Historians Vs Historians

The two short stories that I will use for this essay are “Three Generations of Native American’s Birth Experience” by Joy Harjo and “Black Mountatin, 1977” by Donald Antrim. In “Black Mountain, 1977”, the story is about a grandson and grandfather that try to keep a relationship even when the grandfather’s daughter doesn’t want them to have a relationship. The grandson would stay with his grandparents and found a way to keep their relationship strong even with some of the problems that happened along the way. In “Three Generations of Native American Women’s Birth Experience”, the story starts out with a girl as a pregnant teenager about to give birth on a reservation in a hospital that gave her free care but was not a pleasant place. Then goes on to tell about her next child’s birth and other women in her family about how different their birthing experiences were. Despite “Black Mountain, 1977” telling a story about a dysfunctional family, “Three Generations of Native American Women’s Birth Experience”, tells the growth of a family through hardships.

A general history of Native Americans has been a part of my education for as long as I can remember. I remember how during the week before Thanksgiving, my 1st grade class did a skit about the “First Thanksgiving”. In order to look like Indians we made vests out of paper grocery bags and crumpled them up to look like leather and drew on them with crayons. When I think of my education of Native American culture, I think of going to North Pacific Reservations and seeing 10-12 ft tall totem poles with the shapes of animals carved into them. Most of the Native American tribes that I have learned about have been Western United States tribes because I grew up in California. When I read the list of Wisconsin Native

What is a reasonable explanation for the purpose of the Native American Creation Stories? Explain the obvious differences in the effects of the creation stories being delivered in the traditional oral tradition as opposed to being read as one written narrative. Think about what happens when stories are told orally and as a "people" instead of from a single author's point of view. How reliable are the narratives as translations of oral tales?

“Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.-Native American proverb” This is a Native American proverb that shows how important storytelling and stories are to the Native Americans and their culture. Storytelling was a big way of teaching their lifestyle to their younger generation. Storytelling is very important to the Native American culture because it helps explain their way of life, faith, and helps teach life lessons to the younger generation.

Recently, I read a story of “A Coyote Columbus Story” by King. The story included history, the discovery of island by Columbus. However, this was written in different point of view, not similar to general history books. He was described as an invader from the other island, rather than a hero who explored the new land. From First nation people’s eyes, Columbus must have been a foreigner who stole everything from their land. His characteristic was told to be rude and disrespectful. Why does it contain different story comparing history books? Why is Columbus described as an invader? I realized story depended on who is writing the story. I started thinking about how history books were written, and furthermore, considered why novels were written.

Storytelling continues to be an integral part of Native American culture, providing us with an understanding of what was important to the Native Americans. Through their stories, Native Americans expressed an understanding of the environment, and the relationship that existed between themselves and their environment. These stories also provide us with a look at Native American legends, history, and a collection of knowledge critical to their survival. Native American stories are deeply rooted in their relationship with Mother Earth. Their many years connected with land, life, water and sky has created many stories explaining these important bonds with Mother Earth. From ancient times the Native Americans have looked to their

Native Americans had their own way of passing down wisdom of their culture. They passed their stories orally, that today is read in history books. Even after the written word had spread across the globe, Native Americans still primarily used storytelling to pass down their spiritual, mythological, and historical beliefs. Many people have heard one of these passed down stories, also known as myths or folktales.

In the tradition of Native American culture, there is no custom of written records of personal life or tribal history. Even though they have written language, the major way to record history is by oral storytelling. Those stories focus more about creation time, tribal and family history rather than individual life. Recording autobiography from different Native American tribes is a convention way for anthropologists to preserve the Indian traditions, which gradually decline and lost after Native American contact with Western culture. Moreover, the autobiographies of Native American individuals also fulfill the public curiosity about their culture. Nevertheless, the culture differences create the confusion and misunderstand in the written records. For the people does not familiar, and understand the Indian cosmology, the autobiography provides us as a tool to reveal the secret veil of Native American. In the same time, it leads a certain degree of deduction about the narrator original meaning.

According to Nelson, in many ways these same stories are being told today but not as much. The elders that told these stories are beginning to pass on and the younger generations are not often hearing them, listening to them, or learning them (Nelson pg98). Because of this the stories are becoming endangered as well as the knowledge that is traditionally passed down through the stories. A lot of the modern day native stories revolve around the effects of colonization, experiences in the boarding schools, commodity foods,

Many of the flaws arise from the simplification needed to make the history understandable for elementary students. Obviously, a fourth grader cannot be expected to understand the all of the complexity of native American culture, but they do need to understand that their culture was complex, not the simple view of their culture they’re being taught now. One simple way to show elementary school students that native American life wasn’t so simple is through documentaries. Even if the documentaries don’t go into deep details about native life just showing students the hierarchy between the different classes, hunting and other aspects of the way natives lived would prevent the myth of Native Americans being a simplistic

All humans are interested in their origins and trying to account for their existence through creation stories. Native Americans tribes are no different from the rest of humanity. The tribes’ stories explain how people came into existence, how they came to be live on the lands they do and the how people interact with nature and each other. These trends can be seen in the legends of three tribes hailing from New England to the Great Lakes Region.

A troubling narrative has persisted throughout the many years of the United States of America’s history, it is one that continually oppresses an entire people and is ignorantly celebrated by many. We see this continued persecution being reinforced through holidays like Columbus Day, professional football team names that perpetuate racism against Indigenous people and the refusal to acknowledge the atrocities committed by western colonialists. How have the victims of centuries of abuse maintained their rich beginnings, culture and traditions without giving into the attempted erasure of their people by the western colonialists? I would argue that the driving force behind the longevity of Indigenous culture is the power of stories and the integral

But they found the means to engage with their detractors by authoring their own accounts of Indians that challenged stereotypical beliefs, demanded equal political rights, and proved that Indians were neither disappearing nor silent. Native American authors have faithfully presented some of these issues of inherent native rights, the duplicities of federal policies, and the burdens of racial identities in their short stories and novels.

In Camilla Townsend’s book, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, Townsend points out that there are many historical inaccuracies and myths that are associated with the story of Pocahontas. Using historical evidence to support the story of Pocahontas, Townsend attempted to create an accurate timeline bringing the past to the present. At the same time, the Disney film Pocahontas attempted to depict Algonquian culture accurately, however, according to history, much of the material presented in the film is full of misconceptions and is historically imprecise. In fact, Disney’s Pocahontas epitomizes John Smith and

Historians use literary techniques and even poetic devices to craft historiographies that are compelling for readers. For example, a historian may construct a plot or narrative based on a series of events or on biographical data. A fiction author likewise relies on historical events and biographical data to construct plots: a process White calls "emplotment," (1714). Emplotment is basically the "encodation of facts," (White 1714). The storyteller is a historian, for no fiction is created out of thin air. Likewise, the historian is a storyteller, for readers of history require a