Leslie Marmon Silko's Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit was a very interesting read. To read about the different ideas of a native culture was a positive experience. The Pueblo's see the landscape as everything around them including themselves. You are not just the viewer in the land, you are also a part of that landscape. You helped nature just as nature helped you. In hunting elk, the event was not just to hunt but to gather everything that you needed from the elk, nothing would go to waste. It was a ritual. The animal would be respected and prayed for by the natives. As we have read before all these are passed down via stories. The things that we learn about natives they learned through their ancestors and word of mouth. Another interesting thing to note is that both landscapes and dreams are similar to the people because of the fact that they instill feelings and emotions through images.
Response to Leslie Marmon Silko’s Interior and Exterior Landscapes: The Pueblo Migration Stories and Winona Laduke's article
After reading Leslie Marmon Silko’s article, it was easy to make the connection with giving back to nature and animals. Both native peoples and their animals would give and take from each other, and whatever was not used was given back to the earth. On the beginning pages, she explains that if the Pueblo people do not finish the meat and bones given to them by the antelopes, the antelope spirits will be offended. The lives of both the Pueblo people and the animals that surround them are gifts to each other. I thought it was interesting that she mentioned how when someone in the Pueblo community dies, they give their body back to the earth, “The dead become dust, and in this becoming they are once more joined with the mother (27).”
I have read articles and a book called Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko before and she focuses on the identity within the individual, and where they stand in the community. In Ceremony, it goes through the internal and external struggles within a Native person’s community, and what they go through. They tell stories and ceremonies to feel connected to their ancestors. This links to the article we read for today because identities are created through the animals and the Pueblo people. In the section titled, “Through the Stories, We hear who we are,” it further explains this connection. Through stories, they could connect with human experience and pass down their culture, to ensure that nothing would be lost through the years. They wanted the same values with nature and through themselves to be evident year after year.
In Winona Laduke’s article, she talks about how the relations of the Native people’s include animals and nature. It also brings into the picture what is being done to protect wildlife because of the “direct connection in our community between the loss of biodiversity and the loss of cultural wealth.” This ties in both Silko’s book Ceremony and her article mentioned above. The Pueblo people needed the animals to enrich their culture, and they gained as well as gave to the animals and earth around them.
I was in a really good mood when I started reading Leslie Marmon Silko’s work; it was some really great stuff. Even after I read everything she had to stay I was in a fantastical mood, it has been a pleasant day! Regardless, in fifth grade I did a project on the Pueblo Native Americans, I had to pick a tribe to study, I picked a New Mexican tribe, they were pretty cool. So everything I read was an interesting refresher to what I had studied back in fifth grade when I was an aspiring lad.
I love the Pueblo Native American people, they have awesome houses reminiscent of incredible box forts, they survive out in hot deserts, and they have an amazing culture, I guess they were pretty neat. They are by far my favorite tribe of people, but would I want to live amongst them? I dunno… I like my technology… And that plane ticket to New Mexico, that’s a little pricey.
What I liked the most was how animals were ceremoniously returned to nature after they had been killed for food, hide, and horns. Unlike today were we have buildings literally called slaughterhouses… I wonder why they call them that, duh! Instead of ‘ceremoniously’ returning animals to nature we stack them in a pile in the back yard and hope that after enough time eventually the stinky pile of animal corpses will just disappear, as in poof, gone.
For the millionth time I see that the Native Americans are doing something right and we shunned them for it and kept exiling them to the west until we expected they just start swimming of into the sunset across the Pacific, I don’t know. Regardless, I think returning the corpse of the animal is a really nice act of kindness, and more importantly respect. I could totally get behind that if I owned a farm of my own or something.
There used to be this farm next door to me, and they had a bunch of cows. The rude farmer used to name them things like Christmas and Thanksgiving, I wonder why? My little brother used to get attached to them and started to figure out why they were progressively disappearing and he got pretty upset so he stopped eating meat. And then my dad would sarcastically sit on the porch and watch my brother watch the cows and my dad would be like “Luke stop, he’s still gunna kill em’ for food.” And so the farmer did, every time.
The farmer used to roll the cows bodies into a ditch and once there were like five cows in there he’d just dump mulch on them. If I owned that farm I’d make a godlike mega grave, plant roses and shit. I would go out to that cows grave in the rain and be nice and say: “Thanks for feeding my family, I hope you find peace up there with Mr. Cow God. I love you cow #6, but I won the knife fight this time, amen brother.”
In the story by Leslie Silko, I was brought back to some teachings I learned in history classes in middle school and high school. I never understood how Native Americans could have such a deep connection with animals, but kill them so easily for food. But in a certain part of this story, they explained that the Native Americans and the animals have a mutual respect and understanding for each other. The animals know that they must be sacrificed for the well being of humans in order for them to survive. I thought that was pretty interesting. In addition to this, no part of the animal can be wasted. Everything must be used or eaten or it was considered inconsiderate. That also includes all other objects in nature that die. It should be allowed to break down and go back to nature in dirt.
In Ladukes, All Our Relations, I learned that the indigenous people sing and worship the salmon, in order to respect them for giving them food. “Native American teachings describe the relations all around—animals, fish, trees, and rocks—as brothers, sisters, uncles and grandpas.” I thought this was so cool. I wish part of our culture were like this because I love animals and I think we should respect them the way Native Americans do.
I connected both stories together using the animal respect concept because I found it the most interesting.
The story Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit by Leslie Marmon Silko made me really think about stories and what is the importance of them. Until now, I have never really thought about what the meaning of story-telling is and why it is done. I just thought that Native Americans re-tell stories so they can teach the younger children about things that happened in the past, but that is not the case at all. Pueblo people used stories to be the medium through which the complex of Pueblo knowledge and belief was maintained. Their stories all had specific topics and certain key elements in it that had special meanings. Like hunting stories described key landmarks and locations of freshwater and deer-hunt stories might serve as map. Although the story is told an important part of the story is the location or landscape that is being described in the story or where the story is taking place. Stories are able to re-tell the newer generations about places of importance where a fight took place, or where the best berries are located, or to warn the people to be careful around the edge because it has a past of engulfing cars. I never really looked deeper into the meanings behind landscapes when hearing a story, I usually try figure out the main idea of the story. I realized that the main idea of the story is only a small part of the story that is important, there are so many other things in the story that need to be a priority in order to fully understand the story. When the Pueblo people told stories they acted them out and imitated voices of figures or characters in the story. By acting it out and using different voices to identify what character is being portrayed it actually makes the person listening feel like the moment is alive again within them, within their imaginations and their memory. They can actually feel like they are actually at the place that is being explained in the story. The more connected you feel with a story the more you can understand it on a personal level. When re-telling a story about a horrific fight that took place and the Natives being raided by white settlers, the story-teller wants to make the listener be able to feel like they are actually in the middle of the fight so that they can feel the pain and hurt that the Natives are feeling at the time. The story-teller wants the listener to feel this way because this is part of their past and they want them to understand just what their people had to go through for their people to be where they are at now. Some landscapes are destroyed and are not even visible anymore, but by story-telling those places will always live on and survive from one generation to the next. Even though people try to hurt and break the Pueblo’s way of life, the Pueblo people won’t let that destroy them and their cultures, lands, people etc. will live on forever as long as the stories live on so will Pueblo people.
