The Round House By Louise Erdrich

Europeans had different ideologies than indigenous peoples when it came to land in terms of who could own the land. As a result of European entitlement, they assumed that the land was available to be taken. The process of removing indigenous people from their land began, and the settlers were justifying it by suggesting that is was not necessarily “stealing” land, but rather it was “saving” the land from being misused by the savages that lived there previously (Sahlins 19). Mindsets such as these finalized the traumatic process of Native American invisibility as they were forced out of their land and their homes.

An emphasis on family is one of the central facets of Native American culture. There is a sense of community between Native American. Louise Erdrich, a Chippewa Indian herself, writes a gripping bildungsroman about a thirteen year old boy named Joe who experiences all forms of family on the Native American Reserve where he lives. He learns to deal with the challenges of a blood family, witnesses toxic family relationships, and experiences a family-like love from the members of the community. In her book, The Round House, Louise Erdrich depicts three definitions of the word family and shows how these relationships affect Joe’s development into an adult.

Within the pages of The Round House, Louise Eldrich tackles the reality of justice for indigenous American populations, specifically how the main character, Joe, decides to take justice in his own hands after the legal system fails him and his mother in rectifying and recognizing her rape, committed by the hands of a racist white male, Linden. Eldrich’s novel, while fictional, is rooted in the experiences of native peoples. With the help of Sarah Deer, a deeper analysis concerning the day-to-day realities of real life Native Americans versus Eldrich’s fictional characters. This analysis will cover the institutional laws put in place by those that are not in the respective tribes of America, due to either coercion or federal intervention. The benefits, as well as drawbacks, of Joe’s eventual decision over the fate of Linden, will also be considered within the analysis. Also, the analysis will confront how Joe’s decision puts his community at risk as well as the interests of the reservation at risk. Particularly, in the lack of justice for sexual assault survivors, including the institutional and societal failings of survivors concerning their race and tribal affiliation. For this reason, Joe is led down the avenue of extra-law actions, ultimately ending in murder.

government has unspecified and unorganized policies, which were unprotected for Native Americans who lived in the west because of all the new coming Americans. During westward expansion, a majority of who moved were whites, who didn’t know the Native Americans who already lived in the west. The Natives felt their land was being conquered, because of the U.S government policies(Louisana Purchase & Homestead Act) and the whites not wanting them to be there, which lead to fighting between the Natives and the whites. These acts and policies such as the Indian Removal Act often resulted in violated treaties and violence. The Indian Removal Act was the removal of Native American homes and tribes. “This also confines the Indians to still narrower limits, destroys that game which in their normal state, and constitutes their principal means of subsistence.” Resulting in westward expansion, Native Americans began rapidly decreasing in the area by wars and new diseases caught by new coming

By 1940, Native Americans had experienced many changes and counter-changes in their legal status in the United States. Over the course of the nineteenth century, most tribes lost part or all of their ancestral lands and were forced to live on reservations. Following the American Civil War, the federal government abrogated most of the tribes’ remaining sovereignty and required communal lands to be allotted to individuals. The twentieth century also saw great changes for Native Americans, such as the Citizenship Act and the Indian New Deal. Alison R. Bernstein examines how the Second World War affected the status and lives of Native Americans in American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs. Bernstein argues

Army and the forceful action used to confine the natives, the construction on Indian land, and the massive slaughter of the buffalo which the Indians relied on in every aspect of life. The mistreatment of the Native Americans has been going on for hundreds of years, way before the Gold Rush began. The American government has taken land that they are unable to return to this day. They have deprived the plains Indians of their culture and freedom. Immigration from other countries was at its peak, but America still wasn’t able to call people, that had resided in the United States for many years, citizens. Even the Native American’s, that had lived on the continent before it was even discovered, were denied citizenship unless they were Anglo-Saxon Protestant. To this day, many look at the Indians as a joke; The Seminoles as “The Tribe that Purchased A Billion Dollar Business.” Children are being taught about friendship between the American Settlers and the Natives, they are being lied to. The upcoming generations won’t understand the horrors of unnecessary warfare against innocent people, and they will only know to take what they want, even if it isn’t rightfully theirs. America as a nation has to be stopped from draping curtains over the defeat of the plains Indians: their wiping out of an entire people, just as they did to the

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.

