Loss Of Cultural Identity Research Articles

Greek Dance, Identity, and Difference in a Cosmopolitan Europe

Greek dance constitutes a lived culture of the masses that affirms the Greek identity and contributes to the diverse dance heritage of the European cultural landscape reflecting the idea of “unity in diversity.” In this paper, I explore the role of dance as a form of everyday nationalism during the current crisis. Does it act as a psychological boost and infuse pride to help overcome the crisis? Or are financial instability and the austerity measures imposed by the Troika provoking fears of loss of cultural identity and sparking a backlash in which dance is used for exclusive nationalist purposes?

Sustainability and Biotechnology – Natural or Bio Dyes Resources in Textiles

Local is global and global is local. Globalization changed the way we view society for the past decades and it presents advantages and disadvantages. Although to be global means an increased cultural intertwining or a higher flow of information and a social tolerance as well as the existence of a world market that enables productivity and accessibility they are also disadvantages related to the loss of cultural identity of certain cultures or sustainable issues that must be addressed. On the other hand, this new century’s challenges and issues are often strongly related to the usage of nonrenewable resources and production procedures putting at risk the environment and people’s health. Regarding textiles, or its resources, the growing concern over environmental quality and users health has led to a gradual interest of the reintroduction of natural dyes (and preservation of biodiversity) into the fashion and textile design industries as opposed to the current production processes. This study analyses the evolution of natural dyes and colour throughout the centuries focusing in the sustainability of textile industry and the conservation of biodiversity, local production and ancient knowledge on dyeing techniques. It also reveals that a revival of natural dyes (and ancient/local know how) in addiction to new cutting edge technologies (such as biotechnology) allows for an industrial feasibility. Results also indicate significant reduced environmental impact and new strategies for sustainable development regarding colours for textiles..

Natural Commercial Centers: Regeneration Opportunities and Urban Challenges

In the history of European cities, public spaces always played a pivotal role, representing key places for developing social interactions and for enhancing the sense of community. Squares, commercial streets, market places as well as traditional retail and art-and-crafts areas can be considered the core of the city. The social, economic and demographic crisis and the loss of cultural identity has affected the capacity of attraction of local small retailers, giving the floor to the aggressive strategies of suburban shopping malls, centers, arcades or precinct, forming a complex of shops, movie theaters, restaurants and food courts with interconnecting walkways [. Typical expressions of a globalized economy, the different categories of suburban shopping mall have transformed behaviors and paths at a large scale [. One consequences can be identified in the loss of traditional commercial activities within the city centre, producing a situation of urban decline, mirrored by the impoverishment of public spaces [[. This paper suggests that, by activating the existing cultural and socio-economic capital it is possible to undertake a successful regeneration process based on a participative approach and on public and private integrated tools. By focussing on the experience of the Centri Commerciali Naturali (Natural Commercial Centres) established in Italy as partnership between Municipalities, cultural operators, public services providers and associations of shops owners to exploit the commercial activities in the historical centers the ongoing research is oriented to explore successful experiences of private-public partnership to be implemented in a regeneration process of areas traditionally dedicated to retail and art-and-craft small enterprises. The paper discusses the potentiality and the criticism of the NCC as engine for the redevelopment and regeneration of the inner city abandoned retail areas. In so doing, the experience developed in Campania (Southern Italy) will be analyzed in order to show how the activation of the social capital within the framework of the CCN could contribute in renovating the traditional commercial identity of the area, supporting the public spaces regeneration process. This paper aspires to offer useful insights to all those policy makers, city managers and planners who seek to revitalise traditional market areas in European city centres.

