Thinking About Issues That Concern Native Americans

 

A Liberal Dose

February 23, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“Thinking about issues that concern Native Americans”

 

My apologies for going AWOL last week. It is an incredibly busy time at work, and I couldn’t find time to write a column. You know I'm busy when I miss a chance to bloviate.

This week I want to respond to a couple of things my friend John has said recently -not in an antagonistic way, but rather with a view to set the record straight. First, briefly, John has commented that most people parrot a party line rather than think for themselves. I tend to agree with that statement, actually. I don’t recall him specifically naming me among that group, but I wanted to point out that I wrote a whole column outlining the ways in which I diverge from the mainstream Democratic party line. I do not base my principles, opinions, or passions on what some group-think tells me to believe. However, the Democratic Party lines up with what I think (rather than the other way around) ten times more than the Republican Party does. That said, I am in fact a Democrat (and adviser to the TTU College Democrats), and I chose to call this column “a liberal dose,” so it should come as no surprise that I present a viewpoint from the left rather than the right.

Here’s the other thing. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about the need to use critical thinking (in other words, to think for yourself) and read between the lines and look for context when viewing news reports. I did not favor or condemn one media outlet over another, equally including Fox, MSNBC, CNN, and everyone in between. I specifically talked about two examples: coverage of missing or murdered women and coverage of oil pipeline protests. My overall point was that the fact TV news is commercially sponsored is going to influence what they cover, and how. John wrote in response, “Of course, he used examples that make groups he opposes look like the ones guilty of doing this. Perhaps that was part of his plan. Showing through example, how omission can be used to influence.”

I want to clarify that. While it is fair to say I oppose big oil companies, I do not oppose TV news media, nor the idea of commercial sponsorship. I was just trying to explain how they interact in ways that necessitate reading between the lines. However, it is not an accident that I chose those two examples -because they directly affect the Native community, which I teach about, write about, think about, and in fact stand strongly in solidarity with, so it should come as no surprise that such examples would be the first to come to my mind.

This brings me to something not directly related to my column (or John’s). Very few Americans think about the indigenous perspective -not just in the issues I mentioned, but just in general. This is largely due to the fact most non-indigenous people don’t encounter, interact with, or sometimes even know any Native Americans, who are only about 2% of the population. On the other hand, that means there are about as many indigenous people in our country as there are Muslims, Jews, Mormons, and several other groups. Sadly, that doesn’t keep many non-Natives from speaking FOR them, saying what does or does not, or should or should not, concern or insult American Indians.

At 6:00 p.m. tonight, Thursday, February 23^rd, at the Backdoor Playhouse on Tech campus, I’ll be hosting a panel about contemporary indigenous issues. I will be doing very little talking, most of it will be done by our panelists- five Native Americans from around the state (one from Cookeville) representing five different tribal nations. The second half of the hour will be them answering questions from the audience. This is a rare and wonderful opportunity to find out what is important to these individuals and their communities. I hope you can join us, it’s free to the public.

 (NOTE: the event went extremely well, with a lot of engaging discussion between the panelists and the audience.)

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE

A Brief Overview of Indigenous Culture

 

In several of my classes, it is necessary early on to explain some basics about indigenous culture. This is true in early U.S. history, all my various American Indian Studies classes, Westward Expansion, and Environmental History. I give the same basic introductory cultural lecture in all of them- it is about 2 hour and 45 minutes of me explaining several things that most Native cultures have in common. Every nation and tribe is different, but just as there are some cultural things that make both French and Norwegians European despite their many differences, the same is true for Apaches and Seminoles.

During the first months of Covid, I wound up recording that lecture series (in five sections) on Youtube, to use in all those classes. I thought I'd post the links here so as to more easily direct people to them.

Part 1: The First Americans

Part 2: Native Culture

Part 3: Native Family and Gender

Part 4: Native Spirituality

Part 5: Native Style of Leadership

A Liberal Dose, Feb. 9 2023, "Rubbing Shoulders with Nazis- On a Slippery Slope with Skates"

A Liberal Dose

February 9, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“Rubbing shoulders with Nazis- on a slippery slope with skates”

 

On the first week of February last year, my column was about a Tennessee school banning the graphic novel Maus, a Pulitzer Prize winning work about the horrors of the Holocaust. The school board’s excuse was that there were a couple of illustrations of naked mice in a concentration camp scene, and that it was therefore “dirty.” In the first week of February this year I wrote about literal Nazis in Cookeville protesting an adults-only drag show, chanting antisemitic phrases, and saying they were there to “protect children.” The progression from last year to this is both horrifying and completely predictable. Even more horrifying- where will we be this time next year?

