Anthropology instructor Dr. Don Addison sits with his service dog, Nizhooni. (Photo by Eugene Johnson)
Dr. Don Addison feels at home in his office, surrounded by his collections from other cultures. The shelves that line one wall hold well-worn videos and books. The Choctaw Nation flag boldly claims a place next to a colorful African tapestry. He wears one of his signature Native American ribbon shirts, and a dramatic turquoise and silver necklace.
He points to the prominently framed Baha’i temples, and talks of plans for a pilgrimage to the Baha’i World Center in Haifa, Israel. His fondness for other cultures, and his strong Baha’i Faith, provide a strong foundation today, but he remembered early challenges.
Addison has been an instructor at LCC for over 18 years, and teaches anthropology and ethnomusicology. Jeff Harrison, a literature teacher at LCC, said, “He is a widely brilliant person with an amazing range of knowledge in linguistics.”
A Choctaw Indian elder, Addison speaks four Native American languages, and has participated in the Native American community as a drummer, dancer and singer. Ken Murdoff, the dean of Social Sciences at LCC said, “Don is a dedicated teacher who brings a unique perspective … he’s not just a scholar, as he grew up in the culture.”
Addison says that being “part Indian and part white” made him feel he never belonged anywhere. During childhood, he “showed a traditional necklace I made to a student, and she told me it was dumb and stupid. She broke it by throwing it on the playground.”
He recounts a second, more upsetting incident, when he told his grade school buddy’s mother that he was a Choctaw Indian.
“Are you serious?” she replied, “You don’t look Indian.”
“That’s what Mom says,” he told her.
“Get out; get off my property. I don’t want anything to do with you ever again. Indians are dirty and are going to hell,” she said.
Addison said, “I’ll never forget it. She had always been nice, yet those were the last words she ever spoke to me. I hid it for many years afterward.”
He found solace in the Baha’i Faith’s commitment to preventing prejudice and started embracing his heritage again. He says the Baha’i beliefs in the oneness of all humanity and religious systems coalesce with his fascination for other cultures. “When studying human behavior you can get disillusioned, but there is always the opportunity to see something so magnificent.”
He speaks of current Native American stereotypes. “We are in a strange place because many people lump us together not realizing we are of many different tribes. They expect us to be walking encyclopedias for all things Native American, or think we are all spiritual guides, and we aren’t.
We cannot live in a society any more where guns make decisions; where prejudices overrule the qualities that make us human
-Dr Don Addison, anthropology instructor
“Many people think that Indians are not patriotic because we were removed from our land, but it’s just the opposite. We love America, because we live on this land. At every powwow there is an American flag right up front.”
One important accomplishment for Addison was earning his Ph.D.
“Obtaining my Ph.D. meant something to me,” Addison says, “because many Indians have drunks, alcoholics and criminals in their family, but I can change that tide…and our society can change; we can develop freedom from prejudices.”
He talks of his own personal struggles and troubled family history. Addison reveals that he never met his grandfather, a Choctaw Native American, who was in prison for a murder conviction. He doesn’t like to discuss his biological father, who was not Native American, only disclosing that, “He was clueless… not a real father, and had problems.”
“I found a real father in the army. Thomas Raschel taught me how to grow up, respect women, and how to care about kids and the elderly.”
Like Addison, Raschel was from a bi-ethnic, and troubled family and shared the Baha’i Faith. Their time together during the war became more cherished after Raschel was killed in Saigon, Vietnam just weeks before coming home.
(Photo by Eugene Johnson)
Addison’s “only family” and service dog, Nizhooni, (which translates to “she is pretty” in Navajo) is always at his side, and obeys commands in Navajo. Due to Addison’s back pain, Nizhooni was trained to provide a stabilizing counterweight if he starts to lose balance. He has not fallen since her training.
Addison peppers the conversation with morsels of cultural syntax, “Mitakuye oya’sin means ‘interconnectedness’ in Lakota. I want to awaken something and teach the students that we are all interconnected. My love for them is genuine. If all I had to do was to lecture it would be so insufficient.”
His afternoon anthropology class buzzes with energy, and the intensity of his voice changes frequently to emphasize particular words, sounds and syllables. A positive, nonjudgmental atmosphere is created by his frequent remarks such as, “You guys make me so happy!” and “We are on the right path.”
James Baker, an archeology major, described him as “a jolly kind of a guy, never angry, never a bad attitude. It’s not an easy class. You have to work for it, but I learned so much.”
Wesley Smith, a human services major, said, “He really wants to get the information into our brain, so he tells it many different ways, so it will relate to other things we have learned.”
Returning to his office, Addison reflects about one of his current preoccupations, which is increasing awareness of the persecution of the Baha’i students and educators in Iran. He talks of his desire for LCC students and faculty to recognize and join the worldwide effort to end discrimination and incarceration.
He leaned forward, put his hands on his knees and said, “We cannot live in a society any more where guns make the decisions; where prejudices overrule the qualities that make us human. I’ll quote Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, ‘To live and act as beasts of the field is no longer acceptable.’”
