Save Pe'Sla Campaign

SAVE PE'SLA CAMPAIGN

In August of 2012, after 1,900 acres of the Black Hills went up for sale by a private owner, the land was successfully bought back by the Oceti Sakowin Nations through a crowdfunding campaign that ignited international attention and donations from across the continent. The efforts raised by the Sioux Nation and Indigenous people, alongside the determination of the individual tribes and spokespeople across the world was powerful for Indian Country to witness. The campaign gained so much traction that it even received attention from celebrities such as P. Diddy, Bette Midler, Lou Diamond Phillips, Rosanne Barr, Whoopi Goldberg, Ashley Judd, and Susan Sarandon. Fall 2014, we’ve come to learn that the private owner has decided to auction off the remaining 438 acres of land on the sacred site.
              Between 1776 and 1887, Native homelands across the country vanished and were replaced with established reservations for Indigenous people. For the people of the Black Hills, this history is riddled with broken promises and treaties from the federal government, most notably the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. The treaty provided a promise that the land would be protected for the Sioux nation, but was broken by the United States government within one year. In 1877, the United States removed the land from the people to benefit those who had found gold in the Black Hills. A  full century later, a 1980 Supreme Court ruling the Black Hills worthy of $100 million and attempted to grant it to the Sioux Nation. Our people have refused to accept the money because of the cultural significance these hills hold for our communities. 

          Pe’sla is important to the renewal of culture and language for the Oceti Sakowin nations because of its significance to Black Elk, the continuation and revival of our traditional ceremonies and the importance the land has held for the Sioux Nation. The land was stolen from Native Americans, and they deserve to have it back.

This campaign was one of the successful ones that many Native Americans can't say they have. The Lakota Nations were able to by back Pe'Sla. The salvation of this sacred area was due to many solutions, but one that contributed was social media. It help spread the awareness to multiple people around all over the world. Campaigns like these are starting to spark a change in our people and throughout the world. 

Idle No More

Idle No More is a movement that started in Canada by four women. The movement started because of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who proposed the C-45 bill which would infringe on land, water, and treaty rights. Due to media such as Facebook and twitter, the movement spread throughout the whole world, inspiring people to rise up and resist. 

The movement then spread to not only Indigenous people in Canada, but to Indigenous people in the United States, Australia, South America, and the list goes on. The movement became one of the largest fasting rising movement due to Social Media. People in the United States showed our solidarity with the Indigenous people by attending rally's and protest all around major and non major cities. 

The movement still continues, as indigenous people of the world continue to fight and decolonize. They movement has sparked other movements as well. It has inspired other communities and youth such as a group called Urban Native Era. 

Urban Native Era is a movement that brings awareness to on going Indigenous Issues happening in the United States. They began with attending rally's and protest of Idle No More in the United States. They were able to capture and share the photos of different communities, coming together and spreading the awareness this issue. 
Urban Native Era has become more than just a movement to spread awareness, but a movement to inspire youth to take charge in who they are as indigenous peoples. 

Idle No More changed the way we are and continues to spread every day. 

Commuters Unite: Never be late because you can’t find space

A space we can believe in!

Our campaign is about commuters having to deal with parking when arriving to school. Most commuters come to school about three hours before their class to find parking. If you ever parked at any SJSU parking garage you know how difficult it is to find parking during school hours.

Cause: New Parking Garages. 

SJSU needs to build more parking garages for students because the current garages are not sufficient enough to hold all of the cars. Since students have to pay $200 for a parking pass, they should always have a space waiting for them. Creating new garages would allow students to park within 10 minutes, instead of circling the garage for a long periods of time, or having to leave the house hours before class, just to make sure they’ll find a parking space.

Our campaign is to show that how much a new parking garage is needed for students who attend San Jose State University. The 1 spot, 3 cars, 5 minutes poster shows that their are more cars than parking spots and we have only 5 minutes left till class starts. The struggle of commuting should not be this difficult and their should be an easier system to use.

Environmental Campaign:

Arizona Mining Reform Coalition

The Arizona Mining Reform Coalition is a collective of groups and individuals who work to protect Arizona from mining and to insure the responsibilities that mining does not affect the communities health and environment.
One of the on going issues that is occurring in Arizona is the destruction of the Oak Flat Campground.
In the later part of 2014, the Oak Flat sacred land of the San Carlos Apache Tribe was traded to a foreign mining company, disregarding the opposition from the tribe. This beautiful land is currently used to complete various ceremonies like the Sunrise Ceremony by the Apache tribe, and others by different Native American tribes. However, in the time to come the foreign mining company will tear up a scared land disregarding the importance of which it holds.

Issues like these have occurred in the past and are continuing to happen. For example, the Black Hills in South Dakota. In August 2012 and the later part of 2014, different portions of the Black Hills were put up for auction and sold. Thanks to the Save the Black Hills campaign both parts of the Black Hills were able to be bought back just months after the sale. The land belongs to the great Sioux Nations, and to them, this land is their home. 
It is not easy to just pick up and leave a sacred land or a home. We are and all humans and we have a connection between the land and us. The land we live on is used for our ceremonies and mean so much to us. The generations after us will learn to love the land as much as we do, and truly see the importance the land holds to the tribe as a whole. I am afraid that the generations to come will not be able to enjoy sacred lands or live in a world with mother earth if these sales continue to happen. 

The Social Campaign to #SaveOakFlat started at the beginning of the year and now many people have joined into the movement to save Oak Flat.

