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Us government and native american relations
Us government and native american relations
Negative effect of boarding schools
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Native American children were physically and sexually abused at a school they were forced to attend after being stripped from their homes in America’s attempt to eliminate Native peoples culture. Many children were caught running away, and many children never understood what home really meant. Poet Louise Erdich is part Native American and wrote the poem “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways” to uncover the issues of self-identity and home by letting a student who suffered in these schools speak. The poem follows Native American kids that were forced to attend Indian boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. By using imagery, allusion, and symbolism in “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways”, Louise Erdrich displays how repulsive Indian …show more content…
Indian Boarding Schools were a huge and un-noticed issues in the United States during the 19th and 20th century. And the author uses allusion in the poem to bring back what the Native American children experienced during this time in history. The “Turtle Mountains” is a key reference to allusion for this story. It tells the reader exactly where this poem is taking place, at the Chippewa Indian Reservation in North Dakota, the home land of the tribe members. Allusion is also used in the second line when the speaker says, “Boxcars stumbling north in dreams” (2). Boxcars are a North American railroad car that placed a huge significance in the Native Americans Lives. As the speaker says in the poem, “The rails, old lacerations that we love, shoot parallel across the face” (4-5). The rails that the Boxcars traveled on cut parallel through the Native Americans homeland. They say that the rail road track shoots right across the “face” which allude to the face being mother nature. Because in their culture it is very important to respect mother nature. And the rails cut right across her face making a “laceration”, or in other words a scar. The “face” of mother nature is also the authors use of …show more content…
The poem contains the central idea that many of these children never understood what home really means. In Native American culture the people venerate earth and it is referred to as mother nature which we see in the poem. The rails cut right through their home but they don’t view them like the average person. They view the tracks as if they are scars across mother earths face and her face is the Native American’s homeland. She is scarred for eternity but she is perfect in their dreams. This symbolism is ironic because the children try to reach home using the railroad that ruined natural life for them and many other Native Americans. In the second stanza the speaker says “The worn-down welts of ancient punishments lead back and fourth” (15-16). Which can be talking about the marks on the children’s bodies after getting caught while running away. But the “word-down welts” can also symbolize the welts that were put on mother nature throughout history. The last five lines of the poem sums up the symbol of hope through their memories and dreams. The last line of the poem says, “the spines of names and leaves.” (20-24). The “spines” symbolize the physical strength of the children and their ability to maintain hope individually “names”, and for their tribe
“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” is a short story written by Karen Russell and published in 2006 as part of an anthology. Much analysis on this short story presents it as a demonstration of opposites, for instance, “Girls and wolves don't make sense [together] because they belong to different realms” (Malin 172). Some say that this short story is a commentary on humanity’s “civilized existence [and] primitive warfare,” however, a more in depth reading of this story remains (Malin 172). The story is broken into five parts labeled as stages; each stage demonstrates the progression of the girls moving from a werewolf culture to a human culture within a Catholic boarding school, starting with wearing clothes, eating cooked foods, changing language and
In the film Unseen Tears, Native American families express the impact they still feel from their elders being forced into the Southern Ontario’s Mohawk Institute and the New York’s Thomas Indian School. Survivors of the boarding schools speak of their traumatic experiences of being removed from their families, being abused, and experiencing constant attack on their language and culture.
In 1887 the federal government launched boarding schools designed to remove young Indians from their homes and families in reservations and Richard Pratt –the leader of Carlisle Indian School –declared, “citizenize” them. Richard Pratt’s “Kill the Indian… and save the man” was a speech to a group of reformers in 1892 describing the vices of reservations and the virtues of schooling that would bring young Native Americans into the mainstream of American society.
