Native Themed Banksy St. Art San Francisco

Native Appropriations

Documenting images of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people, language, and culture in everyday life: countering stereotypes one cigar store Indian at a time.

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I'm a huge fan of the street art movement, I love art that incorporates social commentary and appears in unexpected forms and places. UK artist Banksy is arguably the leader of the movement, with his pieces appearing all over the world, in galleries and sold-out shows, but also on everything from nondescript alleys to the wall between Gaza/the west bank and Jerusalem.

I love the image above, from the Mission district in San Francisco, playing with the whole immigration debate. I like when artist's juxtapose historic and modern, I think it calls into question some of the preconceived notions the public holds about Native peoples.


Similarly, though not exactly the same, I really like the work of Apache Skateboards' founder Douglas Miles, because (clearly) I love anything that subverts stereotypes and allows Natives to exist as contemporary beings, instead of being situated in the pepetual past. Miles' bio describes his art as:

"Graphic imagery of Apache warriors and contemporary “Rez” portraits brings a Native aesthetic and sensibility to the skateboard culture. The Apache skateboards break through a seemingly closed mainstream boundary, reasserting and affirming Indian youth’s presence in the mainstream culture of today."

Love it. "...reasserting and affirming Indian youth's presence in the mainstream culture of today." Miles is also active in engaging Native youth in art and the art making process, which is even better.

Here are some of his pieces:

All images can be found on the Apache Skateboards website.

For those of you interested in the Street Art Movement, I saw Banksy's awesome documentary last week called "Exit Through the Gift Shop" about street art and the emergence of controversial artist "Mr. Brainwash"--a would-be filmmaker and friend of Banksy/Shepard Fairey/etc turned artist. Really calls into question the art world and the strange boundaries we as a society draw around what is deemed "art." Definitely recommend it!

If anyone has any other cool Native street art, send it over!



Native Appropriations is a forum for discussing the use of Indigenous cultures, traditions, languages, and images in popular culture, advertising, and everyday life. For background on Cultural Appropriation, read:
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It describes acculturation or assimilation, but can imply a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture.^[1][2] It can include the introduction of forms of dress or personal adornment, music and art, religion, language, or social behavior. These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, can take on meanings that are significantly divergent from, or merely less nuanced than, those they originally held.

Land Jurisdiction

Native American Tribes Say They Won't Enforce Immigration Law

Evan Wyloge, 2010

As the July 29 enforcement date for Arizona’s strict new immigration law nears, Native American tribes are charging that the law was written without considering their unique circumstance and that it will violate their sovereignty and their members’ civil rights.

Despite a request by Gov. Jan Brewer’s office to comply with the new law, Native American tribes will continue to oppose it and seek ways to avoid its implementation, said John Lewis, executive director of the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, which represents 20 tribes in the state.

“Tribes have jurisdiction within their land, and state law doesn’t apply,” Lewis said. “And the law just doesn’t work in the interests of the American Indian population.”

A resolution passed by the tribal council on June 4 states that the new law would lead to disproportionate stops and detentions for tribal members, violate their sovereignty and negatively impact the tribal economy.

In their resolution, the group says long-accepted standards of tribal life would suddenly be incongruous with the new law.

Enforcement of the law would force many law officers to reach the “reasonable suspicion” of illegal status for a large portion of Native Americans, whose legal presence within the U.S. has never been in question, the resolution states.

The resolution points out that English is a second language for many tribal members. And although each tribe has different laws, members of the tribes have not been required to carry their tribal membership documents, and some don’t possess a birth certificate or proper documents.

Navajo Nation Councilman Delegate Kee Allen Begay, Jr. said Arizona’s new law violates the civil rights of members of the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American tribe in the U.S. He said tribal members will be disproportionately targeted because some police might conclude that they are Hispanic.

“In a way, the immigration bill is an attempt to harass Native Americans,” Begay said. “When we are pulled over or stopped we are usually pulled over and asked for our IDs. Sometimes we do not carry those things, and perhaps at that time we will have difficulty proving we are Native American.”

