Dear journalists phoning and emailing for comments: Please consider this my official statement on Nathan Phillips and the Covington Catholic High School male students.
I’m sorry, I teach all day and don’t have time
for a live interview.
I can say, however, that after careful viewing
of all the videos currently online that show the encounter between Phillips,
the Black Israelites, and the mostly-white Catholic high school students there for a "Pro-Life March" (if you need my thoughts on that, please read Ursula K. Le Guin's brilliant essay), this
is what I’m thinking: the only adult human in those videos is Nathan Phillips.
A friend once told me, when a situation is
chaotic, and language is confusing, look at the basics: actions. Who is doing
what?
Looking at those videos, I see four Black
Israelites insulting both what appears to be about 30 Catholic students and the
small group of 3-5 Indigenous people/allies. Then I see the Catholic students crowding
around an elderly Indian man in street clothes and glasses, who is beating a
hand drum and vocalizing song or his own language (both, probably). I see the
Catholic students jumping up and down, some doing the Tomahawk-Chop from a pro
football team, one boy stripping off his shirt and doing some kind of dance
(later I heard these are school spirit chants), others “singing along” without
knowing what they were singing, while doing the Tomahawk-chop, clapping to the
beat of the drum, asking each other “what is going on?” and making a lot of
loud noises that are obnoxious, rather than afraid (shouts, screams, chants).
At one point, I see two blond women also dancing and chopping with the students –
since this is a boy’s group, and the women are older, it seems likely that they are parent chaperones or teachers. Another video shows a glimpse of a man with a priest’s collar
in the back, observing. I see that the young man in the MAGA hat who engages
Phillips with his gaze has plenty of room to move back or sideways. I see that
Phillips could turn and walk away. I see that he has a handful of supporters –
maybe four.
What I don’t see? I don’t see any frightened
children. I don’t see any children crying, running away, shielding themselves
from threats, or acting fearful for their well-being. Instead, they appear to
be crowding closer to Phillips – curious yet clueless. I see the beginning of a
mob. What I see is a juvenile version of a Donald Trump rally in which
protestors or even allies of a different color are heckled or kicked out of the
auditorium.
This is how it always starts. This is why Native Americans are concerned about being told, "You started it."
This is how it always starts. This is why Native Americans are concerned about being told, "You started it."
Here is what I also see: that the children in
these videos have absolutely no true
representations of Native Americans in their heads to prepare them in any way
for this moment. They possess no point of reference for what an Indian
person is, other than howling stereotypes from Westerns, Indian sports mascots,
bloody video games, and outdated novels or textbooks. They probably have never met
an Indigenous person, let along spoken to one, or heard Indigenous music or
prayers sung. Perhaps to these students,
“Indian” means mascot, casino, vanishing, savage. Their “responses” strike me
as that of very young, confused children -- but minus any respect a child
typically gives adults.
Strangely, I am reminded of the ways Europeans
responded to Indigenous peoples at first contact – unable to image the Other as
a human being with language, religion, feelings, intentions, or dignity. And so, like early Catholics in the “New
World,” the school children impose their own standards on Phillips, and in
their wild gesticulations, find the Indian man to be laughable, suitable for
mocking. This is certainly the framework with which Spanish Catholic explorers,
priests and soldiers responded to meeting my ancestors, the Esselen and Chumash
peoples who were missionized in Southern California from 1769-1835. The
Spaniards were absolutely certain that their worldview and belief systems were
the only way with which to live in
the world, and left no room left for negotiation or conversation. What followed
was a brutal attempt to literally beat “bad” Indians into good Catholic
laborers and servants, and a drop in Indigenous population in what we currently
call California – from over one million people at first contact in 1769 to less
than 20,000 people by 1900.
In short, I see a group of children who have
been failed by their educators, their parents, and their role models. Because
unlike the original “First Encounters” in North America, these children – in
2019 – don’t have the (questionable) excuse of ignorance. Evidently, their
parents and teachers were never educated in the history of Indigenous peoples,
on whose land they stood, either. Evidently, they too never learned the
etiquette of engaging with someone whose looks, language, religion, or
worldview are different than theirs – let alone consider that these differences
may actually be just as valuable as their own. I say “evidently,” because the
evidence in these videos – all of them – should cause the parents and educators
of these children to wince in shame. Instead, I see the young man who locked
gazes with Phillips release a statement saying, “perhaps a group of adults was trying to provoke
a group of teenagers into a larger conflict."
That
student is a young male, white, a member of the dominant culture in this
country (and a culture that has long been dominant, a culture which has
historically enslaved some, appropriated the land of others, and required laws
passed in order to extend human rights) and goes to a private school with a
steep tuition. Phillips is male, Indian in a country where the dominant culture
has historically mistreated Indians – please look up Indian Boarding Schools –
elderly, and physically frail.
If
that student felt threatened, we all need to ask ourselves why that delusion
seems to be stuck in his head – and in the heads of the so-called adults
raising him. Because it is a delusion.
It is inexcusably ignorant. And I
will give the young man’s school and parents that much credit – he is far too smart
not to know that.
Sincerely,
Deborah
A. Miranda
-->
