Home of Mercy is a sonnet written by Gwen Harwood during modern era Australia. It depicts the lifestyle of a select few group of “ruined girls”, who have been impregnated and exiled to live with the nuns throughout the course of their pregnancy, in hope of exoneration. It deals with the confronting issue of the loss youthful innocence; is a wrong decision made in your teenage years really enough to have the rest of your social life destroyed?…
The book, Lakota Woman, written by Mary Crow Dog, gave the reader a personal view of the feelings shared by most Indians living in the United States during this present day. The book dealt with the time period of Crow Dog’s life along with some references to past events. Crow Dog attempted to explain the hostility felt towards the white men in the United States by the surviving Indian population. She used her own life as an example in many instances to give the reader a personal perspective. The main point in writing this book was to present the reader with the Indian viewpoint on how they were treated and what the effects of that treatment has done to their people over the years.…
The story of his ancestors was an important lesson of symbolism of genocide from the offered blankets to tribal villages. This incident was an impactful feeling to several tribe members and still is carried on today. This Indian members are carrying trauma and believed to happen again. This small incident has decreased their number of villages to small populated numbers. It continues to go down and traditions are being forgotten as members assimilate.…
"John Smith, the protagonist of Sherman Alexie's novel Indian Killer, is a man caught between the white world and the Indian world, and at home in neither. He is a full-blooded Native American Indian, but was raised by whites, and knows little about his Indian roots. As a result of these circumstances, and the fact that he is a man who appears to be an Indian in a nation of prejudice against Indians, he is a man without…
James Loewen was very accurate in his statement that “students in elementary schools and high schools been taught a history that demeans American Indians”. When I was in elementary school (I went to kindergarten in 1990), students where taught that the pilgrims came over on the Mayflower in 1620. Than shortly after making landing they lived in a harmonious co-existence with the Native American peoples. After receiving what could be called an extremely “white washed” or “sugarcoated” version of early American History, high school students (I went to high school in 1998) were told that there were wars with Native Americans. Only they are told that those wars were started by Native Americans attacking white settlers. In the eyes of a Native American…
The Indians were here before the name American even existed. In Luther Standing Bear’s essay “what the Indian means to America”, he informed us of how great the American Indian is. While many scholars would debate on the true heritage of America’s beginning, The Indian would not join this argument because they alone know the real story of this country we call home. Within this essay the Indians are a breed of people that do not lie down easily. Many would strongly agree with Luther Standing Bear’s definition that the Indian is a true American. The Indians are the roots under America soil because of their strong connection with nature, their spiritual toughness, and their musical influence.…
One take-away from Native American Perspectives that helped me understand Native American history more was the idea of regimes of truth from French philosopher Michel Foucault. This idea was vital in understanding Native American and settler colonial relations. Foucault said, “Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by a virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it induces regular effects of power. Each society has its regime of truth, its “general politics” of truth: that is, the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true; the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true and false statements, the means by which each is sanctioned; the techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition…
Although it was proven false, American Indians were given the stereotype of being weak and quickly vanishing. Source 2, written by Lewis Henry Morgan, describes the differences that separated the Indians from others. He also described Indians as “savages.” “The Indian family of America, unlike any other existing family, exemplified the condition of mankind…
Years after the Indian’s legend, people say some still believe in it. People are retelling the story over and over. But,…
Whichever the case, Indians were often described in very unflattering terms. Among these descriptions were terms like, “Flesh eating primitives,” “Savage, hostile and beastlike,” and “Crafty, loathsome half-men.” These various metaphors could not have inspired much confidence in the people who heard them.…
After all those years, it’s impossible for native american tribes to reform again. Many factors of american indian culture diminished with time. Many people whose ancestors are american indians assimilated with the domain culture. Now native americans only exist in the past, in the museum. Ironically, those museums were built by people who lead them to genocide. No matter what they do in the future, they could not deny their destruction to Native American…
Making messages about American Indians is a task of care because we can easily reproduce stereotypes. Currently, as Devon Mihesuah details in her book that we tend to be told what American Indians look like, what is their behavior and culture through movies and other stereotyped materials. In my opinion, there is no one with the right to label other or even categorize them because of certain actions or behaviors. For instance, Indians were label with that name after Columbus arrived to the “New World” because he only thought that he had landed in India. Given that action that label stayed with the native residents of the “New World” not by choice but by the actions of Columbus.…
Indians and slaves throughout the beginning of America have gone through some of the most difficult hardships. From being separated from families to being stripped of their culture and telling their stories of how they survived. They had to deal with people constantly taking things away from them with nothing in return. Showing their stories and how they fought is important in learning the history of America and the people that live here.…
Indians think you become white if you try to make your life better, if you become successful" (Alexie 131). This shows how Indians have lost all hope for themselves and that's probably why they don't even try to make their lives better, because no matter what they do they still aren't as good as the Indians. Some of the Spokane Indians believe if one Indian becomes successful then he is no longer an Indian but instead a white. In conclusion Alexie Sherman uses alot of metaphor does/says many things to express how the Spokane Indians feel about themselves and how they have low self-esteem.…
“It was the opposite of me. I didn’t deserve to be there. I knew it; all of those kids knew it. Indians don’t deserve shit” (Alexie 56).…