MISCONCEPTION #1  Indians are people just like everyone else.

Of course, Indians are people just like "us", (whoever "we" are) but not
"people just like us"   On the whole, Indians, like most indigenous peoples around the world, still hold a totally different world view from that of the dominant Euroamerican society.  Even given the vast diversity among Indian nations, and even among the life situations of individual Native people, this world view still generally holds true across all Native cultures, insofar as they remain intact and among individuals who are in touch with their cultures.

MISCONCEPTION #2  Indians are all pretty much alike.

As incorrect as #1.  In spite of the commonalities mentioned above, this
statement is as inaccurate as saying that all Europeans are alike that the
English and the Italians are alike, for example.  At the time of European
contact, there were hundreds of distinct tribal groups nations in the truest sense of the wordwith great distinctions in language, geography, customs, lifeways, rituals, etc.  There still are.  "Europeans created the concept of the Indian's...because they could not cope with the reality of 400 different cultures.
"John Mohawk, "Epilogue: Looking for Columbus," in "The State of Native America", p. 440.

MISCONCEPTION #3  Except for the Southwest and Alaska, there are
practically no Indians left.

According to the 1990 census, there are nearly 2 million self identified
Indians in the U.S.   Of those, 1.2 million are tribally enrolled; 700,000 are not.  (see Misconception #6 Recognition).  Of those 2 million, 440,000 live on reservations; 1,440,000 are urban Indians.  There are an additional estimated 1.015 million people in this country with "discernible Indian blood."  North Carolina has the largest Indian population east of the  Mississippi, and ranks seventh in the U.S. in total Indian population.  Although Indian populations at the end of the last century was at an alltime low, it has rebounded, and cultural and political revitalization is taking place.  Although many nations
were wiped out by disease, extermination, and governmental termination policies  (some nations have literally been declared nonexistent by the government, even though living members of those nations are still very much with us), there are still 319 federally recognized tribes in the continental U.S. and another 200,
including village groups, in Alaska.  These numbers do not include Native nations in Canada, Mexico or Central and South America.

MISCONCEPTION #4  There were only about one million Native people on the North American continent in 1500.

Estimates of the number of Native people living in North America in 1492 vary from 1 million to at least 18 million, the latter figure coming from "the most painstakingly complete assessment of precontact indigenous demography undertaken to date."  The fierce smallpox pandemic (1520-24) may have reduced the Native population of North America by 75%.  "The decimation of Native North America by disease has been traditionally treated by conventional anthropologists and historians as a sort of natural disaster, induced but never intended by Europeans.  There is considerable evidence, however, that this was
not always the case (e.g "gifts" of smallpox infected blankets).
("The Demography of Native North America" by Lenore Stiffarm and Phil Lane, pp. 3132, "The State of Native America").

MISCONCEPTION #5  Only Indians live on reservations.

In many states, the percentage of non Indian residents on reservations far outweigh the percentage of Indian residents.  Most Indian land is being leased to multinational corporations and white ranchers.  Twenty percent of the land (11 million acres) on reservations is OWNED by nonIndians.  Forty-six percent of reservation populations are nonIndian.  A positive note: land reacquisition is taking place on some reservations.  On the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota, for example, the White Earth Band of Anishiaabeg only controls 7% of
the entire reservation acreage.  The White Earth Land Recovery Project,
however, is actively working to reacquire its "own" land.   Currently, it is hoping for  approval of a proposal to return 45,000 acres of federally held land on the reservation, including the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge.
HONOR is also actively working with several nations to regain lands.  Congress has already begun returning land to some, including the Warm Springs tribe (Oregon), the Taos Pueblo (New Mexico), the Yakima and the Quinalt Tribe (Washington)

MISCONCEPTION #6  All Indians are recognized as such by the Federal government.