Aino Pervik: Estonia ⋆ Author

Aino PervikEstonia ⋆ Author Samantha Christensen "Children's literature on its highest level is undoubtedly art." Aino Pervik Throughout the course of her career, Aino Pervik has delighted child readers over three generations, and has become the most appreciated children's author in Estonia. Born in Rakvere, Estonia in 1932, Pervik attended high school in Tallinn and earned a degree in Finno-Urgric Philology from Tartu State University in 1955. From there she moved to Tallinn, where she spent some time editing children's books at the Estonian State Publishing House, and she later worked as an editor of children's programming at the Estonian Television studio. She has been writing full-time since 1967, after publishing her first children's book, Kersti sõber Miina [Kersti's Friend Miina], in 1961. Pervik is considered the bravest children's writer in contemporary Estonia, as she takes on difficult themes of immigration, cultural conflict, corruption, and the loss of cultural identity. Her young readers are exposed to cultural issues throughout Estonia's history, yet Pervik's sensitivity to and understanding of children's literary expectations mean that each of her stories offer comfort and solace toward the end. While her stories do present a definite ethical dimension, she resists forthright didacticism and encourages her young readers to read critically and understand the moral issues implicit in the text. Keeping Estonian culture and everyday experience in mind, Pervik also takes on folklore and mythical motifs, putting a modern spin on the traditional stories and incorporating them into relatable children's tales. Nature is an important theme in Pervik's work, and books such as Kunksmoor [Old Mother Kunks] (1973) discuss the importance of nature throughout Estonian cultural history. Her ability to strike a balance between tragedy and comedy, and history and modernity allow her to captivate her readers, as she has over the course of her near fifty-year career. Since beginning her career, Pervik has earned many awards and literary distinctions, along with having her books translated into English, German, Russian, Japanese, Finnish, and a number of other languages. While much of her artistic expression is embedded in Estonian language, Pervik has been able to influence children from various backgrounds all over the world. In 2004, she won the Nukits Young Readers' Choice Award for her Paula series, and Paula õpib emakeelt [Paula Learns Her Mother Tongue] was nominated for the IBBY Honour List. Selected Bibliography • Arabella, The Pirate's Daughter. 1982. Illus. Edgar Valter. Trans. Külli Jacobson. Tallinn: Tänapäev, 2011. Print. Google Scholar • Kersti sõber Miina [Kersti's Friend Miina]. Tallinn: Kirjastus Tirtiamm, 1961. Print. Google Scholar • Kunksmoor [Old Mother Kunks]. 1973. Illus. Edgar Valter. Tallinn: Tammerraamat, 2012. Print. Google Scholar • Paula aabits [Paula's Book of ABCs]. Illus. Piret Raud. Tallinn: Kirjastus Tiritamm, 2007. Print. Google Scholar • Paula õpib emakeelt [Paula Learns Her Mother Tongue]. Illus. Piret Raud. Tallinn: Kirjastus Tiritamm, 2009. Print. [End Page 19] Google Scholar Copyright © 2014 Bookbird, Inc.

Anatomy of the ordinary: new perspectives in Hong Kong independent cinema

Hong Kong cinema is generally considered to be in the midst of a crisis brought about by the growing weight of the Chinese market and a loss of cultural identity due to the territory's growing assimilation into the mainland. However, in recent years a group of independent directors, mostly born in the 1970s and 1980s, have sought to redefine the issue of Hong Kong identity while side-stepping both knee-jerk opposition to China and colonial nostalgia. This article proposes a broad survey of independent films made in the past few years in Hong Kong. Highlighting several recurrent themes – working-class lives, cross-border connections, critical reflections on both colonial history and the new connections with China – it suggests that these films lay out an aesthetics of the ordinary to define Hong Kong's distinctiveness. Resisting the spectacular aesthetics of genre films and the hyperbole of the ‘Hong Kong success story’, they probe Hong Kong's everyday experience from the angle of the quotidian and the ordinary.

