I read "Apparently, the Potawatomis didn’t have a word for global business center" as more "the Potawatomis didn't have a word for global business center when this place got named Chicago; but they do now". I'm not sure that makes it any less offensive though.

I think you should make a large sticker that says "Actually, WE DO." and put it on the sign.

It's crazy to see that people think that Native peoples belong to the past... :-(

In my "country"'s language (Breton), it's also a challenge to find words that are adapted to modernity but respect our traditions and don't just copy French...

The result is the creation of very poetic words such as "iron horse" (marc'h-houarn) to say " bike ".

PS : people tend to think that Breton is a dead language...

I think that you take the meaning of the ad (that when Chicago was named there was no Potawatomi word for global business center) much too far. I am sure that the creators of the ad did not think, "Potawatomis were ignorant, backward people who were clearly idiots for not recognizing that the location of their onion field would one day become a large city with a number of global businesses. Let's make an ad about that so that we can tell the world how stupid they were and also lead the world to think that they no longer exist!" Instead, I would guess that the thinking went something like this, "The idea that Chicago was named for an onion field is incongruous with the image of Chicago that many have today and that we want to present in our ad campaign."

I think that the problem with taking offense to everything is that it dilutes the criticism of the many things that don't require huge leaps of imagination to find offensive.

I agree with John. I think you misinterpret the intention of using the past tense. If they had said "The Potawatomis don’t have a word for..." they would have been making a false statement, since as you point out it is a living language and does have phrases for modern concepts, instead they point out accurately that at the time of Chacago's naming there was not a word for global business center in Potawatomis.

It is likely true that this phrase did not exist in any language at the time, but isn't relavant for the ad, since Chicago was named in Potawtomis, not some other language.

I think the intention was to point out the in-congruence between Chicago's modern form and its namesake, the onion field, not the in-congruence between Chicago and native American culture.

I'm not particularly a fan of this sign, but not really for the reasons you mentioned. I don't particularly see this as an emphasis on the discrepancy between modern Potawatomis and (uh..?) Americans, since the comparison is essentially between people hundreds of years ago and people now.

What bothers me is the incongruity of the cultures. If the sign said "The word Chicago means onion field - we didn't have a word for global business center back then!" it would have been a cute bit of trivia. But the way it's worded reminds you that the people who NAMED the city aren't the same ones who now RUN it. So it's basically an unpleasant reminder of what happened between then and now, with a Nelson-laugh cherry on top.

I strongly agree with your point about assuming backwardness among Native Americans, but I'm not sure why you needed to make your own flawed assumptions about the Potawatomi and tenuous links to the Navajo to deconstruct this sign. It falls flat on its face well enough on its own. (I'd expect nothing more from something involving Clear Channel.) If the Potawatami language is important to Chicago, then what is Chicago doing to aid Potawatami revitalization efforts?

Potawatomi is spoken as a first language by fewer than 50 people, all elderly. Revitalization programs rely on highly competitive grants. Chicago/Clear Channel missed an opportunity to spend the thousands of dollars developing this campaign to help save the language that named the city, which would have itself been a far easier way to promote not only its financial success but also its philanthropy and complex history.

One more point: The creator of that Navajo video describes the difficulties in talking about new technology in Navajo:

"In regards to concepts of 'downloading,' there are no offical ways to describe these things in Navajo. People in different areas use different words. What I present here are suggestions."

The truth about the adaptability of language, particularly languages so strongly defined by their cultural value, is a little more complicated than you present. I believe you know this but eschewed it to make your point.

I also have to say, I find the willingness of commentators here to dismiss this woman's commentary out-of-hand - although she is "a doctoral candidate at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education," (and clearly qualified to comment on the topic at hand) discouraging. Is it possible that someone immersed in understanding "cultural appropriation and use of Indigenous cultures, traditions, languages, and images in popular culture, advertising, and everyday life" might be more adept at identifying the underlying meaning of this imagery than people are giving her credit for?

