OPINION:
The Respecter-in-Chief
By Ross Turner
The Respecter-in-chief
“President” Trump is well-known for his combative and bigoted rhetoric. His campaign announcement speech infamously declared of Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Classy! And yet, somehow, not all Americans were united or inspired by such presidential prowess. They needed more. Sure, he “has a great relationship with the blacks,” and clearly “love[s] Hispanics!”, but what of Native Americans? After such dignified displays of respect, was there any even left for the indigenous peoples of this country? A silly question. Our Great President oozes respect, like a slimy, lurching slug of virtue, a trail of honor ever in his wake.
“Pocahontas” Warren
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has experienced this trademark respect firsthand. Beginning on Twitter in 2014, Donald Trump has referred to Warren as “Pocahontas” at least 26 times. Whether at rallies, in the press, or in governmental meetings, the slur has become easily his favorite insult toward the progressive senator. Warren earned this distinction both by talking about her family history and criticizing Trump’s policies. Citing family stories passed down and told to her as a child, Warren has long maintained that a tiny portion of her ancestry is of Native American origin. She never gained from this professionally or politically, but what are facts except Playdough in Trump’s tremendous, powerful hands? Not one to let an opponent’s personal history go un-respected, Trump weaponized “Pocahontas” to mock and discredit Warren’s claimed heritage, and in the process, all Native Americans.
He Said What?
We’ve all come to expect as much from the Stable Genius-in-Chief. But surely, the President of the United States wouldn’t be so tone-deaf, so immature, and so callous as to use this slur at a ceremony honoring Native American WWII veterans. Imagine a president calling a political opponent “Anne Frank” at a Holocaust memorial, or “Harriet Tubman” at a Civil War commemoration; preposterous! It beggars belief. But why believe before you see for yourself?: “You’re very very special people. You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas. But you know what. I like you. Because you are special.” Surely, the words of Lincoln and FDR are the rantings of madmen before the oratory of President Donald J. Trump. With leadership like this, do we even need the rest of government? Has not the great American experiment all led up to the crowning of this messiah? Somebody give him more power immediately so that we may unleash the full strength of his titanic, muscular brain.
In Their Own Words
“I think he definitely says it as a slur,” responded Jacqueline Pata, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians. “No matter how he feels about Elizabeth Warren, to throw that out there is disrespectful to real Native Americans.” “It discredits her memory,” says Debra Haaland, chairwoman of the New Mexico Democratic Party and member of the Laguna Pueblo. She likened the term “Pocahontas” to calling Native Americans “Redskins,” implying that all tribes are the same. Dr. John Norwood, general secretary of the Alliance of Colonial Era Tribes further explains: “…the use of it in a derogatory fashion to insult someone degrades the name and all it represents, and then it becomes a racial slur. The president was attacking a claim by Senator Warren about American Indian ancestry, and to insult that claim by calling her ‘Pocahontas’ turns the name into a racial slur.” Finally, Warren herself responded: “it is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur. Donald Trump does this over and over thinking somehow he’s gonna shut me up with it. It hadn’t worked in the past, it’s not gonna work in the future.”
The Real Pocahontas
There is more than a whiff of irony to Trump’s choice of historical figure, not that Trump himself was likely aware of it. (He undoubtedly chose “Pocahontas” because she was the only Native American woman he was aware of, and only then thanks to the 1995 Disney movie of the same name.) But the real Pocahontas was far more interesting – and tragic. Born around 1596, Pocahontas was the favorite daughter of Chief Powhatan, the paramount chief of an alliance of about 30 Algonquian-speaking tribes located in present-day Virginia. ‘Pocahontas’ was actually a nickname meaning “little wanton” or “playful one,” indicating her reported mischievousness and intelligence. Her story is intertwined with that of John Smith, an English colonist who was captured by Pocahontas’ uncle in the winter of 1607. Facing execution by clubbing, legend has it that the young Pocahontas threw herself over Smith’s body to shield him from the blows. According to Smith, “she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown.”
