Somehow going to New Echota reminded me of yet another early childhood experience of mine -- Indian Princesses! Is it possible for a kid raised in a liberal family to have any more non-politically correct past times? This one was actually so bad the program has ended:
More than a quarter-million fathers and children have strengthened their family bonds through these non-profit cultural programs. A few years ago, however, a tiny faction of militants from the radical American Indian Movement (AIM) targeted the YMCA's Indian Guides/Princesses as "racist." Only Indians should be allowed to dress as Indians and replicate Indian traditions, AIM argued. "What we were saying is, 'we understand where you're coming from, we understand that you want to honor the Indian, but you're not doing that,'" complained David Narcomey, North Florida director of AIM. "You're causing psychological damage to our children."
Peggy Larney of Dallas, a Choctaw Indian, protested the use of headdresses and feathers. "When other people that aren't Indian do it, they're not being authentic to it. It's just not right," she told the local press. Vernon Bellecourte, another AIM spokesman, called the Indian Guides program a "cheap Hollywood" version of American Indian culture. "They sit around in a circle with their chicken feathers, they have their little greetings and they call their groups various tribes," he griped. "It totally distorts our culture. They can only relate to this very superficial, stereotypical image of who they think we are."
from: PC versus the Indian Princesses ... gotta love that it's in Capitalism Magazine.
I wouldn't have posted this as it's personal but I do feel that it is relevant to New Echota and the ... phenomenon we saw there.
Oh, apparently they don't advertise for a general plantation camp anymore, but Magnolia Mound still offers programs for kids. How about In the Quarter: Slave Life in 1810?
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2 comments:
For carnival, many German kids dress up as Indians (with feather headdress and all) - I preferred to show up in a cowboy outfit in case you were wondering.
Anyway, the issue of "Indian Princesses" is interesting from another angle: almost every book on the image of the Indian in the white mind mentions that quite a few non-Indians claim to have Indian heritage, preferably a grandmother who was a Cherokee princess
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