I was fascinated to find out that there is fantasy fiction out there being written by American Indian authors. Especially since the books can be read as analogical to the relationship between Americans and American Indians. To me as a teacher, that gives me a way to help students see the conflicts between American and American Indians in a fresh light, one untainted by years of cultural inculcation.
Another thing that caught my eye was the use of the epithet redskin for American Indians. I noted in my response to that post that American Indians have also been called savages and Tawnies. I wander if there is a changing lexicon of racial epithets as different Western understandings of American Indians come into vogue?
2/20/09
American Indians and Children's Lit.
What I've found in Debbie Reese's blogs is a profound sense of indignation and anger about the way Indians are portrayed in children's lit. The first question is are Indians even portrayed at all? In a lot of books she finds (Babar's World Tour, for example) American Indians are not shown as still living today. We are shown the evidence they left behind, but they have marched into the pages of history.
If there are American Indians in a story, they're often stereotyped or inaccurate representations. In one example, Apache:Girl Warrior, the author even asserts she didn't do that much research to insure accuracy. Rather, she paints a picture of the Apaches as a doomed culture, one that is inevitably going to fall beneath the tide of history.
I am amazed that this level of racism still exists today. Babar's World Tour was published in 2005. That is a sign that we need to think long and hard about how we are exposing our students to American Indians in our classrooms. I liked that Dr. Reese had suggestions for research that can help us be discerning consumers of the information that is available to us.
If there are American Indians in a story, they're often stereotyped or inaccurate representations. In one example, Apache:Girl Warrior, the author even asserts she didn't do that much research to insure accuracy. Rather, she paints a picture of the Apaches as a doomed culture, one that is inevitably going to fall beneath the tide of history.
I am amazed that this level of racism still exists today. Babar's World Tour was published in 2005. That is a sign that we need to think long and hard about how we are exposing our students to American Indians in our classrooms. I liked that Dr. Reese had suggestions for research that can help us be discerning consumers of the information that is available to us.
2/17/09
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
My favorite aspect of this book was Junior finding an identity for himself. Throughout the book, we see him struggling with different aspects of his life, trying to make them fit into a paradigm of Indianness or Whiteness. He struggles to hide the poverty of his Indian life from his white friends. He struggles to hide his nerdiness from other Indians. But eventually, he begins to see that he can't just be a part of himself when he's around others. By the end of the book, he realizes that he's a part of many different clubs, and that the complexity of his identity is what makes him himself.
It's a way of reaching beyond the dichotomies of race, class, or anything else. To me, it's also a very non-Western way of looking at Identity. Too often, we have to be classified as one thing and one thing only. Right now, we are students or teachers or 20-somethings, but really, we are all of those things at once. When we give up or hide a part of ourselves from others, we are really giving up all of our selves to the pressures of the outside world. But, as Sherman Alexie makes clear, that will never help us understand or fulfill our desires for our life.
It's a way of reaching beyond the dichotomies of race, class, or anything else. To me, it's also a very non-Western way of looking at Identity. Too often, we have to be classified as one thing and one thing only. Right now, we are students or teachers or 20-somethings, but really, we are all of those things at once. When we give up or hide a part of ourselves from others, we are really giving up all of our selves to the pressures of the outside world. But, as Sherman Alexie makes clear, that will never help us understand or fulfill our desires for our life.
2/15/09
Early American Historical Fiction and American Indians
In another one of my classes, we are reading two historical fiction novels from the 1820's. The first is Hobomok by Lydia Child. The second is Hope Leslie by Katharine Sedgwick. Both books focus on the early Colonial period and the English settlers relationship to the Indians.
In Hobomok, a love triangle develops between an English girl, a Wampanoag Indian, and an English man. The girl actually marries the Indian, but only because she's deranged (She thinks the English man has died). However, the English mar returns, and the Indian nobly leaves his English wife so she can be together with her true love. It's an interesting take on the role that Indians could take in the new American society. Basically, if they acted as the settlers wanted them too and helped the settlers out, they could possibly become a a part of society, but only as a second class citizen and only as long as there weren't more English or other Europeans who could take their role.
