Re: I Guess This is More for KDC Than Anyone

[Vyn]

The Chiefs's mascot used to be a horse named Warpaint. After every touchdown KC made, a guy dressed up like an indian would ride Warpaint once around the entire field.

From the team's inception until 1989, Warpaint ran the field. There was actually more than one, and they would trade back and forth. Twenty years later, they brought Warpaint back, and it was just a few years ago that they put an end to it, due to their need to be sensitive to indian concerns.

Oddly enough, I've met quite a few indians in my day. A friend of mine dated one for several years, she lived on a reservation in Kansas, I don't remember what tribe she belonged to. And I learned that as much as it is stupid to use indians as the butt of jokes, etc. et. al., there is a massive amount of romantization of indian culture and life in pop culture. And much of the terminology and characiture in pop culture used to refer to them and aspects of their lives, on the whole they don't care about most of it. They don't like to be called native Americans, they don't care about sport team names, the don't care if whitey plays dress up as an indian in Hollywood rather than using actual indians. Oh, and they don't care about the word indian, but would rather be called by their specific tribe name, as they do not recognize one-to-the-other tribe as a larger homogenous group of people. As I recall.

[Vyn]

Now that my indian data bank has been activated lol:

Of course, there is a group that advocates for indian "rights" and protecting their "culture". They are the folks running around upset about sports team names, etc. The average indian on a reservation thinks that group are a bunch of tools. The average indian just wants to survive on their land. And reservation land is a big fricking deal. The laws of the US/State/County/City do not apply at all in any way. They have their own. There are a lot of reasons why most indians live in what the rest of us would consider to be poverty, and for the most part any given indian does not see it that way. The average indian still, to this day, sees the only thing that will ever, in any meaningful way, make those indians feel like anyone cares is if they got those lands back.

Which isn't going to happen, of course. All the rest of it is just smoke and mirrors designed to seperate money from one group to another group.