What It's like to Be Native American in the New Millennium

The Native American culture has slowly began to disappear from the minds of many Americans today. While we struggle to maintain our heritage in this new era, the more that has happened to contain the idea that we actually still exist.

As I sit and watch television or read the paper, I see less and less about anything dealing with my nationality. It always seems that the only times that Native Americans are even noticed is either in film, during a political rally as we fight for our rights and our land, or at the end of a punchline when a joke is being told. While there has been a lot said about how 'special' we are in the eyes of politicians, businessmen, and celebrities as our stories are told through documentaries and other means, the point still remains that many believe that we are a 'vanishing race'. As I notice these things, I have also began to notice that there is even less understanding today than there was in the 1800's. There is less that is being explained or examined, and the very facts and realities that come with being Native American are becoming drastically distorted, as our history is told by others who may not know the history as well as we do. While there may be those of Native American lineage that tell the stories and history that have been passed down through the ages, it is treated as a footnote rather than any true knowledge that may come from those who were on the land before Christopher Columbus touched our shores.

In school, we are taught to revere the race and to respect their culture in all things. Whether it be their spirituality, their lifestyle, or even something as small as the way they talk and dress, this is respect that has not been given out of respect, but rather out of fear. If there is fear, it also raises other negative emotions such as doubt, anger, and even indifference as the way they would like history to be told to them is in the fashion that they are accustomed to, and this may be why there is so little tolerance for Native Americans today, for this ideology that we are one specific thing may be clouding the thinking of those that study history or perhaps write books about history.