LITR 4332: American Minority Literature
final exam 2008 sample answers

Copy of final exam

essay on American Indian literature:
Native Americans as minority culture and cultural narrative of “Loss and Survival”

Peter Becnel

Before America

            The relationship between the dominant majority and the ethic minority in terms of the American Indian culture is prevalent today because as stated in Objective 1 “American minorities are defined not by numbers.” As a minority group the American Indians are small, and many tribes have ceased to exist, however, they are important to remember primarily because of their rich cultural history, the sustained preservation of their  slowly diminishing ethno-cultural identity, and the manner in which their characteristics staunchly differ from the dominant majority culture. (after all originally American culture was defined souly by American Indians.)

            Referring to Objective 5b, specifically the portion of the Objective that refers to Native Americans who “defy the myth of the vanishing indian’ choosing to ‘survive.’”  I would like to draw attention to a passage in Edriche’s Love Medicine. – “ ‘Can you gimme a cigarette, Eli?’ King asked. ‘When you ask for a cigarette around here,’ said Gordie, ‘you don’t say can I have a cigarette. You say ciga swa?’ “ (p.32) This passage is particularly interesting because it presents an intertwining of dominant and minority related cultural attributes.  Eli’s use of his native language is an attempt at preservation of the American Indian culture. Because he is older than King it is possible that through his influence Eli will be able to preserve aspects of cultural heretige my integrating them into his relationship with the younger generation. The passage continues to develop the theme when Lynette interjects “ ‘Tell ‘em, Uncle Eli,’ Lynette said with a quick bust of drunken enthusasm. ‘ They got to learn their own heritage! When you go it will all be gone!’ “ King proceeds to react to this intervention by physically pushing Lianne. Because Lynette is white, she is a member of the same dominant majority that dispossessed the American Indians. It is irritating that she would interject regarding the preservation of the culture, when her inhabitation of the continent is a product of the force that is causing the American Indian cultural identitiy to disappear. It is particularly irritating to King because it is a portion of his cultural identity and Lynette is acting as if she were more concerned about its fate than he is.

Expanding on the theme of “ involuntary participation and continuing oppression- The American Nightmare” is the case of Henry and the draft. Henry is drafted and by being drafted he is involuntarily assimilated into the dominant culture. Involuntary participation in the military is especially damaging to cultures like American Indian Cultures because they are involuntarily forced to fight in order to preserve a culture that they do not wish to be a part of. Literally they are fighting to preserve the culture that dominated them, as if they are involuntarily working to preserve the force that is destroying them. Henry is a classic example of the effects of war. We see this in the Anaya as well, when he returns from the war he is a different man, and ultimately he commits suicide because of his participation. I would not make the argument that it was the assimilation rather than the horror of warfare that changed Henry. It was certainly the horror of battle that traumatized him to the point in which he could no longer live a normal life. However, I will argue that it is wrong for a member of a minority group that literally existed in America before Europeans, should be forced to fight to protect the culture of the group that oppressed them, stripped them of their rights, and took their land. (the thing of greatest value in Indian culture because of their spiritual closeness to nature, and because of the notion that money is fickle and temporary and that only the ownership of land is permanent.)

            The importance of cultural preservation is directly exemplified in American Indian Stories when we see the desire of youth to hear the stories of the elders. “ ‘Ask them to tell an Iktomi story, mother.’ Soothing my impatience, my mother said aloud, ‘My little daughter is anxious to hear your legends.’ By this time all were through eating , and the evening was fast deepening into twilight. As each in turn began to tell a legend, I pillowed my head in my mother’s lap; and lying flat upon my back, I watched the stars as they peeped down upon me, one by one. The increasing interest of the tale aroused me, and I sat up eagerly listening to every word. The old women made funny remars, and laughed so heartily that I could not help joining them.” (p. 11) In this passage we observe a number of indicators demonstrating the importance of cultural preservation through the oral tradition of passing on legends. We see hear that not only is the little girl captivated by  the legends of the group, but her mother encourages her to listen to the legends. She wants her daughter to know the culture of her people, and the legends are one of the most effective forms of transferring this cultural identitiy. Also important is the fact that by listening to the legends the girl begins to literally emulate the behavior of the older women in the group. This is an essential portion of the transfer of cultural identity from generation to generation. The little girl is captivated not only by the legends that are being told, but also by the actions of the older women that are telling them. It is with respect and admiration that the little girl joins into the laughing of the group.

