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Native American culture
Introduction to native american literature
Introduction to native american literature
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These stories have both symbolism of horse and contemporary American culture integrated into the Native American ways. This is expressed through the modernism in some of these poems. For example, 3 A.M is a poem about two Indians waiting at the Albuquerque airport for a flight. Also shown is the stigma the flight attendant has for these to Indian people and why they are at the airport looking for a flight. Also mentioned is how they remember a friend I assume named Simon took a yellow cab out of Albuquerque, which cost him twenty-five dollars. The way American culture shines through this poem is interesting because the stigma we have for the Native people is that they do not fly on airplanes and they do not take cabs. Also they do not use forms of currency like dollar bills. However this stigma is wrong and you see this through this poem and for me I see it through the eyes of the flight attendant.
In these poems when reading them even if they have a strong American influence to them, there is still a distinct Native tone to them. They are not completely westernized. This is noticeable in the way the
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This was because of the spiritual connection they had with the god like beings. They called the animal “Big Dog” or “God Dog” and they eventually did ride and own the animals. Before the horses were found they used dogs to transport small things and they had less efficient ways of hunting. For example the buffalo hunting, they would run the buffalo off of a cliff in order to be able to catch them. This method may have been less effective due to the heavy weight of a buffalo, it would have been hard to then transport it back to camp while it was either wounded or dead. By having the horses the Native people expanded their food efficiency and their transportation. Horses exponentially expanded their resources and growth. (American Indian Horse
In the introduction, Hämäläinen introduces how Plains Indians horse culture is so often romanticized in the image of the “mounted warrior,” and how this romanticized image is frequently juxtaposed with the hardships of disease, death, and destruction brought on by the Europeans. It is also mentioned that many historians depict Plains Indians equestrianism as a typical success story, usually because such a depiction is an appealing story to use in textbooks. However, Plains Indians equestrianism is far from a basic story of success. Plains equestrianism was a double-edged sword: it both helped tribes complete their quotidian tasks more efficiently, but also gave rise to social issues, weakened the customary political system, created problems between other tribes, and was detrimental to the environment.
Few events in history have impacted a culture as much as the introduction of the horse into plains Indian culture. The positive impact of the horse on North America's indigenous people has been romanticized forever in popular culture. The portrait of plains Indian horse created by the likes of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood is far from complete. While the horse did make nearly every aspect of Native American life more efficient, the spread of horses also contributed to the violence in the southwestern region of the United States in three ways. The trade of horses among the plains Indians created competition for resources, encouraged and contributed to raiding, and allowed the domination of the region by the Apache Indians.
Although these poems do not say much about the era that they are in or the social class that these people come from a person could tell a lot just by the poem.
The concept of America changes through these authors poems and short stories . They all portray American society in different manners, and reveal their opinions on issues through various literary methods. Although they all analyze and write about different issues, they are all intertwined by the concept of society in America.
American Indian stories is the story of an Indian girl’s childhood experiences and how she went to school and also talks about the different Indian customs. The book sarts out with how her father, uncle and little sister were killed by the white men, and how much her mother resented the white men or palefaces as she called them. Bead work was one of the main things the Indian women did and so the little Indian girl also learned to do bead work by watching her mom. This book also tells of the many Indian myths or beliefs. In one case the little girl and many of the villagers were going to see a young warriors first arrival and their was a great party and during the walk to the center of the camp the little girl tried to grab a plum when her mother told her not to get a plum because the plum bush was growing out of the hands of an Indian boy who always like to play and eat plums. one day missionaries came to the camp to basically send mostly children to the East so they would learn the ways of the white man and also become civilized and in turn help bring more Indians Eastward to help with the modernization of America and Indians. The book describes in detail the regiment of what happened and how the little girl was feeling while she was in school and the day she went back home to visit her mother and also to recruit new children from the school she came from. Finally the little girl became a teacher. The book goes on to describing a warrior chief and his pride and joy in his little daughter and how he didn’t see anyone that would be able to marry his daughter. Blue-Star Woman was an Indian women at
Storytelling is a large part of Native American cultures and this can be seen in The Ceremony. At the beginning of the book Silko wrote, “I will tell you something about stories, [he said] they aren’t just entertainment. Don’t be fooled. They are all we have you see…You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories.”(Silko 2) The importance of storytelling is shown here and is significant as it shows how stories shape who they are and what and where the southwest is. The importance of this is expanded as the story of Tayo’s individual journey is told. It helps to develop a picture of the southwest and how the people identify who they are and where they are going. Storytelling is also highlighted in this same way in The Devil’s Highway as it tells the story of the Wellton 26. The way Urrea describes each character and their personal effects helps the reader to connect with them and understand the hardships they went through individually. “These are the things they carried. John Doe # 36: red underpants, mesquite beans stuck to his skin. John Doe # 37: no effects. John Doe … #49: a photo ID of some sort, apparently illegible.” (Urrea 32) By describing the items the immigrants had on them, part of their story is told and reflected. This is significant as it helps to emphasize the important role storytelling has on what and where the southwest
Poems are forms of communication that give an applicable view of the past, present and future events. Reading the poem titled “America”, written by Richard Blanco brought me memories from my childhood in my parent’s house and also what is happening now in my house as a parent. The poem explains how one person doesn’t have all the knowledge about something. It also, describes the daily life struggles I experienced during my childhood, when my parent 's and I moved from our hometown to live in another town becuase of their work and it brings to light the conflict of cultures I and my children are going through since we moved to United State of America .
