ISD 196 American Indian Education

October is a fun month for our students. Typically, our students (and teachers) will plan for weeks to dress up as their favorite characters and heroes for Halloween. However for many Native American people, Halloween can be triggering experience. When visiting most costume stores, a pre-packaged "Indian Warrior" or "Indian Princess" is often found as an option. These types of costumes are stereotypical portrayals of Native American people.

This newsletter has compiled a variety of resources filled with information on derogatory terms, cultural appropriation and Stereotypical Halloween images of Indigenous people.

History on the word “savage” used to describe First Nations people. Savauge- means wild or of wilderness (French).

The use of this word started under a pretense that, what is known now as the United States, was not inhabited by humans. Because of this belief, when the Eurepeoans came over, they treated First Nations people as such. They were beasts of the land and they needed to be taught the ways of civilized people. “They saw Indians as savages, as a people without a culture, valuable only as a source of slave labor,” (p. 273). Little did they know that all the tribes on this land were complex governments of people. Because First Nations people were looked at as being savages there was no room for cross cultural relationships. It was an all or nothing mindset. This mindset lead to mass genocide of tribes, laws created to oppress, forcible removal, and education systems built to “ kill the Indian, save the man, (p.1058)”

Fast forward to the 21st century where the word still holds meaning. The word savage is an example of intergenerational trauma that a lot of First Nations People’s have. It is also in our declaration of independence excusing the mistreatment of First Nations people. We as a country treated these people the way we did because, “they were merciless Indian Savages.” Regardless of the word’s meaning trying to change as a positive it still holds harmful meaning to many.

Cultural Appropriation is the act of taking significant elements (symbols, dress, words, practices, etc.) from a culture that is not your own and removing all original context or meaning, usually with the goal of using these elements to make oneself seem “edgy” or to make a profit. This can take many forms, such as companies selling headdresses for festivals or clothing companies taking traditional patterning or styles from specific Indigenous Nations without any acknowledgement or consent. Around Halloween, cultural appropriation often manifests in the form of wearing “costumes” that rely on specific culture signifiers or stereotypes. Dressing up as an ethnicity, race or culture that is not your own is problematic and racist, and it’s up to folks who are not impacted by those situations to work together to ensure that it doesn’t continue among our friend groups, families and communities.

Costumes that rely on cultural dress and/or stereotypes are offensive and oppressive. Even if you don’t think you’re vehemently racist, you can still perpetuate racism.

If you're reading this and thinking, "But it's just a costume", take a moment to reflect on why you think that's the case. It's likely that your culture and/or identity has not be historically and currently trivialized, mocked, and viewed as "funny" or "scary".

It may be viewed as “just a joke”, but that joke comes at the real expense of folks safety and security. Oppression is not just held up by very public, aggressive and physically violent forms of attack. It is also held up by the denial of rights, by stereotypes, and by dehumanizing folks through “jokes” and caricatures.

Why can privileged folks try on stereotypes and cultural dress for a night but marginalized folks can’t even exist safely?

Open Letter to the PocaHotties and Indian Warriors this Halloween

Indigenous People React To Indigenous Representation In Film And TV

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