Editor:
I have never seen such garbage as that shoveled out by Denise
Baer-Apuzzo on the matter of California native tribes.
Editor:
I have never seen such garbage as that shoveled out by Denise Baer-Apuzzo on the matter of California native tribes.
Some of it was simply too stupid to believe: “My other thought was that the name Bill Jones doesn’t sound Native American to me.”
But if she needs me to, I’ll be happy to show her tribal rolls or even a Tahlequah, OK phone book so she can see all the Indians named Jones, Smith and Sutherland, as well as “Indian names”(hilarious really, how she thinks she is being decent by saying “Native American”) which are more acceptable to her. How about Sanchez, Ramirez, Castillo or Moreno? A perfectly mindless assumption to make.
Some of it is much worse: “Only 1 percent of the people who live in California identify themselves as Native American. Most of these native people are not living in poverty.”
How would she know THAT? If she thinks a person can’t be Indian unless their name is “Kicking Bear” or “Rain-In-The-Face” how in the WORLD would she know if any are living in poverty?
She mindlessly plods on: “If there were ‘so many’ starving Native Americans, imagine how many other people must have been starving all around us. Most of the nearly 15 percent of Californians who live in poverty are Hispanic, African American or non-Hispanic white people. Most of these people aren’t starving, just poor. I think that Bill may have overstated this problem.”
Gosh, I think that any problem is overstated when you don’t care about people. But honestly, I don’t recall saying anything about people starving. I certainly didn’t suggest that there should be some sort of “misery competition” between OTHER groups that she ALSO doesn’t care about. It’s obvious that she didn’t even read my letter.
So I guess this shoots Robert Mitchell’s theory that California Indian history is “common knowledge” all to hell doesn’t it? For here instead is the positively EVIL theory that being small in number makes people insignificant. And of course, once again there’s no problem with WHY people are small in number is there? This has got to be the premier ignorant statement written about Native Californians.
Like Mitchell, Baer-Apuzzo erroneously thinks that if people aren’t OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED as Indian that they can’t possibly be. Also like Mitchell, I think Baer-Apuzzo has a responsibility to educate herself out of the mire of false information she is so horribly laboring under. What a sickening example for a person who sits on a local “educational excellence” committee.
Bill C. Jones, Gilroy
Submitted Thursday,
Nov. 13
