Native Americans protest South High's refusal to let student wear eagle plumes, beads on graduation
Last edited Tue May 19, 2015, 12:43 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Omaha World Herald
By Erin Duffy
John Andrew Tate pointed proudly to the eagle feathers hanging from his hat and asked the Omaha school board a single question.
“Do I have bling-bling on?” he said.
Tate and other members of the city’s Native American community showed up before the Omaha Public Schools board Monday night to protest a decision by South High to bar a student from wearing eagle plumes and beads on her graduation cap at Tuesday’s commencement ceremony.
South High staff allegedly told the student that no adornments — specifically, no “bling” — could be attached to caps.
FULL story at link. UPDATE ...The school board reverses it's decision: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141097655
Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/education/native-americans-protest-south-high-s-refusal-to-let-student/article_1266ef66-fdc5-11e4-80a4-e3afc89ddc78.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Really?
Why should he single himself out with feathers and beads when the ceremony is for the entire graduation class? Class is walking in...oops!...there's the guy with the feathers and beads! Yep, that's him! He's the Native American. He's made sure that everyone knows who he is. 
Is that really what graduation is about?
Many girls at our local high school will wear their traditional head coverings "under" their caps, but they wear them every single day as part of their faith. They aren't going to stand out.
Why single themselves out "when the ceremony is for the entire graduation class?" Ooh, look, I'm the smart kid.
Not trying to pick on you, but I see no problem with this. Maybe he wants to honor his heritage.
That was big before LOL became mainstream and took it over. Popular when I first went online in 1993. 
To school the savages
.
The kids hair was cut off ( very traumatic). They did not see their parents again until school was over ( summer).
Can u imagine that being done to a child at 5-6 years old!
in the hands of the petty ignorant, bigoted and just plain stupid 'leaders'.This is an example of the continuing cultural genocide on top of the generations of physical genocide perpetrated on Native-americans by god fearing, 'decent' amerikans. Pigs. If it's not shooting some POC in the back or for walking through their own neighborhood, it is the continuing denial of the right to honor ones own culture in front of the whole goddamn nation. Americans.....geez
and one day along time ago my mother and I, we drove out to the Pine Ridge Reservation.
My mother who was 3/4 Cherokee said to me-----------this is what has happened and ever since then she instilled in me to honor and cherish my heritage-----------it cannot be taken away.
This is truly sad that this human being cannot show there heritage and pride in there graduation, if it was me I would do it anyway--------I earned the diploma any diploma, and can move forward
http://www.nrcprograms.org/site/PageServer?pagename=naa_livingconditions
for the link. I shall help as I can.
them dried buffalo meat, comes in a box and I go directly to the source no middle man.
More information----------thanks
http://www.tankabar.com/cgi-bin/nanf/public/main.cvw
http://journalstar.com/business/pine-ridge-company-selling-wasna-inspired-buffalo-cranberry-bars/article_0ef5ccdf-83f2-5aea-b675-448d157fdcec.
worse, Thune and the other right wingers are doing whatever they can to pander----------- nothing else or nothing more, just pander, they side with the ranchers and the miners.
I go to the site to buy dried meat directly no middle man
http://www.tankabar.com/cgi-bin/nanf/public/main.cvw
thanks
This is just one more way for the authoritarians to belittle the First Americans! Suppress, Suppress, Suppress! So Sad! 
Some people have expressed their thoughts with contradiction, judgement and ignorance. For these particular individuals, you truly do not understand the american indian way of life, and the struggles of our ancestors. Walk a mile in my moccasins before you judge me! She is following her Tradition, which to me, is to be honored. It is not a religious matter, it is Tradition! Stop judging what you don't know! Be Yourself, and Stand Proud!
"Walk a mile in my moccasins before you judge me!" I have this quote on a picture "Grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." - (my post is above)
Prior to the 1950s the preferred words for African Americas was "Colored", thus the National Association of Colored People (NAACP) uses the term Colored in their name (Martin Luther King used the term "Colored" in several of his speeches in the 1950s and 1960s).
