P.C. vs. the Indian Princesses

TownHall.com ^ | September 12, 2003 | by Michelle Malkin

[JohnHuang2]

Political correctness is breaking the hearts of thousands of little girls -- and their daddies are having a hard time explaining why multicultural hypersensitivity is more important than their daughters' innocent fun.

Beginning this month, the YMCA's Indian Princesses organization will cease to exist. The group was inspired by Harold Keltner, a St. Louis YMCA director, who teamed up with a Canadian Ojibway Indian in 1926 to create a unique outdoors club for dads and children. Joe Friday, Keltner's good friend, fishing partner and hunting guide, spoke to YMCA members in Missouri about American Indian culture and the importance of the father's character-shaping role.

Invigorated by his discussions with Friday, Keltner created the "Y-Guides" programs incorporating Native American lore, traditions, ceremonies and regalia. Keltner organized the groups into "tribes" and "nations" led by "chiefs." The chiefs donned American Indian-style headdresses. Children learned Indian phrases. The Princesses program was added in the 1950s. Over the past 70 years, generations of Y-Guides dads have spearheaded historical research projects, camping trips and visits to Indian reservations. "The intention of the Y-Indian Guide programs has always been to honor American Indians," Arnie Collins, spokesman for the YMCA, recently noted.

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."

But it's the critics who are doing the stereotyping. One of my readers, parent David Cull, described to me his enriching Indian Guides/Princesses experience with his 6-year-old daughter, Michelle: "Our tribe, the Karankawas, meets once a month at a tribe member's home where we have activities and crafts for the girls (our princesses) and have a story after which we discuss the morals of that story. We go camping several times a year. . . . When our group formed, we researched the Karankawas. They were a tribe that lived along the Texas coast. They were very tall and upon occasion were cannibals. The fathers in our tribe have always been respectful to the Indian culture. In fact, two of the 10 braves have Indian blood in them."

Another parent in south Florida notes that his group has convened overnight events on the Big Cypress Reservation, attended annual Pow-Wows held by the Miccosukee tribe, and shared meals, dances and story-telling sessions with the Seminoles. "I am grateful to have had the chance to expose my children to these things," he said, "and I wonder, if it had not been for this program, what their understanding of Native Americans might have been based on."

Alas, the national YMCA ignored the pleas of parents and children and instead succumbed to pressure from perpetually offended AIM protesters -- some of whom even threatened to sue a YMCA chapter to prevent them from using Indian names and themes. In 2001, the organization voted to eliminate the Indian monikers from the Guides/Princesses programs. The tribal themes will be phased out completely beginning this fall. The groups will now be known as "Adventure" Guides.

This classic example of P.C. bowdlerism is not the end of the world, to be sure. But the death of the Indian Princesses illustrates the fraudulent nature of zealous multiculturalism, which preaches unequivocal inclusiveness while enforcing selfish insularity.

[JohnHuang2]

September 12, 2003

Quote of the Day by seamole

[norton]

It's almost perfect:
Everyone has to be 'diverse',
meaning accept the foibles and occasional crimes of 'others'
But no one can infringe on the 'others' by actually learning from their history, sharing in their traditional values, or (gasp) sharing a pow-wow with them...
Instead 'diversity' means fearing their wrath if obscure holidays are omitted, or established ones reatained.
(how do you say Kwansa in Choktaw?)

Now, since the Y is apparently history, can we start a new club, that does not admit indians, that honors the protestant work ethic and monogamy?
Yeah, I thought not.

[eddie willers]

I gave a eulogy at my father's funeral in 1996.

44 years together on this earth, and I chose the cherished memory of the time we shared in Indian Guides to express my love.

"Little Red Fox" said goodbye to "Big Red Fox" as he journeyed to the Happy Hunting Ground.

But what do liberals care about families?

[cyborg]

Instead 'diversity' means fearing their wrath if obscure holidays are omitted, or established ones reatained.
(how do you say Kwansa in Choktaw?)

kwanzaa is a completely made up, phony holiday designed by a black 60s radical professor. If you ever read about it, it's idea is so communist in its essence, you'd laugh. It's not specifically targeting whites, it's not racist at all. The motivation behind creating it was racist and undermining christianity, which for better or worse, advanced civilization where kwanzaa holidays have not.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

AIM ping. Have at it.

[Cowboy Bob]

I was in the Indian Guides back in the '60's. My Indian name was "Bear Claw." It was a lot of fun, and I always viewed it as a way to honor the Indians. I never realized how insensitive and racist I was! </sarcasm>

[drhogan]

maybe it should be renamed the "Custer Guides." they could honor the culture of the soldiers who fought for the US in the 1870's. no one should have any problem with that.

[The Westerner]

Actually, I've heard from a reliable source that the Indian honchos feel that Indian Guides and Princesses distort true Indian culture. Rather than the focus on arts and crafts, moral stories and camping, they are insulted that these organizations don't teach the children about 21, poker slots and keno.

[kingu]

"Little Red Fox" said goodbye to "Big Red Fox" as he journeyed to the Happy Hunting Ground.

I think it's wonderful that you and your father had such an experience. But since none of that has anything to do with Indians, what's wrong with calling it Adventure Guides?

