Indigenous Continuance: Collaboration and Syncretism

Delivered as the keynote address at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Conference, University of Georgia, April 10, 2008

Dai-stuudeh-eh wai. We are here today. Dzaadze-eeskha-haadih-steh-eh-nuh. We are nowhere else but here. We are here: in this place and in this moment. Right now, we are not anywhere else. It is important to be conscious of this. It is significant and so important that our very Existence is dependent upon this acknowledgment, realization, agreement, and acceptance.

We, as Indigenous human peoples, know ourselves within the world we have cultural knowledge of; that is, we know ourselves within the cultural world of the Indigenous tribal communities of which we are members. Our Indigenous worldview encompasses our identity; our identity as Indigenous peoples is founded on our Indigenous worldview, and it arises from that worldview. As a result, we are no other cultural human beings but who we are as Indigenous peoples.

Aacqumeh stuudah. I am of and from Aacqu, Acoma Pueblo. There is no other cultural human person that is me. I am not primarily American in nationality, nor am I primarily a citizen of the state of New Mexico. Aacqumeh stuudah means my Indigenous identity is solely that of being a member of the Acoma Pueblo cultural community. Simple? Yes. Too simple? Perhaps. Today, numbers of us do not acknowledge our Indigenous tribal identities. Because we feel we cannot; we are confused; we feel ambiguous and uncertain. And we feel invalid when we do acknowledge, claim, and announce our Indigenous identities. We sometimes even feel we are imposters. Imposters? Yes, imposters who are posing as Indigenous tribal peoples! That's absurd, isn't it? Yes, it is, yet there are those among us who feel like that. They feel like imposters, whether comfortably or not comfortably may vary, even, at the same time, knowing, realizing, and admitting it is the circumstance and condition of colonization that has caused or precipitated the feeling of being imposters. It is a maddening feeling, isn't it?

Even if we don't always feel like that as part of our Indigenous human condition, we are familiar with the feeling, aren't we? And this is a consequence or result, as I said just now, of the colonization of our land, culture, and community. And this is intimately, constantly, and consciously made apparent and known to us because of the colonial language we use all the time, namely, English. Although there other colonial languages we are colonized victims of in the Americas, including Spanish, French, and Portuguese, I shall refer mainly to the English language because it is the one that is most prevalent, dominant, and overwhelming today for those of us who live in the United States.

We cannot help but feel Americanized. That's too true. No matter how "Indian" we are. No matter how Indigenous we are, we feel Americanized. No matter how Indigenous we feel our tribal identities make us, we feel Americanized. No matter how much or how little we speak our Indigenous languages, we feel Americanized. No matter what we do to practice our Indigenous traditions and customs and no matter how hard we try to live according to the cultural philosophies of our tribal elders, we still feel Americanized. No wonder we feel invalid when we identify ourselves as Indigenous tribal peoples. And no wonder some of us may feel like imposters even when we feel at the same time it is absurd to feel like imposters! We are in this quandary and dilemma because we are unconsciously and consciously living within colonialism. Because it is the history of colonialism that has circumscribed us and, in a manner of speaking, has determined us, our identity, and our feelings about ourselves. And that has been achieved not only by our more or less forced acquiescence but also with our complicity because of our constant, persistent, and insistent use of the English language that I mention above as the main colonial language we face and with which we have to contend. No wonder, then, we might say, we are so Americanized...