[Leach]

I've always had a deep connection with animals, especially the Buck. I feel as if its such a powerful and majestic creature, yet it is so vulnerable, and strategically hides from its hunters. It's such a beautiful contradiction that I feel I can apply to my own life.

My great uncle's name was Badger. I'm sure we're all familiar with what the Badger represents. I've been seriously thinking about taking on the name "Buck" or "Hunted Buck".

My friends laugh at me when I tell them how deeply I am connected to the animal. LOL They make me think I'm crazy or overzealous in some way. Do you guys understand how I feel?

[AmigoKumeyaay]

[wardancer]

Originally Posted by AmigoKumeyaay

Hey ! I'm offended ! That was my uncles second cuzzin's name !

[Leach]

lollll

hey guys

[DaisyMaisy]

A secret superpower of the buck! :) LOL

[Spiritflight]

I'd be happy with the name my parents gave me unless they'd call me animal names

[milehighsalute]

why not just call yourself leach?

[wardancer]

Originally Posted by milehighsalute

why not just call yourself leach?

Isn't that a blood sucking parasite ? Just sayin'!

[wardancer]

Oh wait , that's leech , my bad !

[milehighsalute]

Originally Posted by wardancer

Oh wait , that's leech , my bad !

leach....leech......tomato.....tomahto............ .same effin thing

[WhoMe]

Originally Posted by Leach

I've been seriously thinking about taking on the name "Buck" or "Hunted Buck".

Is your last name "Neckit'?"

[neling4]

LEACH means to drain away liquids by percolation...which makes me think of coffee.

[wardancer]

Originally Posted by neling4

LEACH means to drain away liquids by percolation...which makes me think of coffee.

So.....we could call him "brown juice" ?

[subeeds]

Originally Posted by wardancer

Hey ! I'm offended ! That was my uncles second cuzzin's name !

Mine, too!! Hey, we must be 5th cousins 3 times removed. Or would that be 3rd cousins 5 times removed?

[LISA IRONMAKER]

Originally Posted by AmigoKumeyaay

[OLChemist]

OK, I was traveling to a memorial service when this was originally posted, so I've probably missed the window of opportunity. But, I never miss a chance to beat a dead horse; so, here it goes. (Anyone who has been on powwows.com for more than 3 years may now leave the room.)

Originally Posted by Leach

I've always had a deep connection with animals...

Several of your prior posts/thread say you're reconnecting to a distant/lost family heritage. May I respectfully suggest you don't open your conversational gambits with number three on the Romantic Mystical Indian Tropes hit parade. Let me tell you how that claim strikes me:

First, I have to banish images of you sitting at the keyboard in your basement, wearing a purple t-shirt with a picture of buxom Native maid, in slit to the hip, skin-tight buckskins, petting the wolf sitting at her feet, rendered in the finest tradition of the black-velvet paint by numbers school. Then turn off the mental sound track of trite Indian flute music, before I can even respond.

Second, I get a little ticked off at the arrogance of a newfound descendent presuming to some sort of spiritual power or access to medicine. Then I calm and realize I'm just seeing another illustration of the dominant culture stereotyping of Native people and that this is just a Walker Texas Ranger rerun.

Once I get past the sarcasm festival, I'm able to actually pity the individual so alienated from their culture that they must embrace stereotypes and mistake exoticism for cultural experience. For I realize in all likelihood, when they do manage to stumble across real Native culture, they will be profoundly disappointed. We will fail to be as appealing as the imagined Indian. They will instead plunge into a fantasy "culture" of their own making. And in this action, they will harm those with whom they seek to connect, by adding to the layers of distortion that obscure and damage us. Further, whatever gifts they may have had to share are lost.

Sad.

Originally Posted by Leach

My great uncle's name was Badger. I'm sure we're all familiar with what the Badger represents.

From this thread:
Beauty of Native American names.

Originally Posted by Leach

Her name was Chief.
Her brother's name was Badger. (God of Protection)
Sister's name was Leola. (Prairie flower)

Say what? I have an elderly cousin Chalmers, named after the powerful Allis-Chalmers tractor his dad bought the week he was born....

I have never encountered an "Indian name" that wasn't in an Indian language. Nor have I known anyone who selected their own name. (Has anyone heard of any Native group that does that?) Among most of the Native people I know, names aren't used casually anyway. Kinship terms are used when the person is present, and nicknames or Anglo names are used when they are not.

Originally Posted by Leach

Do you guys understand how I feel?

Not remotely, actually.