The poem contains the central idea that many of these children never understood what home really means. In Native American culture the people venerate earth and it is referred to as mother nature which we see in the poem. The rails cut right through their home but they don’t view them like the average person. They view the tracks as if they are scars across mother earths face and her face is the Native American’s homeland. She is scarred for eternity but she is perfect in their dreams. This symbolism is ironic because the children try to reach home using the railroad that ruined natural life for them and many other Native Americans. In the second stanza the speaker says “The worn-down welts of ancient punishments lead back and fourth” (15-16). Which can be talking about the marks on the children’s bodies after getting caught while running away. But the “word-down welts” can also symbolize the welts that were put on mother nature throughout history. The last five lines of the poem sums up the symbol of hope through their memories and dreams. The last line of the poem says, “the spines of names and leaves.” (20-24). The “spines” symbolize the physical strength of the children and their ability to maintain hope individually “names”, and for their tribe
In this poem, there is a young woman and her loving mother discussing their heritage through their matrilineal side. The poem itself begins with what she will inherit from each family member starting with her mother. After discussing what she will inherit from each of her family members, the final lines of the poem reflect back to her mother in which she gave her advice on constantly moving and never having a home to call hers. For example, the woman describes how her father will give her “his brown eyes” (Line 7) and how her mother advised her to eat raw deer (Line 40). Perhaps the reader is suggesting that she is the only survivor of a tragedy and it is her heritage that keeps her going to keep safe. In the first two lines of the poem, she explains how the young woman will be taking the lines of her mother’s (Lines 1-2). This demonstrates further that she is physically worried about her features and emotionally worried about taking on the lineage of her heritage. Later, she remembered the years of when her mother baked the most wonderful food and did not want to forget the “smell of baking bread [that warmed] fined hairs in my nostrils” (Lines 3-4). Perhaps the young woman implies that she is restrained through her heritage to effectively move forward and become who she would like to be. When reading this poem, Native American heritage is an apparent theme through the lifestyle examples, the fact lineage is passed through woman, and problems Native Americans had faced while trying to be conquested by Americans. Overall, this poem portrays a confined, young woman trying to overcome her current obstacles in life by accepting her heritage and pursuing through her
In ‘horse,’ the speaker describes a horse being betrayed and then killed in a small town in Texas. The first two stanzas described the horse thundering towards outstretched hands being attracted to a field of corn but instead it is attacked by a group of white teenage boys who leave it mutilated. The sheriff of the town does not do anything because he believes that it is in their nature to do so. In the last stanzas the Mexican owner puts the horse out of his misery and someone tries to pay him for the damage. His people are disappointed because they believe that money could not make up for the death of the horse but, they do nothing about it. It would seem the horse in the poem is meant to represent the Mexican culture and how it is being eradicated by the dominant white society in the United States.
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...
Those four poems have a similar problem, the cultural/language border. The poem “Here” is a cultural problem like “Legal Alien”, while “Elena” is a poem with a language problem, “Where you from?” have both problems cultural and language border. Basically every single poem expresses a similar problem, which has to deal with a new culture where maybe the people do not feel that they belong to this new culture. Those poems show the problem that immigrants have by living in a new country and the new language, or the problem that they do not know in which society or culture they belong.
Horses were once wild animals and were hunted for meat and especially for their hide which was used to make clothes, tools and tents. There where families of horses that were dog-sized roaming through the forests that covered North America. Due to changing climate conditions the grasslands expanded which expanded the variety of species and the horses grew larger.
Here the Native tribes relied heavily on the Buffalo. The introduction of the horse from the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors was very important to these people for transportation and hunting purposes. The Plains had many different Native American tribes within it including the Sioux, Cheyenne, Comanche and Blackfoot (Lowenstein 14). Since there was a high demand for buffalo, the Plains became an area for many conflicts. Even though these conflicts occurred often, the Native people all shared a sign language and also a firm belief in the supreme creator the “great spirit” (Lowenstein 15).
Native American tales are rich in music, spiritual ideals, emotional legends, and memorable characters, attributes that allow them to persist during times when transcription was not a viable option. Song and dance was a major staple in Native American civilization as the speaker would often have patrons in the background providing either visual interpretation or acapella accompaniment during oration. These folktales would provide stories of origin, explain certain beliefs or ways to life, give warnings, provide a moral compass or guidance, or a combination of the three. An example would be The Coyote and the Columbia. This tale sees the notorious coyote lament at the brutal heat of the sun and beseeches for a cloud to provide shade, which is instantly conjured. The coyote quickly over indulges, asking for more clouds, rain, and a creek to dip his feet in. As the coyote incessantly demands for more, the creek turns into the present day Columbia river and nearly drowns the intemperate beast, who learns the danger of literally being inundated in one’s greed. Performers would pantomime the waves of the aforementioned river to further express the coyotes’s folly. Alterations could be expected. For example, Cherokee Indians may tell the same story but have a raccoon instead of a coyote, and in lieu of the Columbia, the Mississippi could have been