While I am disturbed by the Nazis, I am perhaps more disturbed by the people who willingly protested alongside them. “Why shouldn’t they,” someone said to me, “since they have the same goals? It doesn’t mean they support all the other Nazi goals.” For one thing, I don’t care what you’re protesting- if Nazis, Klansmen, or other white supremacists come and stand beside you I expect you to immediately leave and go protest somewhere else. Alliance with Nazis, for any reason under any circumstances, is not morally acceptable in my opinion, and I hope not in yours.

But it is in some people’s. And that’s where my fear lies. You see, I know very well how fascism, Nazism, and authoritarianism take hold in societies, as do most of my fellow history professors. It is never a majority of the people. It is an active, violent, hateful few… whom the majority accepts, normalizes, and allies with on “little” things, until it has gone too far to turn back. The more you accept Nazis in your midst -on your side -the more solidarity you establish with them, and the more you feel justified in resorting to their tactics. I’m sometimes accused of implying that all Republicans are Nazis. I don’t believe that for a minute. But when Nazis keep showing up at your parties, and you keep allowing them to stay, the more, fairly or not, it tars everyone on your side.

Let’s talk about how the Nazis rose to power. One way they got support from more conservative Germans was by attacking the “hedonistic” and “immoral” attitudes prevalent among young Germans in the 1920s. Cabarets, “weird” art, more openness to LGBTQ lifestyles, adult-themed movies… all things Nazis pointed to as the corruption of innocent youth and thereby weakening of society. Now, one can believe all those things and not be a Nazi… but if you let Nazis speak for you on those topics, you are going down a dark and dangerous road.

What else did Nazis do? Ban books, try to limit thought and expression, and control what was taught in schools. This is why conservative politicians’ efforts to do those very things is so frightening. Banning Black History courses… any discussion of race, or the consequences in modern society of slavery, the Holocaust, and Native American repression, in the classroom until teachers and professors are terrified to broach the subjects… and white supremacists wreaking havoc in the streets… it’s all part of the same phenomenon. Common ground, not just with Nazis, but with Nazi ideas and ideals, and it’s getting worse and worse.

Our own state representative has proposed a bill to rename a Nashville street named after John Lewis to Donald Trump Boulevard. Does Mr. Sherrell know that Lewis was one of the “Big Six” civil rights leaders of the 1960s, and that he participated in some of the first sit-ins in Nashville? Whether done out of ignorance or contempt, such an action -at the beginning of Black History Month! -is a testament to the need for more education on Black History.

Whether claiming there are “good people on both sides”, or just ignoring the Nazis on your protest line -from Charlottesville to Ralph’s Donuts -it is dangerous.

And I won’t hold back from saying so.

 

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE

 

 

A Liberal Dose, February 2, 2023 "Protesting with Nazis Is Alliance with Nazis"

 

A Liberal Dose

February 2, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“Protesting with Nazis is Alliance with Nazis”

 

As I write this, it is Holocaust Remembrance Day. My uncle-by-marriage, who was a huge influence on me as a child and is the source of my love for history books and foreign languages, was a Holocaust refugee. He and two of his brothers were the only members of his entire extended family to escape and survive. I remember, even as a kid, feeling the weight of history on the couple of occasions I met his sister-in-law… a dignified lady who was also a concentration camp survivor, with numbers tattooed on her arm. I remember the feeling I had just a few years ago when one of my uncle’s cousins sent me a link to their ancestry.com page, and I noticed that dozens of their family members all had the same death date. I remember, also, the many other Holocaust survivors I met when I was living in Brooklyn in the 80s.

And just a few days ago, there were literal Nazis protesting on the streets of Cookeville, waving a swastika flag. I’m still hopping mad. These particular Nazis had joined a small crowd of Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and (as I understand it) some members of a local church (including a pastor) in front of Ralph’s Donuts to protest an adults-only drag brunch taking place at the bar across the street. The whole crowd was yelling and chanting insulting things about drag performers and the LGBTQ community, but the Nazis were adding to the mix chants of “kill the Jews” and “Jews rape kids.” Some of the out-of-towners left the group and walked away after the Nazis did these things, while many of the local protesters expressed discomfort and even dismay at the activity- but remained on the protest line.

Let me be clear. Even Nazis have the constitutional right to assemble peacefully and to express their ideas. I’m not one of the people who think the police should have dispersed or arrested them, unless and until they did something illegal. But here’s what I do think.

The rest of us have the right to be disgusted by them. And the rest of us should be disgusted by them, and by their ideas (such as white supremacy, homophobia, and antisemitism). And we should express that disgust loudly, clearly, and without any hesitation or equivocation. It was Nazi ideas that led to millions of people -most of them Jews, but by no means all -being murdered in concentration camps. It was Nazi ideas that led to the situation that our fathers, grandfathers, or great-grandfathers risked their lives to stop, and which hundreds of thousands of American servicemen (and women) died opposing.