Recognition:  The government definition of a "legal" Indian is "Any person who has the certifiable Indian blood quantum to meet the enrollment requirements of a federally recognized tribe."  "Indians are the only race of people who must legally prove" that they are what they are.  (American Indian Digest, p. 24)
There are 120 tribes with pending applications for federal recognition.  There are at least 30 tribes with state, but not federal recognition, and numerous Indian blood from two or more nations, but not enough (or enough documentation) from any one to qualify for tribal membership.  It is not only possible, but not uncommon to be more "Indian" than anything else and not able to be recognized as such by any Indian nation or the federal government.
Recognition of a nation by the federal government means, among other things, qualification for student aid, grants and increased self rule, not because of "Indian welfare" or the government benevolence, but because of treaty obligations undertaken with these separate nations.

MISCONCEPTION #7  Indians lived as godless heathens before the coming of the white man.

Spirituality was and is the key to everything in Native life: family, work,
art, relationships and all actions are governed by the Native concept of
living in balance with the Creator and with all of creation.  Creation, (the earth and every natural thing in it), is considered the visible manifestation of God; to do harm to creation is blasphemy.  Respect, generosity, forgiveness, balance, beauty and wisdom are the highest values in Native spiritual life, (although there is no abstract term for "religion" in any Native language.) Spirituality is not a matter of doctrine; it is a life path.  NonIndians who dabble in what they think of as Indian spirituality (which really requires a tribal context and years of discipline), and don't bother connecting with and respectfully
working with Native people AND THE  WHOLE CONTEXT OF THEIR LIVES are also often regarded with bitterness and anger.

MISCONCEPTION #8  Indians were governed by despotic chiefs until the Federal government instituted democracy.

Typical leadership in many Native societies emerged from the needs and wishes of the people. Governance was generally nonhierarchical and by consensus.  In these consensual societies, every individual had power, because everyone's consent was obtained before action was taken.  Because societies were relatively small and homogeneous, this was a quite viable system.  In many Native societies, the women had final authority over chiefs selected and major decisions made.  In any case, "chiefs" were not so much rulers as leaders chosen because they negotiated or meditated for their people with particular skill.  If they failed to carry out the People's wishes, they were removed from
office permanently.
 

MISCONCEPTION #9  At the time of European contact, Indians were bloodthirsty, warloving people.
(Note: See Traditional Justice of the Huron)

"While traditional (precontact) Native Americans avidly pursued 'war' as an honorable activity, it was of a form so radically different from that developed in Europe as to be of an entirely different genus...The purpose of indigenous warfare seems to have been (with rare exceptions) something altogether different from killing.  Honor accrued in cultures solely on the basis of exhibitions of personal bravery.  The bestknown example is the practice of 'counting coup' developed among the various societies of the Great Plains.
The object of this exercise was to get close enough to an armed opponent...touch him with your hand or a stick...and then get away...Virtually all Native societies practiced some variation on this theme...By way of analogy, traditional Indian warfare had much more in common with EuroAmerican contact sports like football, boxing and hockey...There are also instances on record of peoples who determined that things had become cost prohibitive and suspended raiding and other warlike activities for a year or more after the death of even
ONE of their young men."
(Tom Holm, Assoc. Prof. of American Indian Studies and Political Science, Univ. of Arizona, in "Patriots and Pawns," "The State of Native America, pp. 3556.)   In any case, there were many reasons for warfare between Native nations prior to European contact, including redistribution of wealth and containment of infringing populations.   Perhaps what is most
important to understand is that, for indigenous peoples, the idea of one tribe completely eliminating another was unthinkable. Since 1917, Indians have served in the U.S. Military in numbers far in excess of their proportion to the population.   The incidence of volunteerism is  extremely high.  Culturally, military service (even under a government which has had such a negative impact on Native societies) is considered a sacred responsibility, and a warrior's role is to protect the land and its people.  At PowWows and other public occasions, veterans are always singled out for high honor.

MISCONCEPTION #10  Indians treated their women like slaves.

"One. More. Time.  Native women were not drudges and beasts of burden." (Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale in "Through Indian Eyes", p. 148).

