Deloria: The Aftermath (Rachel)

          After today’s seminar talking about Deloria, I was actually really caught up in this notion of the traditional and the modern.  I know that we talked about how the trajectory into the modern is not necessarily linear and that what non-Natives would see as “unexpected” or “anomalous” in the behaviors and/or actions of Native Americans is actually the result of our own inabilities to understand the evolution of specific tribes and Native nations.  One aspect that really struck me was what Annita said when she was talking about the Plains Indians.  To paraphrase, she said that the way they act today is, in essence, no different than the way they have conducted themselves for generations, it is just what is relevant to them now is different than what was relevant to them then.  It was through this that I could start to better understand the layering of modern and traditional.  This also made me think about how this notion could be applied to other communities who have been “stuck” in a particular set of expectations.  As a member of the queer community, I was thinking about how the heterosexual majority has sort of “forced” us into the same notions of traditional without understanding how we can also live in the modern time without also wanting to completely assimilate into the “het culture.”  I know this might not make a lot of sense (good to see I am still as confused/confusing as I was in class), but I was thinking about how divided the queer community is over the same sex marriage debate—some people see it as a logical right while others see it as trying to assimilate or “act straight.”  After reading Deloria, I am starting to realize it might be something altogether different, something that cannot and should not be dictated by the discourses of the dominant groups in society.  I am not sure this is making any sense, and it is making minimal sense in my head, but I am still grappling with the simultaneity of the modern and traditional.  My fifteen minutes are up, and perhaps after some sleep some on this (even just a little bit) it might start making sense.