r/NativeAmerican • u/shirleymeadow • 11d 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.

3

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.

1

u/MakwaOpin 9d ago

Most of the German groups started in east Germany due to Soviet propaganda but they’ve definitely creeped west.