1/16/2006

Hopi Cultural Center.com

So tell me... how does a person ever have the balls to call up the Hopi Cultural Center and tell them they'd like to make a reservation. I'd start stammering the second the word hit my lips.

"Hi, I'd like to make a Tha is, I'd like to, um, make a, um res-. Um, to make a res-uh. I'd, um, like to, uh, reserve a room."

Moments later in the conversation, I'd be sobbing and begging for forgiveness for stealing the land their ancestors lived on - Sigh... I'm a putz.

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2 comments:

MoencopiHopi said...

Your an uneducated (not entirely YOUR fault) putz. Hopis have lived where they are (and where the cultural center is) for the past 1500++ years. We weren't put on a reservation as other tribes, with whom you would correctly be assuming putz-hood, were. Call them for a reservation, the difference being, when you to there and someone outside tells you the price of an art piece, pay them twice or quadruple the amount they ask because then it would approach a living wage.

BTW education on indigenous people all over the world is poor. States don't even have decent curriculum for the tribes in their locales. Most books say "ugh, there um plains tribes, there um woodlands tribes, there um northwest coast tribes" limiting the discussion to within the US. Where in reality tribes cross these borders.

Recommended books can be found at: http://www.nau.edu/~hcpo-p/culture/read.htm

- a moencopihopi

1:17 AM
TheFishmonger said...

Good morning,

Thank you for your comment on my blog (reproduced below). I apologize for the offense I've obviously given. I'll admit that after I'd posted, I considered deleting the post for fear provoking anger. But, I decided to leave my comments as an accurate picture of my thoughts. The post was intended not as a "indians live on reservations, isn't that funny" observation. Rather, I was amused at my own reactions to the multiple meanings of words, as I struggle to decide what my culpability is for actions performed by my country in the years before my ancestors arrived here. If the direction of my thoughts wasn't clear, well, I guess that's about par for the course.

That being said, I think your comments are meant to be inflammatory. I'd come across the Hopi Cultural Center website as I surfed around the official tribe website. The website indicates clearly that there IS a Hopi Reservation, and that the boundaries and handling of this reservation (for example, re: Navajo squatters) are understandably a topic of anger, or at least negative feelings for the tribe. While I do not have anything approaching an in-depth knowledge of tribal politics on the topic, it seems clear that "reservations" could rightly be a topic of discomfort for Americans of european descent, even in regard to the Hopi.

I completely agree about the state of education with regards to North America's indigenous peoples. When, several years out of college, my high school indifference to american history (and history in general) faded, I found I was unable to learn anything of significance about the indigenous peoples of my homestate of Wisconsin. In fact, it seems as if the arrival of europeans on the east coast (and our push westward) so disrupted the territories of eastern and central tribes that, in some cases, it is not possible to determine their ultimate geographic origin. I'm sure you're familiar with these disruptions, as they brought the Navajo to the doorstep of the Hopi. With the current budgetary state of the US school systems, expecting an in-depth treatment of the complicated histories of aboriginal american tribes is, perhaps, overly optimistic.

So again, I apologize for the poorly thought-out character of my post, and for any offense I've given. I invite you to read the rest of my blog. It's topics are wildly variable, but may be of interest.

Best Regards,
The Fishmonger

8:18 AM

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