ok i will cut and paste for this thread. warning its long.
on the pow wow thing, i think its cause most who are part of mexica dance groups also dont know history beyond their own, of which they themselves are still learning about themselves too.
what happened was this, there was a time when no one knew that a lot of 'mexicans' were natives, and yes we know why. the mindset, behaviour, lack of knowing tribal origins, etc, and the skewed history of "mexicans' attacking natives .
so when we started coming to realizing who we WERE we had a thirst to know more. and we went to pow wows. when we saw that all kinds of white people were dancing and accepted, and that the mc yelled intertribal , well we danced. ONly to find that a lot of people didn't know anything about us and hated on us. This did not feel good and many took it as a challenge.
a challenge both positive and negative depending on who reacted.
some of us chose to break down barriers and make positive relationshiops and settled to start with being 'dinner entertainment". and this wasn't just a mexica problem. APaches were mistreated to . Chumash too. and other tribes who were not original pow wow tribes. So a lot of us who were being mistreated chose to back each other up, and now we are all part of the pow wows. yes mexica dancers even have their own category now and sponsor their own pow wow. at leasat out here in california.
then other chose to be mad and stay mad at being mistreated. and instead of developing relationships and getting to know the people and vice versa of those they want to dance with, they come in late, stay out of the intertribals, dance their 'show' and then leave.
i was never like that.
i found that most of the peopl at pow wows look at the individuals after all that is said and done. THey don't always lump us all together. And they actually have told me good things for sticking around for the whole event. ITs been a long time though.
i see the behaviour of our dancers at pow wows and i myself am offended by my own peoples behavior. THis is not what we worked for.
but about the thing about honoring the vets. Yes many of us do have a problem with that. but we deal with it.
in differetn ways.
some voice their anger, but its the same voice that yells out when our own dances are full of catholicism and we want that out of our own dances but don't know how to get rid of it.
and then theres theres those of us who tolerate that becaususe we are already used to tolerating the mix of catholicism in our communities. and we also have vets too.
this doesn't mean we support our families being vets, but we learned to tolerate it.
Now i am hearing that maybe pow wows were made to honor vets from the beginning. I am still digesting that.
i never heard that before.
i heard about original gatherings between tribes from long ago on the east side of the country.
and i heard the buffalo bill wild west show story.
many of us have heard this and this only and we get shocked when we see an american flag present.
right or wrong this is why.
i liked the word extremist better. it encompasses more than just one story.
brown berets had to go to extremes because the people in the urban areas, the children , were being attacked. it was either that or form gangs. they chose to be as security team. bodyguard types. and allow the people who were being harrassed some protection while the people stood up for their rights.
they were not coming from a native standpoint though, because in those days they were barely beginning to wake up from their colonial brainwashing. But they were a beginning. Lots of things changed since then.
they took their inspiration from the black panthers and AIM.
but remember, they were kids with a kids mindset. they are all grown up now and yes have experienced more and learned more.
MECHA again. Kids. grouping together for a limited time. They organize workshops. bring in speakers. and party it up.
they have a "plan de aztlan" of which is not native based, due to the time period it was written. Many have tried to revise it, but they refuse sticking to nostalgia. But also, no one is around long enough to really change or affect anything, cause they grow up graduate and move on. so it stays the same never changing. but we leave it alone because its a stepping stone for kids who are waking up and being allowed to see someothing different. then they ask questions. THey even question the problems of MECHA itself at their meetings. THen they move on and try to solve problems outside the group in their own improved way.
neo aztecs. thats hard to explain. because its a generalization so it becomes vague.
there are some who seem to be neo but actually have blessings from the elders in mexico but because it looks so different than what northerners are used to seeing , it can look new agey at first.
then theres the catholic mix, which makes it hard to filter out. when someone filters it out, they get attacked for not being traditional. weird
but then there are the new agers. they learn the medicines and ways and start websites and hold seminars that sell out what they were taught. or they just reiterate what they learned in readers digest.
although i say all this. i stepped away from a lot of things. because i mixed in a lot of northern native circles too and found the same issues there. only looks different at first. but was the same .
no one is free from it all.
