Works

Adrienne Keene frequently talks about her Native American culture and about those who try to appropriate it. In this video, Keene speaks about how teens who call themselves “hipsters” try to wear headdresses and put feathers in their hair in a way to imitate that of Natives. Keene cites this as cultural appropriation and even goes so far as to compare it to what others called black face. This is where people paint their face black in order to mimic and make fun of African American’s skin tone. Through this association, she is pointing out that while others may see this as a trend, it should be considered just as upsetting as black face is seen. Derrick Ashong, whom conducted this interview, then asked how other Natives can correctly and respectfully represent the 500 plus Native American tribes. Keene responds to this by stating that there is not one way but that every tribe must represent themselves in order for them to provide correct images of their culture and such. She states that this can lessen and even stop cultural appropriation of their cultures as it denies non-Natives the chance to make up information about the tribes as the information would have then been given by the Native American tribe themselves. This video in itself is an outstanding source of information on the subject of cultural appropriation. The viewpoint from Keene whom is a Native American herself gives an extra emphasis of the importance of this topic.