Lakota Woman

For the Lakota Indians, stories were passed down through the generations as a way of teaching lessons. Their creation story places an emphasis on maintaining a balance between man and nature. This balance was broken for the Indians when, after violating the Dawes Act, a treaty that gave them full rights to their sacred land, white men pushed them out of their homeland and forced them into a society that they never wanted to be a part of. In doing this, their culture was greatly diminished, along with their hope of a better future. Today, the Lakota Indians face poverty and other challenges that all stem from a time when their rights were violated, peace broken, and stories forgotten.

Cheryl Crazy Bull, who’s Lakota name Wacinyanpi Win means “they depend on her” is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Band of the Lakota Nation and comes from a Lakota, French and German heritage. Crazy Bull was born in 1954 and raised on the Rosebud Reservation. She has spent most of her life in the Dakotas. She is a family oriented educator and describes herself as, “a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a lifelong educator.” Cheryl knew early on the need for self determination in Indian education from her father’s painful boarding school experiences. Her father had been forced away from his family, into a school where he could not speak his own Lakota language, and was forced to learn history from a White perspective in which Native Americans

In Lakota Woman, a biographical account of Mary Crow Dog, there is established a reoccurring theme centered around Native American women and their outlasting strength as they play their roles of wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters. Especially so in trying times, which Crow Dog illustrates, that have spanned for centuries and are as inescapable as they have ever been. Remarkable are her feats of bravery fueled by strength she’s derived from other influential women in her life and her love for her people and their traditions. Without a doubt, Native American women had and always will play a large role in keeping the ardor behind their fight for equality and justice lit. Whether it be physically, such as it was in Wounded Knee, spiritually, in their participation in keeping up rituals and religion, or traditionally, as they help uphold old values beloved by their people for centuries.

Throughout history, religions have diverse impacts on humanity. As a part of society, people have lots of types of relationships with each other. As the most popular ideology in ancient world, religions lead not only how people think about the physical nature. They have also affected to how people relate to each other through different rituals and rules. The hunka ceremony of Lakota is one of the rituals, which builds a special kind of relationship between some people who were in the ceremony. So how hunka affect to people who participated it? How is the ceremony similar from the sacrament of marriage and some other ceremony?

Susan Power's Sacred Wilderness examines what binds women together across faith, time, and culture. She incorporates key elements of Dakota spirituality, veiled in metaphor, to reconcile those beliefs with western Christianity and reclaim a place for tribal knowledge in modern religious tradition. The novel swirls through time, from present-day Minnesota to the Mohawk territory of the 17th century, to the ancient biblical world, brought to life by an indigenous woman who would come to be known as the Virgin Mary. Candace represents descendants of various tribes who no longer remember their ancestors or their stories. Through her interactions with powerful “clan mothers,” Power shows this connection and the need to wake up and embrace it to save each other and the world from our selfishness.

In her novel, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, Deborah A. Miranda theorizes that the underlying patronage of her father’s violent behavior arises from the original acts of violence carried out by the Spanish Catholic Church during the era of missionization in California. The structure of her novel plays an essential role in the development of her theory, and allows her to further generalize it to encompass the entire human population. “In this beautiful and devastating book, part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir, Deborah A. Miranda tells stories of her Ohlone Costanoan Esselen family as well as the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems.” Patching together every individual source to create the story of a culture as a whole, Miranda facilitates the task of conceptualizing how Societal Process Theory could play into the domestic violence she experiences growing up as the daughter of a California Indian.

            Virtues are usually taught through the eyes of the wise, also known as the elder. In the book The Lakota Way, by Joseph M. Marshall III, his tribe teaches virtues though story telling. The virtues of the Lakota tribe and those of my family are more similar then I had anticipated, although we do have our differences.