An important distinction exists between immigrant and minority cultures, it is termed in this course as “exploitation and oppression instead of opportunity.” (Objective 1)  In Love Medicine the following passage grasped my attention for a variety of reasons. “They gave you worthless land to start with and then they chopped it out from under your feet. They took your kids away and stuffed the English language in their mouth. They sent your brother to hell, they shipped him back fried. They sold you booze for furs and then told you not to drink it. It was time, high past time the Indians smartened up and started using  the only leverage they had- federal law. Lyman grinned to himself, his eyebrows raised, staring at the floor. He saw farther, built bigger, until the vision was raised and solid in the dusky air. Bingo! Bingo!” (p. 326) Lyman in a perfect manifestation of these contradictory literary statements. He is bitter about his brother’s death, he is bitter about the land that he lost, and he wants to overcome the stumbling blocks mentioned in this passage. His outlets are distorted however. In an attempt to rise above the exploitative, oppressive American doctrines he has caused himself to exploit his own culture. Consider: his first business idea is for a factory that produces cheap replicas of important pieces of Indian culture, His next a Bingo Palace that is ultimately no more healthy than the alcohol that Europeans used to poison the culture in the first place. The notion that Lyman is riddled with contradictions is supported by the fact that I have also read Bingo Palace. It is here that Lyman develops further into a charatcter with cognitive dissonance. He desires Lypsha’s traditional pipe, then pawns it. He dances the traditional dances in his grass skirt, goes on a spirit journey, while simultaneously planning to use tribal lands for an even larger Bingo and Gambling Casino. He is simultaneously trying to maintain his culture hoping that “Native Americans [will] defy the myth of the vanishing Indian,’ choosing to ‘survive,’” but while he propels the cultre forward with his notions of ceremonial preservation, he destroys the culture by assimilating traditional tribal lands to be used for American enterprises.

Another appropriate passage demonstrating this concept of Lyman’s  dissonance as a result of his conflicting desires: greed, and cultural preservation is demonstrated when he thinks “ Money was the key to assimilating, so Indians were taught. Why not make a money business out of money itself? Appeal to frenzy, appeal to purpose, appeal to the Gods of Chance.” (p. 327)

            In American Indian Stories “ exploitation and oppression instead of opportunity” is presented in the form of classroom cultural oppression.  When she finds that her hair must be cut she reacts “ ‘No, I will not submit! I will struggle first!’… I watched my chance, and when o one noticed, I disappeared. I crept up the stairs as quietly as I could in my squeaking shoes, --my moccasins had been exchanged for shoes. Along the hall I passed, without my knowing whither I was going. Turning aside to an open door, I found a large room with three white beds in it. The windows were covered with dark green curtains, which made the room very dim. Thankful that no one was there, I directed my steps toward the corner fartherst from the door. On my hands and knees I crawled under the bed, and cuddled myself in the dark corner.” This passage is a classic example of the resistance to assimilation, and an attempt for a young girl to preserve her cultural identity. It is especially appropriate that she runs to a “dimly” lit room, and seeks comfort within the “dark”. It expounds on the theme of darkness as a symbol of comfort in minority cultures, and ties American Indian sentiments directly to the sentiments of African American narratives that we studied earlier in the course. Frederick Douglass was only able to see his mother in the dark of night, a time that provided him with the greatest sense of comfort that he would experience. Also Langston Hughes writes “night coming tenderly, black like me” further expanding the notion of comfort and safety through hiding in the darkness. I believe that dark is so important because the lack of light makes it so much easier to hide the cultural attributes that are precious from assailents who would take them away. Also darkness is comforting because it literally distorts our visual perspective making all people look more similar. (pervades color distinction)

Lacey Fleshman

The Native American Narrative of “Loss and Survival”

