I Have Killed The Deer Analysis

Within the two passages, two Native American writers, N.S. Momaday and D. Brown, deliver two contrasting views on the Native American landscape and experience. Momaday’s awestruck diction and peaceful imagery revel in the seclusion of a scenario which promotes creation. On the other hand, Brown’s forlorn diction and passive tone mourn the lifeless landscape and loss of people forcibly detached from their land. While Momaday writes to explain the admirable beauty of Rainy Mountain, Brown writes to mourn the loss of life stripped in the barren landscape.

In American Indian life, they believe their life is interconnected with the world, nature, and other people. The idea of a peoplehood matrix runs deep in Indian culture, in this essay the Cherokee, which is the holistic view of sacred history, language, ceremony, and homeland together. This holistic model shapes the life of the American Indians and how their sense of being and relationship to their history is strong and extremely valuable to them. This essay will try to explain how each aspect of the peoplehood matrix is important and interconnected to each other and the life of the Native Americans.

Joe Starita is a professor at the College of Journalism who has spent most of his professional career as a journalist. He has not only been interested in human rights issues throughout his career, but also in the history of Native Americans. He grew up in Nebraska so the lives and cultures of Native Americans were very much part of his own. The writing of the book took place at a time when Ponca was forcefully evicted from his own territory and forced to live as an evictee. The reason for his eviction was due to the fact he was inhabiting the land under control of the American federal government. This book focuses on the life and times of a famous Native American leader of the Ponca, Chief Standing Bear. It highlights Ponca's and his people's sufferings, agony, hardship, pain, starvation, death, imprisonment, illness, arrests among others.

In the story, “Man’s Dependence on Animals,” it is clear that the Native American culture understood the importance of the relationship that existed between man and animals. In keeping with the tradition of storytelling, the storyteller carefully uses his words to describe man as a helpless being, needing his animal friends to survive. “At birth man was helpless. Again it was the animals who assisted the spirit woman in nourishing the newborn infants by bring fruits, vegetables, berries, and drink, while the birds and butterflies brought joy” (Animal 62). This interdependence of man with his environment is clearly illustrated in this story. To further illustrate this interdependence, the storyteller talks about how the animals sacrificed their flesh to feed man. It is clear from the many passages in the story that the Native American understood the close relationship that exists between himself and his fellow animals. The message expressed by the storyteller in the story is clear, conservation of the resources provided by Mother Earth is key to the survival of man. This concept is now referred to as “Going Green” and it involves conserving our limited natural resources. The storyteller goes on to talk about the consequences of not being grateful for the gifts provided by Mother Earth. “At last, weary of service, the

In the short essay “Why I Hunt” by Rick Bass, the writer gives the reader his personal perspective of what hunting is like for him. Rick Bass goes on to share the story of his family’s move from the hills of Fort Worth, Texas to the very remote Yaak Valley of Montana. The move to this area makes Bass want to hunt more since there is a better variety of prey, and due to everyone that has lived in what Bass calls “the Yaak”, has hunted their entire lives, he feels obligated to do it more than what he did when he lived in Texas (655). In “Why I Hunt, Bass argues that his love for hunting is an enjoyable hobby that develops his imagination and gets him in touch with nature, and that people should put down technology and try hunting. Bass uses imagery to show the beauty of hunting, and pathos to describe his emotions towards hunting.

In this short story, Blue Winds Dancing, depicts a personal closeness of a Native American and his home to values learned along the way. As we continue to read the entire story, you will discover how the content and various selections of literary are well-created. Whitecloud introduces this story in the 1930’s, where this story takes place, about a man struggling with his white culture and his Indian culture way of life. Whitecloud says, that “These civilized white men want us to be like them-always dissatisfied getting a hill and wanting a mountain” (pg. 320). Whitecloud is dissatisfied with the white people’s behavior, but also knows that his people have taken things away too. “They know how to give; how to tear one’s piece of meat in two and share it with one’s brother.” “They know how to make things with their

