Cherokee National Holiday - Labor Day 2008

I'm in Tahlequah, Oklahoma visiting friends and attending events for the 56th annual Cherokee National Holiday. Tahlequah, Oklahoma is where the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Western Band, resides. Cherokee Nation is the 2nd largest tribe here in the U.S. with over 200,000 enrolled tribal members.

The Holiday is a great time to meet new people, reconnect with old friends, and get a taste of Cherokee culture. Tomorrow is Principal Chief Chad Smith's State of the Nation address. Good stuff.

Negative Press Doesn't Always Lead to a Movie Deal

When the media continually focuses on all the negative aspects and stereotypes of a culture, the people of those cultures are devalued - individually and collectively. Reconnecting The Circle seeks to change that. And fast. 

There are so many beautiful and inspiring aspects of the Native American cultures; each Tribe or Nation different from the next. All most people know about Native Americans is: 1) high school drop-out rate, 2) diabetes rate, 3) high suicide rate, 4) drugs and alcohol rate, 5) casinos...and not the fact that revenue from the handful of successful gaming operations goes towards building tribal infrastructure, road systems, water management systems, better healthcare, and education, 6) sports mascots - Go Redskins!..not (sorry, people), 7) teen pregnancy... I think you catch my drift. It's always negative.

There's no positive counterpoint to the chronically negative coverage of Indian Country. So, when I speak to people, I always like to use my Italian-American analogy. For example, have you ever noticed that movies with "Italian" roles generally consist of mafia-type personas or New York "Italians" who speak in neanderthal English, "Yo, Vinny, fuh-get about it"! or animated movies ("Finding Nemo") who cast a gangster/mafioso/loan shark role to its main shark character? Granted, I've heard people speak like this, HOWEVER, let's look at the facts.

Counterpoint to some negative stereotyping, there is The Food Network. Everybody knows Italians rule The Food Network. After all, we are the top cuisine in the world. They can also learn to speak Italian by taking courses that are available in many, many locations AND online. Italy is a top travel location as it is marketed by those enamored with the history, geography, food, people, fashion, and scandals. We can also study the Masters in art class and history class. "Dante's Inferno" is a classic and is required reading in some schools.

So, my point is this -- Indian Country has no positive counterpoints to all of the negativity.

There's a growing number of us out there who are working to inform the public in a good way. Reconnecting The Circle encourages Native and non-Native students to find common ground in a positive way. No guilt, no shame. Just coolness.

About Reconnecting The Circle

Reconnecting The Circle ("RTC") encourages people to learn about Native American people and cultures, and seeks to develop a more meaningful and complete perspective on Indian Country. (e.g., the collective reference for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities.) 

We're focusing on middle and high-school students and educators right now. We launched in the Fall of 2006 with a National High School Essay Contest. The question asked, "Why is reconnecting the circle with Native Americans important today"? We awarded 10 students (5 Native American and 5 non-Native) $2,500 each. We wanted people to take this thing seriously. 

We're now heading into our 3rd essay contest and have other cool things planned, including the launch of our new website (September), along with an interactive, Flash trivia game. We're also launching a Video Storytelling project. Stay tuned! 

Why I Created This Blog

Welcome to my first post. I decided to create a blog to share information about Native American cultures and my organization, Reconnecting The Circle.