            How do Native Americans qualify as a minority culture? Just read objective one, which we have used in class to define ethnic minority groups, and you will find a summary of the Native American history of loss: “Unlike the dominant immigrant culture, ethnic minorities did not choose to come to America or join its dominant culture…The American Indians were invaded. [They] experienced exploitation and oppression instead of opportunity…minorities remember America as a place where their people have been disposed of property and power and deprived of basic human rights.” Examples of the mistreatment suffered by American Indians are riddled throughout Zitkala-Su’s American Indian Stories and Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine.
            However, the story does not end with the absolute defeat of the Native American Indian. Part two of the Native American narrative is survival. Yes, the American Indians suffered catastrophic losses, but they refuse to close the chapter on their tale. Instead they remain strong “defying the myth of ‘the vanishing Indian," [and] choosing to ‘survive,’” (objective 5b). Both Zitkala-Su and Erdrich illustrate beautifully the unsurpassable ability of the Native American Indian to continue their traditions despite the continual setbacks they are dealt by the dominant culture.
            Undoubtedly, the Native American narrative, as we know it, begins with great loss. Examples of this can be seen in both American Indian Stories and Love Medicine. In American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa tells the story of a young Indian girl who becomes a woman during a time when Indians were seen as little more than cattle. As a child she is told by her mother the story of how the “paleface” pushed the family off their land and forced them onto reservations. “We were once very happy. But the paleface has stolen our lands and driven us hither. Having defrauded us of our land, the paleface forced us away” (Zitkala-Su p.10). We see the idea of the American Indians being pushed from their land repeated several times in Love Medicine. One example comes as Albertine travels home to the reservation:
“I grew up with her in an aqua-and-silver trailer, set next to the old house on the land my great-grandparents were allotted when the government decided to turn Indians into farmers. The policy of allotment was a joke. As I was driving toward the land, looking around, I saw as usual how much of the reservation was sold to whites and lost forever” (Erdrich p.12).
But, Lulu says it best when she says, “those yellow-bearded government surveyors in their tie boots came to measure the land around Henry’s house […] He knew like I did. If we’re going to measure land, let’s measure right. Every foot and inch you’re standing on, even if it’s on top of the highest skyscraper, belongs to the Indians. That’s the real truth of the matter” (Edrich p.282).

            From these passages it is evident that the attitude of Native Americans towards the United States government is vastly different from that of an immigrant. In an immigrant narrative a reader might find a mother telling her children about the difficulties they faced in their native country and how they escaped those hardships by coming to America. However, for the Native Americans, the story is reversed. “America” came to the Indians and overtook them. Because of this American Indians had mixed feelings of fear and bitterness towards the American system. Zitkala-Su tells readers that often her mother was “sad and silent” (p. 7). Erdrich tells a similar story in Love Medicine, however, the characters in her novel carry more resentment than fear. Rather than remain afraid of the culture and the system that tried to annihilate them, American Indians rise to fight for their rights and hold steadfast to their native culture thereby creating a story of survival.
            As stated in objective 5b, “American dominant culture usually only writes half of the Indians’ story, romanticizing their loss and ignoring the Indians who adapt and survive.” But authors such as Zitkala-Su and Louise Erdrich have seen to it that the rest of the story be told. Towards the end of her narrative, Zitkala-Su tells the story of her grandfather. “His was the first band of the Great Sioux Nation to make treaties with the government in the hope of bringing about an amicable arrangement between the red and the white Americans” (p. 155). Zitkala-Su’s grandfather began the struggle for survival, but died “from a sudden illness.” However, “when his small granddaughter grew up she learned the white man’s tongue, and followed in the footsteps of her grandfather to the very seat of government to carry on his humanitarian work” (p. 156). This passage illustrates perfectly the American Indian story of survival; the next generation of American Indians rises up to continue the fight!

Paul Acevedo

1. American Indians’ Struggle to Survive Against the Dominant Culture

            America is made up of several cultural groups. The dominant culture consists mainly of the descendants of European immigrants. Before the Europeans came here, however, this land belonged to the American Indians. War and disease decimated the American Indian population, reducing them to minority group status. For a long time they faced harsh treatment at the hands of the dominant culture, being viewed as little more than savages or terrorists. Today American Indians are treated much more fairly, but their culture still faces many challenges.

