

"Though same-sex marriage has been legal in all 50 states since a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, it remains prohibited on the largest Indian reservation in the country..."

"... which, as a sovereign tribal nation, is not subject to the decision of America’s highest court.... [S]ame-sex couples are at the center of a contentious debate on the Navajo Nation, where the tribal council is weighing legislation to repeal a ban enacted in 2005. The change would grant them equal rights in situations involving property and hospital visitation. Indigenous scholars say it also would honor Navajo tradition, which recognized multiple genders and sexualities that were suppressed and stigmatized after Europeans arrived.... In recent decades, many Native Americans have adopted 'two-spirit' as an umbrella term for 'an individual that has both male and female spirits within them,' signaling a rejection of more rigid, western labels, said professor Gregory D. Smithers.... Two-spirit leaders and activists have made gains, Smithers said...."

From "Same-sex marriage remains banned — for now — in the Navajo Nation" (WaPo).

I was surprised to see that "two-spirit" is not a traditional term. Here's the Wikipedia article on the subject. A short excerpt from what is a long article:

"President Biden is set to break away from his summer vacation on Monday to fly to Hawaii to inspect damage wrought by wildfires...."

The NYT reports, in a presentation that is not supportive to Biden:

The asymmetrical photograph tips Biden into the lower corner. He looks small and weak. It's an unflattering view from the side, with his unround head bowed. He's headed into the weeds. But he's a man on vacation — hidden away at Lake Tahoe. 

Paragraph 3:

New frontiers of Russian influence.

I'm trying to read "Blackhawks will not wear Pride-themed jerseys due to a Russian law " (AP).

The Blackhawks are the Chicago NHL team, I'm just now learning. And the "Pride-themed jerseys"...

 

... seem objectionable for some American reasons — Native American mascot, political brand stamped on a Native American brand, LGBTQ support imposed on players — but the Russians got the NHL organization to silence the political speech. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law in December that significantly expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBTQ rights in the country.

Which country?  I believe the law relates to Russia, not the U.S., but the extraterritorial reach occurs because people in the U.S. are choosing to impose Russia's repression here. The NHL characterizes its behavior as motivated by "security" concerns, presumably relating to persons who do live in Russia. We're told: "Chicago defenseman Nikita Zaitsev is a Moscow native, and there are other players with family in Russia or other connections to the country." 

"The last surviving member of an isolated Amazonian tribe died this month.... Known in Brazil as the 'man of the hole,' he had lived alone for nearly 30 years after the rest of his tribe was killed..."

"... in attacks by ranchers and other tribes during the 1980s and ’90s. The Brazilian government had monitored him for 26 years and said he had repeatedly rejected attempts at communication.... The Indigenous man’s body was found... lying on a hammock in a hut during a routine monitoring visit by the government. There were no signs of violence or struggle... The man, whose tribe and ethnicity are unknown, was called the man of the hole because of the nine-foot trenches he dug at the center of his homes. The reason for the holes is unknown.... In 1998... documentary filmmaker Vincent Carelli [tried f]or six hours... to coax him out... The man peeks out from the hut, carefully points an arrow at the camera crew and then retreats...."

The Washington Post reports.

"Littlefeather’s 60-second plea for justice resulted in immediate and enduring personal backlash. She says that in the wings, John Wayne had to be restrained..."

"... from storming the stage to physically attack her, while in the aftermath, her identity and integrity were impugned (the rumors were so abiding that in 2012, Dennis Miller mocked Elizabeth Warren by calling her 'as much Indian as that stripper chick Brando sent to pick up his Oscar'). Littlefeather, who had acted in a few films before her infamous moment, says that the federal government threatened to shut down any talk shows or productions that put her on the air."

 From "Academy Apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather for Her Mistreatment at the 1973 Oscars/Nearly 50 years after suffering harassment and discrimination for protesting Native American mistreatment, the activist will be the guest of honor at an evening of healing and Indigenous celebration hosted by the Academy Museum on Sept. 17" (Hollywood Reporter).

From the Academy's apology letter: “The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable. For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

"I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples... I am sorry... I ask forgiveness, in particular..."

"... for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools.... It is necessary to remember how the policies of assimilation and enfranchisement, which also included the residential school system, were devastating for the people of these lands... I thank you for making me appreciate this."

Said Pope Francis, quoted in "Francis Begs Forgiveness for ‘Evil’ Christians Inflicted on Indigenous People/Live Updates/The Roman Catholic leader apologized for the church’s role in running boarding schools where Indigenous children were sexually and physically abused and where many died" (NYT).

Who started this use of "cis-" as the opposite of "trans-"? In English, it seems to be Thomas Jefferson!

I doubt if I am the first person to point this out, but I am arriving at this observation independently — independently, with access to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Latin root is clear — "cis" was the opposite of "trans" — notably used to refer to the landscape. You could refer to this side of the mountains — cis-montānus — or the other side of the mountains — beyond or across the mountains — trans-montānus.

The oldest recorded use in English is in Jefferson's 1785 "Notes on Virginian":

"You got to remember, there are very few people left, even in our tribe, who can talk Salish. For him to know how much he does without actually being taught in our classrooms and schools or spending time with the older people who still speak it is pretty amazing."

Said Vance Home Gun, quoted in "The remarkable brain of a carpet cleaner who speaks 24 languages" (WaPo). 

