"Pepper Ann Dances with Ignorance"

Who remembers the show Pepper Ann? I do! (Barely.) Check out this episode titled "Pepper Ann Dances with Ignorance" (from Native Appropriations):

Quick synopsis: teacher tells the class they're doing heritage reports, Pepper Ann decides all of her European ancestry is "boring" and then her Dad informs her she's actually 1/16 Navajo, and gives her a concho belt that belonged to her ancestor. Pepper Ann then gets super excited, relying on every stereotype possible to represent her new "Indianness"--war whooping, crying a single tear for littering, putting her brother in a cradle board, beating "war drums", etc. The whole time her friends are telling her she's being offensive and wrong, but she's too caught up in her ficticious identity to care.

Then she invites a "real" Navajo family over for dinner, she makes a complete fool out of herself in a plains Indian costume, building a tipi out of bed sheets, making smoke signals, suggesting they do a rain dance. The family gets offended and leaves, and later Pepper Ann eventually goes to apologize, learns the truth about Navajos, and gives a culturally correct and sensitive classroom presentation. I'm not really doing it justice. You should watch it.

Reactions? After several strong responses from readers, Adrienne responded with this follow-up post. What are your thoughts?

Truth versus Twilight

Quileute werewolves, as portrayed in Twilight: New Moon

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture has launched a website titled "Truth versus Twilight", exploring the film's portrayal of Native Americans, and specifically the Quileute People of the Olympic Peninsula. The site was prompted by the Twilight novels' treatment of the Quileute as "fictional werewolfs... mythic characters in a fantasy role, rather than as human beings", according to Dr. Deanna Dartt-Newton, the Museum's Curator of Native American Ethnology. Below are a few of the fictions (slightly tongue-in-cheek), that website addresses:

Fiction: The wolf pack exists to fight vampires 

In Eclipse, Billy Black tells the Quileute legend of the Cold Ones, wherein a stone-hard vampire kills tribal members, only able to be stopped by the sharp teeth and claws of wolves, which the Quileute men, led by Taha Aki, transform into in order to defend their tribe. Billy continues to tell the story of the third wife: when Taha Aki was about to fall victim to a vampire. Avenging her lover’s death, his third wife stabbed herself to distract the blood-thirsty creature, enabling Taha Aki to defeat it. While this story serves as an intriguing literary device, “cold ones” do not exist in real Quileute stories.

Fact: Quileute people do not turn into wolves

Even if vampires existed, Quileute people cannot transform into wolves. The only record of wolf transformation in Quileute culture happens in the opposite: the Transformer Qwati arrived at La Push, creating the first Quileute people from a pair of nearby wolves. Thus, the Quileute do not have magical wolf genes of 24 chromosomal pairs (Breaking Dawn, 236-7), and are actually humans with 23.

Fiction: The wolf pack finds wives by imprinting 

In New Moon Jacob describes imprinting to Bella in order to explain the love triangle between Sam, Emily, and Leah. He remarks that all Quileute legends are true (Eclipse, 174). This unbreakable connection between a wolf and his mate is, in fact, another literary device that Stephenie Meyer falsely presents as Quileute.

Fact: Quileutes have relationships like most Americans 

In truth, traditional marriages were arranged, often strategically for family alliances to bring advantageous access to fishing and hunting locations or to special songs and dances (Powell and Jensen, 25). Arranged marriages usually included the couples’ consent, and divorces were not uncommon. Contemporary Quileute society practices the same dating and marriage customs as do other modern Western people.

>> For an excellent discussion of why the Quileute are always shown without their shirts (besides the abs), see Rebecca Sedlak's post, "A Colonial Narrative: The Portrayal of American Indians in "'The Twilight Saga'".

Native American Foods on Jeopardy

Newspaper Rock has a really interesting article on the November 28th episode of Jeopardy, which featured a category of Native American foods. Modified Jeopardy-style trivia is a great way to engage students in multicultural learning (see Classroom Jeopardy). Here are some of the questions that were on the show (how many can you answer?):

$400:  Indians ground acorns for this purpose.

Answer:  Thickener.

Degree of difficulty:  Medium.

$800:  The third of the "three sisters."

Answer:  Squash.

Degree of difficulty:  Medium.

$1200:  A war was named after this "meat and berry staple."

Answer:  Pemmican.

Degree of difficulty:  Medium.

$1600:  Salmon is cooked on a plank of this wood.

Answer:  Cedar.

(This is the second time they've asked a question involving salmon. Either they're fond of it or they lack imaginations.)

Degree of difficulty:  Easy.

$2000:  Couscous substitute grown in the Andes.

Answer:  Quinoa.

Degree of difficulty:  Medium.

For more American Indian trivia on Jeopardy, see Newspaper Rocks previous articles, NMAI on Jeopardy and "Native American tribes" on Jeopardy.