Our ethnic identity is merely a reflection of our spirituality and our environment rather than a race category in the Census. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were a revolutionary punk band that combined rap, funk, rock, and an all around unique sound that made their listeners groove at shows or introspect on our excessive lives of sin during a long scenic route to Los Vegas. I want to focus on Anthony Kiedis and how he came to identify himself as Native American and why he chose to physically present himself as a stereo-typical tribal tattooed long haired “Indian.”
An important factor to remember about the era of The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s rise to fame was that it was during the time of generation X. Generation X was characterized as an individualistic, nonconformist, and uniqueness time for the younger crowd in nearly every cultural and lifestyle aspect. Cynthia L. Landrum posits that Anthony Kiedis helped revolutionize the way modern young Native Americans are viewed in society. Most Native Americans were still viewed in colonialist stereotypes. The prejudiced image of Native Americans were much like the Chinese vaudevillians in the sense that they were viewed as proverb quoting tipi dwelling folk whom will never assimilate into modern society. Most Native Americans get type casted into these roles in films in Hollywood today. Twilight is a perfect example.
“It is important that Native Americans get a chance to get their voices heard, because American Indians (as well as other people of color) have historically had their images distorted by those who oppressed them. As a result, so much of what is distributed about them is misinformed or distorted. So Native people owe it to themselves and their posterity to reclaim their images, stories, and perspectives (Landrum, 2012).”
My song and video of choice is Under the Bridge, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The song consists of lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, now deceased guitarist, John Frusicante, bassist, Michael Peter Balzary (flea), and drummer, Chad Smith. The song is written 4/4 time in key of A major and shifts to E major after the introduction. The intro opens with a soft melancholic melody of Anthony Kiedis’ vocals and the electric guitar. The drums tune in with a soft ticking as the bass joins in as well. Kiedis continues on his vocal narration of loneliness in the “City of Angels.” The chorus is a rough harsh drop in with a high pitched funky chords on the guitar and bass which are both accompanied by Kiedis’ rough vocals: “And I don’t ever wanna feel like I did that day. Take me to the place I loooove. Take me all the way.” The chorus and versus carry on this way until the ominous chorus comes in and Kiedis sings along about his demise, Chorus: “under the bridge downtown” Anthony Kiedis: “I gave my life awayyyy.” One would infer a sad life and death of a heroin addict if the song were to be listened to independent of the music video.
The music video for Under the Bridge opens up with guitarist John Frusciante placed in front of a superimposed back drop of a desert and a sea of clouds. Frusicante is playing the guitar and wearing a chullo with wolves on it. The end of the video shows the detonation of the atomic bomb and Kiedis running from the superimposed video. One can only infer that the desert is a reference to the testing of the atomic bomb.
The video continues with Kiedis walking through the streets of either downtown Los Angeles or west Los Angeles greeting the marketers as he walks along. The camera follows Kiedis along the street and flashes indigenous faces of all of the people working in that particular area. The video ends with Kiedis running during the most ominous climax of the song. This combination of the ominous choir and Kiedis running for his life is defined as “parallelism,” by Keith Negus in his book, Poplular Music in Theory. Parallelism is used throughout the music video for Under the Bridge through Kiedis’ animation and in synchronicity with the music (Negus, 1997, 8).
Anthony Kiedis' running state is a reference to the film, The Last of the Mohicans and the dying of an American indigenous race. The atomic bomb is a reference to the massive genocide of Japanese people during WWII. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are subtly stating that people are merely trying to survive American genocide. This message collected with indigenous faces of a rougher part of Los Angeles is holding up a mirror to our society of a demographic that goes totally unrecognized in our media and in our Hollywood "American Image." Kiedis receives a lot of scrutiny and criticism due to his small percentage of Mohican blood. Low Times Columnist, Maggie Serota wrote a response to Kiedis’ autobiography, Scar Tissue:
“When he talks about his parents and their ethnic backgrounds (Lithuanian, Dutch, English, French…white, basically) he mentions how he recently discovered that he has “some Mohican blood.” This is his convenient excuse for his tacky detoxifications of Native American culture through corny tattoos and he even admits that this must explain his fascination with “Mother Earth.” It wouldn’t be surprising to find out he’s about as Mohican as Daniel Day-Lewis (Serota)."
