Terese Mailhot: Still proud to serve as that 'angry Indian' woman

In my adolescence I felt subtle racism in the classroom when my teachers talked to the white students about “tolerance,” and I witnessed many of my best friends being shuffled into special-needs classes for their rez dialects. My mother, the Indian rebel, forced me to confront racism at every turn if I wanted to call myself her daughter, so I did. I became a social activist by discussing the need for diverse reading lists in our classrooms, and talking about the difference between tolerance and acceptance. It was overwhelming, but it soon became the norm. I am now the resident “angry Indian” woman in every classroom and social gathering, and this doesn't bother me.

I don't mind telling my son's school to discuss culturally offensive costumes before Halloween, and I don't mind telling my co-workers that I don't, in fact, get anything for free. This discourse has brought about meaningful relationships and meaningful respect. The one thing I cannot stand, the one thing that even the most guilt ridden, liberal minded white person will ask, is if I feel conflicted between old and new ways. As if Natives never heard of cultural innovation, or appropriation, or development. We invented so much of Western medicine, and developed the most efficient irrigation systems, how could we not engage in cultural innovation?

I thank my mother for being an Indian rebel, but her Red Power is not my own. I don't engage in spiritualism in the same way she did. I study the Native teachers and orators of our past. I account for every story and theoretical debate I engaged in with my elders. In fact, the word “elder,” as my mother knew it, meant a person with wisdom and integrity. In my experience, I've found one should call all seniors elders and respect them, whether they are honorable or not. If they're Indian, and alive beyond sixty this is a feat considering all the statistics against them. I've met some ornery, morally ambiguous elders. Unlike my mother, I see wisdom in their survival, even if they did morally ambiguous things to stay alive. I'd like to think that my progress as an Indian woman is adding onto my mother's legacy in the Indian continuum.