Local people see and care most? Severe depletion of inshore fisheries and its consequences for Māori communities in New Zealand

ABSTRACTOverfishing has the potential to adversely affect the ecological stability, economic value, social and spiritual integrity of a given area. Of these contexts, relatively little emphasis in literature is placed on the social and cultural consequences of overfishing and marine biodiversity loss.New Zealand's fisheries management system is regarded as one of the best in the world. But is this ‘success’ reflected at the local community scale? This study uses the knowledge of 100 participants from different stakeholder groups including Māori, New Zealand's indigenous peoples, and investigates local perception of the state of inshore fisheries stocks.Quantitative methods were used to assess the relative significance of important seafood species among different groups, while qualitative analysis highlighted main stakeholder concerns. A common consensus among all participants emerged; access to important inshore seafood species had become more difficult during the course of their lifetime with marked declines occurring from the 1970s onwards. Even where food species are present, they are typically harder to obtain, take longer to harvest and/or require expensive gear.Five species of marine invertebrates, three finfish species and one seabird were identified as having considerable worth to stakeholders. Of these, quantitative analysis revealed that pāua (abalone), tuna (eel) and tītī (muttonbird) were of particular significance to Māori stakeholders. Māori discussed pāua almost twice as much as non‐Māori, despite pāua ranking as the most significant species among both ethnic groups. Furthermore, Māori associated the depletion of pāua with a loss of cultural identity, hospitality, tradition, practices, emotional and spiritual connection to their environment. As such, in this paper pāua is defined as a ‘cultural keystone species’, whereby the removal of such a species jeopardizes cultural integrity.This paper serves as a case study bringing to light the disparity between an internationally acclaimed fisheries management strategy and the concerns of local stakeholders. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Movies of Others - Tension between Culture and Trade: The Example of the Audiovisual Co-Production Agreement between South Africa and Germany

Commitments towards cultural diversity reflect attempts at creating a balance between trade and culture. The aims of such commitments are to avoid the loss of identity of cultural goods through the process of homogenisation and commercialization. Rapid increases in digital technology underscore the necessity of this discussion, as technology accelerates the trade of all products, including products derived from a multitude of cultures. While this certainly represents an opportunity for economic growth, it also has the very real effect of creating an unrestrained, increasingly digitalized market. A market, if dominated by the West, is feared would lead to cultural homogenisation and thus the loss of cultural identity, clearly illustrated through the film industry.Against this background, for most African countries co-production agreements are the key for local content productions; and thereby enforce cultural identity and contribute to cultural diversity and economic growth. The example of the Agreement on Audiovisual Co-productions between South Africa and Germany illustrates the tension and conflict these agreements cause. South Africa and Germany have, according to the UNESCO Diversity Convention, on the one hand the right to conclude such a Co-production Agreement and have even the obligation to endeavour to do so. On the other hand the Agreement violates the Most-Favoured-Nation-principle of the WTO-law; for South Africa in regards to goods and services and for Germany at least in regards to goods because I suggest that Germany’s MFN-exemption has not expired after ten years. Moreover, it potentially violates the SCM-Agreement.Based on this analysis, I will point out some consequences of this legal situation for South Africa and illustrate that local African content is jeopardised. Moreover, the outcome will underline the importance of the reformation of the WTO to make it more culturally sensitive and show how trade commitments can influence a government’s leeway in other fields of politics.

Heroic Journeys: The Immigrant Experience as the Hero's Journey inEl NorteandLa misma luna

The film El Norte (The North, Gregory Nava 1983) tells the story of siblings Rosa and Enrique, who leave their Guatemalan village when their parents are killed by the army. Rosa and Enrique make their way north from Guatemala through Mexico, and to the United States. The film portrays the siblings on a journey, during which they hope “to make lots of money and return home.” The film La misma luna (Under the Same Moon, Patricia Riggen 2007) tells the story of Carlitos, a nine-year-old Mexican boy who travels to Los Angeles in search of his mother when his grandmother passes away. Along the way the characters from both films struggle with the loss of cultural identity, strain on family relationships, discrimination, and difficult working circumstances. Both Latino directors use structural elements that follow Joseph Campbell's outline of the hero's journey and incorporate magical or dream reality elements to remind the viewer of mythology. By positioning the immigrant as a hero on a “road of trials,” the fi...

