The Ingalls, whether at fault of their own or impressions of society, enter the West with preconceived prejudices against its inhabitants. This creates a variety of dynamics within the little family, as some individuals, such as Ma, look down upon the Indians, while others, such as Laura, find fascination in the natives. It is the promise of seeing Indians, most importantly Indian babies, that allows Pa to secure Laura’s desire to move West. Yet there are familial influences, specifically Ma’s, that block Laura from fully embracing the Indians. Implications teach her to distance herself from the Indians by disassociating them from humanity. However, as this essay will later discuss, Laura’s interest in the Indians and her relationship with …show more content…
She is particularly obsessed with Indian babies, or “papooses.” She asks several times “Pa, when are we going to see a papoose?” (Wilder 123). Her pleading resembles the attitude towards new baby animals at a zoo. Laura does not desire a “papoose” because it is a baby and babies are endearing. She already has an infant in the family, and she never shows as much interest in Baby Carrie as she does in a baby Indian. She is interested in the exotic nature of the Indian baby and treats it with the fascination of a different species’ baby. The baby Indian is not the only person Laura treats like a zoo animal. When she sees Indians for the first time, she runs into the house and hides behind a slab of wood leaning on the wall. She stares as they wander around an unnatural confinement, finding excitement and entertainment in the viewing. The slab of wood is an important barrier she believes offers her protection from the strange and dangerous creatures. Laura “couldn’t help moving her head just a little, so that one eye peeped out and she could see the wild men”, but “felt safer” (Wilder 138) with the piece of wood, which represents a physical divide, or fence, between herself and the terrifying “animals” before her. They have black eyes, echoing other descriptions of inhuman eyes in the creatures Laura has encountered on the prairie. Wilder does not describe the communication between the two Indians as a language, but as “short, hard sounds” (140). Making a “sound” rather than speaking depicts animalistic communication between the Indians. The language barrier between the Ingalls and the Indians parallels the language barrier between humans and animals. These descriptive choices further illustrate Laura’s view of the Indians as
This book report deal with the Native American culture and how a girl named Taylor got away from what was expected of her as a part of her rural town in Pittman, Kentucky. She struggles along the way with her old beat up car and gets as far west as she can. Along the way she take care of an abandoned child which she found in the backseat of her car and decides to take care of her. She end up in a town outside Tucson and soon makes friends which she will consider family in the end.
It is not out of line to expect Native Americans to live like their ancestors, and I agree with the way that O'Nell made the government look like the wrongdoers. She talks like "indians" are just part of stories or like they have not kept up with the times. This book points out many of the problems for native americans by bringing out problems in identity, culture, and depression dealing with the Flathead Tribe in Montana. The book is divided into three parts to accomplish this. Part 1 is about the American government's policies that were put on the reservations and how it affected the culture of the Flathead Tribe attached to that reservation. This is the base for is to come in the next two parts, which talk about how lonliness an pity tie into the identity and depression.
Professor and poet Deborah A. Miranda, pieces together the past and uncovers and presents us with a story--a Californian story--in her memoir, “Bad Indians.” Her use of the Christian Novena, “Novena to Bad Indians,” illustrates the irony of using the form of her oppressors as a call out for help, not to God, but to her past ancestors. We tend to think of religion as a form of salvation and redemption of our lives here on Earth, in which we bare down and ask for forgiveness. But by challenging this common discourse using theological allegories and satirical terminology, Miranda turns her attention away from a Deity to call the reader out for help. It is crucial to recognize the struggles that the Native community currently face. Californian Indians are often not given recognition for their identity and their heritage, and are also repeatedly stereotyped as abusive, alcoholic, uncivilized, and “freeloaders” of the United States government. Such generalizations root back from European colonization, nevertheless still linger in our contemporary society. Miranda has taken the first step forward in characterizing few of these stereotypes in her Novena, but she’s given her story. Now what are we going to do with ours? It’s up to us to create our
In “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” Mary Rowlandson, a Puritan mother from Lancaster, Massachusetts, recounts the invasion of her town by Indians in 1676 during “King Philip’s War,” when the Indians attempted to regain their tribal lands. She describes the period of time where she is held under captivity by the Indians, and the dire circumstances under which she lives. During these terrible weeks, Mary Rowlandson deals with the death of her youngest child, the absence of her Christian family and friends, the terrible conditions that she must survive, and her struggle to maintain her faith in God. She also learns how to cope with the Indians amongst whom she lives, which causes her attitude towards them to undergo several changes. At first, she is utterly appalled by their lifestyle and actions, but as time passes she grows dependent upon them, and by the end of her captivity, she almost admires their ability to survive the harshest times with a very minimal amount of possessions and resources. Despite her growing awe of the Indian lifestyle, her attitude towards them always maintains a view that they are the “enemy.”