Starting in the 1950s and becoming the dominate by the early 1970s, "Black" replaced "Colored". Most of this movement was self identification for the term "Colored" originally meant someone who had genes from not only other African Americans but from the White population. In the 1800s it was common to place "Colored" above "Blacks" for it was assumed the white blood made the "Colored" a smarter person then someone without those genes.
By the 1960s this division within the African American Community was seen as self defeating. How can you fight for equal rights when lighter skin African Americans saw themselves as "better" then darker skin African Americans? The answer is you could not, so the term "Black" became the preferred word replacing "Colored" almost completely.
Starting in the 1990s several African Americans Commentators noted the use of Irish-Americans, Polish-Americans etc among ethnic whites and said that the term "African-American" was a more accurate term then "Black" for "African Americans". Do Irish-Americans or Polish-Americans etc what to go back "home"? The Answer is NO for their home is the USA. The same with African Americans, they are proud of their African Roots but their home is in the USA, thus the term "African American" has slowly replaced "Black" (Through NOT as quickly as "Black" had replaced "Colored"
.
The same with Native Americans, they are Americans not people from India (or the East Indies, or where ever Columbus thought he was when he named them). Indian is a poor name, it has with it confusion with India/East Indies AND bad connotations from all of the old stories of the Westward movement of White Americans. Thus a better word was needed and using each tribe own name was not a real option for they knew they needed a name to show who they were but that they were also Americans.
It took them a while and the various variation of the term "Native Americans" (First Americans, etc) before an universal accepted name could be "adopted" (Adopted not in some formal adoption but its wide spread use instead of "Indian" . Like African Americans (And its variation, Afro-Americans etc) it is still in the process of being adopted.
As to whites claiming to be "Native Americans" we do not have to make such a claim, we are still the Dominate group in the USA and even if present trends continue (and they will not) we will still be the single largest minority in the USA even as the percentage of whites drop below 50% of the population by 2050. All we have to say we are "Americans" and people know who we are, i.e. WHITE AMERICANS. We do NOT need to be known as "Native Americans", it is a term we do not need.
On the other hand "Native Americans" is easy to see applies to people who are NOT "Americans" (defined as "White Americas" . They still see themselves as part of the USA but they are the descendants of the people who were already here in 1492 as oppose to us White Americans who rarely can trace ourselves back to 1607 (and are NOT brought in to do heavy labor as was the case with African Americans).
First Nations is a good option, but Nation of what? I like Native Americans for it shows that they are AMERICANS (As good as any White American) but also are NOT white Americans. I maintain the same with the Polish-Americans, Irish-Americans, German-Americans, Mexican-Americans etc. they are all Americans and the use of the word America in the Ethnic Name shows they are one with this Nation we call the USA.
That they are NOT White Americans is shown by the Ethnicity. That background has some affect on how they see themselves as Americans and we have to accept that for many of these "Ethnic" Americans were NOT treated that well by "White Americans". That we are working together to solve the problems caused by that pass mistreatment is a sign this country is addressing its ethnic problems.
On the other hand doing an attack on a term because you want to say you are under that term, even if by nature of the term you would NEVER have used it yourself is something else (i.e. you are still holding the position, maybe only on the subconscious level, that the only real Americans are White Americans). As a fellow White American I take affront to that assumption, Native American is a good term, it better defines that group then "Indians" or "American Indians".
A native of a country is someone who was born there. Your claim that "All we have to say (is) we are "Americans" and people know who we are, i.e. WHITE AMERICANS" is ridiculous, As you know perfectly well, lots of non-whites are Americans, and indeed, native Americans in the literal sense of "native," including African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, etc
According to Cleita, Americans whose ancestors were here before the Europeans arrived do not call themselves "native Americans." I think people should get to be called what they want to be called. So if they don't use that term to refer to themselves, we should defer to their judgment.
Contrary to your unfounded accusation, I am not "attacking" anyone or anything. I just wanted an informative discussion on this question, to which you do not seem to me to have contributed anything. Thanks anyway.
