Rethinking Domestic American Indian Exploitation
”Oak Cliff Cultural Center and American Indian Heritage Day in Texas present Concrete Jungle: DNA (Diary of Native Americans) and Genetics. An exhibit that focuses on breaking the perceptions and deceptions that are commonly associated with Native Americans. Concrete Jungle: DNA and Genetics
AIHDUrban Indians
About the Exhibition
The most researched but least understood are the American Indians. American Indians, also known as “urban indians” live in the North Texas region. “Urban Indians” often deal with stereotypes and racism by well-meaning citizens who are not knowledgeable of American Indians.
The DNAs of the American Indians are earth and sky, past and future, evolution and continuation, genocide and survivalists. The modern DIARY OF NATIVE AMERICANS is breaking the mold of today’s perception and deception of American Indians by sharing the duality that Urban Indians must exist in. Our American Indian community is trying to hold on to its cultural preservation, while addressing assimilation to the mainstream society.
Concrete Jungle
MICHAEL FRAZIER
Son of Lena and Mack, about middle of 1960’s, Lena and Mack Frazier moved their Choctaw family to Dallas, under the Relocation Program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mack was a hard worker and provided for his family. Lena worked in the clothing apparel industry for many years. In fact she worked for some well know clothes designers. Her family consisted of two daughters and three sons.
Concrete Jungle
DANCING ON THE WATER
For thousands of years, Native American tribes across the Great Plains developed their own methods of living with the natural world and its limited water supply. They learned both through observation and experiment, arguably a process quite similar to what we might call science today. They also learned from their religious ideas, passed on from generation to generation in the form of stories.
Indigenous people from around the world share these beliefs about the sacredness of water.
Concrete Jungle
INDIAN RED CRAYON
Taught and Learned at a young age. At the request of educators worried that children (mistakenly) believed the name represented the skin color of American Indians, Crayola changed the name of their crayon color Indian Red to Chestnut in 1999.
In reality, the color Indian red has nothing to do with American Indians but is an iron oxide pigment the use of which is popular in Indian.
Concrete Jungle
HOLLYWOOD INDIAN
Misrepresentation of American Indians. The Hollywood Indian is a fictitious stock character, a stereotype and misrepresentation of Native Americans used in movies, especially in the Western genre. The image of the Hollywood Indian reflects neither contemporary nor historical Native American realities; instead, it is based in the views and desired of non-Native producers, screenwriters, directors, and actors. Closely connected to myths and images created about Native Americans and the Wild West, the stereotype has undergone significant changes from the beginning of cinema to the present day.