Life On The Reservation: Drug Violence, Gangs And Crimes

In Sherman Alexie’s novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” the narrator portrays both internal and external conflicts throughout his journey to success. Arnold Junior Spirit is a fourteen-year-old boy who believes that in order to pursue his dream he will have to choose between staying in his Spokane Indian reservation or moving out to an all-white school in the neighboring farm town. But things aren’t as easy as they seem when Junior tries moving schools because he know has to be part of two communities. Many conflicts form within the Spokane Indian reservation and the Spokane Indian reservation as well comes into conflict with the white community.

Our society was fearful of the First Nations, because their culture and beliefs were different from ours. As a result, we penalized them for that and forced innocent children to leave their traditional culture behind and force them into our society. Lyna and Glen’s perspective was about hardship, emotional, psychological and physical trauma. They wanted our society to see and understand what that experience did to their humanity. Throughout the documentary, they focused on the victims, which were the children, resulting in personal biases about the experiences of the residential schools. Through talks in class and readings from the text, they both expressed how inequality has festered through the years in different ways for minority groups, such as the First Nations. From what our society has done, we created “so much mental and emotional suffering” (Pickett, K and Wilkinson, R), as a result from creating these residential schools and forcing assimilation upon the First Nation Children.

Sherman Alexie, in “Indian Education” tells his experiences in school on the reservation. Some of his teachers did not treat him very good and did not try to understand him. In his ninth grade year he collapsed. A teacher assumed that he had been drinking just because he was Native American. The teacher said, “What’s that boy been drinking? I know all about these Indian kids. They start drinking real young.” Sherman Alexie didn’t listen to the negatives in school. He persevered and became valedictorian of his school.

Residential school is like a nightmare for the Indigenous people during the last century. In Richard Wagameses’s book, Indian Horse, telling the story of Saul’s life who is an Ojibway boy being taken to residential school. The novel mainly talks about how Saul uses hockey and alcohol to find healing and escapism and how he investigates his character. The theme of healing and escapism is mainly explored through Saul’s story of hockey and alcohol. Additionally, Saul’s character has changed from an innocent Ojibway boy into a precocious adolescent into a chaotic adult to become a dynamic character.

Education —an institution for success, opportunity, and progress — is itself steeped in racism. In Sherman Alexie’s short story “Indian Education” from his book The Longer Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is set in two places, the Spokane Indian Reservation and a farm town nearby the reservation. The story is written in a list of formative events chronologize Victor’s youth by depicting the most potent moment from each year he is in school. Alexie addresses the issue of racism in education by examining examples of injustice and discrimination over twelve years in a boy’s life. Victor faces his initial injustice in first grade when he is bullied by bigger kids, but his understanding of injustice becomes much more complex in grades two through twelve as he experiences discrimination against his American Indian identity. Familial experiences of a Native woman, Alexie’s style and humor, and Victor’s awareness of discrimination from grade one to twelve all reveal the grim reality of growing up and being schooled on an American Indian reservation.

Throughout our lives, we are challenged by others to fight injustice, both by treating others fairly, and speaking up when others treat us or people around us unfairly. This is not always easy to do, but we typically think of ourselves as good people who try. We tell ourselves that if everyone acted in the same way, the world would be a better place. In Sherman Alexie’s short story, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child named Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of justice and injustice, which could be seen in completely different ways, expressing different feelings. Growing up, Victor faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and how difficult life was for Victor growing up on a reservation. Racism and bullying are both used throughout the short story between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind.

The film, Smoke Signals was about an adolescent name Victor and his friend Thomas on a journey to see what happened to Victor’s father. Throughout the movie, Victor has trouble trying to forgive his father for leaving his mother and himself behind. The context behind the movie did a great job in illustrating the culture of Native Americans and threw in some of the common stereotypes that are associated with Native Americans. Some of the stereotypes about Native Americans were domestic violence, them being alcoholics and a scene where one of the female characters, Lucy, says we barter because we’re Indian. The depiction of poverty and struggle in the movie was not as concise because of the difference in living space between Victor’s family and Thomas’s. Victor and his mother live in a decent home. In contrast, Thomas and his grandmother live in a higher standard living space. No one in the film was really struggling to meet ends met like how it is in the real world. If the movie was not focused on Victor and Thomas journey, the story would have taken a different path.

