Pomme De Terre A Novel Of The Minnesota Uprising: Summary

One of the themes used in the book is of racism towards the Natives. An example used in the book is of Edward Sheriff Curtis who was a photographer of 1900s. Curtis was interested in taking pictures of Native people, but not just any Native person. “Curtis was looking for the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the imaginative construct” (King, 2003; pp. 34). He used many accessories to dress up people up “who did not look as the Indian was supposed to look” (King, 2003; pp.34). He judged people based on his own assumptions without any knowledge of the group and their practices. Curtis reduced the identity of the Native Americans to a single iconic quintessential image of what Native meant to white society. The idea related to the image of this group of people during the 1900s consisted of racism in terms of the “real looking Indian”. This is not

In the Last Stand, written by Nathaniel Philbrick he discusses a big leader in the Civil War, George Armstrong Custer and how he led his troops with reckless courage. Philbrick wrote this book which can be viewed in many ways: a bloody massacre that is a big part of American history, or a tale of crazy arrogance and even unmatched bravery. One way that this book can be viewed as is the Last Stand being viewed as an account of a well-known battle that encapsulates the treatment of Native Americans during the “Indian Wars.” The next option is that the Last Stand is a retelling story of a history that does not glorify the United States Army in the Indian Wars, but shows the hubris and reckless of the leaders and army. Finally, the Last Stand can be viewed as a double meaning, both the last stand for Custer and the Last Stand for the Sitting Bull and the Lakota Sioux. In this essay, I’m going to discuss the ways in which Custer leads his troops and how he was a powerful leader during this time.

Egstrand 1 Alyssa Egstrand Professor Sewell ENG: The Literary Experience 1331 28 September 2011 Investigating the Impact of History on Modern Society within Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard Rooted in the shadows of history, Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey intertwines personal and historical accounts to scrutinize the impact of the past on the present. Trethewey’s Native Guard is divided into three sections, which chronicle her mother’s life and death, the erased history of the Louisiana Native Guard, and Trethewey’s childhood in Mississippi. These different stories amalgamate, and open a dialogue about the impact of history on today’s world. Throughout Native Guard Trethewey infuses emotion into these untold stories by including personal

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

“Indians are like the weather.” With his opening words Vine Deloria Jr. sets up the basis for the rest of his witty yet substantial manifesto, Custer Died for Your Sins. The book, which describes the struggles and misrepresentation of the American Indian people in 1960s American culture, is written in a style that changes from ironic and humorous satire to serious notions, then back again. Through energetic dialogue that engages the reader in a clever and articulate presentation, Deloria advocates the dismissal of old stereotypes and shows a viewpoint that allows the general public to gain a deeper understanding of what it is to be an American Indian.

Waterlily by Ella Cara Deloria tells the story of a young woman, Waterlily, and her family as they experience the every-day life on the prairie as Oceti Sakowin. Through the clever storytelling of Waterlily’s childhood, Deloria’s novel covers the Oceti Sakowin family life, camp circle, ceremonies, hunts, and war parties, and the introduction of white presence in the Midwest. Themes of reverence for tradition and honoring of beings and nature span the book; however, the story also exceptionally demonstrates the Oceti Sakowin way of life in a way that illuminates many of the beautiful pieces of the Oceti Sakowin culture. Waterlily displays two particularly significant aspects of the Oceti Sakowin culture: kinship and generosity.

"Their (Natives) present condition, contrasted with what they once were, makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies…By persuasion and force they have been made to retire from river to river and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct and others have left but remnants to preserve for a while their once terrible names. Surrounded by the whites with their arts of civilization, which by destroying the resources of the savage doom him to

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

The attacks on Indians by the whites could now be excused because the Indians had murdered family members. They could kill, scalp, and rob Indians without much fear of being caught or punished. A play based on real life, written by Indian fighter, Robert Rogers, showed how two hunters happened upon two Indians. As they talked, both told of how Indians had murdered some family members, so it was logical to them to kill the Indians, scalp them and robbed them of the guns, hatchets and furs. The “victims’ furs were a fantastic windfall”. (129)

1. Read the following from John Smith’s History of Virginia. In your own words, explain the incident Smith described. What does this passage tell us about the relationship between the English settlers at Jamestown and the natives they encountered? What does it tell us about the condition of the English at the time?

