The typical individual can research absolutely anything on YouTube, however that does not imply they’re going to get correct data from actual specialists. As a Native professor of Indigenous and American Indian Research, I’d say that is very true of YouTube content material dedicated to Native tradition and historical past. Once I seek for instructional assets to share with my college students to generate class discussions, I inevitably come throughout channels that don’t have any enterprise talking on Native socio-cultural points.
With out giving these channels extra recognition than they deserve, I am going to merely describe their content material as annoying, irresponsible, and reckless. Apparently, many YouTubers suppose Native individuals are nothing greater than facet characters in a make-believe world of aliens, unexplained mysteries, and outlandish conspiracy theories. Or if content material is grounded in actuality, Native individuals are ignored in favor of non-Native “authorities.”
It is alarming to see how a lot misinformation may be shared with none accountability — provided that portraying Native individuals like this does not seem to violate YouTube’s misinformation policies or its community guidelines — particularly when our communities are already so often misunderstood. (Mashable requested YouTube for readability about how its misinformation insurance policies and group pointers relate to content material about Native individuals, however did not obtain a solution.)
Fortuitously, there are channels run by precise Native individuals, with credible connections to their group, who converse the language and know loads concerning the traditions. You simply should know the place to look. Nonetheless, there are additionally greater than 500 different tribal nations throughout the colonial borders of the USA, and I can not cowl all of them. Certainly, a lot of them might not actually have a YouTube channel. That is why I am recommending the 5 YouTube accounts under as credible channels that give individuals a dependable start line for studying extra about Native tradition, philosophy, and conventional outlooks.
In 2017, Shane Brown filmed his father Wally Brown, a Navajo elder and historian, discussing their conventional interpretations of the photo voltaic eclipse that yr. Shane posted the video to his Fb web page; by the next day, it had gone viral, with hundreds of thousands of views. The daddy-and-son duo realized the significance of making instructional assets for youthful Navajo individuals fascinated by studying about their tradition. So Shane created the YouTube channel Navajo Traditional Teachings and uploaded their first video, “Wally talks about what the eclipse means to Navajo people.” As we speak, the channel has 184,000 subscribers.
The Browns believed their efforts might assist restore language and tradition loss, that are penalties of so-called Indian boarding schools the place Native kids had been forcibly assimilated into white American tradition throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Additionally they hoped to appropriate half-truths shared concerning the Navajo worldview by non-Native anthropologists through the years. Wally Brown does a great job of this when he discusses Navajo views on corn pollen, Navajo sweat lodges, traditional Navajo marriage, and the composition of the stars. In a single video titled “Kokopelli,” the elder Brown corrects misconceptions concerning the in style Navajo determine who performs a distinguished position in Navajo ceremonies. Kokopelli through the years has grow to be a misunderstood determine, incorrectly referred to as a “fertility god,” who can also be exploited as a trend emblem for T-shirts, hoodies, jewellery, and rugs. Thank goodness Wally is setting the report straight.
Explanatory movies like “Kokopelli” amongst many others make Navajo Conventional Teachings the most effective and most dependable channels on Native tradition.
Deliver up “Indians” in any social gathering, and everybody will miraculously have a Cherokee grandma — however they “by no means realized” the tradition. I say a great place to begin studying is from the OsiyoTV YouTube channel, which is part of the regional Emmy-winning web site OsiyoTV Voice of the Cherokee People. Even when you do not have a rumored Cherokee princess in your bloodline, you may nonetheless get pleasure from quick, well-made documentary model movies that showcase genuine Cherokee historical past, individuals, and tradition. Osiyo additionally means “good day” in Cherokee, so it is not only a cool-sounding catchphrase!
OsiyoTV has a five-member manufacturing group led by Jennifer Loren, the director of the Cherokee Nation Movie Workplace. She can also be an enrolled Cherokee Nation citizen. Reveals are funded by way of the tribe’s enterprise workplace, and each episode is nicely researched with historic paperwork and oral historical past from tradition bearers, which is simply one other approach of claiming previous of us who know loads. In a single 5-minute video that has 1.6 million views, Cherokee Bowmaker Richard Fields discusses how he realized to make conventional bows from his cousin. He says it is essential that Cherokee bows are made the proper approach, and if he would not share the information, will probably be misplaced, very like the “previous phrases from the Cherokee language.” Talking of language, in the event you really feel the necessity to broaden your second-language abilities, the Cherokee Nation additionally has a free language app, so you may say extra than simply “good day.”
