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Robinson, Marilyn (audio interview #2 of 2)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION</b> - This is the second of two interviews conducted as part of a project for a senior women's studies seminar. 1997-04-30
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- 2019-09-26
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- File: aimrobinson3.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-1:46)... Robinson's traditional background included being apart of the culture around her in the everyday sense. Her father went to the Long House and that was his religion; she went with him to the ceremonies and practiced as well. She spoke Mohawk and Cayuga and her parents did as well. (1:46-4:21)... Robinsons' mother was president of a women's groups. In Canada farming communities had women's groups that discussed and became involved in the community, performing individual and community oriented work. They primarily worked on the reservation and they were not political; they were active in organizing the fair and did mostly social work. (4:21-5:49)... Robinson's mother was very strong in a quiet way and a very hard worker. Robinson's older sister was not involved in community affairs; rather she was involved in home activities. When their mother died she took care of Robinson. (5:49-9:43)... There were political activists on the reservation; one was called the Mohawk Workers. Robinson did not know what they did but they were politically active. The group wanted to go back to clan ways but they were never really focused. Keeping the clan structure strong was and is a priority. Her family did not get involved with the Mohawk Workers but her father was part of a delegation for Indian rights to Ottawa. They did participate in Border Crossing Day, which involved marching across the bridge to mark the border to celebrate the Treaty of 1794. (9:43-13:22)... Although Robinson married a non-Indian, she has always been extremely proud of her heritage. She does believe her identification with her culture has anything to do with marrying a non-Indian; intermarrying was not a personal or social issue for her. (13:22-15:36)... Robinson was in Berkeley in the late 1950's and was married with two children. In those days there were a lot of married graduate students. There was no activism at that time. She and her husband rented a house for $75/month and lived on very little money until her husband finished school. (15:36-20:14)... Robinson moved to San Diego in 1961 and her activities moved from socializing to activism. She joined the United Indian Women's Club (UIWC) and California Indian Education Association (CIEA). Both groups had just formed. While CIEA was emphasizing higher education for Indians, UIWC was emphasizing all levels of education for Indians, and help with college admission, financial aid and paperwork. UIWC went to Long Beach State (now CSULB) to help some Indian students who were denied financial aid. Robinson was also active on the advisory board at UCLA, which to organize Indian Studies. She also worked with several Indian students at UC Riverside who did not know where their BIA scholarships were. She went up there and found the paperwork in someone's "in box." Additionally, she met with high schools in order to educate staff and administrators about the need of Indian students. (20:14-26:11)... Robinson was at a meeting at UCLA when Richard Oakes came and talked about going to Alcatraz and asking support in the occupation. They collected food and clothes to send to Alcatraz and her women's group also wrote a letter in support. Robinson's son went to Alcatraz and stayed a week. She did mostly local work, i.e. workshops and presentations as well as consciousness raising. Sometimes there were confrontations as a result of her talks at schools. She recalls one male teacher asked her how she could consider herself an Indian since she had a college degree. She responded that she was not aware that your ethnic identity changed when you got a college degree. There were also many individual attacks. During workshops regarding education, the audience would not challenge the content of their presentation but attacked them personally. (26:11-29:06)... Robinson had heard about the UIWC and went to one of the meetings. She sought it out for more social reasons, but the primary goal was to focus on educational needs and issues. She felt very comfortable with the group and joined after the first meeting. (29:06-30:48)... Robinson went to UCLA as an Indian supporter in UIWC and explained why it was important to have Indian Studies. There were two men that came to interview for the head of the Indian Studies program. [Note: the tape cuts off abruptly.] End of tape File: aimrobinson4.mp3 (0:00-3:13)... Students from UCLA had a dinner and Robinson showed up. She recounts a funny story about some of the American Indians not knowing at which Holiday Inn they were booked. They called around and asked if a Buffalo Head was registered; the response was a hang-up. Robinson claims that someone to whom she refers as Roger was hired at this point and was the first head of the Indian Studies Program at UCLA , which she claims was established around 1971. There were about four Indian women who were on the hiring board. [Editor's note: According to the American Indian Studies Center Library staff, records indicate that the entity that became the American Indian Studies Center was initially started in 1968. In 1971 it became an Organized Research Unit of the University of California. Anthony Purley is listed in June, 1970 as the first Director of the Center. Another source knowledgeable about the history of American Indian Studies programs, claims that the program was actually established in 1969 and the Interim Director was Edward Castillo.] (3:13-5:38)... In the early 1970's some White women came to talk about feminism to Robinson and the Indian women in her group at an Indian's Women's Conference. One Indian woman who was not formally educated, as most women, said that feminism was not something they discussed because in essence they had always been feminists. Indian women had been assuming the role in the community and in their families so it was nothing new. Robinson's experiences with the Indian women in the group were that they did not live in stereotypical sexist Indian households. (5:38-8:27)... During this time, Robinson had two children at home and two in college. Her husband did support her and she still assumed responsibilities at home. She was a graduate assistant at the time and was responsible for the children, but did not find it hard to balance her involvement with the women's group and her roles at home. She did not see a lot of activism among her friends. (8:27-11:43)... Robinson never saw herself as a traditional housewife and did not socialize with her neighbors; she never enjoyed just sitting around discussing soaps and drinking coffee. She is more of an activist and a person who gets things done. Day care was not an issue because she always brought the kids with her, although she did have a baby-sitter when she went back to school full-time. (11:43-12:57)... Robinson's women's group didn't feel that what the group of feminists talked about applied to them. Indian women never felt like they had to break out of a "traditional" role. The feminists were addressing issues that Indian women felt they already had. (12:57-20:23)... Robinson's son experienced prejudice in school when another boy called him a "beaner." She had never heard this term before and her son explained that Mexicans were called this. When he told the boy that he was an Indian, the