Akili Puller
Cheryl Waite
HIS215111
1 May 2018
Discussion Panel Synopsis - Lost Bird of Wounded Knee For my part of the panel discussion I will discuss the connections between the book and historical/current issues about women today. The book “Lost Bird of Wounded Knee” talks about the massacre at Wounded Knee and the life of Zintkala Nuni, her journey to find her roots and the exhumation of her body to return her to her rightful place. For my presentation I chose to focus on the issues that Native American women are facing today and how that relates to the story of Lost Bird. Since birth Zintkala Nuni was faced with many challenges as a Native American woman. Among those challenges was the issue of physical abuse at the hands of her adopted
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The book describes a situation where a young Indian woman’s baby was taken away after she gave birth in a hospital simply because she did not have a ride back to her home. I think the lack of education of both the young woman who had no knowledge of the law and how to defend herself and her newborn form the social worker and the social worker who knew nothing more than this young woman didn’t have a ride, played a big role and is still an issue for Native American women today. “BIE schools are notoriously underfunded and underperforming; with their educational outcomes and graduation rates significantly lower than public schools.” (nativepartnership.org) Also playing a big role in this scenario is the lack of access to adequate healthcare because the young women had to travel so far to get help and without a way back home her child was taken. I found that access to medical facilities is still a problem for Native American women today. “Local IHS facilities often lack basic services like emergency contraception, in some cases forcing Native patients to travel hundreds of miles for treatment elsewhere.” (huffingtonpost.com) A (rainn.org, 2018) …show more content…
Violence against women, lack of education and healthcare resources, and access to voting polls are some of the issues Native American women are still facing in their communities today. Native American women are “two times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted in their life than women of other races”. Due to lack of federal funding schools on Indian reservations are deteriorated and structurally dangerous, for the same reason women do not have access to adequate healthcare. Especially important to Native Americans is their voting right since their land has been entrusted to the federal government. However in most cases Indian Reservations are located more than 100 miles from the nearest polling
Her book focuses on the myriads of issues and struggles that Indigenous men and women have faced and will continue to face because of colonialism. During her speech, Palmater addressed the grave effects of the cultural assimilation that permeated in Indigenous communities, particularly the Indian Residential School System and the Indian Act, which has been extensively discussed in both lectures and readings. Such policies were created by European settlers to institutionalize colonialism and maintain the social and cultural hierarchy that established Aboriginals as the inferior group. Palmater also discussed that according to news reports, an Aboriginal baby from Manitoba is taken away every single day by the government and is put in social care (CTVNews.ca Staff, 2015). This echoes Andrea Smith’s argument in “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” that colonialism continues to affect Aboriginals through genocide (2006, p. 68). Although such actions by the government are not physical acts of genocide, where 90% of Aboriginal population was annihilated, it is this modern day cultural assimilation that succeeded the Indigenous Residential School System and the Indian Act embodies colonialism and genocide (Larkin, November 4,
In the words of Ross, her focus and goal for writing this book was to write “…about the racialized and gendered experiences of incarceration, with a focus on Native American women and the loss of sovereignty as it is implicitly tied to Native criminality…” because there was little information on this subject. This means that Ross studied wo...
The issue of identity also emerged in her commentary on how many Native American women are forced to prove their ethnicity for equality in health care and school: “For urban Indian women, who are not registered in federal government records, social services and benefits are difficult or almost impossible to obtain” (page 222). This governmental requirement for people to prove themselves as being “indian enough” can be damaging to one’s sense of self, and is proof of ongoing colonialism because the oppressors are determining whether one’s identity is legitimate.
Zitkala-Sa was extremely passionate with her native background, and she was adamant on preserving her heritage. When Zitkala was a young girl, she attended White’s Manual Labor Institute, where she was immersed in a different way of life that was completely foreign and unjust to her. And this new way of life that the white settlers imposed on their home land made it extremely difficult for Native Americans to thrive and continue with their own culture. In Zitkala’s book American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings, she uses traditional and personal Native stories to help shape her activism towards equality amongst these new settlers. Zitkala’s main life goal was to liberate her people and help
In the book Bad Indians, Miranda talks about the many issues Indigenous People go through. Miranda talks about the struggles Indigenous people go through; however, she talks about them in the perspective of Native Americans. Many people learn about Indigenous People through classrooms and textbooks, in the perspective of White people. In Bad Indians, Miranda uses different literary devices to show her perspective of the way Indigenous People were treated, the issues that arose from missionization, as well as the violence that followed through such issues. Bad Indians is an excellent example that shows how different history is told in different perspectives.
