That Guy Wolf Dancing Analysis

The first powwow that Sawaquat went to taught him that people viewed his heritage as a pastime. The powwow featured hobbyist who dressed up as Native Americans and acted like Native Americans would at a traditional powwow. This made Sawaquat feel ridiculous and it made it look like Native Americans were a joke. It was even harder for Sawaquat to see what the hobbyist were doing to his heritage because he was in a time of questioning and searching for his identity and this event was a step back for him. Sawaquat’s search for self-discovery led him down a path of disappointment.

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

Marginality talks about the differences in gender and origin and how we are descendants from the original inhabitants who have been on the lands way before the European settlers arrived. Also that some are even descendants from the African

The Cherokee were Stripped from their homelands and forcefully evacuated through a perilous journey from miles on end; this was due to the implementation of the Indian Removal Act in 1838. In Diane Glancy’s “Pushing the Bear”, the reader discovers how the Cherokee Indians overcome their hardships and flourish into a new, thriving community during what is known as the “Trail of Tears.” In this novel, the audience observe how these Cherokee Indians outlast the harsh environment after 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 can sense the desperation that the

The portrayal of Indigenous people in the film Dance with Wolves written by Michael B., produced by Jim Wilson and Kevin Costner illustrate a new perspective of the life of the Indian. The main character, Lieutenant Dunbar, encounters an indigenous man known as Kicking Bird that later on, the movie will create a relationship with Dunbar. Through this interaction, Dunbar will be accepted into the tribe and in his journey with the Sioux people, he finds a new way of life. This move is based on the American Frontier and the capture of the last Free roaming tribe f the Sioux people. Filmed mainly in South Dakota and Wyoming. The attempt to recreate the image of the Indian shows the similarity with every Hollywood depiction of Indigenous tribe,

Marginalization of ‘outsiders’ in society by the ‘insiders’ has been in existence for ages. The immigrants have been the most marginalized group by the majority white Americans. Individuals who are marginalized are pushed beyond the edges of the society. This marginalization of people centers around preventing them from engaging in political, economic or political activities that help people in transitioning to modernity. The term marginalization has been recently replaced by the term exclusion. The term can be seen as a synonym to extreme poverty or even social exclusion. In most human groupings, there are "insiders" and "outsiders". From the universe of a youngsters' play area to the perplexing structures of a company, from the substances of a substantial family to those of religious foundations, a few people are "in" and a few people are "out". In the North America the black American’s were supposed to use different latrines from those of the whites. Further, individuals with more white skin are more "in" than individuals with darker skin.

What if you were a young Native American who was unacquainted with the American society, and you are introduced to the culture through the skills of a rodeo.”If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary” the quote by Jim Rohn encapsulates the mindset of Thomas Black who is willing to risk the Native American lifestyle he already achieved, to do something unordinary and succeed at it. In the book, When the Legends Die by Hal Borland, the journalism graduate from Columbia University and past writer for The New York Times describes the determination and struggle of youngster who shows his tremendous passion in something not so ordinary for someone of his descent.

In Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko explores not only the consequences of a fractured identity, but also the function and efficacy of Navajo “curing” ceremonies in reconstructing a sense of self. The protagonist in Ceremony, Tayo, is introduced within the narrative as a recent war veteran suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder who returns home to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation only to feel isolated and lost within his painful war memories. Tayo’s feelings of disconnection are intensified by his mixed ancestral heritage as well as by his alienation from his cultural and spiritual identity.

Lakota Woman is a story that speaks about Mary Crow Dog that faces challenges with the Sioux tribe. The story elaborates on the difficult phases and solutions helping Mary Crow Dog discover her identity and cultural background as a Sioux woman. Also Mary Crow Dog struggles with her identity as an Indian woman because of the diverse domestic roles women had to play within the Native American culture. Additionally, Mary did not like how the Caucasian created immorality to the Indians as well as how the Indian women had to struggle to discover their personal strength. Not to mention, remain loyal to their traditions. Furthermore, the novel discusses the issues that Indians are faced with as it relates to their relationship they have form with the white society. Interpretatively, the Caucasians view Indians as savages and that they didn’t have any values. The Indians were stripped from their homeland. They had to live differently from their original ways because the hunting approaches were no longer available to the Indians. While residing on their reservations, Indians started to lose a sense of their identities, which were customs and ceremonies, and fighting trying to gain their land back.

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.

Long ago, huge puffy white clouds glided across the vast bodies of water surrounding the land of the Native Americans. The tribes were thrilled yet shocked at the same time to see them. Little did the natives of America know that these harmless looking fluffy clouds were actually huge vessels filled with their descending doom. Western civilization took hold quickly on Native Americans and had disastrous effects on a majority of them. Some native individuals resented the colonization and fought back the white control. Others gave in to the different white policies and adopted the lifestyles of their own enemies. Some who gave in to the western influences, returned back to their “land, language and love of ancient traditions” (Louise Erdrich). Leslie Mormon Silko and Louis Erdrich, authors of Ceremony and The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse respectively, reflect on this aspect of Native American colonization by introducing the theme of “Coming Home” in their novels, where the main characters Tayo and Agnes Dewitt respectively, give in at first to western influences on their minds, but eventually come to realize their true selves by returning to their rightful place and niche within Native American society.

Marilyn Dumont, a successful Metis poet, is widely recognized for her powerful yet subtle approach to enlightening the history of shadowed civilization, nearly brought to the brink of extinction by ethnocentrism and injustice. Being raised in a town surrounded by reserves, with a father who speaks fluent Cree, allowed me to form an appreciation for the perseverant culture, many fail to recognize. In “The land she came from,” Dumont utilizes main character Betsy Brass, known as “shiny black bird woman” to represent the fearlessness, and determinant Indigenous peoples had been dealing with such mass tragedy. Concrete walls made of starvation, and injustice placed by European settlers “when it all went wrong,” forced Indigenous people to surrender everything they had, as a reminder that, the only power Indigenous people held at the time, was that of their mind (Dumont 43). Author Marilyn Dumont employs the use of literary

relationship with a white woman. There is also a lot of contrast between the way Native Americans are seen all through the story and in the reservation.

Walker through her novel looks for new keys which may lead her readers beyond the standoff of the dualism of culture versus nature by overturning it. She makes them realize that they must give worth to nature over culture and treat all life as one vast interconnected web. She completely expresses it in Meridian that “there are myriad stories and myths of strong women and men, Indian and black who knew the sacred places of the land and refused to be pried from them” (Meridian 185). Walker throughout her text explores the relationship between the tradition and societal change as vital to the quest for freedom for all women, men, society, culture and the land.

The movie Dancing with wolves can help us focus on different aspects of using them as lessons to be learned from. For example, the first one could be the lack of language. As we know language is a key to be able to understand others and communicate from one language to another. In the case of this movie the focus could be how language affected the understanding from the Indians to the American guy and vice versa. The second one is beliefs and rituals, the focus can be about how they differ from one culture to another. The third one could be the way of leaving and what was used to survive, in this case, the focus would be which one was more effective and safe to be able to survive in future generations. The fourth aspect can be to focus on the