Media Portfolio Sample

I picked the "Homeland Security" image for my media portfolio because it offers a very visual in your face message about the historical events that occurred to Native peoples during colonization of the United States, but it also connects that violence to contemporary political issues in a way that helps demonstrate its relevance yet today.

This item is a still image, usually seen as a tshirt or poster. I located this particular version at http://www.blackcommentator.com. The image is a historical photograph of Native peoples in full dress gear. There are men mounted on horse back, carrying weapons and wearing large feathered headdresses. The men are assembled as though they are meeting a group of other men, presumably for negotiation talks or possibly before battle (though the unwieldy headdresses and formal clothes make negotiations seem more imminent than battle). One version of the tshirt that I saw used a different historical photo-- the men in the photo were identified in the catalog caption as Geronimo and three other Apaches, pictured during the 1880's peace talks. This photo does not offer any identification for the men pictured. Instead, the caption on the photo reads "Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism Since 1492."

The caption and the photo refer the viewer back to First Nations peoples experiences of colonial conquest. The European explorers who arrived in the Americas, including Columbus, came to a land fully populated and settled, in places as densely as their home continent. The violence that the settlers perpetrated on innocent civilians, in their home land, echoes the violence of the terrorism of 9/11. An attack on non-combatants on their home soil, the incident is the epitome of terror. But what else can you call what happened to First Nations peoples-- but terrorism of the worst sort. Zinn's Chapter, "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress" details the way the well-armed, ruthless soldiers, under the commands of their wealth-crazed commander, attacked the Indians and destroyed not only armed men but women, children, the elderly and the infirm.

The image supports Zinn's argument that history is always written from a frame of reference, and most frequently the frame of reference that emphasizes nation state structures ignores the concerns of everyday people. What's more, it stresses the specific struggles of First Nations peoples to have their historical suffering and continued destruction considered relevant in a world of rhetoric about global terror.

I personally really like this piece, though I feel a little uneasy that it is possible to essentialize the "indians" because of the lack of identifying information about their identities, nation-affiliation, or even historical information about the date and location of the photo.