"Dances with Ignorance" is the 2nd episode of the third season of Pepper Ann. It aired on September 18, 1999.
Contents
Synopsis
While researching her family heritage, Pepper Ann finds out from her father that she's 1/16 Navajo Indian, but Pepper Ann's stereotypical views of American Indian culture gets her in trouble with a real Navajo family.
Plot
Mr. Finky assigns the class to do a report on their family history. Pepper Ann realizes that she has never asked about it before and asks Lydia and then her grandparents, though she finds all of it boring. She decides to ask Chuck who reveals that he is 1/8 Navajo Indian, meaning that Pepper Ann is 1/16. Pepper Ann is excited about doing a report on Navajo Indians, but it quickly becomes apparent that Pepper Ann is basing her information on how the media has portrayed them in the past. Nicky and Milo try to help her do her research, but she blindly ignores them.
Lydia manages to track down a real Navajo family to come and visit them. Upon arrival, Pepper Ann immediately begins to approach their visit with a slew of stereotypes; getting every detail wrong about them and not even letting them speak their piece. When she suggests they perform a rain dance, they become offended and leave with the elder Andy telling her that besides a belt that belonged to a shared ancestors, neither of them are similar in any way. Pepper Ann does not understand what she did wrong and claims she was taking pride in their heritage, forcing Lydia to tell her about stereotyping and the need to listen to others.
Pepper Ann and her family set up a second meeting with the Navajo family, this time at their house, and she apologizes for her racist attitude towards them. Though reluctant, the family gives her another chance, lets them in and Andy goes into detail describing how the Navajo was a name invented by settlers and that they call themselves the Dine who had traveled to the land 1200 years ago. The Navajo language was used in WWII to help send secret messages to the navy and was never broken. Pepper Ann gives a much more well informed presentation to a very excited class as well as her visiting family.
Cast
- Kathleen Wilhoite as Pepper Ann Pearson
- Jeff Bennett as Grandpa Leo, Dieter Liederhosen, Additional voices
- Danny Cooksey as Milo Kamalani
- Clea Lewis as Nicky Little
- Pamela Adlon as Moose Pearson
- April Winchell as Lydia Pearson, Grandma Lillian
- Irene Bedard as Carol
- Don Lake as Sherman Finky
- Maurice LaMarche as Chuck Pearson
- Cody Lightning as Dave
- Gregg Rainwater as Bob, Andy
- Cree Summer as Tessa and Vanessa James
Desk Gag
"Ha ha, cool maracas!"
Trivia
- The episode makes a couple of references to Pocahontas:
- When Pepper Ann brags about her "knowledge" of American Indian culture to Nicky and Milo, she says that her tribe can "paint with all the colors of the wind". During the reference, a scene transition of leaves blowing in the wind occurs.
- Pepper Ann mentions to Carol (the mother of the Navajo family) that she was going for a Pocahontas type of hairstyle. Additionally, Carol is voiced by Pocahontas herself, Irene Bedard.
- Dave (the son of the Navajo family) calls Pepper Ann "Poca-moron-as" when she comes over to apologize.
- The episode was consulted on by historian Stephanie Fitzgerald.
- Sue Rose claims this was the riskiest episode to make, because of the way Pepper acted.
- The title of this episode is a spoof of the 1990 film Dances with Wolves.
- This episode was released on VHS along with "The Tell Tale Fuzzy". While being the only time Pepper Ann was officially released on video, it was intended to be used by teachers as an educational tool. The video was available on the Disney Educational Productions website as late as 2005.
