About Feathers & Paint
For more than twenty years, I've collected newspaper clippings in hopes of someday writing history books from primary resources. I've amassed more than 44,000 articles just on Native American history alone, and in an age of fake Facebook news and the "dumbing down" of important cultural facts and pivotal events in our nation's past, I thought it would be helpful to post some of these articles in hopes of slowly creating an accurate timeline of the American Indian people.
I've been slowly cataloging the use of Indian-themed mascots - and the fight against them - on my blog, People Aren't Mascots, which now has over 800 images and growing. But I felt that it just isn't enough. The fight against cultural exploitation, and how the struggle impacts Native people - and how the public sees Native people - should been examined and shared with the pubic. And the best way to do it is to remove our rose-colored history glasses, and take a journey back in time through a collection of vintage newspaper stories and then open the topic up for discussion. So that's why I'm here.
As an ally in the anti-Indian Mascots movement, I figured I'd start there. Native people have been asking - and demanding - that they be accurately represented in a myriad of entertainment arenas for more than a hundred years. They've protested, petitioned presidents and demanded an end to their cultural appropriation, and the disrespect continues. Why? Because just like now, their pleas are disregarded.
I've decided to divide this blog into projects that cover a single topic, or answer a single question. I'll add each entry into a timeline that's linked the article, so as the blog progresses, the timeline will grow and more and more context will be added.
The first project will be in response to the number one excuse everyone makes about continuing the use of Native American imagery: Is wasn't an issue then, so why now?
This is simply not true and I can prove it.
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Update 9.22.2017
Because there is a wealth of information to share, and because I can't just limit this timeline to the cultural appropriation/Native American-themed mascots topics because context is also needed within the timeline to broaden our understanding of these issues, I've decided to continue this blog (and the timeline) into other areas - such as Civil Rights, the fight for accurate school Textbooks, famous Wannabe's, important events, introduce the other mascot timeline into Feathers & Paint, and so forth. This will build the narrative and show real history as it unfolded in published form.
This is a huge project and I have thousands of articles to sort through, organize and post. The only way to do this is by tackling one subject at a time, posting it chronologically, and to constantly fill in the one, main timeline so a better picture of what really happened can appear. I'm trying to add important quotes, because I think those words are extremely important, as well as photographs and other documents - plus links for more information.
For now, this is the best way I know how to share the information with you.
Hope you find it as interesting as I do!
Cheers,
Terri Jean
I've been slowly cataloging the use of Indian-themed mascots - and the fight against them - on my blog, People Aren't Mascots, which now has over 800 images and growing. But I felt that it just isn't enough. The fight against cultural exploitation, and how the struggle impacts Native people - and how the public sees Native people - should been examined and shared with the pubic. And the best way to do it is to remove our rose-colored history glasses, and take a journey back in time through a collection of vintage newspaper stories and then open the topic up for discussion. So that's why I'm here.
As an ally in the anti-Indian Mascots movement, I figured I'd start there. Native people have been asking - and demanding - that they be accurately represented in a myriad of entertainment arenas for more than a hundred years. They've protested, petitioned presidents and demanded an end to their cultural appropriation, and the disrespect continues. Why? Because just like now, their pleas are disregarded.
I've decided to divide this blog into projects that cover a single topic, or answer a single question. I'll add each entry into a timeline that's linked the article, so as the blog progresses, the timeline will grow and more and more context will be added.
The first project will be in response to the number one excuse everyone makes about continuing the use of Native American imagery: Is wasn't an issue then, so why now?
This is simply not true and I can prove it.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 9.22.2017
Because there is a wealth of information to share, and because I can't just limit this timeline to the cultural appropriation/Native American-themed mascots topics because context is also needed within the timeline to broaden our understanding of these issues, I've decided to continue this blog (and the timeline) into other areas - such as Civil Rights, the fight for accurate school Textbooks, famous Wannabe's, important events, introduce the other mascot timeline into Feathers & Paint, and so forth. This will build the narrative and show real history as it unfolded in published form.
This is a huge project and I have thousands of articles to sort through, organize and post. The only way to do this is by tackling one subject at a time, posting it chronologically, and to constantly fill in the one, main timeline so a better picture of what really happened can appear. I'm trying to add important quotes, because I think those words are extremely important, as well as photographs and other documents - plus links for more information.
For now, this is the best way I know how to share the information with you.
Hope you find it as interesting as I do!
Cheers,
Terri Jean