In Miranda’s poem “Stories I Tell My Daughter,” she describes a girl who defends her identity and her honor when a boy at school questions her. Miranda states, “That day/ I took bloody sticks home to my mother,/ who said she expected nothing less/ from a girl/ who spoke/ to owls” (Indian Cartography 5-6). In the poem, “owls,” a symbol of intelligence and enlightenment, acts as a reminder of the important cultural connection between Native Americans and nature. The girl has reached enlightenment and new found strength because she realizes that she does not have to succumb to the white children’s abuse and she finally reacts to the exploitation. When referring to “mother,” one thinks of a caregiver and nurturer. The mother nurtures the daughter who has learned to defend herself and break social norms in order to protect her cultural identity. Finally, “bloody” implies violence and rage. When discussing indigenous poetry, the violence described typically refers to the bloodshed of the natives; however, ironically the blood in this poem results from an attack on a white person. Though Miranda does not encourage violence, she does encourage action from strong women when their cultural identities are being questioned. Likewise, Trask also connects strong women who break social norms with change. In her poem “Sons,” she addresses the social expectations of women and the familial obligations many of them abide by in their homes. Trask states, “I am slyly/ Reproductive: ideas/ books,/ history/ politics, reproducing/ the rope of resistance/ for unborn generations” (Light in the Crevice Never Seen 55-56). To begin, “resistance” refers to defiance and a refusal to conform. The speaker is assertively stating that she will serve as an activist for future Native Hawaiians who will
Bobbie Ann Mason and Sherman Alexie are two modern authors who write about their different childhood experiences and their hopes and desires for futures outside of the customs they were accustomed to. In her 1999 excerpt “Being Country” from her book Clear Springs: A Memoir, author and essayist Mason describes her childhood on a farm in rural Kentucky. Despite her childhood being pleasant, she rebelled against the simplistic confines that type of lifestyle demanded (106). Alexie writes in his essay from 1997 “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” of life on the Spokane Indian Reservation where he was born. He tells us how he used his love of reading as a way to escape from the Indian world and found success outside of the reservation. Even though they came from different cultures, Alexie and Mason were exposed at a young age to similar outside influences that helped shape their self-identities. As a result, they both envisioned futures that were not only ambitious but different from the lives they had been born into.
At these boarding schools, Native American children were able to leave their Indian reservations to attend schools that were often run by wealthy white males. These individuals often did not create these schools with the purest of intentions for they often believed that land occupied by Native American Tribes should be taken from them and put to use; it is this belief that brought about the purpose of the boarding schools which was to attempt to bring the Native American community into mainstream society (Bloom, 1996). These boarding schools are described to have been similar to a military institution or a private religious school. The students were to wear uniforms and obey strict rules that included not speaking one’s native tongue but rather only speaking English. Punishments for not obeying such rules often included doing laborious chores or being physically reprimanded (Bloom, 1996). Even with hars...
In the book Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog writes of the many struggles that she faced in everyday life as an American Indian woman. The Lack of running water or electricity, the poverty and oppression found on and around the Indian reservation, are just a few examples of the problems that she had to deal with on a continuing basis. She describes in detail the violence and hopelessness that her people encountered at the hands of the white man as well as the “hang around the fort Indians”. Mary Crow Dog tells of horrors she had to endure while attending the missionary school and of facing the discrimination found outside the reservation. Growing up, one of the hardest trials faced by Mary Crow Dog was not only that of being a Native American but of being a female in a world predominately dominated by Caucasian men.
Although the little girl doesn’t listen to the mother the first time she eventually listens in the end. For example, in stanzas 1-4, the little girl asks if she can go to the Freedom March not once, but twice even after her mother had already denied her the first time. These stanzas show how the daughter is a little disobedient at first, but then is able to respect her mother’s wishes. In stanzas 5 and 6, as the little girl is getting ready the mother is happy and smiling because she knows that her little girl is going to be safe, or so she thinks. By these stanzas the reader is able to tell how happy the mother was because she thought her daughter would be safe by listening to her and not going to the March. The last two stanzas, 7 and 8, show that the mother senses something is wrong, she runs to the church to find nothing, but her daughter’s shoe. At this moment she realizes that her baby is gone. These stanzas symbolize that even though her daughter listened to her she still wasn’t safe and is now dead. The Shoe symbolizes the loss the mother is going through and her loss of hope as well. This poem shows how elastic the bond between the daughter and her mother is because the daughter respected her mother’s wish by not going to the March and although the daughter is now dead her mother will always have her in her heart. By her having her
The article follows with the situations and laws that further marginalized Indigenous woman, such as: The Indian Act (in which Europeans imposed Eurocentric sexist laws, making Indigenous woman dependent) and Residential schools (where there were separations of family units and the spread of diseases due to poor diets and bad sanitary condition). These situations led the Indigenous populations to lose their parenting skills, live in poor health conditions and the loss of their cultural identity, lasting for several generations.