It took days for Cookeville city leaders to make any public statements at all about the situation, and on the couple of occasions they did they were very delicately phrased so as not to offend the people there WITH the Nazis. A lot of people are outraged by that, and they should be; we should know where our elected officials stand on issues, and if there is one issue that everyone should stand firmly (and without hesitation) against, it is Nazis.

And if there is one thing no one should ever stand BESIDE, it is Nazis. If you tell me not everyone on that line was a Nazi, I tell you that everyone who remained on that line chose to stand with Nazis and that makes them Nazi supporters and allies. Again, I am not saying the power of the city government should have silenced them, it should not have, but the people of the Upper Cumberland have the right, and in my opinion the moral duty, to condemn them. And WE have the freedom of speech to say so, and say so loudly.

And if your moral and political beliefs match those of Nazis so well they travel to protest with you… and you let them… that should tell you something.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE

A Liberal Dose, January 26, 2023 “A Few Words About Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

 

A Liberal Dose

January 26, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“A Few Words About Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

 

Last Thursday (January 19) was the 1^st Annual Tennessee Tech Martin Luther King, Jr. Candlelight Vigil. The event was organized by Student Activities Coordinator Lakeisha Claybrooks, and hosted by Student Engagement Director Charria Campbell. I was one of several people invited to speak briefly. Other speakers were Krystal Akehinmi and Arthur Banton (both, like me, from the History Dept.), Helen Hunt, Andrew Smith, and Erin Hoover (all from the English Dept.), and three students: Mark Rine (Biology grad student and president of the campus NAACP), Na’Quaija Gaines (Criminology), and Kelley Fluker (Mechanical Engineering).

For my column this week I am sharing the speech I gave:

“Hello, I am Troy Smith, from the History Department. I was born in July, 1968, three months after the assassination of Dr. King… he has been my hero pretty much my entire life, so it is indeed an honor for me to be here tonight and be part of this event.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Now, when people hear Ebenezer, they think of Scrooge... but Ebenezer is a place in the Bible. It is the spot at which, after God had given His people a great victory, the Prophet Samuel set up a memorial stone to mark that day. Ebenezer literally means ‘Stone of Help.’ And when Samuel sanctified that stone, he said, ‘We have come this far by God’s help.’ Yes, friends, it is appropriate to memorialize the victories that God has given us, and the people He has sent to help us. That’s one of the things I love about Dr. King. He knew and honored the past. He acknowledged he stood on the shoulders of giants. People like A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, both of whom Dr. King brought in to his actions. He didn’t leave them in the past, any more than we leave him in the past. We honor him, and what he stood for, and all those who came before him and after him too.

In Dr. King’s day he was vilified as an agitator, as a troublemaker. And yet this week there are some people out there -often the very people putting stumbling blocks into the path of those still working for dignity and freedom -who say ‘God Bless Martin Luther King. At least HE wasn’t an agitator.’ Well, they weren’t paying attention.

What is agitation? That word does not mean ‘violence.’ I found three definitions.

1.       To stir or disturb something briskly. It’s usually done to make something clean. Just try washing your clothes, or anything else, without agitation and see where you get.

2.       To campaign to arouse public concern about an issue in the hope of prompting action. Well, that’s Dr. King to a T, isn’t it.

3.       To make someone troubled or nervous.

There you have it, friends. You can’t make something clean without agitation. You can’t cause change without making someone troubled and nervous. And we honor Dr. King for doing that. But we don’t just set up a memorial stone and just stop. We’ve come THIS FAR with God’s help. But we are NOT THERE YET. We have to keep moving forward.

The other day I heard the Reverend Al Sharpton say ‘Martin Luther King Day is not a day to take off. It is a day to take ON.’ To take on the inequity that is still there. So, let us set our Ebenezer, let us memorialize those God has used, and then let us move forward -because it is our turn, our turn to agitate until the stain is finally gone.

Thank you.”

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

 

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE

 

 

A Liberal Dose, January 19, 2022 "In America the King Is Not Law, the Law Is King"

 

A Liberal Dose

January 19, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“In America the King Is Not Law, the Law Is King”

Boy, do we now know more than we ever wanted to know about classified documents, or what? First, the FBI executes a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort and finds a couple of hundred documents which the National Archives had been pressing him for since he left office, and which he had claimed not to have. Not only were they there, some of them were in a poolside storage room -not the most secure location in the world. Some folks were saying, due to the obstructive attempts by Trump and his people to prevent the return of the documents, that this might be the one thing out of all his borderline or outright criminal behaviors that brings him down and possibly sends him to a resort where his jumpsuit would match his hair and skin. Many of us on the left were saying, “Wow! All that talk about Hillary’s emails not being secure, and your guy has classified documents squirreled away in his office and tucked into corners of his pool house!”