Why is it that women (and particularly women of colour) are so quickly dismissed and denied expertise? Why is it that commentators who do not "see" what she is pointing out are willing to immediately decide the problem is with her reading, and not with their lack of understanding of the dynamics involved? Have the people immediately accusing her of reading it wrong given any thought to this issue in their lives before - and do they assume that someone who has given extensive thought might be able more easily to identify the underlying meanings?

What el.j said.

And thank you for this post, Adrienne.

Having grown up in Chicago, I just want to point out that whoever wrote this ad copy didn't need a lot of intent or research to use the bit of trivia about the onion field. I heard about the onion thing over and over doing local history in elementary school, in cutesy, self-deprecating humor(As in, and it still smells like one), and whenever someone was trying to prove they had local knowledge, like in this ad. The version I remember hearing has the name specifically meaning wild onions, implying that the land wasn't even under cultivation before white people got there. This is supposed to mean that the Potawatomis didn't think the land was worth anything (this is where jokes about bad weather come in), although of course in reality there are many ways to use and appreciate land that don't involve farming. I've always seen it as a sort of scrappy, frontier backstory, in which french fur-trappers built a great city on dubious land.

In this ad, Clear Channel is appropriating some "local flavor" to make themselves seem less like a monolithic, unfriendly corporation. They're also doing a terrible job of it, since they're entirely missing the point. The story emphasizes rugged prairie types and downplays the fact that the original settlement WAS a global business center, as part of the fur trade. Of course the entire discourse around this onion-field trivia is problematic, but I don't think it's originating here.

I do believe there was a word for "global business center" that was shared amongst French, native tribes across the northern US from the great lakes, and English fur trappers and others in the "unsettled" areas of the "west": Rendezvous! These gatherings even spawned their own trading languages.

I'm a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and am just a bit curious who Adrianne Keene is. Is she really a Cherokee or just another wannabe making false claims of ethnic identity and speaking for us when not invited? The blog is the kind worthless debate wannabes and disconnected tribe members tend to make, rather than discussing what is really happening in Indian Country. Why? Because neither the wannabe, nor the disconnected tribe member know squat about authentic Indian issues. I'm not saying Adrianne is or isn't, I just find it odd that she does not mention a tribal government when describing herself instead of the generic "Cherokee" thing so common among wannabes.

What is the point of the "Apparently, the Potawatomis didn’t have a word for global business center?" Seems snooty and insulting and takes away from the meaning of the slogan...whatever that may be...perhaps I'm just not very keen on advertisements.

Language Log has an archive of their posts regarding the "No Word for X" linguistic determinism meme. They like it roughly as much as they like the "Eskimo Words for Snow" meme, which is to say, very little.

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1081

The tone of the whole post makes the presupposition that the person reading the advertisement has a conscious -- or even a dominant -- idea that native peoples are extinct in the Americas (or at least around Chicago), and/or that when reading the sign they are projecting a colonialist mindset.

This is jumping the gun. Although I am not a Native American, I know that there are native peoples living throughout the country. I know that Native Americans are far from extinct. I know that they aren't all either casino operators or secluded on a reservation. I know that many tribes have gained greater autonomy over the years, and some tribes are actually thriving economically and culturally. I know, too, that others are having serious problems with health, economy, and self-identity. In other words, I recognize that there are native peoples living as regular people throughout the country, and yet, even with this understanding (or perhaps because of it?) I didn't read the ad as saying, "native people are extinct," but merely a off-the-mark (for me) statement by a global company about the special place that is Chicago (because, to me too, global business doesn't automatically mean colonialism, either).

Who knows, though. Maybe I'm the odd one out. The percentage of the US population that claimed to be "American Indian or Alaska Native" in the 2000 census was less than 1%, and due to the fact that the population clusters of Native Americans don't overlap so well with the population clusters of hoi polloi, the likelihood that a Chicago resident would run into any Native American is actually far less than 1/100 (let alone 1/280, even assuming that there was an even chance of randomly meeting someone of the 0.35% of Chicago residents who are Native American). That I have lived in places that have relatively high numbers of Native Americans (about 10% of the population) is the anomalous condition.

