Crossing the Line

            This blog post was really hard to write. And when I say hard, I mean it’s 3 a.m. and I’m rewriting this for the fourth time because I still can’t get it right. In this post, I wanted to talk about something that’s been bothering me since I started my job as a racial justice intern this summer. When I took this job, I had a fairly strong background in women’s and children’s issues, however racial justice was something I was (am) still learning about.

Since taking on the role of racial justice intern, I’ve noticed patterns in myself and those around me regarding how we externalize our perceptions of race and privilege. For the first time, I’ve begun to think of myself as more than female, and more as a white female, and what that means. I’ve begun to look more closely at who my friends are, and how they influence my experience of race and gender. Looking at these aspects of my life revealed a wall I’d unconsciously built between who I am at work and who I am outside of work.

I draw inspiration from my personal life and put it into writing for my internship, but I don’t really take a whole lot from my internship into my personal life. This is a big problem because it’s a symptom of the very things I’ve been trying to address; internalized racism and sexism.  

No matter how I act at work, there is a certain line I don’t cross outside the office. That line appears when someone makes a joke about how women are hormonal and unnecessarily dramatic. The line appears when one of my friends (who, if I’m being honest, are predominately white) pretends to be “hood.” The line is there when someone enforces a stereotype about a particular race. The line is there when I laugh along with these jokes, and the line is there when I don’t say anything. The line is there. What I find so hard to accept is the fact that I put it there

My friends all know what I do. They know I’m involved in social activism surrounding racial justice and gender equality, but even those who support my work don’t really like it when I bring it to Friday night get-togethers. Commenting on everyday racism and sexism elicits eye rolls and sarcasm or, if I’m lucky, polite interest.

            At work, I write about racism and sexism because I’ve seen them in action and I’m aware enough to know that it’s wrong, but what I write is irrelevant if I can’t follow my own advice and challenge the problem in the company of my own friends.

            We laugh off issues that affect millions of people because we can; the reason we don’t want to see the issues as anything more than a joke is because when we do, we have to make changes to deeply ingrained behaviors. This is hard. It’s a lot easier to keep laughing than to be the person who points out why it’s not funny, and run the risk of alienating yourself.

Usually when I write a blog post, I try to offer a solution, or at least a helpful hint as to how a problem can be avoided in the future, but this time, I don’t. I don’t have a solution because I’m still learning how to translate the work I do, and the things I believe, into something I don’t have to sugarcoat in order to be accepted. It’s hard for me, but living with sexism and racism is harder for all of us. Facing my bias’ will always be a challenge, but as my mother likes to remind me, I am stubborn as a mule so…

… challenge accepted!

By Juliana Rose, YWCA Missoula Racial Justice Intern

Uncover Missoula Fails to Recognize the True History of Missoula

According to an article in “Uncover Missoula, “a publication of the Missoulian newspaper the city’s history began in 1860 with a settlement known as Hell Gate. The standard article included in the past two editions failed to recognize important events relating to American Indians and their deep historical connection to Missoula.

According to the Flathead Watershed Sourcebook Archaeologists have found sites in the South Fork of the Flathead River that indicate people have been living in Western Montana as far back as the end of the last ice age (10,000 years ago).  Ancient stories of the Salish and Kootenai people tell of living in this area 40,000 years ago.  To say that Missoula’s history begins in 1860 is misleading. That’s like saying gravity began when the apple fell on Isaac Newton’s head. Newton was simply pointing out that gravity exists, in the same way that C.P. Higgins and Francis Worden pointed out to settlers that Missoula was a great place to live. Indeed, it had been a great place to live for many tribal nations for thousands of years. However, Native people were forcibly removed from this region and relocated to reservation lands throughout the state of Montana.

American Indian tribal communities clearly have had significant and sustained relationships with the area of Montana currently known as Missoula. Historical portrayals to the contrary are not only inaccurate, but they are disrespectful, ethnocentric and potentially hurtful to tribal communities – including the Salish tribe, whose language provided the original word that has been altered into “Missoula.”

According to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes website Salish-speaking tribes (the Séliš and the Qĺispé) and a Kootenai-speaking band (the Ksanka - Ktunaxa) occupied a huge territory covering Western Montana, parts of Idaho, British Columbia and Wyoming, It was in Missoula where they dug bitterroot (sp̉éłm) and fished for bull trout (aáyčst) in the icy cold water of the Clark Fork River (nmisuletkʷ)[1]. Indeed, the Salish place name for the Missoula area is nłˀaycčstm, which translates literally to “Place of the small bull trout.”