Another thing that I realized from the beginning to the end of this story is that the Pueblo people focus on the life cycle and Mother Earth. The ancient Pueblo people buried the dead in vacant room or in partially collapsed rooms adjacent to the main living quarters. Human remains rest with the bones and rinds where they all may benefit living creatures until their return is completed. The remains of things, animals and plants, the clay and stones, were treated with respect because for ancient people all these things had spirit and being. Well I understood that humans, plants, and animals were all living things and had spirit and being to some extent, but clay and stones, really? After reading I realized that the clay and stones have spirit and being because the dead becomes dust and dust is a part of clay and stones. The Pueblo people make sure that nothing is wasted and everything can be used to help something in the environment. If we help one part of Mother Earth by recycling, for example, then streams and rivers won’t be polluted and fresh water and fresh water fish will be able to live without being threatened in their own environment. They respect Mother Earth and know that without her, they wouldn’t even be alive and therefore they must do whatever they can to make sure they protect her and make sure she isn’t harmed, but sometimes it is out of the Pueblo people’s hands and they cannot stop what is being done to her. Such greed, even on the part of one being, had the effect of threatening the survival of all life on Earth.
Upon reading Winona LaDuke’s “All Our Relations,” I was both intrigued and moved by the first few opening paragraphs. The first sentence, even, “The last 150 years have seen a great holocaust,” immediately sparked my interest and engrossed me in what the rest of the article would entail. It was mindboggling to read about how more species have been lost within the past two centuries than since the treacherous days of the Ice Age. Not only have countless species been lost, but thousands of groups of aboriginal peoples have become nonexistent throughout the western hemisphere as well. The narrator creates a parallel between the animals to the natives, as their extinctions are in direct correlation. These are astonishing numbers; how did this go about happening without having been detected or cared for?
In Leslie Silko’s “Interior and Exterior Landscapes” I again was captivated by the opening paragraph. This time it was due to her style of writing, her enticing concepts, and persuasive vocabulary. Here she explains how after something has passed away, it dries up after a certain period of time, and if it were to be touched, it would turn to dust. At this point, the soul has already left the thing of which has passed away, and the dust will be reused by nature in the circle of life. She explains that “The dead become dust, and in this becoming they are once more joined with the Mother.” This article further shows the connection between Native Americans and other indigenous people with the land. Each person, each living thing was created by the Mother, and when it dies, it is reacquainted with the Mother as it becomes dust and disintegrates into the earth. Later in the article, in the portion titled “Out Under the Sky,” that narrator explains how their first memories of life are outside amongst nature, beneath the sky. They talk about their explorations and adventures through nature, and how their spirits are interconnected with the landscape. As this narrative comes to an end, however, it takes a turn towards a much more somber, devastating tone. The narrator explains how only memories remain where many of these beautiful landscapes once were – this is an another heartbreaking realization.
It astounds me that it has essentially been disregarded that so many animal species have become extinct, native tribes have died off, and even sacredly beautiful landscapes have been turned to ash and memories.
All Our Relations by Winona LaDuke and Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit by Leslie Marmon Silko were the most upsetting readings assigned thus far in ENGL 326. It was difficult to read about the poisoning of sacred Native American lands and people, and to think about the devastating effects pollution and nuclear waste are having on the lives of American Indians living on reservations even today in 2014. Many of the readings so far this semester have focused on discrimination and brutality against Indians in the past due to European takeover of America, but today’s assigned texts actually described physical harm being inflicted on people living on reservations in the name as something as unnecessary as corporate greed. The most interesting part of both essays for me was the fact that the Native Americans being impacted by chemical exposure and toxins being dumped on their homelands were more concerned about the generations following them than their own lives.
In All Our Relations, LaDuke describes how massive energy companies located next to Indian reservations and sacred Native American grounds refuse to properly clean up their chemical waste due to a desire to save money. The effects of toxic waste on American Indian health are terrifying. Mercury levels are dangerously high in some Native American populations, and it is believed that a number of diseases and cancers are linked directly to chemical waste from energy industrial giants improperly cleaning up after themselves. One of the most haunting effects of pollution on American Indians presented in the article was the poisoning of breast milk and its effects on infants. LaDuke made it clear in her article that many American Indians are determined to fight for cleaner environments on or around Native American reservations simply because their children are at risk. It was moving to read in All Our Relations about the American Indians’ shared desire to preserve their family lineage, allow for the continuance of their culture and race, and make way for a cleaner healthier future, knowing all too well that they may not even be a part of it.
Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit highlights the importance of future generations to Native American peoples just like All Our Relations. In Silko’s essay, she discusses storytelling within the Pueblo tribes. Pueblo people make storytelling a communal act. Every member of the community takes part in telling, listening to, modifying, and spreading stories which carry on information about important Pueblo landmarks as well as Pueblo religious views and culture. The important thing about the communal quality of Pueblo storytelling is that it shows an awareness of the Pueblo people of the need to preserve information and tradition to be used by future generations. Pueblo communities view historic tribal stories not only as assets to Pueblos living today but to their children and grandchildren in the future.
Critical Response 9
October 6, 2014
Silko’s reading was very powerful in the fact that it made me think about the environment and world around me. There is a part that reads, “A rock shares this fate with us and with animals and plants as well. A rock has being or spirit, although we may not understand it.” I have not once in my life thought of a rock having any sort of spirit, but the way the Pueblos talk about it makes it hard to not to believe it. They talk about how everything on Earth is connected, the spirits of people and plants, and yes, even rocks. Later in the text the author talks about how the Pueblos relied on the harmony between all things around them and the cooperation of not just human beings, but also among the weather and animals and landscape. This again represents the connection that the ancient peoples felt with the land and how they treated it as another spirit.
Another astonishing fact about the Pueblos is how they did not write anything down such as their knowledge about astronomical features. They were only rivaled by the Mayans and Incans in terms of knowledge. The Pueblos relied on collective memory through the generations, and stories became the medium in which this information was passed. The stories of Creation and Emergence are retold for four days and nights every year on the winter solstice to ensure that that they live on and as part of a tradition. All of the stories told were extremely inclusive and left nothing out. This reminds me of the readings about Selu and the story about the Corn Mother and how she sacrificed her kernels so that others may live. These kinds of stories serve the same purpose for their people, which is to provide an understanding of the world and background into the culture. These stories may also provide codes and morals in which to live by, therefore governing the culture long after they have finished being told.
These stories also both relate to the Mohawk legend that tells of a never-ending ocean. A pregnant woman then fell from the sky followed by beavers getting soil from the bottom of the ocean. The woman, on the back of a turtle, then traveled around to spread the soil. This created North America as we know it, and is referred to by the Mohawks as “Turtle Island.” This is another type of creation story, one that provides context for the culture as how the Earth came to be like it is today.
I was really moved and inspired after reading Yellow Women and the Beauty of the Spirit, by Leslie Marmon Silko. It has shined a new light on the topic of being resourceful and has revoked an old feeling of longing for the days of well-rounded individuals. These days, the illusion of a food surplus and immediate access to resources has made us lazy and wasteful. Most people throw out more food than they eat while others struggle to eat once a day. However, for the Pueblo people, their deep connection with nature and their ancestral culture has taught them to not only be resourceful, but maintain a deep appreciation to nature that our modern day culture has lost.
I believe that their appreciation of nature and its resources was that they believed that all the resources cycled in unison. All the resources that nature gave them would eventually be returned to nature, thus completing and continuing the cycle. If any natural resource given to the Pueblo people was wasted/unused, then the Pueblo people believed that the spirits would be upset. The beginning of the reading gave the example that if any antelope meat and/or bones were wasted, then the antelope spirits would become angry. It’s the same understanding as if you gave a friend some paper to use, maybe a pencil to write with, and your friend just threw it away or did not return it. Wouldn’t you be upset? Now I understand that the situations/example are radically different in importance, but the concept remains the same.
