What is the easiest way to win a war? Some would consider the divide and conquer tactic most effective. Those who exercise this strategy would break up alliances to ease the process of attacking an enemy. No stranger to this tactic, outnumbered European powers put Africans and Native Americans against each other to subdue their combined power. Although the black and red peoples were divided over two centuries ago, separation between them still exists. For this reason, many people participate in the discussion of whether or not Native Americans should allow people of both African and Native descent to be members of their tribe. Critics like Sarita Cannon would say that Afro-Native Americans should be granted tribal membership for the simple fact that they possess Native blood, but others like Orlando Tom and Leona Begay believe that Afro-Native Americans do not possess enough Native American blood for induction (Cannon). Ultimately, undeniable historical parallels, psychological impairments, and cultural benefits show why Afro-Native Americans should not be excluded from the Native American community.
The short video above is about certain famous individuals that are Afro-Native American such as Tina Turner, Frederick Douglass, and Langston Hughes. The video also highlights the fact that Afro-Native Americans are a people that few are aware of and that denial of their existence is a big part of that. Some Native American tribes refuse to except Afro-Native Americns into their communities forcing the idea of them to "disappear."
Native American communities should not exclude Afro-Native Americans because this exclusion sustains harmful racist ideals. The fury surrounding 1997's Afro-Native American Miss Navajo Nation shows that some Native Americans find affiliation with their European counterparts more desirable than that of their African counterparts. According to Sarita Cannon’s Authenticating the Black Indian Body, “it seems that mixedblood [sic] Miss Navajo Nation have been crowned in the past without incident, as long as their blood mixture did not include African heritage” (Cannon). The desire to severe ties with Africans commemorates a belief that is the central motivator of racism, the idea that groups can be viewed as either superior or inferior to one another. In most cases, like that of Miss Cody, Caucasian is seen as superior and African is seen as inferior. The Clark Doll Experiment shows how the ideas of racial superiority and inferiority may impinge on healthy cognitive development. In this experiment, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark asked black children to choose which doll they though was the better doll. Though the dolls were identical in every aspect but skin color, the black children thought the fairest doll was nicer (Abagond). Even in contemporary doll experiments, results show that children tend to favor the Caucasian doll. If the Native American community continues to perpetuate racist ideas of superiority and inferiority, the group will end up being one of the sources of psychological impairment in current and future generations. The Native American community should not only refrain from excluding Afro-Native Americans to avoid being a hindrance to healthy cognitive development, but also to reap the benefits of culture.
Works Cited
"Abagond." Abagond. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.
Tiya Miles, "Preface: Eadng Out of the Same Pot?" in Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country, edited by Tiya Miles and Sharon P. Holland (Duke University Press, 2006), xv.
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