Native American Culture Analysis

As Indians living in white culture, many problems and conflicts arise. Most Indians tend to suffer microaggressions, racism and most of all, danger to their culture. Their culture gets torn from them, and slowly, as if it was dream, many Indians become absorbed into white society, all the while trying to retain their Indian lifestyle. In Indian Father’s Plea by Robert Lake and Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie, the idea that a dominant culture can pose many threats to a minority culture is shown by Wind-Wolf and Alexie.
Wind-Wolf, a young, innocent Indian boy is struggling to fit in while being torn apart between white culture and Indian culture. Having recently transferred to a new school, Wind-Wolf is trying to adapt to the new culture while

He’s been made fun of for his race, laughed at for his name, and even been refused to play with the white kids, all because he’s Indian. A clear example of discrimination is when Wind-Wolf’s friend’s mother forbad her son from playing with Wind-Wolf. She described Wind-Wolf as, “Indians and we are white, and I don’t want my kids growing up with your kind of people”(Lake 3). The mother clearly doesn’t respect Indians and looks down on them as people who don't deserve to be on the same level as whites. She imagines Indians as a danger to her son and fear they’ll make bad influences on him. To make matters worse, the teacher had trouble pronouncing Wind-Wolf’s name as she, “wanted to call him Wind, insisting that Wolf must be his middle name”(Lake 3). This shows that the white culture is unfamiliar with Indian culture which is why they thought Wind-Wolf was a strange name, when in Indian society, Wind-Wolf is a significant and powerful name. Based on this, Wind-Wolf suffers from institutionalized oppression because everyone around him doesn’t recognize how important his culture, rituals, and heritage are. They disrespect his self-identity as an Indian and slowly, Wind-Wolf starts to betray his own culture by, “refusing to sing native songs, play with Indian artifacts, learn his native language, or participate in sacred ceremonies”(Lake 4). He can’t grasp onto the fact anymore that he is a descendent of Native Americans and that the white culture is pulling him away from his heritage. It’s distancing himself from his culture as he’s doing everything like a white person would. Wind-Wolf, with no wrongdoings, “is taught between two worlds...torn between two distinct cultures”(Lake 3). He’s always down on himself because he just wants to belong. His education and social life are affected by this, leading to a weakening