hi-ya-tus ...

brady bravin' faithful: on another short trip away from the brady braves blogosphere ... wrapping up another semester over the next several days ... meanwhile, remember the wise words of mr. dale gribble, as spoken to john redcorn in king of the hill:

"On behalf of the white man, I would like to formally apologize for everything my people have done to your people."

be brave, be good, be brady bravin' good ...

g105 update ...

as reported today in The Fayetteville Observer, "The N.C. Commission of Indian Affairs on Wednesday accepted an apology from Raleigh radio station G105 for derogatory and racially charged comments made during a broadcast of the 'Bob and the Showgram' program.
The Commission of Indian Affairs also agreed to partner with Clear Channel Communications, which owns and operates WDCG. The collaboration, according to a commission news release, would be “on future efforts to promote and support issues of importance to North Carolina’s American Indian population.”

Dick Harlow, vice president and general manager of WDCG, agreed to “no more negative discussion on G105 and the ‘Showgram’ about American Indians,” said Greg Richardson, the executive director of the N.C. Commission of Indian Affairs. Harlow met with four American Indian officials for a couple of hours Wednesday in Raleigh. The meeting included Jimmy Goins, the Lumbee tribal leader, and Ed Brooks, a lawyer for the Robeson County-based tribe. Goins, who had demanded that Clear Channel pay $50,000 toward American Indian education, was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

“Showgram” host Bob Dumas and his morning radio crew have been the target of criticism since they made on-air remarks April1 about Lumbees and other American Indians. American Indians were called lazy, and members of the Lumbee tribe were said to be inbred. “I really don’t think Mr. Harlow realized how deep the wounds were for the message they sent out on their airwaves about American Indians,” Richardson said. Harlow provided the commission with an audio copy of the on-air apologies that Dumas and Harlow had given that will be made available online to people who were offended.

Richardson called the compromise historic in scope. “We settled on a historic agreement between a major corporation in the United States and Indian tribes,” he said. “Are we completely happy with the agreement? No. Do we feel all American Indians will be happy with the agreement we made today? No. The healing process is going to go on for some time.” Richardson said the meeting was positive, adding that Harlow apologized throughout. Harlow described the meeting as productive. “We’ll be doing a lot of things with these folks in the weeks and months ahead,” he said. “Everybody in this meeting wanted this to be fair to all. We apologized. We were sincere with our apology, and they felt it.”

more on-air venom ...

as reported at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24144141/, "A radio station suspended two disc jockeys Tuesday over a derogatory remark about Alaska Native women made on their show.
The Anchorage DJs, known as Woody and Wilcox, were joking about what makes someone a real Alaskan, when one of them said it is somebody who makes love to the Yukon River and urinates in a Native woman. It is a twist on an old saying _ also offensive to many _ that real Alaskans have urinated in the Yukon River and made love to an Alaska Native woman."

sick, twisted rhetoric and imagery ... would woody or wilcox speak such venom directly to Indigenous women? ... would any brady bravers want to hear such comments directed at their Grammas, their Aunties, any of their beautiful female ancestors and relatives? (yes, we know "beautiful female" is redundant) ...

as listener Michelle Davis, Tlingit, said in response, "I was horrified, It was a very ugly image." that sounds like real emotion to us ... and no one can tell Ms. Davis that she should not be horrified; no one can tell any Indigenous Peoples how to feel. critics can say that the djs were just attempting to be funny, that they meant no harm, yet they did harm ... they harmed through words--which are far more than just words--Ms. Davis and we imagine many other listeners ... unlike G105, this Anchorage station took quick action ... but do the djs, whose race(s) the msnbc article did not mention (and yet "Alaska Native" was highlighted) understand why they're being suspended? ... their picture, which appears below a woman in a bikini on the 100.5 FM home page, says, "clueless" ... wonder if the "sensitivity training" will help? ...

what you talking about, ... Oswegos?

brady braves: set your tivos, dvrs, vhs, and 8-trax ... just read on tvguide.com that BET will air the Diff'rent Strokes episode "burial ground" (originally aired 1/7/82) at 8am and 2pm central time on wed, april 16 ... (of course, air dates/times may vary from place to place) ... how many brady braves have been awaiting this one? an episode in which, as tvguide.com says it, "Arnold goes on a hunger strike to protest construction on one of Drummond's sites, which may be a Native American burial ground" ... guest starring ned romero (as "chief of the oswego indians"), who can be seen as a cool old ind'n in rick stevenson's Expiration Date movie ... couple this Strokes episode with Barney Miller's 4/29/82 episode "Bones" (a museum presses charges when an Indian retrieves his tribe's ancestral bones from an exhibit), and you've got an early '80s "indians in hollywood" brady bravin' bash ...

april 16 update: the bureau staff watched "burial ground" this morning ... it's like brady bunch's grand canyon episodes revisited new york style with white guy (mr. drummond instead of mr. brady this time) as the problem solver ... whole lotta stereotypes, including several enacted by the "chief," and sad attempts at educatin' ...

some of the week in review ...

the Lumbee Tribe held a press conference at the NC State Capitol: http://indianz.com/News/2008/008071.asp

3 on-air personalities suspended for 3 days (if doing the math, a brady bravin' avg of 1 day per person): http://www.robesonian.com/articles/2008/04/09/robesonian/news/radio%20remarks%20april9.txt

from Ed Brooks, Lumbee Attorney: "send emails to showgram@G105.com and carbon copy randiwest@clearchannel.com. Randi is the Production Manager for the station. She is responsible for the on air personalities. Be sure to [...] voice your displeasure with their comments, and that you will be submitting a formal complaint to the FCC. To submit a complaint to the FCC, simply log on to their website at http://www.lumbeetribe.com/Press%20Room/Chairman%20calls%20for%20firings.html. Complete the electronic complaint form."

