Upload
patrick-russell-lebeau
View
240
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
1/16
LeBeau 1
Academic Skins: Exploring the Role of American Indian Identity in the Academy
presented at the conference,Neocolonial Inscription & Performance: American Indian
Identity in American Higher Education, held at the MSUs Kellogg Center, October 16-
17, 2008.
Welcome.
We know that university professors have fraudulently claimed and invented
Indian identities to bolster academic careers. We have witnessed the willingness of self-
identified Indian professors to call tribal members, who are professors, racists and ethnic
intimidators when tribal members ask about their tribal lineage and ask about their family
histories. These same self-identified Indian professors refuse to disclose information
about their native backgrounds and their status or legal or otherwise connection to
federally recognized tribes. Their families are also not mentioned or not traceable or
when contacted do not necessarily claim Indian identity. Some self-identified Indian
professors are legitimate descendants of tribal people and recognize that they are not
members of Indian tribes; however, they tend to ignore tribal politics and tribal concerns
in favor of their own academic careers. The frauds and the self-identified Indians have
historically dominated campus Indian student and faculty groups and organizations,
control and/or take control of Indian studies programs and purport to speak for all
Indians, including tribal members. This leaves the members of federally recognized
Indian tribes who have earned doctorates and who have achieved tenure in U.S.
universities and colleges a distinct and often powerless minority within a group that is
historically the smallest minority group in any university/college campus.
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
2/16
LeBeau 2
Of course politics plays a role. To be a member of a federally recognized tribe is
political. Tribal members have legal standing not only within their respective tribes but
also within states and the nation as a whole. To achieve such standing, an individual
must meet the membership requirements of the tribe, of the state and/or the federal
government. No other minority or ethnic group has such a political/legal status, which
makes tribal members unique and connected by Indian treaties to the U.S. Constitution.
Furthermore, politics creates a hierarchal stratum of status and identity that muddies the
water, especially when Indians enter the halls of academia. The sovereignty of the
tribes dictates that they have the right to establish their own membership criteria, which,
in at least one case, has opened limited membership for a short period of time to non-
Indians via a $25 membership fee. Tribes have also opened membership to descendants
of tribal members via a descendant card, which recognizes descendant status but does
not allow full citizenship rights like voting or having access to tribal assets or benefits. In
the latter case, tribal descendants do not meet the blood quantum or degree-of-Indian-
blood (DIB) set by that particular tribe or else they would be full-fledged members of
the tribe. Individual states have criteria of their own. For example, Minnesota
recognizes Indians who have descendant status in more than one federally recognized
tribe but not enough DIB to be a full-fledged member of any one. The federal standard
has been set at one-quarter DIB. Many Indians may meet this standard but are not
necessarily members of a particular tribe. In addition, an individual Indian may only be a
member of one tribe, even if they meet, like I do, the membership criteria for both their
mothers and a fathers tribes. In my case I am an enrolled member of the Cheyenne
River Sioux Tribe (my fathers affiliation), where I am certified as 9/16 DIB Cheyenne
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
3/16
LeBeau 3
River Sioux. Despite that the math does not make sense, which supports the political
nature of Indian tribal membership, the remaining 7/16 DIB is partially (at least legally
DIB) Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe (my mothers affiliation), I can only be a
legal/political member of one of the two. Finally, many Indians can meet some or all of
the criteria cited above but they lack the proof or documentation. In the political nature
of tribal membership, they are not Indian, at least not legally. My little brother, because
he was born in Japan, was not immediately enrolled as a Cheyenne River Sioux for many
years and was not an Indian until he was fully enrolled some five years later. Despite
many petitions the tribal council in 1960 still remembered Japan as an enemy nation and
branded my brother Little Buddha, a nickname he never liked or could ever shed. That
is politics.