The movie, filmed in 2007, depicts the lives of the Sioux Indians as if they were not a people that mattered. In the movie, they say, “the Indians lived like the poorest of whites.” They were pushed around and told repeatedly they could not stay on their own land. This was due to the Westward Expansion in the United States at the time. By 1876, most of the American Indians had already been forcibly relocated to reservation land. Red Cloud, a Sioux leader, settled with some of his tribe on the Sioux Reservation of the Dakota Territory and took the aid of the US government. When this happened, other Sioux leaders, such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, saw it as a surrender. These leaders refused to assimilate and went on to live life in their traditional way. Unfortunately, this all changed when the US found gold on Sioux land in the Black Hills. The movie tells the story of the Sioux Indians fight to try to remain in control of their own lives and stay on their own land. Then when they no longer can, the movie shows their path to surrendering to the whites and assimilating into the American culture.

     Throughout Ceremony, the author, Leslie Silko, displays the internal struggle that the American Indians faced at that time in history. She displays this struggle between good and evil in several parts of the book. One is the myth explaining the origin of the white man.

The different sides of the clashing beliefs meet each other with violent opposition, but it is mostly the pro-government Indians who are the violent aggregators in this film. The civil war between the two extremes seems to be more than just the pro-government Indians harassing many of the traditionalists they come along. Nadell has also come up with a different theory as why this violence continues. Nadell believes that there are “two factors [which] appear to lie at the heart of this cycle of violence: Instrumental demand and racial self alienation” (Nadell 41). The instrumental demand and self alienation can be observed in the pro-government Indians. The pro-government Indians feel the need to rely on violence in order to gain the strategic benefit of intimidation of the traditionalists and material benefits such as “kickbacks from land leases” (Thunderheart). There is also racial self-alienation between the pro-government and the traditionalist. They are both supposed to be the same tribe and same people, yet they racially discriminate against each other because they have determined that the other half is doing a great injustice. The racial self-hate only provides more fuel to the fire as the pro-government Indians continue to harass and instigate the civil war between them.

For the critical analyses paper, I chose to read the book entitled as “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown. This book is a non-fiction historical genre and was public in 1970 by New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. The Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a sad story based on true events that portray the massacre of the first American Indians during the nineteenth century. This book details many battles and many conflicts that Indians had with American whites that resulted in the deaths of a bunch of important native chiefs. Even though, many of them did not die during the battle. This book gave us a better understanding of who really was the American Indian and how they were wronged by the white people because of their lands. This book is told chronologically by tribes, chief, and events. The first chapter is the only one that might have a little different from the others. It basically a reflection of how different groups of Europeans treated the American Indians that they encountered in America when they arrived. Columbus and his men were received with honor by the Indians and he used those kindnesses to take advantage of the Indians and kidnaped many men, women, and children to be a slave in Spain. In contrary to this, The English used “subtler methods” and were able to live in peace with Indians for several years. As a said previously, the story is told chronologically, so the following chapters are about the battles and the chiefs of the tribe. On those chapters

In considering the overarching interpretation regarding depictions of race throughout the novella, this specific excerpt is salient in both its characterization of the tribe and the racial commentary that can be derived as a result. Despite the previous passage’s depiction of the Piccaninny through diction that signifies subordination, they are comparatively described here in a violent and “masculine” manner that suggests a form of power. In this then, one must revisit the previously posed inquiry: is the narrator reproducing the degrading racial hierarchy that labels “the other” as inferior, or are they persuading the reader to question it? Phraseology such as “diabolical cunning” to describe their plans not only contradicts the notion that they are a rudimentary people, it also encourages a questioning of the connotations of “savagery” as it is used throughout the work (174). However, this is not to argue that the passage is any less problematic in its presentation. While certain aspects of the word choice may indicate power, the “redskins” are still described in a manner that strips them of their humanity. The use of “phlegmatic” as an adjective to portray the manner in which they “should deal pale death” suggests that they are inhumane and emotionless “creatures” (174). Furthermore, the narrator states that they dream of the