GIRLS, GIRLS, SQUAWS - AS PER JAY-Z

Author

Louis Joseph
August 13, 2023

Girls, Girls, Squaws- As Per Jay-Z

Last week, I was going through some of my playlists on itunes, when I came across this old school track by Jay-Z entitled Girls, Girls, Girls. If you’re not familiar with this song, it’s basically a PG-13 version of Too Short’s freaky tales. It’s a song about all these different types women that he’s currently seeing or used to date.

For the most part, Natives are left out of the conversation when it comes to pop culture or anything mainstream. For us to be included in something like a Jay-Z song seemed pretty cool at first. That is, until you actually listen to the lyrics and break down what is being said.

As a group exercise, let’s play the song while you read along to the lyrics I have provided. Go to your prefered platform and search for Girls, Girls, Girls by Jay-Z. Our part starts exactly at the 1 minute mark.

“I got this Indian squaw and the day that I met her,

I asked her what tribe she’s with red dot or feather,

she said all you need to know is I’m not a hoe,

and to get with me you better be chief lots-of-dough.”

If you break those lyrics down line by line, the Indian squaw part is obviously extremely offensive if you know anything about Natives or more specifically Native women. In California, our people would not be here today had not been for the strength of our Native women. So, to allow a disrespectful term such as this to go unmentioned would be a dishonorable act on my part. Great news for us. As of November 2021, United States Interior Secretary Deb Haaland had the word “squaw” declared derogatory and racist and began to formally remove it from use on the federal level. Good job Secretary Haaland.

The next part where he asks what tribe she’s with red dot or feather, is a common saying that I’ve heard over and over in mainstream movies. It’s basically asking if you’re an Indian from India, or an American Indian. I personally look at this a bad joke or ignorantly outdated versus being offensive, but you can make up your own minds.

Finally, the part about to get with me you better be chief lots-of-dough. I found this actually really funny and super creative. To be honest, I might actually borrow that as my new twitter handle.

I’ve always looked at Jay-Z as one of the most intelligent rappers out there. If I heard the word “squaw” from a rapper like Kodak Black or Tekashi69 it really wouldn’t be that surprising or disappointing. To hear it from someone of Jay-Z’s caliber, who has been revered in hip-hop as one of the most educated, simply just feels wrong.

Having said that, I don’t enjoy or support cancel culture. I’m not highlighting this song in hopes of canceling Mr. H to the Izzo. I simply feel that if he had a Native friend or associate, or for lack of a better term “knew a Native,” these mistakes wouldn’t have been made. To have 9 additional writers on the song with him, all of whom saw no issue using the slur, is a catastrophe. Let’s do better Hov, I’m still a big fan of your music and if you ever need a Native ghost writer, I got you.

Native Americans call themselves many things, the one thing they don’t……

There is a non profit organization located in North Dakota that goes by the name Native American Guardians Association or NAGA. This group is currently leading a movement to reclaim and reuse the original name of the Washington football team, the Redskins. They couldn’t care less about land back, they want name back!

All jokes aside, I wonder how they feel about the Cleveland Indians brand new name, the Guardians. You think they support that name change?

With that said, I digress. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a group of tribal people want to be referred to as Redskins. If you look up the origin of the term, it started back in the trade post days. Trade Posts were used as the designated collection area for all bounties and barters. As early as the mid 1500s up until the 1900s, the U.S. government placed bounties on all Natives in hopes of eradicating the “Indian problem”. When hunters would turn in their pelts, they would receive money in exchange for them. A bearskin would net this amount, a buckskin this amount and a redskin this amount.

What do you think a redskin was?

It was the bloody scalp of a Native. The term scalp offended the nice christian women, so to alleviate them of the horrors of hearing or seeing that written on the bounty boards, the codeword REDSKIN was inserted in its place.

❝

A bearskin would net this amount, a buckskin this amount and a redskin this amount.

What do you think a redskin was?

It was the bloody scalp of a Native.

Louis Joseph

Why would any Native want to be referred to as this or see this name as prideful or honoring? I absolutely have no idea. NAGA currently has over 70,000 signatures on their petition to change the name back. Whether they are successful in their efforts or not, I’m almost positive one thing will remain true as it has for over 30 years. The Washington football team will not win the superbowl.

In closing I’d like to share a commercial my good friend and former Chairman Marshall McKay helped produce a few years back. This played on a national level and had support from tribes throughout the entire nation.

Deb Haaland - Pueblo

Deb Haaland is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th generation New Mexican. As a military child, she attended 13 public schools before graduating from Highland High School in Albuquerque. At the age of 28, Haaland enrolled at the University of New Mexico (UNM) where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in English and later earned her J.D. from UNM Law School.

Secretary Haaland wasn’t always in politics. She ran her own small business producing and canning Pueblo Salsa, served as a tribal administrator at San Felipe Pueblo, and became the first woman elected to the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors, overseeing business operations of the second largest tribal gaming enterprise in New Mexico.

When she finally decided to enter the political realm, she became the first Native woman to be elected to lead a State Party. She is one of the first Native women to serve in Congress, where she has focused on environmental justice, climate change, missing and murdered indigenous women, and family-friendly policies. As we mentioned earlier in our editorial section, she has had the word “squaw” declared derogatory and racist and began to formally remove it from use on the federal level. However, her contributions simply do not end there.

Her current efforts are behind a year-long tour of the country that she has entitled “The Road to Healing.” This tour she is orchestrating allows survivors of the boarding school era to share their stories and experiences with others in hopes of finding healing. For those unaware of what took place in the boarding school era, hundreds of thousands of Native children and teens nationwide were forced to leave their families. They were forced to attend these schools up until the 1970s, with each school's mission being to erase the Native identity of the children. Many of these children were abused both physically and sexually. Some of these children never returned home at all.

When asked about the purpose of these talking circles and sharing forums Secretary Haaland replied, "It’s to create opportunities for people to share their stories, but also, to help connect communities with trauma-informed support and to facilitate the collection of a permanent oral history."

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