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So I guess this is really a thing: "Giving Tuesday." Because we go from Thanksgiving [Thurs]Day to Black Friday to Small Business Saturday to . . . what's Sunday? Is there a [Something] Sunday? . . . to Cyber Monday, and I guess we have to keep the theme going as long as possible. Or something.
But it does bring up an issue that troubles me, especially at this time of year.
'T'is the season when "charitable" organizations of all colors and stripes launch their year-end fundraising push: at least equal parts greed and guilt, a stick trying to snare and tug at those heartstrings while holding out the carrot of a nice fat tax deduction, for those with enough income to itemize in the first place.
It's also the season when unscrupulous groups make a killing.
It's worse when they make their killing on the backs of our peoples, using, exploiting, robbing, and even shaming them.
It happens all over the country, and it needs to stop. But it won't stop as long as well-meaning white folks, susceptible to sad stories, allow themselves to be manipulated into parting with their dollars under the guise of "helping poor Indians."
Courtesy of my friend Neeta, comes now news of a particularly scandalous turn of events involving one of those organizations that's long been on my "never give under any circumstances" list.
CNN reported on it a couple of weeks ago, and it's truly sickening. It involves the so-called St. Joseph's Indian School, which pretends to be affiliated, and likewise pretends to "help," Lakota children and their families from a variety of reservations, including Pine Ridge, which represents one of the single most economically stricken demographics in the entire country. With a median income of $3,750 annually, an unemployment rate that exceeds 85%, and a life expectancy that parallels that of Somalia, people there need real help, not more colonialist exploitation.
So what's the problem? Well, the threshold problem is that the school even exists. Native children should be in their own communities, in schools run by their tribal nations, not in white-run private schools that exist to profit (both financially and psychically) their white overseers. Schools like St. Joseph, which reportedly sucked up a whopping $51 million in charitable contributions last year alone, divert attention, resources, and desperately-needed funds from actual tribal programs that should be not merely in place but thriving and supporting their communities in traditional ways.
Second, In places like Pine Ridge,Rosebud, Crow Creek, Cheyenne River, and other area tribal communities, tribal members badly need a better economic base, and broader opportunities to support themselves. Many are talented artists, writers, people with all sorts of skills and expertise who could benefit greatly from having their work highlighted and sold. Mass-produced items of often seemingly-questionable provenance, with no artist named and clearly no Native artisan earning either the promotion from it or the profit is not "supporting tribal artists" (or writers, or musicians, or whatever).
But worst is the latest: outright fabrications. I've always suspected this, because their fundraising appeals have never been anything more than what I've long called poverty porn, a term echoed in the CNN piece by Michael Roberts, president of the First Nations Development Institute. CNN uncovered a couple of clear examples of such "appeals" in the form of "letters" written by "children at the school . . . children who don't exist.
From the fictional Josh Little Bear:
"My dad drinks and hits me ... my mom chose drugs over me ... my home on the reservation isn't a safe place for me to be," wrote Josh Little Bear. His request seems reasonable -- send a few dollars to help St. Joseph's Indian School to keep "kids like me safe ... so we don't have to live this way anymore."
This . . . . This is obscene. It is racist. It is one of the most repugnant bits of exploitation by white people that I have had the misfortune to see in a long time.
This is evil.
These sorry excuses for human beings at St. Joseph's are willing to dummy up accounts of fake children designed to appeal to the bases, most poisonous, most viciously racist stereotypes in order to line their own damn pockets and flulff their own damn reputations.
The drunk Indian? The drug-addicted Native mother? Domestic violence against our children?
REALLY?
In what conceivable universe does this actually help Indian children?
Here's a newsflash for you fat-taking bloody-knifed assholes: It doesn't. It hurts our children (and our adults, too).
There's nothing Christ-like about what you're doing; it's criminal, and it's evil.
According to CNN, they think the money is actually being used properly, saying that the children at the school "seem happy, well-fed, and housed." Well, that's a pretty damn low bar. Of course, the CNN piece is done by white folks for white folks, people with no knowledge of our histories, much less our present, and who have not the slightest comprehension of our cultures and identities.
This genocide by other means. It is stealing our children's identities, their souls and spirits, selling them for profit and selling them out for personal self-aggrandizement.
Sadly, this is the norm when it comes to so-called "Native charities."
What to do? Here's what we do. It's really pretty basic, and astonishingly easy. The first step is the most important of all:
1. DO NOT EVER, AND I MEAN EVER, GIVE TO AN ORGANIZATION THAT BILLS ITSELF AS NATIVE OR "FOR NATIVE" IF IT'S FOUNDED AND.OR ADMINISTERED BY WHITE PEOPLE.
This is non-negotiable. If it's not Native-founded and Native-run, it's by definition a hindrance and not a help. Yes, in every case. And, yes, I'm saying "white people" straight out, because in my experience, they're not founded and run by other people of color; this is entirely a colonialist mindset, and colonialist exploitation.
2. Only give to actual Native-founded and Native-run programs.
This can get trickier, because many non-Native programs hire figureheads or token officers to make it appear that they are Native programs. Do your due diligence.
3. Check into actual tribal programs FIRST.
Who is it that you want to help? Is it just "Indians generally?" Then take the time to do a little research. What tribal nations are in your area, and what are their needs? Most tribal nations today have some sort of Web presence, at a minimum; many will have fairly sophisticated programs of their own. Some cannot accept outside support for various reasons, but this is not true of all of them. And sometimes cash is less important to these programs' survival than is in-kind help: driving people to medical appointments; delivering food; organizing propane drives.
4. ASK.
Always, ALWAYS ask first. Do not charge in headlong, attempting to be yet another in a long line of Great White Saviors. Contact the tribal administration and find out what help they need — and what help they want. There are some things outsiders cannot do, and that's a good thing. Don't argue; just ask what they do need, and go from there.
And, as always, give for the right reasons. After all, the ultimate recipients of your help very likely have never asked your for a cent. Give to help, not for thanks or public credit or to get something in return. We've had more than enough of the other kind of "giving" over the last 500+ years to last us all an eternity. And then some.
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