How Native is Native if you're Native?

Page 11

Within the growing and diverse Native community, there seems to be an ongoing ideological battle raging, one that seems to have reversed itself from what was practised decades ago.

When I was growing up, I remember that the more "Native" you looked, i.e. dark skinned with prominent Aboriginal features, the lower you were on the social totem pole (no cultural appropriation of West Coast symbolism intended).

White was in and Native people (and no doubt many other ethnic people) tried to look it, dress it and act it. Those that didn't were often made fun of. Being dark was no lark. In the Caucasian world, people whose family history included a drop or two of Native blood bent over backwards to keep the scandal a secret. The skeletons in those closets would thrill anthropologists and museums the world over.

These days, it's a completely different ball game. Native is in. The darker you are, the more you are embraced and the more Indian you are thought to be. The lighter your skin, the more difficult it sometimes is to be accepted by your Aboriginal peers (and the non-Native world). White is no longer right.

And heaven forbid that a person from the dominant culture, who happens to have some barely-remembered ancestor who tickled toes and traded more than some furs and beads with a Native person, should let a conversation slip by without mentioning that at least four of the 24 chromosomes in his body don't burn in the summer sun.

But it's often more than simply how you look. It's how you think, act, where you live, and point with your lower lip. Consequentially, something more representational of the existing philosophical schism is the difficult question of determining "what makes a Native a Native?" What set of qualifications or characteristics will allow an individual to speak as a Native person, or have an opinion representative of the larger Indigenous population? Sure as hell beats me. But as sure as there's a hundred "Xena - Warrior Princess" web sites on the Net, there's a vast number of "experts" existing in this world eager to tell you what defines a Native and would be more than happy to tell you whether you fit into that category.

Personally I think it must be so great to have all the answers. My ambition in life is to be such an expert. I have done the necessary amount of research. God (or the Creator) knows my bluish-green eyes have allowed me a unique entry into such discussions. Drew Hayden Taylor - Aboriginal Attitude and Attributes Assessor (DHT-AAAA).

One such example of the broad spectrum of Aboriginal acceptance involves the world of education. Many reserves and Native educational organizations are constantly encouraging and extolling the virtues of education to the youth. Yet, there are many individuals in these communities who believe that the more educated you become, the less "Native" you will be. They scorn and disdain those who want to or have gone through the educational process. Evidently, knowledge and learning deprives an individual of their cultural heritage. I must have missed that in the sweatlodge.

Conversations with Elders and traditional teachers have convinced me that this is not a traditional teaching. Many Elders urge and encourage the pursuit of education. In fact, the two worlds of tradition and scholastics can, and often do, travel the same roads, albeit one on horseback and the other on a vintage 1953 Indian Scout motorcycle. In fact, those that are often wary of formal education are usually locked somewhere between both worlds, neither traditional, nor particularly well-educated. Unfortunately, it is their own insecurity that is being presented - thus proving the need for educated Native psychologists.

Another example on the flip side involves the disquieting story a Native educator told of a reserve education counselor in a southern Ontario community. Practically every year this person would ask at least one and who knows how many off-reserve students, "why should you contnue going to university?" She would then strongly hint that this student almost owes it to the community to quit school, saving the reserve money.

So if some students on the reserve are being urged not to go to university, but all the money is being reserved for them to go, where is all this money going? That is what is called the I don't-know-if-I-should-go-to-school-or-stay-home-and-collect-welfare-or-possibly-scratch-out-a-living-telling-students-what-to-do Paradox.

I have a column jokingly called The Urbane Indian which runs in a Regina news publication. I was telling this to a Native woman at a meeting and she asked me what urbane meant. I told her it was similar to sophisticated, refined or knowledgeable. She thought for a moment before responding, "I hope I never get like that." Evidently being suave and debonair (or as we say on the reserve, swave and debone-her) is not a Native characteristic worth having.

There are also those who believe the more successful you are, the less Native you are considered. If you have money, toys, a nice house, two accountants and have a vague idea where the Caribbean is, then you are obviously not one of the Indigenous people. I remember reading an interview with a successful Prairie businessman who was looked down upon by his brethren because he had made a financial success of his life, and he rationalized it out by saying, "if being Indian means being poor, then I don't necessarily want to be Indian."

It was a harsh statement indicating the man did not think there was a middle ground. I know many successful Aboriginal people who are every bit as "Native" as those who still subsist on Kraft dinner and 1974 Dodge pickups.

Another friend of mine severely criticized another friend because she had made the decision to live in the city, while friend number one had moved back to the reserve. Friend number one felt that one could only be Native, or really be called an Aboriginal person, within the confines of those artificial bordrs. Even though friend number one had moved back home in his mid-thirties, having never lived on a reserve, having grown up in urban environments. I think he officially considered himself, finally, to be an Indian.

Taking all of this into consideration, I guess this means the only true "Native" people are uneducated, poor people with poor vocabularies who live on the reserve. Yikes.

As cliched as it may sound, I think everybody has his own unique definition of what being Native means. Very few of us exist in the world our grandparents lived in, where their definition was no doubt far from ours. And this definition will no doubt further evolve in the coming Millennium. My career as a DHT - AAAA will have to wait because I don't have all the answers. I don't know the boundaries and necessary factors for such important decisions like these. To tell you the truth, I don't even care anymore.

I do know one thing though. Passing judgment on other people isn't a particularly Aboriginal thing to do. I know this because an eagle came to me in my dreams, along with a coyote and a raven. They landed on the tree of peace, smoked a peace pipe, ate a baloney sandwich, played some bingo, then told me so.

That should shut them up.