Student was told not to wear a sweater in school that has the words "Got Land? Thank an Indian"

Hoosierdaddy71
The end of the story says that both sides came to an agreement and are happy. Why is this even a thread when it has been resolved?

this is a classic propaganda writing style, take something said by one or just a few, that might have some type of controversy, extrapolate on that to show a more vehement, but false groupthink, then add in a spoon full of "them" and "us", throw in a pinch of a few seemingly connectable dots....and viola!!!

reply to post by openyourmind1262


Although I agree with everything you said, did you notice that this story was in Canada not America?

It is a tragic story- one that could have been far more tragic under different circumstances. I don't know if "thanking an Indian" is necessary. I can't imagine that ripe land would have lasted much longer any way with the way things progressed in Asia and Europe. I'm not saying hitler would have risen to power if our history had been different enough to exclude the "discovery" of America, but a dictators exist, and a dictator like Hitler would have conquered America, and with the land and its resources, the Indians would be gone altogether.

Painterz
Fact is a lot of Native American's find the word 'Indian' deeply offensive.
In much the same way a lot of black folks find the N-word deeply offensive.
Would there be people confused why this is an issue if the t-shirt had read 'Got Cotton? Thank a n-word'?
I rather suspect not.

Yes the term ' Indian' is a colonialist term, I assume that is exactly why
she used the term effectively to get the message across to any 'settlers'.
In supporting freedom of speech what is the
issue anyways, she can call herself whatever she likes.
The cotton example is not a very good example, however I would
have no problem with something as : " Have rights to vote ? Thank a N.."
or " Have Freedom ? Then thank a N.."
Anyways, I assumed I knew everything there
is to know about a guy referred to as christopher columbus, then
came across this well written page which opened my eyes:
Truth About Christopher Colon (aka Columbus)

_____________________

apydomis
the Indians would be gone altogether.

They are here, and they will stay no thanks to the 'settlers'.
Assuming is wrong, especially when little knowledge is involved.
Just as slavery was in american, to say it was ok because hitler was worse
is a cop out and only pushes the agenda of 'settlers'.

_______________________

In the US - Native Americans.
In Canada - First Nations.

"They say there are about 12 million illegal immigrants in this country. But if you ask a native American, that number is more like 300 million." -David Letterman

Okay my first thought was that this is an issue of free speech and it doesn't make a difference what the kid has on their shirt.

Second thought, this is a school - most schools have rules already in place making "Political Slogans/statement" not allowed to be worn (or promoted - they don't want protests forming in their quads).

Ultimately that is a political statement and it's not a surprise that it is not allowed.

It's too bad we all can't express our opinion without people getting offended or getting defensive about it (on one hand that sweater celebrates the contributions of Native Americans, but on the other hand it undermines the contribution and authority of the society that has actually been living here for over a 100 years) everyone takes things differently.

But again, people get offended (both sides, as shown in this forum) and this IS a school - so it's not that shocking to hear it.

snowspirit
In the US - Native Americans.
In Canada - First Nations.

I wonder why the difference, since canada is part of the "americas" and all native americans (on this continent) call themselves the people (which is where 1st nation comes from yes?)... so I wonder why we differentiate so between canada and america in what "indians" (for lack of a better distinction in this sentence) call themselves.

OpinionatedB

snowspirit
In the US - Native Americans.
In Canada - First Nations.

I wonder why the difference, since canada is part of the "americas" and all native americans (on this continent) call themselves the people (which is where 1st nation comes from yes?)... so I wonder why we differentiate so between canada and america in what "indians" (for lack of a better distinction in this sentence) call themselves.

edit on 15-1-2014 by OpinionatedB because: (no reason given)

Canadians consider themselves north American, but we're not Americans. America (without the north) is a totally different country.
Native North Americans, could be confused with Native American (?).

It would be like if people living in any country in South America called themselves Americans.

There's only one country that has Americans

reply to post by ToneDeaf


The student still has to conform to the prisons.. I mean 'schools'... standards of dress.