In the article “Indian Boarding Schools” the author, Joseph Bruchac illustrates that twenty years ago, his friend told him the story of how he wind up in an Indian boarding school andt Indians were taken by U.S Army and led them in chains. Then they put them into a monster train. After that, they went to Indian boarding school. Everyone who was in Indian boarding school had many stories about their experiences. For example, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, which was the most famous Indian School, Indian boys had their hair cut and decent in uniforms, and girls were outfitted with moveable Mother Hubbard dresses. Also, all students were subjected to discipline in every moment. The humanitarian duty of Carlisle was to prepare Indians for adaptation
The poem opens a thought of the American Dream, about what he wants America to be, and his hope for the country. The beginning line of the poem entails that America has to be the same America it once was, to me it’s a lie. America back then practiced slavery and oppression, it destroyed the lands of people to build their own homes. The ideal of an “America” was all a dream. It’s what they wanted for their America to be. We as people should be able to rise up and redefine the American equality and take back our land. The poem serves a powerful message of equality. The theme of this poem is against injustice and inequalities that exist in America and that can corrupt the American dream. All characters in the novels we read for the semester i.e. The African, Quick skills, and Tucker, have a lot of similarities with the poem, “Let America Be America Again”. They led their people to freedom by fighting against slavery and restrictions. The African escaped from his master. The African vowed to be free and never be enslaved again. Quickskill came to liberate the fellow slaves, who were enslaved in his master 's plantation. Tucker realized that he had some worth, and wanted freedom for his family. All three of these characters laid their lives on the line for their fellow men. They would rather prefer to die with dignity rather than become a white man’s property. They wanted
In Life Among the Qallunaat, Mini Aodla Freeman writes about the controversial topic of residential schools. At the time of the novel’s first publication, public awareness and concern about Indigenous rights were growing. However, Aodla Freeman’s description of residential schools is surprisingly mild, especially compared with the stories of injustice that are associated with the system. At school, Mini was required to attend church services and do chores like all the other students. There is little to indicate that Mini suffered due to the residential school system, though we learn from her interview that she wishes she had written badly about the system. Instead, she focuses on her homesickness and her peer relationships: “I was so alone – so many lonely moments when chores and classes were slack.” She describes prolonging her chores so “I could be me, the girl me parents had
In this poem the author, a third generation Japanese American, writes of the camps he was interned in during his early life. He uses significant imagery to show experiences along with his own feelings during and after the camps. The first important example of imagery from this poem is found in the first line, “In this Earthly configuration we have, not points of light, but prominent barbs of dark”. This powerful beginning imagery refers to the camps that the author was once interned in and the aftermath of the camps on the U.S. and the author’s own people. The image relates dull constellations to the internment camps by describing them as dark dreary places and “barbs of dark”. The “prominent barbs of dark” may be describing how overtime the U.S. has forgotten or hidden traces of the internment camps and the terrors experienced there. The overwhelming mention of darkness metaphorically shows how the U.S. was “in the dark” after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by immediately assuming Japanese Americans were enemies and a threat to national security. A second image from the poem uses verbs to portray the following of a path such as, “Rattlesnake a line... winding your way.. meander around..” to describe the literal and metaphorical path from the internment camps. The author used the verbs in a literal sense to show the vast spread of all the camps around the U.S. The author also metaphorically
Seasons come and go, basketball stars come and go, but people are still stuck in their same ruts. In “The Fun House”, a middle-aged Native woman realizes how little her husband and adult son value her, despite all that she does for them. She spends a day floating on her back in a creek, reflecting on her life and her relationship with her husband. Upon returning home, she puts on a dress she made a long time ago, that had been sitting in her home, unworn. The dress was so weighed down by beads that she had said of it before, “When a woman comes along who can carry the weight of this dress on her back, then we’ll have found the one who can save us all” (Alexie 76). By putting on the dress, she steps up to that challenge herself. After years of the same routines, “she knew things were beginning to change” (Alexie 82). “Indian Education”, a story that focuses mainly on the contrast between white and reservation school experiences, includes a short postscript that depicts a frequently recurring reservation
In The Heathen School, John Demos follows the story of a school for indigenous youth in Cornwall, Connecticut that was at danger of being lost in time as just “a piece of local history” (265). The story is entwined in the history of early America, a time when prejudice against non-whites was prevalent. The school and the youth that were brought to America from all over the world faced many challenges, which some faced well, but others did not. The story follows the school from its creation to its eventual closure, as well as some of the students’ lives after leaving the school. The story is intermixed with historical background and stories of the author’s journey as he conducted his research for the book.