Subject: Group [Nation] upset over state 4-H decision to keep traditions: Native American activist says group adding to its problems

Charleston Daily Mail

Group upset over state 4-H
decision to keep traditions
Native American activist says
group adding to its problems

Kris Wise - Daily Mail staff


Thursday December 19, 2002; 10:45 AM

http://dailymail.com/news/News/2002121947/
A decision announced this week that West Virginia's 4-H program should retain many of its American Indian-based traditions has outraged some critics and left them questioning the future of 4-H.

Richard Allen, policy analyst for the Cherokee Nation and a leading voice on the nationwide American Indian mascot controversy, has criticized the agency's determination to use American Indian-based themes to organize summer camps throughout the state.

"They may have exacerbated their own problem," Allen said Wednesday. "It's a little bit bold. They're saying they'll drop the most blatant things and keep the ones they want."

The 4-H program, operated by West Virginia University's Extension Service, has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture since March, when the parent of one 4-H participant filed a complaint with the department's Civil Rights Office.

Wess Harris, a Roane County farmer and sociologist, accused the 4-H program of misusing and misinterpreting American Indian images and trivializing sacred customs of the culture.

The USDA, which provides about $4.5 million in funding annually to the 4-H program and millions more to WVU, said Wednesday the civil rights investigation is ongoing.

USDA investigators attended state and county camps this summer to observe practices and have interviewed 4-H campers, counselors and Native Americans, including Allen.

4-H leaders simultaneously conducted an eight-month review of their own program, concluding that the traditions began "to foster a greater understanding of the Native American culture."

The program has organized its summer camps around American Indian-based themes since 1925. Campers are grouped into tribes once thought to be present in the Appalachian region. Competitions, games and ceremonies have incorporated corresponding tribal rituals.

"These traditions, which have been passed from one generation of campers to another, have become very important to the program's participants and to the continued success of the program," the report states.

For that reason, program leaders have recommended the tribal system should continue, that tribal practices such as songs, cheers and the use of "chief" and "sagamore" classifications should be kept and that council circles will continue to incorporate the Omaha Tribal Benediction and the passing of "spirit sticks."

The review found that feather headdresses, painted faces, "stereotypical motions and dances," the tribal cheer "Ugh, Ugh, Ugh" and peace pipe ceremonies should be eliminated.

David Snively, assistant director of WVU Extension Service and a program reviewer, said the review has "heightened the level of sensitivity and awareness" in the 4-H community.

"The biggest thing I learned from the process is that within the Native American community, opinions were so varied," he said. "There is no one single voice for the Native American community. We had to take as much of it as we could and sort through it and make a decision."

Allen said the program's decision does not honor the American Indian culture, regardless of the 4-H vision or intention.

"They have gone back through their history . . . and from the get-go, they've stereotyped Native Americans incorrectly," Allen said. "If they go back in their own history, they've find (West Virginians) weren't honoring Native Americans back in the 1700s. To suggest that we've had such a relationship that they want to honor us now is ridiculous."

Snively said 4-H leaders have received some similar criticism since their report was released, but the majority of feedback has been positive.

Harris said he too has received positive feedback from around the country for his efforts to highlight discriminatory practices in the 4-H program.

The reaction from 4-H leaders and their resulting report is "the height of arrogance," and supports his concerns, Harris said.

"It would be hard to do a report that would do a better job of substantiating those claims than the one they wrote," he said.

Allen said the agency's decision to release the recommendations and its intent to retain many American Indian themes is premature and could hurt its chances of surviving the USDA investigation intact.

The 4-H program will continue to have strong opposition from the Cherokee Nation and other tribes that speak out on the use of American Indian imagery, Allen said.

"The one thing the university has failed to consider is that we are a recognized government and our relationship with the USDA, as a federal agency, is acknowledged," Allen said. "It's interesting that they would issue the report now, almost as though they're asking the USDA to drop it."

Writer Kris Wise can be reached at 348-1244.


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Please send a copy to us, also, so we can counter further claims from them about how "the majority of feedback has been positive" (i.e. from the bigots they've trained in their institutional racism).