American Pictures
Drew Kelly
Voice Production & Layout Editor
Posted 11/19/09
Last week, the Oregonian ran a story about a Native American man who did not want his son to marry out of their tribe. I think this is a bunch of B.S.
The man in question does not actually matter to me. It is the concept of interracial marriages being wrong to him that bothers me.
He worries that if his son marries out of the tribe, then it will compromise their Native American cultural heritage. I find this preposterous. I think blood or skin color has very little to do with cultural heritage.
Cultural heritage can be maintained by simply encouraging your children and family to talk about their ancestors, take part in traditional activities and take pride in your familial history.
This Native American boy can marry anyone of any race and still be a Native American. His personal part in the preservation of his cultural history has nothing to do with who he marries.
On the contrary, he could marry someone of his father's choosing - something his father feels will help preserve the Native American culture - but then choose to ignore his heritage and instead indoctrinate his children with Sponge Bob Square Pants or something equally inane.
A marital partner has little to do with heritage preservation, but rather a loving relationship or an arranged one.
Also, it does not take actual blood-heritage to preserve a culture. I am a white, Anglo-Saxon protestant, but I celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I am helping to preserve Mexican heritage despite being otherwise unaffiliated with Mexican culture.
Millions of people world-wide celebrate St. Patrick's day, a holiday that is linked to my Irish heritage. But my Irish heritage is not compromised by non-Irish people celebrating it. Instead the holiday is known and celebrated all over the world; the holiday does not suffer due to marriages between the Irish and non-Irish.
Cultures around the globe are maintained because people care about them, native member of the culture or not, but a pure blood line has little to do with it.