A response to the Stereotype of the Month entry on the Orthodox Wannabe League:

Russian defends Wannabe League

Rob's reply (1/24/02)
>> In the archives of the Blue Corn Comics I found a "Hall of Shame" entry concerning Russian "wannabes". <<

Actually, the Orthodox Wannabe League is just an entry in the Stereotype of the Month contest. The Hall of Shame is reserved for the major categories of Native stereotyping.

I wouldn't say all the entries are "shameful," either. "Misguided" is a better word for many of them.

>> Your magazine claims to be "the peace party", and this article is nothing but drumming up a war-and a CIVIL WAR (not a war between two nations) because the Natives and the Indianists are brothers <<

I've yet to hear any Native person claim an "Indianist" as a brother. Perhaps this is a one-way relationship.

Since I've criticized about a million things so far, I reject any suggestion that criticism is divisive. Criticism brings us closer to the truth. Falsehood is what's divisive.

>> You claim that we have stereotyped the Natives, but weren't teepees, warbonnets and buffalo hides PART OF LAKOTA HERITAGE? <<

They were part of the Lakota heritage, but not part of the heritage of all Indian cultures. I don't recall OWL limiting itself to imitating the Lakota people. Implying all Indian people follow the Lakota pattern is a stereotype.

>> Don't you try to deny who you are? Or maybe, deep in your heart, you want to be white? <<

I am white—a pure WASP with no known Indian blood—thank you very much. I'm doing my comic and website because I'm interested in Native cultures and their differences with mainstream America. I can appreciate the good aspects of Native culture without claiming I'm "red" in mind or soul.

>> We are who we are-people with white skin and red spirit, and we do not want to be "something more". <<

Claiming you have a "red spirit" is the essence of being a wannabe. When a Lakota elder confirms that you have a red spirit, then we can talk about whether you actually are what you think you are.

Besides, I'm going by what the League wrote on their site. It says:

Whatever your circumstances are, these people are dreaming of a lifestyle that isn't theirs. If they're satisfied with who they are, why do they "wannabe" something else? Sorry, your claim doesn't match the facts.

The League's name itself says "Wannabe"—or said it, until they changed the definition. When I posted this stereotype entry, it was the Orthodox Wannabe League, not the Orthodox Wablenica League. Both the title and text of this website confirm what I wrote—that these people are wannabes.

Rob comments on Little Eagle Feather's response to Wikenala
>> To Wikenala: Do you think the Russian Indianists are riding big cars, living in mansions, etc? <<

How you live is largely irrelevant to the issue of stereotyping. The question is whether you can know what it's like to be an Indian from half a world away. And, if you're so in tune with Indians, why are you emulating the Lakota rather than the Abenaki or Muskogee or Ojibway or Gila River or Yurok or Tlingit? How is it that your affinity just happens to be with the tribe everyone thinks represents Indian culture?

Indians don't live in tipis or hunt buffalo anymore. If you come up with a justification for emulating only the Lakota Indians, your next task is to explain why you don't want to emulate them the way they are now. Pretending that the bucolic world of tipis and buffalo represents Indian culture now is again a stereotype.

If you "wannabe" like the Lakota of the 19th century...do you also emulate the periods of starvation and freezing weather? The warfare with the US government...or with other tribes? The plagues and massacres? Because Lakota life wasn't a happy fantasyland. It was a real world with all the pain and suffering of any culture.

>> The Russian media, as well as our neighbors, make fun of and ridicule the Indianists, calling them "feathered wonders" <<

And rightly so, since you get sacred feathers from an Indian culture only by earning them. The fact that Russians would wear feathers without understanding how sacred they are—how non-Indian outsiders can not wear them legitimately—demonstrates the problems with OWL.

>> But, unlike somebody who denies their heritage, we have a dream. <<

I don't deny my WASP heritage. And I have a dream too: collecting all the Native stereotypes I can. It's going pretty well so far.

>> We won't break it just because racists (yes...didn't you think it's possible to discriminate against whites) cry that we don't have any rights to live our way. <<

I don't think anyone has challenged your right to live the way you want. Likewise, I have the right to live the way I want. That includes pointing out Native stereotypes.

>> You have my permission to post this letter on your wall of shame—because you would probably think it's a good place for it. <<

Yes. Thanks!

Wikenala responds again (1/24/02)

Revelations about the Wannabe League (1/25/02)
A woman named Bonnie Hall sent me the following message about the Wannabe League and Little Eagle Feather (alternate name: Natasha Renkova):

Rob's reply
Cute comment about OWL members not giving a hoot, Bonnie.