These readings enlightened me on the importance of using every resource to their full potential, even if the results are nothing like the anticipated use. For example, crafting bones into tools, animal muscles into string, skin into pelts and clothing, etc. Not only does this give every resource value, but it also helps those who manipulate/craft them develop and maintain useful survival skills and crafting traits. It makes one more well-rounded as a human being; near-mastering many different skills. These readings inspired me to a least be a little more resourceful, only taking the bare minimum of what I need and/or only what I can contribute back.
Native American Lit.
October 6, 2014
After completing this week’s readings I feel I really connected with Leslie Silko’s writing. As I read Silko’s vivid descriptions about Pueblo culture, connecting to one’s ancestors, and about the cycle of life, I felt as if I had had many similar thoughts before. Just recently I was talking to one of my best friends about death and he told me that he was not afraid of dying because he knows that he will still be here in some way as a part of the earth. The first section of Silko’s essay seemed to mirror me and my friend’s conversation, as she spends the first several pages describing how even when a body has died and decomposes, that body is providing something new for the earth. Silko also talks about the presence of spirits after one’s physical body has decomposed. I found this concept to be beautiful, and I enjoyed Silko’s describing the antelope as sacrificing itself so that the humans may survive. I had not thought about there being a beauty in hunting until I read this section.
I also really connected with Silko’s need to head off into nature in order to clear her mind. Silko discusses how her father and uncle both used to go off into the wilderness together in order to escape the racism that her father faced. In a way, Silko’s desire to go off into the wild as her father did may be an instinct that she inherited from him. Silko describes how she feels when in nature and how she can almost sense the spirits of others around her. I have had moments like this where I might go on a walk to clear my head, and even in walking alone, feel as if there are others who have taken the same walk that I now take. I also really loved Silko discussing her Aunt Susie and her great grandmother. I loved when Silko said that when stories were told they children were told to open the door so that the spirits of their ancestors may join them. I often like to think that at certain family events or holidays that the souls of our lost loved ones are there with me and my family.
In regards to the excerpts from All Our Relations I did not connect as much to this text, but was surprised by many of the facts that these excerpts provided. For example, I was not aware of the government dumping nuclear waste in native lands. I was also unaware that over 2,000 native nations have become extinct over the last century and a half (p. 1). Overall, I found these excerpts to be eye-opening about serious issues, and in relating these issues to Silko’s essay, I find it extremely sad to imagine peaceful peoples (such as Silko’s family) facing atrocities at the hands of racism and the government. Thinking about the nuclear waste and the hazards it brings to native lands made me think about Silko’s love of nature, and what might happen not only to the nature itself, but also to Silko. I found both texts to be interesting and both made me think a lot about native issues that I might not have thought about otherwise.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article about how Christopher Columbus didn't discover America. I fully support the Portland, Oregon high school students of 1992. I think it is important to tell children when they are younger the truth about Columbus and various other topics about which we usually mislead them.
I did not know about this lie until fifth grade. It shattered my world. In addition, when I tried to spread the truth, people told me I was wrong, that it didn't matter, that I shouldn't care because I wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for Columbus. Call me ungrateful, then, for I refuse to be grateful for monstrous war crimes and lies.
This article pointed out a bigger issue, though. Children around the United States of America accept this lie and others, and are subconsciously conditioned not to care about the people who are trampled on so that others may prosper. Columbus' crimes, along with others, are covered up and not mentioned, to give way for the shining, heroic deed of discovering America. Which he didn't even do. Columbus Day has a special place in my heart where I complain endlessly about it. To be honest, Columbus is probably the worst thing that happened to America. He brought diseases to the Americans, the REAL Americans, and their population was greatly decreased. The land was destroyed, and the people imprisoned on small sections of their own homeland. War ensued many times since then, as well as oppression and forced conformity. The real Americans would have been far better off without him. It is insulting that his story is taught in such a positive light on the very land which was snatched from its rightful caretakers because of him. We really are living on stolen land.
I believe that educating children about Columbus is important. To not teach from the perspective of the native peoples would be neglectful and biased. I think the way it was taught in the article is a good way to inform children so that they understand. We need to reevaluate our textbooks and what we teach children, so that we do not misinform them or assume that they will learn the truth later. What if they never learn the truth? What if misinformed children become uninformed adults? The truth will die and only lies will persist. History will repeat itself and our children and children's children will live in ignorance and deceit. Pity will be lost and only the victors will tell their tales, silencing the defeated forever. We must create a society of informed people who are brave enough to speak the truth and to stop the mistakes of the past from being repeated.
The Pueblo people illustrate how the remains of all things, animals, plants, clay and stones, make a return to Mother Earth “where they all may benefit living” beings. Nothing is wasted, as everything is either consumed or goes back into dust. Whether a rock or animal, each thing consists of an individual spirit or being. Humans are not separate from the environment but a part of the landscape that surrounds them. Ancient Pueblo’s saw the Earth and Sky as sisters, with humans included as the Earth’s children. The intensity and harshness of these environments call upon the people’s methods of survival by appreciating and making us of all that encompasses them, causing a grander respect for and understanding of Mother Earth. In the center of Pueblo belief and identity lies the landscape with narratives expending a great deal of detail and consideration to all aspects of the landscape. Silko illuminates how the stories she absorbed and experienced as a child continued to radiate within her as she explored landscapes with feelings of familiarity and interactions. The oral narrations of stories opened the door for spirits to arrive and live the stories once again, as they taught the listeners how they were the people they believed themselves to be. The Pueblo’s illustrate an admirable respect for Mother Earth and the connections of all beings. To perceive the world in such a way truly unveils an ability to detect the energies and interrelationships that encompass us throughout our lives within Mother Earth. All things breathe, coexist, and evolve within their time on this Earth, one only needs to open up his or her mind to the beauty of this world.
In Leslie Marmom Silko’s piece Interior and Exterior Landscapes she speaks of the relationship between what people use and what they give back. She begins by stating that when they take something from god they then must use each piece of it completely. They find use for the meat, skin, and other parts. Whatever they cannot find a use for the leave for other species to live off of. For example they leave bones with very little meat on them out for scavengers as they will clean the rest of the bone. Then even the bone becomes important as it will break down and become nourishment for the plants, which will then feed another cycle of animals and the cycle will continue. I had heard before that Natives used every piece of any animal they killed out of respect for the animal. It was interesting to read in Silko’s piece that it is done not just to keep their god happy but to keep the animals spirits happy as well. In Ladukes’ piece there is also the demonstration of the gratefulness and respect for the animals that feed them and keep them healthy. I appreciate how the Natives approach the animals they use as food both before and after killing them. I like that they treat them with respect and act as if they too are humans and deserve to be treated as such. This is definitely something I think should be adopted here, but instead we have animal cruelty, and slaughterhouses.
October, 7th 2014
I found the excerpt All Our Relations by Winona LaDuke to be an intriguing read. I found it to be interesting due to the fact that Laduke discusses the various amount of relations that Native Americans have and hold dear to their heart. Early in the excerpt Laduke discusses all the environmental relationships that the Native Americans have, she describes how the Native Americans treat these environmental relationships as they would their human relationships. Essentially LaDuke is attempting to state that Native Americans hold these environmental relationships in high regard, and by people obliterating these environmental relationships that the Native Americans have with the world around them, it also slowly obliterates their rich culture as well.
