When was the last time you stopped to take stock of your everyday language? While many of us would like to remove problematic language from our vocabularies, you might be holding onto words that hurt, appropriate or dehumanize another person, and you don’t even realize it. One group seeing the co-opting of their culture in our own area? Native Americans. With words including “my tribe,” “spirit animal,” “circle the wagons,” “hold down the fort” & “let’s have a Pow Wow” often being said, even in places of business.
Michaela Seiber is the CEO Of South Dakota Urban Indian Health Services and Thomas DeCoteau Jr. is the Chief Cultural Health Officer with South Dakota Urban Indian Health Services.
They joined us to help us stop appropriating Native culture and fill us in on how we can help end the use of problematic phrases and co-opted practices by others.