If it isn't obvious to readers, accepting the title of "Principal Assiniboine" is prime wannabe behavior. These people are willing to say they not only feel like Indians, but are members of an actual tribe.

Being Russian, Ms. Renkova may not understand how the Constitution works. The First Amendment covers only government action against free speech and association. Anybody else is free to try to shut anybody up, as long as they don't violate the law.

I presume Mitakuye Oyasin ("We are all related") means what it says. Being related to Indians doesn't mean you can use their sacred feathers, adopt an imitation name, or declare yourself an Assiniboine. Chimpanzees are related to humans, but that doesn't mean chimps can vote or serve on a jury. There's a world of difference between being related to someone and being someone.

Obviously Renkova was trying to get the Confederate flag sympathizers to sympathize with her and join her crusade against the Lakota who allegedly discriminate against white people like her. I wouldn't call that an inappropriate posting if the sympathizers often talk about reverse discrimination. But if I were her, I might've tried a shorter message or a private e-mail first.

Her comment about Smoke Signals badly misses the mark. One, the Lakota didn't make it. Again, Renkova seems to think the Lakota are the dominant or only force in Indian affairs. Again, they make up only a handful of the hundreds or thousands of tribal groups throughout the Americas.

Two, the reservation portrayed in Smoke Signals was the Couer d'Alene in Idaho, not one of the Sioux reservations in the Dakotas. The two groups are separated by hundreds of miles and are only vaguely related.

Three, the Indians portrayed in Smoke Signals were modern, not "traditional." They dressed, acted, and talked like any other people in the late 20th century. If they exhibited some traditional traits, they exhibited many, many untraditional traits.

Most Indians would be happy if they were portrayed as well in the media as Smoke Signals portrayed them. The traditions shown in Smoke Signals, whatever they were, were 100 years removed from those in Dances with Wolves. If the two sets of traditions had anything in common, I can't think of it.

Finally, I think it's humorous that Renkova thinks our criticism is humorous. She's the one going out of her way to complain to the Confederate sympathizers and to me. You don't see me contacting the Wannabe League and haranguing their members. Unlike Renkova, I'm content if the wannabes do their thing while I do mine.

Rob replies to Ms. Renkova again (3/7/02)
>> Please check out this site: http://www.aspalta.cbc.ca/deaddog_asp/aininfo.asp

Even I think it's pure gibberish. <<

We already have the "Authentic Indian Name Generator" in the Stereotype of the Month contest. See the entry for the Dead Dog Cafe. But you have the right idea.

>> P.S. I received the message you sent me from Wikenala, she told me that a person has to earn his Indian name. <<

I suspect that applies to some but not all tribes. That's the whole point of recognizing that there are 560-plus federally recognized tribes as well as state-recognized tribes, Canadian tribes, Latin American tribes, and so forth.

>> Frankly, I did not know it, and nobody of my friends knew it. <<

That's what I'm trying to tell you. You're imitating the most well-known tribe, which is one of hundreds of tribes, based on what you've seen and read in books. I've studied the Hopi and Pueblo Indians for 10 years, read some 30-40 books on them, and my understanding of them is only superficial. I doubt you've done more than that.

When you say you feel you're 2/3 Indian or whatever, you're saying the Native persona is so shallow that anyone can pick it up with a little studying. It's basically an insult to tell people you understand them when you don't. They know you don't and can't understand their lives and cultures that easily, so they scoff at your claims.

Now you say you didn't know a basic point of the Indian culture, which proves what I'm saying. Similarly, the person pictured wearing a feather headdress doesn't know this item is sacred and isn't to be worn by those who haven't earned the privilege. What else don't you and your friends know?

There's nothing wrong with studying, admiring, and living like an Indian. But you can do that without claiming you are Indians—without adopting the trappings of a few (but hardly all) Native people. By imitating the Lakota without truly understanding them, not to mention all the tribes you aren't imitating, you're engaging in stereotypes.

Learn to appreciate the real Indians rather than the stereotypes. That's the road to enlightenment.

>> If you can, please post my email address with my OWL letter I sent you, so that other people can email me what else we are doing wrong. <<

Okay, but I suspect only a couple people visit this page every month. You might want to join some of the discussion groups in Yahoo Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com) and post your queries there. Or in the alt.native newsgroup. If you ask questions sincerely without assuming you know the answers, I think people will respond.

Related links
Indian wannabes and imitators
The best Indian movies

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