Who Said I'm an Indian?
Guy Jones (center) speaks to faculty and students following his Oct. 22 presentation, “Who Said I’m an Indian?” at Bluffton University.
Co-founder of the Dayton, Ohio-based Miami Valley Council for Native Americans, Jones addressed stereotypical labels applied to native cultures, citing the Washington Redskins football team as an example.
“There is no honor in that name,” said Jones, a Hunkpapa Lakota. “We have been lost in translation.” He also discussed economic and educational issues for Native Americans.
He is a descendant of Lakota Chief Gall, who fought at the Battle of Little Bighorn and, Jones said, created the St. Elizabeth Indian Mission so Native Americans could be educated.
“Then someone told them they were wrong,” he said, “and now 72 percent of American Indian children do not go beyond the 10th grade.”