Kiowas purchase Indian City U.S.A. in Anadarko: http://indianz.com/News/2008/008074.asp Looking to get the Made-in-China products out, the Native-made in.

Upcoming hearing on UND sorority party: http://indianz.com/News/2008/008079.asp

David Treuer (Ojibwe): "Going Native: Why do writers pretend to be Indians?" (March 2008) http://www.slate.com/id/2185856/

G105 FM in Raleigh ...

for ill-informed remarks spewed on-air last tuesday, april 1 ... check out these april fools who weren't playing no joke ... more like playing with anti-indianness ... if interested in the sickening audio, email us at brady_braves_bureau@yahoo.com ... for a very brief and general apology, read the two-sentence "we're sorry" bit here ...

here's excerpts of the Lumbee Tribal Chairman's press release (available in its entirety at this site):

"The Tribal Chairman of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina issues a call to Lumbee tribal members through out the country to call and demand the termination of Bob Dumas, Mike Morse, and Kentucky Kristin, with G105 radio station in Raleigh. The call comes after derogatory comments were made on the radio station with the “Bob and Showgram” program on Tuesday, April 1, 2008.

“This is unbelievable. To have a radio station that can continue to broadcast such garbage, and in the state capitol; Raleigh” states Tribal Chairman, Jimmy Goins. “I expect more out of the citizens of Raleigh and would expect this type of ignorance to be dealt with by our state leaders.”The controversial statements such as, “Indians are lazy…,” “Lumbees are in-bred…,” and references to Pocahontas as “Poca-Ho-tas” and Sacajawea as “Sacacooter” are slanderous and insulting to all American Indians, as well as the descendants and families of these two great historic American Indian women. The dialogue referring to a “teepee warming party” demonstrates that these individuals have no knowledge of Lumbee culture or that of other American Indian tribes and cultures in North Carolina. “If G105 will not terminate Dumas, then I will call on Lumbee tribal members to go further with the protest and boycott their advertisers” state Chairman Goins. “We’ll go after their pocket books; they issued a statement that says they do not condone inappropriate behavior, language or insensitive remarks- well that’s a lie-unless they fire them today-because this is a pattern, and if you don’t deal with a pattern-well then you do condone the remarks.” [...]

The show defensively asked the Tribal Chairman and the executive director of the NC Commission of Indian Affairs to appear on the “Showgram” to educate them on American Indians. [...] “Don’t call me now, just so you can now make it look like you’re concerned or sensitive.”The Tribal Chairman is also asking for tribal members to visit the tribal website: www.lumbeetribe.com and download a letter and sign it to send to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)."

UIAP: A Request for Support ...

dear brady braves ... it is with seriousness that we write this post ... we encourage you to visit http://urbanindianadvocacyprogram.org/3.html and to read about the good work that our kiowa-comanche cousin and the UIAP staff are doing in albuquerque ... we recently toured the facilities, heard some of the stories, and were moved by what we witnessed ... if you are interested in supporting an organization that works hard to protect and to empower Native women and children--two of the most beautiful populations in the world--in albuquerque, then we hope you'll contact the Urban Indian Advocacy Program ...

with thanks and appreciation,

the bureau of brady braves

re-running redface ...

it's april 1, that day of the year that's just too obvious for trickster appearances and clever coyote ... now onto legit news, for like Hammer, bradybraves.blogspot is [prepare hand motions] too legit, too legit to quit, heya ...

morning of march 21, 2008: AMC (American Movie Classics, though we prefer American Movie Colonialism) aired Blood on the Arrow (1965). TV description reads, “An outlaw helps a mother and child survive an attack by marauding Indians.” yeah, nice representation. even brady better was AMC's airing this past weekend of the Audie Murphy-starring Walk the Proud Land (1956), a story of John Clum--former San Carlos Apache indian agent. talk about cinematic White savior goodness ... one of the Native leaders, who sees Murphy's character ready to leave the San Carlos, pleads to the White star: "If you go, we [San Carlos Apaches] will be lost. Who will take care of us?" might we recommend indian agent James Randlett?

speaking of Comanche-associated names ... what film should air on AMC after Walk the Proud Land? none other than the epitome of anti-Comanche cinema--The Searchers.

American Movie Classics? Whose "Classics"?

all three above films are part of AMC's big bright-lettered series known simply as “COWBOYS," followed with the (sub-title) caption “Long live cool.” In the context of these films, are we talking settler survival? In the context of these Hollywood westerns, are we talking of long live [the] cool [in images of heroic cowboys who fight indians, kill indians, and rescue white heroines?]



but then, to continue the Hammer-quoting kick, it's all good when we see later that day two White folks on an old Game Show Network-aired episode of Let's Make a Deal dressed as "Indians," one of which made a cash deal with Monty Hall ... good times ...