The Native American Experience as Portrayed Through the Essay Titled, Address, and the Painting Titled, Among the Sierra Nevada

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The Native Land Imagine living in a place where you feel free, and safe all of your life, and then one day it’s all taken away from you. Native Americans have always depended on the land to take care of them. Had the Great Spirit forsaken them? These are the thoughts that pondered the mind of Seattle as he answered to the Governor of Washington, in the essay titled “Address”. What was the purpose or message behind Albert Bierstadt’s painting titled “Among the Sierra Nevada”? How are these two separate works associated? To understand the relationship that these two works share we must look at them from today’s perspective. The Address is a Political Science/ History piece that addresses problems, and states facts about the way of life for Native Americans the beauty of the land and how Americans were to take that away from them, while Bierstadt’s painting is able to show us the piece and serenity to the earth and within ourselves. Although the text and painting have different backgrounds, they are both similar a different in many ways. Both the text and the painting challenge the relationship between land uses, background of ancestors, and power. The painting and essay display similar expressions of darkness to light. The mountains represent the downfall of Native Americans fore fathers being forced westward out of their land (Seattle, 55). Bierstadt’s painting depicts the freedom of Native Americans being driven out of their homes and lands, interrupting their peace. “Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appear challenges and eternal, may change” (Seattle, 55). This statement illustrates even though they are the same people inside their way of thinking about wha... ... middle of paper ... ...sion Native Americans made a connection with the earth that was an ongoing affirmation to be close to nature. To witness the beauty of the land and all it had to offer them. Seattle’s address took a strong and powerful stance against the Americans, not only did he stand up for his people but he showed the wrong in the Americans. The essay and art work have affected the progress and solidity of the Native American culture in the past and the present. Each piece possess vitality, power and a drive to move forward, they also coincide on different levels where as to the message, that they bring forth understanding the environment and relationship between land, and man.” At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this beautiful land” (Seattle, 57).

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