Despite these complexities of the legal status of Indian tribal membership, and I
mean full-fledged, voting members, very few tribal members earn doctorates and join the
faculty of Americas universities and colleges; on the other hand, numerous frauds and
self-identified faculty members have used Indian identity to advance academic careers
and build reputations with fake, vague and/or distant connections to tribal peoples. In my
generation and before (I am fifty years old at the time of writing) more than half of all the
tribal members I know and knew who were pursuing degrees in higher education dropped
out of school whereas the graduate students who I later learned were (are) fakes and who
were self-identified most often graduated and landed academic jobs in great numbers
immediately after graduation. Hell, over 75% of tribal members my age who I knew or
were related to did not even graduate high school, let alone lasting more than a semester
in a community college. Sure, the few tribal members earning their doctorates have
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
4/16
LeBeau 4
achieved and earned very important positions but they have always had to compete and
butt heads with the fakes and self-identified. Some of the fakes and self-identified
became fake or self-identified late in their lives and, in some cases, many years after
securing academic positions; whenever, soon after making an affiliation to Indian tribes
to create an Indian identity, most of the fakes and self-identified were able to publish,
compete successfully for administrative jobs and land advisory or editorial roles in
academic journals or presses. While many tribal members struggled with the intricacies
and pitfalls of the academic landscape, most of the frauds and self-identified Indians
flourished.
At the university/college level in most instances, including Michigan State
University, faculty who claim Indian identity do not have to provide proof that they are
tribal members, which is the only legal method of establishing tribal affiliation, and that
makes the claim and entitlement by fakes and self-identified possible. Tribal membership
is not necessary to be an Indian faculty member to the officials and authorities
representing institutions of higher learning. Any individual can merely make a claim and
they are Indian; after that, they are entitled, and according to many, deserve special
treatment and consideration for their minority status, even if they never lived life as an
Indian until they made that claim. Maybe not so ironic, these same Indians have not
had a difficult time displaying their Indian-ness to the greater academic community
while tribal members are often perceived (often at the encouragement of the fakes and
self-identified) as exclusionary and racist. I have even had a so-called Indian faculty
member say that the suffering of Indian students (students who would later become
faculty members) due to prejudice and racism (the scar factor as he called it) was not
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
5/16
LeBeau 5
necessarily a meaningful part of tribal identity. For those who look Indian and who
happen to be tribal members, the scar factor looms large and meaningful as the
remaining portions of this essay will explain.
To provide an illustrative example of what I mean I will tell the story of my own
journey of becoming what I call an academic skin. I use the term academic skins to
identify all those Indians (fake or otherwise) in the academic community and those who
particularly use their academic skin for self-promotion. I include my own academic skin
within the milieu but will at the end of the essay make some qualitative interpretations
and assessments. Tribal members in the academy should not be ashamed of their own
personal desires to be successful and to thrive in the same environment where others use
a false skin to make a career that they could not accomplish within their own original
skin. Skins is derived from redskins and is a way for tribal members to change a
negative racial slur into a positive act of defiance and reversal and to celebrate an Indian
identity in a joking way. I also want to draw attention to how a skin can be multi-faceted
metaphor that reflects the ability of anyone to grow a new skin every month or so and
that skin draws attention to color. Skin references the many layers of thickness that a
tribal member must have to succeed in the academy. On the other hand, skin is a mask
and a way of concealing what is underneath. Skin is what people see. Many tribal
members know that looking Indian is something that they can not control whereas
fakes and self-identified must let others know or otherwise code their skin in a
manipulative way to let others know that they have a redskin. Ergo, the ability to
exploit such a skin in an academic environment without scars or blemishes or flaws, an
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
6/16
LeBeau 6
easily accepted persona to those non-Indians who understand very little about tribal
peoples, is easily effectuated.