The Aftermath of Globalization on African Identity

The rope nations and people have held on in order to climb up to a better life, is now threatening to draw them back into a pit of oblivion. What will it profit a nation to become civilized and lose its identity in the process? How will people of today look in the face of future generation and fumble at excuses to explain why they are not regarded as a cultural group of its own? This paper tries to show how globalization has led to the loss of cultural identity in Nigeria.

Fading into the Horizon: the disappearance of Appalachian hollow communities and culture

The identity of an individual or community is highly dependent upon their cultural values and traditions. It is an industry that is causing the communities that occupy the hollows of Appalachia to lose these values and traditions. It has been found that the loss of cultural identity in Appalachian hollow communities is tied to local mountain top removal mining operations. Mountain top removal mining is the source of many jobs for these communities, but the mining process itself is causing environmental devastation and spreading disease through surrounding communities. This destruction has forced community members to choose between their health and their livelihood and is dividing the community into those who are “for” and “against” mountain top removal mining. This division of community goes against the traditions and values of the Appalachian hollow culture and is causing the eradication of communities, a lifestyle, a culture, and their identity.

When the Diagnosis Is Dual

When the Diagnosis Is Dual

Cross-Border Immigrant Workers in Assam North-East India

The issue of cross-border immigrant workers from Bangladesh into Assam’s North-East India has been unique and unprecedented in nature and intensity for the last three decades. It is highly sensitive one when it comes to refers to illegal migration. People attempted to rage debate on this particular issue and there now exists a good volume of literature on illegal immigration. Very limited studies across the globes focus on the issue of immigrant workers and their rights at the destination country. Against the paucity of literature this study is emphasis. Therefore, the research questions are formulated as: What do we understand about cross-border immigration, particularly in the context of Assam’s North-East India, its causes and consequences? What steps can be taken for cross-border labour migration? How can the rights of these migrants be safeguarded under the relevant of ILO conventions? What is the impact of different types of local intervention by the non-State actors on migration? Specifically, this paper focuses on immigrant workers working in different sectors of the Assam economy using secondary data from Indian Census. It is found that the majority of immigrant workers is engaged in agriculture and allied activities. The share of female migrant workers in agriculture and industry in both the rural and urban areas is greater compared to their male counterparts, whereas the percentage share of males engaged in the service sector in both the rural and urban areas are more than females. The rich in agriculture and natural resources of Assam economy may have attracted the immigrant workers from Bangladesh. Other than the official statistics there are concerns about the influx of the illegal immigrant workers into Assam which are unwelcomed by the local citizens due to fear of competition for their jobs and loss of cultural identity. Instead, the local people resist the settler migrant workers. To promote and protect the welfare of the migrant workers and to ensure their right to work, India should establish and study the contribution of immigrant workers so as to formulate a policy that will be benefit both countries. Bilateral and multilateral discussions among sending and receiving countries could help.

Designing development: a case study of community economy in Pingzhai, Yunnan Province, in PRC

One of the main challenges confronted by the Chinese government is rural poverty. However, despite efforts of rural reform, China's rapid integration into the global capitalist economy has in fact made the rural poor more vulnerable, suffering from not only financial hardships, but also from other forms of deprivation such as the loss of cultural identity. Acknowledging such rural predicaments, in 2005, a pilot project aiming at overcoming rural poverty by preserving and developing indigenous cultural artifacts and crafts for ethnic minorities was carried out in Pingzhai in Yunnan Province, China. The project encouraged villagers to use local materials and indigenous craftsmanship to produce ethnic arts and crafts for sale in urban markets, thus generating not only cash income but also a sense of renewed pride and identity, leading to stronger community participation in local culture preservation and greater resilience to the erosion of traditional community life brought on by global socio-economic forces. This paper describes the activities undertaken in the village since 2005 and the implications for rural social work in China.