Oklahoma was once referred to as the “Unassigned Lands” (Fugate,138). This land was land inside Indian Territory that had not been claimed by one of the tribes (Hoig). Whites believed they were entitled to this land and wanted to get the statement across that America is a “white man’s country” (Dorman, 38). Immediately after Benjamin Harrison, the United States of America’s president at the time, announced the land would be opened for settlement, people began gathering their belongings, loading their wagons, or preparing their horses for travel. Thousands of people crowded the borders of the Unassigned Lands in hopes of establishing a settlement in the area (Fugate,140). At noon on April 22, 1889, people dashed across the land with their belongings seeking a plot of land. The Oklahoma Land Run was an exciting, puzzling, and in some cases, a violent day in Oklahoma’s history.

From its birth, America was a place of inequality and privilege. Since Columbus 's arrival and up until present day, Native American tribes have been victim of white men 's persecution and tyranny. This was first expressed in the 1800’s, when Native Americans were driven off their land and forced to embark on the Trail of Tears, and again during the Western American- Indian War where white Americans massacred millions of Native Americans in hatred. Today, much of the Indian Territory that was once a refuge for Native Americans has since been taken over by white men, and the major tribes that once called these reservations home are all but gone. These events show the discrimination and oppression the Native Americans faced. They were, and continue to be, pushed onto reservations,

This tragic loss of Native American culture is heartbreaking even in today's society. As was ruefully stated by Native American chief Santana, "These soldiers cut down our timber, they kill my buffalo; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry." (Document G) Since its inception in 1776, the United States was known as one of the most prominent advocates for freedom and liberty. Its emphasis on liberty and equality results from this nation’s dedication to and founding upon the Christian proposition that all men are created equal by God. Yet if this was truly taken to heart, then why were they so hedonistic against the Native Americans? Tensions between the tribes and the citizens of America drastically increased over the years of Manifest Destiny. Expanding the boundaries of the United States was in many ways a cultural war. While the US fought with the natives, the real power struggle occurred within. "Controversy grew over Texas, its annexation, and its boundaries. Not all Congressmen wanted to add Texas to the US as fear of a potentially large slave territory threatened the balance of Congress" (Background Essay Adapted) The desire of southerners to find more lands suitable for cotton

During the 1800’s there was controversy over the land owned in the United States. There was an act put into place by President Andrew Jackson called the “Indian Removal Act”. The act stated the Native Americans who lived east of the Mississippi River had to relocate west of the Mississippi, regardless if the land was foreign to the natives. Oklahoma was the place that the leaders of the United States called “Indian Country”. Some Pacific Northwest tribes were taken to Oklahoma, but were like rubber bands, shot back. The tribal members went back to their original homes, or where their ancestors came from. After warfare because of land, the United States signed treaties with the tribes in order to give them a piece of land called Reservations.

Survivance is a term that is used in Native American studies and it includes two important terms: “survival” and “resistance”. Survivance refers to an active sense of presence and in native stories, natural reason, active traditions, customs, narrative resistance, and clearly observable in personal attributes, such as humor, spirit, cast of mind, and moral courage (Vizenor). It allows them to transform their experiences of historical trauma into courage, forgiveness, and healing through political activism and cultural revitalization (sfsu).Vizenor defines this term in opposition to “victimry” and it is more than just survival for the Native Americans, but as self-reliant perseverance through all the hardships that had presented themselves such as the forced assimilation into the “white” community and culture. Instead of losing their roots, the Native Americans were able to hold on to their historical culture and traditions and were so much more than mere survival.

The book “How the Indians Lost their Lands” by Stuart Banner is about how he claims everything really went down for the Native Americans of being kicked out from their birth home from the so called “Americans”. Stuart Banner, “who is a law professor at the University of Los Angeles school of law, seemed to have never denied any knowledge regarding the transfer land trade of the United States from Native American to non-natives in the early 17th century to the end of the 19th century” (“Author Introduction: HTILTL”). Instead in “How the Indians Lost Their Land”, he describes and admits the truth of the way it really happened in the early 17th century. In this book Banner mostly criticized about how the Native Americans lived on their private property, due to their birth right, but were tricked into selling their land because of the beliefs

Native Americans became an obstacle to the expansionist desires of the colonists in the US. As the economic interaction with Britain and Europe in general increased in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the necessity of extending the ownership of lands to the west became a priority for the US Government, which found in the tribal communities an easy target to expropriate. Native Americans were forced to displace their families, belongings, and with them, their culture. A fierce movement of resistance emerged from the dispossessed tribal communities to defend their traditions and people against the greedy intentions of the US federal government. In this regard, King states that “the U.S. government committed atrocities and genocide against the Native people for the purpose of obliterating them in order to take claim to their lands.” It could be said that the Indian courage and honor were not powerful enough to fight well-equipped and organized US troops who legitimized their struggle by denaturing and degrading Indians in the eyes of society.

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.