Conversations with Remarkable Native Americans

6. Veronica Tiller, historian, consultant, and writer

CHAPTER SIX Veronica Tiller, historian, consultant, and writer Veronica Tiller (Apache Jicarilla), who was a rodeo champion in her childhood, is a strong and forceful woman, whose sensitivity remains well hidden until she has established a relationship based upon mutual trust. Her research and work as a historian has always been geared toward practical aims. She enjoys doing research to bring about concrete change. Veronica is a traditional woman, who speaks her own language and who is respectful of her tribal rituals and values. She is also a modern woman living in an urban environment who has managed her own company and has conceived and supervised many projects at the tribal and intertribal levels. Going beyond what could have remained a career focusing on the defense of Indian rights, she has also established strong ties with European universities, where she has participated in many symposiums. Lately she also has cooperated with UNESCO on a program dealing with the promotion of films on the preservation of Native lands. Recently she has decided to devote most of her time to personal research, editing, and writing.1 Joëlle Rostkowski: As a Native American scholar, you have been very successful in writing an evenhanded account of the history of your own community (The Jicarilla Apache Tribe: A History [1846–1970]). As a business consultant, you also have directed intensive research from East to West to document the contemporary social and economic conditions of all five hundred and sixty-two Indian tribes of the United States, resulting in the publication of an award-winning national reference guide: Tiller’s Guide to Indian Country. Do you think of yourself as a Jicarilla or, in more general terms, as a Native American woman? Veronica Tiller: I define myself as a Native American historian. When I was working on my PhD at the University of New Mexico, I wanted to write my tribal history. 37 38 CONVERSATIONS WITH REMARKABLE NATIVE AMERICANS This was the reason I applied to graduate school in the first place. The Velarde family is a family of chiefs and my maternal grandfather had told me many stories about my ancestors. I wanted to write about their vision, their wisdom, and their leadership. They had done a lot in establishing our reservation in Northern New Mexico in 1887 and in bringing our people together. The history of our tribe had never been written and, when I went to the Indian boarding school in Dulce, our main town, I never heard anything about our history. Assimilation was the main objective of government boarding schools. We were considered as savages, as pagans, as late as the 1950s and early 1960s. I wanted to do something with the knowledge given to me by my grandparents and, when I went to the University of New Mexico, during the Civil Rights movement, in the 1970s, there was a surge of Native pride that encouraged me. There was a rise in the development of Native studies at that time in many universities . I had a very nice professor, called Richard Ellis, who taught Native American history and I was inspired by his course. My undergraduate major was political science but I chose American history as my graduate subject. I received my PhD in American Indian history in 1976. The University of New Mexico (UNM) was then the only university offering such a degree. In most universities Native studies was only a minor field for students graduating in American history. Veronica Tiller (Photo by Nicolas Rostkowski) VERONICA TILLER 39 My interest and my research in history is an important part of who I am and what I wanted to do in my life. The historical perception of Native Americans, all the stereotypical images conveyed by history books, has had a major impact on the way we have been perceived by other Americans. We are still seen as dependent people and I wanted to say that there is another perspective. We, as Native Americans , must write our own history and stories. We must get the message out through all forms of media, through books, through documentation on the Internet, cable TV, films, workshops, and at meetings. Otherwise we’ll continue to be victimized and stereotyped. With greater access to the mass media today we should be able to achieve greater understanding of who we are as a people. I am an optimist. There is always hope for the improvement...