boy told him "we killed all the Indians in the war, you can't be an Indian." Robinson expresses her frustration with the education system still today and notes how much she works in the schools. She still visits reservations and notes that the children are still put in home study or special ed. She worked with a boy who was put in special ed. who did not need to be there; the attorney in the case put the boy in special ed. She cannot understand why Indian children are put in special ed. or home study because they are intelligent children. (20:23-31:59)... At the time that Robinson was in her women's group, she was teaching at San Diego State University, in 1972. She taught half sociology classes and half Indian studies. She did not finish her dissertation because she was very involved in advocacy and tutorials. She worked with kids who came from the reservation and did not understand the university system. Robinson knew that Indian students had a hard time as some of the teachers made fun of the students. She also fought to get her classes accepted and it was a constant battle with administration, as well as problem with other professors. They did not take the Indian Studies program seriously; and others did not want her teaching their subjects. There were a lot of turf wars. Most of the program students are women and Robinson believes many of them come into the program looking for a career to take back to the reservation. She believes that the issues the women are dealing with are the same as the one with which she had to deal, noting that the same thing goes on today as in the 1970's. <b>File: aimrobinson5.mp3</ (0:00-5:38)... Robinson goes into her classes and her professional speaking engagements assuming that no one knows anything about Indians. She is frustrated because people do not know about Indian history and Indian lives. She does not see any real issues between Indian boys and girls on the reservation and believe that their real issue begins in the school system. She thinks the gender issue is secondary next to the racial issues. (5:38-9:08)... Robinson believes that if there is a strong women's movement it will divide the cultural movement; that if women are separated from men, it will separate the Indian people. She believes that they must work together to promote a strong Indian unity. (9:08-11:03)... Talking about the occupation of Alcatraz, Robinson notes that the women are cooking or taking care of the children in all of the pictures while the men are the protesters. She raises the question of who was taking the pictures and on who they were focusing. (11:03-13:13)... In the 1970's Robinson was teaching, active in an Indian women's group, and active in getting an Indian Studies Program at San Diego State University (SDSU). She was also a graduate assistant and doing graduate work. She went to work at the Indian Human Resource Center in 1979 and quit teaching at SDSU. The center was a training place and employment center for Indians and Robinson felt she was getting burned out so she went to work for Indian Child and Family Services to be a home-based therapist. (13:13-26:56)... Robinson is a party to and working with the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. She did not work on the initial part of the Act but she was hired to deal with the women who were referred. She was program director at the Indian Human Resource Center, by which time she had received an M.A. in counseling sociology. She stayed there for over twelve years and but then felt burned out and went to work for Indian Child Services. The driving was a large factor in her decision to quit that job. She then went to work at the Sycuan Reservation as the Director of Human Resources. She was laid off from that job because she was held accountable for people who were not following the rules. She wanted to quit anyway and do consulting work on her own time. She is doing what she likes now and feels that throughout her life she has always done what she wanted to do. She holds workshops and does counseling and foster parent training. She also sets up parent-training workshops. She teaches parenting from a cultural point of view, in contrast to the White tradition. (26:56-30:38)... Robinson teaches parents who are coming into the workshops completely unaware of how to raise their children. She teaches that children are not to be physically abused and they need to be taken care of and nurtured and emphasizes that both parents come to her workshops. This is required by laws for the foster-parent training. Robinson teaches the values she grew up with and how responsibilities are shared. End of tape <b>File: aimrobinson6.mp3</ (0:00-2:46)... Robinson gets together with the women who were active in the women's group and they reminisce about what they did together. Robinson did activist work for three years without pay and paid for things out of her own pocket. She recalls the experience were fun and exciting. She also became involved with the antiwar movement. (2:46-6:10)... Robinson kept abreast of what was going on in the Indian community. She and the women with whom she was involved were against violence. That was one of the reasons Robinson became active with her husband in the antiwar movement. (6:10-11:13)... The reservation where Robinson grew up, has its own activism, which is oriented to community development. She feels that she is constantly trying to re-create the environment that she grew up with; she would like to see other young Indian people have what she had. She misses the reservation but doesn't like the climate. She does miss everyone and some of her friends went back when they retired. (11:13-13:35)... Robinson's children are activists. She let them decide if they wanted to be involved. Her granddaughter is also active tutoring. She tells the young people that she cannot always fight the battles, they have to step up to fight them. <b>End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO</b> - Marilyn Robinson was actively involved in promoting American Indian Studies at several campuses, including UCLA, and an active participant in Indian women's organizations. A Mohawk-Cayuga woman, she was raised on the Six Nations Indian Reserve in southern Ontario, Canada in a family that honored that their native traditions and practices. Although her primary education was on the reserve, she had to leave in order to attend high school and college, where she experienced a great deal of racism. During the 1950s, after her marriage to a non-Indian, she stayed at home and raised her children. When she moved to San Diego in 1961, she became an activist and joined several Indian groups, including United Indian Women's Council. She returned to college to pursue an advanced degree, taught sociology and American Indian Studies, but became involved in advocacy of Indian causes - particularly promotion of education - and did not complete her Ph.D. TOPICS</b> - traditional practices at home; languages in the home; mother's role in women's groups; activist groups on reservation; move to San Diego, 1961; participation in United Indian Women's Club and California Education Indian Studies program at UCLA; Indian women and feminism; role at home; children's experiences with racism and discrimination; advocate for Indian children in education system; teaching at SDSU; and issues in t frustration with education system and treatment of Indian children; gender/racial issues with Indian people; women's movement vs; cultural movement; women in Alcatraz occupation; working at Indian Human Resource C conclusion; activism of her children; and feelings about her accomplishments;
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