ASSIMILATE, i see myself???

proud African womanTrue African Art.com

"... with all of the dreaming going on in African societies about whiteness, and the bleaching of skin is she from the past? It has been long years of turmoil wrestling one's soul, one's identity and sense of self from the embrace of colonial powers. How white have the Africans at home become is a fundamental question throughout the Diaspora. How does this question fare when raised anywhere on the continent of Africa today?" - Gregory E. Woods 2.24.13

African wrestlers

DIANE FLETCHER

I've always thought she was so fine. Always wondered what her voice sounded like, how her eyes moved. What penetrating depths must've been in those eyes of hers. How did she use silence in her communications? A lot of questions jumped out at me, as I am sure it does others. Questions we will never know the answers to like what was her smell? How did her hands move? Did she have a loving touch?, and so forth. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 2.23.13

Diana Fletcher (1838?-?)
Seminole/African/Kiowa heritage

Diana Fletcher was the daughter of an enslaved African who ran away to seek freedom in Florida, and a Seminole woman who died on "The Trail of Tears," the forced relocation of American Indians to Oklahoma. It is said that she was separated from her father, once in Oklahoma, then adopted and raised by a Kiowa family.

Diana learned traditional Kiowa crafts from her step-mother: sewing, cooking, tanning buffalo hides, making tepees  and basket weaving.

When the members of the tribe raised enough money, they built a small school and hired a teacher. The Black Indian schools were operated by what were known as The Five Civilized Tribes: the Creek, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Seminole. Some sources say Diana taught fellow Native Americans.

Diana's main accomplishment was valuing and preserving her family's history, culture and values, while, at the same time, learning to adjust and adapt to white American society. Because of ignorance, prejudice and racial hostility, the U.S. government attempted to force American Indians with African heritage, as well as all Native Americans, to reject their heritage. Because people like Diana maintained their traditions, we can now learn about their important contributions to the history of America.

The Hampton government boarding school was opened for Black students in 1868, with the intent of educating by training "the head, the hand, and the heart" so pupils could return to their communities as leaders and professionals among their people. In 1878, the institute opened its doors to American Indians. The following year, in a grand experiment led by Capt. Richard Henry Pratt, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania  was opened as a way to assimilate Indians into "civilized" society, although without the intent of returning graduates to their communities. - I Love Ancestry

Radmilla Cody is a Navajo/African-American woman. In 1997 she was Miss Navajo. It was an astonishing accomplishment. That event required a thorough knowledge of the tribe's language and customs. It was much more than a beauty contest. It was an expression, a continuation and enhancement of the nation's identity. Who won would represent the culture. 

Radmilla was raised by her Grandmother. The beauty of that is a powerful indictment against the African American community.  Had she been raised in most Black American families her Navajo lifeway would have been shoved into a bitter corner to spoil. So deep is the disdain for the other bloodlines it begs for analysis in horror. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.24.13

'Don't like People' People

Solitary release

"There are careers for people who don't like being around people, but love doing the work people need, but don't like to do. These people work as accountants, graphic designers, professional hunters, and trappers, researchers, software developers, professional assassins  record keepers, like medical records  and health information technicians, cost estimators, commercial pilots, and computer programmers. These are good examples. But who are these people, and why do they exist? Why do they not need to make the social interactions others need to make, or feel the gamut of emotions that evade intelligent resolve, and commitment to tasks?

There are answers to this question, but the basic one is they belong." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3.6.13

DISAPPEARING ACT

I am very sensitive and aware of how detrimental it is lose your ancestral links to any of the 'blood religions' I don't know which is more brutal to the soul, the Christian or Islamic crusades to consume identity. As an African/Creek Indian man I feel these things, and know in a generation or two the grandchildren (enough of them) will clamor for the connections to their homeland, their people and their ways.  It is an indescribable sorrow... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.18.13

Protect the Kalash tribe in Pakistan from assimilation into Islam.

The Kalash (or Kalasha) is an ethnic non-Muslim group that exists in the Hindu Kush mountain range located in the Chitral District of North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Although their numbers were quite significant before the 20th century, they have however, gradually dwindled over the past century. This is very unfortunate and is in large part due to the fact that they have been assimilated by the larger Muslim majority of Pakistan. Today, more than half the Kalash people have been made to convert to Islam thus losing their ethnic and historical originality in the process.

It is, therefore, absolutely vital and imperative to save and protect this ancient culture and, therefore, we implore you to assist us in having the Kalash territory declared as a protected World Heritage site.

Thank you.Mohammed Bugi-