Actually, in most Native societies, women wielded (and continue to do so) a great deal of power, often able to override decisions made by the men.  Many Native nations were matrilineal and matriarchal.  From the earliest European contact, there were numerous cases of women chiefs.  Women were and are considered the bearers and protectors of life, and honored as such, not just rhetorically, but in fact, influence and authority.

MISCONCEPTION #11  Indians would be better off if reservations were done away with.

The identity of Indian peoples is intimately bound to a land base.
Reservations, of course, were set aside on the most inhospitable and barren areas of the country, and still continue to be reduced in size and leased out to white ranchers and mining companies.  The poverty levels (and concomitant rates of disease, alcoholism and poor education) on reservations are by far higher than anywhere else in the country.  This is not because of laziness, lack of pride or other characterological shortcoming.  Indian men and women were no longer able to provide for their families; jobs on reservations are scarce and traditional sources of sustenance e.g., the buffalo were exterminated.  In addition, religion was banned and christianity imposed, homelands taken and services such as education and health care provided for in treaties in exchange for land were not fulfilled.  HOWEVER, reservations still constitute vital physical and spiritual focal points of Indian identity and
communal life.  "American Indians nations in North America are today
constrained to occupation of approximately 2.5 (two point five) percent  of  their original land base.  Nonetheless, this land, if carefully managed or, in some cases, expanded to reconcile with legally posited treaty boundaries, provides a viable basis for national survival." (Ward Churchill and Winona LaDuke, "The Political Economy of Radioactive Colonialism," p. 243, "The State of Native America."  See Environmental Racism

MISCONCEPTION #12  Indians contributed corn, beans, squash, canoes and little else to "society".

The level of Indian nations' achievements in politics, science, medicine,
literature, invention, and cultivation is very seldom taught in school.  While it is important to recognize the extensive achievements of Native peoples, however, it is also important not to regard those peoples solely in terms of what they have "contributed to" the dominant society.  For a partial list, mindboggling in number and diversity, of "contributions," see "Some Contributions of Native Peoples," pp. 3536.  These are documented in detail in "Indian Giver: A Legacy of North American Native Peoples" by Warren Lowes (1986) in two books by Jack Weatherford: "Indian Givers" (1988) and "Native Roots" and in a wonderful video by Tehanetorens (Ray Fadden) called "They Lied to you in School".
 
MISCONCEPTION #13  The only current issues affecting Indians now are unemployment, alcoholism, and suicide.

Issues of sovereignty, depletion of land base and defense of treaty rights, means of achieving self sufficiency and self determination, achievement of religious freedom, repatriation of ancestral remains and artifacts, environmental threats from nuclear and other toxic wastes and mining and timber industries, threats of genocide on paper through government recognition policies, and protection of fishing and water rights as WELL as unemployment, education, child welfare and health care issues are among only some of the vitally important issues in Native nations today.  "Are there still those who covet our countries and our very souls? Without doubt.  The issues in 1492 were gold,
real estate, and religion.  They remain unchanged in today's culturally
deprived, quickfix society." (Suzan Shown Harjo in "Native America:
Portrait of the Peoples", p. 785.)
 

MISCONCEPTION #14  Indian children were always educated in day schools right on their own reservations.

From the late 19th century, the government, in cooperation with the major Christian denominations, instituted a policy of forced removal of Indian children from their homes.  These children were sent to schools very far from their own communities and often did not return home for many years.  The government's policy, instituted after the "Indian Wars," was one more attempt to solve the "Indian problem"in this case to force assimilation of Native people into the dominate society whether they liked it or not.  (They didn't).
"By the end of the 1870's, an increasing emphasis was placed upon the more costly but far more efficient boarding school model wherein Indian children could be isolated from the 'contaminating' influences of their own societies for years on end."  (Jorge Noriega in "American Indian Education in the United States", p. 380, "The State of Native American.) 
Toward that end, children
were punished for speaking their own language and had their hair cut off.  The cultural and spiritual devastation wrought by this process was incalculable.  Physical, emotional and sexual abuse were commonplace.  (See "My Name is Seepeetza" by Shirling Sterling, "MushHole: Memories of a Residential School" by Maddie Harper and Basil Johnston's "Indian School Days".  Hampton Institute was originally an Indian school where Indian children from all over the U.S. were taken from their homes and taught the ways of the dominant society
(1880-1912)  The tribes of eastern VA went to high schools on reservations in the west until the 1960's.  The Monacan Indians in VA were not admitted to public schools until 1963.  Before that time, they were given only an elementary level education, provided by the Episcopal church.
(See also Health Health Care to Native Americans: Indian School Hospitals
 Carlisle Industrial Indian School

MISCONCEPTION #15  At least on reservations, Indians don't have to worry about environmental problems like the rest of us do.

