PTPI Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Haskell Indian Nations University’

Interview with Dr. Dan Wildcat, Part Two

Monday, August 30th, 2010
Bookmark and Share

In case you missed Part One of our interview with Dr. Wildcat (you can see it here), we’ll remind you that a few members of the PTPI staff traveled to Haskell Indian Nations University to get his point of view a number of topics related to the American Indian culture.  In case you also missed Dr. Wildcat’s welcome in his native Yuchi language, follow this link to listen!

We hope that this brings a broader scope of understanding to those reading Trail of Tears: the Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle along with PTPI’s Global Book Club.

A subject we wanted to learn more about are the most important issues facing the American Indian population today:

  • One issue is non-federally recognized tribes, such as the United Houma Nation near New Orleans.  They are suffering from the recent oil spill in the Gulf but they are being compensated as citizens rather than as a nation.  (Federally recognized American Indians deal with the United States government on a nation to nation basis.  They do not report to city or state level governments.)
  • Poverty on reservations is a concern.  The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, for example, has 70% unemployment.
  • Younger Indians would say that a key issue is a lack of identity, or, lack of positive identity.  Due to the way United States history is presented, it is difficult to be positive about being an American Indian.  Self esteem issues are high and adolescent suicide rates are high.
  • Dr. Wildcat commented that “there is a sense of hopelessness.  You want young people to have hope for their future.”

We asked Dr. Wildcat about the most common misconceptions related to American Indians of the present:

  • There is a tendency to romanticize history and to remember only the most famous Indians.
  • “Many Americans have the notion that all the real Indians are gone – they admired the chiefs and tribes of the past.  When they see someone like me, they don’t associate me with Indians.”
  • Other cultures adapt and are allowed to adapt to the modern world.
  • Two thirds of the American Indian population does not live on a reservation.
  • The documentary “500 Nations” and the book “Invasion of America” by Francis Jennings are recommended by Dr. Wildcat as excellent sources for seeing American history from the American Indian perspective.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Global Book Club, Humanitarian Projects | No Comments »

Interview with Dr. Dan Wildcat, Part One

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Bookmark and Share

Those of you reading the current Global Book Club selection have most likely been gaining a greater knowledge about the forced relocation of a large number of the indigenous people of the America, the American Indians, that occurred in the 1800s.

Cultural assimilation is a major theme in the book, and it is an issue that has been relevant to Americans Indians from the moment new cultures arrived in America.  A few members of the PTPI staff traveled to Lawrence, Kansas USA to visit with Dr. Dan Wildcat, a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation and a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, to learn from him and to hear his thoughts.

Dr. Wildcat provided a welcome in his native Yuchi language to all those reading the book with PTPI.  View it here.

At the Cultural Center and Museum on campus, we learned about Haskell Indian Nations University, past and present:

  • Near the end of the 1800s, the United States created boarding schools for American Indian children, forcibly removing them from the reservations where they lived.  The goal of the schools was to assimilate the children, removing their ties to their tribes and in effect, stealing the tribe’s future by taking the children.
  • Dr. Wildcat recommends the movie “The Only Good Indian” to gain a better insight on the subject
  • Haskell opened in 1884 and provided industrial training in subjects such as tailoring, wagon making, blacksmithing, farming, sewing, cooking and homemaking.
  • The school evolved over the years and in 1993 officially took the name it has today.  On average, over 1,000 students enroll each semester, representing federally recognized tribes from all parts of the continental United States and Alaska.  Recently, as many as 176 nations were represented in one school year.

Next we asked Dr. Wildcat to share his views on the way the history of the American Indians is taught in schools:

  • American history is taught from a colonial perspective; American Indians have a very different history.
  • Dr. Wildcat remarked that most students learn about how America was “discovered” and the indigenous people ask “discovered by whom?”; they also learn about “how the west was won” and American Indians ask “won from whom?”
  • According to Dr. Wildcat, a way to change this (so long as students are using large history books) is to do supplemental reading by those who write about American history from a Native American perspective.
  • One author recommendation for supplemental reading is Joseph Epes Brown

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Global Book Club | 1 Comment »