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This! If I don't respond to your email/message/request this is why. I'm not the right person 99% of the time. https://twitter.com/waub/status/1305502044401344512
I also don't respond because my inbox is a mess and email is a source of anxiety...but I also have this in my email bounce back because of this issue: "My research is with contemporary Indigenous communities and students in what is currently known as the United States...
I research college access, retention, Native nation building through education, and Native student activism. I also research cultural appropriation and Native representations in contemporary popular culture....
I am trained as an Education scholar and social scientist who uses ethnographic methods. I am only able to accommodate requests that fall in these research and methodological areas.
Thank you for your understanding!"
Thank you for your understanding!"
I wanted to clarify this thread—my “not responding” is to folks who are asking me to give them permission for their dream catcher Etsy shop, to vet their fictional Native character in their to-be-written someday comic book, to tell them if they can name their kid Dakota, etc...
and academic requests that ask if I can comment on 17th century war clubs or something. My auto responder links to a bunch of representations resources and contact info to save time. So even those folks get resources.
But for genuine requests, folks actually looking for the right way to build community, right way to approach a museum exhibit, right way to find a panelist, not just looking for me to rubber stamp something—I definitely try to respond and offer folks who might be the right fit.
I just get...hundreds of these. Media requests are the hardest because they’re always on immediate deadline and trying to find/think of the right contact takes time, but I know if I don’t do it there will be no Native voice in the piece.
So yeah, I do want people to do more research to find the right fit for their needs and not just assume because I happen to be Native I know about all things Indigenous in every context all the time. But I’m also not leaving genuine attempts hanging out to dry!