            The American Indians have lost a great deal. They once owned this country, only to lose the majority of their land, people, and rights to European immigrants. Being pushed off of their land was extremely painful to the Indians. In American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa’s mother laments, “We were once very happy. But the paleface has stolen our lands and driven us hither.” This process continues even in modern times. A Chippewa character in Love Medicine observes, “I saw as usual how much of the reservation was sold to whites and lost forever.” The American Dream has been a nightmare for Indians. The majority culture eventually romanticized American Indians as if they were an endangered species. Such portrayals are common in books like Last of the Mohicans. But American Indians continue to survive. The theme of returning from the dead, seen repeatedly in Love Medicine, is a metaphor for the belief that American Indians will continue to survive no matter what happens to them. Zitkala-Sa’s success is a real life example of Indians adapting and surviving. She not only graduated from college, she also became an award-winning speaker and advocate for her people.

            One challenge that American Indians faced in adapting to the majority culture is that they came from a spoken-language culture. Most of them did not have a written language. As a result, their history and traditions were passed on almost entirely by word of mouth. In American Indian Stories, the author’s deceased brother is often spoken of by others: “His name was on the lips of old men when talking of the proud feats of valor; and it was mentioned by younger men, too, in connection with deeds of gallantry.” Spoken language stories are a beautiful tradition, but they change or die out as time passes. Had author Zitkala-Sa never learned to write, we would probably be unaware of her brother today. Thankfully her mother recognized the importance of literacy. On one occasion when Zitkala-Sa felt depressed, her mother tried to console her by showing her a Bible: “’Here, my child, are the white man's papers. Read a little from them,’ she said most piously.” While Zitkala-Sa’s mother never became literate, she wanted her daughter to be successful in the dominant culture.

            An unfortunate side effect of becoming embracing the dominant culture is that a person may lose his or her place in the minority culture. Zitkala-Sa no longer felt at home when she returned from her education: “Even nature seemed to have no place for me. I was neither a wee girl nor a tall one; neither a wild Indian nor a tame one.” Her assimilation caused her to long to return to the white culture, even though she was not completely accepted there. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich has an even stronger example in the character Lyman Lamartine. Born a member of the Chippewa tribe, he embraces the American Dream of capitalism. Lyman creates a souvenir factory on his tribe’s land which is staffed by his fellow Indians. But he faces resistance every step of the way, even from his own mother. “By the time my mother and the traditionals… finished their equal-opportunity-mandated consulting… the price [of creating the factory] had gone up,” he describes. Lyman’s factory eventually comes to fruition, only to be destroyed as a result of a fight between his mother and her rival, Marie Kashpaw. “…After the fighting tapered off, [the workers] who were in a condition to do so… methodically demolished, scattered, smashed to bits, and carried off what was left of the factory.” Even though they had worked for him at the factory, Lyman’s fellow tribesmen still resented the dominant culture’s intrusion into their reservation. They fear the loss of their culture. Another example is when the character Lipsha Morrisey observes that his people have lost the ability to communicate with their gods since “the Catholics gained ground.”

Emily Newsome

Loss as a Way of Life

            As defined by this course, American minorities consist of groups that do “not choose to come to America or join its dominant culture.” This could not be truer of the American Indians. The American Indians were utterly choiceless and voiceless in their domination by the incoming culture. Perhaps one of the most evident processes of rendering the American Indians voiceless was the destruction of their language. In Love Medicine Lyman Lamartine describes how the immigrant cultures took the Native American children “and stuffed the English language into their mouth[s]” (Erdrich 326). The stuffing of the mouths of children is a grim image, but it seems to be a consistent concept throughout American Indian literature. Some children, as in the case of Zitkala-Sa, may have at first desperately wanted to learn the English ways, but these children often regret the toll that it takes on their culture and their identity.

            Language is the cornerstone of any culture. Without it the members cannot communicate and as a result the culture has no chance of surviving. The loss of language that the Native Americans faced gave way to exactly that, the loss of their culture. The most evident loss of the Native American culture seems to be through religion. In Love Medicine, one of the most moving scenes is when the Kashpaw family has gone to mass and the dementia ridden Nector screams out the words at the top of his lungs. Lipsha Morrisssey uses this instance to address the difference between the God of Christianity and the God of the Chippewa. The mass is certainly not directed toward the God of the Chippewa, so the reader immediately feels the sense of loss and forced assimilation that the Americans Indians have faced with something as deeply personal and highly respected as who and how they are to worship. Lipsha shows an understanding for his grandfather’s screams in an effort to be heard by saying that “to ask proper was an art that was lost to the Chippewas once the Catholics gained ground” (Erdrich 236). This is a statement underlined with great hostility. Two of the most important and defining aspects of a culture are its language and its religion, and the Native Americans were forced to abandon both in order to survive.