The Peace of Pocahontas
There is some doubt as to the veracity of Smith’s account, but what is known is that Pocahontas was later captured by the English and used to ransom the return of their prisoners and weapons. While in captivity, she learned English, converted to Christianity, and took the name “Rebecca.” In 1614, she married a man named John Rolfe, which created an eight-year peace between the Powhatan tribes and the colonists known as “the Peace of Pocahontas.” A few years later, she sailed to England where she experienced fame and celebrity and was treated as a princess of sorts. But in 1617, on a trip back to Virginia, she suddenly became deathly ill and passed away soon after. Despite the historical uncertainties, Pocahontas’ legacy represents selflessness, peace, and unity between different peoples and cultures. It is no small irony then that the most selfish, bellicose, and divisive president in this nation’s history has revived her name only to drive a wedge between people. Nothing could further from what Pocahontas stood for than the way Trump besmirches her name and memory.
Trickle Down Trumpism
It has become a kind of cold comfort to assume that Trump’s idiotic rhetoric is limited to Trump, that it doesn’t “trickle down” and further corrode the national discourse. But Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) would forcefully disagree. The Trump ally said of Warren on a Fox News segment: “I know the President likes to call her ‘Pocahontas,’ but now that she’s making her way from the eastern seaboard to the center of the country, maybe ‘Sacajawea’ would be more appropriate.” From the racist demonstrations of Charlottesville to the homophobia of Roy Moore, this is but one more example of the “leader of the free world” giving cover and support to bigots of all stripes. Gaetz’s comments are made somehow worse by the actual facts of Sacajawea’s (also Sacagawea) incredible life. Born in 1788, she was sold as a teenager into marriage with a trapper who was eventually hired by the explorers Meriweather Lewis and William Clark. Carrying her infant son ‘Pompy’ on a cradleboard on her back, the small band set west and became first American expedition to reach the Pacific coast. Sacajawea was critical to the success of the journey. Her feats include translating the tongues of tribes encountered, bartering her own treasures for supplies, rescuing the journals of Lewis and Clark from a shipwreck, foraging for food during the winter, helping navigate the treacherous Rocky Mountains, and acting as a signal of the group’s peaceful intentions. That Trump and his slithering minions have weaponized her good name only highlights their monumental smallness in comparison.
Damned If You Do, And If You Don’t
“Our country’s disrespect of native people didn’t start with President Trump,” says Elizabeth Warren. “It started long before President Washington ever took office.” This is true, and aided by the current president, casual bigotry appears poised to last well into the future. At least, well into Elizabeth Warren’s future: she has recently announced a run for the very office held by her angry, orange interlocutor. This virtually guarantees many more months of tasteless insults and misspelled tweets aimed at her in particular. And it is unclear how Warren will proceed. In an attempt to put the issue to bed, Warren last year released the results of a DNA test which confirmed exactly her very mild claims. Unfortunately, this appeared to have the opposite of the intended effect, confirming her “lack” of Native American-ness to her detractors and even alienating some allies. Chuck Hoskin Jr., Cherokee Nation Secretary of State, stated, “Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong.”
Elevating the Discourse
Of course, this is largely a problem of optics. Warren does have Native American DNA, however little it may be. But she never claimed to be a part of any tribal nation, and focusing on her genetic make-up is entirely beside the point. The point is that we have a president who is willing to denigrate entire groups of people, to their faces, for the most petty and superficial of reasons. Warren’s DNA gaffe may have played into Trump’s hands, but voters ought to remember that it only became an issue due to the president’s repeated instances of bigotry. It is the same racist tactic he used to goad Barrack Obama into releasing his birth certificate, albeit with different results. Warren would do well to stick to a strong, progressive message and ignore the unwinnable mudslinging of the so-called President. She should remind voters that she almost single-handedly started the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has recovered nearly $12 billion for 29 million consumers. Focusing on policy and substance might sound old-fashioned in the age of Trump, but it was the chronic lack of these that gave us Trump to begin with. If Elizabeth Warren stays on message in 2020, Trump will only wish he had a “Pocahontas” to save him.
Sources:
https://mashable.com/2017/11/28/trump-called-warren-pocahontas-at-least-26-times/?europe=true#coHFMOHDXsqj
http://fortune.com/2018/02/14/donald-trump-elizabeth-warren-pocahontas-native-americans/
http://fortune.com/2017/11/27/trump-pocahontas-elizabeth-warren-navajo-wwii-veterans-code-talker/
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/us/politics/donald-trump-native-americans.html?_r=1
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/06/politics/elizabeth-warren-native-american/index.html
Great insight and historical recap. Very well written. Thanks for sharing.