Native-American Discrimination

I used to be a terrible bigot. I still am too, but not racially. My bigotry is a total dislike of ignorance when a peson has the ability to be and know more, but chooses neither. And bigotry makes me smolder when I bump into it. A 67-year-old Caucasian male, I encounter various kinds of bigotry aimed my direction, some intentional, other unintentional; or, should I say, unknowing. Still it's all bigotry, still discrimination, and I rankle every time I bump into it or it bumps into me.

I used to make beaded jewelry. I supported my family for a few years with it and we traveled a lot to arts and crafts fairs where we sold my work. Sometimes, my work was juried, but most often not. I went to a couple of powwows and had no problem being accepted by the tribes who allowed me to show my work. A lot of Native Americans bought my work and told me how much they liked it even though I didn't follow known Native-American designs and/or color schemes. A few even told me that it was some of the best bead work they'd seen.

I stopped doing bead work some eight to ten years ago. I became discouraged for a number of reasons, not the least from being able only to eke out a basic living and constantly having to scratch to make ends meet. So, I haven't done bead work for at least eight years with any regularity or seriousness. I did try again this last year and found a small market where I was able to make a few dollars rather quickly. I was excited enough by the success to start putting in some serious time at my beading table again, but, over a period of a few weeks, discovered that my eyesight has gotten bad enough that I can no longer do the work. So, again, stopped.

Two years ago, someone set up a bead shop in town within a few miles of our home. I'd thought about going in and looking around, but was never attracted to the place. Why? Well, I was following my feelings which all to often prove to be very accurate. Over the last couple of years, I've gotten tired of looking at my beading supplies sitting around collecting dust I've frequently felt that I could and should sell them for whatever money I could get for them and be done with that period of my life. Yet, I've been loathe to, for some reason, go into that store and offer my merchandise for sale. I vacillated and procrastinated. Then, this summer, I set up my merchandise near another powwow in Oklahoma. Taking inventory there just of the merchandise displayed, I toted up around 6,000 dollars in retail value. I have a back stock of beads that adds to that value, so the total probably runs close to 10,000 dollars. I figured that the owner of the store would probably be interested hearing my asking price. I was wrong. He wasn't. He told me that he and his wife don't buy from non-Native Americans. Hmmmmmmm.

My ancestors were here almost five hundred years ago. Doesn't that make me a Native American? Yes, his ancestors came to this continent some seven thousand years ago. So what's the difference? Well, a matter of a few thousand years, it seems. It's this attitude that's causing most of the problems between Israel and the rest of the Middle East. Israel didn't remain an identity throughout history. It was shoved down the throats of the countries of the Middle East at the end of WWII. There might still have been strife if this hadn't happened. But it wouldn't have occurred on the scale and with the intensity it does today and since the new Israel was formed. The new Israelis are not "native" to the region. And the warring to remove them is the most extreme form of discrimination.

The problem with that word, discrimination, and its use today is that it has taken on a primarily negative connotation. As a result most people understand and use it almost exclusively in racial and ethnic issues. Yet discrimination use to be used to mean the ability to discern and choose. A person of discrimination at one time meant a person of good judgment as well as someone who could keep confidences. A discriminating person used to mean someone who made good choices or had good taste as well. To be discriminating used to be complimentary.

What most of us don't realize is that we discriminate countless times throughout the day everyday. To discriminate means to discern differences and to make choices based on one's attitude toward those differences. My wife and I like peas so . My wife likes beets and we buy them for her. This is type of discrimination--choosing between things based on values, likes, dislikes, or emotional response. We discriminate when choosing anything in actuality.

We discriminate in making friends. We may choose to associate with someone because his interests are similar to ours or his personality is one we respond to positively. We like someone's hair, smile, mannerisms, or way of dressing or speaking. We choose the streets we drive for any number of reasons just as we choose where we live, where we shop, where we eat, where we take vacations, and how we travel. We choose throughout the day everyday, and that is discrimination in action.

So, what's the point of all of this? I guess it's about venting my frustration with having been blindly and ignorantly discriminated against due to the narrowness of someone else's ethnic identification. But, it's only my due I suppose. After all, I am a member of the white race which did, and still does, discriminate against every race of any other color. And I've simply been given a taste of what they go through everyday.

Walk in Peace and Love.