Unlike the slaves who were forced into the country, the American Indians were already inhabiting the land and were forced out or condensed onto less profitable land by the ambitious immigrant culture. This loss of land is the most frequent and blatant charge by the Native Americans. In Love Medicine Albertine Johnson addresses this issue right away. As she is returning home after having been away at college, she notices “as usual how much of the reservation was sold to whites and lost forever” (Erdrich 12). This is a deeply disturbing statement, because Albertine does not just say that their land was gone, but she says that the reservation was being sold. As a member of the dominant culture, I have always seen reservation land as being strictly Native American. The fact that it can be sold off right and left – to white people at that – seems to go against the purposes that it was given for.

Lulu Lamaritine makes perhaps the most insightful argument toward Native American land ownership in the entire novel. She angrily states “[i]f we’re going to measure land, let’s measure right. Every foot and inch you’re standing on, even if it’s on the top of the highest skyscraper, belongs to the Indians” (Erdrich 282). This is a concept that I had never thought of before. Skyscrapers are a modern invention and to a person of the dominant culture, the Native American culture seems to be exactly the opposite of modern. Perhaps this is just romanticizing the Native Americans, but regardless, Lulu is right; everything, even something as modern and contradictory to a traditional culture as a skyscraper should belong to the Indians. However, the dominant culture gives them the worst pieces of land and claims the rest for themselves; even long after the land has been conquered by the white cultures and divided up, the whites still come in and take the land as Albertine keenly observes. Loss continues to be a governing part of the lives of Native Americans long after immigrants infiltrated their land.

The same sentiments of stolen land are expressed in American Indian Stories when Zitkala-Sa’s mother expresses her grief over the paleface ‘[h]aving defrauded us of [their] land” (Zitkala-Sa 10), but the most interesting concept is applied to the sacred land where the plum bush grows (Zitkala-Sa 32). The Native Americans highly value and respect this land and would never take the plums off of the tree; however, in the dominant culture, no land seems to be sacred. Even land such as cemeteries and gravesite that should be sacred are somewhat regarded as such, but they are still bought and sold.

As we have covered in class, the attitude of the dominant culture toward the Native American culture seems to either romanticize the loss of the culture or to ignore the Indians and the part of the culture that has survived. Nector Kashpaw faces the former of the two alternatives when he leaves the reservation and discovers “that the greater world was only interested in [his] doom” (Erdrich 124). This attitude is apparent in all forms of media, from books to movies. A picture of the last Indian standing in traditional dress gazing out over the side of cliff at the land that was once his is a familiar picture in the mind of most Americans.

If the Indian himself is not romanticized then the culture tends to be, as in the case of the Indian relics that are ‘[h]and produced by Tribal Members” (Erdrich 310). These objects are completely worthless and stand for nothing in relation to the culture, which their creators are fully aware of, yet the uninformed public eats them up, at least for a little while. This goes hand in hand with the comment made in class about roadside sellers of Indian wares bought by travelers through Indian dominated territories. These products mean nothing to the culture; they are only objects, but the dominant culture clings to them. Perhaps this is done in an effort to cleanse ourselves of the part that we played in the destruction of the culture, or perhaps it is just our generation’s way of clinging to some sort of past since most of our ancestors worked so hard to erase theirs.

In the case of the Native Americans, the imperative question becomes whether to assimilate or resist the dominant culture. In a way, there is no option but to resist. The dominant culture quickly outnumbers the Native Americans, and they are also much more technologically advanced making it easy to dominate in warfare. Also, because the dominant culture outnumbers the Native American population, it becomes commonplace for the Indians to marry outside of their own ethnicity, as in the case of King Kashpaw. The critical dillema arises in the decisions that the resulting children make. Albertine, who is also mixed ethnicity, clings to her culture with help from her mother. King’s son, King Junior, tragically does not. He goes by Howard at school and does not look back.

Ariana Gonzalez

Stories of American Indians

            Native Americans very much qualify as a minority culture.  According to objective one minority are those that did not choose to come to America OR joining its dominant culture.  Native Americans were invaded by settlers; industrial companies and anything dominate culture related.  American Indians have been forced to assimilate and books such as Love Medicine and American Indian Stories help tell their stories.

