Summary Of The Cutting Of My Long Hair Poem By Zitkala-Sa

Maria Sanchez

Women’s Literature

Dr. Thompson

Nov 26 2014

Analyzing Literature: Zitkala-Sa Essays

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin was one of the first American Indian writers to publish her work without the intervention of an editor, translator or sponsor. Bonnin was also the first writer to publish her work using her Lakota name Zitkala-Sa. I will be analyzing two of her most well known essays, The Cutting of my Long Hair and Why I Am a Pagan, both essays are found in School Days of an Indian Girl. Her work is related to cultural issues due to her native ancestry and her personal struggle to assimilation both between the Western culture and the Native American way of living. I will review these aspects within her writing in specific relation to

religion, biculturalism, and assimilation of Westernized education of Native Americans in the late 19th century.
Zitkala-Sa’s essays address many issues that she experienced as well as many Native Americans during this time period. The essay entitled The Cutting of My Long Hair begins with the narrative of a young and innocent girl in the land of apples and Zitkala-Sa’s reflects that the first day at school is unpleasant. It is cold in the “land of apples” and she finds it shameful to be deprived of her blanket and the harsh noises are jarring. The notes in the chapter further explain the use of apples in the Zitkala-Sa essays, “She explains that the children were enticed into attending school with the promise of apples; she uses this as me metaphor for a fall from innocence” (1305). Such promise that took children like Zitkala-Sa to abandon their culture and forced them to enter into Westernized school systems. The beginning of the essay clearly notes the innocence of Zitkala-Sa after noticing the trees were “bare”. She says, “The first day in the land of apples was a bitter-cold one; for the snow still covered the ground, and the trees were bare” (1305). She conveys that she was brought to school against her will and this quote shows the unfulfilled promises and the reality she faces upon arrival.
Her excitement for the adventure soon fades as she discovers the austere and unfamiliar world. The narrative deals with the prejudices and humiliation faced from early American mainstream culture. Zitkala-Sa’s autobiography deal with women of marginalized communities. Zitkala-Sa finds herself powerless, “And though my spirit tore itself in struggling for its lost freedom, all was useless” (1305). She is forced to learn how to dress, eat and write like a Western individual and two worlds clash during her childhood. When she was forced to wear Westernized clothing she felt as if her whole world had come crashing down, that this was a very important way to identify herself and it was no longer acceptable. She conveys the feeling here, “I felt like sinking to the floor, for my blanket had been stripped from my shoulders” (1305). There is a repetition of these instances that continue throughout the narrative. Zitkala-Sa was not used to the new set of rules in her new home and when she could not follow them correctly it was frustrating to her. She felt humiliated for the huge change she encounters. She says, “I began crying instead, for by this time I was afraid to venture anything more” (1305). She is perplexed and disillusioned by this new lifestyle that is completely foreign to her and yet so accepted by the other children and the teachers.
Zitkala-Sa also looks at the physical differences between herself and the "palefaces" running the school.

In the beginning of the vignette she lines up with the other American Indian children and Zitkala-Sa states that she did not speak a word of the English language. She says, “My friend Judewin gave me a terrible warning. Judewin knew a few words of English; and she had overheard the paleface woman talk about cutting our long, heavy hair” (The Cutting of My Long hair, 1306). Zitkala-Sa is terrified by the news because her strong ties to her native culture and the fact that her native language will soon became disrupted. She says, “Our mother had taught us that only unskilled warriors who were capture had their hair shingled by the enemy. Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners, and shingled hair by cowards!” The meaning of having long hair for the Native American was highly important and meaningful. Her tone changes as if she was screaming for help. Her use of the exclamation point at the end is to convey that that she did not agree with cutting her long hair since is seen as a symbol of

defeat.
As a teenager she feels marginalized in both Native American culture and in the Western culture because she does not fully belong to either. Zitkala-Sa found herself into two different cultures and two different belief systems. After she had her hair removed she sadly describes, “Then I lost my spirit… I had suffered extreme indignities”(1306). Zitkala-Sa finds extreme symbolism in the cutting of her hair and the cutting away of her own culture. Sadly she conveys that her dignity as human and as Native American has lost its value. She states, “For now I was only one of the many little animals driven by a herder” (1306). She is dehumanized by the assimilation process and feels that she is no longer a respected human being but an animal. As Zitkala-Sa grows up she reflects upon the mass assimilation and religious conversion of many Native Americans in the United States, which leads into her second narrative.
Why I Am A Pagan also addresses Zitkala Sa’s personal experience with assimilation, especially the loss of traditional ways of living and the forced removal of Native American children. Zitkala-Sa opens up the theme of spirituality and missionary education with her reflection on her daily life and an encounter with a Christian preacher who chastises her for her refusal to join the Church. In this narrative Zitkala-Sa seems to open with the idea of Native American spirituality and those symbols in her personal life. The narrative has a certain sentimentality and self-consciously "poetic" language to describe her love of nature. The narrative ends with the “invasion” of the Christian religion into her culture and the pressure to assimilate for many Native Americans. Zitkala-Sa feels that her fellow Native Americans have been tricked into assimilation, “Like instantaneous lightning flashes came pictures of my own mothers’ making, for she, too, is now a follower of the new superstition” (1902). This reflects Zitkala-Sa’s feelings of resentment of her own mother’s conversion to the Christian religion as she sees others convert as well.
Interestingly, she does not satirize the white preacher, but one of her own kin whom she sees as Zitkala-Sa was very proud of her Sioux ancestry.

She sought acceptance in the Anglo world on her own terms, refusing to bend to the prevailing ethnocentrism of her time. From her perspective, Indian peoples possessed a cultural tradition not merely equal, but superior, to that of Anglo America. The title of the narrative and the conclusion summarize her feelings of not being fully a part of either world, she is tied to her Native American ideal of spirituality but refuses the newly accepted idea of religion in Westernized society. She states, “A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of the birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, I am a Pagan” (1902). She consciously chooses the ideals that she was raised with rather than cave into the pressure to believe in what mainstream society is converting to for the sake of

Westernization.
Zitkala-Sa is one of few examples of a generation lost in time, the mass assimilation efforts of the United States and the conversion from “paganism” to Christianity for an entire population. Zitkala-Sa points out the hypocrisy of the time and reflects poignantly back on the struggles she faces as a Native American growing up in this new era. Zitkala-Sa’s identity changes throughout these narratives and her spirituality and defiance is clear and endearing throughout the reflections. Zitkala-Sa still manages to hold onto her Native American identity though pressured to assimilate by her new educators and religious representatives. Zitkala-Sa is refreshingly unapologetic with her perspective and offers very insightful critiques of American culture that are relevant today and help us remember the wrongs we have done to other cultures in the country.