If you struggle with wanting to save mementos - everything from old boarding passes to tickets from museums and plays, Snapchat can be good practice. Well, at least it is for me.
I have albums of loved ones on my phone. It's great how much easier it is to take and send images (thank you, iPhones). At my parents house I have boxes of organized photos waiting to be added to actual albums or scrapbooks. Whenever I download digital files from my camera I have a hard time eliminating any, even the blurry ones - I save them "just in case".
For people with pack-rat-ism in their blood (let's reserve the term "hoarder" for particularly severe cases), Snapchat is a good practice of self-discipline. I could Instagram the picture or Whatsapp it and it would save to my phone. But Snapchat allows me to share the moment and move on. I'm sure some treasures will be missed out on, but good to practice letting go, even of small things.
(And as all the teenagers sending inappropriate pictures are warned - these photos are all backed up in some "cloud": so be careful. Or in my case ... That treasure would just take some dedicated detective work to find - it's not really gone.)
I have enjoyed a number of conversations with people about the funny way we in Indiana say French derived names "Notre Dame" and "Versailles" or the diminutive size of "new Paris" Ohio, a town of 1,607 (as of 2012) near my hometown of Richmond. (A restaurant there recently held the second annual free lunch for the 2nd Amendment - show a hand gun permit, get a free lunch. A different blog post will discuss the hand gun laws in my state of origin).
In my Thanksgiving resolution (I recognize that mixes holidays) was to educate myself about American Indians in the U.S.. Many more location names in my state bear the names and history of native peoples that we know and learn so little about. The Miami, a featured name in multiple places in the U.S. - Miami University in Oxford, OH and Miami, Florida - is not derived from the same group forcefully migrated. That's what I had always thought and it is quite easy to suspect given the awful and horrific forced movement of native peoples in the U.S.. Instead:
Miami, pronounced my-AM-ee, is a common place name in the United States. but in different parts of the country it has different origins. In Florida, for example, it probably come from Mayaimi, the name of a CREEK village. In Oregon, it comes from the CHINOOK word memoir, meaning "downstream." In the Midwest and Southwest, however, it comes from an Algonquian tribal name, probably meaning, "people of the peninsula."
Another fun fact is that Munice, the name of a city a bit north of where I grew up is the name of a northern band of Algonquian speaking bands originating in the East, some of who moved to the Indiana, Ohio river area in the mid-1700s (and were later pushed further again).
Other cities bear names I should definitely investigate more some day: Shipshewana, Kokomo, Mishawanka and this list of cities in Indiana related to Native American names, taken from this book, Native American place Names of Indiana.
Greenville, Ohio where my cousin lives has quite a history as well : Fort Greenville was the site of a treaty in 1795 which ceded all of Ohio and most of Indiana to the whites after battles with general "mad" Anthony Wayne (of whom Fort Wayne, Indiana is named) and the Battle of Fallen Timbers in which hundreds of Indians died. (Waldman, 137)
About half of the Miami relocated to Kansas. Some stayed in Indiana but gradually lost their lands by 1897 they were longer recognized by the federal government. Quoting Waldman, "They have managed to maintain their tribal identity as the Miami Nation of Indiana. In 1990, they established tribal offices in Peru, Indiana, and, in 1992, purchased a sacred site along the Mississinewa River." (137) Peru, Indiana sounds like a place I should visit someday.
The Shawnee also lived in Indiana for a time eventually settling in Kansas. The "Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band" was recognized by Ohio in 1980. Some descendants managed to stay in Ohio and Indiana following Tecumseh's defeat.
Even the cars we drive - Pontiac - is named after a native people. The Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania have a case claiming they should be paid a fee for the use of their name in marketing. Seems fair to me. There is currently a beautiful commercial on TV about the use of the name of "red" in sports teams. Agreed - An NFL team should not be called the Red Skins.
All these names that surround us in Indiana - Kentucky, Detroit, Chillicothe, Tippecanoe River - all American Indian names and yet few of us know and remember little of this history. Of the culture traditions of these people, of the violence at the hands of the whites and the unfair and horrific treaties even in the absence of physical violence that structurally stymied the progress or any potential progress of these groups.
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Information unless otherwise cited from Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. 3rd Edition. New York.
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This is an article about the early white settlement of my county - Wayne County in Indiana. Done by teenagers. It mentions tensions with native peoples. You think?
The number of alphabets is astonishing and awesome. That is a wonderful take away from my time in Beijing, and 3 cities each in Cambodia and Vietnam. If I were queen of the U.S., I would make every child learn a second language and then at least have the basics of a third which had a different script - just to expose them to the world a bit more.
Before I left on this trip, I read a fabulous piece by David Sedaris, the American humorist that can have me laughing out loud like no other, in "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls", his latest book. He writes about how many Americans travel and don't even bother to learn "thank you" in other languages as he takes readers through his recent attempts at Japanese and the omissions in introductory language texts. I managed to get "Thank You" down in Phnom Penh by about day 3 and look it up in advance for Vietnam - saying it timidly each time until about half way through the journey. In Beijing a couple hours after arrival on the first night an adorable 5 year old at a family owned restaurant taught us.