LaDuke talks about how “worldly” things are currently destroying these animals. To me it seemed as if LaDuke was painting a picture of industrialism vs. Native environmentalism, with industrialism being the main cog that is destroying these native relationships that the Native Americans have with the land. Laduke is trying to convey to the reader that these animals’ lives are just as valuable as human lives, this is quite apparent when she uses a quote by Margaret Saluskin of Yakama where she says “Salmon was presented to me and my family through our religion as our brother. The same with the deer. And our sisters are the roots and berries. And you would treat them as such. Their life to you is just as valuable as another person’s would be.” (Laduke 3). This quote really stuck out to me because I feel like it seamlessly captured the idea of what Winona LaDuke ws ultimately trying to convey in her excerpt All Our Relations.
Reading “All Our Relations” by Winona LaDuke gave me an idea of the bigger picture so to speak. LaDuke put into perspective just how much life has changed in terms of nature in the last 150 years. The extinctions, the endangered, and over 2,000 indigenous peoples have vanished. This isn’t just animals and plants but people! It’s a scary thought and even LaDuke calls it a holocaust. There is a loss of biodiversity sure but also cultural diversity is being lost as well. This isn’t just about one people but the whole globe and it’s something that can be stopped. The mythic lineage of Little Thunder is compelling to read about. It shows what motivates those descendants to protect what is left considering the massacre of a whole people and the environment that preceded them and almost wiped them out. I also take pride in my lineage, both Irish and Portuguese, and knowing what sort of tales and feats my ancestors have accomplished. However I don’t fear that those tales will be lost, my lineage is lively and strong. The same can’t be said for many natives that are now no longer existent due to other culture’s expansion. Hearing about the Mohawk’s creation myth was also pleasant to read and learn about. Like most of the Native American legends, they are not only entertaining but give insight on how they viewed the world. Much of life is based upon perspective and seeing how rooted many of the tales are to the natural world and rather peaceful. As the years go on expansions in America and Canada continue and of course pollution increases. Time and again people organize protests, many of them natives, to prevent this from happening. I thought this sort of civil unrest was common for today’s age but never knew how far back it stretched in time nor how large of a role the natives played in them. The most shocking thing I learned was the opening paragraph for “the seventh generation” which mentioned a horrifying number of lost species that honestly gave me somewhat of a hopeless feeling.
Joyce Rain Anderson
October 7, 2014
Within the opening pages of Leslie Marmon Silko’s essay “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit” I was immediately drawn in by its power. She reiterates the value of respect, as we have seen in the tale of Selu the corm mother as well as other pieces this semester the Native. As we have learned the natives lived off of their land from farming, to fishing and hunting, they utilized and respected each and every part all the way down to the rocks. Silko speaks of hunting as an act of love rather than an act of barbarianism as others may have viewed it. She wrote, “All phases of the hunt are conducted with love: the love the hunter and the people have for the Antelope people, and the love of the antelope who agree to give up their meat and blood so that human beings will not starve” (Silko 26). This statement highlights the Native’s value on mutual respect, especially the respect of their land and the people (or in this case animals) who inhabited the land with them.
I like how she mentions the Pueblo Natives belief in the inability to remain separate from the landscape. According to their beliefs a human being can never be separated from their surroundings; they are active members of the land and the beauty that it holds. In correlation with the beginning of the text, Silko discusses the working together, balance and mutual respect of all parts of the landscape. The survival of the natives-the weather as well as the rich terrain for farming- was dependent upon this harmony of the people, the land and all its elements. This is seen in the story of the sisters Earth and Sky.
Silko also discusses the Pueblos use of oral word, or storytelling, to keep traditions and culture alive. As older generations pass on , it is the chain reaction of the stories told that keep the person as well as their legacy alive in younger generations. I think that story telling is a great technique still used today to keep the past alive.
A major theme I noticed in Leslie Marmon Silko’s writing was “rebirth.” Rebirth through life, food, stories- everything should always be passed on and continue living through time. Silko begins her essay on the importance of giving back to Mother Earth. Everything, she says, has some sort of spirit and all should be treated with respect, “The remains of things—animals and plants, the clay and stones—were treated with respect, because for the ancient people all of these things had spirit and being.” (26) Silko explains that as our bodies decompose, after our spirit is gone, everything we have should be left to the Earth. The animals will feed on us, the plants will absorb what is left and we will continue on to something else. In the end we are all connected.
Silko then goes on to the example of stories and how they are always passed down. This to me also seemed like a type of rebirth. The stories will continue on for generations and will not only be used for entertainment but for education. People in the tribe are allowed to have different opinions on the story as long as the same general tale is told. Everybody in the tribe is responsible for knowing some part of the story- whether it is one sentence or the entire thing it is important everybody knows it so it can always be passed on.
Silko concluded her essay by restating the importance of balance in the world. The Earth and the Sky are sisters and as long as all is in order, one will always be there to help the other. This shows the importance of peoples significance to the Earth. We are always supporting and feeding off one another. If one thing is off balance then all will be off balance. This could be as simple as wasting a little bit of deer meat, once you mess up the relationship of the Earth everything will be destroyed.
All Our Relations also discusses the importance of balance and rebirth. For the native people all animals are there to teach us how to live. Something that may seem minor to many people today, like a salmon, is extremely important to protect. They believe that salmon were put on the Earth for a reason and it is our job to protect them when they become endangered. Everything we had we need to appreciate and give thanks for and this is something I strongly believe. We need to appreciate what we have and what we are given because sooner or later we are going to destroy it all. It is important to realize that we are all in fact connected in some way. If we put something in our waters and that hurts the fish, and then we hurt the animals that eat the fish- including ourselves. People today don’t seem to care or notice. I mean, look at all of the oil spills or global warming. Only a small part of the population is actually doing something to help. I don’t think people today realize how serious this is and how important this way of thinking is. We need to give “rebirth” to these ideas and talk about them. Similar to Native people we need to continue talking about these issues or they will never get better.
I am sorry, but this is more of a rant on the subject. Native American land has been the center of our discussions in class, and they seem to remain a focal point. When we discussed Native American land we referred to it in the past. Their land was taken from them, but we don’t ever refer to their land being taken from them at the present. I think that is because we don’t realize that their land is being taken from them still. At least I was shocked when reading “All Our Relations” to see that Native land is still being taken from them. “According to the Worldwatch Institute, 317 reservations in the United States are threatened by environmental hazards, raging from toxic wastes to clear cuts. Reservations have been targeted as sites for 16 proposed nuclear waste dumps. Over 100 proposals have been floated in recent years to dump toxic waste in Indian communities,” (3). This goes on to more horrific and terrible accounts of how we are currently destroying and taking over Native land. It is hard to believe that we are still doing this to Native land.
From what we have read we know that Native Americans hold land and mother nature at high regards, but we seem to destroy it with no worries. Now we are not only taking over than land we are destroying it with toxic, and nuclear waste. I think back to how Native people think Mother Nature is alive and then to what we are doing now. We are killing the land, and making it unlivable. I am shocked and outraged that this is still going on. Native Americans have suffered by having their land taken from them, so the Europeans can build a place to live. To Native Americans this was destroying the land, but now we are literally killing that land that they worked so hard to take care of.
I don’t think we will ever realize the harm to the Native Americans we have caused, we continue to do it to this very day. Native tribes are disappearing and we don’t do a thing about it. We continue to spoil and harm the land around us, land that was once Native Americans. We also continue to take land that is scared to Native Tribes and destroy it. Not only can we not use it for anything good Native Americans can never return to land that they once called home, it is outrageous.
I didn't see a section for todays reading so I'm going to put it here.
