N. Scott Momaday wrote these lines in his 1991 book of poems, In the Presence of the Sun: “In the shine of photographs / are the slain, frozen and black / … In autumn there were songs, long / since muted in the blizzard.” In this poem called “Wounded Knee Creek”, Momaday depicts the aftermath of Federal and Native American conflict at the Battle of Wounded Knee. He reminds the reader of how the event and loss of native life are remembered solely through these photographs of the dead and lost. Momaday’s work represents the Western tradition of artists using their art to memorialize and remember the past peoples and places that have been transformed, built up, and destroyed through government institutions of the West. It is this remembrance of …show more content…
In her fifteenth letter about the California gold mines at the time of the gold rush in the mid-19th century, Clappe writes, “as there are no state laws upon the subject, each mining community is permitted to make its own.” The types of miners and the communities formed during the time of the gold rush were primarily led by those independent from the Federal government. The lack of law turned the gold rush into an event truly like what Dame Shirley calls “nature's great lottery scheme.” Without large mining projects to unite individual miners or central planning schemes to organize land, the gold rush started as an individual venture with enormous risk. Clappe’s recollection of the gold rush period is in contrast to Genny Lim’s world depicted in her play Paper Angels, which depicts what happens to Chinese immigrants half a century after Clappe’s publication. In the play, the character Chin Gung expresses his disillusionment with his confinement at the Angel Island Detention Center: “this mountain is no mountain of gold. And I say all of you on this Island … will taste fool’s gold.” Lim’s work represents how the gold rush had been transformed into a legend of the West which attracted immigrants to essentially throw their lives away in jail. An important change from The Shirley Letters is the introduction of government into the Californian landscape by the time of Paper Angels’ events. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 set in place institutional structures meant to curb Chinese immigration, and Genny Lim’s work explores how the imposition of government and law in the West have led to discrimination, exclusion, and also an undying belief in the Western ideal. Chin Gung ends his speech by stating that “once a Gold Mountain boy, always a Gold Mountain boy. One
The Susan Lee Johnson article, “Bulls, Bears, and Dancing Boys: Race, Gender, and Leisure in California Gold Rush,” illustrated how Anglo-men in the mining towns coped without Anglo-women present. The pattern of behavior from men in the Californian Gold Rush is reminiscent of the female gender roles assumed by men in the early establishment of Jamestown, Virginia. Although, factors such as; inadequacy, spare time, and clashing cultural concepts about the womanhood and race in California created more exaggerated distortions to the behavior of Anglo men.
As I gazed across the book isles and leaned over carefully to pick one up out of the old dusty vaults of the library, a familiar object caught my eye in the poetry section. A picture in time stood still on this book, of two African American men both holding guitars. I immediately was attracted to this book of poems. For the Confederate Dead, by Kevin Young, is what it read on the front in cursive lettering. I turned to the back of the book and “Jazz“, and “blues” popped out of the paper back book and into my brain. Sometimes you can judge a book by it’s cover, I thought. Kevin Young’s For the Confederate Dead is a book of poems influenced by blues and jazz in the deep rural parts of the south.
These art works are concerning what occurred in October 1867 when Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa and the United States government signed a peace treaty (Sayre, Pg. 40). The syllable of the syllable. The treaty was signed at Medicine Lodge Creek on Arkansas River in Kansas (Sayre, Pg. 40). The syllable of the syllable. John Taylor’s art was created off of sketches that were completed shortly after the events (Sayre, Pg. 40).
Luke 6:31 says, “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” History proves that our nation didn’t keep with verse in mind when we treated the Native Americans unfairly. Some examples of not treating them fairly was the Trail of Tears, The Massacre of Wounded Knee, and The Battle of Tippecanoe. This essay will explain how in these events Americans treated Native Americans how we shouldn’t of.
