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Who's in a Name: Identity Misapprehension On the Northern Plains
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
Extract
A cursory observer of Cree Indians in the small Canadian community we will describe would conclude that they are an “ acculturated “ but “deviant” company of persons. They give the appearance of being acculturated in that there is little in evidence of the distinctive culture they once had. White members of the community see nothing in visible Indian behavior which evokes the image of Charles Russell's noble warrior savages. To the contrary, whites regard Indians as social outcasts and renegades, and base this judgment on that Indian behavior they choose to see. Indians drink to excess, men and women alike; they get in fights and get arrested by the police; they panhandle; and they break all sorts of rules governing the conduct of respectable people in respectable public places. All of this whites abhor, and use to explain Indian authorship of Indians’ social and economic marginality. If they wished to, so the argument goes, Indians could easily better themselves— they merely and simply want in initiative.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1977 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1 Research upon which this paper is based was done over a period of eight years, in the summers of 1963 and 1971, and during the years 1966-1967. Financial assistance came from the Doris Duke Foundation, through the De partment of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, and from a National Institutes of Mental Health pre-doctoral research grant and fellowship. A Brown University Summer Faculty Stipend also supplied some funds.
Short Grass is a pseudonym. With the exceptions of several historical characters, the names of identifiable individuals are also pseudonyms.
2 A typical arrangement might be for a rancher to agree to cut and bale hay from, say, 40 acres of land. He keeps for himself one-third to one-half of this. Since most Indians do not have cattle to feed, the Indian(s) with whom he has made the deal will generally sell the remainder for cash. There is some ambiguity and tension over this within the reserve community: land is sup posed to be held communally, each person using what he needs on a first-come, first-served basis. An Indian who appropriates a piece of land for himself does so at the potential resentment of others who would use it. Open disputes, however, occur rarely.
3 Most of the houses have been built by local whites under contract with the IAB. The majority were built in 1957; more recent ones are prefabricated. Indians say the houses, even the newer ones, are shoddily and cheaply built: foundations sink, plywood walls are poorly insulated, and windows will not open or close.
4 Most band members have only one real name, with a couple of exceptions. For example, one woman was given two names as a child: kisikawapu (sitting in the sunlight) and kuwikimakaneu (the one I am Always With). The last is similar to the reciprocal term used by spouses niwikimakan, and she ex plained that the name was given to her to insure that she would find a good husband when grown. When one does receive a new name, the old one is retained, and the person is known by both.
5 This classification is not the result of any precise sampling or survey, but based on our conversations with a great many Short Grass residents on the subject. Though impressionistic and qualitative, we are confident that it is a correct one.
6 Similar misunderstandings occur with respect to the names of individuals. For example, we were once talking with an elderly Indian and a rancher about a chief long dead called Bearskin. We elicited the Cree version of this and a translation, which means "naked man." The rancher said, "Well, I'll be damned! I knew that man forty years ago, an' I always thought it meant he wore a bear skin on his back."