N. Scott Momaday wrote these lines in his 1991 book of poems, In the Presence of the Sun: “In the shine of photographs / are the slain, frozen and black / … In autumn there were songs, long / since muted in the blizzard.” In this poem called “Wounded Knee Creek”, Momaday depicts the aftermath of Federal and Native American conflict at the Battle of Wounded Knee. He reminds the reader of how the event and loss of native life are remembered solely through these photographs of the dead and lost. Momaday’s work represents the Western tradition of artists using their art to memorialize and remember the past peoples and places that have been transformed, built up, and destroyed through government institutions of the West. It is this remembrance of …show more content…
peoples and places in these works that depict the adaptation of government to the Western landscape and the hardships that came from the constantly changing nature of that governance. Robert Adams’s photography from the late 20th century of urban sprawl in the West is a reflection of the region’s increasing tendency towards urban, suburban, and exurban growth caused by government mechanisms. Anthropologist Thomas E. Sheridan writes about how the West has been transformed post-WWII from largely rural landscapes to increasingly urban and suburban areas dominated by sprawl due to the structuring of its governance. According to Sheridan, the West’s characteristic of pluralistic politics lead to “polemics, polarization, litigation, and gridlock.” The lack of central planning caused by these Western political characteristics was a prime reason for the growth of sprawl, and Adams depicts the outcome of this political gridlock and uncertainty. The attitude Robert Adams takes towards sprawl is representative of a bleak outlook of an increasingly isolated, abandoned, and immobilized West. His photographs in his album The New West display empty hills, uniform housing, and the marks of inhabited existence without a single human depicted. He portrays the replacement of sublimity in the landscape with the modern banality of unenriched life. Art History Professor Cécile Whiting writes about Adam’s hometown of Colorado Springs, and how “the governor of Colorado, John Love, sought compromise by instituting measures he claimed were intended to encourage the state’s economy while preventing urban sprawl.” Adams reacts in the same way as many of his fellow inhabitants to the governor’s efforts, arguing with his work that the sprawl had already become a permanent fixture of the land. The governor of Colorado, in Adams’ eyes, could not prevent what had already passed. This new West was of suburbs and sprawl, not majestic peaks and vast open plains. Adam’s work is a reaction to the lack of consistent governance in the West, and how its political characteristics have permanently changed its landscape. The government has not only affected the physical places of the West, but also the peoples as well, and the changing nature of government over time has been a central subject of Western artists. Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe's work The Shirley Letters and Genny Lim’s play Paper Angels are examples how the transforming nature of government in the West is reflected in the art and legends of the time.
In her fifteenth letter about the California gold mines at the time of the gold rush in the mid-19th century, Clappe writes, “as there are no state laws upon the subject, each mining community is permitted to make its own.” The types of miners and the communities formed during the time of the gold rush were primarily led by those independent from the Federal government. The lack of law turned the gold rush into an event truly like what Dame Shirley calls “nature's great lottery scheme.” Without large mining projects to unite individual miners or central planning schemes to organize land, the gold rush started as an individual venture with enormous risk. Clappe’s recollection of the gold rush period is in contrast to Genny Lim’s world depicted in her play Paper Angels, which depicts what happens to Chinese immigrants half a century after Clappe’s publication. In the play, the character Chin Gung expresses his disillusionment with his confinement at the Angel Island Detention Center: “this mountain is no mountain of gold. And I say all of you on this Island … will taste fool’s gold.” Lim’s work represents how the gold rush had been transformed into a legend of the West which attracted immigrants to essentially throw their lives away in jail. An important change from The Shirley Letters is the introduction of government into the Californian landscape by the time of Paper Angels’ events. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 set in place institutional structures meant to curb Chinese immigration, and Genny Lim’s work explores how the imposition of government and law in the West have led to discrimination, exclusion, and also an undying belief in the Western ideal. Chin Gung ends his speech by stating that “once a Gold Mountain boy, always a Gold Mountain boy. One
