Indigenous Writes

by Chelsea Vowel

  If you cannot determine where the story came from, then please do not pass it on as being from “X nation.”

  For example, once a friend picked up a book for me, called Raven the Trickster,5 at a library sale. I immediately became uneasy when I read the inside covers. Here are some partial quotes that stood out for me:

  “This book contains nine stories about the wily Raven…”6

  No mention of where those stories originated other than from “the North West coast of the Pacific Ocean.”7

  “The tales collected and retold here by Gail Robinson, a distinguished Canadian poet who has lived among the North American Indians and listened first-hand to the stories they tell….”8

  No actual communities are listed. No actual Indigenous people are named. There is zero attribution here. I have no idea if these stories are made up, mistranslated, or ripped off wholesale and profited from without any recognition given to those who carry traditional stories from generation to generation.

  The stories are interesting, just like the “Cherokee” Two Wolves parable is. But, I’m not presenting this to my children as authentic; nor should it be accepted as such without a heck of a lot more research into the origins of these tales.

  Contrast that with the book Unipkaaqtuat Arvianit: Traditional Stories From Arviat.9 The book description is as follows:

  Well-loved and respected community member Mark Kalluak has collected stories from around Arviat since the 1970s, including stories he grew up hearing his mother tell. In this delightful book for audiences of all ages, Mr. Kalluak shares his favourite versions of traditional and personal tales, lovingly illustrating and translating them himself.10

  Although it is not stated, we know these are Inuit stories (because Arviat is an Inuit community). We also know the specific community (again, Arviat). Further, we know who told these stories to Mr. Kalluak (his mother and other Inuit from Arviat). In addition, this particular book is a bilingual version, offered in both English and Inuktitut. The fact that this is in an Indigenous language, as well as in English, makes it a bit more likely that it is authentic.

  Indigenous genres

  Many people seem to think Indigenous stories are only authentic if they are myths or legends, but there are many Indigenous literary genres. Let me introduce you to two nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) genres: the âtayôhkêwina and âcimowina.11

  The âtayôhkêwina are often described in English as sacred stories.12 These are stories describing ancient times – the original creators or storytellers are long forgotten. Often classified as myths – for their descriptions of the creation and shaping of the world, as well as the creation of plants and animals – these stories are the ones many people seek out when looking to learn about nêhiyaw culture or integrate nêhiyaw culture into the classroom. Far from being stories anyone can fabricate, the âtayôhkêwina are very specific. Trying to produce a sham âtayôhkêwina would be as unsuccessful as a sham Greek myth. People would know.

  The âtayôhkêwina continue to have social and cultural importance; they are not merely entertainment. They represent and express a nêhiyaw world-view and philosophy, as well as forming a body of nêhiyaw laws. In order for laws to be effective, they must be known. The telling of âtayôhkêwina ensures these laws continue to be passed down from generation to generation.

  These are the stories that have the most restrictions surrounding their telling, so people hoping to access them or use them in educational settings need to be aware of some of these cultural expectations. For example, many âtayôhkêwina are supposed to be told only during the winter months. As part of this, the nêhiyaw cultural hero, wîsahkêcâhk, is generally only referred to as “nistês” (Elder Brother) outside of the winter season, rather than by name.

  People who have learned how to tell the âtayôhkêwina have studied very hard to get the details right, and some of these stories in their full telling can last for days! Shortened versions or sections of longer stories are sometimes shared, and can be very confusing without knowing the fuller context. If you’re struggling to make a connection with something familiar, think once again of Greek myths. The body of Greek mythology is extremely long and detailed, and makes cohesive sense if you know most of it. If you were merely exposed to a single story, however, you may be left scratching your head.

  Although I’ve made this sound like super serious stuff, a great many of these stories are humorous despite the important lessons they contain. Others are scary, or downright disturbing.

  You will not find many âtayôhkêwina in print – with the exception of anthropological texts; so if a book claims to contain sacred Cree stories, be wary.

  The âcimowina, on the other hand, happen after the âtayôhkêwina and tend to be regarded as more factual than mythological – though within the âcimowina are many tales that are not always meant to be taken literally. Some âcimowina record historical events, and their retelling requires details be very specifically remembered and passed on. Others integrate some of the beings that are told of in the âtayôhkêwina. Because many of the âcimowina are specific to certain communities and families, they are not all necessarily as widely known as the âtayôhkêwina and may be passed down within just a family or community. These stories are not restricted in the same way as the âtayôhkêwina, but you can imagine that if a story belongs to a certain family, it would be extremely unbecoming to tell that story without permission. New âcimowina will be created as time passes, and experiences are chronicled in this fashion.

  These are just two examples of Indigenous genres from a specific Indigenous nation. The idea here is to get you used to the idea that not all “Native American” stories are the same.

  Then, there are contemporary stories told by Indigenous peoples that can be fiction or nonfiction and can rely on traditional stories or not. We exist as contemporary peoples, too, and our experiences in the 21st century are no less authentically Indigenous.

