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El Laberinto, 1971-1987
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The New Indian (As printed by Alvin Josephy, Jr. Red Power) The young Indian today is an educated person representing a new organized people, the National Indian Youth Council. They sometimes ridicule their elders, calling them the "Uncle Tomahawks," who in their opinion sold out the Indians by letting other people decide what is best for their people. Red Power was demanded-power of the Indian people to decide what they want and how they want something done. The white man had tried for many years to force the Indian into the mainstream of the dominant culture way of life--in other words, to turn the Indian into a white. Soon, all the programs and policies were defeated. The white man took no account of a backround of up to twenty-five thousand years of Indian histories and cultures that had nothing in common with the European-based culture of the white man and couldn't be shed at the white man's command. Secondly, the white man rarely understood the people whose problems he was trying to solve, imposing ideas to Indian solutions but never any compromise where the Indian could not or would not accept, and the programs failed. Red Power is building up in great numbers, especially among the younger Indians. Demands are being made instead of pleas for self-determination. The Indians want the right to determine their own affairs, to govern themselves and to control their land and resources. Our ideas will overcome your ideas. We are going to cut the country's whole value system to shreds. It isn't important that there are only 500,000 of us Indians ....What is important is that we have a superior way of life. We Indians have a more human philosophy of life. We Indians will show this country how to act human. Someday, this country will revise its constitution, its laws, in terms of human beings, instead of property. If Red Power is to be a power in this country, it is because it is idealogical....What is the ultimate value of a man's life? That is the question. -Vine Deloria, Jr., '71 We ask, "Who am I?" The answer echoes from the distance, "You are all the things you have ever known and will ever know." [hand drawing of man]
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The New Indian (As printed by Alvin Josephy, Jr. Red Power) The young Indian today is an educated person representing a new organized people, the National Indian Youth Council. They sometimes ridicule their elders, calling them the "Uncle Tomahawks," who in their opinion sold out the Indians by letting other people decide what is best for their people. Red Power was demanded-power of the Indian people to decide what they want and how they want something done. The white man had tried for many years to force the Indian into the mainstream of the dominant culture way of life--in other words, to turn the Indian into a white. Soon, all the programs and policies were defeated. The white man took no account of a backround of up to twenty-five thousand years of Indian histories and cultures that had nothing in common with the European-based culture of the white man and couldn't be shed at the white man's command. Secondly, the white man rarely understood the people whose problems he was trying to solve, imposing ideas to Indian solutions but never any compromise where the Indian could not or would not accept, and the programs failed. Red Power is building up in great numbers, especially among the younger Indians. Demands are being made instead of pleas for self-determination. The Indians want the right to determine their own affairs, to govern themselves and to control their land and resources. Our ideas will overcome your ideas. We are going to cut the country's whole value system to shreds. It isn't important that there are only 500,000 of us Indians ....What is important is that we have a superior way of life. We Indians have a more human philosophy of life. We Indians will show this country how to act human. Someday, this country will revise its constitution, its laws, in terms of human beings, instead of property. If Red Power is to be a power in this country, it is because it is idealogical....What is the ultimate value of a man's life? That is the question. -Vine Deloria, Jr., '71 We ask, "Who am I?" The answer echoes from the distance, "You are all the things you have ever known and will ever know." [hand drawing of man]
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