The hyperpolyglot carpet cleaner is Vaughn Smith. He began learning Salish because he liked its word for chicken — "skwiskws."

Vaughn makes an effort to get to know people in the language that shaped their lives. In return, they shape his. Welcoming him. Accepting him. Appreciating him....

But why hasn't his incredibly strong language skill led to a better job?

“Of course, I have tried,” he says. “But nothing has worked out.” Some days, he doesn’t necessarily want it to. He likes dressing casually, wearing one of the same 10 T-shirts from his favorite vacation spot, Bar Harbor, Maine. He likes being able to make his own schedule, where he can spend the day talking on the phone with his girlfriend who lives in Mexico. Or painting landscapes. Or working on his model train set. Or developing film photography. Or making brisket for his friends. He wants to be free to take his mom, whom he lives with, to the doctors treating her Parkinson’s disease. He wants to sit in coffee shops, drinking quad espressos and listening for accents that might lead to a connection with someone new.

There are people like this. 

"In the name of a level playing field, this is evangelicals finding their way back into the business of converting Native Peoples to the faith of their bronze age deity."

That's the top-rated comment on the Washington Post article, "Supreme Court to review Indian Child Welfare Act, which prioritizes adoptions by Native American parents or tribes."

"For the Te’po’ta’ahl of California’s central coast, the bald eagle is the Creator himself. After constructing the world, Bald Eagle molds a man from clay..."

"... turns one of his feathers into a woman, and brings the man to life with a flap of his wings (in a plot twist, Bald Eagle next orders a coyote to inseminate Eve).... Though [Jack E. Davis, in 'The Bald Eagle'] writes that [Native Americans] 'spoke to animals as if speaking to an elder: with respect,' and that 'many people today think of Indians as the original environmentalists,' he also must acknowledge that they killed loads of eagles. He describes parkas sewed out of the downy skin of eaglets, a dance troupe dressed in the feathers of 300 birds, and a ritual in which eaglets were sprinkled with cornmeal and squeezed to death. Some of the customs persist: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Eagle Repository, the legally designated morgue for every dead eagle in the nation, distributes feathers, heads, and entire corpses to various tribes for use in ceremonies. The agency also recently authorized the Hopi to seize 40 eaglets a year from their nests, douse them in cornmeal, and strangle them."

From "America’s Love-Hate Relationship With the Bald Eagle/Revered as a national symbol, reviled as an actual bird" (The Atlantic).

"American men face a desperate situation and don't even know it. There are large numbers of men wandering lost, in some personal wasteland..."

"... of jobs with little meaning, personal lives with little passion, and massive confusion about the reasons why. There's a lot of hurtin' cowboys out there." 

Said Ed Honnold, "the mild-mannered federal lawyer and founder of the Men's Council of Greater Washington, one of six such local groups salving men's deep inner pain through communal rituals of dancing and roaring, hugging and weeping," quoted in "MEN'S MOVEMENT STALKS THE WILD SIDE," a WaPo column by Phil McCombs, published on February 3, 1991 — 30 years ago. 

I'm reading that this morning because the news about Trump at the Atlanta baseball game doing the tomahawk chop — blogged here — jogged my thinking about gestures and chants that mimic the real or imagined traditions of indigenous people and I thought, remember drum circles?

Here's the part about drum circles from that 1991 article:

The media genius strikes again — with a tomahawk.

 

I was in denial. He didn't go to the game, I thought. It was in the Daily Mail, Meade said, and that wasn't enough. I've got to check. There's the screen shot. Maybe that was some other occasion? But no, that's in The Guardian. It's real. The man went to the World Series. And Melania looks utterly pleased to be screwing with the haters alongside her eminent husband.

I think the tomahawk chop is awful and that the people of Atlanta ought to want to abandon it, but they're not succumbing to chop-shaming, and the irrepressible ex-President is with them:

Trump and Melania doing the racist tomahawk chop.

Trump loves endorsing racist sports issues. pic.twitter.com/brKgx7WMRf

— Resist Programming 🛰 (@RzstProgramming) October 31, 2021

ADDED: The haters say she's faking it:

"The theme of our party was Constitution Day. I was trying to say we’d be serving classic American foods, quintessentially American foods—sort of caricaturing ourselves as Americans..."

"... on Constitution Day, this very American day. And I have a very casual tone when I write emails. So that’s why I referred to 'basic-bitch-American-themed snacks.'"

From "The Yale Law School Email Controversy: An Interview With Trent Colbert/Colbert is 'cautiously optimistic' that the climate at YLS might improve in the wake of this conflict." (The interview is conducted by David Lat at his Substack.)

Colbert is one of Yale Law School's Native American students, by the way, and the email at the core of this controversy was addressed to Native American Law Students Association. This is such a small group — so hard to recruit in "critical mass" numbers — that it amazes me that Yale wasn't especially considerate to Colbert when he was accused of racism. 

It's also interesting to me that the Native American group was making a party out of being ordinary Americans. It's so loathsomely incurious of Yale to jump at the critique by black students and to have no interest in what this meant to Native American students.

That party idea made me think of "Mundane Halloween," a trend in Japan and Taiwan where they costume themselves as ordinary people — "From 'the guy who had to work during vacation' to 'the surprised man who got a vasectomy last year,' all the costumes you're about to see are downright amazing."