Indian humor

When we met with Sterlin Harjo to view his film Barking Water, he told us that Indian humor is "hard to explain, but you just know it" if you grew up with it. It's a combination of coping with the struggles Indian people have faced and continue to face, a sometimes bleak, dry, and merciless wit. It's a wit most often aimed at one another, constantly ragging on your friends. As one of us observed, "to keep people in line," to remind them they are no better than anyone, they're all in this together. Almost like an inside joke, or story. The attitude is reminsicent of Janelle Adair recounting the story of the Possum, whose vanity caused Rabbit to take him down a notch by making his tail into the ugly bald tail it is today. Humility is important to Cherokees. Given names are not usually noble, as we learned from Professor Coates, but come from everyday events and are sometimes even embarrassing, as we noticed on one treaty signed by a man named She Reigns (probably a Hen-pecked husband), or another chief Standing Turkey because he had a limp. It's even evident in the "names" our friends Ed Jumper and Travis Wolfe bestowed on us--Becky earned the name Ulvnotisgi, or "Crazy," Caroline earned a name meaning "Crybaby," while Ben earned the illustrious Asaki (sp), or "Fart."

From watching Sterlin's films, and other films by native people (Smoke Signals, Skins, Atanarjuat), I think the films' bouts of humor serve as a reality check--they serve to deflect stereotypes, and serve as reminders of the humanity and reality of the people they portray.

One night I heard Kinsey laughing uproariously in the other room. When I went to investigate it turned out she was watching this Youtube video:



"Sacred talk," shows a guy walking through the forest, talking in the stilted, spiritually-heavy manner of stereotypical Indians. His friends, just regular Indian guys messing around, think he's nuts as he loudly yammers on.

Kinsey and Chelsie (Creek) and I watched various videos by these guys over a few nights. The stereotypical Indian is always contrasted to modern, everyday Indians for hilarious results. These videos, along with Sterlin's films who have drawn such a following in the area, are perfect examples of Indian people using forms of modern media to show who they are. Sterlin and other Indian filmmakers are very important for determining how people view Indians, as many popular ideas of who Indians are have stemmed from years of romanticizations or misconceptions in movies. Now that Indian actors and filmmakers can control their own modes of media, they can start controlling how people perceive American Indians.

As we also stopped to look around in the Will Rogers museum and Will Rogers homestead, and saw how he kept Presidents like Silent Cal in line or Franklin Roosevelt in stitches, just with a few snappy remarks, we are reminded that Indian people are doing this today and have been doing it since the first films, in which Will Rogers was a star. The immensity of Will Rogers' stardom can't be underestimated, as we saw in the museum, supposedly the single biggest museum devoted to any one person. Satirists and huge public personalities like Will Rogers had and continue to have enormous influence on politics and popular opinion. Today that legacy is followed by Stephen Colbert, who is partly Chickasaw (and shares his last name with prominent Chicksaw Chief Levi Colbert).

They are also important for redefining who an Indian is in the eyes of others. Will Rogers showed that Indians weren't stereotypical; many are still surprised that he was Cherokee because he didn't "look" Indian, but his unique brand of Indian humor made him into the star and popular commentator that he was. For Will, being Indian was a state of mind, a wily eye on the world, keeping leaders in check, and giving an honest, humble voice.

Indian humor continues to be a powerful tool for Indian people to reach non-Indian people, continuing just as Will Rogers started when he began in the first silent films.