Heya Silver: It's Tonto Scissorhands ...

heya, brady braves ... reports coming in that johnny depp, one of the bureau's favs in hollywood, is set to play jack sparrow again in pirates 4 and the mad hatter in a tim burton version of alice in wonderland ... but check this out, courtesy of MTV in the UK:

"Mr. Depp has signed up for a big screen adaptation of The Lone Ranger that will be produced by Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Alas, Johnny won’t be rocking a white cowboy hat, he’s set for the role of trusty sidekick Tonto. Depp’s grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee and Johnny’s embraced his native American roots before in his self directed movie The Brave."

besides offering us further support for our theory (that all the world's, indeed, a cherokee), the report reminds us of one of the much stronger films in the '90s: jim jarmusch's dead man (surely, you weren't thinking dances with wolves), starring depp as white character William Blake and Cayuga actor gary farmer as the indigenous Nobody ... perhaps farmer will re-appear as a pseudo-lone ranger in whitefaced disguise and take out the subservient tonto once and for all? or perhaps this big-screen take, which i hear may be an origin story [as solid as the origin story in batman begins?], will re-envision the lone ranger-tonto relationship through a decolonial framework? oh wait ... nevermind--it's being overseen by Walt Disney Studios ...

Ura, Judge DeGiusti

heya, brady braves ... following up from a previous posting ... here's good news from comanche country: "A federal judge today sided with the Comanche Nation and ordered the U.S. Army to stop construction near a sacred site in Oklahoma." the article at http://indianz.com/News/2008/010989.asp continues:

"In a 34-page decision [which can be accessed here, Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti said the tribe demonstrated that it will be harmed by a $7.3 million warehouse at the foot of Medicine Bluffs in Fort Sill. He said the U.S. Army failed to consider alternatives that would not obstruct ceremonies at the site, a place of immense healing and spiritual medicine for the Comanche people.

"The construction of a permanent structure on a site considered sacred by the Comanche people, and the substantial burden the presence of the structure would impose on their traditional religious practices as detailed ... would constitute irreparable harm," DeGiusti wrote.
The permanent injunction, which can be appealed, will stay in place until the case is resolved. The tribe alleges violations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.

DeGiusti said the tribe demonstrated a "substantial likelihood of success" on the merits of the case, so the injunction represents a big victory. Tribal leaders say they weren't properly consulted by the U.S. Army about the construction.

"As a Comanche man, Medicine Bluffs is the spiritual center of my religious beliefs and the heart of the current Comanche Nation," Jimmy Arterberry, a tribal member, said in a court declaration. "The Medicine Bluffs site is an extremely important sacred place to me as a Comanche man."

Arterberry told the court that the warehouse, if constructed, would prevent him from viewing Medicine Bluffs as he prays and conducts ceremonies. DeGiusti noted that the construction site is the last remaining place with an "unobstructed view" of Medicine Bluffs.

The U.S. Army calls the warehouse "essential" to the future at Fort Sill, which will be seeing an influx of activity in the coming years. Due to base closures across the nation, Fort Sill will be training more and more soldiers for military operations around the world.

"The United States is now at war," the Department of Justice said in court papers. "Training is the top priority of the Army. It is the cornerstone of combat readiness. Training is what Fort Sill does."

But DeGiusti said the record, so far, is "utterly devoid" of evidence that the U.S. Army considered a different location for the warehouse that would be less intrusive on the tribe. He noted that the timing of decisions affecting construction indicated the tribe's objections were never considered.

The 94,000-acre Fort Sill was built during the Indian wars of the late 1800s. It is a National Historic Landmark and Medicine Bluffs was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974."

