Smoke Signals January 1990 Page 14
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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.