["]
JK: My family fought the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Yankton Sioux tribe played a major role in that. And so I talked to the folks, the white farmers that helped us, they band with us. My aunt helped form this alliance called the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, and I talked to them and they said that they're hearing that...
A protestor holds a sign against the Washington football team's name at a rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 2, 2014
(Image by (Flickr Fibonacci Blue)) Details DMCA
DB: These are the farmers and the Native Americans [who] are working together to restrain the oil...
JK: Yes. We were really lucky to find landowners, white landowners, who were willing to stand with us, cause they take a huge risk. Because they face imminent domain threats. They could pay all these legal fees and still lose their land. And I heard that the Energy Transfer Partners, the Dallas corporation that is behind Dakota Access Pipeline, is even more vicious and even worse than Trans-Canada was.
DB: Well, let me ask you, we just got a minute or two left, what are you asking people to do in terms of the stereotypes, in terms of the racist mascots? You talked about an action, I want to remind people what you're up to and what you folks are trying to do here.
JK: We want the mascoting of Native people to stop. And to basically change the emphasis to real representations of Native people in the media, and in sports. And we would like for our real lives to be seen, and to be understood.
["] You know, here in Portland, we have this Powell's Bookstore that has thousands of books. But how many of those books actually feature Native protagonists? That's the problem, there's no balance. People often ask me "Well, what about the Vikings?" Well, the difference is that that's not the only way you see a white man, as a Viking. If you never saw a white man as anything else than a Viking, and you never saw him on T.V., you never saw him save the world in a Hollywood film, you never saw him as President of the United States, then it would be a similar situation. The issue is the prevalence of mascotry and stereotypes, over real knowledge of Native people.
DB: I guess tonight you'll be rooting for the people and the removal of that racist symbol, right? That will be a home run, for the home team, for you, huh?
JK: Well, I guess I'm rooting ["] that we get a chance to use this time this week [during the World Series] to really educate people, and to really get people to think about it. And to get Americans to understand, because obviously other Americans understand this, because you will notice that no other ethnic group is mascoted to the degree that Native people are.
DB: We're going to have to leave it right there.
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