Catherine A. Lutz - Unnatural Emotions Essay

The Indigenous people of America are called Native Americans or often referred to as “Indians”. They make up about two percent of the population in the United States and some of them still live in reservations. They once lived freely in the wilderness without any sort of influence or exposure from the Europeans who later came in the year of 1492, and therefore their culture is very different from ours. The Iroquois are northeastern Native Americans who are historically important and powerful. In the following essay we will discover some differences between the religious beliefs of the Native American Iroquois and Christianity to see if culture and ways of living have an effect on the view of religion, but we will also get to know some similarities. I am going to be focusing on the Iroquois, which are the northeastern Native Americans in North America.

In Samson Occom’s collective writings, Occom uses his religious convictions to explain a certain liberation that spirituality can provide Native Americans in an age of tension with white colonists. Occom’s specific teachings of the contemporary Calvinist interpretations of Christianity provide an outlet through which Native Americans can both embrace their native cultures and seek redemption through what Occom believes is the only true path to salvation. Additionally, Occom, through his connections with white colonists, attempts to provide a sense of political liberation to Native Americans by giving them the same educational opportunities. Overall, Occom’s religiosity manifests itself in a way that both attempts to free Native Americans, while also often yielding conflict with the white Calvinists with which Occom interacts.

Throughout the course of history there have been numerous accounts regarding Native American and European interaction. From first contact to Indian removal, the interaction was somewhat of a roller coaster ride, leading from times of peace to mini wars and rebellions staged by the Native American tribes. The first part of this essay will briefly discuss the pre-Columbian Indian civilizations in North America and provide simple awareness of their cultures, while the second part of this essay will explore all major Native American contact leading up to, and through, the American Revolution while emphasizing the impact of Spanish, French, and English explorers and colonies on Native American culture and vice versa. The third, and final, part of this essay will explore Native American interaction after the American Revolution with emphasis on westward expansion and the Jacksonian Era leading into Indian removal. Furthermore, this essay will attempt to provide insight into aspects of Native American/European interaction that are often ignored such as: gender relations between European men and Native American women, slavery and captivity of native peoples, trade between Native Americans and European colonists, and the effects of religion on Native American tribes.

The short story “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Leslie Marmon Silko is a deceptively simple narrative about the death and funeral of an old man of the Laguna Pueblo tribe of Native Americans. Set in the desert southwest of the United States, the story is narrated from an omniscient point of view, and describes the discovery of the old man’s body, the preparation of the body for burial, and the interaction between the family of the dead man and the Catholic priest who lives on the reservation. The author uses very simple language and unsophisticated descriptions to describe an intricate and complex relationship between the Christian culture of the priest and the religious culture of the Pueblo culture. Descriptions of the bleak landscape

The Native American religion was very different from the Christian religion of the Europeans. The Native American’s didn’t pray to a god, they prayed to something in nature such as the sky or the sun. “O our Mother the Earth, O our Father the Sky” (Tewa Indian). The colonists thought that it was barbaric that the Native American’s didn’t believe in a God. The colonists thought that there was only one correct way to be religious and that the way that the Native American’s practiced religion was ‘the wrong way’.

Throughout the life cycle, a person undergoes many changes.  One matures both physically and emotionally as time passes.  Emotional growth is quite often more difficult than physical growth.  A person must realize his faults and admit to them before he can develop emotionally, while one does not need any self-analyzation to develop physically.  In her book Ordinary People, Judith Guest depicts the struggles man must experience in order to reach his ideal emotional perfection.  Conrad, the book's protagonist, and his father Calvin, were both searching for higher levels of emotional health. Conrad had to let out and face all the feelings he had repressed, while Calvin had to correct

Maintaining Cultural Identity in “This Blessed House” Culture is a very important part of the human identity, maintaining steadfast religious beliefs, for example, throughout an entire lifetime is difficult.. Moving to a new country and trying to establish pieces of your native culture is something far more challenging. In “This Blessed House,” penned by Jhumpa Lahiri, a man deals with the bombardment of Christianity on his Indian culture and the strong influence it has on his wife. The story delves into a new house, previously occupied by Christians, or so it appears from the artifacts found all around the house.

When the men of Agamemnon come to take Briseis, Achilles gives her up without a fight, despite how heavy his heart is at the thought of losing her. Once she is gone, Achilles withdraws from his companions and sobs, praying to his mother to understand why he is treated the way he is, why he isn’t treated with respect. His mother, hearing his laments, comes to console him, telling him that she will visit Zeus and try to sway him towards helping the Trojans and destroying the Achaeans, to make them pay for disrespecting the son of Thetis.

Vine Deloria discussed and elaborated on many issues in God Is Red: A Native View of Religion. The Indian movement within America has many difficulties including how the Christian and Native perspectives on many issues, including history, time and land, was informative and enlightening. The issues between the conflicting viewpoints on creation, history and how it effects our present American culture has been an interest to me. I want to focus on the chapter on Death and Religion where the contrast between the Christian worldview and the Native worldview have informed and influenced our cultural as a whole and on a personal level.

   In the poem The School Children, author Louise Gluck successfully creates for the reader an image of the children, their mothers and the position that they hold in their society.  Her simple, yet descriptive words suggest a more in depth meaning that allows one to look past the simple story line of the poem and actually look into the entire situation the poem discusses.  The story line simply  tells of mothers who pick apples and send their children off to school with them, in hopes that they will receive an education in return.  After completion of the poem, the reader comes to the realization that the apples are the center of the poem, around which the true meaning revolves.

The identity of Native Americans can be described in connection with Christianity considering their stand on religious matters. In the book Sermon on Moses Paul, the writer, Samson Occom explains how grave sins can be and the fact that they can produce severe consequences. During his sermon, the

At first the Indians welcomed the Americans with open arms and generosity and were in turn given “poison”, alcohol diseases, and a war. If these men who devastated his people were Christians, then it is not a religion his people are interested in. Furthermore, Red Jacket uses the past to tell the British how the Great Spirit created, has guided, and provided for his people over the years. It was not until the America “forefathers” came to the Seneca Tribe, that conflict began to arise. With that it goes to say that the religion that is associated with these men is not a good religion.

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has

Page 9: “I suppose we must look strange to them, and what must also be strange is the way we are living among them – no longer apart, but eating their food and often wearing Indian clothes

Lust is having a self-indulgent sexual desire. Susan Minot portrayed the mind of a promiscuous high school female perfectly. Lust is powerful and seductive, but it's inherently selfish and opposed to love. For many girls who are having sex with different boys they can identify with the desire to be needed. The characters in "Lust" are written in a way to highlight the dysfunction and disconnection of everyone involved. The narrator herself is nameless and faceless, making the reader believe that she has already somehow disappeared, just as the men in her life have made her disappear after having sex. Similarly, the men are listed in a brief and are identified only by their sexual acts or by other, easily objectified characteristics. What