[eddie willers]

Well...as long as we can make buckskins, wear war-paint and headdresses, create totem poles, and send secret "Indian" maps made on leather with electric wood-burning kits so the "pale-faces" can't learn of our next Pow-Wow and where we'd drink cherry flavored "firewater" to chase down our "Buffalo" burgers....

Look...Indian Guides was for very young boys and their fathers.

I will not try to kid you that it was a serious attempt to learn the ways of our noble indigenous peoples....

It was just play..... and it was bonding.

It was NOT Cub Scouts where (older) boys were sent in "Packs" to bond with other boys under the auspices of appointed Pack leaders, but a place where each boy attended with his own father.

No single moms.
In fact....no girls allowed AT ALL. (well....sometimes we let the big squaws help with cooking....but they'd must leave while we discussed our Heap Big Plans)

Could we have been Pirates?
I suppose, but then we would be playing blood-thirsty thieves.
Vikings?.....same problem.

English shopkeepers....sure, but where's the FUN in that?

The myths, the legends, and the history of the American Indian was a morality play upon who's stage the players learned a little bit about Indians....and a lot about heritage and love.

Not a bad damn legacy for the first Americans.

PS....Just try to change the name of the Atlanta Braves....
The Eastern Tribe of Cherokees just might "scalp" you.
At least on ticket prices. :o)

[kingu]

The myths, the legends, and the history of the American Indian was a morality play upon who's stage the players learned a little bit about Indians....and a lot about heritage and love.

The only problem is what they're learning is usually the junk that Disney and dime novels of the late 19th century said American Indians were like. IE: Happy Hunting Grounds, Braves, Squaws, Princesses, Indian names, etc. If even half of what Indian Guides taught was real, I doubt that as many would be offended. There's a reason why Order of the Arrow in the Boy Scouts has escaped a lot of hassle - that's because they actually listened and didn't try to novelize a people.

Not a bad damn legacy for the first Americans.

No, what's not a bad damn legacy for the American Indians is the Constitution of the United States which was inspired by the Iriquois Confederacy. Or how George Washington learned the aspects of unconventional warfare from his wars against the Cherokee prior to the American Revolution.

PS....Just try to change the name of the Atlanta Braves.... The Eastern Tribe of Cherokees just might "scalp" you. At least on ticket prices. :o)

*grin* Atlanta can keep the Braves, IMHO. At least thier logo isn't cartoonish like the Cleveland Indians (The Indian Sambo). I could do without the tomahawk chop, mostly because, like scalping, it's a French thing, and France is no where near the top ten countries in my mind right now. As for ticket prices, ghads, that's a whole thread in itself.. The team owners really should stop sticking it to the fans at every chance, not that the players are all that much better.

[kingu]

You know what is the biggest sham of this whole article? That it was radicals like AIM that finally caused the change.

It wasn't the actions of the politically incompetitent (I mean, after all, AIM can't even elect a leader), but rather pressure by American Indians through their churches and throughout the Y organization. It was how the Boys Club was gradually changed as well, and how the Boy Scouts Order Of The Arrow was changed.

Most of AIM spends their time trying to recreate their own version of the past, ignoring that the people they supposedly represent are for the most part Catholics and Prodistants. Russel Means has been arrested by tribes more than states and the federal government combined not for his political views, but for domestic violence.

It's not political correctness that makes things like Sambo wrong, it is just wrong to begin with. No one has a problem figuring out that painting yourself black, eating fried chicken and watermellon and claiming that you're honoring African Americans is wrong. Why is it such a stretch to figure out that putting on Hollywood 'war paint', sticking colored feathers in a 1960's style peacenick headband, and re-creating an animalism religion that never existed is wrong?

I find this reaction to be as mysterious as to the resistance to changing Washington's football team from Redskins. Since redskin is as offensive to American Indians as spades is to black people, or kikes to Jewish, or slant eyes to Asians, what makes it political correctness?

AIM is as far from mainstream American Indian politics as the Log Cabin Club is from mainstream Republicans. Since the American Indian population is by and large Christian and as conservative as they come, why is it that Republicans repeatedly try as hard as they can to push them into the Democrat party?

Yes, there are tribes who are as addicted to the public dole as the Democrats can make them. They do this to 'help their poor relations, the proud leftovers of the first Americans.' Pandering self-service. Yet Republicans seem to go out of their way to ignore the tribes.

It reminds me of a frequent argument I have with the former leader of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians who is running as a Democrat in the next race for the state assembly. I ask her why she's a Democrat since she's avidly pro-life, pro-guns, anti-immigration, and overall makes Tom McClintock look like a liberal. Her reply was that, well, she's always been a Democrat... I point out that she runs a successful business and is being hit hard by high taxes, a corrupt worker's compensation system, and employee 'rights' laws that virtually has eliminated most of her profits in the last five years, and the Democrats are working to increase these abuses. Her explaination was that at least the Democrats know who her tribal leaders are...

David Drieir and Jim Brulte have been working without state GOP support to outreach to these people yet for every step they take forward, conservative authors such as this article push the cause backwards by claiming 'political correctness' rather than the simple respect that it is.

[holdmuhbeer]

Heres a mighty how how from Eagle feather. I am now Crazy Fox as a dad.