foot in America, one in China.” Even though Chin Gung realizes the institutional pressures against him, he still clings to the American Dream and of the idea of striking it rich with gold. His case is an example of how artists like Clappe have created a legend of the West that lives on and interacts with the institutions of government as they change over time. These two artists both explore how governance, or the lack of it, impact the people who live in the West, reflecting how the changing politics from one era to the next influence the artists of each period. The treatment of Native Americans in the West through legal institutions is also reflected by artists of the West. Francis A. Walker, a U.S. government official, wrote about the Federal government’s imposition over native populations, calling attention to the “insolence of conscious strength” of the House of Representatives to dictate the lives of thousands of people. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, natives were herded around the nation as the government constantly changed its attitude towards Native Americans. From the famous Trail of Tears to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and the Indian Self-Determination and Education Act of 1975, the Federal government’s changing administration was reflected in its changing willingness to give sovereign power to natives. Every few decades, the government would reverse its policy towards the natives, constantly creating tension and ambivalence over its unchallenged control of the land. Artists such as Johnny Cash have responded to this long history of native and government relationships. In the song “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” in his album Bitter Tears, the story is told of one of the marine officers who held up the American flag in the iconic shot at Iwo Jima. It is a heart-wrenching rendition of a song by the musician Peter LaFarge in 1962 that details how “the white man stole the water rights” from natives, eventually causing people like Ira Hayes to join the military once war erupted. The systematic deprivation of rights, property, and life from the natives is directly connected with the American Federal government, and it is artists like Johnny Cash who have immortalized the tense relationships between the native peoples and their governance. Wendy Rose, a Hopi and Miwok writer, touches on the erasure of her own history and deprivation of her future in her poem collection Bone Dance. In “I Expected My Skin and My Blood to Ripen”, she writes, “My seeds open / and have no future. / Now there has been no past.” It is this sense of lacking a future and having lost the past that is the essence of the native experience Rose attempts to convey. From physical conflicts like the Battle of Wounded Knee to the creation of reservations for native populations, artists of the West have tried to capture the plight of peoples ignored or oppressed by their government. Native Americans are just one example of the peoples interacting with the legal institutions created in the West to govern the land.
At first glance, John Taylor and Howling Wolf’s visual representations of the treaty signing at Medicine Creek Lodge appear very different from one another. It is more than apparent that the two artists have very different interpretations of the same event. This paper will visually analyze both works of art by comparing and contrasting the compositional balance, medium, and use of color, as well as how the artists narrated their views using different visual elements.
These art works are concerning what occurred in October 1867 when Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa and the United States government signed a peace treaty (Sayre, Pg. 40). The syllable of the syllable. The treaty was signed at Medicine Lodge Creek on Arkansas River in Kansas (Sayre, Pg. 40). The syllable of the syllable. John Taylor’s art was created off of sketches that were completed shortly after the events (Sayre, Pg. 40).
As I gazed across the book isles and leaned over carefully to pick one up out of the old dusty vaults of the library, a familiar object caught my eye in the poetry section. A picture in time stood still on this book, of two African American men both holding guitars. I immediately was attracted to this book of poems. For the Confederate Dead, by Kevin Young, is what it read on the front in cursive lettering. I turned to the back of the book and “Jazz“, and “blues” popped out of the paper back book and into my brain. Sometimes you can judge a book by it’s cover, I thought. Kevin Young’s For the Confederate Dead is a book of poems influenced by blues and jazz in the deep rural parts of the south.
