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Discrimination and oppression of Native Americans
Injustices to Native Americans over the years
Stereotypes about native Americans
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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
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trying to hold on to his own. His father describes to his teacher, “My Indian child is a slow learner...It takes time to adjust to a new cultural system and learn new things”(Lake 2). Wind-Wolf’s father explains to the teacher that she should try to be be patient with Wind-Wolf because he needs time getting used to this new educational environment. Growing up, Wind-Wolf experienced and learned different things than his white peers. For example, “he’s been taught by our traditional people that there are 13 full moons in a year..13 planets in our solar system…”(Lake 3). Because of this, Wind-Wolf has a different perspective on education and has different knowledge compared to what his classmates have been taught in their classrooms. Another factor that separates Alexie from his classmates are his looks, hobbies, and beliefs. Because of these differences, he feels left out, but still yearns to fit in. One step he takes in trying to fit in is by cutting his own hair because at school, “he has no friends because they make fun of his long hair...but in Indian culture, long hair represents masculinity, balance, and a source of power”(Lake 3). These problems causes Wind-Wolf to, “feel that he does not belong”(Lake 4). This shows how the dominant white culture poses as an impediment for Wind-Wolf because none of his white peers can understand how important culture is to him and his family. He also has a hard time socializing in school because, “being the only Indian kid in his class,”(Lake 4) he has no other Indian kid to talk to, leaving him his only option; conform into the white culture. Additionally, Wind-Wolf suffers from discrimination as well as being dragged him away from his own culture due to influences from the white culture.
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
relationship with his own culture, and losing connection with his roots. Alexie, a young Indian boy as well, suffers the same problems as Wind-Wolf, but is different from his fellow Indian folks because he strives to not follow Indians’ expectations. All of Alexie’s classmates and friends have been seduced into believing that Indians are expected to be nothing but failures because in school, “we were expected to be stupid... expected to fail in the non-Indian world”(Alexie 4). Based on this, all of the Indian kids beside Alexie have already lost hope in life and given up on trying to succeed. Alexie wasn’t trying to just “survive”, he wanted to experience what life really meant in the real world. It’s sad to think that, “most Indian kids lived up to those expectation inside the classroom, but subverted them on the outside”(Alexie 4). They would fight outside of school, but stay as quiet as a mouse in a classroom. As undeveloped Indian children, they've been brainwashed into believing that “...those who failed were accepted by other Indians and pitied by non-Indians”(Alexie 4). Either way, they know both Indians and White people will disregard them if they succeed. This is why so many Indian kids are unsuccessful because they start early and progressively follow the same footsteps as their parents. Alexie however, doesn't believe in Indians’ expectations. He wants to be smart; he wants to succeed, and by accomplishing this, “he refused to fail. He was smart. He was arrogant. He was lucky”(Alexie 4). Being arrogant not only made Alexie stronger, but it saved him because he felt motivated to prove others wrong. The white people posed as barriers that prohibited Indian kids from succeeding, but he overcame them by disobeying and doing what he thought was best for himself. The dominant white culture labeled Indians as stupid, unsuccessful and poor, but Alexie knew better. He had faith in himself, and at the same time, “...he was trying to save his life”(Alexie 5). That said, he was more likely to have a brighter future than any other kid. In conclusion, both Alexie and Wind-Wolf lived in societies where they suffered from discrimination, oppression, and racism from the predominant white culture, but Alexie was stronger than Wind-Wolf. Wind-Wolf allowed the oppression and racism take the best of him which later caused him to feel ashamed of his race, while Alexie proved to his fellow Indians that they are all capable of succeeding, just like the white kids. Alexie possessed internal strength that Wind-Wolf didn’t have. This made Alexie mentally stronger because he didn’t care of expectations and racism, but instead he used it as a boost to encourage other Indians to fight. Quiet on the outside, but fierce as a lion inside, Alexie battled his way through hard times and threats to his life. He not only fought for himself, but most of all, for his Indian people. He dreamed of future generations having the opportunity to receive quality education and live brighter lives.
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
In The White Man’s Indian, Robert Berkhoffer analyzes how Native Americans have maintained a negative stereotype because of Whites. As a matter of fact, this book examines the evolution of Native Americans throughout American history by explaining the origin of the Indian stereotype, the change from religious justification to scientific racism to a modern anthropological viewpoint of Native Americans, the White portrayal of Native Americans through art, and the policies enacted to keep Native Americans as Whites perceive them to be. In the hope that Native Americans will be able to overcome how Whites have portrayed them, Berkhoffer is presenting
American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.