Read the rest of the article in the Arizona Capitol Times.

Republished with permission

Friendship House Association of American Indians

The Friendship House Association of American Indians brought together youth and leaders to discuss problems affecting their community and possible solutions March 29-30, 2010.

Friendship House Association of American Indians, Inc. of San Francisco is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) community-based organization that provides residential substance abuse treatment for American Indians. Since its founding in 1963, Friendship House has maintained a strong track record of providing holistic prevention, treatment, and recovery services that are culturally-relevant to American Indians.

Friendship House operates two residential treatment facilities: an 80-bed four-story healing center for adults located in the Mission District of San Francisco, and the Friendship House American Indian Lodge located in Oakland for American Indian women with their children. Both residential treatment facilities are licensed and certified by the State of California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. Additionally, Friendship House is nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. (CARF)

Our Mission: The mission of Friendship House is to promote healing and wellness in the American Indian community by providing a continuum of substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery services that integrate traditional American Indian healing practices and evidence-based substance abuse treatment methods.

racial politics in school sports

"

Look around an average college campus today and you might notice that Native Americans are surprisingly well represented. Sure, people of native descent make up just a tiny part of the college and university student population. But there are plenty of American Indian faces adorning jerseys, helmets, and other sports paraphernalia, with "noble" names like "the chiefs" and "the braves." After decades of campaigns by native communities, a new law in Wisconsin aims to force schools to finally scrub brown-skinned warriors off the astroturf and scrap the feather-clad mascot costumes.

The law, SB25, raises the stakes in the game of racial politics in school sports. Wisconsin, which has a relatively progressive policy on integrating native culture into its education system, bans race-based team names at public schools. The law would essentially bar school districts from using Indian mascots and other imagery in team names and marketing products, and violators would be fined $1,000 for each day that they continue peddling stereotypes of native peoples.

The measure is a milestone in a long battle over Indian mascots in collegiate and professional sports. On one pole of the debate are activists who say the caricaturing of native groups perpetuates a painful legacy of dehumanizing indigenous people and exploiting their culture and images. On the other side are sports fans and others who see the backlash as political correctness on steroids, a humorless crackdown on any racial or cultural reference even when it's all part of the spirit of sportsmanship.

In 2005, the NCAA stirred controversy when it moved to bar American Indian iconography in post-season collegiate games (it stopped short of regulating individual schools' mascot and name choices beyond the post-season).

John Ridley responded in an NPR commentary to some of the anti-PC backlash, reflecting on the "right" to preserve America's proud heritage of ethnic mockery:

Look, as a black guy, I know I wish I could hang out outside Lambeau Field and have the Packers rub my head for good luck before every game but the PC crowd has told me that's offensive, so now I've just gotta go out and buy my tickets like everybody else. If only somebody had told me that it's not offensive, I could've had somebody else stand up and fight for my right to be a good-luck charm. And I know if the situation were flipped and teams were called, oh, the Alabama Crackers or the Vermont Maple Syrup Lickers or the Detroit B-Boys(ph), Jeb would be out there telling people, `That ain't offensive. That's just the way they are.' But Bush really threw a beat-down on the NCAA telling those lefty do-gooders, instead of worrying about what minority group is getting their little girly feelings hurt, they ought to be more worried about, quote, "the graduation rates of most college athletes," unquote. Of course, most college athletes actually graduate at a higher rate than average students, but this is an emotional issue. Who needs facts? So please, people of color, just get off your PC high horses. Go about your business, and leave the decision on what's offensive to somebody who's not you.

Critics may cry that Wisconsin's law upends proud school traditions just to avoid treading on the sensitivities of certain uptight folks. They may call it an unjust attack on free expression. But to the communities who have born witness to centuries of cultural genocide, and seen their heritage reduced to racialized buffoonery on a ball field, the new policy marks one hard-earned point toward settling the historical score.

Photo: Anti-mascot protest sign at Carpinteria High School (2009, LA Indymedia)) "