The negative approach to urban growth planning of Beijing, China

Among other issues, the degrading environmental and ecological situations, the low performance scrambled city form and the loss of cultural identity in Beijing City have proved that the conventional ‘population projection-urban infrastructure-land use’ approach and the architectural urbanism approach to urban growth planning failed to meet the challenges of swift urbanisation and sustainability issues in China in general, and Beijing in particular. The ‘negative approach’ is proposed that defines an urban growth and urban form through the identification and planning of Ecological Infrastructure (EI). This approach has evolved from the pre-scientific model of Feng-shui as the sacred landscape setting for human settlement, the nineteenth century notion of greenways as urban recreational infrastructure, the early twentieth century idea of green belts as urban form makers, and the late twentieth century notion of ecological networks and EI as a biological preservation framework. EI is composed of critical landscape elements and structure that are strategically identified and planned to safeguard natural assets and ecosystems services, essential for sustaining human society. EI is strategically planned and developed using less land but more efficiently preserving the ecosystems services. Using Beijing City as an example, this paper demonstrates how to use EI as a tool to guide and frame sustainable urban development.

‘Happiness being like a blooming flower’: An action research of rural social work in an ethnic minority community of Yunnan Province, PRC

The effects of rural reform and China’s integration into the global capitalist market have increased the vulnerability of the rural poor to financial hardship, loss of cultural identity, and other deprivations. In response to this situation, we initiated a pilot action research project in 2005 in an ethnic minority community in the Yunnan province of China. It encouraged local women to form a handicraft group to preserve and develop indigenous cultural artefacts and crafts which are available for market consumption. It aims, through capacity building, enhance the women’s income, promote a new form of collectivism, protect the Zhuang ethnic minority traditional culture, and strengthen local cultural identity and confidence. This article first describes the dilemma of China’s rural development and introduces our theoretical perspective. Then it demonstrates how we invigorated the community participation and facilitated the rural social work step by step.

Bridging a Cultural Divide with Literature about Arabs and Arab Americans

Middle school is a time of many changes for young adolescents. They are searching for individual identity, struggling with society's norms, and grappling with moral (Boston & Baxley, 2007, p. 561). They are changing and maturing physically, cognitively, socially, and psychologically as they develop their identities; establish, maintain, and end friendships and social networks; develop interpersonal skills; build self-esteem; and critically examine themselves and their physical features (Manning & Bucher, 2005). They may explore different behaviors, ideas, and beliefs (Marcia, 1980), and they may undergo crises of identity (Erikson, 1963; 1968). Young adolescents are also involved in a series of changes imposed by the structure of the educational system as they transition from elementary school and begin anticipating a transition to high school. While all young adolescents may feel developmental and transitional pressures, minority and immigrant students may feel these pressures more acutely than most majority students. For example, the transition periods leading from elementary school to middle school and then from middle school to high school may present special problems for minority students (Cauce, Hannan, & Sargeant, 1992). Akos and Galassi (2004) found that race may play a role in school transition outcomes (p. 102) and in feelings of connectedness. While students who are actively engaged in school may be somewhat protected from transitional problems (Eccles et al., 1992), many minority students have feelings of detachment from the education system. Another area of concern for minority students involves the development of identity and self-esteem. As young adolescents mature, they begin to develop a sense of cultural and social identity as well as a sense of personal identity and self-esteem (Allen, 2004). While politics, economics, relationships, and public perceptions affect identity, identity development is also an with race, ethnicity, [and] religion (Shah, 2006, p. 218). This interplay may be especially difficult for minority and immigrant students who must be able to merge their native or traditional cultures with a new or majority culture. Rather than forgetting one culture, they must assimilate both to achieve ethnic solidarity (Portes & Zhou, 1993). Immigrant children may face a sense of cultural bereavement or uprooting in which a loss of cultural identity has a direct impact on self-esteem (Eisenbruch, 1988). In addition, they may feel a sense of dissonant acculturation (Rumbout & Portes, 2001) as they outstrip their parents in learning the language and culture of a new country. When this happens, a young adolescent may feel alienated from his or her parents and from peers at school. The issues described above may be especially acute for young adolescents of Arab descent who may possess feelings of detachment. Although many Arab Americans have traditionally been successful in school (Nieto, 1992), academic success is not always a predictor of psychosocial adjustment. Students may have high grades that mask feelings of depression and low self-esteem (Bankston & Zhou, 2002). Schools are key socialization and acculturization agencies (Hones & Cha, 1999; Trueba, Jacobs, & Kirton, 1990), and a student's perception of acceptance in school is a major factor in his or her overall adjustment to a new culture (Nguyen & Henkin, 1980). Because of these factors, teachers must ensure that Arab-American students have positive school experiences, especially during the critical developmental period of young adolescence. In this article, we provide information to help middle school teachers understand the Arab immigrant and Arab-American young adolescents in their classrooms. After briefly describing Arab history and culture and discussing specific problems facing Arab American and Arab immigrant students, we suggest literature about Arabs and Arab Americans to use in the middle school curriculum and place in the school library media center. …

