Before he died in 1999, a man named Aaron Two Elk led a campaign in Atlanta against the Tomahawk Chop, that sort-of chant that originated with sports fans of Florida State. It came to the Atlanta Braves with Deion Sanders, a Florida State alumn, and became infamous in 1991 when the Braves went to (and very nearly won) the World Series after being the worst team in baseball the year before.
Aaron Two Elk was one of the American Indian Movement who participated in the Wounded Knee 1973 uprising. It is an interesting story if you haven't heard it; many of them were Vietnam veterans who had served their country, but found when they returned to the reservation that they were no longer prepared to endure the corruption and abusive police tactics that were endemic at the time. Here is a photo of Mr. Two Elk during the uprising.
I met him while he was leading his anti-Chop protests. He was a very nice person, and very brave: often he would be out there protesting alone while hundreds of baseball fans poured out abuse on him as they passed his protest. Atlanta was not the safest city in America back then, and the city was caught up in the fever of supporting their team. There was no little danger of becoming the object of more than verbal attentions from a mob doubly drunk on stadium beer and the thrill of victory.
He went out there alone anyway, because he was proud of his heritage. While the "Tomahawk Chop" was not on the same scale as the abuses afflicting the reservations, he objected to it as a way in which the broader American society mocked Native American heritage for its own purposes. Whether you agreed with him or not -- even famously-sensitive Jane Fonda could not see the Chop as anything other than harmless fun -- you had to respect his conviction and his courage.
This is all in the news today because Scott Brown supporters were apparently doing the Tomahawk Chop at an Elizabeth Warren rally.
The Blue Mass Group says that Scott Brown has to explain his supporters' tone.
Yet it occurs to me that this might be one place where even Mr. Two Elk might have thought the "Chop" was appropriate. She and it belong together. They are precisely parallel. If you object to one, you have exactly the same reasons to object to the other.
BMG also cites this video, which they attribute to Republican activists. Maybe instead of dismissing it for that reason, they should have listened to what the people in it have to say.
Aaron may have been nice to you, but he wasn't so nice to his brother, Richard, whom he beat, or the young girl he raped on the Trail of Broken Treaties in 1972. And some members of the much vaunted VVAW became Dennis Banks' private goon squad during the occupation of Wounded Knee village. When Dennis told them to take care of someone, they knew what that meant.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about things that are internal to his family, and I never heard anything about the accusation of rape that you raise. Having looked about for it this evening, I find no evidence that such an accusation exists. You may wish to document the claim if you want to stand on it.
ReplyDeleteIn Aaron Two Elk I knew a man, for a while in the early 1990s, who was at that time and in that place the kind of man one has to admire. If you're right that he wasn't always or everywhere that kind of man, he was once: and that's more than I can say for most.
Rape, especially by members of the American Indian Movement, like the murders at Wounded Knee '73, is a history still waiting to be discovered by the media. My information comes from Aaron's brother, Richard Two Elk, and the information found in American Indian Mafia.
ReplyDeleteScott Brown has to explain his supporters' tone? But that's hopeless. I don't think there's any way to explain a joke to someone lacking a sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteI know, I know. THAT'S NOT FUNNY.
This whole business is starting to remind me of Victorian women who supposedly would gasp and blanche if someone referred to piano legs instead of limbs. Enough with the trembling lower lips.
A minor point, at least with respect to members of the pre-Columbian American heritage population (I put it this way since I'm of Scot-Irish blood but I consider myself an unhyphenated, native American, thank you) having a problem with the chant/chop...
ReplyDeleteHaving been a long suffering Braves fan, prior to 1991, and having a long time friend, at least since our Cub Scouts days in the late 50's, early sixties, who was a big Noles fan, I believe the Florida State Seminoles can rightfully claim to have originated the chant/chop well before it was adopted by the Braves fans.
I'd be surprised if I'm the only one who remembers the chronology as such, but I just want to assign CWCID.
"Scott Brown has to explain his supporters' tone? But that's hopeless. I don't think there's any way to explain a joke to someone lacking a sense of humor."
ReplyDeleteParticularly the home grown petulant parties of the perpetually put upon.
May mood altering drugs be in their gub'ment health/drug coverage plans.
My information comes from Aaron's brother, Richard Two Elk, and the information found in American Indian Mafia.
ReplyDeleteI can't speak to your conversations with his brother, about which I know nothing. The "Mafia" data, however, asserts that its source -- I clicked on your link -- is based on FBI data.
It is hard to believe that the FBI would not have brought anything resembling compelling evidence of rape by an AIM member to court. I've dealt with the FBI often enough to know something about how they operate. If this were serious intelligence, they'd have moved on it.
...Victorian women who supposedly would gasp and blanche if someone referred to piano legs instead of limbs...
Give those ladies credit. They structured a way for social conversation to turn on the sexual, in all its pleasant connotations, without anyone being degraded by it. No one is hurt by talk about piano legs, but if we're talking about "legs," we're still having all the fun of talking about the sexual. I think the Victorians were smarter than us about that.
I believe the Florida State Seminoles can rightfully claim to have originated the chant/chop well before it was adopted by the Braves fans.
I agree. Did I say something that suggests otherwise?
" I agree. Did I say something that suggests otherwise"
ReplyDeleteNo you did not.
My comment on the Seminoles chant/chop was intended to be a FYI for those at large who might not know. I think I mentioned it mostly due to every story I read on the web concerning the Brown supporters chopping at Warren mentioned the Braves.
ReplyDeleteNow that I read your post again I see that I must have glossed over your comment about Fla. St. and Sanders.
I think I'll stick to trying to get my work done and leave the commentary to others.
The polite circumlocutions I can live with. The thin-skinned pearl-clutching designed to shut down discourse is less appealing. It's not too bad, I guess, as long as they stay in the parlor and let the other folks engage in free discussion elsewhere. Constitutional freedom of speech always has acknowledged restrictions on time and place.
ReplyDeleteMy real question is by what right is Fauxcahontas offended? They're mocking the fact that she is falsely claiming that heritage. She has as much right to be upset as I would at having someone throw Polock jokes at me. Sure, it may not be in the best taste, but I'm not a Pole.
ReplyDelete