UPDATED: 10/29/23
Halloween is TOMORROW…and so are the costumes. This blog is to talk about Halloween costumes, cultural appropriation, insensitive actions and the long-standing violence Indigenous Peoples have faced and continue to experience. And to just say, we are still here. I also hope that this re-evaluation and definition of cultural appropriation, let’s us, as individuals, reflect on this issue as a whole, not even just through an Indigenous lens and voice. It happens everywhere.

Like in our dreams, Halloween is the one time you can act out your true desires unchallenged by convention, ethics, or morality. When called on any offense, the response is typically “It is just a costume, after all.” My next question, “Is it really just a costume?” In many ways, the Halloween costume you select, or admire, says a lot about you, pending on which costume you choose. Unfortunately, that choice can also say a lot.

I am Kul Wicasa Lakota. I am also Diné (through my biological father’s side). But raised, Lakota. I am Indigenous to these occupied and stolen lands we call, Turtle Island. I am really proud of my people and where I come from.  I am really proud of our people and all that we have overcome and still overcoming to be here today. We have our ancestors to thank and be grateful for. I am really proud of all we are succeeding at and accomplishing! We are not just surviving, we are THRIVING!

There was a time where I was ashamed of who I was, because of my skin color.  Having dark skin my whole life really only made me stand out when I moved to a rural place in Maine.  Back in South Dakota, I was surrounded by my family and everything we did or were part of, was the norm for us. In Maine, I experienced racism and even filed a hate crime, but the group of boys got away with it. I disliked being a Lakota girl because I knew I wasn’t like everyone else. It wasn’t until college that I just thought, well, forget it, this is me, this is how I feel most comfortable and I am proud to be Lakota.  I was excited to reconnect and learn more.  I also have my Professors in college, who were Native help me with this.  My costume for 365 days of the year, which was not selected by me and which I cannot easily remove, nor do I want to, is somewhere between the invisible woman and a Rorschach ink-blot (an ambiguous design that you read into whatever you want to see, most often used in therapy and for Jay Z’s album cover). I was BORN TO BE LAKOTA. I was BORN TO BE INDIGENOUS.

Indigenous Invisibility:

On one hand, the voices of Natives, however just and earnest, are ignored by most in our society – constantly fighting our own erasure across multiple platforms. We are invisible most of the time but when it comes to appropriating our culture and art – we are glorified for that, but never credited for it while non-Indigenous people steal our culture and designs. Indigenous visibility is not there unless there is some sort of tragedy or national headline boost.  During NoDAPL, the whole world saw and heard what was happening in Standing Rock.  They saw the injustice of what was happening and many realized that Indigenous people have been the ones on the frontlines of injustice and climate change.  But after everyone was evicted and the pipeline plowed through, desecrating sacred lands and poisoning our medicine (water), the spotlight on Natives was gone. We get blips every once in a while. We are labeled as “something else” according to CNN when we helped make history by turning out the 2020 vote. We are disrespected publicly on national television by Rick Santorum and anchors on Fox News. We are mocked by a school teacher in Riverside, CA (and many other schools across the country) who dress up in red face, wearing a headdress and acting like a fool to teach a lesson – all while an Indigenous student was present in that classroom and was subjected to that dehumanizing behavior. Many of my relatives and friends are still recovering from what happened in Standing Rock and many are continuing to fight pipelines and fight for Indigenous rights at multiple frontline fights like in Minnesota at Stop Line 3, Mountain Valley, and in solidarity from the Native lands we are on to Palestine… so where is the spotlight?

I could keep going on with examples of how we are not seen, heard or recognized and involve others to tell their stories as well but to my non-native readers and supporters, this is a problem for us and if you can help center Indigenous voices and presence, please do so and don’t take up space – HELP CREATE SPACE. HOWEVER, our visibility is changing and improving! There are many of us on the frontlines, in the media, in Congress, in classrooms, on panels, dancing, singing, painting, organizing events and rallies, and in filmmaking to control the narrative. Change is happening.