It shows the struggle of a Metis teen, and it shows how many Aboriginal people face their struggles and how they can maintain their personal identity at the same

This movie was made in 1953 when Indigenous people were being thrown into residential schools and having their land taken away from them. At the time of production, the producers felt that there was nothing wrong with film because during that period of time racism was a part of everyday life. In order to get a better understanding of these problems within the film I had to watch it. After watching the film, I was shocked at how much racism and sexism was a part of the film. Directors often degrade minority groups by portraying them a certain way so they are not put in the same category as the main characters. The imagery is in movie portrayed indigenous people in a negative manner. In one of the scenes, an Indian chief is shown yelling and making animal noises. This scene is unacceptable as it leads the audience to perceive Indigenous people as illiterate. Moreover, the scene dehumanizes the Indian Chief by portrayed him as an animal rather than a human. This contributes to the major problem of dehumanization because if the Chief is portrayed as an animal the audience is less connected with him therefore the racism did not seem that serious. When kids watch this movie, they take all of this in and it sticks with them so when they do see an Indigenous person in the outside world, they view them as animals instead of actual human beings.

I had the privilege of talk to Diana W. Bear of the Inter-Tribal Substance Abuse/Prevention & Treatment Center. She is a Counselor at the facilities at Miami, Oklahoma. She confided in me why she pursued a career in substance and alcohol prevention as a second career in her life. She also had family member that difficultly with addictions and wanted to know more about addiction. With her desire to learn and overwhelming desire to want to help others to overcome it. She started by enrolling in some online class and finished up with attending Pittsburg State University for part of her college career. She started out as doing her practicum at the same facilities as she later got a job; she has been a counselor with Inter-Tribal Substance Abuse/Prevention & Treatment Center for now ten years.

For example, the Indians who live on the reserve have gotten a bad reputation on themselves. They struggle with fanatical problems, drink too much and don’t live long lives because they get themselves in trouble the leads to fighting and somebody always gets serious injured or killed. On the other hand, all the kids at his new school had money and looked upon by the Indians as people who are wealthy and don’t have to work for their money because it comes easy to them. The kids at his new school had stable families and something to look forward in life too like a job or a family of their own. At the reserve all the kids have been to more than six funerals but at his new school he found out that some of his friends have never been to one before.

MONTANA 1948 ESSAY ANTHONY TODARO Essay Topic: ‘This novel has much to teach us about justice.’ Word Count: 600 - 800 Montana 1948 is a captivating novel written by Larry Watson. Montana 1948 is a novel based on a 12 year old boy named David Hayden. The story is written as though David Hayden is recounting back on his former life, to where he lived in a small town named Bentrock, in Mercer County, Montana. The novel teaches us a lot about justice and injustice.

Tribal Crime and Justice was an interesting topic to research because this is something that one does not think about. One does not really hear about Native Americans in data or statistics, and if so, the percentage or numbers are relatively low or their Race is not even noted. This study was conducted to take a look into policing in Indian Nations to better comprehend their laws and to view a future cross deputization agreement between tribal policing and local, county, and state policing. This topic caught my attention because I notice that the reporting information can be misleading and the tribal police officers need to not only be involved in Indian Country but on non-reservation land too. Researchers must understand and into consideration

This draws a connection to the erasure of Native American culture in history, they are seen as rare and different from the ordinary, and for some people their existence is completely forgotten or denied. His own comments of not belonging at a white school, because of his nationality and family history further show the division of race that he can see at Reardan. Junior’s cursing accentuates how frustrated and pathetic he feels, viewed as less than everyone at his school, and constantly rejected and isolated by his white peers. The negative, demeaning mindset of those white kids is that Native Americans do not deserve anything from white people, not their time, attention, care, or even a proficient education. According to Jens Manuel Krogstad at Pew Research Center, Native Americans have the second highest high school dropout rate- eleven percent. This is very high, especially when compared to the white or Asian dropout rates- five and three percent, respectively. Additionally, it says Native Americans have the second lowest percentage of bachelor’s degrees, only seventeen percent, compared to the two highest, white and Asian, at thirty three and fifty percent (Krogstad). Many Native Americans today are not allowed a chance at education because of poverty at reservations, and lousy, penniless schools. These issues are not thought about or spoken of often, because they are simply not

The film discussed the reasons why poverty became prevalent. Then goes on to show how poverty has created a system which becomes dependent on so-called “crime” and drug use. An example of how poverty affected the black community is when black Americans couldn’t find jobs so they resorted to drug dealing to live. A self-perpetuating system evolved from a lack of jobs turning needy people into criminals. Discrimination historically set certain groups up to fail to control their population. An example given in the film talked about the Chinese opium in the 1920’s, African-American cocaine in the 1950’s and the Mexicans who smoked marijuana around 1910. All three of these groups posed a threat to the American population at the time because these people were hard