Petalesharo also elaborates on how the Cherokees have economically adapted to living near Americans. He states, “…when we awoke we would find the buffalo feeding around our camp-but now we are killing them for their skins…” (356). Petalesharo uses this as evidence to show the whites the Cherokees have gone against their original custom of not killing animals for their skins in order to assist in the American fur trade. This adaption shows Americans the Indians are willing to adapt their ways so they may all live in peace. Petalesharo uses the natives’ act of conforming to appeal to the American’s senses, making them realize living in peace with natives will not make them have to change their

There is no other big-game animal in North America like the white-tailed deer. The whitetails habitat is so widespread that it covers just about all of North America and parts of Central America. The white-tailed deer is the most commonly hunted big game animal ever. Before the settlers arrived, an estimated 30 million whitetails inhabited what is now the United States and Canada. But as settlers pursued them for food and market hunters slaughtered them with snares, traps, and set guns, the deer population underwent a disastrous decline. By 1900, only 400,000 whitetails remained.

While the 19th century Americans were the adventurers and explorers of this land, they were also the conquerors and exploiters. During the infamous Trail of Tears, the Cherokee nation was forced onto a 1000-mile march, during which thousands of Native American perished. In the Letter to President Pierce, Chief Seattle condemns the white people’s disrespectful exploitation of land through rhetorical strategies such as sarcastic tone, the imagery of the nature, and the parallel structure of “what” towards the end of the letter. Chief Seattle maintains a sarcastic tone throughout the letter. He repeatedly refers to the red men as “savage” who “does not understand,” “But perhaps because I am a savage and does not understand, the clatter only seems to insult the ears.”

The major claim of the author: the central claim of LaDuke in this article is that the monumental destruction and devaluation of Indian land and its ecosystem over time invariably affects the cultural, social, economic, and political fabric of a community. LaDuke set out to chronicle the historical struggle and fight that has been a part of the life of an Indian, and still is today. In her article, one of her claims is that “the ongoing relationship between indigenous culture and the land is central to most native environmental struggles” (LaDuke 1999, 88).

Tayo in this part of the ceremony must find the cattle and care for them (170). The cattle stresses on the importance of the nonhuman in the Pueblo culture. To further develop the importance of the nonhuman, on Tayo’s quest to find the cattle a mountain lion proves to distract white farmers that capture Tayo, which allows Tayo to escape from the white farmers (184). The importance of the nonhuman in Pueblo culture is countered by the white farmers’ need to hunt down the mountain lion and see it as prey (188). Tayo’s thoughts describe it as, “[…] white thievery and injustice boiling up the anger and hatred that would finally destroy the world” (178).

In Montana 1948, Wesley Hayden struggles with enforcing laws on his brother, whom Wesley has felt grateful for since he “saved our [Wesley’s friend and himself] bacon” (Watson 152) in the Highdog brother incident, and providing justice for the murder of Marie Little Soldier, a Native American girl who took took care of Davy from a very young age. This conflict, is further intensified with the sharp stigma and racism surrounding Native American’s in the traditional town of Bentrock, Montana in the year of 1948.

     In Conclusion the author, Leslie Silko, displays the poverty and hopelessness that the Native Americans faced because of the white man. The Author elaborates this feeling of hopelessness in the Indians myth explaining the origin of the white man. As a result

The United States has been built on a land with a history of its own. Native Americans lived all throughout North America before colonization. Although some of them are long gone, they have not been forgotten. Native Americans have rich and diverse culture that has been preserved through stories, myths, songs, and legends; all passed down through generations. One of the most important themes in Native American literature is the relationship between people and nature. This plays a role in almost all of their stories. Two of these stories are “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Leslie Silko and “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by N. Scott Momaday. I will be comparing these stories and exploring similarities and differences in their

In American Literature many authors write about nature and how nature affects man's lives. In life, nature is an important part of people. Many people live, work, or partake in revelry in nature. Nature has received attention from authors spanning several centuries. Their attitudes vary over time and also reflect the different outlooks of the authors who chose to discuss this important historical movement. A further examination of this movement, reveals prevalence of nature's influence on man and how it affects their lives.