            I was glad to begin reading about American Indians. Never had I read any work by them, I always just read about them.  And now, after taking this course I have learned that just reading about them is not the same as reading work they have done.  Reading American Indian Stories and Love Medicine was almost like a wakeup call to all the ignorant myths I have read in the past. 

            In American Indian Stories, we quickly see the negative impact that the dominant culture has shoved on to the American Indians.  Indian Childhood chapter regards the dominant culture as the “palefaces” and we see this term used throughout the entire book.  We find out that the American Indian family has already had land taken away and the families have already had deaths due to the travel.  Next we see a young Zitkala-Sa begging to attend school.  She is lured into the thought that leaving her home for the city is a wonderful idea.  She wants to ride the “iron horse” not knowing or anticipating what is to come.  Her mother on the other hand knows exactly what will happen and fears everything for her daughter.  When I read the chapter where Zitkala-Sa leaves on the train and realizes she is away from her mother I cried.  I could never imagine just leaving my mother like that; but I guess if I would ride an “iron horse” I too would leave…or maybe not. I am twenty-three years old and find it hard for me to leave but I guess that will change all too soon when I marry. But anyways…

            At the school, this is where Zitkala-Sa is forced to assimilate.  The school forces her to cut her hair.  They tried to assimilate the Dakota students by stripping them of the person they were.  Zitkala-Sa writes of the moment on page 56.  She says: “I felt the cold blades of the scissors ... and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids”.  Words such as cold, blade, and gnaw are strong words and give a sense of negativity.  And this is exactly what happened to Zitkala-Sa; she had an overwhelming sense of negativity.  She goes on to say she lost her spirit and felt like a coward.  The school cutting her hair is a number one sign of them being forced to assimilate.  I also see here how she becomes voiceless.  As in objective 1b explains about expression, Zitkala-Sa feels that no one can hear her.  It states “I moaned for my mother but no one came to comfort me” (56).  She moaned and yet no one came, no one heard her express her misery. 

            One note that I found interesting in American Indian Stories was the use of the color code.  In previous books anything dark was seen as a negative but here they were appreciated.  The terms bronze and dark were used in positive aspects while pale was used to describe the dominate culture of the white man.  I guess this one can say that brown is beautiful too.

            Despite the fact that Zitkala-Sa was forced to assimilate she did not allow it to bring her down.  I loved reading Zitkala-Sa’s narrations.  Her story really showed the truth of “loss and survival” in a positive aspect.  Yes, she suffered several years in the hands of the “pale faces” but she pushed on for her education despite her mother’s request.  Although she changes she does not forget her mother and brother she still loves them dearly and resigns as a teacher to do more for her.  This was a great story of an Indian who adapted and survived. 

            In Love Medicine there is a mixture of feelings that I get from Louise Erdrich.  I get the sense that assimilating and following “the American dream” is not right for all or that there is a wrong and right way of doing it.  There is reference after reference after reference that deal with the American Indian being part of a minority.  For instance Gerry goes through the voiceless experiences.  In the chapter Scales, Gerry is found helpless in a court situation.  He says that Indians make horrible witness while whites make good ones, if they are on your side that is.  Because a court would take the side of a white man over an American Indian I find that a sign of voiceless.  They have no say and therefore are of no worth.  That is extremely sad to me minority or not you are a person and all persons should be treated equally…right Jefferson. Well I guess not.

            In Love Medicine, I felt that the forcing of assimilation happened long before the generations that are mentioned.  They are now trying to survive and succeed.  Love Medicine is the struggles of several families trying to make it through.  It does not show them being forced to assimilate but they choose too.  Like when Henry and Lyman get the reds Olds, they see that as a dominate culture item and they go off and buy one.  We also see Henry joining the army and Eli being sent to school.  In Erdrich there is not as much text showing them being forced but more of them doing it as a choice.

            I do feel though that the choices they make to assimilate turn for the worse.  Eli had a harder life than his brother who did not go to school, Henry ends up dying after the army, and King has too many problems to even get to them all.  Even Albertine who is doing well in school has a downfall.  The family slightly looks down on her because she forgets her family, cultural, and doesn’t have a family of herself.  Love Medicine seemed to me a story of loss and survival if you kept your heritage. 

