Re: Dakota
in reply to a message by Sharon-Lynn
Very dated.
I will also point out as usual that Indigenous names hold great weight and meaning for the tribes that carry them, as attempting to strip the First Nations peoples of their cultural identity was kind of a big thing settlers did. Yes, even the names given to them by others, though they might have called themselves something else. Such a name proves you existed, that you were a community, and that others thought about you.
And before someone inevitably points out that I’m white and thinks I’m on some white-guilt crusade (it happens every time, especially with certain long-time btn posters), I was with my ex-husband, an Indigenous man, for 17 years. I spent a lot of time with his family and I saw first-hand how frustrated, angry and hurt they were by things like this. When you’ve sat in a room with old women who can’t speak her own language because they were literally beaten at school if they tried, then see the very type of people who beat them use those words for funsies because they sound cool, it’s heartbreaking.
Just don’t.
I will also point out as usual that Indigenous names hold great weight and meaning for the tribes that carry them, as attempting to strip the First Nations peoples of their cultural identity was kind of a big thing settlers did. Yes, even the names given to them by others, though they might have called themselves something else. Such a name proves you existed, that you were a community, and that others thought about you.
And before someone inevitably points out that I’m white and thinks I’m on some white-guilt crusade (it happens every time, especially with certain long-time btn posters), I was with my ex-husband, an Indigenous man, for 17 years. I spent a lot of time with his family and I saw first-hand how frustrated, angry and hurt they were by things like this. When you’ve sat in a room with old women who can’t speak her own language because they were literally beaten at school if they tried, then see the very type of people who beat them use those words for funsies because they sound cool, it’s heartbreaking.
Just don’t.
Replies
That’s horrible 😢