Abstract This essay is an in-depth look at Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko's novel "Ceremony", analyzing how the central character Tayo heals his psychological disorder by returning to his Indian roots and seeking the help of a medicine man.
From the Paper ""Ceremony" opens with a dream that the main character and World War II veteran, Tayo, is having concerning a plethora of thoughts and emotions concerning different cultures he has been exposed to throughout his life. The dream involves voices from many different races, the races that Tayo has positively or negatively dealt with in his life. The voices include Spanish (a man singing a familiar love song), Japanese (angry voices of soldiers), and Laguna (the voice of his Uncle Josiah bringing him fever medicine). The mixture of these races in Tayo's mind made him mad even in his sleep. The dream represents a lifetime struggle Tayo has had with the negativity of differentiating cultures. He started life as a mixed blood child, never as well accepted as his brother Rocky and never happy with his placement. His negative experience in the war increased reasoning for Tayo to despise the whites that had taken culture from his ancestors. He was able to get along with fellow soldiers during the war, it was afterward that he realized the anti-Indian attitude expressed in his habitat. In his only exhibit of disgust towards whites after the war Tayo states that "The war was over, the uniform was gone. All of a sudden that man at the store waits on you last, makes you wait until all the white people bought what they wanted. And the white lady at the bus depot, she's real careful not to touch your hand when she counts out your change. You watch it slide across the counter and you know" You know!" (Silko 42). Not only does Tayo have to deal with his knowledge of the reality of his situation as an Indian, he has no one on the reservation to completely relate to, as he has the additional problem of being mixed blood. His conflict with this is seen when his fellow veteran and peer, Emo, angrily labels him as a "half-breed.""
Abstract This paper examines the culture of the Hopi people with a focus on their history the problems the Hopi now face regarding acculturation into American culture.
From the Paper "The Hopis were first contacted by foreigners when Spanish conquistadors discovered their villages in 1540. In 1629, Spanish missionaries began to settle on Hopi land and tried in vain to convert the Indians to the Catholic faith. In protest, the Hopis joined with neighboring tribes facing the same persecution in the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680, causing the destruction of several Spanish missions throughout the southwest. When the Spanish returned to conquer the Rio Grande pueblos nine years later they did not venture as far west as Hopi territory. The Hopis lived virtually unbothered for more than a century until they became part of the United States at the end of the Mexican War in 1848. As Americans began to settle the southwest, the question of land rights arose. In 1882 President Chester A. Arthur established a 3,863-square-mile reservation for the Hopis (Hieb 1994). Now under U.S. government control, a culture that had remained practically unchanged for centuries began to feel the strong influence of an encroaching and far bigger society called America. "
This paper presents a book review of "Exterminate Them: Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape, and Enslavement of Native Americans during the California Gold Rush." by Clifford E. Trafzer and Joel R. Hyer. Forward by Edward Castillo.
Abstract The following book review examines the true treatment of Native Americans in California at that time of the California Gold Rush. It is a testament to the fact that folklore and tales can be embellished for many years with little accuracy. The book details and documents provable facts that should alert any future white person that it can happen, and did happen in the United States.
From the Paper "Throughout history, authors have used their works to convey emotion or a principle or moral that they felt strongly about. One of the best illustrations of this type of literary work is in, 'Exterminate Them' : Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape, and Slavery of Native Americans During the California Gold Rush, 1848-1868 ,by Clifford E. Trafzer (Editor), and Joel R. Hyer (Editor). In this work, the authors detail many of the horrors that were faced by the Native American, while the white man moved through the state of California, and industrialized it and changed it to their liking."
Abstract The paper explores the problems in categorizing the novel, politics raised within it and the main characters. It studies both the internal and external conflicts in the novel and looks at the use of setting and imagery.
From the Paper ""Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich is a novel that defies categorization. It is part Gabriel Garcia Marquez fantasy-fiction, part Hemingway's down-to-earth working man's (and woman's) fiction, part Normal Mailer's political-fiction. Erdrich chases the story of two families " the primarily the Kashpaws and the secondarily the Lamartines " through decades and generations of interactions and experiences. The two families' lives intertwine and intersect at several points, and the lynchpin to all of the stories varies between Marie and her granddaughter Albertine. The stories take place primarily on and around Indian reservations in North Dakota, and the Native American themes are present throughout the work. Erdrich does not overtly politicize "Love Medicine," but her background thematic structures lean heavily on the mistreatment of our Native American population and the unfairness of the reservation and allotment systems. The novel switches narrators often, which lends each character a unique and powerful voice. Erdrich's general structure is to deal with a character in one chapter, and then give that same character his or her own narrative voice in the next chapter. These perspective switches allow us to create our own view of a character before that character has a chance to narrate and either modify or strike down entirely our view. Erdrich uses this structure to give her characters several layers and forces the reader to identify with characters who would otherwise be distant and a bit daunting."
