Legal Commentary

A story in Tuesday's L.A. Times recounts a controversy in a suburb of L.A. about two grade schools' longstanding tradition of the students dressing up as Pilgrims and Native Americans, visiting each other and reenacting the classic Natives-meet-Pilgrims story.  That practice has now come under attack by a Native American-heritage parent -- and a professor at U.C. Riverside -- who argues that its demeaning and dehumanizing (her words, according to the newspaper story).  The issue was addressed Wednesday morning on a local NPR news station's call-in show, where one woman (again of Native American heritage) recounted her own history of doing these pageants and how they negatively affected her.

I'm curious what people think.  Personally I'm a little conflicted.  The easiest case seems to be slurs.  I can't believe, for example, that the NFL still allows the Washington team to be called the Redskins.  I also certainly understand that cultural stereotypes are harmful in all sorts of ways, so even seemingly positive mascots and depictions might be harmful.  But I'm not sure what the stereotyping is in this case (that word was used a lot during the radio program discussion I heard).  Is it that the kids dressed as Natives were dressed in "stereotpyical" Indian dress?  Is that dress historicallly inaccurate, or is the problem that it sends a message about Native Americans today?  Note that one of the kids in the article -- a child with some Native heritage -- expressed pride in the Native costume he created.  And what message does this classic story send?  I would think the Natives come off pretty well in the story; they save the Pilgrims and essentially offer to share the land.

One thing I heard in the discussion was that this story sends a false message about what happened to Natives later on in American history.  That's true enough, but is the proper remedy to erase the story, or to supplement it with teaching about what came later?  And finally, of course, there's the issue of age-appropriateness.  Nobody would think junior high kids should be learning at this level, but is this pageant really a bad way to begin younger kids' learning about the role of Native Americans in American history?  Like I said, I'm conflicted on this.  I'd love to know what others think, especially anyone who's part or full Native American or who has thought about Native American issues.