However -- as I mentioned above -- I do recognize that there is this perception of the extinct (or effectively invisible) Native American; an historical relic from even before the age of celluloid Westerns. However, that is only one narrative of many, and not even necessarily the dominant one.

However, the post seems to have been kicked off due to a nit-pick over syntax in an advertisement that doesn't make a statement precise enough (as opposed to the veracity of both of the statements themselves -- see my comments near the top). However, if the author wants to be nit-picky, but let me point out that the closing statement of, "Thanks, Chicago, for giving me one more reason to strongly dislike your airport, because all the canceled flights, lost luggage, overnights in airport hotels, and 10 hour delays (all true stories) weren’t enough," is also misleading, also due to syntax.

The author at O'Hare (so stated at the beginning of the post). However, Midway also serves the Chicago metro area. The statement only mentions "your airport" (singular), when I am sure the author could make a case as to not liking both of the airports (I personally hate both and try to book flights that don't connect through either). The syntax of this final sentence also seems to say that the author's displeasure of airport hotels is somehow related to the management of the city of Chicago or O'Hare airport, instead of other, global hotel chains that actually own and run the facilities in which the author apparently has stayed overnight a few times more than desired. This statement also appears to blame the airport for your 10 hour delays and not the independent air-carrier companies. Two can play the nit-picky syntax game, too (and between all my comments, I have effectively written a post about it, too, it seems).

If that sign was up on the wall in Aotearoa New Zealand, it would not have quite that context. Like others have pointed out, saying that Maori called this place Whagarei because they didn't have a word for Backwater would not imply that they didn't have the word now. I think the problem is in the implication that the indigenous inhabitants of the land didn't have capitalism and an economic mindset. Onions? No one's going to make a fortune out of that.

Another interesting point: The assumption that a global business center is a vast improvement or a good thing.

I'd prefer if it was still an onion field. Actually, the name of my city comes from a Potawatomi word as well. It referred to the river or the "good land." Too bad you can't tell for all the years of heavy industry.

When you abstract the statement "Group X didn't have a word for Y," sure, the implication that group X no longer exists seems kind of vague.

But, taken in context with the history of Potawatomis and other Native American tribes, and the modern perceptions of Native Americans in pop culture (see: Halloween costumes, sports mascots, hipster headdresses, etc.), that implication becomes clearer. Given that many many people living in United States conjure up the stereotypical, "historical" Plains chief image when confronted with the term "Indian", "Native American" or "[insert specific tribe here]" you can definitely connect this to "they or their language doesn't exist or is relevant anymore".

If we abstract the entire statement: "Apparently, group X didn't have a word for Y." It's snarky. It's condescending. At its most basic, it implies that group X was lacking in something, something that's "desireable", or "worthy of admiration."

Finally, a side note (related to el.j's comment) - this is at least a second (woman) guest blogger whose point is being treated in a very dismissive way. I mean, someone up there says "taking offense to everything [...] dilutes the criticism of the many things".

Really? You could use this argument to gag any and every complaint.

Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for your comments, I really do appreciate everyone who offered additional perspectives and constructive criticism of the post.

I am very aware of the implications of putting my name and my opinion out on the internet, and for that reason I don't usually take to the comments in my own defense, but I did feel that there were a few points that needed clarifying.

As can be seen from my bio and some of the comments regarding my identity as a Cherokee Nation citizen, my work and research is in higher education. My blog came out of a shared frustration between some of my friends and I about the constant flow of (mis) representations of Native people confronting us in our everyday lives. Therefore, the tone of the blog is not an academic one, it is my running narrative of images and representations that I come across as I go through my life as a Native person. I don't attempt to write publishable articles, I have an outlet for that in my graduate work. I try to be concise and accessible, often at the expense of deep analysis.

