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.