P02-36 - Socio-demographic characteristic of addict treated at the psychiatric cilinic

IntroductionThe spread of drug abuse in our country was influenced by many factors, and as the most important are the following social factors caused by changed conditions of life increase in delinquency and deviant behavior, and a new style of life, loss of cultural identity, conflict, feeling of insecurity and helplessness, which can be encouraged and by influential groups in the environment.The aim of1. The aim of this work is an indication of socio-demographic characteristics of addicts in our clinic, and view profiles addicts Šumadija district.Material and methodsWe used the following medical documentation:Øhistory of disease addictsØprotocols examined and treated addicts in this institution from 2002 - 2006. year.ConclusionsFollowing some socio-demographic characteristics of drug addicts treated in our clinic, we came to the profile of addicts Šumadija county:Øthese are the people in the age of 20 - 30 yearsØmaleØfrom the urban environmentØwithout rešenog marital statusØwithout the employment relationshipØhospital treated several times, who because of his behavior asocijalnog came into conflict with the law2. The obtained profile of addicts should provide adequate treatment of this disease and to point out that drug addiction is a medical, but also a sociological problem.3. Only adequate preventive measures such as teaching in elementary and secondary schools, in the form of various discussions, through the media where they would be included all the relative factors (SO, Red Cross, Center for social work, police, judiciary and others) can give results in the fight against this disease.

A Property Rights Approach to Understanding Human Displacement from Protected Areas: the Case of Marine Protected Areas

The physical, economic, and sociocultural displacement of local peoples from protected areas generates intense discussion among scholars and policy makers. To foster greater precision and clarity in these discussions, we used a conceptual framework from the political economy literature to examine different forms of human displacement from protected areas. Using marine protected areas (MPAs) to ground our analysis, we characterized the 5 types of property rights that are reallocated (lost, secured, and gained) through the establishment of protected areas. All forms of MPA "displacement" involve reallocation of property rights, but the specific types and bundles of rights lost, secured, and gained dramatically shape the magnitude, extent, and equity of MPA impacts--positive and negative--on governance, economic well-being, health, education, social capital, and culture. The impacts of reallocating rights to MPA resources vary within and among social groups, inducing changes in society, in patterns of resource use, and in the environment. To create more environmentally sustainable and socially just conservation practice, a critical next step in conservation social science research is to document and explain variation in the social impacts of protected areas.

