Remember This: Chapter 13

For this synopsis I have chosen to focus on the last chapter.. the final "discussion" in Remember This. Chapter 13 or "A discussion of other things." This text was quite challenging for me to get through as it brought so many aspects of indigenous studies to light.

One thing that I want to bring up before I head into my discussion is of Wilson's research and presentation methods. She goes over them in the beginning of the book but I just want to reiterate the fact that while writing this book she was very conscious of who she was representing and who she was performing the research that she did. The concept of "what good will come out of this?" was always in her mind and all parties of the research.. so herself, Eli Taylor, the elders in the tribe she was discussing.. they all had to discuss the reasons behind the research, how the stories are collected and how the stories are recorded and displayed.

This chapter begins with the notion of the two-spirited people.

As it is described on page 222, the Winkta, of two-spirited people were created by God, of their creator just as he made everyone else. They are in the same category as humans. In RememberThis it is mentioned that two-spirited people appeared biologically male and were either what we would consider "gay" or even hermaphrodites. I watched a few videos on two-spirited people and one video had this description. "They were honoured and revered. They were visionaries, healers, medicine people, caregivers of orphans." As Eli Taylor describes they are "waken", holy, sacred. When they spoke people listened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMdIZXOXpTQ

She then tells the story of a dakota family who was unable to provide food for themselves.. they needed help so they approached the nearest two-spirited person and it was his responsibility to find and provide food so that the family could survive. To me… it seems that two-spirited people were honoured as an integral part of society. They were not responsible for reproduction or marriage.. they were there to help the success of the tribes. It was only after European contact and the introduction of Christianity that all of a sudden the notion of two-spirit became associated with sinfulness.

In the second half of the chapter Wilson discusses her conversations with Eli and we begin a discussion of language. She compares the Winkta to Berdache, a term that we learnt at the beginning of the class. She notes that A difficulty in defining a term like winkta cross-culturally stems in part, at least, from the insistence in Western culture on linking gender with biological sex. English has no term for this fluidity in gender, only for sex- uality. Interestingly, within the Dakota language there exist no gendered pro- nouns. Thus when referring to a winkta in Dakota, there would be no designa- tion of she or he as there is in English.

At this point I would just like to point out how her research methodologies are coming through in the text when she repeats the definition of Winkta back to Eli and asks if she is correct in her representation.

The next part of the chapter explores the question "What does Dakota mean to you?

Eli says "its not any different, any better than other groups. We are all one people. "But for some reason we have different languages, different ways of life. So therefor I cannot criticize anyone who is not doing things my way, because that is the way they were taught."

What I find very interesting is the in no way does Eli Taylor ever try to push the notion of the Dakota way as the right way He acknowledges that we each have a different way that we have learned and lived the same lessons. This is illustrated in the story of the Mohawk man who is speaking to a group and offering a teaching quite similar to a Dakota teaching. Eli taylor does not believe in the story but believes that that was the way the Mohawk were given to live, just as the Dakota people were given a way to live. A result of residential and boarding schools is that Aboriginals have neglected their responsibility to live the life that they wre given from their ancestors and have adopted a non-indian way of life. At one point they may have senn this as the only way to continue to live in NA because settlers were relentless in taking over their country.

Eli Taylor had one request for the Dakota children and that was to get an education. By educating themselves and gaining access to higher positions they would be able to have more influence in integrating Indigenous stories and ways of life into main stream society. Government policies and funding opportunities however, provide barriers to indigenous people being able to access what we see as a right and not a privilege.

A quote from Wilson says "Furthermore, at this point in time those who really support education are few in number because many still retain the view that a white man’s education means a denial of “Indianness.” Until the reserva- tion communities as a whole embrace education as a means of fighting for Da- kota sovereignty and helping Dakota people, little is likely to change. If more young people and their parents could hear this message of Unkanna’s, per- haps communities could begin to view education as a means of exerting self- determination rather than as a threat to it."

I have a few questions….

Back to the quote from Eli where he says "I cannot criticize anyone who is not doing things my way, because that is not the way they were taught."

Does this have a place in the academy now? Where have you experienced it and do you think it could be applicable?

Do Indigenous studies have a place in our academy? Should it be a separate area of study… as Eli Taylor suggested, to keep Aboriginial children out of the public school system until they have reached grade 12 and can handle the harassment that they might receive.. or shout it be integrated into all disciplines or kept inherently different?