Put the Indian Girl back on the Land O Lakes butter!

Dear Autumn Price, Vice President of Land O Lakes Butter,

My name is Erin Dixon.  I am the Chair of the Wopumnes Nisenan-Mewuk Indians of El Dorado County, California, a Federally documented, IRA Voting Tribe. My Tribe is the historic Gold Rush Tribe described by John Sutter's diaries as helping John Marshall help build the Mill in Coloma that started the California Gold Rush in 1848. I am a direct descendant of Wopumnes signers of the 1851 Treaty of Cosumnes River in El Dorado County. The Wopumnes Tribe is also documented by UC Davis as being Nisenan-Mewuk aboriginal to El Dorado County. 

Recently, I brought home Land-O-Lakes butter and my children cried because the Indian Girl was "erased" from the package.  "Mom where did the Indian Woman go?"  They were offended and saddened by the blank, lifeless container.  The butter just didn't feel the same.

The Land-O-Lakes Indian Girl, Mia, is an icon of Americana and needs to be returned to her place of honor.

There was nothing ugly or offensive about the Indian Girl on the package design that we all grew up with since the early 1930's.   "Red Lake Ojibwe artist Patrick DesJarlait updated Mia's image in the 1950s. Her clothes were changed to match specific Ojibwe styles, and the background became a specific location in the Ojibwe territory, the Red Lake in Minnesota."-Wikipedia  

As a Native American seeing the "Land O Lakes" Indian woman on your butter package made my family and myself feel sense of pride and loved by your company.  Showing Native Americans on such a simple and wholesome product as American Butter made us feel "honored" as a guest in everyone's home.  The new package looks blank and lifeless.  Instead of reminding us that Native Americans are honored at everyone’s dinner table, the blank container reminds us of the "erasure" of the my peoples and culture, who where here long before the colonization of North America.

I would rather boycott “Land O Lakes” butter, buying another brand, than to see my children cry about another piece of their Native American heritage lost.

Please stand up for Native American culture and Americana, put the Indian Girl back on your package and restore Native Americans to their honored place as a guest at Americans' table.

Thank you,

Erin Dixon,
Chair of the Wopumnes Nisenan-Mewuk Tribe
of El Dorado County, California,
a Federally Documented, 1935 IRA Voting Tribe

You can find out more about the Wopumnes Tribe at www.RealMiwokTribe.com
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