'deracinated'.

i got trouble with the whole concept.
kid bitzer | 05.19.08 - 10:19 pm | #

Apearantly they both are pretty good about Native American issues.

Hillary did do a speech via sattelite for NCAI, januari this year.
dutchmarbel | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 12:51 am | #

"Deracinated" would imply that there is such a thing as a pure race, which there isn't. Scientists agree that race is merely a social construct; there is more genetic variability within people of the same race than between different races. So...
Amaia (one of the Others) | 05.20.08 - 1:45 am | #

*I just realized I used the term race after saying there was no such thing...I meant "race" as in how we generally understand it: basically a group of people with similar skin tones.
Amaia (one of the Others) | 05.20.08 - 1:47 am | #

Yes. Bill Clinton visited a reservation in 1999. I don't think HRC should be thought of as less supportive of Native Americans, but it's right to highly commend Obama for his visit.
asl | 05.20.08 - 5:07 am | #

I just really love the idea that he was adopted by them. So now he's more "real" American than whitey.
Sarah J | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 5:15 am | #

Bobby Kennedy visited Indian reservations as a candidate. His advisors discouraged him, arguing that Native American votes didn't matter. But he went anyway.
Tom S | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 6:28 am | #

Amaia, you didn't make a mistake when you said 'race' after saying there was no such thing. There is no such thing from a biological point of view, in that genetic differences within racial groups are much greater than between such groups, but as a social construction, race is quite real. Lots of social constructions have no biological basis but they exist as facts all the same--a construction *is* a fact. Here's another social construction: the fact that the French word "chat" means the same as the English "cat." The problem with race isn't that it isn't real, but that it serves to oppress groups of people.
Mamasquab | 05.20.08 - 6:58 am | #

FWIW, "deracinated" was my word, not Mimbreno's--I was trying to sum up his ideas (which you can read by clicking the link and then browsing his front page).
bitchphd | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 7:27 am | #

The basic thing is that Obama is coming to power without the standard lobbyist ties that have plagued most candidates since the 60's or so.


So, its likely we'll see other things like this. Obama's got alot of real value to both sides of the aisle.

After today, it will be a big milestone = they will have the majority of the vote.
turnerBroadcasting | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 7:50 am | #

I live in Arizona, and I used to work with a lot of Hopi females in the hospitals and nursing homes where I was a nurse. The Hopi are very matriarchal. They treat their menfolk the way old white southern men have traditionally treated their womenfolk. Having moved to Arizona from rural Missouri in my late 20's, spending time with Hopi women and hearing them talk to and about their men that way was both shocking and educational for me.

I have been retired since 2001, sidelined by arthritis, but I have often wondered how the Hopi women I used to work with are taking this election. Are they lining up behind Hillary because she is a woman, or are they voting for Michelle Obama and her husband? A lot of them used to talk about voting for Hillary in the 90's, and I agreed with that blunt verbalization of what so many feminists do. I voted for Hillary twice for president myself. Of course it was Bill's name on the ballot, but I had to make the best choice of the options that were available, and I did. So did a bunch of my Hopi co-workers.

As a 49 year old white, college educated female, I have been deeply disappointed in Hillary's campaign. She seems to have morphed, before my eyes into a DINO or as some pundit joked, "Dick Cheney in a skirt." I found that comment terribly offensive when I first heard it over a year ago. Now I find it sadly descriptive because of the way she has allowed her campaign to go off the rails into Rovian attacks from surrogated that reminded me painfully of Dubyah's two campaigns. Rightly or not I would like to blame this on Bill and the evil Penn, her manager, who have either talked her into this, or have over-ridden her wishes because they feel any dirty tricks now can be made up for once she is president. And that is bullshit. Once you stoop to the level of KKKarl Rove, you are soiled beyond redemption in my book. I really think that Hillary has good intentions, but she is letting her male advisors lead her astray into a scorched earth campaign that is beneath her.

Obama, on the other hand, is holding up much better than I had dreamed he would even a year ago. I think this is because although he has many genuine flaws, like his habit of calling a female journalist "sweetie," he has a partner who can roll up a handy magazine, possibly even one with him on the cover and whap him on the nose with it when he goofs up, gets arrogant or immersed in his own power and ambition.

