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Tasiyagnunpa LivermontWritten awhile back and polished at this year's retreat, this piece was shared with the community of Oak Lake supporters at the 09 Retreat.While I've known about the McDonald's Custer toy since it came out, it's taken me awhile to gather my thoughts. By the time my four-year-old son received one in his Happy Meal, I knew Custer might be lurking, and I snagged it from him to talk it over with his father, who's also a tribal member.
My co-parent and I weren't sure what to think. Let him play with it? Not? Only if he said it was a bad guy?
We decided to let him play with it, because it was a toy based on the wax figure of Custer in a movie about figures coming alive at the Smithsonian. But, I still couldn't bring myself to unwrap the fake general from the thick, plastic packaging and hand it to my innocent child. I thought about my second son looking up at me with his big, brown eyes and so much trust. So there it lies on top of the refrigerator. Thankfully, he has forgotten about it. I haven't.
Last month, we tribal people celebrated the demise of Custer at the Greasy Grass at the hands of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. It's a victory many tribal people cling to, a bright shining moment when we seemed to have a definitive victory.
After hundreds of years of colonialism, we take what we can get.
However, that victory in some ways led to the Wounded Knee massacre and even Crazy Horse's ultimate act of love for the People--his surrender. Similarly, the General Custer toy and the movie "Night at the Museum 2" do not lend themselves to an easy designation or conclusion. I took my eight-year-old, four-year-old, and nine-month-old sons to see the movie. The toy doesn't seem so bad in that context. In the movie, the Custer character is in many ways a fool and imbecile. He and Sacajawea's dialogue on how to pronounce her name makes me smile yet, whenever I think about it.
However, not only were the creators of the movie not content to leave Custer as a fool, but they also committed the usual sins of framing the movie based on the "Master Narrative" of colonialism. I will address two of those themes here.
[Spoiler alert] The movie leads us through an adventure much like the first movie, this time about figures coming alive at the Smithsonian museum, including the wax figure of “General” Custer. At the final battle scene, the character of Custer states that he can no longer fight, since he’s haunted by the realization that he will forever be remembered for his greatest mistake [the battle at the Little Bighorn]. The main character played by Ben Stiller then proceeds to tell him no, this battle at the museum could be his true final stand!
Corniness aside, this has deeper implications than the mistakes and heroics of a man who has been seared into America's consciousness by 19th century spin doctors. Indeed, Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer was an incompetent tactition and showed poor leadership skills. He underestimated his enemy, and his men paid the price.
However, this is not what most Lakota, nor most tribal peoples, remember. We remember that he was a murderer. That he and his men killed women and children on the banks of the Washita River. That his enraged 7th Calvary soldiers were also the men who murdered the Mniconju Lakota at Wounded Knee. That's the legacy of Custer in the tribal consciousness.
Murderer.
Another troublesome aspect of the movie, and really the one which bothered me the most as I sat in the darkened theatre next to my sons, was the fact that this movie based on historical characters and heroes of American history didn't bother to portray a single male American Indian hero.
There's a fun slogan that has been printed on t-shirts and sent via email. I have the Facebook flair on my profile. It is the picture of a lineup of old warriors and reads: "Homeland Security. Fighting Terrorists Since 1492."
It always reminds me that as a contemporary tribal person, I have two sets of patriots to remember. I have those who formed the basis for the American government we have today, shaped by the ideals of freedom, federalism, and democracy. I also know that without the men who fought the bitter fights...without men like Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and the warriors of many other tribes as well, Indian Country would be a vastly different place.
American Indian scholars talk about the Vanishing Indian mythology...which can be summed up by the words of a young, Euro-American boy to his mother near Minneapolis when an American Indian boy got into their van on their turn at car pool: "I thought we killed all the Indians." Shocked his mother tried to dissuade him, but the boy was simply reiterating what has been taught in our schools and by the dominant, non-tribal media--the Indians are all gone.
Therefore, in that mythology, it's easy to remember and perpetuate the images of "safe" Indians--women like Sacajawea or Pocahontas, who were, for whatever reason, helpful to white men and the American dream of Manifest Destiny.
My sons were amused by the movie, yes. But did they see a tribal male role model? No. Were they taught in the false images and vignettes of history this movie peddles what Custer's true crimes were? No.
So, I come around again to the position tribal parents are in while navigating the waters of our larger American culture. Can we go to this movie and laugh and eat popcorn and Gummy Bears with our children? Sure.
But we don't leave as lighthearted as our neighbors. If we're parenting right, we get to have awkward conversations in the car about tribal history and non-tribal media. Our children, in order to not be white-washed, pun intended, don't get to be as free as other children in some ways.
So, while everyone else laughs at the character of Custer, goes to McDonald’s, plays with the toy, and thinks little of it…since, as even my Euro-American, politically correct friends have said, that the movie shows Custer as an idiot…so what’s the big deal?
We know it’s not enough to attempt to portray a murderer as an idiot.
I walked out of the theatre and buckled my two younger children into their car seats, while my eight-year-old babbled on about calling his cousin when he got home to tell him about the movie, slid into the front seat and buckled his seatbelt as he spoke. Bracing myself I walked to the driver’s door, got behind the wheel and buckled myself in. Then, while the visions of Custer in “Night at the Museum 2” were fresh in their memories, I got to teach my children about crimes of war. About enemy combatants and non-enemy combatants. About the phrase collateral damage. About how the funny guy in that movie…the museum character was actually based on a murderer who thought so little of our people that he charged into a camp and killed his own men, because he didn’t feel the need for the big guns.
While some of it I said loud enough and with the context meant for a four-year-old, most of it I directed at my suddenly gangly, eight-year-old Cub Scout. I wanted him to know, to understand our responsibility as Lakota patriots.
I struggled with how much to say. But when my eight-year-old looked at me with some disbelief, still buzzing from the high of getting to see the movie he and his friends had long been discussing, I leaned over and told him quietly, so his brothers wouldn’t overhear, how at the Washita River, pregnant women were slashed open across their stomachs. About how the babies died.
A proud big brother, his face twisted and went silent. I wondered if I had said too much.
I raised my voice and tried to tell my sons that there were strong men, and women, who fought to save the People. These everyday heroes gave their lives in defense of the born and unborn children around them—for the generations to come.
I think I said all of these things. I don’t remember for sure. I felt awkward and apologetic at ruining the fun. I tried to stress the importance and truth while not being overly gory. I tried to walk the line of enough information and too much information. I tried to teach and counteract what felt like was the entire world crashing down on us. I tried.
As patriots in this country, which ALL of our forefathers and mothers bled for, not letting the teachable moments go by is the price we must pay if we are to be at once American and retain our tribal identities.
Our children are faced with a history not so easily covered up by Disney and sweetened by treats at the theatre. They lose their innocence in order to retain their identity. That’s the price of dual citizenship of sovereign tribal people in the United States of America.
E. Pluribus Unum.
Out of Many, One.
Pass the popcorn.
The 2009 Oak Lake Writers Society Retreat was held the last week in July. The retreat was felt to be a great success by attendees, as always, and of note this year was the high attendence, including many twenty-somethings and college students.
The annual Retreat Community Potluck was held as well, with many members of the SDSU and Brookings community attending. Following the annual readings by society members, the Society honored Elizabeth Cook-Lynn and Charles Woodard with star quilts for their faithful and priceless service to the Society, tribal writers and tribal scholarship.
