Johnny Depp as Cultural Appropriation Jack Sparrow...I mean Tonto.

Mariah Watchman got voted off American's Next Top Model last night. Sadface, right? We didn't even have a chance to see how many racial microaggressions she would have to endure over the course of the season! I haven't watched the episode, but Indian Country Today did a quick recap here, if you're interested. But I have something more interesting to share. Last night I was perusing twitter as the show was on, and truly just by chance caught this convo between a reader of Native Approps and Nigel Barker himself:Her next tweet was a link to my ANTM post from a few days ago:I decided to screenshot the whole thing so I could share on Facebook, and...

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Why Tonto Matters

It's been a week or so since the original photos of Johnny Depp as Tonto have surfaced, and the internet has been abuzz with Depp defenders and Depp defectors--and while the Native Appropriations community and my internet circle have been on the "oh dang, this is real bad for us" train, I've been surprised at how many people have basically told me and others with similar opinions to STFU and "get over it" (with also some more choice words than that...).But I still stand by the fact that Tonto and his portrayal matter to Indian Country, and should matter to Indian Country. And here's why.Defenders of Depp-as-rodeo-clown-Tonto's arguments...

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Have you had your identity stolen? Great cartoon from Last Real Indians

Just a quick post for today--I thought this image from LastRealIndians.com was great. The "hipster repellent" is definitely my favorite part. Also check out their site for some great critical essays about Native issues.Are you following any interesting or important Native stories this week? Feel free to post in the comments!Last Real Indians: Anti-Appropriation Cart...

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A Tribe Called Red: Powwow Step and social commentary for the masses

Something super exciting happened at midnight last night. So exciting, in fact, that I just had to share it with all of you. I don't know about you, but my weekdays pretty much start out this way: Get up, head to my office, sit down at my computer, open A Tribe Called Red's soundcloud page, and then proceed with my day. Just me?Well now you can have A Tribe Called Red on your very own computer--because last night at midnight they dropped their debut album, which is available for download here, FOR FREE. How awesome is that?For those of you new to A Tribe Called Red, they describe themselves on their blog as creating "a never before heard...

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Harvard "Lampoon Indians" vs. Harlem Globetrotters

Welcome to Harvard, where we show extreme insensitivity toward members of our community in the name of humor! Tonight, members of the Harvard Lampoon, a student-run humor magazine that's been around since 1876, will be playing a game of basketball against the Harlem Globetrotters. The name the hilarious Lampoon-ites have chosen for their team? The Lampoon Indians.The screenshot above is an email sent out to members of the undergrad community on Saturday, advertising tonight's game. We all know how I feel about the use of Indian Mascots in any capacity, and to some, this might seem like a minor battle and not worth it. But this event is taking...

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Dear Native student who was just admitted to college

AK Note: I ve been working on this post for a while, but last week s comment chain on this post on Jezebel stirred me into action. I m so sick of the myth that it s somehow easier for Native students get into college, or that the government pays for our whole education. These myths and stereotypes are harmful to Native students and are patently untrue. So I thought we should talk about it.  Dear Native High School Student who was just admitted to college, First and foremost, congratulations! Yay! I can t even convey in words how excited I am for you. You are making your family, your ancestors, your tribe, and your community proud....

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Midweek Motivation: "Savage That", an awesome video by Dartmouth Natives

I have a million things swimming in my head this week (I promise I'll write about some of them soon)--from the hideous Coachella headdress pics that keep popping up in my inbox, to those new Johnny Depp/Navajo pictures, to the water rights ish going down in Navajo, to this ridiculously racist kid's party...and sometimes I just need a little push to keep me going. This video, put together by Native students at Dartmouth, is an awesome example of how something simple can have a powerful message. It's stuff like this that helps me keep pushing back! Dartmouth has had a long and frustrating history with their Indian mascot, and it's an issue...

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Johnny Depp as Tonto: I'm still not feeling "honored"

I guess we can put all the talk about Johnny Depp "honoring" Native people to rest now. Cause it's been over a month since those first horrendous publicity pics of Depp-as-Tonto surfaced, and more information has been trickling out about Depp's "inspiration" for his lovely costume. I think we'll now see just how careful, respectful and honoring Mr. Depp was with his "research" for his role. As background, Depp has said in numerous interviews that wanted to change the role of Tonto, and wanted to "reinvent" the relationship between Indians and Hollywood. He also cited his Native heritage--"Cherokee or maybe Creek"--as part of his reasoning behind...

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Nelly Furtado's "Big Hoops" Video: Native dancers represent!

(pic from Nelly's Twitter)Do you know how rare and exciting this moment is? A mainstream music artist used Native influences in her music video, and I HAVE NOTHING NEGATIVE TO SAY!!!! Yesterday Nelly Furtado debuted her new music video for Big Hoops (The Bigger the Better), featuring the awesome hoop dancing of Tony and Kevin Duncan (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/San Carlos Apache) and the fancy shawl stylings of Violet Duncan (Cree/Taino).Basically, this is going to go down in history as my example of how to incorporate Natives without crossing the line into cultural appropriation. So check out the video below, and we'll talk more after you get a chance...

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Tracing the Urban Outfitters case and the role of Native social media

Yesterday, an awesome, awesome reader named Thelma sent this Prezi over, it was her final presentation for a course in grad school. It's a presentation that visually traces the whole Urban Outfitters case through the lens of social media, highlighting the role blogs and other Native media outlets had in driving the story. It's really cool to see it all laid out in one place, and really does give me a sense of pride and accomplishment that we as an online community were actually able to make some measurable difference! So check out the presentation below, or you can visit the Prezi site directly here.  (navigate the Prezi through the arrows...

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Electric Powwow: Boston Style

Me and A Tribe Called Red! Also this is their new Twitter profile pic, which makes me totally geek out.I'm not exaggerating when I say Friday night was definitely one of the best nights, if not the best night, I've had in Boston in my three years here. If you missed my 10,000 excited tweets or facebook posts that evening, I'll give you a quick recap. A Tribe Called Red, my fave DJ group from Canada, who I've expressed my undying love for on the blog, played a gig in Boston. It was such a magical, awesome night.My friends and I were waiting to head over until it was closer to showtime, but my friend T. excitedly texted me and was...

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Crooked Arrows: The good, the bad, and the flute music

So last weekend I finally saw Crooked Arrows, the new-ish Native lacrosse movie. I'd been eagerly anticipating the film since last year when I saw all the casting calls in New England for Native actors, and when I heard the Onondaga Nation was on board as a lead sponsor and producer, I was even more intrigued. You know how um, passionate I am about representations of Natives on the big screen (cough, Tonto, cough), so I thought I better go check it out. The only problem is I waited too long, and the movie was already out of all the theaters in Boston. Cue my awesome friend Mikaela, and her truck. We drove almost 45 minutes out of the city to...

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Thawing the Frozen Indian: Brown University's new anthro exhibit

The same day as our Crooked Arrows adventure last weekend, Mikaela and I also hit up the Haffenreffer Anthropology museum at Brown to check out their new student-curated exhibit: "Thawing the Frozen Indian: From Tobacco to Top Model." Dr. Hoover, one of the faculty members at Brown, had mentioned to me at Harvard Powwow (she was the Head Lady Dancer) that there was a reference to my blog, and I might like the exhibit. But, imagine my surprise and geeked out delight when I walked in and saw this:Yep, that says "On the blog Native Appropriations, Adrienne K. explains..."! There's a block , from me, on the wall of the museum! How cool is that?!...

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