The growing of my academic skin started early. As the lone tribal member in a
classroom of mostly white students, I was the class skin, the one skin that had to speak
for all skins for all time and for all purposes. Teachers would often call on my skin to
speak to knowledge I did not have and by context they did not have. For example, in
England where my dad was stationed, a teacher in a middle school classroom asked me to
spell, Sioux, because her records said I was Sioux, and I uttered the letters: s-o-u-x. I was
chastised for not knowing the proper spelling of my own tribe though I never used that
word before. I responded that my dad said I was Lakota, l-a-k-o-t-a, and that my
Tiospaye is Mnikoju, or Planters By The Water, of the Lakota or Titunwan, the
People of the Plains, though I had a hard time convincing anyone of the spelling.
Ironically, I was the top speller in the class with a 105% (again the math does not make
sense) GPA.
My skin made me an Indian long before I knew what that meant, which I mean
the stereotypical Indian. I was the guy whose eyes burned red when angry and I became
known as red eye. As a skin I was chief and I could climb trees. As a skin I was
sneaky and devious. I could be trusted and I could be an Indian giver. After awhile I got
used to these apparent powers and used the good ones for my own benefit because the
bad ones caused me so much grief and despair. For example, I thought I had to know
about every Indian tribe and if I did not, I felt an extreme emptiness. So why not exploit
the good where there was so much bad? On the physical side, I was born with clubbed
feet and had to wear orthopedic designed boots, particularly on my left foot, which I had
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
7/16
LeBeau 7
to wear long after the right. I dragged that booted left foot with a recognizable gimpy
drag all the way through to high school, hardly a stoic and graceful Indian warrior, but
that is what kids thought of me and that is what I thought of myself. In many ways that
defect was not part of my visible skin.
Due to my clubbed feet, I became the nerdy reader and expert in many non-
physical fields; but my skin was what provided me with fame. In high school in the
1970s, I could be cast as an Indian in theatrical plays or become the odd character in
many other plays due to my skin (and not my left foot). I started to wear the handmade
clothing, ribbon shirts and beaded stuff my aunties and other relatives sent me because,
on reflection, I wanted more of that fame. I adorned the cowboy look my sister and I
sported with beaded bands, medallions, and figurines, and handmade and brightly colored
ribbons and cloth, very unique until John Travoltas Urban Cowboy hit the theaters. I
wore a cowboy hat with beaded headband for many years. One of the headbands spoke
out with: THINK INDIAN. The wearing of traditional and expressive Indian jewelry,
clothing and regalia helped answer the question all non-Indians wanted to ask me: Are
you Indian? I particularly remember a beaded pair of Indian husband and wife effigies
my auntie sent to me one time and that I wore on my left shirt pocket. As they wore out I
would request replacements, my own emblem of skin upon a skin, so often admired. As I
remember I wore generations of the beaded couple until I was 21.
Fakes and self-identified soon learned they could adorn themselves with all
manner of Indian stuff mostly, at first, bought at trading posts and later at the
ubiquitous powwow trader stands. The more adornment the less people looked at the skin
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
8/16
LeBeau 8
underneath. I only wore what was produced by my own hand or family or given to me by
tribal relatives and/or friends.
My skin got me into college. Although I am sure my dad would have found a way
to pay for tuition, I was one of the first recipients of Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver Act,
which I later learned was linked to Indian treaties and was resurrected by tribal students
at Michigan State University. Fakes, obviously, and most self-identified do not meet the
legal requirements to qualify for this benefit linked to U.S. Indian treaties.
At the advice of my father, who was also enrolled, I attended Kellogg Community
College. There, I decided to pursue a degree in education, American Studies and
American History with focus on American Indian studies. An interest in U.S. literature
soon followed. I wrote, directed and produced an Indian (skin) play; however I had to
rely on the theaters ubiquitous Indian style costumes to portray my skins. The play was
mixture of what I knew about my cultural/family background and what I knew about the
clich and stereotypical Indian. I even created a Super-8 film of the play starring the same
actors and to my knowledge it still in the library archives of student productions. It was a
great success and I earned As in several classes due to that skin work. I gave the
audience the skins they wanted and at the time I felt good about it due to praise and
recognition; later I questioned myself and doubted myself about the use of tribal stories
combined with Indian stereotypes to get my message across. Feeling good about myself
was no longer a good reason to exploit my own skin.
