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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1990)
Smoke Signals January 1990 Page 14 ii illlpp!'" is m '.I. .si ! - ; 7 jn ' lis v 4SSSS lilllllilllil I 1 m mm m wmm ABC's Hattie Kaufmann. (Photo by Greg Archuleta.) ABC'S HATTIE KAUFFMAN KEEPS NEZ PERCE LESSONS KAMIAH, Idaho (AP) - She lives in the hectic world of New York, and her assignments take her to far-off places, but it is the lessons learned in the Nez Perce world at Kamiah that frequently come to her aid. Hattie Kauffman, ABC television's special correspon dent on the "Good Morning America" show, was at Kamiah again last month, to participate in religious ceremonies for her dead mother and to act as grand marshal in the parade during the Chief Looking Glass celebrations. ' Having survived a horse who did not appreciate roses, she sat beneath a tree on a day golden with light, talking about her life there and here. There were frequent interruptions as she stopped to sign autographs, exchange pleasantries with people who stopped by or have her photograph taken with someone who requested it. . She was dressed in the sparkling attire of the Nex Perce: a white buckskin dress flecked with multi colored embroidery, moccasins, a bone choker, otter fur around her neck and lots and lots of dazzling beadwork. "There was a little bit of action there," Kauffman said with a laugh, describing the scene with the horse she was riding in the parade. Someone gave her a bunch of red roses midway during the parade, which the horse apparently objected to, and showed his displeasure by rearing up and doing a little dance of his own. There was no serious damage done, though. The reason could be that Kauffman is used to riding horses. "I used to have a horse here in Idaho. Its name was Sicum, which means horse in Nez Perce," she said. Earlier in the day she placed first among women in the Leland Ellenwood Memorial run, running six miles in 42 minutes and 9 seconds. The years she has spent in the tribal setting are important to her, and have helped in her career. "I lived through being poor, hungry and saw a lot of , alcoholism and survived," she said. "I think its given mc a greater empathy for human beings. When I arrive at the scene of a story I see people not as subjects but as people." 9 The results shows in the way she reacts to a setting, she said. "There is something that exists in a tribal culture ...and that is you are part of a big family, and that helps," she said. "Instead of focusing on whatever makes you separate you focus on what makes you connect." Kauffman spent much of her early life at Kamiah, going to elementary and high school there. She is the daughter of Josephine Moody and John Kauffman. Five sisters and a brother still live in the region. Kauffman started as a reporter with KING-TV at Seattle, became weekend anchor for KING-5 news in 1983, and joined ABC in 1987. She is one of two correspondents for the television program. It was not easy getting to know life in New York. "It's a little different being a Nez Perce in New York City," she said. "I couldn't stand it when I moved there. There were no trees, too many buildings, too many people." There was also the incessant travel during the first year she was on the road 90 percent of the time, she said. "Lots of people in New York don't know there are still Indians," she said, adding that when she told people she was going to attend a Pow-Wow many did not believe it. One of her funnier experiences was with a taxi driver who was a Russian immigrant. When informed that she was Indian he asked why she was not in Cleveland apparently having been led to believe, because of the Cleveland Indians, that all Indians were kept there. One thing all Indians need, she said, is a more positive self-image. " '-. "So much of what we learn is defeat-oriented," she said. "Its' time to say I'm not a dead horse. I think we do need some input in writing our own history." Storytelling is an important part of the tribe's tradition, and she believes she is simply carrying on that tradition. She has reported on events in several countries in , Europe and through much of the United States, but she says, "In a way I am just a regular Nez Perce story teller." DENNIS BANKS PROMOTES TRADE BETWEEN TRIBES, ASIAN NATIONS BY NANCY BUTTERFIELD NATIVE AMERICAN NEWS SERVICE Dennis Banks, a former leader of the American Indian Movement, is working with Indian businesses and : Japanese leaders to plan a major Indian trade fair in Japan late next year. Banks told tribal leaders gathered for the National Congress of American Indians annual convention in Oklahoma City earlier this month that tremendous opportunities for cultural exchange and business relationships exist between Japan and American Indian Tribes. He said a trade fair would be an effective way to bring together these interests to benefit both groups. Banks displayed packages of wild rice flakes that Japanese entrepreneurs are marketing in a cooperative effort with Chippewa Indians who harvest wild rice. A three-ounce package of the rice flakes sells for 390 yen, or about $2.50, in Japan. He said the product is becom ing increasingly popular there. He called on NCAI to act as a liaison between Indian (Continued on page 15). A NEW FEDERALISM FOR AMERICAN INDIANS This year we celebrate the 200th Anniversary of George Washington's inauguration as the First Presi dent of the United States. We also celebrate the bicentennial of our first treaty under the Constitution with American Indian Tribes. These two events are not coincidental. At the birth of our constitutional democ racy, our Founding Fathers chose to recognize the origi nal inhabitants of America as independent, self-governing nations which long predated European settlement. In calling for agreements by treaty with Indians, Presi dent Washington and the founders pledged that the United.Statcs would deal with the continent's native people with consistency, fairness and honor. In the century following 1789, however, frontier settlement unleashed economic and political forces that undermined Washington's call for stability and mutual respect in Indian affairs. Hounded by Western expan sionists, and thrown on the defensive by the outspoken enemies of American Indians, Congress abandoned the Founding Fathers' committment to fair and honorable agreements with Indian peoples. Throughout the 19th century, the federal government conducted brutal wars to subjugate resistant tribes. The military campaigns often led to conquest and forced removal of Indians from their native territory. In exchange for the vast lands that now comprise most of the United States, the federal government promised the tribes permanent, self-governing reservations, along with federal goods and services. Instead, government administrators, many of whom were corrupt, tried to substitute federal power for the Indians' own institu tions by imposing changes in every aspect of native life. At its height, there seemed no limit to the government's paternalistic ambitions. It severed ties between parents and children by confining students in government' boarding schools; it shattered the authority of religious , leaders by prohibiting traditional rituals and jailing those who resisted; and it destroyed indigenous economics by seizing tribal territories and reneging on the promises it made for land, federal support and financial assistance. Finally, while the government offered Indians equal membership in the United States, it failed to grant them the basic freedom' enjoyed bj all other Americans: the right to choose their own form of government and live free from tryranny. Only in the last two decades have federal policymakers taken some cautious steps toward renewing Indian self rule. Pressed by a persistent and articulate American Indian leadership, as well as other concerned citizens, Congress has begun to return governmental authority to the tribes. Yet even as we near the end of the 20th century, American Indians remain largely trapped by the 19th century poverty: 16 percent of reservation homes lack electricity, 21 percent an indoor toilet and 56 percent a telephone. And for the most part, federal policymakers and administrators are still held captive by the ghosts of paternalism and dependency. Now is the time, on the 200th anniversary of both our constitutional democracy and its first Indian treaty, to reject the errors of our history and return to the high standards set by President Washington. Now is the time to embark on a new era of negotiated agreements between Indian tribes and the United States that abolish federal paternalism but ensure full federal support. By launching a New Federalism for American Indians, we will reaffirm our faith in the extraordinary vision of those who created this unique Republic, while redeem ing the promise made long ago to its first people.
