News

November is National Native American Heritage Month

"Weaving together our past, present and future"

We are in the process of making some major changes

As mentioned on the start page already, we are noticing a rise in awareness among Europeans and we welcome this development. On the other hand, there is still a huge lack of knowledge. We are receiving a lot of e-mails from Germans who are expressing an interest in Native American cultures and traditions and would like to meet Native Americans in order to gain first hand information. But, the so-called "positive" stereotypical perceptions make an exchange at eye level impossible. We are running into the same old problems over and over again which is very frustrating for all of us.

For many years, the motto of our association was "Building Bridges - Connecting People". Apparently, this creates high expectations. During a German television show a moderator used this motto against us after we had refused to attend the show. We had very good reasons to stay absent.

So far, we tried to stay as diplomatic as possible. We focused on sharing first hand information that is already available online. A lot of Native Americans are using the internet extensively to tell their own stories. The pandemic has accelerated this process. Everybody has access to this knowledge now. But, instead of using it for educational purposes and sticking to it in a consequent way, a strange mixture out of first hand information and stereotypes is created by those who just want to follow their own personal, egocentric agenda.

When children dress up in "Indian costumes" in Germany, they usually do not have any bad intentions. It is the opposite. They want to be like their role models. The problem is that the way these children see Native Americans is based on stereotypes. That's why education is very important. Quite a lot of children who had the opportunity to learn more about the significance of Native American regalia, did not want to wear "Indian costumes" anymore. All these years, we have been focusing on education by sharing first hand information. We never demanded a ban of these "Indian costumes".

Apparently, some Germans misunderstood this diplomatic way of handling the whole situation. They are contacting us for mainly one reason: We are supposed to help justifying acts of cultural appropriation.

Therefore, we want to point out that there is a majority of Native Americans who see these "Indian costumes" as a mockery of their cultures. We have been sharing this information from the very beginning, even before our association was founded back in 1994. Decades later we are still facing the same old problem and this is very frustrating. Why does it seem to be impossible for quite a lot of non-indigenous people to respect the wishes of the ones whose ancestors had to endure a lot in order to keep traditions alive? These "Indian costumes" are based on stereotypes that have an extremely harmful impact on Native American children and youth.

Our requests for respecting old traditions that are still practiced today are ignored by a majority of those people in German speaking countries who are constantly stating how much they admire Native Americans.

"It's Time to Change the Narrative" is a good motto to express how important it is to say bye to old concepts and open up for a new development that has the potential to finally bring peace, healing and harmony.