Despite the structural challenges we face daily to succeed in a nation often hostile to our very existence, these challenges are ignored, or even co-opted, by the dominant culture, as well as other groups vying for the spotlight to turn toward them. On the other hand, when I am recognized as Native, people read into every stereotype possible. From feathers, to alcoholism, to getting things free, to possessing secret wisdom. I get it all, I’ve heard it all. To other non-natives, sometimes I’m the one Native person they know and my inbox and phone blow up with questions or I’m tagged to help educate others in a comment thread. Sometimes I’m able to engage, only if the dialogue is respectful despite differing opinions and other times, I choose not to engage, because you’re able to see how it will unfold and it should be no ones emotional effort to be silenced, gaslighted, and belittled.  That happens to all of us, not just Indigenous voices but across the movement spaces. I see it happen all the time.  The emotional labor takes its toll on us, it impacts our emotional well-being. Now, as a mom of a 20 month old, with twins on the way, I’m even more protective of my time and energy.  It shouldn’t have to be our responsibility to continuously educate and stand up for ourselves and/or our people.  If we don’t, the effects of Colonialism and present day folx control our narrative. NO MORE!

So, people think they know Natives.  They think they know what we look like or are supposed to look like.  Or they think we don’t exist at all anymore.  When you have old western movies depicting us by the stereotypical images of Natives or Disney films like Pocahontas push the narrative in an overly romanticized way and hyper-sexualizing Matoaka (Pocahontas), this gives everyone else in the world the image of what Natives look like.  Savage and apparently, clothed provocatively.  When you decide to use a bastardization of my culture as your Halloween costume or to be one with nature by channeling your inner spirit animal (please don’t say this, we don’t use this term) at a festival by dressing up in headdress and costume, it tells everyone what you think of people like me, like Natives. Especially when wearing a culture as a costume, to then be followed (most of the time) with drunken buffoonery is just disgraceful.  It also encourages others to view us as a caricature, as less than, as objects. This is cultural appropriation.

Cultural Appropriation:

What does that mean? Well, Wikipedia explains it perfectly: “Cultural appropriation is the adoption of elements of a minority culture by members of the dominant culture. Because of the presence of power imbalances that are a byproduct of colonialism and oppression, cultural appropriation is distinct from equal cult.”

Reducing a race of people whose continuous oppression is still manifested to a feathered head-dress or a little princess is more than disrespectful. It is harmful. It is more than evidence of your insensitivity. It is the endorsement of propagation of disenfranchisement and a long history of violence. You may think it’s just a costume, that it’s just all fun and games, and “no disrespect” (as I’ve heard plenty of times), but it’s much deeper than that.  We are a People that are forgotten until when appropriated to fit the modern society’s desire to engage in mockery or celebrate a sport; or to be ignorantly claimed to gain cultural benefits to further a political agenda or free education; our rights to vote are suppressed, therefore stripped of our existence yet again in 2019; and our lives are deemed expendable for profitable gains by the fossil fuel industry.  To think this is all okay, you are complicit in a system designed to oppress Indigenous Peoples’ and frontline communities. Did you think about what your actions might say about you? If you argue that “it is all in fun,” that makes this sort of insensitivity worse, doesn’t it?  I can talk much more in depth, and I could write a novel, but back to my main point… costumes.

So, you want to be sexy Pocahontas (aka “PocaHottie”)? Let me ask you this.  Would you dress in blackface as a sexy slave and feel good about yourself?  Or dress up as a Holocaust victim? Did you know that each year literally hundreds of Native Womxn are assaulted, murdered and disappear at the hands of men who view our women as nothing but sexual flotsam? Did you know that our communities and our people have targets on us for open season? Did you know that, in many parts of the country, a non-Native who rapes and abuses women and children on the reservation and then crosses the invisible line off the reservation, is often not prosecuted and the government will not allow the tribes to prosecute these men? Not until the Violence Against Women Act of 2013, that Tribes are now starting to exercise their sovereignty to prosecute in their courts. Did you know that Pocahontas was about 10 years old when 27-year-old John Smith decided to make her his? Do you know that you are dressing like a young girl who was repeatedly violated by a 27-year-old man and you dress like this child invited it?  The story of Pocahontas is romanticized and/or hyper-sexualized to fit a Walt Disney feature film or for costumes to sell at stores.

What Indigenous Womxn Face: Did you know?

