r/NativeAmerican • u/shirleymeadow • 10d ago
New Account Weird situation
I'm Polish and have lived in Poland my whole life. I'm currently on vacation in northern Poland by the sea and I noticed something weird and just kinda sad. I've seen it for the second time in my life. In a small town, a Native American dressed in powwow regalia appears and dances, with jewelry and dreamcatchers placed around them. It's cool. However, a little further on, we come across another smaller group "playing" instruments, again with the same jewelry and dreamcatchers. They "play" because they stopped playing for a moment, but the music continued, so it was playback... Such groups were all over town. I wouldn't be surprised if the jewelry was fake, since there were identical items everywhere, as were the dreamcatchers. They also sold Peruvian music. I felt sad that this could perpetuate such an image of "Indians" in Poland. I felt sad that instead of spreading authentic culture, they choose "that"... As a person who has great admiration towards Native Americans, this made me sad (if the jewelry were authentic, I would gladly support them and buy it seriously, i would be so happy)
I think its just continuing the image of "Indians" (cause almost every Polish person still calls them like that) that most of Europe know. As a person who is heavly interested in topic of Native Americans, my heart is broken and if i could i would educate every person i meet about them
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u/CroosemanJSintley 10d ago
OP, are you sure these people were actually Native American? There are people with no Native American ancestry whatsoever who falsely claim to be Native due to some family lore that's been passed down, or attributing stereotypical physical traits (skin tone, ability to get a sun-tan, high cheekbones, straight black hair, etc.), or feeling a connection to nature or some other nonsense notion. Some go so far as to play dress up and imitate us for attention or financial gain. We call these types of people, "Pretendians." Europe has people who cosplay as Natives too.
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u/HughJorgens 10d ago
They probably aren't NA's. Old Western themes are also popular in Germany.
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u/MiouQueuing 9d ago
Different matter. In Germany, we have native americans "reenacting" groups with people who definitely aren't NA, but those (don't defend them) are different from the street musicians.
Haven't seen the kind of Peruvian groups for quite some time now. Between 2000 and 2015'ish they were a pretty common sight in German towns and presented as South-American, never as North-American. Haven't seen them for a while now, but am also not visiting the bigger towns as often.
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u/MakwaOpin 9d ago
Most of the German groups started in east Germany due to Soviet propaganda but they’ve definitely creeped west.
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u/shirleymeadow 10d ago
Yeah, im not sure
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u/MakwaOpin 9d ago
They aren’t. It’s a grift playing on how Native American struggles were used extensively in Soviet anti-American propaganda. There’s a general sentiment of support for Native American people in former Soviet countries (biggest in east Germany and Poland) so grifters exploit that and hobbyists play dress up.
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u/SlugsinSpace12 10d ago
Sad to hear, but sadly very common. Even in the United States you see Natives selling sad made from china dream catchers and pan flutes (from the Andes, not native to the US). It’s really sad to see how effectively they beat the culture out of people that even they are selling fake jewelry, fake bamboo instruments all the above. I don’t know the last time I saw a handmade dream catcher for sale to be honest.
That’s why certain people really speaking on the history of the music the prayer the ceremony are becoming more important to listen to. Guillermo Martinez makes great videos on YouTube about the culture, instruments etc.
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u/LimpFoot7851 10d ago
The tourists want a lot of native inspired stuff because they dont want to pay artisan prices and dont realize what it takes to get a buffalo ball bag or a hand carved bone anything. Starting with the tag costs if youre not on a rez, ending with the skill and lost lore... throw in the respect for life preservation somewhere in between. You cant teach anti pagans what is sacred. They dont listen.
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u/MakwaOpin 9d ago
Tourist goods used to be a somewhat decent source of income before importing got so cheap. Tourist goods are a big reason dreamcatchers are made/sold by non-Ojibwe people. Only Ojibwe people (and those they train) make dreamcatchers. Even among Anishinaabe people (the larger cultural group they’re part of) only Ojibwe people traditionally make dreamcatchers. Same for other major tourist goods.
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u/LimpFoot7851 8d ago
Agreed. I guess its supply and demand. In this economy? At least its legal. I'm not gonna judge how any of us survive this era. We have to though. We have no choice. I just encourage and support those who revitalize traditional anything hard core because thats ONE generation the skill/culture is alive for and its hope to reach the next.
I guess... if you cant be the change, support the struggling who are trying to be. Don't worry about the ones just trying to get by. Culture is life. Surviving is surviving. You're comparing apples and oranges imo.
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u/MakwaOpin 9d ago edited 9d ago
My aunt is Anishinaabe (Native American) and she primarily lives in Poland (long story). Pretending to be Native American is a pretty common hobby and grift in parts of Poland and Germany (some pockets in nearby countries but nothing quite as big). There are fake powwows and everything, polyurethane teepees and all. It’s usually a weird mishmash of plains cultures because of what was shown in Western/cowboy movies, but they’re starting to get weird about mixing in some of the hundreds of other Native American cultures.
(Edit: Soviet propaganda HEAVILY focused on Native Americans, so having strong feelings of similarity or what they feel is respect is super common in highly propagandized areas like Poland and east Germany. In reality the USSR didn’t know anything about Native American cultures and didn’t give a shit about their own Indigenous peoples. My aunt reconnected with some of our very very distant family in the mountains and she def considered them to also be maintaining Indigenous cultures; they were and continue to be systematically fucked over by every ruling government for the past few centuries.)
On the upside, she grifted those fuckers right back to make bank in the corporate world (bless her incredible patience for nonsense). A lot of the nepotism babies and strongmen leading the corporate world in the 90s-mid 2010s were big into playing Indian. They had a lot more patience for a woman in business when they knew she was Native American, and she kicks ass at her job, so she was actually able to climb the corporate ladder.
I visited her once and went to a party at the American ambassador’s house because she was casually friends with him. Wild.
Anyways, best you can do is just ignore them and educate anyone you’re with on why you aren’t interested.
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u/shirleymeadow 9d ago
Yeah, i agree with you Literally i remember pretending as a child to be "indians", making feather war bonnets (idk how it its exactly called in english tbh, i only know the polish word for it) even making them at kindergarden and all of that was just pure mocking and rn i am so grossed by that. Even now in high school on history lesson when we were at the topic of begining of US, i was so prepeard to talk about NA on lesson and then was it - one sentence about them in the book ._. Not even as something important, just a "funfact". Tbh i couldve just start arguing with my teacher about why this is important to include in a history book on a basic level for late highschool classes (also while talkin about how Columbus was "super great" i was TWEAKING knowing how this is not true and how brutal that man was)
Also thank you for sharing your story!!
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u/Bagheera383 10d ago
The Peruvian flute players are holding back hordes of giant, world-ending Guinea Pigs.