Indigenous peoples are increasingly uniting and networking to protect the environment, particularly on reservation lands.  Mining and timber
companies under leases with the U.S. government have already caused
environmental devastation to reservation lands, including areas sacred to the People.  The temptations and accompanying threats from corporation "offers" are great.  Large corporations are now offering tribes the "opportunity" to significantly increase tribal income (for an unspecified time) and return for storing nuclear and other toxic wastes and for mining coal or uranium on reservation lands.
Tribes are often bitterly divided between those who see an avenue to alleviate the severe poverty among their people, and those who recognize the threat of irrevocable environmental and human health damage in what they believe will equate their reservations with "National Sacrifice  Areas." "Tribes badly need economic development but again, at what cost?"  (Karen Harvey and Lisa Harjo,"Indian Country", p. 263).
The building of dams that flood native territories and tribal burial grounds is particularly devastating.  See part II ("Killing our Own Seed") of Selu: "Seeking the Corn Mothers' Wisdom" by Marilou Awiakta, and contact the Grand Council of the Cree (Organizing against James Bay Hydroelectric Project, 24 Bayswater Ave,  Ottawa, Ontario, K1Y 2E4).
Currently the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to waive Federal and State regulations in order to allow General Motors to dump 171,000 cubic yards of PCB contaminated waste at the G.M. Superfund Site bordering the St. Regis Mohawk community.  There is also new evidence which suggests that Indian people are at higher risk for environmental toxicity than the general population.

        "On the mountain
the standing people are dying back
        hemlock, spruce and pine
        turn brown in the head.
The hardwoods shrivels in new leaf.
        Unnatural death
        from acid greed
that takes the form of rain
        and fog and cloud."
Marilou Awiakta (Cherokee), "Dying Back," Selu: Seeking the corn Mother's Wisdom," pg.  5.

MISCONCEPTION #16  Freedom of religion protect Indians as much as it does the rest of us.

Vine Deloria wrote in his latest book, "Red Earth, White Lies", "In spite of Constitutional prohibitions, Christianity was made the official religion of Indian reservations, and traditional tribal religions were banned...In 1870, President Grant simply handed out religious monopolies to the respective denominations in different parts of the country." (p. 24) Religious freedom has always been an elusive goal for Native people who follow traditional religious practices.  The passage of the Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978 was more a statement of intent than a legitimate safeguard, and has not been demonstrated to have teeth in numerous court cases.  One might wonder why it should be necessary even to have an act; there is no Baptist or Methodist or Catholic
Religious Freedom Act.  Indians have to have a permit to pray on some sacred sites, and to have eagle feathers to use for religious purposes (which meant that one must be federally recognized as such. see #6).  (The sacred nature of eagle feathers is what makes the all too common "construction paper feather headband" at Thanksgiving so upsetting to so many Native People.