I loved the how “Rethinking Columbus” opened up. The students in Portland, Oregon could not have made a better example of how the Native Americans must have felt when Columbus first came to America, claiming everything in his path for his own. I liked this representation of Columbus because in schools he is cherished and spoken of as a wonderful man. The person to discover America, a land where no one lived, and that isn’t the truth. For generations the school system has not mention the truth, until recently. The truth is there were people living on this land, and Europeans came over and claimed it, without thinking twice. They took it right from under their feet. It is hard to rethink Columbus because growing up he was a looked at as a hero. “But we have a long way to go. Too many children’s books, textbooks, and curricula continue to tout the traditional Columbus myth. For many youngsters, the “discovery of America” is their first curricular exposure to the encounter between two cultures and to the encounters between two races,” (10). I know from my own experience it is hard to reshape your learning. When we found out what we learned was false it was hard to believe, and to this day I still find it hard to reshape those ideas put into my head at such a young age. If we truly want to teach the next generation the truth children’s books and curricula must be changed because what children learn stick with them to adulthood.
I agree that the invasion of America should not be something celebrated. If we were ever to be taken over in this time we would not stand for it, we would fight with everything we have. This is exactly what the Native Americans did, they were not savage, they were fighting for their land, for their families, and for their culture. Tens of thousands of people were killed, by disease and murder. They were killed for being different, not converting to the Europeans religion and killed by the disease brought over from Europe, which Natives had no immune system for. “My world, how can you be graceful and healing about the tens of thousands of Native people who were killed because they would not convert to a religion they didn’t understand, or because they didn’t understand the language, of those making the request?”(12 and 13).
It is terrible to think of everything Native people have gone through. I think at least they deserve for the truth to be told. As the article states it does not take away from what Columbus did, he still made it here on three boats, which is incredible, but he did some dishonorable things while here. Relaying the truth on to young students will allow them to open their mind, and be more accepting of the Native culture. This is important because in today’s world native people are still facing struggles. There are treaties the U.S. has not lived up to and land that Native people own but don’t control. These are issues that should be resolved and I think if the next generation is thought the truth it can be fixed because their mind will be open and understand to what Native people have through and lost over the years.
With Columbus Day approaching, I think the assigned readings offer a very important chance to discuss much of the controversy surrounding Christopher Columbus’s legacy in America. In the Rethinking Columbus Collection, I enjoyed how the editors and featured authors referred to the traditional Columbus story as the “Columbus myth”, because, at the heart of this universally accepted story, there are myth-like features distorting the reality of Columbus’s character. I think this feature alone, and the language accompanying the story, is what drives some of the anger surrounding this issue. Every writer in this reading points to the significance of the word “discovery” and “discovered”. Anyone raised in the United States from an early age gets taught the white-washed, simplified version of Christopher Columbus and his voyage to America. Most likely, many of us, at some point or another, were told he “discovered” America. Over time, some of us gradually come to understand this wasn't the case, but there is still some effect that lingers on in the culture. I think many of the Authors are correct in their criticisms, because they point out the thematic implications of the “discovery” story. This version of the story treats the Americas as if they were like the Higgs Boson or DNA, like they were discovered by a group of higher individuals wearing lab coats in a science lab. Additionally, I think Suzan Shown Harjo makes a great point as she writes that “no one knows the truth about Columbus” (Harjo 13) and that “Too often, this history is posed as romantic myth, and the uncomfortable facts about Columbus are eliminated” (Harjo 13). Harjo notes how certain aspects of Columbus, his voyage, and much of the earliest interactions between the Europeans and Natives contain some “romantic” notions- qualities that form from the need to glorify a country’s genesis. She also uses the word “uncomfortable”, and I think this particular language is significant. When we look back at our Nation’s history, the unfortunate reality for us to face is that it is overflowing with despicable human behavior and injustice. We don’t have to teach fourth graders about the horrors of genocide, but we should start to help them understand the truth behind our history.
Even more striking is Jan Elliot’s insights. Elliot notes that the modern Native individual cannot escape the 19th century understanding of the Native American. She recalls the moviegoer who referred to 19th century depictions of Natives as the “real Indians” (Elliot 14). She makes such a fascinating point, and furthers it with an excerpt from Vine Deloria and her experiences at a Florida public school. The piece, however, abruptly ends. I understand her point, which argues that the modern Native is forcibly being kept in a time bubble by the larger culture. What I don’t understand, however, is the method by which we are supposed to fix this. The piece doesn't continue on, and I am genuinely intrigued by her observation, as it touches upon something that never really gets discussed.
I like that the Leslie Marmon Silko article begins with talking about returning to dust after death and about not wasting anything. This is the most important aspect about native life, in my opinion. The Native Americans and native peoples around the world all understand this concept of borrowing from the earth and getting the most of everything they take, even knowing that they themselves are a part of this circle of life. They understood and appreciated the relationships between earth and sky, people and plants and animals, air and fire and water and earth. Stories they told emphasized these relationships, including everything.
This article mentions that stories tell us who we are. They were and are important to us all. Everyone can tell at least parts of a story. I like where it said that communities could piece together stories. We do that today. When a major event happens and gossip starts flying around campus, everyone tells what they know, and then goes to another conversation and repeats their information, adding what they've just learned from others. This is how information becomes distorted, of course, and rumors are exaggerated, but we are then all telling the same story in our own ways. Years later, I can recall something my mother said, but she's quite forgotten it. I keep her words alive by remembering it. The more people there are, the more information and memory is kept alive.
I like the section that referred to specific locations being referenced in stories. My family went to New Hampshire over the summer for a family history trip. My grandmother had told me stories of her childhood and as she became an adult, referencing the old schoolhouse and her families' houses and the convenience shop and memorial statue. In a little, tight-knit community like Pembroke Hill, the same places were referenced in all her stories, and stories others could tell me about that time. We visited those same places, and the stories came to life. They meant a lot more to me when I saw them in person. These places were crucial to the stories, and it was wonderful that these landmarks were still around and accessible.
The land and our stories shape who we are, and we shape our stories based on ourselves and the land. We also manipulate the land to suit our needs. Land, stories and beings are all interconnected and inseparable. We affect each other. It is important to keep this in mind when reading, hearing and creating stories. Knowing more information about these and other factors leads to a greater understanding of the subject and its formation.
Critical Response 10
October 8, 2014
With Columbus Day fast approaching, it is only appropriate to read some text about the true Columbus and what actually happened when he arrived, contrary to what it is commonly taught in the younger elementary grades. I thought they very beginning of the article “Rethinking Columbus The Next 500 Years” was absolutely spot on and something that could be demonstrated in all schools. Having a class commandeer another class’s space and materials accurately portrays what happened when the Europeans first landed in North America. Putting students in the mind set of somehow who has no say in what is happening as they watch their possessions be taken from them. It is a mind set that students do not even think about because from a young age they have been taught that Columbus is this conquering hero or great discoverer. When I read this I think back to earlier texts such as “White Man’s Indian” when it talked about what he wrote in his diary about the natives, calling them “savages.” There was no regard for other human life, a complete tossing away of morals, and no mercy during his time in the New World. This article makes a clear statement that the alternative is not to idealize native people or demonize the Europeans, but instead provide a more real account of what happened and the consequences that ensued. Students must be driven to think intellectually and morally about what happened and not read passively. This is done through demonstrations such as the one at the beginning of the text.
The next section of the text talks about the problems and puzzling fact that Columbus Day is still celebrated. The woman being interviewed, Suzan Shown Harjo, said that there is no reason to be celebrating a man and time that is responsible for so many deaths. She points out troubling and disturbing facts such as her people having the highest teen suicide rate, being one of the poorest races in the country, and not having enough housing to sustain the population. She says this is current today because they are still in the way of western expansion, and the invasion that occurred centuries ago is still causing destruction. I also find it unbelievably ignorant that the Catholic Church issued the Quincentenary to be a time of healing and grace. This is arrogant and ignorant because it is as if they are just trying to sweep the past five decades under the rug and move on without paying any attention or respect to the past. This is almost like the text we read called “Firstings and Lastings” where the Europeans do not pay any mind to the fact that there was a past and decide to call the space their own even though it is stolen.