Santos Ann Hinojosa 

The Plight of the American Indian:

 a Deaf Ear and Shears

According to Obj. 1a ethnic minorities did not choose to come to America or join its dominant culture; they were either forced or like in the American Indian’s situation they were invaded.

American Indians did not migrate to America, Anglo-Saxons migrated to their land. The fact that American Indians lived and thrived in the vast lands of North America before it had been discovered makes them minorities, not immigrants. Invasion signified the loss of their way of life; survival mode became a way of life. Many attempted to fully assimilate and others compromised enough to get by, but kept their traditions alive.

Religion was one aspect that the American Indians had to adopt, they had to become Christians. This conversion to Christianity was a form of loss; they had to give up their Gods. However, even though they gave into the dominant culture and adopted their religion this does not necessarily mean that all gave up their beliefs. The American Indian is unlike the dominant/immigrant culture who leaves its past behind to gain rights and opportunities (Obj. 5b).

In Love Medicine even though Grandpa Kashpaw became a Catholic he speaks of “God’s been going deaf” (236). The Christian God has turned a deaf ear to the Indian plight for survival. Albertina thinks of those in her family;

King smashing his fist into things, Gordie drinking

himself down to the Bismarck hospitals, or Aunt June

left by a white man to wander off in the snow…

[Even going] further back, to the old time Indians who

[were] swept away in the outright germ warfare and dirty

dog-killing of the whites” (236).

Grandpa Kashpaw tells her that their Gods are not perfect but at least they come around and if you asked right they would do a favor, no yelling involved (236). So, even though Grandpa Kashpaw assimilated by adopting the dominant culture’s religion it was not a full assimilation, he kept his traditional beliefs alive; unlike the immigrant who leaves tradition behind when assimilating.

Religion was not the only loss that the American Indian suffered; they were expected to change their outer appearances too. In American Indian Stories the girls learn that they were to have their long black hair sheared. Judewin goes into survival mode she tells Zitkala-Sa that they “have to submit, because they are strong” Zitkala-Sa says “No I will not submit I will struggle first” (54). For Zitkala-Sa the loss of her hair is unbearable, even though she knows it will eventually happen. She will be forced to assimilate to the dominant culture. However, her fight to keep her hair is rooted in her traditions and beliefs, just as the braves who fought for their way of life she too will resist. Sadly, both succumbed to the dominant culture, throwing them into their American Nightmare.

Josh Hughey

A Cliché: Survival is as Good as It Gets

            The term “minority” is thrown around quite carelessly today.  It seems that everyone is a minority in some way.  However, this country is not exactly the model of a system of equality.  America was founded on inequality, made rich on inequality, and remains turbulent today due to lingering inequality.  Native Americans have been receiving harsh treatment from the imposed dominant culture since the very beginning of the new world colonies all the way to the present.  American Indian Stories and Love Medicine both take place long after the majority of Native Americans were wiped out and their land taken, in the turn of the twentieth century and the nineteen-thirties through roughly the present respectively.  That being the case it is now much easier to define the Native American culture as that of a minority group. 

            Though the two stories do take place over a large span of time the treatment of the characters is fairly similar, with the main difference being that Love Medicine more deeply examines the social and psychological affect inequality has on Native American culture.  American Indian Stories is a fantastic representation of Native Americans as a minority culture.  Many of the older characters talk of the white men as being bad for invading their land and taking it.  All the American Indian characters refer to white men as “palefaces” with the narrator’s mother referring to the white man as a “sham,” claiming that, “the bronzed Dakota is the only real man.”  The American Indian characters, especially the older ones, have a great deal of animosity toward the white men.  This is undoubtedly because the white men first acted upon them with hostility.  The American Indians were often slaughtered, treated as savages, and forced onto small reservations far away from their original territory all because they have a different culture than the dominant culture.  The only reason there is a dominant culture is because that culture chooses to assert its so-called dominance.  In Love Medicine it is mentioned that the reservation is constantly getting smaller.  What makes this worse is that the white men are not continuing to shrink the reservation, but the Native Americans have become so destitute from inequality that they have no choice but to sell what little the dominant culture left them.  The results of the white man’s intrusion are evident in both stories.  In American Indian Stories white men come to take Indian children to their schools.  It is not enough that they took their land but then they must take their language and their culture, their children away.  In Love Medicine the main visible contribution of the dominant culture is liquor.  Liquor along with modernization either keeps the American Indians in a constant state of dependence or integration.  None of these things were a result of any choice made by the Native Americans but rather the invasion of a new dominant culture.  This is what qualifies Native Americans as a minority group.