[AmigoKumeyaay]

Purple Tee's ???
.

[wardancer]

That's one of 'em !

[Niigig]

Sorry mods, this is a long one, but had to be said. I've never heard of anyone naming themselves before personally but I don't actually know a lot so idk, color me stupid if you wish. 99.9% of people who come to this forum are not exactly warmly welcomed because of the way they stumbled into it. This includes myself. Some very wise words I have gotten from the few who gave of themselves to help me were something to the effect of "Don't talk too much, don't ask questions, just sit quietly, listen, and observe." ~ If your mind is too busy wondering and talking and daydreaming etc. you are going to miss a lot of really, REALLY valuable information and you are not going to learn very much very fast, if anything at all. I am relatively low-blood and had the misfortune of being born a ginger-kissed albino snowman baby, so I am not any more qualified to be teaching anyone anything than some rando hob off the street, but if there is one thing I can tell you that you would do well to listen to, it is this: Don't be a culture vulture. Know who you really are. If you truly do have some ndn blood in you, then it is a part of you, no matter how small, and nobody can take that out of you, no matter how much they may like to, but you have to remember that blood is just blood. You could be related to Hitler himself and that doesn't make you a nazi, just like being related to natives doesn't make you an ndn. My opinion on this whole subject has recently shifted very dramatically and given me a great deal of depression tbh because I have realized that what I want and what realistically IS, are two very, very different things. No matter how badly you may want something, that in itself isn't going to drop it into your lap. It has been a hard lesson and it has beaten the hell out of me, but I feel that I have somewhat of a responsiblity to pass it onto others in the same boat so that they don't make an absolute fool of themselves like many do. I'd like to demonstrate an example which (as far as I know) I made up myself and have not yet had the opportunity to use.

What is this a picture of? Say it out loud.

I am betting you said "An apple slice." or "An apple wedge." or "A piece of apple." I am betting you did not say "It's an apple." A few people would have said that, but the vast majority of people would have referred to it as what it is: a segment of apple, not an entire apple. If you asked someone 'Would you like an apple?" and then handed them that little slice, do you think they would be disappointed? This is the danger we as thinbloods pose to the world as a whole by representing ourselves as native american indians or first nations peoples. It may be a part of us, but we have a lot of other things in us as well. We'll (hopefully) do well not to over-exaggerate the indigenous blood we have, or go traipsing into reservations and demanding the royal treatment. It just doesn't work that way in native societies, it is very, very different from what most of us, being raised in predominantly white communities, are used to. You aren't entitled to literally anything at all, everything is earned over years and years of work and service and familiarization with your family members and neighbors... None of those things are things that we have as thinblooded people. The consequence? When we go to pow wows, we aren't dancing in the center adorned in gorgeous regalia, we are watching quietly from the back, wearing ordinary modern clothing. We are quiet and leap at every opportunity to be helpful without being invasive. That is our responsibility to our people. It isn't fun, but that is our place. We don't have "strong medicine" because we are not bred that way. A dachshund is descended from a wolf, but that does not mean it can live in a wolfpack, you know what I'm sayin? As ashamed as we may be of our other ancestries or at least what they have done, they make up the brunt of who we are, and they pollute us tbh, no matter how much we WANT to be recognized as native, we are not, because we are not, if that makes any sense at all. That doesn't make us bad people, that just puts us in another place... Our place is not where most of us WANT to be, but we have a unique blessing that others do not... We don't get targeted by racists, we have an easier time getting jobs, and most of all, white people are more apt to listen to us when we voice concerns about something because as far as they are concerned, we are white. I didn't used to believe in white privilege because I didn't understand what it actually meant. Now I have learned to use it to my advantage, and to help my family. We have a gift that they don't, and I personally believe that, after all that has been taken from our ancestors, we should try to procure as much for our native relatives as we possibly can. As awful as it may sound, we are more able to do that in some situations than those of higher blood who we may otherwise envy... We have an advantage in getting things done, and changing things for the better for native peoples. It isn't right, it is terrible, but it is the way the world works right now, nobody can truthfully deny that, unless they are delusional. Don't try to fit yourself in where you don't belong, use the advantages that you have to help your community in that way. You will be of more use to them, and they will appreciate you more for it, and along the way, if you help out wholeheartedly, who knows... You may be accepted on a deeper level than you ever dreamed.

[OLChemist]

"Heritage, history and story are the real crucibles of catastrophe."

- Louis Owens, I Hear the Train: Reflections, Inventions, Refractions , University of Oklahoma Press, 2001, p 96.