The Hidden One : A Native American Legend

When most people think of "Indians," they think of the common stereotyped of the wild, yelling, half-naked "savages" seen on the television movies. With more modern movies like Dances with Wolves and some of the documentaries like How the West was Lost, some of these attitudes have changed. But the American public as a whole is still very ignorant of what it means to be a Native American-today, or historically.

The many qualities that beauty contains can affect who someone truly is in the outside. But those qualities do not define who someone is from the inside. According to “Hello, beautiful: what we talk about when we talk about beauty” by Arthur Krystal, it states “beauty is a mess, a sinkhole, a trap. Approach it philosophically

Native Americans have existed in the different regions-the plains, mountains, marshes- of the North American continent- long before the United States existed. Yet, most were not treated with the respect and dignity that the white American settlers were given. Viewed as outlandish and savage by white settlers, series of negotiations to “correct” the Indian way of life were implemented- through forced relocation, war, and assimilation into white culture. Those who stood up against the American government were viewed as beacons of hope by their fellow Native Americans. Many Native American traditions still exist today, but unfortunately most of them have been lost along with their people.

“Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.-Native American proverb” This is a Native American proverb that shows how important storytelling and stories are to the Native Americans and their culture. Storytelling was a big way of teaching their lifestyle to their younger generation. Storytelling is very important to the Native American culture because it helps explain their way of life, faith, and helps teach life lessons to the younger generation.

The Native Americans, at the time of the first encounter, were still very culturally and socially primitive compared to the Europeans. They moved a lot, lived mainly of fishing and hunting, spent their time cultivating and used primitive tools and equipment in their daily activities.

The poem, “The Theft Outright” by Heid E. Erdrich, a Native American poet, refutes claims made in another poem, “The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost, that America was empty before the colonists. In his poem, Frost claims that America was “unstoried, artless, [and] unenhanced,”(Frost 15) demonstrating blatant racism by erasing the entire Native American culture and race from American history. Erdrich counters his beliefs by citing the colorful, full lives of Indians in the past and now, directly juxtaposing his work by saying that the Americas are “still storied, art-filled, [and] fully enhanced”(Erdrich 30) from the Native Americans that lived there. Similarly, the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie deals with racism. It tells the story of Arnold Spirit Jr, a Native American boy who wants a better life, so he switches schools from his poverty stricken school to an all white school in a small town called Reardan. Junior frequently faces challenges of racism; he is seen as less than his white peers at his new school because he is Indian, and he is constantly being shown by others’ words and actions that he does not deserve a quality education because of his heritage. Despite the novel’s humorous style, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” provides accurate commentary on education and racism in recent times through Junior’s experiences at Reardan, with his developing friendship with Gordy, his views on the pedestals that white

wasn't that big and nice. The land is actually in bad conditions when we got there and it still is now. The U.S. soldiers told us that this will be our new home and we had to stay here. If we left, then we might have been prosecuted and worst of all killed. They also said that this is a reservation and by law we had to stay here for now. I went toward the U.S. soldiers and ask, them what was a reservation? They said it was an area of land given by the government for Native Americans to occupy.My face was turning red, I was enraged because we were told to move away from our terrain and to adjust our lives to be on a reservation. We are humans, just like them, meaning we should be treated the same as them and not be set aside like if we something meaningless. In the reservations, we couldn't survive with these kinds of conditions because we need it to hunt buffaloes. buffaloes are our main source that provided almost everything needed to survive. Buffalo provided us with food, tools, weapons, and clothing. It wasn't possible for us to hunt buffalo in reservations because buffaloes, where it usually found in reservations or near reservations.Most Native Americans and I were crying because we lost our spirits a fight. We lost our spirit to fight because the United States troops and the government took our land that was rightly ours, most Native Americans died during the trails of tears. They made us move to a horrible place with the worst conditions that mankind could have imagined.The conditions of the houses on the reservation had the same conditions of a reservation overall. The houses in the reservations are tenements because the houses were poorly built. The ceilings of the houses were poorly built because it seemed that it was going to fall down in view of the fact that the rain made the ceiling fall apart. In the circumscribed land, there wasn’t a multitudinous quantity of stores. The stores