When reading Bill Bigelow’s introduction to “Rethinking Columbus,” I was immediately absorbed by the brief story he told about the students at Jefferson High School of Portland, Oregon. I found this to be a brilliant idea: on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival to America, students interrupted and raided classrooms amongst the school, taking items out of desks, snatching personal items, and remarking that everything was “theirs.” This is quite the memorable eye-opening experience for any and every student that was a part of it; nothing will make someone understand something more than hypothetically being placed in another person’s shoes.
In the first interview, Suzan Shown Harjo, who is Cheyenne and Creek, could not have said it any better: “As Native American peoples in this red quarter of Mother Earth, we have no reason to celebrate an invasion that caused the demise of so many of our people and is still causing destruction today. The Europeans stole our land and killed our people.” Harjo goes on to explain how difficult it still is to survive as a Native American in the United States; she explains how there is a reason why they are the poorest race, why Native American teen suicide is highest, and why they are the least healthy. It is both educational and saddening to hear the true feelings and stories of Native American people; Columbus was no savior. He took what he felt was his (which was everything – the land, the crops, the Native peoples’ belongings), moved his people in while simultaneously pushing the Native Americans out and across the country, and killed countless natives.
I agree with this entire article – it is a necessity that the truths of Columbus and Native American history are taught correctly and fairly to students of all ages. As Harjo says, it makes Columbus’ story that much more intriguing and dimensional. A great way to introduce these concepts to students would be Bill Bigelow’s example on page 17; he begins class by stealing a student’s purse, announcing that it is now his, and goes through all of the contents, claiming each item his own. I find this to be a both interesting and enlightening way to inform students of Columbus’ true actions in Native American history. This is something I will always remember in future classrooms of mine when I begin to teach my future students about Christopher Columbus and the founding of America.
I enjoyed both, Rethinking Columbus by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson and Debbie Reese’s Blog mostly because they focused on either school systems or books children might read- both of which have to do with teaching. In Rethinking Columbus Bigelow and Peterson stress the importance of teaching students the correct information about Native Americans and Columbus but also doing it in an interactive and thought provoking way. The first lesson they describe had the students stealing their teachers purses and claiming it as “theirs.” Students were able to see how the change in words can completely alter an action. For example instead of saying the students, “stole” their teachers purses you could say the students, “discovered” them. The essay then goes on to remind students of books and how it is the students responsibility to decipher was is accurate and what is not. “The assignment’s subtext is to teach students that text material, indeed all written material, should be read skeptically. . . that to read is both to comprehend what is written, but also to question why it is written.” (20) Students, reading all things need to understand the importance of accurate writing and what is reliable. Wanting to be a teacher I can see the importance of not only the Native American teachings here but also just as a general lesson to not always believe what you read. Many stories are one-sided or are two-sided but missing part of the story.
Another section of, Rethinking Columbus, focuses on modern day Indians. I can honestly say I had never realized how bothersome this is until we discussed it in class. Most Americans, and until recently me, always thought of the stereotypical Indian as a tan man/woman wearing feathers, beads, headdresses, etc. Having been in this class this image has been diminished from my mind because now I know modern day Indians dress like the rest of us. Many of us don’t realize these Indians don’t even exist anymore. I don’t think the population likes to realize this. Having to comprehend that these Indians we have moved across the country have modernized and still want the same respect bothers many people. “They love Indians as long as they can picture them riding around on ponies wearing their beads and feathers, living in picturesque tipi villages. . .” (14) I think that this is unfortunately true for society today to accept. If we cannot have what we want then we do not want to deal with it at all.
The second part of the assignment was to read Debbie Reece’s Blog. Debbie Reece reading books regarding or surrounding Indians or their culture and then critiques them for her followers. The most recent thing on her blog was a request from a follower to respond to Anung’s Journey: An Ancient Ojibway Legend As Told By Steve Fobister, by Carl Nordgren. I enjoyed reading Reece’s blog and her investigations into the book. She found things that I don’t think many readers would have noticed about the book. While I don’t completely understand everything she is trying to explain, I can see the relation back to Rethinking Columbus. You cannot always rely on the authors of things. Even if they are published books that you can get in a shelf in a store. All readers need to investigate everything they are reading. We need to read between the lines and check our own sources. That is our responsibility as readers.
The blog “American Indians in Children’s Literature” by Leslie Reese was really interesting and made me realize just how bad Native Americans are stereotyped by, not only white authors, but by society as a whole. It seems insane to me that these authors were allowed to publish these books in the first place because of some of the negative and harsh things they write about. It is pretty disturbing that when authors put “as told by” in a title of a book they don’t actually get the Native people’s permission even though they make the reader believe so. Yes, I bet a Native person did tell the author a story of some sort but I don’t think after the story he told the writer “ok, please go and write my story down and publish it for everyone to see.” As Leslie states in her blog, Natives are very personal people and most of their culture is for the eyes and ears of their tribes, not outsiders. Not only is it bad for the writers to write “as told by” when the story really wasn’t “as told by” in the first place but, also, the writers are putting their personal stories out there and they aren’t even re-telling it the right way. When a Native person tells a story and a writer re-tells it, even without permission, it is so disrespectful and just wrong for the writer to add different things in the story that are not the truth. I don’t understand how an author is allowed to write a book based on the “facts” from a Native person, but then is able to change the story any way they want so that the story sounds more intriguing for the reader. Another thing that really upset me is that when an author says in their book that “they promise to give some of the profits from the book to the tribe”, and Leslie reacts by saying this is a “red flag” for her. What I interpret from Leslie’s statement that she believes it’s a red flag is that this doesn’t really happen and if it does happen I bet it’s not even half of the profit because, from everything else I wrote about, the authors are selfish, liars that are only looking out for themselves. The biggest thing that makes me upset is that this is all based on white authors and these authors make it look bad for not just them, but white people all together. We get a reputation that the way we perceive Natives is unjustly, unfair, and disrespectful. It hurts me to think about what Native people have to go through, not only from books that make them look like something they are not but in everyday life.
Whenever the topic about Christopher Columbus comes up, I get so angry because I feel like I was lied to for so many years growing up. It isn’t right that children grow up believing Christopher Columbus is a “hero”. Yes, he did come across the Americas but he stole it and that is not my definition of what a hero does. The horrible things he did to the Native people and the way he mistreated them and tortured them is not what a good person does. Columbus Day is coming up next Monday and this year’s “holiday” I look at from a different perspective then I did any other year before now. I feel ashamed and embarrassed for our country to name a holiday after a man that did more harm than good. As Suzan Shows Harjo says in her interview “how can Natives celebrate and heal after the tens of thousands of Native people who were killed because they would not convert to a religion they didn’t understand or because they didn’t understand the language of those making the request.” We should be celebrating this holiday, not because Christopher Columbus found, but truthfully stole, the land of the Americas but for all those Native people who lost their lives and were murdered because they stood up for their culture and their people. I think it’s great that Rethinking Schools published Rethinking Columbus, so that students can learn the truth of what really happened during that time but honestly I don’t think that will stop children learning and reading that Christopher Columbus was a hero. I really don’t think it will ever stop, I mean if it were to stop then why hasn’t it stopped years ago or why was he even portrayed this way in the first place. This right here is where a lot of the stereotypes and racial discrimination start from because when we read what the textbook says about Christopher Columbus and the Native people we get a sense that Columbus was this hero and tried helping the Natives but they were selfish and savage-like people that wouldn’t accept his help. It is just a sad topic to discuss because there is so many things wrong with all of it; the holiday, Columbus being viewed as a hero, the stereotypes of Natives, the lies in the textbooks, the way children are being taught on this topic at an early age, etc. I wish that there something more
9 October 2014
Critical Response – 10/7
Today’s readings exemplified how important it is that young children be taught a proper history of native people in the Americas. Given that Columbus Day will soon be upon on, it is important to examine not just what a holiday is, but why we celebrate it in the first place. Children are rarely taught the whole truth about people and events, and are more excited at the prospect of a day off from school than they are learning about the history of important social figures. In “Rethinking Columbus,” the authors not only provide a cogent article for why celebrating an invasion is wrong, but also give an account from a school that shows just how impressionable children can be. In raiding school classrooms, taking property that does not belong to them and calling it “theirs,” we can see that young minds can begin to understand just what is happening, so long as they are given the context to help understand it.
