I have blogged before about how closely people in the Southwest are entwined with the Native American culture.
Just one generation ago, Ted's family was gathering herbs
in the fall for winter colds and flu.

Prejudice against Indians was unknown to me. My favorite aunt was one half Chickasaw and her father who was called
Choctaw Jim was married to a white woman. They were
completely accepted as valuable members of the community.

James Luna, a performance artist sees it in an entirely different manner. He has a degree in art and a masters
degree in counselling. He still feels alienated from the
culture and does some startling and confrotational art.
In his own words in an interview with Smithsonian magazine,

"While traveling in the Southwest, I spent some time in a
very remote area of the Navajo reservation. There was an
Indian in war dance regalia next to a thrown together
jewelry stand. I found it demeaning even though he was
making a living. Later on I was in D. C. and there were
life size cut outs of the President and I thought it was
cool"This inspired him to dress in a loin cloth and stand
in front of Union Station inviting passerbys to have their
picture taken with a live indian while saying, "America
loves to see her Indians. America loves to see us dance
for them. America loves our Arts and crafts. America
likes to name cars and trucks after our tribes. And then I
say, "take a picture here today of a live Indian". Eventually I have a volunteer and then they start lining up
and I stand there until I get mad or humiliated enough."

He feels that making himself a part of his art he is making
a statement about who he is. All the joy and intelligence
of his people are told by his conceptual art.

He thinks that he brings the message of what he is and
what he knows to public consciousness.

We tend to lump people into categories. I began with
telling you how Choctaw Jim was part of our family. Actually he was Chickasaw and may have been insulted b y
calling him Choctaw Jim.

I have mixed emotions about this. If I had grown up in
another family I might have been prejudiced. As it is, I
think people elsewhere might need confrontation. My husband's mother was Cherokee and both my children's father's had Native American Blood and were proud of it.

There is no doubt that Native Americans were treated worse
than any other minority. Their food source was systematically destroyed, they were driven out of choice
land and ended up starving and begging on the streets.

I am proud of James Luna.