More Perspective on Native Mascots, An Important Native Voice

Maulian Bryant, our friend and former Penobscot Ambassador and current Executive Director of the Wabanaki Alliance, posted the message below on FaceBook. We feel it might be helpful to our followers when having the conversation about the harm of Native mascots. There are still many Americans who don't understand the importance of this issue.

Maulian writes:

"Ann Coulter, conservative hack and human shaped blister, tweeted 'We didn’t kill enough Indians.'

In the fight against Indian mascots we often hear 'don’t you have bigger things to worry about? You people are poor and have drinking problems and diabetes why don’t you focus on that first?' Or 'if you’re using a smart phone or car or computer you’re appropriating white culture we all just share at this point….you should feel honored we want to remember you this way.' And the real gold medal 'we won and you lost, now we get to do this. Get over it.'

These aren’t rare one off insults I’ve heard once or twice. This is what a lot of Americans think. This is what a lot of Mainers think. Colonization with the goal of genocide means total warfare. It means attacking people, houses, food sources, drinking water and the things that will ensure the physical body either dies of disease/combat/starvation/etc. It also means attacking the identity, the family, the ceremonies, the community, the sovereignty. The salt in the wound is stealing from us the identity and religion that was too dangerous for us to embrace. Indian mascots are tools of genocide. They worked in concert with the boarding schools to send a message 'you can’t be this anymore and now it belongs to us, along with your children.' Children that were beaten and murdered regularly in 'school.'

This short effective sentence from Ann Coulter is a Trump voter saying the quiet part out loud. And it continues the philosophy of genocide. She’s crazy enough to put out there what many of your neighbors are thinking. This hate speech inspires and emboldens the cult of MAGA because their heroes are proudly saying what they want to hear. This is not theater, these are marching orders. The same folks who are lower middle class and will suffer under the bill passed last week are convinced that they suffer because of marginalized minorities and not the grossly rich. They idolize people that make them feel validated that their biases are real and true. That immigrants are taking jobs and people of color are taking college scholarships. These lies benefit the top.

The future depends on us standing up with truth."



THIS IS WHY WE CONTINUE TO DO THIS WORK. WITH EACH DAY THAT PASSES, NATIVE MASCOTS PROVOKE MORE HARM. WE HUMBLY ASK ALL OF YOU WHO FOLLOW THE WORK OF CNA TO CONTINUE TO SHARE THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION

WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL SHARING THIS LINK.

https://conta.cc/3IyL6Q4