Last updated on 2018-03-25
Rep. Shawn Bordeaux (D-26A/Mission) has what looks like a good American Indian rights bill in the hopper. House Bill 1252 would prohibit the state, counties, towns, and school districts from stopping people from “wearing traditional tribal regalia or objects of cultural significance at any award ceremony, graduation ceremony, or a meeting of a governing body.”
HB 1252 obviously targets school districts like Oelrichs that have tried to stop Indian students from wearing tribal items to graduation. The most recent student handbook available on the Oelrichs K-12 website says [Policy 10.4(3)] “Any students requesting to wear traditional dress must receive prior permission from the administration.” HB 1252 would trump that requirement, since the policy implies that the administration has the power to withhold permission.
Close readers will question whether we can support HB 1252 and still criticize Republicans for their inconsistent application of “local control” as a governing mantra. Of course we can, because local control does not supersede the state’s responsibility to protect the civil rights of all citizens. An expression of tribal identity in a graduation ceremony whose uniformity bears unpleasant overtones of the cultural assimilation imposed upon Native peoples seems well within the rights of every Native student.
But I will ask the question that my teaching career demands. Students never study sentences more intensely than when they are looking for loopholes in the student handbook. HB 1252’s sentence includes the compound phrase “traditional tribal regalia or objects of cultural significance.” Those two parts are distinct; traditional and tribal only modify regalia. Objects of cultural significance applies to any culture: Lakota, Dakota, Norwegian, Mexican, Karen, Somali…. That language thus applies to hijabs, Stars of David, rhinestone crosses glued to one’s mortarboard….
Heck, I can even imagine a situation in which a student who loves to hunt comes to graduation with a shotgun strapped over her robe. “Drew Dennert says it belongs in our Constitution!” she could say of Aberdeen’s rookie representative’s continuing effort to write the right to hunt, fish, and trap into our state constitution (up in House State Affairs, Monday at 7:45 a.m.!). “Hunting is part of my heritage! My shotgun is an object of great cultural significance!”
I’m all for preventing schools and other local governments from prohibiting our Lakota neighbors’ freedom of expression and cultural identity. I would just ask Rep. Bordeaux and House Judiciary (when they get around to it; no hearing scheduled yet) to think about the wording of the second part of the “or” phrase and make sure HB 1252 does what it’s intended to do and no more.
Blue jeans and a T-shirt are a traditional white American male dress for over a 100 years. Will advance permission be needed to wear that?
Maybe farm kids could bring old Bossie to school for graduation. Teach it how to navigte steps both ways and there you go.
I’d like to think native dress would be a no-brainer since there are so many of them in South Dakota. Good for the Representative and for the children.
If people view their own self as being somewhat intelligent, I am positive they can figure out what “cultural significant” items are. Maybe make a List if need be?……**to wear a shotgun is soo wrong. Almost hilarious…… What happen to common sense? However looking back in History, many times common sense was absent regarding Native people’s wasn’t it?
I’m sort of torn about this. Graduation caps gowns are worn to show that every student, regardless of socioeconomic class, religion, ethnic or racial status, is an equal member of a graduating class. We all know every student is an individual and has attachments to other group identity besides being a Lincoln Patriot or Rapid City Cobbler or Pine Ridge Thorp. But on this one day, everyone is supposed to celebrate what they have accomplished as a student together without distinctions in their soon-to-be alma mater.
On the other side of the ledger, I used to attend the graduation ceremonies of some of Rapid City’s alternative programs. Generally these are for students who have had difficulties that prevent them from doing well in the two big high schools. Their graduation ceremony is small enough that it can focus down on each individual student, and you get a real understanding of individual personalities and each student’s struggles. It is a moving experience, and you see how much these kids overcome to graduate. They talk about how much their education means to them, and celebrate the people who helped them along the way.
So, I like the both the traditional “we are all one” aspect of graduation, and the more personal aspects of graduation. But this law is asking for real trouble for public schools where “culturally significant” can slip into a show of religious intolerance or ethnic and racial superiority very quickly. Common sense? I think that’s in pretty short supply.
If Indians can wear stuff from their culture why could not a Muslim wear stuff from their culture. Seems only fair.
But in the army they call it a uniform.
You suggesting Muslims are all in the army, Grudz? Maybe we need to know what a traditional Grudz would be likely to wear.
It looks like a classic slippery slope to me. I’m not sure the Oelrichs policy is so misguided, as long as it is applied sensibly.
El Rayo, I’m open to the blue jeans discussion. But I’m pretty sure HB 1252 means we can all wear our Troy Heinert moccasins to any meeting we want.
Lottie, I’m all for common sense. But that’s what I mean about kids and policy manuals. When we write down rules, kids work really hard to figure out how far they can stretch those words, regardless of common sense.
And as Donald says, we see plenty of (Trump/Tapio-voting) adults exhibiting a terrible lack of common sense, for instance, bringing their guns to Starbucks and the Millstone for show.
Donald, I sympathize with the point that graduations should include some sense of community, of the unum our education system builds e pluribus. Could we drop the “objects of cultural significance” and make this bill specific and exclusive to American Indian regalia? I think we can argue that Native American students stand in a unique relationship to the conquering culture. Recognizing their distinctness within our national oneness—their “dual nationality,” perhaps?—has a certain moral, historical imperative that recognizing any other cultural subgroup within our nation does not.
Am I the only one who thinks wearing graduation robes and hats is a silly tradition in the first place? I think people should be able to wear pretty much whatever they want in all circumstances in life. People who care about how others are dressed have way too much time on their hands and incorrectly assume that the rest of the world needs to or wants to look like them. It’s actually kind of sad that this would ever need to be discussed as a law – schools that have policies (written or not) that prevent people from wearing reasonable clothing should reconsider their priorities. I can just picture some school administrator sitting in her office thinking, “How dare people not respect the square hat and matching plastic tablecloth gown!? I’ll show them!” Idiots.
Ryan, I agree the robes seem strangely detached from our culture… but I guess one could say their strangeness just makes them unique symbols of that unique moment.
That said, I’ve gotten two degrees since high school, and I skipped both commencement exercises, preferring to study and spend time with friends.
Equality is often a unnessesary debate. The need for this bill really speaks to building a positive self esteem in our Native students about the importance of their culture. Some times we as society are such a part of our culture we fail to recognize others.
James makes a good point. We majoritarians exercise our culture daily without restraint. We don’t have much experience with not being able to be ourselves.