Jacqueline Keeler

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Jacqueline Keeler is a Native American writer and activist, enrolled in the Navajo Nation and of Yankton Dakota descent, who co-founded Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry (EONM), which seeks to end the use of Native American racial groups as mascots.

Early life and education[]

Keeler was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to parents who had been moved there as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Indian relocation programs of the 1950s and 1960s; currently residing in Portland, Oregon.[1] She is also a graduate of Dartmouth College and has written about recent events there regarding the Native American Program.[2][3]

She is Kinyaa'áanii (Towering House clan) and a citizen of the Navajo Nation. Her mother's family is from Cameron, Arizona, and she is a descendant of Gus Big Horse through her grandmother Jean Big Horse Canyon, a rug weaver. Her grandparents were traditional Diné who did not speak English and ran a ranch near the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Her father was a citizen of the Yankton Sioux Tribe from Lake Andes, South Dakota.

Deloria-Sully family.jpg

Her grandmother Marjorie Keeler was from a prominent Episcopalian Dakota family. She was the first cousin of Standing Rock Lakota historian Vine Deloria, Jr., niece of Yankton Dakota ethnologist and linguist Ella Deloria, and niece of the Rev. Vine Deloria, Sr. She was also the niece of the Rev. Charles Cook. Cook, the Yankton Dakota minister at Pine Ridge who, with fellow Dakota Dr. Charles Eastman, oversaw the welfare of Lakota survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. Marjorie Keeler was also the great-niece of Rosebud Lakota author Susan Bordeaux Bettelyoun.

Career and activism[]

Keeler's articles have been widely quoted and published[4][5]

Much of her writing has coincided with her activism.[6] Keeler co-founded Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry, which launched and trended the hashtag #NotYourMascot during the 2014 Super Bowl. EONM seeks to end the use of racial groups as mascots, as well as other stereotypical representations in popular culture,[7][8] and cultural appropriation.[9] Keeler wrote "'Native Mascotry' is a term I coined to describe the practices that surround a Native mascot. It’s not just about the static image of the mascot, be it somewhat noble and prosaic or an ugly caricature with a feather on top. It’s the creative license such mascots gives fans to reenact outdated stereotypes, to 'play Indian.' These practices include: the wearing of Redface, the misuse of Native regalia and the chanting of fake, hokey war chants and tomahawk chops."[10] Keeler has been interviewed by various media outlets about the topics of racial stereotypes.[11]

Her activism also extends to issues of abortion,[12] traditional native values and Indigenous rights, and issues of Indigenous sovereignty.[13]

She has published the Alleged Pretendians List,[14] primarily made up of individuals in academia and entertainment who are monetizing their claims to Native American or First Nations identity but who, Keeler writes, research and documentation demonstrates have no Native heritage or community ties.[15]

Author[]

Keeler is the author of Standoff: Standing Rock, the Bundy Movement, and the American Story of Sacred Lands. Praised by Ojibway author Louise Erdrich as "a powerful, illuminating book." Erdrich found Standoff's "Rigorous analysis and personal storytelling invigorate Jacqueline Keeler’s examination of Indigenous vs. colonial land tenure. Standoff recounts the historic legacy of treaty rights and sacred space underpinning Standing Rock’s case against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and contrasts this legacy with the white entitlement as well as cultural land desecrations of the Bundy movement."

In 2017, she also edited Edge of Morning: Native Voices Speak for the Bears Ears featuring fifteen contributors: multi-generational writers, poets, activists, teachers, students, and public officials examining tribal efforts to protect the Bears Ears by making it a national monument.


See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Keeler, Jacqueline (2014-04-13). "My Life as a Cleveland Indian". Salon.
  2. ^ Keeler, Jacqueline (2 October 2015). "The Real Problem With Susan Taffe Reed and Fake Indian Tribes". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 30 August 2018 – via www.thedailybeast.com.
  3. ^ http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com
  4. ^ Nguyen, Tram (2009). Language is a Place of Struggle: Great Quotes By People of Color. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-8070-4800-9.
  5. ^ Nittle, Nadra. "Thanksgiving: A Day of Celebration or Mourning for Native Americans?".
  6. ^ "'NotYourMascot' Trends on Twitter Over Super Bowl Weekend". Indian Country Today Media Network.
  7. ^ Wozniacka, Gosia (29 April 2014). "Mascot Protest Planned At Nike's Oregon Headquarters". CBS Seattle.
  8. ^ Brettman, Allan (2 May 2014). "Nike statement on Chief Wahoo notes Major League Baseball contract". The Oregonian.
  9. ^ Schroeder, Audra (2014-03-25). "Company defends its use of teepee, 'stereotypical' outfits at gaming conference". The Daily Dot.
  10. ^ Keeler, Jacqueline. "I Am Not Your Disappearing Indian". Indian Country Today News Media.
  11. ^ "Host Paul Roland with guest Jacqueline Keeler on racist stereotypes, sports mascots and more". KBOO Radio. 2014-05-20.
  12. ^ Thomsen, Carly Ann (2012). The rhetorics of U.S. abortion narratives: Thematic continuities, shifting applications and political strategies, 1969--present. pp. 135–137. ISBN 978-1248969403.
  13. ^ Pena, Devon. "A native voice criticizes Bundy's claim to ancestral grazing rights".
  14. ^ Keeler, Jacqueline (6 June 2021). "The Alleged Pretendians List". Pollen Nation Magazine. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  15. ^ TallBear, Kim (10 May 2021). "Playing Indian Constitutes a Structural Form of Colonial Theft, and It Must be Tackled". Unsettle. Retrieved 30 May 2021.

External links[]

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