MISCONCEPTION #17  Broken treaties are a dead issue

"Indian people are losing their land base at a rate of 45,000 acres a year in this century."Jimmie Durham, "Columbus Day".  At the same time, the People of Native nations are actively, and sometimes successfully pursuing legal restitution and restoration of land taken by the government illegally, in the abrogation of treaties it is party to.  For example, the Passamaquoddy of Maine received a multimillion dollar settlement from the U.S. Court of Claims.  The Court also ruled in 1890 that government taking of the Black Hills from the Sioux was theft, and awarded a financial settlement of $17 million.  The money, now more than $330 millon with interest, continues to be refused, as the Sioux
Tribes continue to demand return of the Federally held land itself, which is sacred to the People.  This effort is currently taking place in Congress.  (See Current SD land Grab, 1999 , 1996 SD state efforts at restrictions)
These are just two examples of numerous similar battles.   Ongoing funding of education, health care, housing and other basic services which are provided for, regularly threatened and cut are not "Indian welfare" but the obligation of the U.S. government in "special trust relationship" with these sovereign
nations. AMERICANS WHO "FEEL TERRIBLE ABOUT WHAT WE DID TO THE INDIANS" ARE ENCOURAGED TO WRITE THEIR SENATORS AND CONGRESS PERSONS.
The struggle is not over.
(See : Rogue Bureaucracy: Stealing from Indians
          30,000 Person Class Action lawsuit for 3.1 billion missing funds

MISCONCEPTION #18  Indians are making a financial killing with the casinos they're operating. Their worries are over.

Casinos on reservations are a mixed blessing, at best.  A few nations ARE receiving after generations of brutal poverty healthy distribution checks that enable them, both as individuals and collectively, to improve their lives and improve reservation programs such as education and health services.   Gaming has been referred to as "the return of the buffalo," the all encompassing provider that the buffalo once was.  ("I resent it when they call gaming 'the new buffalo.'  That is so ungodly disrespectful.  As if gaming were going to provide us with everything we need, including religion! The buffalo is sacred to many tribes! Gaming can be detrimental." Esther Nahgahnub/Fond du Lac Ojibway, "They're Trying to Sell our Treaties," in "Messengers of the Wind", p.232)
Many Native people see corruption, gambling addiction and, perhaps most crucial, the compromising of sovereignty, as the high prices sometimes exacted in return.  Tribal gambling is also heating up the conflict between recognized and nonrecognized Indians, since only "card carrying" Indians can receive the benefits.  It is also the perception of many Native people that the sometimes bitter public  response to the newfound prosperity of some Indian people
signals only a slight shift of the old attitude from: "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," to "The only good Indian is a poor Indian."

MISCONCEPTION #19  There are no Indians in Virginia.

There are 15,282 Indians in Virginia, according to the 1990 census, and 29 IDENTIFIED Native children in the York Co. Schools, as of 9394.  There are eight state recognized tribes in Virginia: the Pamunkey, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Upper Mattaponi, Monacan, Nasemund and United Rappahannock.  They are NOT recognized by the Federal government.  The Mattaponi and Pamunkey reservations are nearby in King William County near West Point.  Both welcome visitors.  All the state recognized tribes are based in or
near Tidewater except the Monacans, who are based in Maheerst Co., near Lynchburg.  The Upper Mattaponi, the United Rappahannock, the Mattaponi and the Chickahominy tribes have begun preliminary work toward federal recognition.
The other four are interested.  The process is extremely long, expensive, and difficult.

MISCONCEPTION #20  All this proIndian stuff is as biased as THEY say the old history books are. Every society has its faults; all people are flawed.  These are just more romanticized distortions, not life as it really was or is.  You can't judge the actions of the past by the values of the present, anyway.  "Political correctness" is just a new version of the "thought police," based on what's currently in fashion.

This misconception was formulated from real reactions we have witnessed from real people who have been to our workshops and/or seen this booklet.  The following is an attempt to shed a light of understanding on old patterns.

Although every society has its faults, NOT EVERY SOCIETY IS ALIKE.  Once again, the following broad generalizations, (and, of course, there were and are always exceptions) may sound distortedly positive, but that is because they are so antithetical to what is usually taught, and perhaps also because they show EuroAmerican society as something less than the pinnacle of human achievement we've told ourselves that it is.