The picture painted in the “Uncover Missoula” article portrays early pioneers in Hell Gate, Fort Owen, and St. Ignatius as the few humans strong enough to live in a harsh and “unknown” land. American Indians had been living in these places long before outsiders came to live in this region.  

After the area began to see more White settlement, especially from missionaries and homesteaders, local tribes faced increasing pressure to change their means of subsistence, their religion and to give up their traditional homelands. Agricultural and industrial development in the 1880s put heavier demand on resources like water and land that had once been plentiful.

When Chief Charlo’s band of the Bitterroot Salish were forced to march to the Flathead Reservation in 1891, the region’s tribes began to see a whole new level of cultural erosion. Indian children were taken by force from their families and placed in boarding schools (for example, the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius) where they were forbidden to speak their Native languages or participate in their traditional tribal spiritual practices. 

History is, for the most part, written by the conquerors, and the history of American Indians is often whittled down to the simplified version of settler versus Indian as taught in elementary schools. The chopping of Native history from basic education demotes an entire people’s history to second-class status. When we treat a people’s history as second class — or even worse, deny it all together — we continue to marginalize tribal people and systematically treat them in unequal and possibly discriminating ways. If the news media desires to educate their readership on Missoula’s history accurately, American Indians must be acknowledged, and their history valued.   We hope future issues of “Uncover Missoula” will portray an inclusive history of not only the White settling of Missoula, but also of local tribes and their history in the Missoula area.

This commentary is a product of the racial justice initiative of the YWCA Missoula. Our goal is to promote racial justice in Montana through timely, informed, news-based education. For more information about the racial justice initiative, visit ywcaofmissoula.org. This is Juliana Rose, the Racial Justice Intern with the YWCA.  Thank you for listening. 

By Juliana Rose, YWCA Missoula Racial Justice Intern

This commentary aired on Montana Public Radio on Friday, Oct. 11

(Click here to access the archived podcast of this newscast. Juliana's  

commentary begins at 22:59)

Links Referenced:

“New evidence puts man in North America 50,000 years ago”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041118104010.htm

Louis Adams and Tony Incashola (two Salish elders) interviews

http://www.spatialsci.com/PlaceNames/files/tours/SalishPlaceNames_2008.kmz

“Montana Indians, Their History and Location”

http://opi.mt.gov/pdf/indianed/resources/MTIndiansHistoryLocation.pdf

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[1] Also thought to be the origin of the name Missoula. Root is suuˀ - subsided water. (Pete, T. , 2010, seliš nyoˀnuntn: Medicine for the Salish language.  Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press.)

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 [AO1]Find correct pronunciation or read for radio as, “Indeed the Salish place name for the Missoula area translates to ‘Place of the small bull trout.’”

Advocate Training-- An Insider's Perspective

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” These words spoken by Maya Angelou, clearly align with the work of an advocate, as advocates help survivors validate their feelings, discover their strengths, learn to choose for themselves, and work towards change.

Entering into the first Saturday morning of advocate training, I slowly became awakened to the role of advocacy and its roots within empowerment. As advocates, we are in the unique position of being a witness to individual stories, to listening with an open heart, and engaging in a process where individual survivors begin to regain their own personal power.

The first training presentation, through the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI), quickly got a room of thirty trainees to wake-up, clap, cheer, and be recognized for characteristics that define, and give meaning to who they are. I was recognized as an oldest child, someone born in a state other than Montana, and a woman. I was immediately engaged. I laughed, waved, and smiled as if I were on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. It was clear that the presentation was meant to recognize all of the diversity within the room, while simultaneously creating space for unknown traits and experiences that piece together to make our own individual story. It broke down stereotypes while giving us the tools to understand our own biases and perceptions when we approach others. They identified labels we make for ourselves and each other, illustrating how we interact within and outside the caucuses in which we engage. Subsequent presentations built off the NCBI presentation, forming a foundation of invaluable knowledge needed to volunteer and provide services.

Advocacy training lasts more than two weeks, which equals over forty hours spent within the YWCA’s center room. For those forty hours, thirty trainees, including myself, had the chance to interact and listen to numerous stories revolving around the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault. The stories and training delve deeper into the issues, and create a holistic picture of how domestic violence relates to other human rights topics such as homelessness, culture assimilation, and mental health.  Throughout training, we learned about the services provided within Missoula that aim to address these issues. However, more importantly, we learned how to advocate for survivors that come to us with varying experiences and stories.

When training concludes on October 3^rd, I am confident that I will have the necessary tools to become an engaged advocate working to empower survivors and their children. 

Posted by Jessica, YWCA Missoula Advocate Trainee