Moreover, just what are we celebrating when we have the day off on Monday? The more I learn about Columbus Day, the more the holiday, for lack of a better term, feels like a relic. It is a vestige of a past age where the United States tried to whitewash its own history and cover up the shame of its early discovery. It is clear, given the vast amounts of historical evidence, who Columbus was and what he brought to the native people of the Americas. A part of us would like nothing more to cling to the childhood memory of brave adventurers crossing a harsh, unforgiving ocean and “discovering” a continent that was a paradise. Unfortunately, like most things in life, the reality is much dirtier than the pristine image we have in our minds.
This is precisely why it is imperative that children be the ones to change this stereotypical belief in Columbus as discoverer, rather than Columbus as invader. The mind of an adult is a rigid place. As cynical as it sounds, even given the truth, most adults would be unwilling to let go of the beliefs and customs that they have held onto for so long. Children, however, are quick to adapt and change. If they are just given the truth of the matter, they can hopefully begin to change how we celebrate this holiday in the United States, and eventually, perhaps we will use this day to remember all of the brave, noble, and innocent people who lost their lives to war, famine, or disease when their lands were taken over by European settlers.
The fact of the matter is that we cannot change our history as a country. What we can do, however, is embrace it honestly, realize the mistakes that we have made, and most importantly, make an honest effort to move forward. Until we take a good, hard look at what Columbus Day is, we will never be able to get past the stereotypes that we hold of Native Americans. If we are not honest with ourselves, the cycle of abuse that native people have endured, and continue to endure, will never be broken.
October 9th 2014
The article Rethinking Columbus was a great read. I loved how this particular article described how the myth of Christopher Columbus being a so-called “hero” is still being taught in schools today. However, it was encouraging to hear that there were certain groups pushing to reform this false idea. These groups are motivated to have children learn the true story of Christopher Columbus, how he “discovered” the Americas, and what kind of ramifications his actions led to. The article also discusses how the Columbus story is one of the first exposures children have in regards to learning about two different cultures. When children learn about the Native Americans in school they are depicted as thoughtless and without feelings, so children adapt the mindset that it is acceptable to disregard the feelings of those of color. How can school children connect and empathize with Native Americans if they are not being accurately depicted?
My personal thoughts on this is that it is wrong for students to be taught something that is not factually true. What this article is trying to say is that at a young age schools are embedding ideas and falsehoods about Native Americans, and this is where I believe the misunderstand of Native Americans is birthed from. From a young age we are taught and led to believe particular things regarding Native Americans, this leads to our current preconceived notions of Native Americans that many of us have today. This is an issue that cannot be solved in a day, or month, or year I believe there has to be a slow but steady progression within our school’s curriculum. Young children need to be taught the true story of Christopher Columbus and the Native Americans in order to truly understand the Native Americans culture and beliefs.
Native Writing and Rhetoric
As I read the piece “Rethinking Columbus”, I could not help but remember my own history lessons in grade school. I remember the story very vividly. It told a story of an ambitious and intelligent man who challenged social norms and discovered a new world which led to the brilliant country that exists on this continent today. What I was not taught was the violence, the greed, and the pain caused by this man. As all myths and legends, his image has been exalted as if a god.
This piece reminds me of the earlier piece we read by King. In his work King states, “So you have to be careful with the stories you tell. And you have to watch out for the stories you are told.” In modern American history, we have been passing down this story that is steeped with hidden elements. We have been told lies and continue that lie. I understand that it is often our goal to keep things light for children, but I wonder if there is a tactful way to retell this story without spreading further disillusionment.
I appreciated the concept that “Nations are narratives”. Our history is much like our nation's genealogy. We have to own all aspects of our past without idealizing any particular group. By claiming Columbus and the other explorers as heroes, we are doing an injustice to every American. We are planting our seeds in bad soil, so to speak. If we want to grow as a more politically correct and tolerant society, we must claim honesty when delving into our nation's identity and what it has been built upon.
Joyce Rain Anderson
October 9, 2014
I really enjoyed the piece Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, especially with Columbus Day (sorry Professor Anderson for calling it that) right around the corner. In this piece the author addresses the falsities found in children’s books and what is being taught in elementary school. These stories and myths of the discovery of America “teach children whose voices to listen for as they go out into the world-and whose to ignore” (10). The voices that they are taught to ignore are the non-white others: the natives. Stories such as these are the ones that stick in children’s minds and stick with them, like in the case of most of our class, until they are exposed to the proper knowledge in higher-level education. With this information coming much later in a students’ educational careers, it is difficult to reshape what has already been learned.
The Natives are viewed in as barbaric because of the people they were viewed by and the people who wrote the history were the Europeans. The native had to defend themselves and their people from the assimilation to a religion and culture that they were not familiar with. The goal of the piece was not to idolize the natives nor victimize the Europeans for the negative images of Native today. However, this piece was meant to put into perspective why they natives acted in such a way of defense against the colonizers: to tell the natives side of the story.
My favorite part of this piece came after the question “What should be the goal and perspective of teachers when telling their elementary and high school students about Columbus?” This is where I can make a difference and do my part to eliminate the glamorized views of Columbus, while still telling the truth. It is not talking away Columbus’ existence in history books, rather it is telling the whole truth of the way that he was to the Native people when he arrived. It is my duty as a future educator to make the truth accessible to my students so they don’t end up like me: a senior in college who is just not being exposed to the truth of Columbus, the Europeans, and the Natives.
Response to "Rethinking Columbus"
I thought the beginning of this article was amazing. To think that high school students were so involved in such a day in history is amazing. Now that they are in high school, they are actually being told the truth about Christopher Columbus. They must have felt like the rest of us did when we knew that what he did was take something that wasn't rightfully his. He knew that people were already living on the land, but because he did not see it as a civilization and a community, he took it away from them. He was not a hero like people thought he was and it was about time that a school did something like this. It was great to see that everyone was on board and it was amazing to do on the 500 year anniversary.
This article immediately made me think of all the other articles we have read thus far. No matter what, unfortunately, there will always be a controversy with the Native Americans. The vision that was instilled in us as kids stays with us. This class however, changed that. It is my hope that more people will want to change their outlook of the Native people, because we have them to thank for our land today. The entire was of life the Native peoples had was one to look up to.
Rethinking Columbus did give me some hope because if this high school can rise up as a community and have a day like the 500-year anniversary where they take things that are not theirs (with permission before hand) then we can eventually move past people thinking so much more of Columbus. This day is not about him, it is about the Native Peoples.