Veronica Valdez

“Loss and Survival” of Native Americans and their Literature

 American Indian Stories by Zitkala-Sa and Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich both describe the trials and tribulations that Native Americans have had to overcome. These novels also describe the Native Americans as a minority culture, as described by Objective 1a because they did not choose to move and assimilate into the dominant culture.  The dominant culture encroached upon the Native Americans’ lands and took over by several methods: invasions, wars and diseases. Zitkala’s mother clearly remembers that:

“We were once very happy. But the paleface has stolen our lands and driven us     hither. Having defrauded us of our land, the paleface forced us away.” (10)

They were continued to be oppressed by the removal of their culture, forced religion, removal of lands and their subsequent relocation to new areas of land. Another reason that the Native Americans are considered a minority is that they were looked down as inferior, disrespected and discriminated against. Zitkala-Sa says “Often I wept in secret, wishing I had gone West, to be nourished by my mother’s love, instead of remaining among a cold race whose hearts where frozen hard with prejudice.”(76) Native Americans were called ‘savages’ in the Declaration of Independence, even though it was the dominant culture who disrupted their lives, and who savagely took away their lands. The Native Americans were victims of the dominant culture’s quest for the American Dream.  

The Native Americans exemplify Objective 1b because they were voiceless initially as they did not know the languages that the European explorers spoke. After they learned English/ Spanish/French they were still voiceless because they were looked down upon and their opinions were disrespected. Native Americans voice their feelings through their oral narratives and the literary techniques they use in relating these oral narratives. An example of double language is when Zitkala is crying for her mother and her aunt, “I pleaded; but the ears of the palefaces could not hear me.”(50)  This quote uses Objective 1c to show two different interpretations, that Zitkala can not be heard because the “palefaces” are not around to physically hear her, or because she is not understood because she does not know English, and the “palefaces”  will not comfort her anyway.  Native Americans have reclaimed their voice through literature, such as Love Medicine, and their oral traditions continue. Through continued assimilation their oral traditions may begin to dwindle.  Another example of gaining choice is that the Native Americans learned English and attended the dominant culture’s schools. This helped them communicate with the European settlers and empowered them to survive and succeed. This directly aligns with Objective 6a Literary as a path to empowerment, Some Native Americans such as Zitkala-Sa and Albertine from Love Medicine, even went on to attend college.

  The Native Americans became a moral conscience to the dominant culture in order to remind them of the power of man. The power and the destruction that man is capable of, of man’s greed, and the affects it had on Native Americans.  Due to this continued oppression, Native Americans have a common thread that unites all Native American tribes, “Loss and Survival” (Objective 5b).  The dominant culture left their past behind in order to immigrate to America in search for the American Dream. The Native Americans treasured and respected their past and for them the American Dream, became the American Nightmare. The Native American nightmare, encompasses many elements of loss; loss of life, loss of lands, loss of culture, loss of wealth.  Even though the dominant culture’s forces affected the Native Americans, they did continue to fight for their rights and freedom. American Indian Stories has an excellent sample of survival as Zitkala-Sa rises in her career and then turns around and helps American Indians. American Indians also coped with the losses they experienced such as the land that was taken away from them and tried to prosper from it. For example, Lyman Lamartine in Love Medicine used the land that they were driven out to, “It was time, high past time the Indians smartened up and started using the only leverage they had-federal law” and he decided to build a Bingo Hall. (326)

Excerpts

Erin Chambers

 . . . Each generation of the Native Americans is slowing losing their roots with the Native American traditions and culture.  In American Indian Stories, we see a young girl who leaves her home on the Indian Reservation to go to an English boarding school. At first she is excited to go and learn new things, but when the people at the school try to change her she begins to think that maybe it wasn’t the best idea. “I had arrived in the wonderful land of rosy skies, but I was not happy, as I had thought I should be.” (51) When the school cuts her hair she feels very upset and hurt. She fights it but in the end they win out. After losing a part of herself and her identity she says “for now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder.” (56) A lot of the Native Americans were unable to express themselves and fight for their rights because of the language barrier involved. . . .