{"id":1494,"date":"2010-01-20T16:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T16:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsletters.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ilp\/2010\/01\/20\/canby-lecture-press-release\/"},"modified":"2014-10-08T18:27:26","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T18:27:26","slug":"canby-lecture-press-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsletters.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ilp\/2010\/01\/20\/canby-lecture-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Canby Lecture Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gover addresses \u2018White Man\u2019s Indian\u2019 in Canby Lecture<\/p>\n

Indians, since their first encounter with Europeans, have always been more defined by others than by themselves, according to Kevin Gover, Director of the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of the American Indian, who will deliver the Third Annual William C. Canby Jr. lecture, \u201cWill the White Man\u2019s Indian Ever Die?\u201d at the Sandra Day O\u2019Connor College of Law at ASU.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the human inclination to dominate that is so troublesome,\u201d Gover said. \u201cAnd defining another, well, I can\u2019t imagine a more complete domination, at least psychologically.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lecture, presented by the College of Law\u2019s Indian Legal Program, is named in honor of Judge William C. Canby Jr. of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and a founding faculty member. It will start at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 28, in the Great Hall of Armstrong Hall on ASU’s Tempe campus. Free tickets are available at http:\/\/community.law.asu.edu\/event\/REPATat20<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The talk is the keynote for the conference, \u201cRepatriation at 20: A Gathering on Native Self-Determination and Human Rights,\u201d which will continue at the College from 8:30 to 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cKevin Gover has for many years been a distinguished faculty member in our Indian Legal Program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and though he is currently on leave running the most visible museum and cultural center on Indian tribes in the country, we are thrilled to welcome him back for what promises to be a provocative and fascinating lecture on how collective identities are created and perpetuated in a world of power disparities among peoples,\u201d said Dean Paul Schiff Berman.<\/p>\n

Gover said that, when Indians aren\u2019t excluded from American history, they are considered as an afterthought.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndians are too often represented as uncivilized, and that it is either inevitable or necessary that they be removed from the path of progress,\u201d Gover said. \u201cThe vast majority of the public has been taught that the Americas were an uncivilized wilderness in 1492. But the Americas were fully occupied in 1492. There were probably as many people here as in Europe in 1492.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gover said that Indians are damaged by allowing others to define them, which continues to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts us in a box,\u201d Gover said. \u201cI\u2019m stunned by the number of people who are angry when they come to the museum and see it is about Indians who are still here, rather than Indians who used to be. They think modern Indians aren\u2019t real Indians because we\u2019re not like we were when Columbus set foot here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gover uses artists as an example.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny Native artist using modern media for their work is criticized,\u201d Gover said. \u201cPeople say, \u2018That\u2019s not Indian art.\u2019 Even though it\u2019s an Indian making a statement about Indians. The media the artist chooses to use becomes disqualifying. It\u2019s crazy, and it\u2019s insulting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like saying it isn\u2019t legitimate unless it is the same way you were doing things in 1492,\u201d he said. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t ask it of anyone else. They wouldn\u2019t say, \u2018You can\u2019t be a White man unless you\u2019re wearing knickers and tails. It\u2019s unique to Indians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being defined by others extends to sports mascots, where Indians are \u201chonored\u201d for their bravery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t they honor us for being smart, creative, for all kinds of different things?\u201d Gover asks. \u201cWhy choose the one? It tells us that you\u2019re stereotyping. You can\u2019t be Indian unless you\u2019re brave, whatever that means. It\u2019s ridiculous. It\u2019s just a tiny part of what Indians were and are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redefining even extends to the repatriation of items from museums.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen any institution considers a repatriation request, they have to investigate to see if the object is what the Indian says it is,\u201d Gover said. \u201cWhere are they going to look? The most authoritative place is the tribe itself, but instead, museums consistently look at 19th and early-20th century written ethnography, and if it conflicts, they prefer it over the contemporary Indian information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is that the early ethnography was written by white, misguided scholars, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of them were very earnest scholars, but they brought the baggage of 19th-century race science, which set out to prove that all other races are inferior to the white race, and that all models of civilization started with tribes and ended up in the modern European state, which was the ultimate end of the evolutionary process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gover said the overall situation is getting better, but the stereotyping and bigotry have to be confronted every time it is seen. He pointed to the criticism leveled recently at Republic National Committee Chairman Michael Steele after he used the phrase \u201chonest injun\u201d in an interview on Fox News.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the great scheme of things, you might think, \u2018So what?\u2019 \u201d Gover said. \u201cBut if we let that go by without challenging it, that white noise we get exposed to gets louder and louder. We need to say, \u2018I don\u2019t think you\u2019re a racist, but what you said is offensive and you shouldn\u2019t say it anymore.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Gover said tribes also have to start telling their own stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is powerful to see how tribes, in their own museums, are interpreting their own stories,\u201d he said. \u201cThings are better, but it will be the work of generations to cleanse our minds of what we have been taught over the course of our lives. I won\u2019t live to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gover addresses \u2018White Man\u2019s Indian\u2019 in Canby Lecture Indians, since their first encounter with Europeans, have always been more defined by others than by themselves, according to Kevin Gover, Director of the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of the American Indian, who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information","category-professors"],"yoast_head":"\nCanby Lecture Press Release - Indian Legal Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newsletters.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ilp\/2010\/01\/20\/canby-lecture-press-release\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canby Lecture Press Release - 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