• According to Indian Law Resource Center, 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence and more likely to be murdered, 10 times the national average (https://indianlaw.org/issue/ending-violence-against-native-women).
• Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetime than any other group. Further, according to the Department of Justice, 86% of reported cases of rape and sexual assault against American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women, were assaulted by non-Native men (https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/maze-of-injustice/).
• 94% of Native women living in Seattle, WA, have stated that they have been raped or coerced into sex at least once in their life (148 surveyed: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/native-american-women-seattle-raped-coerced-sex-a8511646.html). That’s just in Seattle, WA.
• The violent extraction of fossil fuels brings assaults on Indigenous women living near man camps.  Due to the Bakken Oil boom in North Dakota, violent crime increased by 7.2 percent when these man camps were developed, to house the workers in the fossil fuel industry (http://www.honorearth.org/man_camps_fact_sheet).
• In 2018, the Urban Indian Health Institute and Annita Lucchesi (now the Executive Director of Sovereign Bodies Institute) released the first ever Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report. In that report, which includes data from 71 select urban cities, found 5,712 cases of missing Native women and girls in 2016, and only 116 were logged into the Department of Justice Database. Murder is the third leading cause of death for Native women. All of these statistics is unacceptable.  And this history of violence is directly connected to the exploitation of our culture, especially the “Pocahottie or Indian Princess” costumes. It’s not just a costume you’re wearing. You’re wearing a long history of genocide, historical trauma and erasure culture to make your one night of fun fit your narrative and selfie.

Now Back To Costumes and Hypersexualization…

What is hypersexualization? Hypersexualization refers to girls being depicted or treated as sexual objects. It also means sexuality that is inappropriately imposed on girls through media, marketing or products directed at them that encourages them to act in adult sexual ways.

When you hyper-sexualize a people, who are the most sexually assaulted women in our society, you are contributing to the de-personalization at the core of this issue. Think about what you do and how your actions reflect upon you, especially when you are deciding on what to get for a costume. Then, think about what you are telling other people, what they can get away with by wearing these cultural insensitive costumes. Then think of Native peoples’.  Who are you? And, before you dress like a victim of genocide and systematic oppression, maybe consider who we are. We are a vibrant and dynamic people who, despite being targeted for genocide and marginalized when those efforts failed, are still here. Despite your costume. Do you want to be complicit? Do you want everyone to know that you want to be complicit? That is what your costume tells all of us. You may think or say we are reading into this… but you’d just get a look from us, as we then look at each other, and then we are ready for some Indigenous verbal shutdown, politely of course.

Look at the picture above (PocaHottie costume) and look at me, compare mine to the hyper-sexualized and dehumanizing “PocaHottie” costume. See the difference? That “PocaHottie” costume is not how we dress.  Far from it.  This was and is a sacred time for me, as I began down the red road path of Womanhood.  A time in my life I reflect so much on and meant the world to our family and community.   There are protocols in place, there are ceremonies in place, there are cultural traditions and values in place, to make and earn our regalia. Know the difference.  Educate yourself.  Ask us questions.   Find ways to give back, and if you can, give back in a way that truly makes us feel our time is valuable, that our opinions, experiences and stories are respected. We appreciate and respect peaceful dialogue on not only this topic but a variety of others as well.  We are more than a costume. We are more than the stereotypes.  We are a community, who have suffered from 500 + years of systematic oppression and attempts of our cultural identities being stripped away from us.  We survived the Indian Boarding Schools.  We still have family who survived it and we can hear the pain from those stories.  The trauma is real.  We are continuously healing while being continuously triggered from the world that exists due to colonization. We hear and see the trauma our relatives face when our womxn are assaulted, murdered, and missing.  These are our realities.  We do exist. Yet, we are healing and moving forward! I have to, especially for my health, and for my babies.

Cultural Appreciation

Rather than appropriating a culture, especially Native culture, traditions, and our way of life – APPRECIATE our culture! You can do this by celebrating us.  You can do this by supporting Native/Indigenous owned businesses.  Buy Native!  Wear Native! Make sure it was made and designed by Native designers and artists, or at the very least a collaborative effort with a company and Native company/designer.  An example of this collaboration is B.Yellowtail x Faherty – Faherty was called out but called in do to better and through this collaboration, Indigenous/Native artists and designers have be front and center with new collections and clothes. Unlearn everything you think you know about Native people.  Read books by Indigenous authors.  Follow and diversify your social media accounts in who you follow. Sign up for their events that they advertise! We are calling community in to be allies an co-conspirators with us in this work.  Appreciate us, our true history, and our culture.