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.
We see scenes where Mae is happily conversing with her mother in both English and Wampanoag in the car as they pass through a town of Wampanoag named streets. This visual imagery urges the viewer to wonder how these familiar representations of Indian words and sayings work to hide how the indigenous people live in modern times. With the lack of presence of local Native peoples in the forms of mass media, people have started to believe the myth of the disappearance of the Native peoples in places such as New England. The film also briefly gestures, through interviews, that people have started to dismiss Indians as being long gone from the world, and that non-Natives see them as “invisible people” in order to justify the Euroamerican absorption of indigenous regions. The film encourages us to understand that, even with the impact of history, Native peoples still live here, and that they are still connected to their native land, that their homeland is one of the most important relationships. Jessie explains, “I lost my land rights” Translated into Wampanoag is “I fall down onto the ground,” because “For Wampanoag people to lose one’s land, is to fall off your
Although the work is 40 years old, “Custer Died for Your Sins” is still relevant and valuable in explaining the history and problems that Indians face in the United States. Deloria’s book reveals the White view of Indians as false compared to the reality of how Indians are in real life. The forceful intrusion of the U.S. Government and Christian missionaries have had the most oppressing and damaging affect on Indians. There is hope in Delorias words though. He believes that as more tribes become more politically active and capable, they will be able to become more economically independent for future generations. He feels much hope in the 1960’s generation of college age Indians returning to take ownership of their tribes problems and build a better future for their children.
Although the work is 40 years old, “Custer Died for Your Sins” is still relevant and valuable in explaining the history and problems that Indians face in the United States. Deloria book reveals the Whites view of Indians as false compared to the reality of how Indians are in real life. The forceful intrusion of the U.S. Government and Christian missionaries have had the most oppressing and damaging effect on Indians. There is hope in Delorias words though. He believes that as more tribes become more politically active and capable, they will be able to become more economically independent for future generations. He feels much hope in the 1960’s generation of college age Indians returning to take ownership of their tribes problems.
As Christian Morgenstern once said, “Home is not where you live but where they understand you.” This statement seems to reflect the disposition of Susan Power’s mother in her memoir, Museum Indians. As a teen, she had left behind her life on the plains of the Dakotas and moved to Chicago, looking for somewhere she felt people actually understood her, a real home. Years later, the story follows the author, as a young girl, and her mother touring their hometown and their Native American heritage. Power soon realizes that her mother doesn't feel the same comfort of a true home that she has always felt it in her city. Throughout the story, it becomes apparent how conflicted Power’s mother is between her old and new life through her hair and her reactions to the buffalo and her grandmother’s dress.
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...
As Christian Morgenstern once said, “Home is not where you live but where they understand you.” This statement seems to reflect the disposition of Susan Power’s mother in her memoir, Museum Indians. As a teen, she had left behind her life on the plains of the Dakotas and moved to Chicago, looking for somewhere she felt people actually understood her, a real home. Years later, the story follows the author, as a young girl, and her mother touring their hometown and their Native American heritage. Power soon realizes that her mother has never felt the comfort of a true home in either one of her “homes,” while she has always felt it in her city. Throughout the story, it becomes apparent how conflicted Power’s mother is between her old and new life
All in all, the treatment of the American Indian during the expansion westward was cruel and harsh. Thus, A Century of Dishonor conveys the truth about the frontier more so than the frontier thesis. Additionally, the common beliefs about the old west are founded in lies and deception. The despair that comes with knowing that people will continue to believe in these false ideas is epitomized by Terrell’s statement, “Perhaps nothing will ever penetrate the haze of puerile romance with which writers unfaithful to their profession and to themselves have surrounded the westerner who made a living in the saddle” (Terrell 182).
The Round House is a novel examining the oppression of Native Americans and the effects of that oppression on the Indian families and culture. This idea is explored when Joe discovers his mom has been raped and goes on a journey to find the rapist and punish him. However, being a Native American means a battle against many tribal restrictions that force this process to become long and arduous. Louise Erdrich illustrates how deceptive and limited the government is in regard to Native Americans through the image of the church.
For example, in the local school, stereotypes such as the image of the ‘wild man’ are consolidated by claiming that there was cannibalism among the indigenous people of the northwest coast (Soper-Jones 2009, 20; Robinson 2010, 68f.). Moreover, native people are still considered to be second-class citizens, which is pointed out by Lisamarie’s aunt Trudy, when she has been harassed by some white guys in a car: “[Y]ou’re a mouthy Indian, and everyone thinks we’re born sluts. Those guys would have said you were asking for it and got off scot-free”
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