The month of November seems to have flew by and without blinking I have missed blogging anything!!
October finished up with Kaya having a super cold Trick or Treat night (thankful for a costume that she layered up under!!) She was a Skeleton girl and did her own makeup which looked great. She has a rule..nothing to pretty. She can ooh and awww over other girls dressed as Princesses, cute witches etc but she likes things more on the scary side for herself. She LOVES Halloween.
November blew in with nutty weather...way too warm some days, super cold with a skiff of snow on a few days. I always have to work Thanksgiving so it's a given that we do Thanksgiving here on Sat. We hosted Steve's Mom, brother, his daughter, her little sister and their friend. Wayy too many good food items and Steve once again rocked out an awesome turkey. Emily came this year and brought her new boyfriend. Very nice boy. But it's odd to see our little Emily dating. She should still be 3 running around all wild haired and dirty faced...not looking like a beautiful young lady. Of course he got put on the fire a few times..but he survived and is suppose to come back for Christmas Eve lol
Sunday we took dinner down to my Dad's and had a great time. Kaya always loves being at Pappaw's house.
Kaya managed to talk me into putting our tree up 2 weeks before Thanksgiving which something we never do ...but she is so much like me. She loves the lights. She managed to talk my Dad into putting his up on Thanksgiving weekend and he has NEVER put his up before the day before Christmas Eve so she is a good persuader. lol
Survived the Thanksgiving sale nuttiness and I'll save my rant on people's materialism and need to be giant buttheads all in the name of a cheap tv or crockpot!!
Rounded out the month with Steve doing his MRI on my day off. Almost 4 hrs of him laying flat in a machine and me sitting in a rickety old chair trying to make it not squeak when I had to move lol He did excellent though and we go for a rather big appointment in Dec. Not so looking forward to that but it is what it is.
Kaya Rain
Our beautiful daughter.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Saturday, November 1, 2014
November as Native American Heritage Month
November is not only the month for Thanksgiving but also the month for Native American Heritage Month. I've often heard people say no race in the US should have it's own month as we are the melting pot of the world. I've heard what race should get each month since there are so many various and beautiful races contained in the US? I've also heard that it's racist for there to even be specific Heritage months. I've always thought about all of that and I see all points of the arguments. To me I see it as simply showcasing the various races in the US but I can say as a mixed Native woman..sometimes November being Native American Heritage month gnaws at me.
Obviously November is picked due to Thanksgiving. A story that is often told lovingly slanted. The US was populated upon the Pilgrim's arrival. There was religion, a culture, languages and even a trade/monetary system. When the Pilgrims landed they were ecstatic to have reached land, to be alive and to pursue their religion and beliefs without fear of prosecution. They were unprepared for this rugged new landscape (I'll gloss over the fact that they had purposely chose an area away from "savages" and upon hearing that many had already died in the area...settled on their landing spot and community.)and between sickness, lack of farming skills and tools, and an ignorance of the land they began to starve. A very well educated Native by the name of Squanto saw what was going on (he had been taken to Spain as a slave and was later sold in England. Upon arrival back at the US via escape he found his entire village dead from small pox so he began to live in another Native community) and used his ability to speak English to act as interpreter between the two groups. When Natives saw the Pilgrims starving they taught them how to grow crops on the land, fish etc. Come "thanksgiving" both sides sat down to a meal to celebrate harvest. It was not a massive feast as we think of now but it kept them from starving. Unfortunately Natives are no more perfect than English and there was fights and disagreements. But the Pilgrims drifted from their love of religious freedom and began to push "the heathen" out of the "savages" and relations deteriorated (once again..I won't go into detail of some English colonies committing horrible crimes dressed as Indians or how some colonist actually ate their "native friends") Fast forward many years....
Natives survived small pox, survived government sanctioned massacres, treaty violations, as prisoners on reservations while their land was taken (interesting side note is that reservations to this day are still classified as POW camps!), faced religious persecution till the late 1970's and fought hard (literally...Natives make up the biggest minority rate per race population to serve in the Armed forces...even serving before they were considered citizens!) to gain citizenship rights and benefits. Today they still face stereotypes, out of date ideas, government harassment and persecution via health care/education/land issues, have been violated through treaty rights and personal rights repeatedly. They've lost land rights, water rights and hunting rights. Their languages are in a steady decline (not for all tribes but many) and most have seen a mixing of other religions with their tribal religions.We've fought blood quantum issues, tribal enrollment issues and we have each searched out our own way in this world. We all constantly hear the stereotype of "You're an Indian and you don't drink?? or "Of course you drink, you're Indian. You guys like that you just can't tolerate it"
To me every month is of course National Native American month lol but I hate that our culture is so tightly wound to simply a holiday and moment in time. I hate that most can't think of Indians unless they think of Pilgrims. I hate how we listed as "peaceful, loving, earth based people" because to be honest some tribes were vicious, we didn't see ourselves as one single nation (A notion I find interesting...I've often heard "if they would all have banded together they would have beat the Spaniards etc"...each nation is it's own people, own language, culture and ideas.) and we each varied in how we saw our Creation, our lives. The only thing I can say is that through most tribes of the US we have a kinship to each other because we know that struggle in some shape or form. I also believe that most tribes have a basic belief that our Earth is our life. There is no sacred ritual to perfom as everything we do daily is a moment of faith, a moment of blessing....we are all a strand in the web of life.