To the comments that I am attempting to speak for all of Indian Country, nothing could be further from the truth. The blog started as a collaborative project, and anyone who has sent me an email regarding Native Appropriations can vouch for the fact that I am constantly soliciting guest posts. In an ideal world, my voice would be one among many. I've even expressed, multiple times, in my posts my discomfort with speaking for others, and often qualify my thoughts with "In my experience...". This post, written in 10 minutes in between editing college personal statements for Native students at a summer program, was clearly an exception. There are hundreds of thousands of "authentic" Indian experiences, and I represent only one.

I apologize if anyone, especially in Indian Country, has been offended or upset by my words. My entire work, life, and being are wrapped up in the greater Native community, and I work tirelessly to advance Native peoples through my research and outreach. I see these issues as closely tied to the education issues I work with, and psychological research supports that idea.

But again, I apologize if anyone feels my words are out of line, and I welcome anyone to contact me at NativeAppropriations@gmail.com with further suggestions, issues, or advice.

Wado,

Adrienne K.

First: I don't buy the argument a lot of people are making on here in defense of the ad, and that it's beside the point that the ad could be read as, "The Potawatomis DIDN'T have a word for global business center." I think the ad is definitely presenting a picture of Potawatomis as stuck in the past, and presents a contrast between the Potawatomis who used Chicago as an onion field and the white people who were smart enough to see you could use it for skyscrapers.

Second: The ad ignores that many Potawatomis are now Americans. If white people had named Chicago after an onion field, the ad would probably say, "Apparently, WE didn't have a word for global business center."

"...implying that the Potawatomi no longer exist or are using their language..."

This kind of thing just reeks of subordinating a text to a predetermined argument. The city of Chicago was established in 1833. The past tense is a pretty common way for people in 2010 to talk about things that happened in 1833.

Sloppy work.

I was sympathetic to Mr. Cornsilk until he sought to imply that "Canadians" are not "Americans"! The original use of the term "America" applied to what is now called South America, especially Brazil. See the article in the Smithsonian magazine. All people who live in the America's are Americans, in the broader sense, the same broader sense of "Indians." It is not just U.S. Indians who are Indians. If U.S. citizens want to appropriate the term "American" when speaking among themselves, fine. But many First Nations people in Canada are "Indians" or "Inuit" who also have rights in the nation-state called the United States of America. Many Indians in Mexico are just as American as any First Nations person in Manitoba.

Far be it from me to defend Clear Channel on anything, but the ad does at least incidentally encourage the harried business traveller to think within a deeper time-perspective. It’s a reminder that history exists. And if the traveller reflects at all, it’s a reminder that their (likely) European ancestors were usurpers. For some, a moment’s further reflection might consider how all civilizations are fleeting, in the long run. One could even say that it’s kind of existential for Clear Channel to be directing one’s imagination beyond a world pegged to the Dow Jones Average. The onion has lots of layers.

From the comments on the Navajo language ipod video:

"This is so awesome!How neat that you can use a language that was never oringially intended for this kind of technology to describe it so well!"

Right, because the 5th Century Anglo-Saxons were all 'let's design a language to describe the ipod.' The sad thing is the commenter is trying to be nice.

imagine if the ad read like this:

"Chicago is the Potawatomi word for Onion Field.

So--what's Potawatomi for Global Business Center?"

it would sound a lot less foolish--perhaps still ignorant of anything concerning the Potawatomi language, but less offensive and a little more constructive overall. i wonder exactly how much history or sociology one is expected to study when majoring in advertising.

English doesn't have a noun for "Global Business Center" i guess you could call a place cosmopolitan to approximate with an adjective, but that isn't quite right. ... In arabic there is the word "souk" for the marketplace, maybe they have a noun for "global marketplace"... anyways, the point is english doesn't have a word for what the indian language ostensibly lacks.

Is there any active link to the referenced video of "a guy describing his ipod in Navajo, complete with concepts like “downloading”"

Just curious, as it might be useful for a intro cultural anthro class lecture on linguistics...

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