Tags: category, genre, novel, politics, conflict, setting, imagery, Native, American
Analysis of North American Indian societies, 1775-1815. Historical response to Europeans, traditions & political skills. Effects of American Revolution; resistance to Federal gov't. policies; devastation of their cultures.
4,050 words (approx. 16.2 pages), 16 sources, 2001, $ 135.95
From the Paper "This research paper discusses the cultures of Native American peoples as they existed during the creation of the American nation from 1775 to 1815. It focuses upon the traditional cultures of the Eastern Woodlands Indians, the Iroquois in the North, the Algonquian Shawnee in the Northwest Territory and the Muskhogean Creek Confederacy in the Deep South and Gulf region.
Over the centuries, a plethora of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi evolved and developed a wide diversity of cultural institutions and patterns of life, uniquely adapted and attuned to their natural environment and historical circumstances. All of them were significantly disrupted and altered by contact with European settlers. By the time of the American Revolution, most of the Algonquian tribes in New England and other Indians along..."
From the Paper " INTRODUCTION
American Indian life has been based on endurance, on the ability to survive and adapt. At one time, the Native American population was much larger than it is today and ruled the entire continent. The coming of Europeans also meant the beginning of a policy of extermination, a genocidal war against a people because they had a different worldview, a different religion, and were in possession of vast tracts of land whose resources the Europeans wanted to exploit. There was a fundamental difference between the way Europeans viewed the world and its relationship to the human community and the way Native Americans viewed these issues. Europeans believed God had given them dominion over nature, while Native Americans believed that humanity had links to the chain of being of living nature and were part of it instead of.."
This paper examines a 1969 work, "Custer Died For Your Sins" by Vine DeLoria, Jr. about the American Indians from demythologizing and intercultural communications viewpoints.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 1 source, 1990, $ 47.95
From the Paper "It seems as if both historians and ethnographers are again concerning themselves with the diatribe of past events in relation to modern, more pragmatic, communicative efforts. In fact, many of the recent works tend to readdress some of the historical issues so prevalent in ethnographic research, and attempt to merge the varieties of fieldwork with an historical perspective--presumably to reformat some of the issues in a newer, more modern, bent. Within this context, this paper will examine a 1969 work, Custer Died For Your Sins, by Vine DeLoria, Jr.
In brief terms, the book is less of an historical interpretation of the American Indian, for it would be difficult for any book to attempt such a feature in only one volume, than an extended essay-like commentary on the way the American Indian ... "
From the Paper "Louise Erdrich in her novel Love Medicine and James Welch in his Winter in the Blood each address issues of gender and cultural roles among contemporary Native American populations. Both authors indicate how the Native American of today has been forcibly separated from the land and thought of his ancestors and what a devastating effect this has had on Native American society. In both cases, the writers speaks from a position inside that society. Erdrich shows more concern for feminist issues, as might be expected from a writer of her gender, while both writers express a sense of continuing loss in the Native American community and lay blame for this with the federal government and the institutions it has created for the administration and control of Indian affairs, with the land embodying both the traditions of the past and the tenuous hold ..."
Abstract This paper discusses how American culture has defined the Native American throughout our history which finally translates to a stereotypical representation in film/mascots. This essay discusses aspects from as far back as Colombus' letters, to 20th century movies.
From the Paper "The true image of Native Americans has been an issue of much debate concerning their inaccurate portrayal in film, literature, and even representatives of schools and sporting teams as mascots. The depiction in such forms of what a Native American is relies heavily on the much-loaded mental imagery of the Indian in the minds of our modern society. This imagery is based upon the Hollywood representation of the Native Americans, and the lack of knowledge, and true respect, of the Native American within our culture. Hollywood's characterization of the Indian peoples has narrowed our culture's thought on the idea of the Indian to a popular image. This image in itself was perpetuated previous to Hollywood's version of the Indian, and only continued in our popular culture by western films. This popular image is of the stereotypical Indian; face painted, feathered, aggressive, dancing and hollering, and living in teepees. It has been the struggle of modern Native American groups to seek acceptance of the Indian, with mutual respect of their traditions and images, and to put an end to such poor representations."
