"Dances with Ignorance" is the first segment of the thirty-sixth episode of Pepper Ann. It aired on September 18, 1999.
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 put her at odds 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; mixing up multiple different tribe traditions, insisting upon stereotypes, getting every detail wrong about them and never letting them speak their piece. Her insistence upon showing off earns the ire of Moose and the visiting family. When she starts to perform a rain dance, Bob is shocked and shuts it down, scolding her for her ignorance; he questions if her motives of learning were genuine. When Pepper Ann answers with more stereotypes, an insulted Bob gives up and the family leave, with the elder Andy revealing to her that his belt used to belong to his great-grandfather; the only thing he says is shared between him and Pepper Ann, before he leaves disappointed. Pepper Ann is left confused, believing she was taking pride in their heritage, but Moose calls her out for not really wanting to learn anything or even listen to them; she spent the whole day telling them about how much she "knew" about them. Lydia reminds Pepper Ann that even if he meant well, she was still stereotyping Native American culture, and how she shouldn't take things concerning any group of people at face value, especially if you don't know them at all.
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. The family doesn't take this well at first, although Andy gives her the benefit of the doubt, but asks her to drop her previous views to really learn about their culture. He goes into further detail on how each Native American tribe has its own unique heritage; 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. Using the family's history as a basis, Pepper Ann gives a much more well-informed presentation to a very excited class as well as her visiting parents and Andy, with the two sharing a thumbs up.
Cast[]
Main 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 Segall as Moose Pearson
- April Winchell as Lydia Pearson, Grandma Lillian
Additional voices[]
- 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-Francks as Tessa and Vanessa James
Other appearances[]
- Trinket St. Blair (cameo)
- Cissy Rooney (cameo)
- Constance Goldman (cameo)
- Crying Girl (cameo)
- Gwen Mezzrow (cameo)
- Noah (cameo)
- Pimply Boy (cameo)
Desk Gag[]
"Ha-ha, cool maracas!"
Trivia[]
General[]
- An assorted number of Pepper Ann's maternal ancestors are featured on the Lilly family tree, tracing back to the 1300's. Visible names include
- Hans
- Alex
- Ludovic
- Gomez
- Bart
- Olga
- Leonov
- Alice
- Hendry
- Jim
- Victor
- Sal
- Maisha
- Tasha
- Pepper Ann's branch is 9, twig 42.
- There used to be a branch for the Pearson family, but it was cut down after the divorce.
- The episode was consulted on by historian Stephanie Fitzgerald.
- Sue Rose claims this was the riskiest episode to make, because of the way Pepper Ann acted. Nevertheless, she regards this as her favorite episode of the series.[1]
- This episode was released on VHS along with "The Telltale 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.
Continuity[]
- Pepper Ann reveals that her family used to live in Cleveland (possibly before moving to Hazelnut), although she is clearly unsure of this.
- Lydia recalls Pepper Ann's (maternal) Great-Uncle Mihran emigrating from the old country in 1915, due to persecution of an unstated threat.
- Mihran also bears a great resemblance to Moose.
- Leo mentions Pepper Ann's Great-Great-Aunt Gertrude having two thumbs on her left hand.
- Lydia's side of the family has roots in England, Belgium, Russia, Poland, while Chuck's father was British, while her mother was from Spain; her grandmother being part of the Navajo Tribe
- Milo's family traces back to the Kanaka Maoli (Indigenous Hawaiian) settlers of the Hawaiian Islands.
- Dieter's family descends from Bavarian royalty.
- Tessa and Vanessa are 100% African American; their further roots are left unestablished.
- Nicky's family originated from Britain and emigrated to the New World in the mid 18th century due to religious struggles originating from the early stages of Calvinism during the 16th century.
Allusions[]
- The title of this episode is a spoof of the 1990 film Dances with Wolves.
- 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.
