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urocyonIn the previous post, I made a reference to this article on eugenics and Buck vs. Bell.
While somewhat controversial, I think this take on the Buck case has a good bit of merit.
She was a marooned Eastern Siouan "Saponi/Tutelo" descendant who was, because of her origins, seen by the legal and medical clowns sealing her fate as belonging "to the shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of anti-social whites of the South.” In Canada, people like us were called Métís. But the preceding quote from the man who ran the asylum to which she was committed, sums up what many of us were called stateside.
Indeed. Not only are a majority of Southern "poor whites" descended from former/escaped indentured servants for quite a lingering touch of classism, their European (and, frequently, formerly indentured African) ancestors also had a disturbing habit of going native.
If not completely relevant, very compelling to me is looking at Carrie and her mother and seeing that they could well be members of my family. The set of their eyes is striking--compare to Nikonha's (and, as my mother pointed out upon seeing his, my own.) Carrie also worked in Radford. My own great-grandmother had my grandfather thanks to similar circumstances*, and I have to wonder if in 1921, her being platinum blonde due to a quirk in the genetic lottery made some difference in their respective fates, beyond the difference in social background still obvious through local egalitarianism.
You just kind of gasp in awe at such a trenchant indictment of a people who would use the same word to describe the largest group of people on the planet, and mental retardation -- Mongoloid -- Mongolism. In the white, racist world of the twenties, apparently, the two were indistinguishable.
This point was really brought home, even before I read this article, by watching a mother carrying her toddler into a supermarket. I felt bad as soon as I did so, but I did a double-take and tried to decide if the little girl had Down's syndrome. No, I considered that she just had a rather strongly Indian set of features for such a fair child. I am still uncomfortable about my apparent need to evaluate the kid, but had to consider whether some of the stereotypes of hordes of half-witted** blond children running around the place barefoot might be rooted in groups of people who are not at all accustomed to seeing a good number of pale children with very prominent epicanthic folds and rather characteristic hybrid Gaelic-Indian flat cheekbones. That's what I am accustomed to, and I peered at that particular little girl.
Besides Nikonha's resemblance to a number of family members, come to think of it, the number of bright blue-derived eyes bearing remarkable similarity to his--likely to Powhatan's or Logan's, for that matter--really does say a lot about Southern Appalachia and about the fate of the "disappearing" majority of Eastern Siouan and other native people.
* The '20s were a particularly poisonous time socially to have a child without being married--no matter the circumstances--and both she and my grandfather were made horribly aware of this fact for most of their lives, not least by some relatives I don't have any use for even now. He would have been ashamed at my even mentioning it.
** Not my characterisation at all, but certainly the stereotype. *grimace*
While somewhat controversial, I think this take on the Buck case has a good bit of merit.
She was a marooned Eastern Siouan "Saponi/Tutelo" descendant who was, because of her origins, seen by the legal and medical clowns sealing her fate as belonging "to the shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of anti-social whites of the South.” In Canada, people like us were called Métís. But the preceding quote from the man who ran the asylum to which she was committed, sums up what many of us were called stateside.
Indeed. Not only are a majority of Southern "poor whites" descended from former/escaped indentured servants for quite a lingering touch of classism, their European (and, frequently, formerly indentured African) ancestors also had a disturbing habit of going native.
If not completely relevant, very compelling to me is looking at Carrie and her mother and seeing that they could well be members of my family. The set of their eyes is striking--compare to Nikonha's (and, as my mother pointed out upon seeing his, my own.) Carrie also worked in Radford. My own great-grandmother had my grandfather thanks to similar circumstances*, and I have to wonder if in 1921, her being platinum blonde due to a quirk in the genetic lottery made some difference in their respective fates, beyond the difference in social background still obvious through local egalitarianism.
You just kind of gasp in awe at such a trenchant indictment of a people who would use the same word to describe the largest group of people on the planet, and mental retardation -- Mongoloid -- Mongolism. In the white, racist world of the twenties, apparently, the two were indistinguishable.
This point was really brought home, even before I read this article, by watching a mother carrying her toddler into a supermarket. I felt bad as soon as I did so, but I did a double-take and tried to decide if the little girl had Down's syndrome. No, I considered that she just had a rather strongly Indian set of features for such a fair child. I am still uncomfortable about my apparent need to evaluate the kid, but had to consider whether some of the stereotypes of hordes of half-witted** blond children running around the place barefoot might be rooted in groups of people who are not at all accustomed to seeing a good number of pale children with very prominent epicanthic folds and rather characteristic hybrid Gaelic-Indian flat cheekbones. That's what I am accustomed to, and I peered at that particular little girl.