As majority of the narrative in this poem is told through the perspective of a deceased Nishnaabeg native, there is a sense of entitlement to the land present which is evident through the passage: “ breathe we are supposed to be on the lake … we are not supposed to be standing on this desecrated mound looking not looking”. Through this poem, Simpson conveys the point of how natives are the true owners of the land and that colonizers are merely intruders and borrowers of the land. There is an underlying idea that instead of turning a blind eye to the abominations colonizers have created, the natives are supposed to be the ones enjoying and utilising the land. The notion of colonizers simply being visitors is furthered in the conclusion of the poem, in which the colonizers are welcomed to the land but are also told “please don’t stay too long” in the same passage. The conclusion of this poem breaks the colonialistic idea of land belonging to the colonizer once colonized by putting in perspective that colonizers are, in essence, just passerbys on land that is not
Luke 6:31 says, “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” History proves that our nation didn’t keep with verse in mind when we treated the Native Americans unfairly. Some examples of not treating them fairly was the Trail of Tears, The Massacre of Wounded Knee, and The Battle of Tippecanoe. This essay will explain how in these events Americans treated Native Americans how we shouldn’t of.
...d Native Americas in a negative light, such as Carl Wimer’s Abduction of Daniel Boone’s Daughter, George Caleb Bingham’s Concealed Enemy, and Horatio Greenough’s The Rescue. These two paintings and statue in particular should be included because they depict the views of people in that era. The view of Native Americans was that of savagery. In the painting by Wimer the woman is depicted a fair skinned maiden, due to the white dress who is being brutishly taken away. The statue by Greenough, which depicts a man protecting his family from a savage Native American, was outside of the United States Capital for nearly a hundred years before it was taken down. These views of indigenous people during the 19th century have lasting impacts on our country. It is our job to tell the real story of what happened to the Native Americans as victims of our view of manifest destiny.
The Susan Lee Johnson article, “Bulls, Bears, and Dancing Boys: Race, Gender, and Leisure in California Gold Rush,” illustrated how Anglo-men in the mining towns coped without Anglo-women present. The pattern of behavior from men in the Californian Gold Rush is reminiscent of the female gender roles assumed by men in the early establishment of Jamestown, Virginia. Although, factors such as; inadequacy, spare time, and clashing cultural concepts about the womanhood and race in California created more exaggerated distortions to the behavior of Anglo men.
The United States government initially celebrated the Battle at Wounded Knee as the final conflict between Native Americans and the United States military - after which the western frontier was considered safe for the incoming settlers. Over 20 medals were awarded to the soldiers for their valor on the battlefield. However, the understanding has changed regarding what actually took place at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890. The Hollywood version of the Battle of Wounded Knee accurately presents the case that the Battle at Wounded Knee was actually a massacre of the Sioux - the culminating act of betrayal and aggression carried out by the United States military,
Wounded Knee was a terrible event in US history. It showed how the US government didn't understand the Native Americans and treated them badly and unfairly.
One of the darkest times in American history was the conflict with the natives. A “war” fought with lies and brute force, the eviction and genocide of Native Americans still remains one of the most controversial topics when the subject of morality comes up. Perhaps one of the most egregious events to come of this atrocity was the Sand Creek Massacre. On the morning of November 29th, 1864, under the command of Colonel John Chivington, 700 members of the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry raped, looted, and killed the members of a Cheyenne tribe (Brown 86-94). Hearing the story of Sand Creek, one of the most horrific acts in American History, begs the question: Who were the savages?
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
“What have the ‘hostiles done? It seems to be so far a white man’s war” (Qtd. in Hines 30). The Indians that were killed at Wounded Knee committed no crime on their reservation in the time before the battle (Hines 36), they only practiced religion. The Ghost Dance movement resulted in a massacre at Wounded Knee which had a lasting impact on many people.
Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, New York, Bantam Press,1970
The video “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee,” tells the story of being pushed onto reservations in the Midwest and Black Hills negotiations. The main characters include Charles Eastman, Red Cloud, and Sitting Bull. These characters each play a significant role in capturing the emotional state of life among the governing agencies and tribal members.
Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of the value of the Native American past, these literary works have also revealed knowing perspectives on the meaning of the modern world in the lives of contemporary Native Americans.