Ya added a bit more. i had to go back and change my response.ProfX wrote: ↑Tue May 17, 2022 10:23 am I've also been to Crazy Horse Memorial.
I've been to many powwows. I've even read many articles about how they're increasingly become pan-tribal, pan-cultural events; which I think is an important development for Native unity.
I don't know who's saying that; it wasn't me. The Buffalo Bill shows were put on by white entrepreneurs to offer a white understanding of Native culture for white audiences willing to pay the admission. Could compare them to minstrel shows.
Native powwows are put on by Native people by themselves, for themselves. Totally different.
Far as I know, that original comment was in response to me making one observation: the way we represent Native Americans throughout the country is often based on stereotypes of what a Plains Indian looked like. Tribes in the SE, the NW, and elsewhere didn't always dress that way.
There's a deeper issue, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_bonnet
Due to their historical importance and status, traditional Native Americans now consider the wearing of headdresses without the express permission of tribal leaders to be an affront to their culture and traditions.[4][5] Consequently, in cases where non-Native political leaders have been symbolically allowed to wear the headdress, this has caused controversy.
[snip]
To explain Native peoples' discomfort with non-Indians wearing headdresses, for example, it is necessary to go back to the indigenous perspective and evaluate what the headdress means specifically to the various tribes, Crow and Lakota to name two, that make and use them. Without such context, it's impossible for non-Indians in contemporary settings to grasp the offense and harm that indigenous people feel when sacred objects and imagery are co-opted, commercialized, and commodified for non-Indians' benefit.
[snip][end]
Every random wasichu rock star and sports fan shouldn't just wear them because they feel like it.
The Plains Indians did wear War Bonnets.
i get the misunderstanding now. Misappropriation of Native Culture.
It was one of the things ya couldn't help pick up during the oral traditions of dance. While the others that were with me may not have picked up on it, i did. Dance and dress are very, very, sacred to them. Maybe it sunk in when we later stopped to take in the view of the Black Hills. i told them to tread lightly, were we in someone else's church.