THESE ARE THE FACTS: Native people did and do have a world view almost directly opposite the EuroAmerican one.  Most of their traditional governments were MORE, not less, democratic than ours.  Indian women enjoyed far more equality than European women; many tribes were matrilineal and in many cases, women elders selected tribal leaders.   Religious practices were and are as important to Native people as to Europeans.  Indian achievements in agriculture, trade, art, government, medicine, and invention are significant.   Native peoples
have developed, by necessity, a comprehensive knowledge of the natural environment in which they have always lived, based on thousands of years of careful observation, trial and error, and management, and out of a deep understanding that it is necessary to do so in order to survive..  Indigenous religions have always reflected the view that
humans are part, not superior to, the rest of creation, and promoted care for and balance in the natural world.

THE EFFORT MADE HERE IS NOT ABOUT WHITEBASHING.  Many EuroAmerican people have advocated, and continue to do so, for Indian people and to work for their rights.  Some of the devastating effects following contact were not deliberate, but merely tragic.  Many immigrants who had a negative impact on indigenous people acted out of ignorance and fear, rather than greed.  But we cannot ignore the whole history and current social and political conditions of Indians OR African Americans, OR Hispanic and Asian people as we have in the
past, particularly in the area of what is taught in school.  The people in
these ethnic groups have a right to an accurate and empathic knowledge of their own history, just as white children need to have a balanced picture, the bad as well as the good of THEIR history and how the interactions of cultures affect each other.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT GUILT.  In psychotherapy, there is an axiom that guilt is only useful if it lasts five minutes and leads to change.  But there is no way to explore the history of Indian people following European contact without getting, as James Loewen says, "red eyes."  It is not a happy story. We have no more right to ignore what happened, however, than Germany has to ignore the Holocaust.  To do so is an open invitation to let it happen again (or, more accurately, to allow it to continue. (United Nations Report on Religious Intolerance ­ 55th session)  Those who, although through no fault of their own are benefiting from their advantaged position in society, and as a result of the discrimination and oppression of others, have an obligation to do what they can recognize and eliminate these injustices.
        "There's a big difference between guilt and accountability.  Guilt is
nonproductive.  Accountability is to recognize your part in something, to recognize who benefits, who suffers and try to make amends."  Wendy Rose, "You...Who have Removed Us At What Cost?" (Messengers of the Wind)

 THIS IS NOT ABOUT POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.  Those who complain about  political correctness seem to resent most the imposition (as they perceive it) of how to think and what terms to use.  Rather than attempting to impose a way of thinking on anyone, this effort is rather an INVITATION to see the world through the eyes of another group, as well as a corrective to the biased and distorted history we were taught.  So: When conflict occurred, were the Indians attacking innocent settlers, or were they defending their own lives and homes?
If we are taught that the white settlers saw the Indians as brutal savages, is it not also important to know that most Indians thought Europeans who were offered bounties for Indian scalps were unbelievably bloodthirsty, and intent on murdering every last one of their people?  Both views need to be heard.  And the evidence of attempted genocide by white society is nearly irrefutable.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT JUDGING THE PAST, it's about KNOWING the past.  The truth about the clash of cultures in the Americas HAS NOT BEEN TAUGHT with any kind of accuracy, let alone understanding.  As someone has said, "history" is written by the victors.  It is necessarily seen through the eyes of some interpreter or other.  Overwhelmingly, the history of this continent's indigenous peoples has been gathered, interpreted, and disseminated by
EuroAmericans who very seldom listen to the People's own stories of their past and present or consider THEIR interpretations of events. Certainly, that is to leave out at least half of the story.  The issue becomes most serious if the intent is not to ferret out the "facts" of history, but to convey the essence of a people, particularly when there is little understanding of that people.
The insult is total when the People the nations are still here to  tell their
own stories, but are ignored. #2  The increase in the last few decades  of published Native authors in the fields of fiction, poetry, history,  culture, and politics, and the  continuing willingness of Native people to  address the dominant society, is an enormous  potential boon to the education  of the rest of us, provided we know it's there, and take the  trouble to read  and to listen.
 

FULL BOOKLET AVAILABLE FROM    Carole Durham  1016 Woodhaven Dr.  Lynchburg VA 24502  (804)239-7496  Current pricing(6/99)  $12.00 plus 3.20 s/h, all profits donated to local and national Indian  education and Native Rights organizations.