I am a feminist. Obama is my candidate. Her husband will be my president. And I still wonder who the Hopi ladies are voting for.
Chris | 05.20.08 - 8:21 am | #

Tom Servo... Crrrrroooooooowwwwwwww
norbizness | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 8:30 am | #

I'm glad he did that, though I can't imagine he, or any president, will really make working with Native American nations a "top priority," unfortunately. Did he say anything more specific in the speech? Like what he specifically would do for Indian nations?
feministgradstudent | 05.20.08 - 8:42 am | #

I was confused with the 'deracinated' term so I just looked it up on an online dictionary:
1. To pull out by the roots; uproot.
2. To displace from one's native or accustomed environment.

and, well, I don't really understand how that applies to Obama... so I'll have to peruse his site a bit more.

and anyway, it has nothing to do with whether or not 'race' is real...
Navi | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 9:51 am | #

I was involved in Jerry Brown's 1992 campaign, and as Jerry was running from below and to the left (but not from the heart... Zapatistia joke) he actively sought out their support. There was a big anti-nuke pro-Indian rights rally in Prairie Island in Minnesota that spring.

I think Jerry did do that kind of 'adopted by the tribe' stuff, and the reason we don't know about it is because that's loser-history that gets easily forgotten. (loser-history in the Howard Zinn sense, not perjorative.)
nihilix | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 10:10 am | #

I don't think Hillary Clinton has actually gone to a reservation yet, although her husband has. See here and here. If I were given to cynicism, I might say that Obama is merely responding to the Clinton campaign's outreach into Indian Country.

My criticisms of Obama have rested in part on the fact that he says lots of happy things about Indian policy, but I haven't really seen anything concrete regarding how he plans to make his words real. I haven't been to his website lately, but when I last looked he didn't even have a segment on Indian policy, which seems odd for what he proposes will be a "top priority under [his] administration."

Here's a link to an editorial that essentially reprises what I said a couple of months ago about McCain being strong on Indian policy. I think it's safe to say that Clinton's Indian policy would be similar to her husband's, which was generally good for tribes. McCain has a proven record of being good for tribes. Obama hasn't articulated a policy with any substance, which worries me. Unless I should just trust what politicians say. Heh.
mimbreno | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 10:51 am | #

okay, my first response to this was that obama was centering this particular montana visit around the coal issue. his position is that we should invest research money into making coal a clean energy source, since we have so much of it. it's smart of him to play that angle in montana, where he may have actually have a freakish chance of winning its 3 electoral votes - the first D since roosevelt to do so if he is able to pull it off.

this indian reservation is right next to the big coal power plant, and there isn't a whole lot else out there, so it made sense for him to combine a visit there w/ a visit to the coal plant. again, smart politics.

that said, i have to admit i teared up at this speech. my grandfather (i'm white) was adopted into the assiniboine tribe on the fort peck indian reservation, and i know what a cool important honor it is.

barack black eagle. it is a good name.
trishka | 05.20.08 - 10:58 am | #

One of Ralph Nader's running mates was Winona LaDuke.
Catherine | 05.20.08 - 12:09 pm | #

Actually, Obama does have a page on Native American issues. Like his page on Women's issues, it's not under the "Issues" tab, but the "People" tab. Go to "People" and then "First Americans". This page has existed for as long I've been visiting his website (at least a year). Here's the link: http://tribes.barackobama.com/pa...nt/ firstamshome
Adam | 05.20.08 - 12:27 pm | #

yeah, I agree with whoever said it's a bit unfair to chalk one up on this for Obama (against hillary or Mccain). From reading the linked post on your post, Mccain has done a bunch of cool stuff for Native Americans.
sonia | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 12:33 pm | #

Mimbreno, I knew I could pull you out of your stoic Indian silence by linking to you...