  So, get the real stories! There are so many Indigenous publishing companies these days; there is really no excuse to buy sketchy stories bastardized from Billy Graham sermons. Most exciting, from my perspective, is how many of these resources are being offered in English (or French) and in the original language! You can absolutely build a solid library of authentic Indigenous literature that represents every single genre (both Western and Indigenous) from K–12. All it takes is asking the right questions and caring enough to bypass the fakes.

  If you want a curated list of age-appropriate literary resources that accurately represent Indigenous peoples, Debbie Reese has put in an enormous amount of effort to provide exactly this on her blog, American Indians in Children’s Literature. She does close readings of books and publishes reviews of books when authors get it right and when authors get it wrong. If you aren’t sure about a resource, you can usually find it on Debbie’s website and find out if it’s worth reading or using as a teaching resource.13

  Be okay with difference.

  Before I leave you to spend your every last cent on books, I want to warn you: authentic Indigenous stories come from a different cultural context than you may be familiar with. While many of the books you find will be written with a non-Indigenous audience in mind, the more traditional stories will have been created before that audience was even possible. That should be obvious, but I think it bears noting.

  If you go into these stories always expecting to have your cultural beliefs and norms reinforced, you’re doing it wrong. Trite Western moral lessons are not necessarily going to be handed to you in our stories.

  Listening to, or reading, authentic Indigenous stories means you are accessing different cultures. Please don’t forget that. Sometimes, what you are reading simply will not make sense to you because you lack the cultural context. That does not mean you should avoid these stories. It just means you might have to put a bit more work into getting the full benefit of them than you would with stories that come from a context you are already completely familiar with.14

 
So, the next time someone tells you a “Native American” saying or story, ask yourself if it resonates with you because it’s really “Indigenous wisdom” – or if it’s just a Western story wrapped up in a cloak of indigeneity.

  NOTES

  1.The Tumblr user I first saw identify Billy Graham as the author of this parable was known as Pavor Nocturnus, but that Tumblr account is no longer active. In any case, I thank that person very much for making the post that brought it to people’s attention. I am sure others have also looked into this story and found similar origins, and I hope people continue to dig and question, always!

  2.Billy Graham, “The Christian’s Inner Struggle,” in The Holy Spirit: Activating God’s Power in Your Life (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1978), accessed October 20, 2015,

  3.Ibid. (my emphasis).

  4.Reasons such as being forcibly removed by the state and placed in residential schools or forcibly removed by the state and adopted into non-Indigenous families. Reasons such as arbitrary state-controlled definitions of identity being used to strip people of their legal status as Indians. Reasons such as centuries of prolonged attacks on our cultures and selves.

  5.Gail Robinson, Raven the Trickster (New York: Atheneum, 1982).

  6.Ibid.

  7.Ibid.

  8.Ibid.

  9.Mark Kalluak, Unipkaaqtuat Arvianit: Traditional Stories From Arviat (Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, 2009).

  10.Ibid., last accessed October 20, 2015, http://inhabitmedia.com/2009/01/10/unipkaaqtuat-arvianit-2/.

  11.Just as in chapter 3, I choose not to capitalize any nêhiyawêwin (Cree language) words out of respect for the Standard Roman Orthography (SRO), which does not use capital letters.

  12.Robert Innes, Elder Brother and the Law of the People: Contemporary Kinship and Cowessess First Nation (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2013), 23–42. For a longer and more detailed discussion of the importance of âtayôhkêwina and âcimowina, see this source.

  13.Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children’s Literature, http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.ca/.

  14.Keavy Martin, Stories in a New Skin: Approaches to Inuit Literature (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2012). This book might help you better access and understand Inuit literature.

  11

  Icewine, Roquefort Cheese, and the Navajo Nation

  Indigenous Use of Intellectual Property Laws

  I’d like to tell you a story about icewine.

  Icewine is pressed from grapes that freeze on the vine, and it is an incredibly sweet and expensive dessert wine. Not everyone likes it, but I consider it a pretty decadent treat.

  Canada is the largest producer of authentic icewine in the world because, unlike many other wine-producing areas, Canadian vineyards experience some pretty cold winters. It first started being produced here in the early 1980s, but really gained traction in the late 1990s and early oughts. A 375-mL bottle will cost you about $45 Canadian here, but the price can go up to a couple of hundred smackarooneys on markets in China.1

  As you can imagine, counterfeit icewine started popping up fairly early, both here in Canada and abroad. To deal with the fakes, British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia set up special provincial legislation under the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) to regulate the production and quality of icewines produced from those regions.

  The VQA is a wine appellation system, meaning that certain terms applied to wines can be used only if the product meets specific criteria.2 These criteria include alcohol content, authorized grape varieties, testing and approval of the wine, and so forth. It is illegal to use names restricted under an appellation system unless the criteria are met. When you see VQA on the label of an icewine, you, as the consumer, should be assured that what is in that bottle is of the highest quality.