All seven seasons of OsiyoTV are uploaded to their YouTube Channel.
Not many individuals know that quite a few tribal nations have their very own accredited universities and schools. Chartered again in 1970, Sinte Gleska College is considered one of them. To broaden entry to Lakota information, SinteGleskaUtube was created in 2008 because the official YouTube channel for the college. There are almost 300 movies, however a modest 12,500 subscribers. This implies individuals are lacking out on the teachings of Lakota philosophy and language captured on movie from the late Albert White Hat Sr., a famend chief of the Lakota group. Though there are different noteworthy Lakota on the channel, White Hat stands out, having introduced almost 40 years of educating expertise to youthful generations and writing many books on studying and writing within the Lakota language.
You may see him in motion as he discusses Lakota philosophy and the deeper which means of Lakota phrases in “Teachings and Health Class/ Lakota Creation Story.” Sinte Gleska Tube is a invaluable useful resource for these eager to know extra concerning the tribe that took half in annihilating the seventh Cavalry and Common Custer on the Battle of the Little Bighorn. I must also point out that “Sinte Gleska” means “Noticed Tail” in Lakota, which refers to Chief Spotted Tail, a significant determine within the Plains Wars of the 1800s. There’s nonetheless a battle brewing, nonetheless, because the Lakota language, together with many different Native languages, is on the brink of extinction.
Hopefully, SinteGleskaUtube might help within the conflict in opposition to ignorance and misunderstanding.
Am I recommending one other Lakota-based YouTube channel? Sure, sure I’m. Wo Lakota takes you outdoors the classroom of Sinte Gleska and places you straight in a room with elders like Duane Hole Horn Bear and Marie Randall. It is virtually such as you’re sitting of their front room whereas they cross alongside information in segments referred to as Important Understandings. These teachings focus extra on the Oceti Sakowin Oyate, a mixed group generally known as the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota. These names are roughly translated into “allies.” Subjects mentioned embrace the meaning of life, the importance of water, and even some authorized discourse regarding the issues with American laws. You recognize, these pesky precedents that referred to as for Native extermination and the stealing of land.
Talking of tricksters, Hole Horn Bear provides a great dose of storytelling about Iktomi the spider. In lots of movies, he speaks each Lakota and English. In others he speaks solely in Lakota. “Wolakota” means steadiness and coming collectively, which is a prevailing theme in lots of Native communities throughout Turtle Island. The Wo Lakota YouTube channel is one a part of the broader WoLakota Project, which was created to assist Native and non-Native educators alike implement culturally responsive practices in colleges. So in the event you’re an educator, merely curious, or looking for steadiness, tune in.
One essential a part of Native tradition is our humor. So to spherical out the checklist, I wish to embrace the YouTube channel Patrick is a Navajo, the place Patrick Willie shares video reactions to trending matters on social media. He’s from — you guessed it — the Navajo tribe. Willie can also be a Hoop Dancer. If you wish to know extra about what that’s and witness Willie doing the Hoop Dance, try this video. The principle level of his channel is to “spread humor and good feelings.” The most well-liked movies are from a collection referred to as Natives React, the place Willie and his buddies share their reactions to memes and movies on completely different social media platforms.
Lots of the movies are particular to Native tradition, and the channel might come off to non-Native viewers as a giant inside joke — actually, it form of is. Nonetheless, that is arguably extra cause to look at, because it’s an effective way to interrupt the “stoic Indian” stereotype that has permeated in style media. An unfiltered have a look at Native humor, like “Man speaks Indigenous language and Bear responds!” or “Why Do Native American Men Have Long Hair?“, is simply as essential as content material associated to different features of Native tradition.
These channels are solely a small fraction of the knowledge on the market, however I imagine they’re a great start line to navigate content material claiming to share cultural information, to not point out the racist landfill that’s the remark part of so many movies purportedly about Native tradition. With this perception, you may grow to be a greater knowledgeable relative to Native communities and assist problem misconceptions.
Or in the event you are Native, you may watch and be impressed to additional reconnect to your individual tradition.
Jimmy Lee Beason II is a member of the Osage Nation and a professor within the Indigenous & American Indian Research division at Haskell Indian Nations College.
