The common struggles of blacks and Native Americans was the topic of a discussion Tuesday, following the movie “Black Indians.”
The film is one of the events marking the celebration of Native American Heritage Awareness Month at LSU.
William Archambeault, American Indians, Social Justice and Crime professor, presented the film “Black Indians” to a classroom of students.
Archambeault said he chose the video because it raises issues that are not usually discussed in terms of race relations.
“This is the only video around that focuses on Black Indians,” Archambeault said. “It lays a foundation between the relationship of African-American people and Native American people.”
Archambeault said he likes the video because it highlights the shared experiences of the two unique cultures. He said he wanted to use the video to focus on issues between the races that are not commonly known, and it exposes his students to those issues.
“We live in a highly diverse society,” Archambeault said. “Several dozen mixed Indian American and African-American communities are here in Louisiana and nobody knows or studies much about them.”
Archambeault referred to the video stating that in different time periods it was more beneficial to be in one race.
The movie focused on the oppression that both cultures endured, and how that influenced and sometimes deterred intermingling between the races.
In times of slavery, it was common for an African slave to marry a Native American, so the children would not be taken away for slavery.
The belief white Americans instilled in Native Americans since times of slavery that any mixing of black blood makes a child completely black deterred them from mixing, because they feared that their children would lose their Native American heritage, according to the film “Black Indians.”
Archambeault said the civil rights movement in the ’60s was a time when more black injustices were addressed.
Today it is getting better to be a Native American, now that the government is recognizing Native American tribes, Archambeault said.
Jamie Billet, Native American Student Organization president and an elementary education senior, said she saw the “Black Indians” video in her group’s meetings, and wanted to expose other students to the video.
Billiot said she learned from the video that it is possible to represent more than one culture, instead of having to claim one culture and deny the other.
Emile Washington, a history sophomore, said he was interested in what the movie covered.
“It was interesting how although African-Americans were discriminated against, they still discriminated against Native Americans that didn’t look like them,” Washington said.
Washington referred to the plight of the light-skinned black or Native American in the movie, who sometimes is not accepted by white or black Americans.
A Native American in the movie recalled when she went to a predominately white school and was not accepted by her classmates. She later transferred to a predominately black school, and to her surprise she was not accepted there either.
Archambeault said he wanted students to understand reasons behind relations between races that were not covered as extensively, and how long the relations have existed.
“What people don’t know is that America has always been a highly diverse society,” Archambeault said. “When Columbus arrived here there was as much diversity then as there is today.”