  Fake “Canadian” icewine produced by China had become such a problem that Canada developed a national standard in 2014 to address this kind of fraud. It can’t stop the fake production, but it can ensure that the reputation of Canadian icewine producers is backed up by quality assurances. The standard is quite simple: “Only wine that is made exclusively from grapes naturally frozen on the vine is ‘icewine,’ ‘ice wine’ or ‘ice-wine.’”3 This standard prevents anyone from doing something like taking a table wine, adding sugar, and claiming it is icewine – something that was technically possible before.

  Appellation laws have existed in many countries for centuries. Champagne originally enjoyed legal appellation protection under the Treaty of Madrid, 1891, which stated only sparkling wines produced in a specific area of France could be called champagne.4 This has been affirmed in various treaties and laws since.

  Alcoholic beverages are not the only products to enjoy such legal protections. Cheeses are another fine example, using something called a Geographical Indication (GI) to describe where the product comes from, guaranteeing everything from quality to production methods.

  In Europe, these kinds of labels are specifically linked to where the product is made. Europeans focus on the concept of terroir, which encompasses all the environmental factors of a distinct geographic area that can possibly affect a crop or animal – soil pH, quality of water, climate, and so on.5 Copying the process of making a certain product is not sufficient to use a restricted appellation, because the product is defined by its terroir. Thus, when you buy Roquefort cheese, you know it comes from a precise region in France where unique conditions exist that make this cheese one of a kind. Roquefort cheese was the first to receive the AOC label (Appelation d’Origine Contrôlée or Protected Designation of Origin) in 1725, kicking off the GI model of cheese naming.

  In the United States, appellation is more a form of intellectual property (specifically, trademark), and whoever owns the trademark can use it regardless of terroir. This is meant to protect the brand itself and the quality that has come to be associated with it – rather than to describe the terroir the product comes from. There is overlap between these two approaches, but the overall purpose is to ensure individual names guarantee special qualities by protecting the usage of names.

  Why terms like Navajo and Native American matter

  You may have heard of a litigation launched by the Navajo nation in 2012 against clothing giant Urban Outfitters:6

  Brian Lewis, an attorney with the Navajo Nation Department of Justice, says the group wants Urban Outfitters to stop misappropriating the “Navajo” name and trademark. “Although Urban Outfitters had said previously that it had stopped using ‘Navajo’ in connection with the sale of its products, it merely transitioned its misappropriation of the Navajo name and trademark to lesser-known websites and print advertisement – those of its subsidiaries,” Lewis said.7

  That’s right. The Navajo nation has trademark ownership of the name Navajo, and it has the legal right under United States trademark law to stop people from using it to describe products that have not been approved by the Navajo nation. Just like Urban Outfitters owns the trademark to its name. The lawsuit states:

  The fame or reputation of the Navajo name and marks is such that, when the defendant uses the “Navajo” and “Navaho” marks with its goods and services, a connection with the Navajo nation is falsely presumed.8

  Urban Outfitters responded with this back in October of 2012:

  Like many other fashion brands, we interpret trends and will continue to do so for years to come. The Native American-inspired trend and specifically the term Navajo have been cycling thru fashion, fine art and design for the last few years.9

  This is true, but it likely won’t save Urban Outfitters from being held accountable for their trademark infringement – the case was still going strong as of 2015. “Everyone else does it” is not a legal defence – unless the Navajo nation fails to enforce its rights.

  In trademark law, there is a concept called “genericization,” whereby a trademark can expire if it becomes overused outside of the narrow confines of its legal usage. A famous example involves the Xerox company.
Its trademark was threatened when people began to use the term xerox in place of photocopy.10

  Only an aggressive ad campaign saved Xerox from joining the ranks of trademarks lost to colloquial use.11 They essentially begged consumers to say “photocopy” instead of “xerox,” citing an example of the zipper as an example. At one time, zipper had been a trademarked name but no longer is.

  Although the specific legal principles involved here may differ, use of the terms icewine, Roquefort, and Navajo all have something in common: they tell you something about what you are buying. And, in this case, the Navajo nation wants to ensure consumers are not associating the term Navajo with random southwest-inspired hipster fashion.

  Fakers are not always so blatant.

  There are many ways around the multitude of appellation, geographic indicator, country of origin, and trademark laws – and fakers love to exploit them. While not exactly fodder for a television show featuring ridiculously good-looking lawyers dashing in to protect intellectual property, the struggle to protect the integrity of certain names is very high stakes. Counterfeit products and piggybacking off trademark names to entice consumers account for billions of dollars of profit loss every year. It is also very much up to consumers to be aware of the standards involved in order to avoid being ripped off.

  There is a statute in the United States called the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.12 (There is no such equivalent in Canada.) This law states that only a person who is an enrolled member of a federally or state recognized tribe can produce items labelled Native American or Indian. In addition, members of one tribe cannot pass their items off as coming from a different tribe, so if your goods are labelled Hopi, you’d better be a member or a certified artisan of the Hopi.