Imigrantki w społeczeństwach Zachodu. Emancypacja i integracja

Gender plays a central role in the decision to migrate and the composition of the migration flows. Emigration is the process experienced differently by women and men. The experience of immigration profoundly impacts on the public and private lives of women – their participation in the labour force, their religiousness, their marital roles and satisfaction, and their autonomy and self-esteem. One of the possible effects of migration is the emancipation of women. There is a direct connection between emancipation and integration. In contrast to integrated western societies emancipated immigrant women, immigrants from traditional cultures are not interested in the integration. They risk not only the loss of cultural identity, but also their own identity.

<i>Bernie Whitebear: An Urban Indian’s Quest for Justice</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Bernie Whitebear: An Urban Indian’s Quest for Justice Carrie Louise Sheffield (bio) Lawney L. Reyes. Bernie Whitebear: An Urban Indian’s Quest for Justice. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 2006. xii + 179 pp. Beginning with a brief discussion of Sin Aikst tribal history, and following with a focus on the role of both friends and family in Bernie Whitebear’s life, Bernie Whitebear: An Urban Indian’s Quest for Justice departs from traditional biographical structures. It is not merely a story about Whitebear’s achievements; it provides an essentially personal commentary on the impact the Termination era had on Urban Indians in the Spokane area and elsewhere. [End Page 105] In doing so Reyes draws upon not only his own memories of his brother Bernie Whitebear’s life, but also letters sent to him by Whitebear, conversations with Whitebear’s peers and friends, and diaries Whitebear’s mother kept. These sources influence Reyes’s very personal voice, making the text read less like a biography and feel more like a quiet conversation with him. The lack of an overtly academic voice makes this text accessible to American Indian studies scholars on all ends of the spectrum. In telling the story of Whitebear’s accomplishments, his friends, and, more importantly, his family, Reyes stresses the community over the individual and thus emphasizes the entirety of Whitebear’s life and not just his activism. Indeed, much of the first half of the text recounts Whitebear’s childhood and adolescence. In this telling we learn of the close relationship Whitebear had with his family and how, although they experienced severe poverty, of which Whitebear, even at a young age, was clearly aware, he maintained a positive sense of self and fostered the sense of selflessness that would prove to be so foundational for his later activism. One of the most critical moments in Whitebear’s adolescence was when he was invited to stay overnight at the home of a white friend named Paul. Paul’s mother was angered at this event, calling Whitebear a derogatory name and saying he was not welcome back. His friend, however, did not accede to his mother’s perspective on race and was angered at his mother for it. We come to see racism on an extraordinarily personal level through these accounts. From his mother being called the derogatory “squaw” and Whitebear being called a “siwash,” the daily racism faced by American Indians becomes clear. In telling of Whitebear’s participation in traditional fishing on the Puyallup River, Reyes develops his criticism of the individual and political racism that many Native Americans face even today. Through his stories about Whitebear’s friendship with fellow activist Bob Satiacum, Reyes problematizes the status of Native American treaty rights in America and shows, through Whitebear’s voice, the iniquity of American jurisprudence: [End Page 106] They have created a playing field that is not level and passed laws to sustain it. The laws are always created in their favor. The problem is they ignore those laws and they don’t abide by them. . . . The whites break those treaties and laws whenever it becomes an obstacle to their greed. (70–71) But a large part of the fight for Whitebear became not just the right to fish the salmon, but the preservation of traditional methods of preparing it. Although his people were not traditionally salmon fishers, Whitebear came to recognize the significance of preserving tribal traditions through his friendship with Satiacum. And once again we see Reyes subtly pointing out larger issues facing Native Americans in general and Urban Indians in particular—the loss of cultural identity after termination. The second half of the text focuses more closely on Whitebear’s activism. And in so doing Reyes continues his commentary on political issues surrounding Native Americans. As he tells of how Whitebear worked to gain lands for powwows and other cultural events, and even staged a takeover of Ft. Lawton (where Indians and non-Natives alike seized lands on the closed military base), Reyes comments on issues such as land tenure and the policies constructed by the federal government to “take land from Indians” (88). However, Reyes clearly steps...