As I mentioned above, everything began with Christopher Columbus discovering America in 1492. History is non-fiction, and perhaps the most concrete example of this non-fiction is the story of the beginning of the Indians. Native American mythology contains may different types of character including heroes, tricksters, and more. These characters can have both good and bad qualities, and fall into many categories. For example, creator gods usually restore order, but in some stories can be destructive. Tricksters can even be considered the hero in some stories. (Myths Encyclopedia, 2007). Indian stories are born from experiences and beliefs. Ross also states that “Native American societies are based on the concept of interdependence. Interdependence

Since the beginning of time, conquering other societies has been a common occurrence. Almost every battle that has taken place has been documented. When stories of past battles are retold, only one side of the tale gets told, the victor’s side. In history, the ones who have been defeated never get to present their perspective of the tragic quarrels. Most never even lived to tell the stories, but the ones who do survive are not thought of as important accounts in history. The Native Americans suffered tyranny far a plethora of years, and still do. When learning about the indigenous people of America, it is taught through the “white man’s” prospective, never through the eyes of the sufferers. By not telling both sides of the story, the facts get skewed, skewed enough to have lies become the truth. So what is the real story behind Native American oppression?

Throughout much of the history of Native Americans we can see a pattern of times of intense hardship and adversity in many different forms. Likewise we can see hardship in the various Native American stories of Zitkala sa, Momaday, Alexie, and Silko. However adversity and hardship are not necessarily crippling or damning, in fact in this paper we will see how the various problems faced by these native americans, be it the fictional characters in the stories themselves or the authors of the story 's actually empowered them and often times made them stronger people as a whole be it as leaders of their community or simply people to look up too. In this paper we will attempt to answer the question. Is it possible that a good can come from

This was a very sad event. This was a very heartbreaking event. The government was only concerned with land and money. They had guaranteed the Indians the Black Hills and once they got word that there was gold located there they went back on their word. In the course book on page 542, it talks about how the government wanted to buy the Black Hills from the Lakota Sioux. It was upsetting to know that when the Lakota Sioux refused to sell the Black Hills to the government that the army issued an ultimatum. I did some research and found and article titled, “Native American Culture and the Black Hills 1874 – 1876 – Part 4” written by Rick W. Mills. This article provides details on the how the government tried to buy the Black Hills. This

The Shaman is defined by a person who can mediate between the natural and supernatural world, can foretell the future, and most importantly, can ‘magically’ cure illnesses and injuries. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was known throughout the Native American culture as this Shaman, or medicine man. He used illogical means to cure the Native American illnesses that ended up saving his life. “We did our healing by making the sign of the cross on the sick persons, breathing on them, saying the Lord’s prayer and a Hail Mary” (124). The surviving Spaniards used these methods in order to survive, but they did not know what they were doing. A typical Shaman uses metaphysical means of healing, which is exactly what the Spaniards did in order to stay alive.

The book Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America by Theodora Kroeber, is an introduction to the life of Ishi the last wild Indian. Ishi was a Yahi from the tribe Yana. The book introduces us to Ishi’s life, and gives us so much information on Indians housing, marriage, eating habits, hunting, and language. This story takes us through his life before the finding modern life, living in the museum discovering modern life, and through his death. I really enjoyed reading this book the author did a great job organizing it and it was touching to read how great man Ishi was.

Some say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however, this could not be farther from the truth. From a historical perspective, beauty has been shown to be in the eye of the conformer. Society sets the standard of beauty and, either willingly or unwillingly, people obey. One may ask what happens to those who do not fit the standard, and the answer is simple: they become invisible. The narrator in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Pecola Breedlove in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and Claireece Precious Jones in Push by Sapphire, are all examples of how societal standards blind the acquiescent and cloak the divergent.

Native American. Indian. These are the names given to the Indigenous peoples of Native North America so that they may be classified together as one group, a single entity, to define thousands of years of multifaceted cultures, many of which have unfortunately been lost. Prior to European contact, many of these Native groups encompassing present day Canada to Mexico lived their lives ruled by political systems, a complex use of resources available, social stratification, and the creation of a vast array of tools and technology to further expand their cultures and populations. Many of these indigenous peoples with old world belief systems were named by Europeans and forced to acculturate themselves with distinct civilized views. But prior to Columbus’s arrival, these independent groups had created lush and intricate societies that were highly successful, practical, and functional.