Steven Newcomb: Indians and reptiles in Supreme Court law

Friday, February 25, 2011  

"Metaphorically speaking, the term “reptile” is a strange association to make with the original Indigenous Peoples of the forest. In technical terms, this metaphor works by carrying the characteristics of the source domain “reptiles” over to the target domain “Indians.” In short, Minda’s metaphor was predicated on thinking of what he called “Native Americans” in terms of the features and characteristics of “reptiles.”

In the dictionary under “reptile,” we find: “An animal that crawls or moves (like a snake) on its belly or as a lizard,” or, “one held to resemble a reptile: a person having a low, groveling, mean, repulsive, or despicable character.”

What, then, are we as Indian people to think of Professor Minda’s statement that maybe the “blood and lost culture” of the Indians “is one of the reptiles hidden in the forest that Justice Stevens warned about”? We could interpret Minda’s metaphor as a non sequitur (Latin for “it does not follow.”). In other words, we could easily interpret Minda’s statement as a form of nonsense.

However, to say that Minda’s example is nonsensical from our perspective is not the same as saying that his metaphor is unimportant. To the contrary, it is highly important because it so perfectly illustrates the challenge that non-Indian thinkers face when attempting to deal with Indian issues. Even those who try to say something supportive can easily end up using language that dehumanizes us Indian nations and peoples."

Get the Story:
Steven Newcomb: Indians and Reptiles (Indian Country Today 2/24)