As part of my earlier post, I reached out to several local women in the native community. This is a response from one woman – she offered it to me as a quote, but I thought her comments warranted their own post and she agreed to let me publish in their entirety ~ Sue

Submitted by Lenora “Lee” Dingus, Seneca, Co founder Echoes of the Four Directions

Until this past weekend, I have to confess I have never heard of the

Whirl Magazine. I do not live a sheltered life. I am very involved

in and around Pittsburgh most of life. I have especially involved

with Indigenous Women, and Women of Color in general. I am retired

from the Federal Government and worked within the government and a

variety of agencies and was always on the special emphases committees

I chaired the Pittsburgh Federal Executive Boards Native American

Heritage Committee for over 20 years, and was involved with the

Black, Hispanic, Women’s and LGBT, and other programs. I currently

work for an International Company, called Pearson which where I am a

Diversity and Inclusion advocate, in addition to being a full time

Test Center Manager. On a more personal level I am Seneca women that

in conjunction with my husband Earl, who is Cherokee, conduct

programs on Native American interests and concerns from preschool to

college level and to other organizations as well. I am also an

adjunct professor for CCAC where I co teach a Native American History

course with Earl. So I still am involved within their programs and do

feel I have a good pulse on what is going on in and around the city

and a good pulse as to what is happening in “Indian Country”. I am also

a traditional Seneca artist, I do bead work, quill work, as well as

traditional drums, rattles, shawls and more.

A friend of mine forward the post from Whirl where this was a

discussion thread about the inappropriate use of the word Pow Wow in

describing a conference that was being held by the magazine.

I have to admit I was both surprised and not surprised at the same

time. But that happens to us a lot. Just when I think we have come

along way with racism, I am always slapped in the face with a not so

subtle reminder that racism is alive and well. This one was a bit

more muted then most, but still I was surprised. After I digested it

a bit and did some research on Whirl, I honestly was not surprised.

I looked at their headliner articles listed on the site and there were

very few articles about any people of color, women or men. I saw

couple of well know Steelers, and a musician interviews, but that was

all.

I have to honest. I felt most of articles were “fluff”. They were

put in there my writers that really do not have a pulse on the city,

but think they do. They didn’t cover the wonderful initiative by

conflict kitchen that just passed, featuring Haudenosaunee food. The

articles focused on successful people, but no successful people of

color for the most part. It seemed like they were reaching out into

the suburbs and ignoring the city itself and all the color of the city

and the people who are in it.

I was interested in the magazines objective to bring women together to

support and help each other in a non political environment. I

honestly can’t wrap my head around how any women’s magazine in this

current climate cannot be political; especially if you care about, all

people, the environment our Turtle Island and all the lives here, the

winged, four-footed and that crawl and all our brothers and sisters.

You don’t have to be in your face shouting out politics. If you have

a compassion for the world we are in today, you have to be a bit

political. Supporting importance social causes should be in their

objectives if they want to be taken seriously.

I feel that the magazine really only gave us lip service when I

messaged them this past week-end. I see “Pow Wow” is still listed on

their home page. They only did a small step to change and correct the

mess they started with this insensate name. They didn’t give a bit of

thought to it. They did not even ask why we were offended by it.

That would have been a good step to educate them selves as to why it

was wrong. It was interested that they deleted some to of the

initial comments made on the post. I was raised that your own you

mistake, you don’t make them go away. They are not owing their

mistake. They have not made any effort to be inclusive of Indigenous

women or any Women of Color after this blunder. I tried to be the

voice of reason on the posts that were appears on their page and

giving them room to make changes. I have given them many changes.

They have not reached out. It appears as of now I made a mistake. We

are the invisible people of the city, yet we are part of the fiber and

culture of the city. You would think they would be reaching out. I

would be.

I am very sorry to say that I got no response when I asked them to put

their money where their mouth is. I did not say you have to give to

this place or that place. I just made a suggestion based on current

events that I would have thought someone at Whirl would have been

aware of. The upcoming March in Washington DC on March 10 is so

important to all of us not just Indigenous people. With out water

there will no life. I truly thought that they would be more awareness

of the efforts that are going on right now in regards to the DAPL

and even more awareness since it has coverage everyday, somewhere.

Sadly my experience is that they (most people) think it does not

effect them, since they are more affluent and not people of color, it

does not really matter to them. Maybe they think, gee I still can

just go to the store and buy water if my water get contaminated. You

would be surprised at how many people do think that, and do not

realize that the spills will contaminate our food sources, our land.

We are all connected. No one is thinking about the next seven

generations when they make decisions, not our politicians for sure.

And now appears not our own white sisters in Pittsburgh. don’t care

or are not thinking. They need to move out of their comfort zone and

be more inclusive.

If they truly do not want to “rinse and repeat” and they want to help

all women, not just the well off successful women that they seem to

write the most about.

Indigenous women have always been at the forefront of our people.

Perhaps they could learn a lesson for that. We could help them

archive their goals. We have been there and done that for over 500

years. We have much wisdom and insight into this.

To learn more about the March 10 March on Washington, please click here.