Maybe it's because I've always been curious about other religions, cultures, ways of life...but I don't necessarily believe you have to dictate one month each year to a certain race/culture. If schools did a firm job of teaching about all things, honestly..and yes even white culture ...then there would be less hatred and ignorance in the world.
As a mother to a child that has been thought of as being a light skinned Mexican, an Afghan descendant and many other things..I simply laugh. All that matters to me in this world is that Kaya knows who SHE is and WHAT she is...not just race wise.
Obviously November is picked due to Thanksgiving. A story that is often told lovingly slanted. The US was populated upon the Pilgrim's arrival. There was religion, a culture, languages and even a trade/monetary system. When the Pilgrims landed they were ecstatic to have reached land, to be alive and to pursue their religion and beliefs without fear of prosecution. They were unprepared for this rugged new landscape (I'll gloss over the fact that they had purposely chose an area away from "savages" and upon hearing that many had already died in the area...settled on their landing spot and community.)and between sickness, lack of farming skills and tools, and an ignorance of the land they began to starve. A very well educated Native by the name of Squanto saw what was going on (he had been taken to Spain as a slave and was later sold in England. Upon arrival back at the US via escape he found his entire village dead from small pox so he began to live in another Native community) and used his ability to speak English to act as interpreter between the two groups. When Natives saw the Pilgrims starving they taught them how to grow crops on the land, fish etc. Come "thanksgiving" both sides sat down to a meal to celebrate harvest. It was not a massive feast as we think of now but it kept them from starving. Unfortunately Natives are no more perfect than English and there was fights and disagreements. But the Pilgrims drifted from their love of religious freedom and began to push "the heathen" out of the "savages" and relations deteriorated (once again..I won't go into detail of some English colonies committing horrible crimes dressed as Indians or how some colonist actually ate their "native friends") Fast forward many years....
Natives survived small pox, survived government sanctioned massacres, treaty violations, as prisoners on reservations while their land was taken (interesting side note is that reservations to this day are still classified as POW camps!), faced religious persecution till the late 1970's and fought hard (literally...Natives make up the biggest minority rate per race population to serve in the Armed forces...even serving before they were considered citizens!) to gain citizenship rights and benefits. Today they still face stereotypes, out of date ideas, government harassment and persecution via health care/education/land issues, have been violated through treaty rights and personal rights repeatedly. They've lost land rights, water rights and hunting rights. Their languages are in a steady decline (not for all tribes but many) and most have seen a mixing of other religions with their tribal religions.We've fought blood quantum issues, tribal enrollment issues and we have each searched out our own way in this world. We all constantly hear the stereotype of "You're an Indian and you don't drink?? or "Of course you drink, you're Indian. You guys like that you just can't tolerate it"
To me every month is of course National Native American month lol but I hate that our culture is so tightly wound to simply a holiday and moment in time. I hate that most can't think of Indians unless they think of Pilgrims. I hate how we listed as "peaceful, loving, earth based people" because to be honest some tribes were vicious, we didn't see ourselves as one single nation (A notion I find interesting...I've often heard "if they would all have banded together they would have beat the Spaniards etc"...each nation is it's own people, own language, culture and ideas.) and we each varied in how we saw our Creation, our lives. The only thing I can say is that through most tribes of the US we have a kinship to each other because we know that struggle in some shape or form. I also believe that most tribes have a basic belief that our Earth is our life. There is no sacred ritual to perfom as everything we do daily is a moment of faith, a moment of blessing....we are all a strand in the web of life.
Maybe it's because I've always been curious about other religions, cultures, ways of life...but I don't necessarily believe you have to dictate one month each year to a certain race/culture. If schools did a firm job of teaching about all things, honestly..and yes even white culture ...then there would be less hatred and ignorance in the world.
As a mother to a child that has been thought of as being a light skinned Mexican, an Afghan descendant and many other things..I simply laugh. All that matters to me in this world is that Kaya knows who SHE is and WHAT she is...not just race wise.
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