Throughout human existence, mankind has had to overcome difficult obstacles in order to prosper. In Diane Glancy’s “Pushing the Bear”, the reader discovers how the Cherokee Indians overcome their hardships and flourish into a new, thriving community. In this novel, the audience observe how these Cherokee Indians outlast the harsh environment during the Indian Removal Act. Additionally, Glancy creates a human experience during the Trail of Tears; giving a different perspective of various characters. Through the eyes of characters such as Maritole and Knobowtee, the reader is able to sense the desperation that the Cherokee endured. The upheaval of being forcefully removed from the land stripped the Cherokee of their identity. This disruption left the Cherokee confused, causing frustration to arise because they were unable to live their familiar roles. Men were no longer able to farm. Women had a loss of property and wealth. The bear symbolizes these struggles throughout this novel. Maritole explains, “The bear had once been a person. But he was not conscious of the consciousness he was given. His darkness was greed and self-centeredness. It was part of myself, too. It was part of the human being” (183). In other words, the “bear” is the personal dilemma each character is put up against during this removal. Furthermore, each character has their own personal struggles to overcome; whether that be Knobowtee’s loss of masculinity or Maritole’s loss of family. These struggles,

Many were forced to evacuate to other regions within the country and endure the infamous Trail of Tears. While Native Americans are not forcibly removed from their homes anymore, this story shows a modern-day example of mistreatment or borders that Native Americans deal with. While the mother faced many different conflicts, externally and internally, she readily accepts the challenge and is not willing to step down. She displays the pride of the Blackfoot Indians and is not willing to let the government tell her who she is and let them define her. She sets an example for Native Americans, standing up against a government that has held them down for so long. That they should always have pride in who they are, and where they came

Cherokee women played an extremely important role in their tribe’s society especially compared to women in America during the time period. In the 1800s, Cherokee women played a much more influential role, impacting the tribe on a daily basis. For example, they were farmers, craftswomen, builders, and in some cases, even warriors. Women were essential to the survival of the tribe. In many cases, the women of the tribes were in charge of gathering materials and building homes for their family to live in. In addition, women would often help men hunt deer, then would skin, cut, and cook the animal. Women also served important purposes in medical circumstances in the tribe. There were plenty of medicine women in the tribes; in fact, many tribes believed that women had more healing power than men.

Of all the features upon the earth there are some ascribed with special significance. These features, whether caves, lakes, deserts, outcroppings, or something else entirely, hold tremendous relevance for the groups that dwell near them. Such beliefs in the worth and importance of such sites are entrusted from one passing generation to the next. These beliefs, and the physical objects they rest upon, become increasingly vital to that group’s identity as a people. One such group is the Teton Lakota of the Sioux Nation in South Dakota, an area that has been home to them for hundreds of years and, while their entire homeland is precious to them, of particular importance are the Black Hills, or Paha Sapa as they are called in Lakota.

The act of defining religion has been a contentious issue in a wide variety of situations, particularly in the United States. The US is a nation that prides itself on religious inclusivity and freedom. There are consequences to this belief and tenant. Through the social, legal and moral structures of the United States, defining religion has become imperative. In The Impossibility of Religious Freedom, Winifred Sullivan outlines the legal implications of defining religion in the United States. In order for religious freedom to be protected by the American state, religion must be clearly defined. As a result, religious theory must be used to maintain some semblance of religious freedom in the United States. Likewise, Josh Dubler’s Down in

In Chapter 2, “Religion Matters”, Prothero briefly discusses how religion has impacted America even if it seems subsided, and why we tend to neglect it. When it comes to some of the major events of American history, Prothero argues that “none of the classic events in American history…can be understood without some knowledge of the religious motivations” of its major players. (Prothero) Perhaps part of the reason we generally ignore this statement is because of confusion and controversies it presents in government rulings and school teachings.

Just like other Indian kids on reservation, Crow Dog’s childhood was poor in everyway; didn’t have enough food, clothes, education, and parents’ love. She was

“Faith, Truth, and Tolerance in America,” is a speech by Edward M. Kennedy established through literary devices. As he spoke to the college through this dialog there was historical, political and social views but also historical political views and points in which the speech had progressed by expressing views of religion being an aspect in how the government were to rule. Though there is multiple literary devices that are used to create ethical, emotional, and logical appeal, although the majority is ethical, he brings historical factors of political views of past politicians of whether or not it should be an aspect or an influence in government, most of which were presidents at one time or another. Thus informing the audience of the support