My People The Sioux And The Lives Of Native Americans Essay

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,

In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will

"My People the Sioux" is a good literary work written in 1928. This book leaves an everlasting impression with some because it definitely intensifies the sympathy for the Indians. Luther Standing Bear, also known as Plenty Kill, portrays the dramatic and traumatic changes about the Sioux throughout their traditional way of life. As a young boy growing up, he experienced many of these hardships first hand between his people and the whites. This autobiography is quite valuable as it helps allow us to envision what really happened in the battling times of the Indians. Luther stated this quote, which to me, is unforgettable and very well said. It reads:

Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation. This book explores an avenue of advocacy against social injustices. The most observable plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice acted against his mother, which has caused strife within his entire family and within

“The drink had me snared. I spoke less and drank more, and I became the Indian again; drunken and drooling and reeling, a caricature everyone sought to avoid,”(Wagamese,181). This stomach-turning quote displays what several First Nations thought their identity to be. With this in mind, to begin, “Indian Horse,” by Richard Wagamese is a somber and intriguing novel, with many thought-provoking points within the book. To illustrate this, the book follows a First Nations boy through his youth to adulthood. It is filled with traumatic events, depressing stories and even a few joyful moments. In addition, the novel takes place from around 1960-1980 throughout Ontario. Furthermore, this essay will explore several events and factors which impacted, Saul, the main character's identity.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe currently fights to save its only water source from natural gas and oil contamination. This troubling current event has a somewhat forgotten historical analogue where very similar themes presented themselves. The Kinzua Dam Controversy, which took place in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, resulted in the displacement of over 600 Seneca Indian families and the acquisition of a large tract of traditional Seneca Land for dam building. Additionally, the acquisition of Seneca land represented a breach of “The Treaty with the Six Nations of 1794,” which explicated prevented such action by the US Government. The dam and its construction, which primarily benefitted Pittsburg, inspired a heated discourse concerning the ethics of native relocation.

Umbhau, Kurt. "Native Views." Tribal College Journal 21.4 (2010): 16-20. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.

We're going to tell you about a tribe of Indians known as the Sioux Indians. The Sioux Indians lived on the great plains. The Sioux's tribe is partially and fully located in 7 states. The states are known as Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Their natural resources include deer, beans, wild rice, and buffalo.

To civilians that didn’t have the chance to learn about Native Americans, it may seem strange to them that the Native Americans send in teenagers alone into the woods to become a man. Regarding this process, the book Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen comes into play. Cole Matthews is a young man that gets clandestine in criminal actions. In his most recent crime, beating Peter Driscal’s skull into a sidewalk, Cole finds himself alone on an island, instead of in a jail cell wanting to change. The first 215 pages I have read in Touching Spirit Bear has brought me to question, visualize, and predict what has happened and what will be happening in the pages of Ben Mikaelsen’s book.

Black Elk Speaks is a translated Autobiography of a verbal account from Nicholas Black Elk, who was a Native American spiritual leader of the Lakota tribe during the period of westward expansion by the United States. His account reveals to the audience many different aspects of life for the Lakota people during the turbulent transition from their traditional nomadic tribal to a reservation culture. Through Black Elk’s life story, there are a plethora of small hints and glimpses of their world, in how it functions and how their culture governs the choices that they make in their lives.

The subject of Native American literature can be something hard to research at times. Information that comes from decedents of these people is primarily found in the form oral histories that have been passed down for ages. Such records may have been prone to change over time. First-hand accounts from Native Americans during the colonial era are rare due to a lack of written language, even until the mid-1800s (McKay). Most first-hand accounts that we have about Native Americans during the era of early settlement come from those who interacted with them. Unfortunately, these

“’Indians’: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History';, an essay written by Jane Tompkins, a professor of English at Duke University, outlines Tompkins dissatisfaction on how American Indians are portrayed throughout history. As children, we are taught that in “1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue';, and that Peter Minuet bought all of Manhattan Island from the Indians for only twenty-four dollars worth of trinkets. In high school, we were taught that in World War II, the Germans were all heartless savages, and that the best course of action to end the war was to use the atomic bomb on Japan. It is seen that “the victor writes the history books.'; In other words, the dominant

The construction of identity in Native American literature tends to be contingent on the trope of alienation. Protagonists then must come to terms with their exile/alienated condition, and disengage from the world in order to regain a sense of their pre-colonial life. In utilizing the plight of the American Indian, authors expose the effects decolonization and how individuals must undergo a process of recovery. Under these circumstances, characters are able reclaim knowledge of a tribal self that had been distorted by years of oppression. Through Welch’s Winter in the Blood and The Heartsong of Charging Elk, and Alexie’s Flight, we can see how the protagonists suffer from the tensions of living on the margins of conflicting societies, and

In his story “Do All Indians Live in Tipis” Rick Wood, wanted to show the readers how much Native Americans identities were reduced throughout time. Native Americans faced a lot of prejudice in the past from many different countries, and part of their identities have been lost and changed because of it. For example, until 1984 Native Americans living in the United States were prohibited to practice their religion in the U.S. Religion has been a huge part of Native American identities, and to forbid them from practicing their religion is truly cruel. Here, not only did other countries diminish their identities, but a country that the Native Americans were citizens of minimized their identity for a long period of time. Until 1984 when the religious freedom act was established, was when Native Americans were able to practice their religion without fear of the law. Additionally, Native Americans, had also been told their way of thinking was “wrong.” For instance “White Missionaries...were certain that their way of thinking...was the one right way...they felt honor bound to “civilize the supposedly primitive peoples on whose land they had settled on.” White Missionaries prevailing concept was “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” (186) The Wood writes, talking about how Native American child were sent to boarding school at a young age. Here, the white missionaries were taking away children from their homes and teaching them how they should

Alexie Sherman’s The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian tells a very interesting story about a boy named Junior, who throughout the entire novel, is trying to gain the acceptance of those around him while telling a story about Native Americans as a whole. There is a very comical tone that is very consistent throughout the entire novel that makes it seem much more personal, and allows to reader to relate to junior and understand his situation. This coming of age story brings about many themes and main ideas that are related to Native Americans of past and present. Themes such as imprisonment, overall acceptance, poverty, education, stereotypes, and race.