Injunuity and a bit of Postcolonialism...

Injunuity (www.injunuity.org) is a digital platform through which reflections and testimonies of the Native American world can be shared and passed down. These videos present the ways in which Native American beliefs and practices were changed and corrupted, by the ways of their western occupiers. These changes have arrived in Native American communities through the influence of Christianity, European land ownership laws, and the typical western binary for gender identity. These videos showcased, in an interesting artistic way, how the Western orientation towards individualism corrupted the relationship-based Native society. 

In the video “Two Spirit” we hear the stories of the ancient beliefs about androgyny and how it’s been carried on in Native American communities until today. Speaking on the topic of androgyny in this way encompasses both homosexual and transgender individuals, both generally falling under the umbrella term of “queer”, which I will use to refer to such individuals from here on out. In “Two Spirit” we hear testimonies from queer individuals who grew up in Native communities. While growing up these individuals were seen as doubly blessed. It was not that they were “less of a man” or “not a real woman” but rather they were stronger in spirit than a singular man or a singular woman and therefore were a greater benefit to society. The Native community saw androgyny and being queer as a blessing. Fast forward to when these contemporary “Two-Spirits” leave the reservation and start living and working in American society. What they came to find was that the general public does not view queer individuals as doubly blessed, but rather lacking something, corrupt or flawed in someway. This is the influence of Christian thought on our society. Although today the number of people that identify as Christian may not make up the majority population, the influence of the Christian foundations of our country and society still shape the way many of us think today. This includes the strong beliefs in a gender binary and also an emphasis on heterosexuality. Although we have made great strides in past years to embrace queer individuals and offer them the rights that should be available to every human (i.e. marriage), we still have a long way to go as a western influenced society when it comes to labels. This tendency to put people into boxes, allowing them to only be one thing at a time, is devastating to the psyche and way of life for queer individuals, as evidenced in the “Two Spirit” video. A Native testimony in the video states that before Colonization oral tradition “allowed people to learn about each other and appreciate each other and to live in a way that everyone felt safe and accepted”. The loss of oral tradition in contemporary society has resulted in an alienation of certain values and understanding of certain populations. The Injunuity videos are working to restore that tradition and allowing both Native and non-Native individuals to experience alternative ways of seeing, ways that are not rooted in Western/Christian/Colonial practices.

                There is a common U.S. attitude that the Native American’s “lost their land” because they “didn’t understand property rights”. It is true that Natives viewed agricultural and hunting land as more communal and also cycled its use to preserve a natural balance of resources. They did not “own” specific pieces of land, the land was , generally speaking, not theirs to own. Enter the Europeans. The colonizers of America had very different attitudes about land ownership. They started trading goods for the Natives land rights. Sure some could view this tragedy as naivete on the part of the Natives, but how were they to know? Their concepts of group responsibility were so deeply ingrained there was probably an aspect of being unable to fathom how deep this European orientation towards individualism truly went. In “Buried” we see a communal piece of Native American land, a burial ground no less, being torn apart to build a shopping mall. This land was most likely obtained in an unfair trade in which westerners capitalized on and exploited the lax Native attitude about land ownership. What resulted was a blatant disregard for the resting place of these individuals. This toxic lack of acceptance and understanding stems from the alienation of the “different”.

                What we see in all three of these videos was the Native American’s acceptance of the “different” and even the reverence of those who “deviated from the norm”. The entrance of European colonizers into the fabric of native society resulted in a progressive estrangement of this “different”. The Europeans were intolerant of the Natives practices which resulted in today’s population needing to deal with the Tragedy of the Commons. This stems from the disregard of Native American attitudes towards stewardship. Caring for our “commons” has become politicized and even some of the most sincere environmentalists are victims of the European orientation towards individualism which has had catastrophic consequences for our common resources. The Injunuity vides work to bridge this gap through the reinstatement of the oral tradition, through which an environment of acceptance and personal responsibility is fostered. I recommend Injunuity as required viewing for anyone woking with the Postcolonial lens in relation to Native American rights and beliefs.