Four Souls

I really enjoyed the novel Four Souls, I found the humor in it and plot itself to be a lot more pleasant to read than I expected from a Native American studies class. Something about the novel that drew curiosity within me was the author's choice of tone. She wrote it partially from the Native American perspective and partially from the White man perspective, and omits the voice of some of the characters completely. What do you think her purpose in doing this is?

I feel as though Erdrich did this in order to give insights of the two cultures on simultaneous events. And I feel as though she omitted the voices of two characters in order use them as tools to show how the white man and native american view the mixed relations of their two cultures.

The Warrior's Ways

In The Warriors by Anna Lee Walters, the existense of survivance overpowering. The sisters' Uncle, Uncle Ralph, is the personification of survivance in a character. His constant lessons promoting their traditional Indian ways amongst his nieces is his way of fighting for his culture to carry on in the world that he sees overtaking his traditional lifestyle. Similarly Uncle Ralph's bizarre behavior could be a result of the troubles he has had to encounter. For example his consistancy of always being on the run and always bringing a meal to those that he visits upholds the Indian traditions. Potentiallly the constant traveling could be the Uncle attempting to carry on his tribes tradition of migrating and being on the move and maybe his alcoholism isa result of the suppression and struggles he went through watching his traditional Indian ways disappear into the modern "white mans" culture. What this reading made me wonder is what time era was this story written, are we talking modern times or still back in the beginning of much of the Indian assimilation

What Part Moon?

What Part Moon? by Inez Petersen elicits the struggles of living as a person of mixed heritage. Petersen writes of the confrontations and awkwardness of not knowing how to respond to the constant question of "What part Indian are you?" Nowadays, with the high propensity of mixed cultures within our society, people have become obsessed with percentages and numbers to identify their culture. Agreeing with Inez's argument, it is not a number or percentage that makes one a part of a culture, but their devotion and love for it and their lifestyle. If someone is full Native American but chooses to not embrace themselves in their culture and someone is a percentage say only half Native American but lives a more culturally Native American lifestyle, then the person with a mixed heritage should be determined "more Indian." As Petersen states, you heritage lies within whats in your heart. But should this mean that someone who has no percentage of a heritage within them can choose to associate with any culture they wish?

Mary Brave Bird

In We Aim NOT to Please by Mary Brave Bird her survivance writing takes a rather disconnected tone. While reading her piece there were actually points where I was taken aback and thinking that it was actually written by the white man. By using language such as "the people," it sort of portrays the illusion that Brave Bird doesn't associate herself as one of the Native Americans, or at one point I began to question if she was a whiteman living in the Indian community to study them or something. I thought it was kind of ironic for her to write from such a distance from her culture; she was in a sort dissociating herself from a culture that she was emphasizing in such a positive light. By taking this approach to her story I think Brave Bird was not trying to dissociate from her heritage, but rather she was trying to give them better recognization. By writing in a disassociated tone, it could bring her story better recognition because rather than and Indian writing positively about her own culture, it would grab readers as a outsider and "more accredible" white man writing about the Indians with a positive connotation. In the end by saying that she is proud and Native American, could be intended to throw a twist at the reader, maybe proving to them that Native American's are more similar to whites than they are credited to be and that the are capable of all the same intelligence and skills. Did anyone notice the same trend?

Savages?

I found Winnemuca's reading from Life Among the Paiutes to be very telling about the true meaning of the "Savage" stereotype placed upon the Native Americans.  Through her writing I believe that Winnemuca really transforms her readers image of the indigenous people away from an aggressive monstrous image to friendly and peaceful, I know it did for me at least.

By talking through the personal experiences of her tribe and specifically her and her families experiences  with the white really captures the reader to empathize with the indigenous viewpoint.  After reading about the grandfather and chief leader continuously trying to welcome the whites with a friendly greeting and the amount of excitement her grandfather elicited about the arrival of the whites, it allowed their true intentions to shine through.  The Native Americans had no intentions of doing anything but aid the whites upon their arrival, offering aid with food and housing helping them survive on unfamiliar land.  To me, this made the poor treatment of the indigenous people to be even more devastating, for their pure intentions were met with nothing but greed and cruelty.

First Blog

I titled my first blog enp28 on accident, I basically got really confused by this site, I'm not exactly computer literate. Enp28 is my first email address from way back in the day, like sixth grade or so. The three letters stand for my initials and the two numbers are my favorite numbers from every since I was little. I didn't exactly mean to make this my title, but for lack of better idea, it was the easy choice.

So far in this class, I was really interested by the readings of book one and book two of the Popol Vuh. I think the personification of the animals and the trickery throughout the books are two aspects that greatly caught my interest. I liked how all of the trickery can be tied back to lessons and relate to the mistakes and faults of previous experiences in the story. It was interesting to link the trickery within the stories of the Popol Vuh to the life lessons and stories I've heard throughout my childhood.