Thursday, 20 September: American Indian Minority vs. the immigrant narrative. Leslie Marmon Silko, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” (IA 205-209); Louise Erdrich, "American Horse" (IA 210-220); Mei Mei Evans, “Gussuk” (IA 237-251)

·        Text-objective discussion leader: Julie Matuszczak 

“American Horse”

By

Louise Erdrich

Biographical Information:

Karen Louise Erdrich was born in Little Falls, Minnesota on June 7, 1954. Her mother is French Ojibwe and her father is German American. She attended college at Dartmouth and Johns Hopkins before marrying author and anthropologist Michael Dorris. When Erdrich married Dorris, he had three adopted children and later the couple had three more children of their own. When Dorris and Erdrich separated in 1995, Erdrich moved six blocks down the street in order to share custody of their children. On March 29, 1997 Dorris committed suicide. Erdrich now lives in Minneapolis, MN with her three youngest children. She is the author of four previous bestselling and award-winning novels, including Love Medicine; The Beet Queen; Tracks; and The Bingo Palace. She also has written two collections of poetry, Jacklight, and Baptism of Desire. Several of her short stories have been selected for O. Henry awards and for inclusion in the annual Best American Short Story anthologies.

Objectives:

Objective 3. To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative—or, American Dream versus American Nightmare:

·        Differences between immigrants and minorities:

The two most persistent or least-assimilated minority groups, African Americans and Native Americans, were not immigrants, at least in any normal sense. (Native Americans were already here, and immigration was the “American Nightmare” instead of the American Dream. African Americans, unlike traditional immigrants, did not choose to come to America, but were forced; instead of opportunity, they found slavery.)

These differences between immigrant and minority histories lead to different “social contracts.” Since immigrants voluntarily chose to come to America, they are expected to conform to the American Dream story of freedom and opportunity.  Minorities did not freely choose the American Dream and may speak of exploitation instead of opportunity.

Immigrants typically assimilate and lose their ethnic identity within 1-3 generations. Minorities remain distinct or maintain distinct communities. For historical, cultural, or color-code reasons, however, some immigrants run the risk of what sociologists call “downward assimilation”: instead of climbing the educational-economic ladder and assimilating to the dominant culture, any ethnic group (including whites) may become entrenched in separatist, traditionalist, gender-hierarchical behaviors that resist assimilation and advancement

       Overlap between immigrant and minority identities:

Immigrants may experience “minority” status in early generations. Immigrants may suffer discrimination and marginalization by the dominant culture on account of racial and cultural differences as long as those differences are visible or audible. With few exceptions, the only immigrants who are treated as minorities are those who are not yet assimilated.

* Discrimination is portrayed by the dominant culture throughout the story.  An example is when a description of the police car is given.  Harmony must explain about Indians to prove he did not favor them. 

Pg. 212 “The three people came to a halt in their husk of metal--the car emblazoned with the North Dakota State Highway Patrol emblem which is the glowing profile of the Sioux policeman, Red Tomahawk, the one who killed Sitting Bull.”

Pg.213 “As a tribal police officer who could be counted on to help out the State Patrol, Harmony thought he always had to explain about Indians or get twice as tough to show he did not favor them.”

* They are assimilated, yet remain separate by living on the reservation.  They are expected to keep healthy living areas without proper jobs or materials. 

Pg.211 “Buddy was on the cot too, sitting on the edge because he’d been awake three hours watching out for his mother and besides, she took up the whole cot.”

Pg.216 “She made note of the cupboard that held only commodity flour and coffee.”

* The use of native dialect when Harmony and Albertine are talking shows a cultural difference, yet they hide this and only speak to each other alone in the dialect.

Pg.217 “[Ma Cousin], he said in the Michif dialect that people used if they were relatives or sometimes if they needed gas or a couple of dollars, [why don’t you come out here and stop this foolishness?]”

Questions:

Why would Harmony help Vicki Koob take Buddy from Albertine? Did he feel like the boy was is real danger?

Why did Harmony mention Albertine’s father when trying to convince her to come out of the shed with Buddy?

Why did Albertine throw her arms out ready to be killed by the police? Did it somehow relate to the way her father was killed?