Author and Indian Activist, Vine Deloria makes compelling statements in chapters one and five of his Indiana Manifesto, “Custer Died for Your Sins.” Although published in 1969 this work lays important historic ground work for understanding the plight of the Indian in the United States. Written during the turbulent civil rights movement, Deloria makes interesting comparisons to the Black struggle for equal rights in the United States. He condemns the contemporary views toward Indians widely help by Whites and argues that Indians are wrongly seen through the historic lens of a pipe smoking, bow and arrow wielding savage. Deloria forcefully views the oppressors and conquerors of the Indian mainly as the United States federal government and Christian missionaries. The author’s overall thesis is that Whites view Indians the way they want to see them which is not based in reality. The resulting behavior of Whites towards Indians shows its affects in the false perception in law and culture.
According to Deloria, there are many misconceptions pertaining to the Indians. He amusingly tells of the common White practice of ...
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
Texas Indians were very unique in their culture and way of life. The Texas Indians had a unique social order; physical appearance, acquired subsistence in many different ways, and had many unique cultural practice. As a result, many historians study the native Indians in Texas with awe and amazement. With a deep and interesting analysis of the Texas Indians, historians can understand the people; and their way of life. Based on the text, “La Relacion” which was written by Alvar Nunez de Vaca, an analysis of said subject can be conducted.
Looking back on the Native American time period, I've come to a realization that the way all of them adapted to life with how they lived was much different then than how things are today. Going from the way they talked, how they dressed, how education was done, to how they live everyday, etc. I think it's all somewhat different with how people are today in those categories. But some of those things that the Native Americans were used to doing everyday, were being forced to change by different kinds of people. The Native American experience was a genocide act.
The United States is the largest immigrant receiving country in the world. A number of people with different cultures are moving to the United States every day. Therefore, American culture is a diverse mix of customs and traditions from almost every region of the world. However, any culture with the value of the traditions and beliefs can be greatly weakened when introduced to a new and overpowering culture. It happens quite frequently to families that move to a new city or country with different lifestyles. As a result, the children of these families grow up to not care as much about their original culture 's traditions as the older generations do. As we know, Native Americans, who are indigenous peoples of the United States, account for less
Celebrating your own race can be a beautiful thing, but when you’re placed in a position where you are the minority, it can bring about mental anguish and feelings of abandonment. The young Indian boy struggled to belong, but he could never bridge that gap because he would always look different. “It is terrible to have to feel inferior; to have to read reports of intelligence tests, and learn that one’s race is behind” (157). Even the white media has convinced the Indian boy that his own race is somehow less superior just because they have different cultural backgrounds. These accusations are absolutely absurd, nevertheless, the young Indian boy feels deeply estranged in this judgmental society. “We just don’t seem to fit in anywhere-certainly not among the whites, and not among the older people” (158). The boy feels like he cannot relate to anybody. He is lost in a world of loneliness. The boy finds relief when he returns home to visit his family on the reservation. He finally rediscovers his true self and realizes he cannot “be ashamed of his own people when he knows they have dreams as beautiful as white snow on a tall pine” (159). The boy once again feels like he is part of something special and no longer made to feel like an outcast. It is a terrible thing that our society is so judgmental that a minority can only feel accepted by his own family. Not only do we exclude people from different races...
After looking through the texts assigned for this unit as well as some popular discussions about how Native Americans are represented in the media, I believe that our views as a society as a whole have become more accepting and kind in the ways that we portray members of other ethnic groups including Native Americans. I think that we have come a long way from viewing Native Americans only as savages and that we are beginning to tap into the deeply spiritual nature that should be represented in the depiction of Native American cultures. I think that there is a lot more awareness in society now as far as how we view people of other cultures. However, we do tend to portray people how are currently threats to us in a more negative light than other
The Native American tribe called the Mandan, self-named Numakiki, or “tattooed people,” lived in North Dakota, where it still lives. The Mandan lived along the Missouri River in towns with 12-100 earth lodges which could hold several families. For food the Mandan hunted and farmed. Their history was an interesting time. The religion of the Mandan was similar to many Native American tribes at the time.
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