Wonkette links to the Missoulan saying, incorrectly I guess, that Bobby Kennedy was the last candidate to visit a reservation. Oops.
bitchphd | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 1:06 pm | #

Adam, I didn't see anything specific on that page. It just looks like a blog.
North | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 1:42 pm | #

Hi North,

The front page is a blog. There is a side bar labeled "Learn where Barack stands". It turns out that this is specifically for the First Americans page (I think each of the "People" pages have a similar "Learn" page, but I haven't looked in depth at that.) Anyway, to link to that more useful page:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/c...t/ firstamissues
Adam | 05.20.08 - 1:52 pm | #

Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities - March 28, 1992
Author: Dane Smith; Staff Writer

The debate was the centerpiece of Brown 's two-day trip to Minnesota, his first campaign visit to the state.

Brown , who has aggressively courted organized labor, canceled a scheduled appearance with United Auto Workers members outside the Ford assembly plant in St. Paul so that he would have time to travel to the Prairie Island nuclear power plant near Red Wing. Speaking to a crowd of about 150 as he stood on the back of a pickup truck, Brown said he is committed to phasing out nuclear power in the United States.

"Those nuclear power plants with their radioactive danger and poison stand as a threat not only to this generation but to thousands of generations to come," Brown said.

Members of the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Sioux tribe are fighting Northern States Power Co.'s attempts to store spent nuclear fuel near the plant.

Before he spoke, members of the tribe presented Brown with a clay pot, a handcrafted, beaded ornament and a quilt. One tribal member performed a blessing and a drum group pounded out a song in Brown 's honor.
nihilix | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 3:07 pm | #

Navi, I think perhaps the intended term was "de-raced," meaning to strip away or deny another person's (or one's own) racial qualities. In the beginning Obama wasn't "black" enough; he was de-raced. Then Rev Wright appeared, and Obama was "raced" again. One could also attempt to "de-race" (or de-gender) an issue by denying that it is "about" race (or gender).

Otherdarkmeat talks about Obama being as ethnically authentic as Republicans like Colin Powell or Alberto Gonzalez, so the argument seems to be trotting out the same old "not black enough" crap.

Incidentally, academics also sometimes employ the somewhat tongue-in-cheek term "eraced" to pun off of erased.
LiveFromBrazil | 05.20.08 - 4:49 pm | #

Now let's see if he at least acknowledges, in agreement or not, that the Lakota Sioux broke away.
Mitchell | Homepage | 05.20.08 - 7:56 pm | #

Hmmm...politicians don't talk to us First Nations much here either (in Canada). Usually a bunch of lip service. Good on Obama for addressing some issues facing this diverse population.
As always, here's another link to the rather surprising person who is listening to us.
Please watch. It might be very eye opening. The first person you meet, btw, is (was)my aunt.
http://video.google.ca/ videoplay...396204037343133
Thanks,
Rixy
Rix Bix | 05.20.08 - 10:40 pm | #

I'm always being eraced.
Rix Bix | 05.21.08 - 9:54 am | #

You know if mimbreno only cares about his issues and intends to vote that way to the detriment of the country and the world, why should I give a damn about his issues?
elliottg | Homepage | 05.21.08 - 12:43 pm | #

Well, I'm the oldest fucking Indian blogger (plus a goddamn published feminist anthropologist blogger, and host of the Koufax Awards) and I have to say this: Obama, when asked SPECIFICALLY about the Trust relationship, THE MOST IMPORTANT LEGAL CASE BEFORE THE COURTS, and while having Keith Harper, lead counsel on Cobell v. Kempthorne (was v. Norton, was v. Babbitt) could not bring himself to say that Indians have the SAME fiduciary trust relationship that every other goddamn American has with the US government.

Thanks for looking out for all Indians. We appreciate it.

BTW, the Bush Administration just appealed a critical Navajo trust case, one which could potentially have unbelievable repercussions throughout Indian Country, and which could impact Cobell. Guess who is the defendant? And who is their chief lobbyist? Oh, and just how that lobbyist is ties into the Obama camp? Maybe a little research into actually Indian issues, rather than just pomp and circumstance, feathers, and adoption ceremonies, will do you good, neh.
mbw | Homepage | 05.21.08 - 9:15 pm | #

Wow, no Indian commentary allowed. Cool.
mbw | Homepage | 05.21.08 - 11:10 pm | #