I can remember as a child in school learning about Columbus, and praising him as the founder of our land and discovering our country. It wasn't until I was in high school that teachers finally elaborated on what kind of person Columbus really was. I think being told our entire childhood that this man was great, and that we have a day to celebrate how 'great' he is, made it hard to believe when we were told how he went about getting this land and all of the people he hurt to do so. "Rethinking Columbus" is something that I think would be useful in showing students the real truth behind Columbus and his day. I liked how the writer pointed out that we are living on stolen land, but that that should not be used as a way to make white students feel guilty as they are not responsible for the past. I liked this because I do think that even though students need to know the truth, it does need to be told in a certain way as to not squash everything the child has ever known. Honestly, one of my favorite parts of the entire reading was the comic on page 13. It is of an 'American' man yelling stating that we need to remove the illegal immigrants from America to which the Native American replies " I'll help you pack". This was humorous to me knowing the history of the Natives
Reading “Rethinking Columbus: the last 500 years” was an intriguing article to read and the beginning story about the class was actually pretty humorous. I also liked the teaching methods used, as an aspiring educator, which gave the students control over class discussion. It’s refreshing to hear about Columbus’ true character rather than the popularized image of him being a idolize voyager. Labeling his adventure as a myth eliminates much of the power and importance to his story and allows people to see what like was like before his ‘discovery’. The article was very fair to both parties, that being the natives and the Europeans. In fact they even said their objective wasn’t to demonize Europeans or idealize Natives, both have their faults. This unbiased perspective gave this article much more credibility to the writer for me as a reader. Students are taught not to be “passive consumers” and I whole heartily agree with this statement. Students and people in general should always think about what it is they’re reading. Reading about the tales of the natives rather than just the Europeans allows them to gain a broader perspective. Students can then make much better judgment calls when considering the interactions of the Natives and Europeans and reach a conclusion as to who is really at fault. The headline “We have no reason to celebrate an invasion” was a striking way to look at Columbus yet it rang true for me. It also brought the hypocrisy of much of the government policy in America. Over all I feel if we, as teachers, follow what is being said in this article then children will get a clearer image of our country’s origins and something more akin to truth unlike what we teach today.
Rethinking Columbus is a great essay that I thoroughly believe in. The Columbus myth is the foundation of children's beliefs about society. Columbus is often a child's first lesson about encounters between different cultures and races. What we learn about Columbus is not correct and it tells us false information about who to accept in society and who to ignore. It says nothing about the brutality of the European invasion of North America.
This story tells us that need to listen to a wider range of voices. We need to hear from those whose lands and rights were taken away by those who “discovered" them. Their stories are never told, but if we listen they could tell us about 500 years of struggle of native peoples. Understanding what really happened to them in 1492 is key to understanding why people suffer the same inequalities today.
In the piece of writing about children’s literature, I found it interesting that white people so easily write stories told by Native Americans. We rarely even realize that a Native American doesn’t tell the story. It important that we look for red flags like “as told by” or titles that do not seem like a Native American title. White people often try to pass their stories off as there own and say that Native American people told them to write the story, when it fact that’s not true. We teach children the fundamentals about Native American history and we need to be careful where we are getting the information.
Native American Lit.
October 8, 2014
After reading the numerous articles from “Rethinking Columbus” I felt outraged by the many atrocities that native peoples still face today. The interview portion with Suzan Shown Harjo particularly struck me as the questions asked by the interviewer seemed unbelievably forward and inconsiderate. The interviewer simply calls Columbus a “man of his time” as if that makes all of Columbus’ atrocities acceptable. I personally think that no matter what time period you grow up in, you still know basic right and wrong and the merciless torture and murder that was unleashed upon the natives by Columbus and his people was clearly unacceptable no matter what the time period was. Harjo’s responses were incredibly powerful as she discusses how no horse, beads, etc. are worth the amount of native lives that were lost due to Columbus. I feel that a modern backlash against Columbus is completely necessary. I really loved the classroom exercise in which the teacher stole a student’s purse and claimed it as her own. The use of the word “discovered” seemed extremely crucial in this section, as discovering something does not necessarily mean ownership.
The section in which the native leaves the movie theater and is not recognized as an Indian was also extremely offensive. It is unfortunate that we still live in a society in which native peoples are not recognized as native unless they fit some sort of stereotype. I had never put much thought into the modern racisms that native people so frequently encounter. I could not help but feel outraged when the teachers requested their Native American visitor “look like an Indian” for the amusement of the children. It is teachers like that that are the reason so many Native American stereotypes still exist. When I was in elementary school I remember doing art projects in which we made feather headdresses in order to represent Native Americans. I cannot help but wonder what it might be like if I were to visit and elementary school classroom now. Do teachers still do such racist exercises with such young, impressionable children? I hope that in the future more schools adopt the purse activity.
After reading parts of the “American Indians In Children’s Literature” blog I was surprised again by just how annoyed I was by the ridiculous prejudices that natives face today. In the most recent blog, the author discusses how in many books about Native American beliefs the authors are actually white frauds. The blog makes a great point about how white authors will refer to native beliefs as “myths” or “folklore” when any true native would not label their own stories as such. It also pointed out the problem with many white-written native books; that white authors will often claim that a particular Native American asked the writer to tell their story to the masses. As we have learned from previous readings, Native Americans were often forced to learn to read and write in English, so there is no reason that one would need a white author to write a story for them. In stating that a Native American needs a white or non-native person to write for them, one suggests that Native Americans still live a life in which all natives are uneducated. Overall, all of the readings this week were extremely angering as they provided so many examples of wrongs done to Native Americans that occurred both in the past and continue to occur today.
Rethinking Columbus by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson is a compilation of articles, interviews, and cartoons designed to inform readers of how harmful it is to Native American people to watch hundreds of people celebrate Columbus Day each year. By divulging some of the harsh truths behind the story of Christopher Columbus, Rethinking Columbus is both startling and informative, and it certainly made me think twice about what I learned in grade school regarding the alleged “discoverer of America.” While the editorial does a great job of putting modern American understanding of Columbus Day into perspective, my favorite segment was the interview with Suzan Shown Harjo in which she goes into detail about what can be done to change Columbus Day (for the better) once and for all.
As a student studying secondary education at BSU, Harjo’s outlook on how teachers can make a difference in changing some of the myths about Columbus Day was of particular interest to me. I absolutely loved her desire for teachers (of all grades) to understand the importance of telling their students the truth, no matter how unsettling it may be. Harjo brought up a great point in her interview, noting that teachers do not know what historical or cultural information students know about a relevant figure or event when they teach it. Hearing a version of history that conflicts with his or her understanding of it could lead to major complications for the child and could completely change his or her perception of the world. Teachers have a duty to deliver the truth, regardless of their own prejudices or emotions, because then students can at least develop a concrete and valid understanding of history without receiving mixed signals and struggling to decipher fact from fiction.
Aside from what teachers can do to change Columbus Day and its traditions for the better, Harjo talks about what the government can do as well. She makes it clear that treaties (some old, some new) between Native Americans and the United States government need to be permanently recognized, rather than pushed to the side at the first opportunity. It was disheartening to read Harjo’s description of the 400 government treaties between the U.S. and its indigenous inhabitants and the way that not one of those treaties has been respected. Harjo claims religious freedom for Native Americans is another thing the government needs to actively support if anything is going to be changed. Columbus Day, according to the Catholic Church, is a time to celebrate the “evangelization of the Americas” despite the fact that many native peoples were converted to Christianity unwillingly, or were killed for refusing to convert. Harjo does not look at Columbus Day as a celebratory event, but rather as a yearly reminder of hardships of the past which need to be accounted for, and current disputes between Native Americans and the U.S. government that need to be rectified immediately.
Space to comment on the readings for each class...