...d Native Americas in a negative light, such as Carl Wimer’s Abduction of Daniel Boone’s Daughter, George Caleb Bingham’s Concealed Enemy, and Horatio Greenough’s The Rescue. These two paintings and statue in particular should be included because they depict the views of people in that era. The view of Native Americans was that of savagery. In the painting by Wimer the woman is depicted a fair skinned maiden, due to the white dress who is being brutishly taken away. The statue by Greenough, which depicts a man protecting his family from a savage Native American, was outside of the United States Capital for nearly a hundred years before it was taken down. These views of indigenous people during the 19th century have lasting impacts on our country. It is our job to tell the real story of what happened to the Native Americans as victims of our view of manifest destiny.
Grua details how, although this massacre was initially "heralded as the final victory in the 400 year 'race war ' between civilization and savagery," it now is "an internationally-recognized symbol representing past massacres and genocide, as well as indigenous demands for recognition and sovereignty." Grub gives examples of how the survivors of this massacre found ways to record their eye-witness accounts, challenge the army 's "official memory," and persistently seek compensation from the government for the losses suffered by the Lakota people on this tragic day. The written documentation provides unchanging evidence of the injustices suffered by the victims of the Wounded Knee massacre. Oral history, kept alive by survivors ' descendants, has also preserved the stories of that terrible day. Wounded Knee has gained symbolic power "in hopes that such remembrance will lead to the eradication of violence, massacre, and
One of the darkest times in American history was the conflict with the natives. A “war” fought with lies and brute force, the eviction and genocide of Native Americans still remains one of the most controversial topics when the subject of morality comes up. Perhaps one of the most egregious events to come of this atrocity was the Sand Creek Massacre. On the morning of November 29th, 1864, under the command of Colonel John Chivington, 700 members of the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry raped, looted, and killed the members of a Cheyenne tribe (Brown 86-94). Hearing the story of Sand Creek, one of the most horrific acts in American History, begs the question: Who were the savages?
Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of the value of the Native American past, these literary works have also revealed knowing perspectives on the meaning of the modern world in the lives of contemporary Native Americans.
Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, New York, Bantam Press,1970
Wounded Knee was a terrible event in US history. It showed how the US government didn't understand the Native Americans and treated them badly and unfairly.
At first glance, John Taylor and Howling Wolf’s visual representations of the treaty signing at Medicine Creek Lodge appear very different from one another. It is more than apparent that the two artists have very different interpretations of the same event. This paper will visually analyze both works of art by comparing and contrasting the compositional balance, medium, and use of color, as well as how the artists narrated their views using different visual elements.
As majority of the narrative in this poem is told through the perspective of a deceased Nishnaabeg native, there is a sense of entitlement to the land present which is evident through the passage: “ breathe we are supposed to be on the lake … we are not supposed to be standing on this desecrated mound looking not looking”. Through this poem, Simpson conveys the point of how natives are the true owners of the land and that colonizers are merely intruders and borrowers of the land. There is an underlying idea that instead of turning a blind eye to the abominations colonizers have created, the natives are supposed to be the ones enjoying and utilising the land. The notion of colonizers simply being visitors is furthered in the conclusion of the poem, in which the colonizers are welcomed to the land but are also told “please don’t stay too long” in the same passage. The conclusion of this poem breaks the colonialistic idea of land belonging to the colonizer once colonized by putting in perspective that colonizers are, in essence, just passerbys on land that is not
“What have the ‘hostiles done? It seems to be so far a white man’s war” (Qtd. in Hines 30). The Indians that were killed at Wounded Knee committed no crime on their reservation in the time before the battle (Hines 36), they only practiced religion. The Ghost Dance movement resulted in a massacre at Wounded Knee which had a lasting impact on many people.
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
The video “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee,” tells the story of being pushed onto reservations in the Midwest and Black Hills negotiations. The main characters include Charles Eastman, Red Cloud, and Sitting Bull. These characters each play a significant role in capturing the emotional state of life among the governing agencies and tribal members.