Maybe you could find a menu in New York City in multiple languages but you wouldn't expect to go to a Starbucks and have someone be able to help you in Chinese. "Cold water" in Chinese? I don't know, let alone have it listed in my menu in Chinese. But I get it - English is a lingua Franca. I've met 4 Swedes on this trip (and 2 Canadians, massive numbers of Aussies, a Brit, 2 Mexicans, Brazilians etc.) English, yeah it is almost exclusively used. But how crazy is it I could leave Sweden not knowing a word in Chinese beyond "hello" and expect no trouble. To be honest, I didn't even really think about it. When getting my Chinese visa the officer in Stockholm was willing to help me in Swedish or English. In the U.S. within discussions of race, we talk about being white and how many white people don't think race is a problem because they haven't had to consider it. That alone displays their privilege and is an example of the constructed and inherited power. It is analogous to what I realized once again or in a new way on this trip. I didn't even think about learning some Chinese before I left, I knew I could get by just fine.
Although I study how to create positive peace and slowly dismantle structural violence, relearning or being reminded of your own privilege is important.
And yeah, Queen Anna thinks we should all try to learn a language with a script different than our own.
Lovely Thanksgiving in Uppsala with friends - potluck style!
Picture c/o Maria Lundin Hartman
Hey Thanksgiving cuties, Bakhti & Heather.
This year was a much more manageable size than last year. It was quite an adventure with 55+ and definitely a fabulous time. A couple photos below:
Hey gang!
Now those are some pumpkin pies...
"Edibles consisted of a surf-and-turf spread of venison, wild turkey, guinea fowl (also called turkey, although Natives referred to it as peru), pea fowl, goose, duck, swan and partridge, along with the surf part consisting of clams, eel, cod and lobster, along with maize bread, pumpkin and other squashes."Read more athttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/11/22/1621-original-surf-turf-meal-152315
I appreciate having lots of conscientious friends on facebook preaching about the Thanksgiving holiday and the need to realize we don't often talk about the real story or consider or focus on the treatment of native peoples in the U.S. after the entry of the European settlers.
This morning on a run through the lovely woods, I was listening to a story about Kiribati and how by 2030 is will be mostly underwater and if there's a huge wave the 32 islands could be eliminated much earlier. The interview asked the reporter if he felt guilty about the situation due to sea-level rise which is caused by industrialized countries in the north and not by the I-Kiribati. He said along the lines of: I'm not the right person to ask because I feel guilty about everything (dude, I can identify). And he went on to say what amazes him is that the President of Kiribati is angry at places like the U.S. and China but knows ultimately that may not help his cause of trying to prepare his people who have been on the island for more than 5000 years, make a transition to other countries as migrant workers rather than poor refugees. Then the reporter said this would probably be the first case of forced migration of an entire population because of climate change.
That caught my ear. First, ever? What about people that had to go over the land bridge? Obviously, that wasn't his point. His point was man-made climate change forcing populations to move. Not just natural climate shifts 20,000 years ago. Point taken.
So... guilt. How far back should memories go?
One of the things Kiribati has requested is reparations. China and America should pay up for their pollution and help these I-Kiribati move. Given recent payments by the U.K. to the Mau-Mau survivors in Kenya and the turning tide around climate change, or maybe I should say the early waves of change - maybe someday there will be reparations for the Kiribati. Fourteen Caribbean Islands are requesting reparations for the legacy of slavery two centuries old. It should certainly be discussed.
What's the take away?
1) I really want to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving, the one American* holiday that doesn't feel like it's about glorifying our violent nation (Veteran's Day**, Memorial Day, 4th of July) or buying things (Christmas, Halloween, all holidays because of sales). (Now, obviously Thanksgiving is followed by one of the grossest consumer days in the U.S..) Nonetheless, I LOVE the idea of sharing a day over a meal where we allow ourselves to be thankful - secularly - for all the blessings in our lives. When we can gather with families and friends and not be worried about presents or getting to a house of worship or a tv special.
2) We should have so much more education about modern American Indians and about the huge variety of groups, including the Wampanoag, who are under-represented in U.S. history books and our conversations. And Thanksgiving shouldn't be the only day we bring it up. And we probably do need and will eventually get more reparations - monetary and otherwise in this world that I deeply want to believe will bend toward justice.
So, thanks for those "surf and turf" thanksgiving of 1621 menu items and for teaching me our modern Thanksgiving traditions began after 1863 when Abraham Lincoln was trying to unite a war-riddled country.
Preaching to the preachers over for the day!
With gratitude and thanksgiving,
-Anna
*"American" when referring to something of the U.S. or the U.S. people, can also be guilt inducing - what about all the peoples of the Americas? Give me something better than United Statesian and I'll work with you.
**Please note that I feel that Veteran's is an incredibly important day to be thankful for the incredible sacrifices of human lives for others, as we believe in the causes of freedom, liberty and have been told that is what we are fighting to defend, and in many cases, have been.
Somehow we have held on to autumn a lot longer than last year here in the southern end of Sweden. I am still able to run outside some mornings without freezing which is fabulous because Uppsala has so many parks (parken), woods (skogs), and nature reserves (naturreservat). At the beginning of fall I would run through the city woods, over ski tracks or horse paths or walking paths through a neighborhood and out to some housing areas dotted with farms. Now I am running in the woods near my 1st year's housing which has a little water fall and a few farms also. I love how quickly you can be in nature in Uppsala even though it's Sweden's 4th largest city. The regional buses come into the city from quite rural parts all around the county. It is an impressive public transport network.
I am not at all hoping for winter to come faster - the extended autumn has been fabulous! - but I am already eyeing the cross-country ski (skidor) trails close to my current apartment and thinking of downloading the iPhone app map.
