Marion Tuu's Story Of Starvation

Native American literature is considered by many as the traditional written and oral literature of Native cultures around the world. Many of these literatures are transmitted over periods of time by storytellers. This particular literature has many features that includes a mixture of oral tradition techniques along with tribal mythology. The majority of these historic manuscripts of the Native Americans is deeply rooted in symbolic and mythic standards. This assignment will focus on how Native American literature is rooted in storytelling. The selected text of choice for the assignment is

The traditional Kwakiutl story, The Boy and the Loon, comes from a group of First Nations’ people who live along the coast of British Columbia. This tale exhibits many characteristics that are present in most First Nations’ stories. The Boy and the Loon begins in the past, stating “Many generations ago, there lived a handsome young boy” (Lelooska 14). By starting with this phrase, the storyteller is showcasing a historical tale that teaches people how to behave. Many First Nations’ stories begin in the past to showcases its importance. Furthermore, the idea behind continuing to tell these stories, even though they are from long ago is to “keep social order intact” (Hanson). The passing of these stories through many generations allows the same lessons to be taught and learned by different people, overall maintaining the same ways of life and personal morals for many generations. .

Native American literature is the root of cultural storytelling, which is told through oral tradition, this consist of stories and songs verbally. Native American literature use literary conventions in the root of myth and symbolic examples in storytelling. The book “Native American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology” gives good insight into the Native American ways of life and how storytelling is a part of that life. Short stories by Simon Oritz and Luther Standing Bear share life experience and cultural diversity. The reader can see how historical, social and political, and cultural ways play a role in the Native Americans storytelling.

In That Guy Wolf Dancing, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn tells a nonfiction story of Philip Big Pipe’s life as a twenty-something Native American from the Santee Sioux or Mdewakanton Dakota tribe that is just trying to find his way in the world. At the hospital where Philip works part time, the “old-young woman” he works with dies and unexpectedly leaves Philip in her will. She left him an incredibly sacred buckskin shirt and war stick that was most likely stolen from a Native American hung at New Ulm after the Santee War with the United States. The sudden change in the old-young woman’s will causes a lot of legal drama that Philip consequently becomes tangled up in. Along with the various legal battles that Philip goes through, he also experiences the death of several other friends, an unexpected relationship, and constantly being oppressed because of his culture. By the use of marginalization and violence, Cook-Lynn portrays how oppression has negatively changed and shaped the lives of Native Americans through the example of Philip in her novella That Guy Wolf Dancing.

Tracks and Love Medicine, both by Louise Erdrich, are only fragments of a much larger collection of Erdrich’s Native American works. Both pieces of literature are set in the early to mid-twentieth century and revolve around difficulties the Native American people go through in their struggle of preserving their culture and ways of life. Native American literature invokes a taste of modern influence alongside traditional Indian mythology to truly thicken a plot. Ancestral values are evident throughout this specific type of literature as well as the idea of balance within the world to create a true native atmosphere. Furthermore, there are major themes within this type of literature including Christian influence, family, and reservations. These all tie into the life of a Native American. Each major work explores the world of Native Americans through its narration, characters, and the overall plot.

In Jacqueline L. McGrath’s article, she mainly evaluates Sherman Alexie's attempt to negotiate the traditions and innovations that are seemingly incompatible in her fiction, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. More specifically, McGrath challenges the notion that Sherman Alexie's fiction can be considered as a folklore. She argues that the work is not folklore, as it is widely considered among other folklorists;instead, the fiction is a body of work that is much more complicated, which transcends the confines of folklore and Native American oral tradition. Moreover, McGrath also debuts the notion that Native American writing is more “oral” than other texts, since text is just a medium for “representing parts of an oral traditional

In “Ceremony” by Leslie Marmon Silko, a half Native American and half White man named Tayo goes to fight in World War II. During the fighting, he forgets the stories of his Native American culture and causes drought and other problems when he returns. Throughout the story, Silko uses traditional poems that mirror Tayo’s struggle to argue for the importance of storytelling in Native American culture. “The old people used to say that droughts happen when people forget, when people misbehave” (Silko 46). Tayo forgets the lessons he’s been taught by these stories and consequently suffers for it. To fix his problems, he must remember the stories.

A culture discussed in class that had interesting difference to American culture was Alaskan storytelling where the stressed importance was the relationship of the storyteller to the listener or audience. I imagined Alaskan populations spread out all over the large state, thus, my amazement that the oral tradition of storytelling were used with great significance to pass on information, emphasize morals, and describe the culture to new generations.

A man very in touch with his native American heritage, Joseph Bruchac has dedicated his life to the art of storytelling, having published numerous novels, picture books, and poetry collections, many of which relate to this heritage. He also uses this ability of storytelling to communicate important life lessons. Weather it’s a novel of the historical fictions genre, or a book of traditional Native American tales, his ability to weave his personal philosophy into engaging literature is incredible. His has held many different educational positions all over the world that allow him identify with young people in a very effective way.

Thomas and Victor both participate in storytelling but in different ways. Thomas tells stories with natural or historical settings; whereas, Victor’s stories are very bleak and realistic. Contemporary life is referred to on the reservation and is quite often used as the main topic of stories told. Storytelling on the Spokane reservation helps to preserve Native American history and cultural traditions. Although storytelling portrays reality, it also provides the individuals on the reservation with hope. It does not matter the individual’s stance on tradition; tradition plays a huge role in the life of every character throughout the

This person explains how those who were in charge of writing down history actually distorted the true image and stories of those who lived in the past. Also, through the example of “Wild West” shows like “Buffalo Bill’s “‘Show Indians’” does the reader begin to grasp how stereotypes began to circulate from these myths and how Native Americans being forced into these ridiculous roles misguided society’s view on the Native American people and the real history of what happened to them as a whole. The author of this essay also mentions how artworks like Heap of Birds helps to fight back against these myths by retelling the true stories of these people thus reclaiming themselves as people rather than the character society has created. Artworks like

The teller and the writer use different faculties of mind, and have different habits and disciplines of language, memory, tradition. Each has a different responsibility to the story, and to the listener or the page. The teller’s relationship to the story and the listener, both at once, is direct. The writer wrestles with the page, with the story, in solitude. Native American literature is comprised of a collection of oral and written works that express the history, philosophy and culture of any one of the different groups of indigenous peoples of North and South America.

Experiences that we encounter impact the way we view life. In “The Sasquatch at Home” by Eden Robinson her First Nations culture is expressed through a personal lecture that allows the reader to understand her views and relate to her. The unique way that she expresses the important elements within her community gives us an opportunity to learn and identify with some aspects of First Nations culture. Additionally, “A Winter of Hardship” by Chief Thunderchild, written in an earlier time, offers a detailed view into how he overcomes a life threatening winter and why it impacts his life.

Some very important themes evolve from this literature. Native American views of the world as represented in these mythologies contrast strongly with Euro-American perspectives. Recognizing this is absolutely essential for later discussion of the differences between Anglo-Americans and Native Americans over questions of land, social organization, religion, and so on. In other words, if one can identify these fundamental differences through the literature very early on, then later it becomes easier to explain the differences in outlook between Native American peoples and Anglo-American peoples that often lead to tragic consequences.

Neubauer’s article outlines the life of the Indian Captivity Narrative with a special emphasis on how it affected children’s literature. Neubauer begins his discussion of the Indian Captivity Narrative with the story of John Smith and Mary Rowlandson’s narrative. The main takeaway from Neubauer’s article is that Indian Captivity Narratives were the first American genre of literature that could be unique only to the New World. These new narratives were adapted especially for children in order to teach lessons of morality.