LITR 4332 American Minority Literature Model Assignments Research Project Submissions 2013 research post 2

 Patricia Stacey

Native American Culture and the Lengths Taken to Preserve It

In a desire to expand my knowledge beyond that of the topic of Native American assimilation and the hardships they’ve faced to keep their culture alive that I picked for my first research post of Native American assimilation and the hardships they’ve faced to keep their culture alive, this research post will be an attempt to take that a step father. Using the idea that was part of an article that I read for my first research post, that of the Native American’s taking a stand to try and reverse the loss of culture that assimilation caused, the focus of the articles chosen revolve around what the Native American tribes have specifically been doing as a response to the assimilation they have faced and trying to hold onto their culture. With the specifics decided about what part of Native American culture I was researching, it is only reasonable that the question I am trying to answer be this: What has the Native American response been in an effort to combat assimilation of their culture into the dominant culture?

Again focusing my research in the databases provided by the UHCL library, one article I found was a prime resource for providing an example of the effort to combat their loss of culture. Found in the Studies In American Indian Literatures, Roemer’s “Making Do” article focused on the ceremonies performed that were done not according to how they traditionally should be done- basically calling theses ‘wrongly’ performed ceremonies ‘making-do’ ceremonies. The article said that these ceremonies, which despite that they are ‘wrongly’ performed actually accomplish what they were performed for, are “a response to five hundred years of disease, military defeats, forced religious and secular assimilation programs, relocation, world wars, destructive legislation, dysfunctional family life, and rapidly changing cultural contexts that have joined forces to undermine or even destroy the transfer and development of traditional ceremonial life”. However, through the many examples in the article it is shown that these ‘making-do’ ceremonies are still powerful healing forces for the Native Americans.

Another example of the steps being taken against the loss of culture by Native Americans was given in the article “Writing Against Erasure: Native American Students At Hampton Institute And The Periodical Press.” found in the American Periodicals. In this article it talks about how the Hampton Institute created a student-run newspaper called Talks and Thoughts that’s purpose was to let the Native American students have a place to give their thoughts about the way their roles were changing. This newspaper showed that students were challenging the idea of ‘the vanishing Indian’ and so the paper served another purpose. It seemed that “rather than simply accept the notion that Indian cultures were dying out because Indian people were assimilating, students sought ways to worry the notion that being educated at Hampton meant they were no longer Indian.” This paper gave the students a place to communicate with other people, not just Native American but those who were not, and so because a place where they could discuss the tension between the importance of their traditions with the growing pressure of acculturation.

Moving beyond just the actions taken by Hampton students, an article found in the Ethnic and Racial Studies called “Migration, Assimilation and the Cultural Construction of Identity: Navajo Perspectives." focuses on how the Navajo people as a whole have been adjusting and adapting in their attempt to incorporate elements of the dominant society while still preserving their culture, traditions, and identities.  The article attempted to redefine assimilation and migration while saying that contrary to most opinion the Native American culture hasn’t nearly disappeared but has instead been renewed in the last 30 years with a greater push toward preservation. The article also gave the personal accounts from the author’s stay with a Navajo family while it focused “on three important life cycle events: birth, puberty and marriage to demonstrate how these occasions are both sites to reaffirm traditional meanings and practices and to construct new ones”. Lamphere explains not only the significance of the Native American practices during these important life events but also how their practices have adjusted to the dominant culture and modern times.

Almost as if to combat the growing way Native American’s are taking things in their own hands to not only hold onto their culture but also to pass it on to future generations, the article found in the Black Scholar called “A Future We Wish To See: Racialized Communities Studies After White Racial Anxiety And Resentment.” focuses on a specific law that was created in Arizona in 2010- the HB 2281. Essentially, this law gives Arizona state government the ability to withhold funds from schools “that offer courses designed for students of a particular ethnic group or that promote resentment, ethnic solidarity, or overthrow of the US government.”. In other words, they are keeping money from schools that teach classes for specific ethnicities because these classes would teach one race to hate another.  While I agree that a class focused on creating hate between classes should not happen, that’s not what these ethnic specific classes are attempting to teach their students. These classes, like the American Indian Studies class mentioned, focused on preserving the history, language, arts, and culture of the Native Americans as it was passed on to the next generation. Yet, this HB 2281 law feels these classes are not only dangerous to the nation because of the focus on ‘ethnic solidarity’, but that these classes are unnecessary because “these cancers [colonization and racial oppression, white privilege, and, importantly, the past and present of racialized communities' grassroots efforts to name and hold accountable the agents and institutions of settler colonization, racial oppression, and white supremacy] on intergroup relations no longer exist, that they are no longer pressing concerns that affect the lives of racialized communities.” This is another example, like an article in the first research post, of the victors of war trying to gloss over and rewrite history by just not allowing it to be taught.

Not knowing hardly anything about this topic, I learned so much from each article. I learned that even Native American youth are contradicting the ‘vanishing Indian’ belief, their worries are more of the pressure to balance their traditions and culture with the pressures to conform like everyone else. I was glad to hear that despite all the attempts to force out and destroy their culture that the Navajo tribe has been adjusting, and that the adjusted ‘making-do’ ceremonies that are practiced have still been successful in their purposes for the tribes. It was disheartening to read about the HB 2281 law and Arizona’s attempt to make everything about the dominant culture to the point of punishing schools that had ethnic based classes. After reading about that law I’m curious to know if any other states tried to do something similar, and how the people of Arizona reacted to that law. I couldn’t help but wonder if these politicians think that if they just don’t allow these subjects to be taught for enough generations that it will be forgotten altogether. Well, with the age of the internet and the wealth of knowledge at people’s fingertips now… I say good luck trying to erase history now!

Clark, D. Anthony1, and Tamilia D.1 Reed. "A Future We Wish To See: Racialized Communities Studies After White Racial Anxiety And Resentment." Black Scholar 40.4 (2010): 37-49. Humanities Source. Web. 7 May 2013.

Emery, Jacqueline. "Writing Against Erasure: Native American Students At Hampton Institute And The Periodical Press." American Periodicals 22.2 (2012): 178-198. America: History & Life. Web. 7 May 2013.

Lamphere, Louise. "Migration, Assimilation And The Cultural Construction Of Identity: Navajo Perspectives." Ethnic And Racial Studies 30.6 (2007): 1132-1151. OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 7 May 2013.

Roemer, Kenneth M. "Making Do." Studies In American Indian Literatures 24.4 (2012): 77-98. Humanities Source. Web. 7 May 2013.