In Hope Leslie, the story revolves around the trials of the eponymous protagonist. Hope is separated from her sister, who is captured by Indians. This novel is even more harsh to the Indians, in that they can't even be considered a part of European society. All they do is ruin lives by their actions. There is a certain attempt at fair portrayal, but it is obvious that the Indians are savages, and nothing can be done except to make them white.
Overall, it's interesting to look at the history of our national and how we first choose to define ourselves in opposition to the American Indian. Both of these works were concerned with creating a national identity for Americans, and both used American Indians to highlight the "good" aspects of our history.
In Hobomok, a love triangle develops between an English girl, a Wampanoag Indian, and an English man. The girl actually marries the Indian, but only because she's deranged (She thinks the English man has died). However, the English mar returns, and the Indian nobly leaves his English wife so she can be together with her true love. It's an interesting take on the role that Indians could take in the new American society. Basically, if they acted as the settlers wanted them too and helped the settlers out, they could possibly become a a part of society, but only as a second class citizen and only as long as there weren't more English or other Europeans who could take their role.
In Hope Leslie, the story revolves around the trials of the eponymous protagonist. Hope is separated from her sister, who is captured by Indians. This novel is even more harsh to the Indians, in that they can't even be considered a part of European society. All they do is ruin lives by their actions. There is a certain attempt at fair portrayal, but it is obvious that the Indians are savages, and nothing can be done except to make them white.
Overall, it's interesting to look at the history of our national and how we first choose to define ourselves in opposition to the American Indian. Both of these works were concerned with creating a national identity for Americans, and both used American Indians to highlight the "good" aspects of our history.
The Birchbark House
One of the things that really frustrated me about The Birchbark House was the assigning of work based on gender roles. While a true portrayal of the culture, for some reason, I can't get over the fact that the guys didn't really have to do anything. Deydey was never around, except to bring food and some gifts. When he was around, he didn't do anything to help the family. He could sit around and smoke and talk about politics, but he rarely helped to make his wife's life a little easier. And Pinch, he certainly wasn't very helpful. He actually irritated me more because not only was he useless he was insolent as well. His disrespect for his mother and sisters disgusted me, and I got the feeling that he got away with it because he was male. If Pinch had been a little girl, he could have never had the same relationship with his mother and sisters. It's interesting that the same gender relationship existed in some Native American cultures as in the West. The man is the great hunter, but other than that he gets off pretty easy. I wonder what American Indian women today say about the traditional roles assigned to the sexes.
2/6/09
A Legend
John Trudell is an American Indian speaker, writer, poet, activist, and songwriter. He has been working at raising awareness of the unique positions and problems of American Indians for more than 35 years. His activist career began when American Indians took over Alcatraz Island in 1969. Throughout the 70's, he was deeply involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM). The FBI had a file 17,000 pages long based on his subversive activities. In 1979, Trudell burnt a flag on the steps of the FBI Building because he said the government had desecrated the flag and the only way to dispose of it was to burn it. A few days later, his wife and children in a house fire whose cause is still in question today.
After that, Trudell went thru a rough period, but came out of it as a poet and songwriter. He has performed and written since that point, blending spoken word poetry with traditional American Indian music.
What struck me the most about Mr. Trudell was his eloquence on the positions of American Indians. Especially when speaking about the idea that the government is still at war with American Indians, although they no longer use bullets. Instead, they ignore American Indian sovereignty and allow corporations to have the resource rights for cheap. This ties directly into the concepts of the land and sovereignty. His belief in what he says comes through with every word. Also, it was interesting to see how the government reacted when American Indians asked to have treaties honored. It shows that though the treaties are supposedly between equal nations, the federal government is not willing to honor that intention.