My skin transferred to Michigan State University (MSU) and I soon joined other
skins in a variety of skin student organizations set out to make a difference: what we
accomplished was to learn many sobering and surprising lessons about the role of skins in
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
9/16
LeBeau 9
institutions of higher learning. As political organizers and activists we formed the
Students Organized for Anishinabe Rights (SOAR) and we soon found that lobbying for
the refunding of the Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver Act had disappointing results as
SOAR students were told by state senators and representatives that tribes have no power
or rights. When we joined MSUs Native American Indian Student Organization
(NAISO) and decided to host the first annual MSU student skin powwow, we learned that
tribal members could succumb to a level of institutionalization, perhaps in fear for their
jobs or desire to save their own skins at the expense of the students. In the first annual
NAISO powwow held in 1982, two tribal members working for MSUs office of
supportive services took prize money out of envelopes prepared by students for the
various dance categories (womens shawl, mens fancy and etc.) and they tried to
accomplish the task without the knowledge of the Indian students. In the very next year,
they modified the 1983 powwow button from one created by a NAISO student who was
pursuing a graphics design degree by changing his handwritten script to typed and easily
readable version. Despite that merits or demerits of one design over the other, the two
Supportive Services skins decided within their own skins to make the change even after
the powwow committee had approved the design. Now what makes a tribal member
conform to an institution? When does a tribal member in the academy become
institutionalized? Those two could never convince us ever again that the powwow was a
student powwow because they undermined our efforts.
The growing of my academic skin continued at the University of Michigan. I was
awarded a University of Michigan Merit Scholarship and due to my skin, the award was
changed to a Michigan Minority Merit Scholarship, as the graduate school advisors
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
10/16
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
11/16
LeBeau 11
by MSU as a target of opportunity, meaning my skin had minority status. Immediately
I was asked to join the Indian faculty and staff association (EAGLE) and the skins there
asked me for my identity papers. To be frank I was appalled at the request and
responded: you show me yours and Ill show you mine. Well I ended up showing mine
and I have yet to see all of theirs. They said copies were stored in some kind of file.
However, after many years of service at MSU and after many attacks, I learned that proof
of identity is politically and economically important to tribal skins in the academy.
EAGLEs foresight and wisdom in the matter of academic skins stressed the protection of
tribal members and tribal treaty rights in institutions of higher learning and my skin
eventually followed suit as attacks on my skin at MSU increased as my academic status
and rank increased.
You would be mistaken to think I am merely listing a series of grievances and
complaints because you would have never heard me share these experiences if it was not
for my encounters with fakes and self-identified skins willing to go to any extreme to for
self-promotion and academic gain. At MSU, I found the power and presence of fakes
and self-identified skins to be overwhelming and dominant. My skin was subjected to
many abuses and unfair treatment by these fakes and self-identified from
disenfranchisement from the American Indian Studies Program (AISP), which I helped to
build and grow, to formal accusations of ethnic intimidation, charges that were ruled
without merit. I had a wife of a self-identified skin of pursuing my romantically because
of my skin, which should have been called sexual harassment but was legally creating a
hostile work environment, according to university officials at the Womens Resource
Center. I had to suffer this indignity for almost three years of which I kept meticulous
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
12/16
LeBeau 12
records and which I kept my wife, my chair, the Womens Resource Center, and several
colleagues informed of this persons antics and written advances, including a poem with
masturbation as its theme. Fakes and self-identified skins tried to take over EAGLE and
they were partially successful. They settled for creating an organization of their own but
not before destroying annual funding for Indian programming that had been a mainstay
and tradition at MSU.
