Topic A

Thomas Kavanagh, Curator (TKAVANAG@UCS.INDIANA.EDU)
Sun, 12 Mar 1995 20:55:21 EWT

Well, since we are all weighing in on this; it is after all saturday night
sunday afternoon, before spring break, and we really didn't wan't
to say anything really serious....

I suppose I have to say that I have read Mr J's posts with interst,
not because oftheir contentcontent or
[whoops, hit the return key too soon]
...not because of their overt content, but because ofr their covert
content. What they say about how a certain segment of the
internet population, as representative of the larger population,
have to say about natives, and American Indians in particular. I find
alt-native just as interesting, and for the same reason. Yes, Mr.
Johnson, you too are an anthropological subject.

I was really disappointed that Mr J did not take up the offer to
say a little about himself, his contacts withthe native communities
(notice the plural) and thus give us some idea of his 'authority'
if that is the right word for passing along the various pronoucements, etc.
Now, while I have no basis for judging the validity of claims to
represent people in Chiapas, I beleive I have a good (as good as any)
understanding of contemporary American/ASmerican Indian politics to
ae able to judge (for mysel;f)
the cl;aims and counter claims of various political organizations claiming
to represent American Indians. But I really would like some more
information. Who wrote those pronouncements on the exploitaion of American
Indian/native cultural heritage? Only Mr. J? or did he get it from somewhere
else? Enquiring minds want to know [and by the way, does Seed of Change
in Santa Fe give any of their profits back to the native bio engineers
(whoops sorry, preservers of native heiritage) who developed Hopi
Purple corn?]

Who is on the council/committe/or whatever that has raised the objections
to the genome project? All we have seen are the objections, not their
source.

As for the comments that Mr J should be approached via dialog, I might
not that in mid-Feb, when I responded to a note asking about Horses on the
Plains, Mr J responded by mis-citing and misrepresenting a short
article about women in Plains societies. I responded to that by
very polietlyt pointing out his errors. Not a word out of him on the
subject since, and my position IS very radical. Clearly, however,
polieness does not lead to dialog either.

Hugh can do what he likes, its his ball. But we haven;t heard anything
from him at all. Inf act, all we have is Mr J's word (!) that Hugh is
about to throw him off. If indeed Mr J gets his jollies by
trolling the waters of Anthro-l with inane (sometimes) irresponsible(often)
and downright silly comments about anthros, he must be in an
orgasmic frenzy by now; I counted 23 message this afternoon alone, all
but one about Him.

If I were Hugh, I think i'd throw trhe rest of us off so Mr J can talk to
himself all he weants. I'd lose an informant (whoops sorry, pc you know, "
consultant') but there are enough ninnies over on native to show the
sorry state of general knowledge on Indian cultures. See you on the Medicine
Wheel.

Keep your stick onthe Ice.

tk