Naturally Native

As I sat on my couch watching the film "Naturally Native", my fiancé asked me what I was doing and I told him I was watching a video for class. He responded with "how boring." What surprised me was my response of "it's actually pretty interesting!" Although the film itself was slightly cheesy, I was able to appreciate it a lot more than I would have because I have more of an understanding of Indian culture now. Once the film had finished, I was able to analyze what I had just seen and compare and contrast it to what we have learned in class so far.

I know the film is for entertainment and educational purposes, but one of the scenes from the movie really bothered me. The scene is where the women are in the office trying to get a loan, and the man asks if they have their identification cards. Vic proceeds to reference the numbering of Indians to the Holocaust. I felt like I had to bring this up during our discussions this week, because I was curious what other people thought about this line. People seemed to have somewhat mixed views. My personal opinion, the reference was a stretch due to the situation. Yes, America has a bloody and brutal history with the Native Americans that may deserve a Holocaust reference, but for the situation at hand in the movie it was over-dramatic. Maybe I am being overly sensitive to the Holocaust reference because it is something that affected people who are more similar to my culture? I would hope this isn’t the underlying cause of my frustration, but who knows.

*After I wrote the previous section, I found this article about the unresolved grief American Indians have experienced due to the genocide and harsh treatment from European colonizers. It really made me think about the lasting trauma they face every day. What’s worse is they are still being oppressed by our government.

http://www.annafoundation.org/American%20Indians%20and%20Alaska%20Natives/American_Indian_holocaust.pdf