Wes Studi

Tom commented on Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One on 12.17.11
I just caught the tail end of your interview with Wes Studi and while I completely support the longoverdue teaching of indigenous languages, starting with the youngsters in school, it is my impression that as in all cases where the road to hell is paved with good intentions, we are grossly overdoing it by inventing neologisms for twentyfirst century nouns for things that werent around during the stone age. If "mouse" and "keyboard" are implements associated with computers, more harm than good, more "divisity" than "diversity" will be brought about, by coming up with at least 500 words for it, a different one for each tribe and native american linguistic group. National Public Television needs to be commended for giving us a window of trth and insight into things we thought we knew about but didnt. I was a graduate school in Lincoln Nebraska when Wounded Knee hit the headlines, and although I had grown up a stones throw from Sisseton Reservation and had grown up with fond memories of attending summer church camps with fellow Episcopalians, fullblooded Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation, it was news to me that there was still a deep rift between assimilationists and those who kept to the old ways. My Dad only came to know Vine Delorias date late in life, and I think I may have studied under one of the anthropoligists Mr. Deloria rails against in his book "Custer died for Your Sins." We still have a lot to learn, and all of us must proceed with caution when procededing with our various dogooding agendas. Native Americans have been caught in a tugofwar between assimilationists and cultural preservationists since long before my first ancestors arrived here in the 1630s. We have to remember that some of the tribal leaders we found here then had already been to Europe and received by royalty.