37 Common Characteristi(x)s of a Displaced…

—for Antonio Gomez

. . . it seems like the whites don't want to get
involved with the Indians. They think we're bad.
We drink. Our families drink. Dirty. Ugly. And
the teachers don't want to help us . . . because they
don't understand. So we stop asking questions,

[Donna Deyhle, quote by a Native student].

Generally Speaking:

X he complains about missing bright sunflowers swaying in a field, back home

X he associates constant apparition of memories on old beer bottles labels

X he exhibits dangerous attitudes for not being full blooded enough, or criminal enough

X he measures I.Q. [Indian Quality] by not reading or writing well, only by mouthing off

X he often feels dumb and hides behind a stoic face, just being Indian

X his separates culture with a sense of addiction and prevailing incarceration

X he thinks daydreaming is the medicine man, Daydreamer, from the old days

X he loses his attention span, because there are just too many things

X he shies away from all public activities because it exposes his frontal skin

Vision Quest, Reading Trees, and Spelling Mountain Streams:

X he grumbles of nausea while being made to read or write at lower altitudes

X he confuses letters, numbers, word sequences because of his refusal to assimilate

X he repeats letters, numbers, and substitute sounds of words, just because

X he gripes about seeing spirits because he whistles at night summoning them

X he lies consistently about his vision, yet eye exams do not recognize broken glasses

X he is nosey, but lacks the acuity, mostly he just does not watch where is going

X he reads, rereads, rereads and rereads, with slight comprehension to rereading

X he spells phonetically, his teachers do not realize it is a pow-wow song

Select Hearing and Proper Speech:

X he is excellent hearing whispers of others, but is easily distracted by fast moving objects

X he stutters when caught cussing, and transposes phrases and syllables

Eating and Bread Making Skills:

X he has no trouble kneading dough; his finger is unusual as flapping arms

X he is poor at sharing or eating communal meals and fork grasping

Counting and Lack of Time Management:

X he ignores managing time, and prioritizes tasks important to his value of time

X he inventories refrigerator contents, but he cannot conceal food properly

X he can count, but has difficulty counting more than his fingers and toes

X he fails word problems, but always understands 2 for 1 sale on candy bars

Indigenous Memory and Western Cognition:

X he has excellent long-term memory during meal times, family, culture, and tradition

X he has poor memory about proper table etiquette, and overeating

X he cannot grasp the importance of math, only what has been taken

X he will always respond with a long o vowel, an acknowledging agreement

Indian Behavior, Spiritual Health, Cultural Development and Integrated Personality:

X he is extremely self-humorous or compulsively hungry

X most do not get his humor, ways of playing, or understand his apathetic look

X he can be ambidextrous with conversation, free spirit, substance abuse and hunting

X he evolves from frequent beatings, mal-nutritious foods, and explosive products

X he is expressive towards deep sleep, and may never outgrow his tendencies

X he has unusually high and low tolerance for loss of internal dialogue

X he has a strong sense of injustice, emotional sensitivity, strives for placement in a

country that undeniably refutes his rightful location

X his cultural mistakes and Westernized symptoms surges with long exposure and removal

from reservation; time is a distressing pressure on deteriorating cultural associations in

identity

Source: Genesis (Lost Alphabet, 2018)