'Got land? Thank an Indian' shirts hot commodity after controversy, seller says

TORONTO SUN ^ | JANUARY 17, 2014 | KATE SCHWASS-BUECKERT

[rickmichaels]

The Manitoba man who started selling clothing that says "Got land? Thank an Indian" has had interest from potential customers all around the world after a Grade 8 student wearing one of his sweaters made headlines this week.

Tenelle Starr, 13, wore a pink hoodie bearing the slogan to her Saskatchewan school, but was told to take it off because it could offend someone. After a meeting between her parents and school officials, the matter was cleared up and she was permitted to wear the sweater again.

But the story made headlines, and now Jeff Menard says he's getting requests from around the globe.

On his Facebook page, people from other provinces, as well as from far away as New Zealand, are eager to get their hands on the shirts, hoodies and even baby bibs.

"It's going like crazy," Menard said Friday. He has been selling the shirts through his Facebook page, but said he's working to get a website.

He said he heard the phrase while on a visit to the U.S. In 2012, he created the shirt.

"I knew this would make our people proud to wear something like this," the member of the Pine Creek First Nations said. "It put a smile on my face."

He said he sold more than 1,000 shirts before this week, but now he has more requests than he's been able to keep track of, and the calls keep coming in.

"I had people calling me from Baltimore," he said. "Who knows what the final numbers are going to be."

[cripplecreek]

Sure there were injustices done but it was hardly a one way street. Its human nature.

My family comes from Germanic Barbarian stock. I’m sure they committed injustices against others just as others did to them.

[JW1949]

True...Ani-Yun-Wiya are post Iroquois....They split from the nation ten’s of thousands of years ago...For a good history of tribal migration, read People of the Lakes.....

[cripplecreek]

Here's what the "good stewards" of the earth did.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

[Third Person]

"I knew this would make our people proud to wear something like this," the member of the Pine Creek First Nations said. "It put a smile on my face."

Proud to have gotten your ass kicked? Smile away, idiot...

[Lazamataz]

Well, gotta give the guy credit for being entrepreneurial!

[JW1949]

You sound to be very proud of your comment................

[SampleMan]

That’s not true. Tribes did indeed move around, take, and enslave. The large civilizations acted as imperial masters, and not the nice kind.

[familyop]

"I am Ani-Yun-Wiya"

I'm a few parts Cherokee, too, along with a few parts English, Norman, Dutch (and oh, yes, a few Coens) and all kinds of other heritage from nearly 400 years of American ancestors. It's an American thing. The vanities of identity politics are more of a Germanic/Roman thing.

Yeah, there was shame in the past about having Cherokee ancestors. But as one of my great-grandmothers said long ago, "Child, look in the eyes of folks all around us. They's Injuns all over the place, just like my aunts, uncles and cousins in those pictures!"

And if you believe that there are people of pure Cherokee blood, try watching a few old Chinese kung fu movies. Notice the drums, attitudes and customs. And take another look at the big, strong Sioux married into the population of the Reservation (quite a contrast). [Heh. Little humor and reality there.]

[Third Person]

Get over it.

[JW1949]

I am Ani-Yun-Wiya....I am of the Bird Clan, Eastern nation...
My tribe was on the SAME lands for thousands of years and moved nowhere until Andrew Jackson and the US government betrayed my ancestors...

Now, I am also an extremely proud American and served two combat tours in Vietnam for my country...I justify our action in Vietnam by the simple fact that the US government signed over 1200 treaties with native tribes and never fully uphel any....In 1953, the US government signed the SEATO Pact (treaty) with South Vietnam and finally upheld a treaty....

[Theoria]

'Steward' is relative. The 'modern' way.

[Kickass Conservative]

Thank a Winchester.

[JW1949]

Get over what, may I ask???

[MHGinTN]

This thread topic, coincidental? I think not!

[Third Person]

Tell me why a Native American would be proud to wear that shirt.

[familyop]

"Here's what the "good stewards" of the earth did.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump"

I'd say that they were pretty smart except the one who went for the worm's eye view (Mr. Head-smashed-in). Hey, at least they let nothing go to waste.

[I'm not much of an animal worshipper, either.]

[cripplecreek]

Hey, at least they let nothing go to waste.

Aside from the thousands they did leave to rot. Lewis and Clark found them dead and rotting by the thousands where the indians had driven them off cliffs and taken what they could carry.

[Inyo-Mono]

I agree. My ancestors settled on Shawnee land in what is now West Virginia in the 1700s. They even had a little skirmish with a band of Shawnee led by Tecumseh.

[JW1949]

Those are the words of the shirt producer, not mine....I am, though, extremely proud of my heritage...are you not???
I never once in my posts mentioned the shirt...I have only given posts about my native nation and upheld the pride that we have in our past...

If I have said anything that bothered or offended you, then I really don’t give a c r a p......

[JW1949]

The Shawnee would at times move into Tennessee and try to occupy Cherokee hunting grounds...The Ani-Yun-Wiya fought with Shawnee and with Creeks over hunting areas...