Growing Up On The Indian Reservation

To begin, Junior uses his courage to do what is seen as precarious by his community, but he knows that it is for his own benefit. During the call to action, his Caucasian mathematics teacher, Mr. P, tells him to leave the reservation that he lives in, so he can prevent

In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will

At first Junior didn't like himself; he was constantly beaten up, he had a lisp and stuttered so he had no self-confidence. When he made the decision to go to Reardan, a white school, even Rowdy left him. Rowdy thought Junior was betraying their school by going away and transferring so Rowdy didn't talk to Junior anymore. Without his best friend, Junior completely lost hope. He was scared of the white people and did not expect them to welcome him. He was right. Most of the Americans were cold to him and he did not try to raise his status. Many of the white people made fun of him, and when one guy, Roger, said "Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers f*** buffalo?" (pg. 64) he felt that he had to stop it. So he punched him. Junior was expecting to get punched back, but he didn't. In the Indian Reservation, he

One of the main obstacles Junior overcomes is stereotypes. Junior is an Indian who lives on a reservation. Indians have many stereotypes that are towards them. For instance one stereotype is that they have no hope. Junior had a conversation with one of his teachers about his future, which involved him switching schools. Junior knew that if he stayed at the reservation high school he won’t be able to make a future for himself. So when his parents got home he asked them who has the most hope, “’White people, (Alexie45)’” his parents told him at the same time. Even

Growing up on a reservation where almost everyone has lost hope, Junior feels like an outcast for having a passion to chase after his dreams. When he moves to Reardan to find hope, he is gawked at and teased because he is the only Indian there. Junior faces internal conflicts within himself figuring out how to balance his two selves. According to Junior, “traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, [he] always felt like a stranger. [Junior] was half Indian in one place and half white in the other. It was like being Indian was [Junior’s] job, but it was only a part-time job. And it didn’t pay well at all” (Alexie 118). Junior is determined to discover his identity as it is evident in his choice of words. Feeling like a stranger wherever he goes, he believes that he is too white for the reservation while being too Indian for Reardan. The people on the reservation live in an atmosphere where they trust only each other and stick up for one another. However, when Junior goes to the reservation after being exposed to a community filled with white people, the Spokane’s do not see him as a true Indian anymore, hence the reason why Junior

When the settlers invaded the Indian’s homeland, they weren’t happy about it. They were very angry. Some were forced out of their homeland, and others decided to stay because they were afraid to leave. The people who stayed were put into reservations. Reservations still exist today; it is land that is reserved for Indians under a treaty or an agreement. The Indians didn’t want to be put into reservations, but they had no other option but to agree with the government. I looked into the reservations and they still exist today. The Indian Country Today states that there is a housing crisis in Indian country. Despite the Indian Housing Authority's (IHAs) recent efforts, the need for adequate housing on reservations remains acute. I think that it is horrible what they’re going through after all of these years, you would think that they’re living conditions would have gotten better, but sadly it hasn’t improved.

Junior’s words are true because Sherman Alexie doesn’t like to romanticize his writing. His writing expresses what their lives are actually like. Junior’s desire to leave does challenge the media portrayals because everyone writes what they feel is the stereotype for Native Americans. Like what Sherman Alexie said, other novels write what they feel Indians are supposed to be or the way media portrays them instead of what they are. It would feel less Indian if they wrote about an Indian having a white collar job or if they wrote about Indians being successful.

Not until now did I realized that Native American Reservations have been suffering the side effects of poverty and unemployment. It is impossible to describe the many factors that have contributed to the challenges that American Indians face today, but many of the statistics and fact show how life is for many in reservations. The poverty in Native American Reservation can be described in no other form than third world. It is common to find people living under horrible living conditions and many vagabonds. Tribes have reported as high as 85% of Native Americans in reservations are unemployed.

First, we interviewed his former math teacher, Mr. P, we asked how he broke his nose, and why he encouraged Junior to leave the reservation. He said, “I broke my nose because of junior. He was sick of everyone around him giving up, so he was frustrated and threw a book at my” “I encouraged him to leave the rez because all they’re being taught to give up and to become a drunk.” We then interviewed his parents, but they gave a simple statement of “We just want what’s best for him.” And finally, we interviewed his best friend Rowdy “He said Junior was a white loving traitor” before trying to hit the interviewer. We decided it was in our best interest to leave him

As an uncultured, whitewashed, charter school Indian, going into high school trying to find an extracurricular activity for me was a bit of a challenge. I was very unexposed to my culture, and had friends who showed me something I could be apart of. When I saw what it was, I turned the other way as fast as I could. We walked into the Canton cafeteria on a Tuesday after school, and I can truly say I’ve never seen so many Indians gathered in one place—on time—for the same cause. It honestly felt like being back in the motherland, and never do I want to go back there. I look ahead with the only two Indian friends I had standing at my sides and as I stand in awe, they go about greeting everyone and catching up. I’ve never felt so out of place, which was was weird considering everyone usually knew who I was, but I had no idea who any of these people were.

As I finished the film Crash and read the book, I found few similarities and more differences. Both of them, however, relating to Fredrickson’s ethnic relations in a lot of ways. Throughout both Crash and the Indian story there were concepts in common, but the prevailing point were the hardships of every culture. This main concept can be drawn to the models of ethnic hierarchy and one-way assimilation. In the film and in the book, each race tries to be dominant than the other and often minorities are looked down on. This is when things like stereotypes emerge. It seems like we have been battling racism for a long time, but no progress has been made despite media like Crash and the Indian story showing us the problems at hand.

College and life beyond the reservation was a distant dream due to poverty. Junior and his family live in poverty, along with most of the residents of the reservation. The school Junior originally attended, Wellpinit High School, was outdated and could not support someone who dreamed of leaving the reservation for

According to an article in The Washington Post, Sari Horwits states that sexual assault, unemployment, drug addiction and depression within the nation’s 326 Indian reservations leads to three times the national average of young Native American suicides based on statistics in 2014.( The hard lives — and high suicide rate — of Native American children on reservations - The Washington Post) With this in mind, 19th century promises made to uphold an adequate environment in Indian reservations were never fully established, so the lack of stability within these Native American Preserves continues to plague the present and future generations of American Indians. Because of the mental diagnosis of depression that has continuously lead these young

The Standing Rock Indian Reservation covers 3,571.9 square miles of North and South Dakota, and is home to 6,171 people. Though Standing Rock has been featured in recent news about the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), corporate invasion of tribal land is not the only issue this or any reservation faces. The people of Standing Rock have seen the graves of their families desecrated and much of their arable land submerged by the construction of the Oahe Dam, do not have access to sufficient clean water, and have an acute need for more housing to be built. Additionally, according to the the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA ERS), based on data from 2015, the Standing Rock Reservation meets criteria that classify it as a food

Part of the reason the U.S. forced Indians off reservations was a means of individualizing them, as opposed to seeing them as a tribe, and this in turn was a way that was thought to "civilize" them as well. This also provided relief to the government of their prior obligations of providing annuities. The reason to expand to the west was there was much more agricultural opportunities as well as the mineral wealth that had begun the western expansion.