Besides Nikonha's resemblance to a number of family members, come to think of it, the number of bright blue-derived eyes bearing remarkable similarity to his--likely to Powhatan's or Logan's, for that matter--really does say a lot about Southern Appalachia and about the fate of the "disappearing" majority of Eastern Siouan and other native people.
* The '20s were a particularly poisonous time socially to have a child without being married--no matter the circumstances--and both she and my grandfather were made horribly aware of this fact for most of their lives, not least by some relatives I don't have any use for even now. He would have been ashamed at my even mentioning it.
** Not my characterisation at all, but certainly the stereotype. *grimace*
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 05:59 am (UTC)On the other hand, straight illegitimacy seemed to be treated as "these things happen" in the paternal line of my family. And happen they did, with some regularity. My great-grandfather on that side did comment, deviling my mother, that at least I was legitimate, though. His father's parents had two children before the guy married someone else, his parents were eventually married by common law, and his first grandchild was also born out of wedlock. That's just relatively recent history among a long line of untreated bipolars who seemed to have trouble keeping their clothes on. *g*
People really are strange, sometimes in a way that makes me want to throttle them.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 08:07 am (UTC)(nods) This is one of the things that drives me up a wall about the whole "registering to be legally Indian" phenomenon. It's the way that the US government has chosen to completely statistically and culturally obliterate the tribes. If you're not on a list somewhere, you can't claim your Indian blood or your cultural rights. Why? Because the US knows that if anyone who -truly- had a degree of Indian blood claimed it - the tribes would be VAST and everyone would start claiming to be Indian. We can't have -that-.
The Cherokee and Iroquoian nations were huge multi-clan nations and since we were East coast tribes, we'd been intermarrying with white folks since the earliest German visitors landed on North American soil. There was no prohibition against such things, heredity was matrilineal and all children were viewed as gifts of the Great Spirit. There are records of blue eyed Cherokee going back to the days of the Pilgrims.
But along comes the "all white or you're nothing" institutionalize prejudice and suddenly families with Indian heritage were claiming "Black Dutch" and "Black Irish" and burying those relatives deep in the heart of the family Bible.
The interesting thing is that currently I'm seeing a big movement towards people of mixed heritage coming back and claiming their Indian roots and it's now the Indians who are pitching a fit about it, not wanting these dispossessed sons and daughters back, claiming it's just the most recent "white man" attempt at cultural appropriation etc. Now -they- are the ones demanding a racial purity test - which was never part of the indigenous culture of -my- tribe, I know that for a fact. If you wanted to be Cherokee you walked in and said "I want to be Cherokee, someone adopt me" and if you weren't some kind of walking, festering sore - you were Cherokee. The US Cavalry had to have episodic "reliberation" runs to capture back soldiers who'd "go native" and often they'd have to retrieve these guys kicking and screaming and then lock them up in federal prison to keep them from running back to their tribe.
My personal dream? That everyone who has some degree of Indian blood will start claiming it and Indians will then become a thriving majority group and then - we win!
no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 05:42 pm (UTC)The "Black Irish" thing never fails to grimly amuse me as a justification for people who really want to be seen as "white". Almost nobody who claims that is familiar with the incredibly racist treatment that many Irish received in America, and in large parts of Europe as well. Being Irish was about as socially hoity-toity as being an Australian aboriginal. For a long time, *nobody* wanted to be associated with us. And so claiming that they got their dark skin/hair/eyes from Irish ancestors, when the Irish were seen as declassé and the "Black Irish" thing is mostly predicated upon the theory of foreign dark-skinned folks intermarrying with Irish women... augh. Because, of course, that makes one only Irish, which is, er, suddenly good, and we'll just ignore those other ancestors from other places and cultures. Augh.
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Date: 2004-05-03 08:49 am (UTC)The story of Carrie's foster parents reminds me of my wife's mother's family. They were from the Radford area, but almost all of them have moved to the Wise area. Carrie's story itself reminds me of the great grandmother I got to know as a child. She had her child under similar circumstances and married a Greek immigrant who had been brought in by the coal company. I can only imagine that this happened during one of the strikes, though I haven't investigated that to know for sure. I really need to go visit McDowell County WV some time and figure things like that out.