Robert C. Juneau Glacier Reporter Letter to the Editor 10-13-12

Glacier Reporter Letter to the Editor
10-13-12
Robert C. Juneau   

To the Editor:  
In my previous Letter to the editor I quoted a story called,"The Big Game," from a American 
Indian Quarterly article called Indigenous Identity What is it, and Who really has it?  by 
Hilary N. Weaver.  "The Big Game," is a story Weaver was told by her father about the Lakota and the Navajo at a all-native basketball tournament championship game.  Neither 
Native basketball team could prove to the satisfaction of the other that they were true 
authentic Native American people.  The argument ends in stalemate with the game being canceled and no champion declared for that year.  In this letter I would like to recount six of the lessons explained by Weaver about the meaning of the story from the article.  The first is identity is always based on power and exclusion.  The second was,"all the players see themselves as indigenous people, yet the ways in which they define themselves are contested by others.  A stalemate occurs when it becomes impossible to reach an agreement between self-definitions and external definitions of identity(245)." The third is,"the players are members of teams.  The teams validate and reinforce each member's identity as a basketball player, just as Native communities validate and reinforce the identities of their members.  Being part of a larger group is critical to identity in both cases(246)." Fourthly, "The way we choose to define ourselves is often not the way that others define us.  "The Big 
Game" is an example of how conflicting definitions of identity can lead to hostilities.  When the members of one team identify themselves with enrollment cards, this is perceived as a threat to the self-defined identities of those without cards.  Likewise, when the other team 
asserts that identity is grounded in the ability to speak an indigenous language, this threatens the self-perceptions of those who speak only English.  Searching for the "right" 
criteria is both counterproductive and damaging(247)." Fifthly,"The conflict in the story 
"The Big game" illustrates the difficulty inherent in measuring identity by any one standard 
(249)." And sixthly,"Through internalized oppression/colonization, we have become our own worst enemy.  The hateful accusations that are hurled at some serve to hurt our communities.  "The Big Game" illustrates this point.  It is a story of the pain we inflict on each other as a result of internalized colonization(252)."