We are still here.  We are a reminder to the government’s very system and policies they created to eradicate us, failed. OUR EXISTENCE IS OUR RESISTANCE. OUR EXISTENCE IS COLONIZATION’S FAILURES.

Indigenous Peoples’ are beautiful and resilient. Our culture is not your costume. So, think twice about your costume if you were looking to be Pocahottie.  Be respectful. And celebrate Indigenous Peoples on Indigenous Peoples Day, not Columbus. Celebrate and honor every or any day of the year.  Celebrate and uplift Indigenous voices during Native Heritage Month and all throughout the year. Become a good ally and create a safe space or spaces for Natives to be seen, heard, and respected.

Lila Wopila Tanka for reading! Have a great day!

WAYS TO TAKE ACTION AND PARTICIPATE:

Join Rising Hearts and Southwest Runners for Celebrate Native Heritage Month! Register or donate, participate virtually or in person on November 4th in Farmington NM with Southwest Runners.
Beneficiary: The Navajo (Diné) Oasis Project
REGISTER: https://events.elitefeats.com/23celebrate

Join Rising Hearts and ReNew Earth Running for our 4th Annual Truthsgiving 4 and 2 miler, virtual and in person November 22-26th!
Beneficiaries are Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness
REGISTER: https://events.elitefeats.com/23truthsgiving

If you’d like to help support aside from reading or sharing, you can donate:

Venmo: @JordanMDaniel (or PayPal by request)

Donate to Urban Indian Health Institute

Donate to Sovereign Bodies Institute

Donate to Indian Law Resource Center

Donate to National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center

Donate to Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center

Donate to Sacred Circle: National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women

Donate to Mending the Sacred Hoop (it also has a longer list of other Orgs doing this work to end the violence)

** Many more to list, but please do your research to find out how you can support and if you need clarification, you can ask.

MOVIES AND TV SHOWS TO WATCH:
+ Rutherford Falls
+ Reservation Dogs
+ Dark Winds
+ Native America on PBS
+ Know To Run: Yatika
+ Run To Be Visible
+ Carlisle 200: 200 miles for 200 Native Children
+ The Culture Is: Indigenous Women (MSNBC Documentary)

BOOKS:
1. Notable Native People by Dr. Adrienne Keene
2. There There by Tommy Orange
3. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
4. One Story, One Song by Richard Wagamese
5. A Two Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby
6. Not Vanishing by Chrystos
7. Yellow Bird by Sierra Crane Murdoch
8. Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid
9. Custer Died for Your Sins by Vine Deloria, Jr
10. As Long As Grass Grows by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
11. The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings For Living Well by Chelsey Luger & Thosh Collins
12. Fresh Banana Leaves by Dr Jessica Hernandez
13. A Pipe For February by Charles H. Red Corn
14. The Deaths of Sybil Bolton by Dennis Mcauliffe Jr.

PODCASTS:
1. The Grounded Podcast by Dinée Dorame
2. All My Relations Podcast
3. This Land Podcast by Rebecca Nagle
4. Native Runners Podcast by Verna Volker of Native Women Running
5. The Matriarch Movement Podcast by Shayla Stonechild
6. The Red Justice Project Podcast
7. Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo (CBC Original podcast) by Connie Walker
8. I Am Podcast by Kola Shippentower Thompson
9. Stolen: The Search for Jermain Charlo (Spotify) by Connie Walker
10. Run Shoe Diaries Podcast
11. Nihizhi, Our Voices Podcast by Lyla June
12. Ologies: Episodes Bryology (Moss) with Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Indigenous Pedology (Soils) with Dr. Lydia Jennings, Indigenous Fire Ecology with Amy Christianson, Indigenous Cuisinology (Native Cooking) with Mariah Gladstone of Indigikitchen.
13. The Trail Ahead Podcast: Episodes with Jordan Marie Daniel, Yatika Starr Fields, Sergio Avila, Jose Gonzalez, Gabe Vasquez