Another strange event that I have been trying to correct but without success is the
non-recognition of a recognition award I thought I earned. In 2001, I was awarded an
All-University Excellence in Diversity certificate by the Recognition and Awards
Program but my name does not appear in the list of past winners or awardees (see the
attached certificate and also http://www.inclusion.msu.edu/eida/history - 2001 or
http://www.inclusion.msu.edu/eida/history), which makes me the only winner to not to
earn a cash award but I must also accept the humiliation of not being listed as a past
winner.
The strange and oftentimes unprecedented actions taken by administrators to
protect the self-identified and fakes and to protect their skins and their concerns and
positions are disturbing. For example, in the spring of 2008, my current chair asked me to
write a line to endorse the inclusion of new front-page disclaimer to the AIM:
Movement or Mafia web page, a web site created and maintained by student in my
Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures (WRA or WRAC) 260 class, a course on Native
American rhetoric, and a web site advertising and presenting information on a class
promoted program. She advocated this change to appease a self-identified skin, who has
brought a technical complaint to necessitate such a disclaimer, or if he had his way, to
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
13/16
LeBeau 13
remove the website altogether. She took his complaint at face value without
consultation with me and/or my students. His claim was a red herring designed to disrupt
and to discredit a program he disagrees with and to lend validity to his desire to harm me
professionally and personally, an advocacy in which he has long written and witnessed
record of pursuing. In any case, students of the WRA 260 class wrote all the content of
the website, created the visual look of the website and asked a WRAC administrator to
host the site on the WRAC website. The attack, however, was directed at my skin.
I am embarrassed to tell this condensed story because the sequence of experiences
are on the surface a list of complaints; however, I find at this stage in my career the
necessity of sharing a portion of my academic experiences as representative of tribal
experiences in the academy for the purpose of countering the activities of the fakes and
self-identified skins who have undermined and continue to undermine, intentionally or
not, the contributions and value of faculty who are also tribal members. Greed and
careerism by fakes and self-identified skins have destroyed, in many cases, a connection
to tribal communities and has discouraged input from tribal members who are also
academic skins. The fakes and self-identified skins have not fostered confusion and
dissent among students, staff, faculty and administrators they have also created a barrier
between the institution and the tribal members they feel will make their academic lives
more difficult.
What I have learned during the growing of my academic skin and what I can
recommend in this portion of the conference is to not let the fakes and self-identified
skins to cause harm or obfuscation, never let them prevent you from doing your academic
work. Despite all of the conflict and attacks, and I only summarize a few of hundreds of
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
14/16
LeBeau 14
incidents I could chronicle, I have been able to publish my second book that has made a
significant contribution and have finished this fall a third. After years of silence, I
believe, now, that we must all tell our stories, repeatedly. Never let anyone in the
academic community forget our struggles; after all, stories is what the fakes and self-
identified skins have used in an attempt to destroy or discredit our own academic careers.
We should never become too institutionalized and let ourselves undermine the efforts of
tribal undergraduates, graduates, staff and faculty. I agree with the many here today that
we must continue direct action and name names. I have not included names (only two
slides as way of appendix) in the main of this document but the footnotes include them.
In the published version of this paper, I will advocate their inclusion.
Finally, if you are a tribal member, your academic skin as we all know must be
many layers thick.
Thank you for taking the time to listen.
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
15/16
LeBeau 15
Slide 1: Here the buttons in question. The left is the student-designed button and theright is button that was changed by the Office of Supportive Services tribal skins.Remember at this time, the student had to use primitive photocopy technology, handcolor the buttons (which we did as a group) and employ a manual button maker.
8/7/2019 Academic Skins
16/16
LeBeau 16
Slide 2: Here is the Excellence in Diversity Document, an award that I did not receivea cash prize, a prize all other recipients have received to date. I also am not listed as apast winner. See: http://www.inclusion.msu.edu/eida/history - 2001 orhttp://www.inclusion.msu.edu/eida/history