Curiosity And Understanding Are Powerful Tools for Marketing People. And Humans.
President Biden designated a new national monument focused on Indian boarding schools this past Monday, using the final Tribal Nations Summit of his presidency to further acknowledge the trauma inflicted on thousands of Native American children by the federal government.
Had it not been for a few books I happened upon in the past couple of years, along with a TV show that I couldn’t stop binging, this would have been just another item in the newspaper that I would have skimmed right over it without giving much thought.
But this is a big story, deserving of your attention.
Scratch a little bit under the surface and an entire world emerges. Sometimes worlds that you never imagined. Or, or as in this case, worlds so uncomfortable and unjust, that you really don’t want to think of them at all.
Literature and art have the ability to entertain, but the larger role is to challenge our assumptions, take us out of our comfort zones and suggest new ways of perceiving the world. Much art may be uncomfortable or even painful to watch. That’s a good thing. It transforms us.
Which was the case with the novel Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, which I just finished. The book is a prequel/sequel to his first one, There There, which I read and enjoyed just after it as published in 2018. Together, the novels trace the painful journeys of successive generations of a Native family starting with the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 and ending in the present.
The introduction of There There was composed of essays by Orange to set the tone for the novel. He described heinous crimes committed against Natives as a backdrop for the suffering that persists to this day. Taken together, the historical essays and two novels were eye-opening. Of course, I was aware of atrocities committed on Native people.
Native Americans were caricatures when I grew up, angry, savage “redskins” hell bent on killing innocent white people. Check out this plate from my childhood. Davy Crocket was all the craze with little boys like me collecting merch and wearing coonskin hats. Our hero Davy ready to bash in the head of this terrible savage! Kids used to play “Cowboys and Indians,” with the identity of the good and bad guys clear beyond a doubt.
Reading Orange’s detailed, moving and tragic prose shifted that vague awareness of on one of our national sins to a higher level. He lets you feel the pain, almost viscerally.
In between the two Tommy Orange books, I was lucky enough to get a “must read” recommendation from a friend of mine about a book called The Real All Americans by Sally Jenkins, for which I am forever grateful. The focus of this non-fiction account was the fascinating story of how Pop Warner, the legendary football coach, along with exceptional Native athletes like Jim Thorpe, literally invented the modern version of American football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
This infamous institution was founded by the Indian fighter Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt, an abolitionist who believed that Native Americans deserved a place in American society. But with a major caveat. Only after they were completely reprogrammed to wipe out any trace of their native beliefs, language, and culture. And embrace Jesus, of course.
That story behind the story – the oppressive, sometimes deadly schools that Native children were forced to attend after being separated from their families – was the one that interested me more.
“Kill the Indian in him, and save the man,” said Pratt in an 1892 speech. Hmm. What could go wrong?
Pratt also appears as a character in Orange’s There There.
Along with these three books about the Native American experience, I also thoroughly enjoyed all three seasons of the Hulu TV show Reservation Dogs, which chronicles the lives of a group of teenagers living on a reservation in modern day Oklahoma.
I’ve always believed that empathy is the key to all marketing. Until we put ourselves in the shoes of our customers, what do we really know?
Empathy is far more important on a human level. Knowledge and understanding are the antidotes to discrimination and the keys to acceptance.