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,
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
Lakota Woman Essay In Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog argues that in the 1970’s, the American Indian Movement used protests and militancy to improve their visibility in mainstream Anglo American society in an effort to secure sovereignty for all "full blood" American Indians in spite of generational gender, power, and financial conflicts on the reservations. When reading this book, one can see that this is indeed the case. The struggles these people underwent in their daily lives on the reservation eventually became too much, and the American Indian Movement was born. AIM, as we will see through several examples, made their case known to the people of the United States, and militancy ultimately became necessary in order to do so.
The analysis of tribal and federal law is complex, confusing, and does not offer a “catch-all” answer to the issues at hand. To reiterate my research questions from the beginning, I hope by discussion and critical thought, we are able to come up with practical and reasonable solutions to our problems. “How can we reduce the instances of sexual violence and streamline prosecution, creating a safe and supportive environment for American Indian women?” My question probes at an area that seems to be lacking in the research. What are some of the possible explanations to the high rates of sex crimes on reservations and how can we create changes to lower these rates?
Native-Americans make up one of the smallest portions of our population, but are still victims of mass incarceration and police brutality Many Native-American reservations have high unemployment rates. Poverty in these areas is also common. Reserved, sacred land for Native-Americans is also disappearing as more and more land is being taken away by United States government. The government also disobeys treaty rights by exploiting their land for natural resources to gain profit. Low graduation rates are common in Native school districts. Suicide is much more prevalent among Native-American youth when compared to the rest of the nation. They also generally receive poor healthcare. Violence and abuse of children and women is more common in Native-American communities as well.
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.
The author is pointing out that women will not be quiet about the struggles of native women. She states, "It's a disease to me, to be quiet, You see it in the communities, on the reserves, in families and stuff, where if somebody's abused, people
Mankind has struggled, since the beginning of civilization, to see beyond race and cultural differences when defining human value and dignity. The ideas of slavery, oppression, and genocide have all been cultivated by ignorance and the degradation of misunderstood people by a powerful majority that claim to be assimilating the minority. Both Charles Eastman and Gertrude Bonnin give a powerful depiction of Native Americans as they come to understand their place in the new world and desperately cling to traditions and a culture that give them their dignity. Both autobiographies attempt to educate white readers about misconceptions and prejudices that they have been exposed to about Native Americans. These prejudices have caused a majority of white America to fear and dehumanize the Indian populace to the point of oppression. Through their storytelling, Eastman and Bonnin give a perspective of Native American culture that is relatable and real. These writings bring a sense of human dignity to Native Americans and dispel the idea that “Indians” are a savage people who are unintelligent, heathenistic, and in need of guidance by the white man.
In this literary analysis, the June, 1973 issue of New Breed magazine defines the tumultuous activism of Native American communities, such as the Metis Tribe, that sought to resist the tyranny of white oppression in the era of the Wounded Knee Incident at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. One poem in this issue provides an important insight into the internal and external political conflict and corruption at Pine Ridge, which is defined in “Hawk” Henry J. Foster’s poem “Wounded Knee”. This issue also defines the internal issues of governance related to alcohol recovery programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, the Winter Warmth Project, and other community services that are meant to help the Metis tribe as a form of resistance
Doesn’t every woman deserve to have the correct pre and post natal care? For most women this is accessible if they have a middle to upper class lifestyle. This leaves women in a societal lower class and in poverty with little to no care when having a child. Ernest Hemingway addresses this issue in his short story “Indian Camp,” where a doctor helps an Indian woman give birth but without the proper care she deserves. Although it appears to be a story about a doctor performing a procedure in life threatening conditions, Hemingway addresses racism and sexism issues through the male characters behaviors and lack of care for women.