Serota’s criticism of Kiedis isn’t completely unwarranted when one considers the fact that Kiedis’ back tattoo is of a Haidi Thunderbird, and the cover of Road Trippin Through Time is modeled from the Haidi sun. Neither of these symbols are Mohican in the slightest. It is, however, unjust to chastise Kiedis due to his personal choices during his spiritual journey to his Native American roots. Kiedis is an outlier case for the native American identity because he didn't really grow up on a reservation nor did he grow up around other native Americans. Kiedis grew up without a real culture outside of witnessing his father’s drug dealing and drug use. Perhaps his sudden cultural awakening was the only ethnic experience he could have given himself? This phenomenon isn't really discussed much amongst race and identity issues especially in academic discourse.
Children that have no real role models let alone a cultural upbringing can choose to find their heritage as adults later in life. There is no time limit to these types of matters. Adopted children or foster children probably encounter the same dynamic. Adopted children and foster children can choose
to adopt the culture that they were raised in, or they can make the choice to get in touch with the culture that is typical for their ethnicity. Many factors play a role into this: friends, classmates, personal
experiences, etc. This is in fact what determines your identity: where your spirituality and culture lies. The same can be argued for African Americans that don’t belong to a specific tribe, but find their identity in the Zulu nation. We live in such a mobilized and globalized society that issues of race
and culture will occur more often in the future than in the past when were all segregated in terms of our language, tribes, or national/cultural identities.
Native American identity is a delicate debate. Studies have been conducted to determine how and why biracial Native Americans choose to identify themselves as Native American. A study was conducted in Southern, Northern, and Central California in both rural and urban areas in 2008 to determine whether participating in Native American cultural rituals helps promote a sense of Native American identity. “California has the highest population of American Indians in the United States according to the 2010 U.S. Census (720,904) which is approximately 2% of the population (Scweigman 2013, 1).” Of the 945 Native Americans adolescents (416 male, 529 female) that were given the survey, those who participated in pow-wows, sweat lodge, drum group and roundhouse dance reported significantly higher Native American identity than those that did not take part in cultural rituals. These results only applied to urban youth. The results were not significantly different for reservation youth. A disparity is seen between reservation youth and urban youth due to the fact that reservation youth are surrounded by other Native Americans and Native American culture constantly, whereas city kids are not. The disparity in reports amongst urban kids that do attend cultural activities suggests that Native American identity is determined by exposure to cultural rituals, or it is perhaps determined by spiritual encounters during cultural rituals.
Kiedis feels passionate anger for Native American underrepresentation throughout American history and demonstrates his anger in The Red Hot Chili Peppers, American Ghost Dance:
Oh give me a home
Where the buffalo roam
And the death of a race is a game
Where seldom is heard
A peaceable word
From the white trash
Who killed as they came
Though these words dig deep
They offer no relief
God save the queen
I am an Indian chief
Although Kiedis has no record of having ever participated in Ghost Dance, he obviously
felt strongly enough to write strong lyrics about it. Kiedis brings to light many dark oppressive times for Native Americans that have been overlooked or rewritten in high school history classes. Kiedis describes the inception of the Ghost Dance when a prophet named, Jack Wilson, also known as, Wovoka, had a vision during a solar eclipse. Wovoka was a medicine man, had frequent visions, and was apparently excellent at rain dancing. Because of this many people followed his new transcendental rain dance. Wovoka’s vision consisted of God telling him that mankind must love one another, end all war, and that they must live in peace with white people. People should also stop stealing and stop
any form of self mutilation practices. If God's warning is heeded, then all mankind will be reunited with their loved ones in the afterlife. Self mutilation practices were common practices in mourning the dead.
The American government viewed the Ghost Dance as a threat of rebellion and attempted to ban Ghost Dancing. When the Natives refused Sitting Bull was then arrested, confrontation broke out, and casualties occurred to both parties. This is an unforturnate event that is kept secretive in American History. Not only did the American government infringe on freedom to congregate and freedom of religious practices, but they continued this oppression with the massacre on Wounded Knee.
Unfortunately these events didn’t cause a change in prejudices towards Native Americans. We have never lost the deeply engrained belief that Native Americans are "others," or foreigners in their own land. We mockingly put them in media roles as feather toting savages.
Race is determined by our biological composition. Its the DNA code that has been passed down to
us from our parents and ancestors. Culture is the realm of social norms, language, beliefs, spirituality, food, and lifestyle that we have grown accustomed to and occasionally indoctrinated into.
We live in such a mobilized and globalized society that issues of race
and culture will occur more often in the future than in past times
when were all completely isolated in terms of
our language and cultural identities.
Cultural identity is mostly a personal and spiritual decision. Debates on ethnic legitimacy are obsolete arguments because race is ultimately a social construct because no individual is 100% one race.