After that, Trudell went thru a rough period, but came out of it as a poet and songwriter. He has performed and written since that point, blending spoken word poetry with traditional American Indian music.
What struck me the most about Mr. Trudell was his eloquence on the positions of American Indians. Especially when speaking about the idea that the government is still at war with American Indians, although they no longer use bullets. Instead, they ignore American Indian sovereignty and allow corporations to have the resource rights for cheap. This ties directly into the concepts of the land and sovereignty. His belief in what he says comes through with every word. Also, it was interesting to see how the government reacted when American Indians asked to have treaties honored. It shows that though the treaties are supposedly between equal nations, the federal government is not willing to honor that intention.
2/5/09
Languages, Literatures, and Sovereignty
I found that the land had a profound effect on the issues of language, literature, and sovereignty in American Indian culture. Like in other issues we have looked at, key connections exist between the place American Indians live and how they view the world.
In language, we see that where you live effects the vocabulary you use and the way that you define concepts and metaphors. Also, we see the driving force of metaphor to help define the world around you in ways never considered by Europeans.
In literature, authors choose to write about where they have come from and how that has worked in their formulation of identity and character. Especially in House Made of Dawn, where the protagonist realizes that to make himself better, he must go back to the land he came from. This idea of a tight connection between place and identity is again something that European literature does not consider in the same way.
As for sovereignty, the land is the fundamental question. Do American Indians truly control the land they live on, or are they subordinated to Federal and State Governments? The logical contortions that the Government has gone through with the American Indians makes it difficult to determine. The fundamental tie between American Indians and the land they live on makes it all the more important that the issues is considered and discussed. Some of the ideas that the Federal and State Governments entertain have to complexify and be reanalyzed through a greater understanding of what the land means to American Indians.
In language, we see that where you live effects the vocabulary you use and the way that you define concepts and metaphors. Also, we see the driving force of metaphor to help define the world around you in ways never considered by Europeans.
In literature, authors choose to write about where they have come from and how that has worked in their formulation of identity and character. Especially in House Made of Dawn, where the protagonist realizes that to make himself better, he must go back to the land he came from. This idea of a tight connection between place and identity is again something that European literature does not consider in the same way.
As for sovereignty, the land is the fundamental question. Do American Indians truly control the land they live on, or are they subordinated to Federal and State Governments? The logical contortions that the Government has gone through with the American Indians makes it difficult to determine. The fundamental tie between American Indians and the land they live on makes it all the more important that the issues is considered and discussed. Some of the ideas that the Federal and State Governments entertain have to complexify and be reanalyzed through a greater understanding of what the land means to American Indians.
2/1/09
What we see
Because of our looking at the American Indians as something that is other than ourselves, we can effectively categorize everything they produce in the same way. Thus a book written by an American Indian is a publication of an American Indian, and must be judged by a set of standards reserved for that group. It falls into that group first, not the group of Literature or of Art. First it must be determined if it is suitable as a product of that culture, and then we can look at its literary or artistic viability.
If we gazed on American Indians and saw something that was similar to ourselves, this would never happen. A book would be a book, but because we see difference when we see American Indians, we change how we view what they produce and are a part of.
If we gazed on American Indians and saw something that was similar to ourselves, this would never happen. A book would be a book, but because we see difference when we see American Indians, we change how we view what they produce and are a part of.
Gazing into the world
The intersting thing about the concept of the gaze is how it is so fundamentally tied into Western thought. We do try to categorize, map, and understand every aspect of our lives. So, when the first settlers came to America, gazed on the American Indians, and declared them Savages, it fundamentally effected how they would look on them from that point forward. Besides creating a sense of otherness in the American Indians, it also allowed for the Colonists to feel justified in looking down on American Indian cultures and ideas. The gaze colonizes the American Indians into a people who can never be looked at as equal or even the same as those doing the gazing. They've become a part of the environment, something that has to be dealt with as an obstacle to Western progress.
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