Brady Bravin' on Book TV

for those of you brady braves who can’t make it to the comanche nation casino for tonight’s fights, you’re still in for mighty fine TV treats on CSPAN2 this weekend …

if'n you're having difficulty with any writing projects, then sounds like you need your BookTV ... this saturday night: ultra-conservative Pat “Build-a-Wall-Then-Build-it-Bigger” Buchanan--your close pro-Indian Country friend and mine--will share what cspan calls "insightful" thoughts about his "writing methods" … if this don't help writer's block, what will? ... and if that weren’t enough, why, buchanan’s talk will be followed by a tour of his library (only on cspan, ennit?) ... no doubt Ruth Beebe Hill and Carlos Castaneda and Chief Red Fox and Ian Frazier books will be featured …

and here’s another eye-catching talk for this weekend's Book TV: "Leslie Sanchez, Los Republicanos: Why Hispanics and Republicans Need Each Other" (Sunday 1:15 PM ET) ... "need" is such a strong word, ennit? But where’s the Indian-ized version of this talk: "Redfaced Republicans: Why More Indians than just Charles Curtis Should Assimilate and Destroy Indigenous Sovereignties" ...

Boxing Tonight: Comanche Boy

heya to brady braves across ind'n country, especially there in lawton, where you can watch george "comanche boy" tahdooahnippah (13-0-1) in action against jonathan "the native sensation" corn (47-19-2) for the native american boxing council's super middleweight title at the comanche nation casino ... [update: congrats to Comanche Boy on becoming the NABC Super Middleweight champ!]

attn: pseudo-Indian actors named "Sammy"

heya, brady braves ... google "native american sitcom" right now and here are your Top 5 hits:

5) a definition of "sitcom," along with a supposed Seneca "Native American" proverb thrown in down the page: "He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone."

4) a casting call for an indy sitcom pilot in ny with "[p]ossible pay and future roles if the pilot goes to series" ... besides looking for a "Mr Falafel: A Pakistani character destined to become the breakout star," the company's searching for a Native character: "Sammy: Sammy is a Native American chain smoker, ex-heavy drinker with a stuttering problem. Sammy enjoys chain-smoking, reminiscing about drinking red wine in unconventional manners, and stuttering" ... uplifting and inspirational, ennit? so, move over John Redcorn--here comes Sammy the Indian who "enjoys ... stuttering" and sharing stories of ("unconventional") alcoholism while smoking off-brand Marlboros? based on "Indians"-in-comedic-TV history, look for CBS to pick this one up ...

3) bronze medal goes to a 2008 article in the journal American Indian Quarterly by one of the brady bravin' leaders of this site ...

2 and 1) sherman alexie's entertainingly critical "sit-com american" interview with npr, an excerpt of which is included at the start of the aforementioned AIQ article ...

Indian + Vegan = Indivegan?

straight from the bbb inbox, courtesy of a brady brave at nc a&t university: "On the Fox Sunday gas bag show they said that Palin's parents have a bumper sticker on their truck: Vegetarian = Old Indian Word for Bad Hunter." (apparently, 18th-century pundit andy rooney once said this with "lousy" instead of "bad.") man, i feel for those non-bumper-sticker-applicable Indians who don't even eat meat ... as for Indians as "bad hunters," guess they weren't as lucky as the Settlers ... buffalo, for example, were too busy--as Stephen Colbert's character said in the "Trail of Tears" episode of Strangers with Candy--getting in the way of the White Man's bullets ... but on a brighter note, i wonder if Palin's parents drive a jeep "cherokee" or a "pontiac" firebird? perhaps she'll address this tonight at the RNC ...

update: the closest Palin's rhetoric got to Indians was a very quick post-occupation, post-union, post-hobby reference to her husband's "ancestry": "Todd is a story all by himself. He's a lifelong commercial fisherman ... a production operator in the oil fields of Alaska's North Slope ... a proud member of the United Steel Workers' Union ... and world champion snow machine racer. Throw in his Yup'ik Eskimo ancestry, and it all makes for quite a package." with that "throw-in," sounds like a borderline exoticized "package" or recipe: "add in two drops of 'Eskimo' and voila: you, too, can build a fire from snow" ... and how about "ancestry"? like "heritage" (i.e., "yeah, i got a story or two about great-great-great Eskimo grandmothers")? additional reading on Palin and Indigenous Peoples: "Todd Plain No Poster Boy for Yup'ik ..."