  

Consumer Behavior

Today, new technology and products are being dropped all over the world. Each product has its ability to succeed or fail. Some products have a better chance than others depending on funding of production and advertisement. If it is a product the consumers will enjoy, it a product that will succeed. Apple comes out with a new iPhone product every September. The qualities of new iPhone's increase every year with new inventions and new designs. The iPhone that came out in September of 2013 was the iPhone 5, it came out with three types of phones. One being the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5s, and the iPhone 5c.


          
We begin with the external look of the iPhone 5's. Each have a little different characteristics . The iPhone 5, 5c, and 5s all have retina display. The iPhone 5 and 5s have aluminum backing. The home button with the 5s is finger print. The front screen is glass in all three different phones. Lastly, the iPhone 5c have multiple different colors to choose from.

With the outlook of the different iPhone 5's played a huge roll with consumerism. People who did end up buying either the iPhone 5s or 5c a majority of them disliked the iPhone 5c. The look, but especially the color plastic of the phone was unattractive to consumers. More consumers felt that the iPhone 5s looked and felt better in their hand.

With each phone they had a difference in Camera's, the regular iPhone 5 you weren't able to do Facetime unless you were connected to wifi. With the iPhone 5s you were able to connect to Facetime. This changed the game within apple products, but especially other non apple products.

Now it all depends on the consumer of which iPhone fits them and the price within each. Personally, I have the 5s which I feel with its "touch ID" makes it really useful.

Gender in Advertising 

What I have learn about certain gender in advertising is that women are depicted in most advertisements. Women are appealing not only to most Men, but to women as well. Advertisements show stereotypes in gender, for example, masculinity in Men on advertisements show well toned men and strong, more attractive. This gives off a stereotype for men, that they unwillingly have to follow in a society that grows from it. In most advertisements they show sex as an attraction tool, and of course sex sells for the most part.  In the advertisement below it shows a Gucci commercial showing a man and women close together. This advertisement could imply many things, but for one it shows a close sexual relationship between the two male and female's with the gucci bag. 

Woman also fall into a Gender stereotype. While for woman it shows that being skinny and young is what a woman should be. In most advertisements of woman, it shows them in what they should be as a women. For example, cleaning products such as bounty, mr. clean, etc. show woman doing these jobs of cleaning up spills or messes. 

The video above shows a women in a kitchen cleaning up a spill. Although this may seem normal to most folks, it shows that women have stereotypical gender roll of being a household mother. In today's society, woman have jobs and do not stay at home and do not fully assume the stereotypical gender roll. 

What I believe is that men and woman, woman especially are categorized to certain gender roles. Just as in the many advertisements in cleaning products, it shows the woman doing most of the cleaning or in cooking advertisements woman do most of the cooking. In today's society their is still much gender stereotypes, but little by little advertisers are learning to stem away and changing the way we stereotype people. Such as advertisements that include both men and woman cleaning or just men cleaning. 

Race in Advertisements 

Since advertisement has been a huge impact in the growth of many businesses, it is important for businesses now a days to come out with advertisements that will either make their business grow or fall. In early times of advertising, race was not a huge deal. Although many companies would depict different ethnicities in their advertisement which in today's media is wrong, back then their was a completely different view. They were allowed to showcase racism towards African American's and other race groups with little cons towards their business. Today, race in advertisements have changed in a new form. Personally, racially stereotyping in any advertisement is not okay because it contributes to an on going struggle that these race groups find themselves struggling in. For example, in the recent issue of ELLE, artists Will Pharrell wears a headdress. Now to many people this may seem like a pretty cool cover, but what it means to other people is a different story.

To many Native Americans the headdress is something that is given to only warriors or chiefs. Each feather is something they have earned because of their contribution to being a leader and a warrior. This cover of Pharrell wearing the headdress also shows that it is okay to wear a headdress to the outside viewer. What does this mean for people of Native American heritage? It means they will continue to see people appropriating their culture. Racism in Advertising is not a thing of the past, although, the Untied States continues to show that it is a growing anti-racism in each state it still allows many advertisements to showcase racism. What I realized is that racism in advertisements is more frequent on the east coast and even more frequently used in the UK and Europe. The west coast for the most part has grown from racism with a minor slip ups here and there. 

I believe that advertising  do have ethical responsibilities to our society and as we grow and learn about our culture advertising and the media play a huge role. Its their responsibility to not only do their job, but ensure that what ever they publish is something that wont get rejected by society. One advertising can change the way we socialize and see a certain ethnic group, especially for our youth, because they continue to learn about what is right and wrong. 

Semiotics

Print-

In this Ralph Lauren ad they are showing a Native American who was forced to assimilate into the "American" culture in the 1800's. On the right of the ad, they are showing the pieces of clothing in an old fashion style which is now in style in the 21st century. Ralph Lauren is using the Native American as a model for his apparel, when clearly it is not of the Native Americans choice. The Style of apparel that Ralph Lauren is showing off is an old school style, but for Native American's it shows a time of Genocide and assimilation into another culture.

Outdoor Ad-

In this outdoor ad, the Voice Television series shows four people of different ethnicities all together chasing the one thing they have in common and that is their aspirations of music. In the ad it shows both women and men, meaning they showcase talent in different genders. The ad in general is about tuning into the Voice on Monday's and Tuesday's at 8pm on channel 4 NBC. 

Television Ad-

In this television ad about Gatorade it shows how Gatorade has been the leading beverage for athletes since the early 1950's. From glass bottles to plastic it has been giving the NBA,NFL,NSL, and so on the drink that allows athletes to exceed in their ability to play in each sport. The ad also shows that with Gatorade you can win championships. Towards the end of the ad it shows famous NBA player Michael Jordan with his famous free throw dunk, what the ad is telling us it that Gatorade helped him.