This week has been a very exciting and productive week for me. I had the chance to get a lot of work done, especially preparation for writing my chapters and general research on more things that I have found needed more insight. I also had the chance to attend a huge powwow just this past weekend. The ones that I have attended in the past were just some local tribes and the numbers that attended were not that large. This was a combination of many tribes from as far as Nebraska. I counted at one time 13 different drums on the floor. The most I have seen before was three; this was a big step up. There was a much larger range of dancers and outfits. The sheer volume of the people made the event that much more exciting. Being there raised many more questions that I looked into on my own but will also talk to my supervisor about. I was exposed to a greater variety of people at the event and the difference in tribes was a good experience. There were many people there who did not look like Native Americans like at the smaller powwows. The ancestry is there but the skin color is not. No one looked at me funny because I was a 'white man' at a native powwow. That kind of acceptance from a peoples will really make one think about their feelings toward them. It was by far my most encouraging experience yet.
February 2008 Archives
This week I had to get some things done and get them done I did. I have all of my interview stuff set up, now I just need a date that works for all of the people involved. I am going to do a group interview thanks to the idea from my supervisor. This way I use three or so questions and get the personal responses from all the people and they can play off of one another. Combined with a luncheon it should prove to be productive. Along with setting that up I found some really interesting article on racism and race. One article talked about how there is only one race and that the word races shouldn't exist. Races are a way to classify people and discriminate against them. Biologically any one person on the earth is different by 0.2% and between 'races' there is a 0.012% difference. This information was eye opening for me. We are all of the same race, the human race. No one is better than the other, there is nearly no biological difference. Racism is an unfounded idea based on false beliefs and this information is proof.
I was out of town for half the week so I didn't get a lot done. This was a low time in my schedule anyway. This week will be a lot more active and productive. I have meetings and pow wows to attend. I will be working more on my primary research. I have interviews that I still want to conduct but the timing hasn't been right yet. I hope to coordinate all of that this week.