On another note, I would say to the ignorant person (and to some Latinos who feel the same), who did you take the land from? No one seems to mention that the Native Americans did the exact same things to each other, for centuries, that the white man later came along and did too. All land was taken from someone. Odd that the so-called 'original inhabitants' always seem to forget that fact.

reply to post by snowspirit


Ahhh... so its a way to say "we live in Canada" instead of getting confused with those who live in the United States...lol

Kinda funny when you think about it.

reply to post by OpinionatedB


That's about it.
Patriotism, the Cdn way

First, i think the shirt is meant to stir trouble. If you want to rub people, just say "i am a native etc", that is enough.

Ok on to the terms.

I think Natives should name themselves what they use to call their collective "people", instead of the name other people gave them.

I find "Native Americans" to be acceptable term until they can come up with another one.

First nation never made sense to me...Aboriginals make sense...again..until they find a name for themselves.

reply to post by luciddream


And then there's "indigenous", which gets spelled wrong too often without spell checkers.

My son is half native. That's what he usually refers to himself as. As well as other band members. Never heard native American, just Native, or Indians ( yep, they use that), or 1st Nations.

You want to know something funny? There was an election campaign in middle-school once for Associated Student Body President, and my friends and I ran a campaign for Native Americans with the following slogan:

Vote Native Americans. They were here first.

We encouraged people to write them in and put up posters. It was fun and no one got hurt.

reply to post by Chronogoblin


Actually, Native Americans did not understand the concept of land ownership, they thought the land was simply the land, I mean a frog swims in a pond that exists, not one that he bought and then constructed, then fenced in and kicked others out of.

History shows that Native Americans thought something along the lines of the White Man was paying them for access to the land, they didn't know that the White Man was going to tear it down and erect fences and barriers and kill the other tenants.

If you think about it, the Native American world-view makes more sense, they lived in the wild every day, and there was no evidence for them owning the land. In fact, the amount of plants, animals, insects and such that lived along-side them showed evidence to the contrary. The land was the land, it was lived in and shared.

I still starred your post - I think that the dress standards are crazy - I just wanted to share that history lesson - but see, the way I do it, is I inform you of stuff, but I don't expect you to change what you are wearing or something. I just thought you might find it interesting.

I mean, it is bad for a learning environment to make rules like that that make people afraid to express themselves in the first place.

And in the second place, instead of informing the kid about Native Americans, he is just told to take off his sweatshirt without understanding why - no learning takes place in that situation, not even about tolerance or even history - the kid either is going to learn to shut people down with out explaining himself, or is going to start to hate people that are politically correct.

Meanwhile, the original point about Native Americans gets completely overlooked and the sweater, punishment of the kid and politics of an unrelated nature become more important.

Infinitis
Second thought, this is a school - most schools have rules already in place making "Political Slogans/statement" not allowed to be worn (or promoted - they don't want protests forming in their quads).

Ultimately that is a political statement and it's not a surprise that it is not allowed.

Schools are for learning,debating, and forming individual ideas, it
should be encouraged not suppressed.
To ban speech is to ban learning which becomes Stalinist.
Everyone is entitled to their own independent political position, isn't this
what makes a country great/free ?

_________________________________________

Just a stupid shirt. People have just fallen in love with the idea that all the native Americans didn't kill and enslave each other over land and food before white people showed up. Just because you have these huge ethnic groups that never got the whole reading/writing thing down does not mean that you get to make up whatever sounds good.

OpinionatedB

snowspirit
In the US - Native Americans.
In Canada - First Nations.

I wonder why the difference, since canada is part of the "americas" and all native americans (on this continent) call themselves the people (which is where 1st nation comes from yes?)... so I wonder why we differentiate so between canada and america in what "indians" (for lack of a better distinction in this sentence) call themselves.

Just because they are indigenous people doesn't mean they don't identify with either of our countries. In fact, their experience here was different from that of the US in that the lands were ceded by treaty in most cases instead of the First Nations just being outright killed as in much of the US history. Which is to say that we still screwed them over, but in a different manner which continues to define our relationship. And is still being dealt with.

Oh, and some posters seem not to grasp the OP...it was a girl who wore the shirt to school, and she is from the First Nations. All in all, another teachable moment gone south.