And now we have word that, a couple of months ago, Joe Biden’s people found classified documents from his vice-president days in his office. And then they found some more. And then they found some in his garage. And now Attorney-General Merrick Garland has appointed Special Counsels to investigate both Trump AND Biden.

Trump’s supporters are turning the finger around and saying “Aha! Your guy did just what you accused our guy of doing! Throw the book at him!” Biden’s supporters are pointing out that the two situations, while about the same thing, are different: Trump’s people actively hid documents and/or refused to turn them over, or lied about having them, whereas Biden made a simple mistake and his people turned them over voluntarily as soon as they found them. Well, a couple of months after they found them.

I submit than neither “You guy did what you say ours did, throw the book at him” nor “Yeah but when our guy did it, it wasn’t a big deal” is the right attitude. While the distinctions between the two cases I mentioned above are true, that does not mean Biden’s situation is “not a big deal” and should be dismissed at face value. You can’t say it is a big deal when one person does it but not another. This is why I believe Garland made the right choice. Despite the differences in the cases, Biden’s document situation should be investigated. If it turns out to have been an honest mistake -something your 80-year-old forgetful uncle might do -well and good (though that raises some issues, too). If there actually is anything nefarious about it, and its magnitude warrants, he should be charged. As simple as that. Everyone should be treated the same.

On the other hand, there is a big logical flaw in Trump supporters calling for Biden’s head… considering Trump’s actions involved a lot more material (so far as we know now) and a lot more obstruction. You can’t say “it’s no big deal” when it’s Trump and scream bloody murder when it’s somebody else.

That’s what the rule of law is supposed to be about. To paraphrase Paine, in Britain the King is law but in America the Law is king. It should apply to everybody, equally. It’s not a ball game, where you yell at the umpire when he rules against you no matter how right he is, or when you gloat when he rules for you and you know he’s wrong. In both cases, the facts should be ascertained and weighed with deliberation, and the conclusion should be acted upon.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE

A Liberal Dose, January 12, 2022 "Today's News or Yesterday's History, Learn to Read Between the Lines"

A Liberal Dose

January 12, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“Today’s news or yesterday’s history, learn to read between the lines”

 

In recent weeks, John Gottlied has used his column, not only to encourage readers to think for themselves, but to be more discerning when evaluating news and social media. He has made some very good points about social media using algorithms to channel to users the news media that will buttress their own preconceptions. This has resulted in most of us walking around in our own echo chamber, with a completely different set of “facts” from those folks with whom we disagree. I was struck by John’s encouragement for us all to question WHY news and social media items are structured the way they are, and want to speak to that now.

I do my best to train history majors to interpret historical documents (like newspapers, for example). It is often necessary to be able to read between the lines if you are to move beyond the “what” and “how” and get to the “why.” This requires both critical thinking skills and familiarity with context, and it applies equally to today’s news (which will be tomorrow’s history). I often use two 21^st century phenomena to demonstrate my point.

First: missing or murdered young women. Those few words alone embody unimaginable tragedy. From time to time a case will get national attention and the media will seem to talk about nothing else for days or weeks. We’ve all seen it. What do those cases have in common? It is always young white women. Plenty of non-white women suffer the same fate, but don’t make it on CNN. So is it about race? Well… large numbers of young white women are killed each year who may live in a trailer park, or work at Walmart or McDonald’s, and sometimes they don’t even make the news in their own town. It is young, white, middle-to-upper-class women who are given 24-hour news coverage. Again, no matter WHO it is, it is a terrible tragedy. But the fact is, most of that news media -especially on television -is supported by ad revenue. It is a vehicle to get you to watch commercials, with the goal of selling you something. Most of their audience is white, and from among that audience the ones they want glued to the TV are the ones with expendable income that might buy their stuff. Missing children who could have been THEIR children -that is going to compel them to watch.

Second: Native Americans protesting pipelines near their reservations, which could endanger their water supply. There are several such protests going on right now -have you heard about them? Probably not. The biggest such event happened in 2016, at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. There were more Native Americans assembled together in one place since Custer’s Very Bad Day (seriously). That particular pipeline was supposed to go near Bismarck, but the citizens there were against it so it was rerouted along the edge of the reservation, passing beneath the tribe’s only water supply. Militarized police forces from all over the state were mobilized, and there were countless incidents of violence against the peaceful protesters. This went on for months. I was seeing it every day on the social media feeds of my indigenous friends, and on Native news outlets. But not one word from the news networks… until the very end, when many reported that the Natives had “provoked” the police into using force against them. Why was it not in the news the whole time -Fox, CNN, MSNBC, anywhere? Because there are not that many indigenous viewers, and they don’t have much money, but oil companies provide enormous amounts of ad revenue to all those stations.

If national news or social media is inundating you with something -or, sometimes, hiding something from you -someone, somewhere is trying to sell you something (or, in the latter case, make sure you keep on buying it).

Read between the lines.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

 

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE