Tuesday, 17 June 2008: American Indian Minority vs. the immigrant narrative.

Poem: Chrystos, “I Have Not Signed a Treaty with the United States Government,” UA 304

Poetry reader: Matt Richards

Poetry Reading for the Poem “I Have Not Signed a Treaty with the United States Government

By Matt Richards

nor has my father nor his father

nor any grandmothers

We don’t recognize these names on old sorry paper.

Therefore we declare the United States a crazy person

nightmare   lousy food  ugly clothes  bad meat

nobody we know

No one wants to go there.  This US is theory   illusion

terrible ceremony   The United States can’t dance  can’t cook

has no children   no elders   no relatives

They build funny houses no one lives in but

Everything the United States does to everybody is bad

No this US is not a good idea   We declare you terminated

You’ve had your fun now go home we’re tired   We signed

no treaty   WHAT  are you still doing here  Go somewhere else and

build a McDonald’s   We’re going to tear all this ugly mess

down now   We revoke your papers

your soap suds   your stories are no good

your colors hurt our feet   our eyes are sore

our bellies  are tied in sour knots  Go Away Now

You must be some ghost in the wrong place   wrong time

Pack up your toys   garbage   lies

We  who are alive now

Have signed no treaties

Burn down your stuck houses  you’re sitting

in a nowhere gray glow  Your spell is dead

Go so far away we won’t remember you ever came here

Take these words back with you

This poem connects with three of our class objectives

The first one is Objective 1d.  It says “to measure multicultural differences between immigrant, minority, and dominant cultures.”

Clearly this poem is a way for the Native American minority group to show the dominant culture or white man exactly what they think of them and the oppressive culture.

The Native Americans didn’t choose to come to America.  They were already here when America was being settled by the settlers from Europe.  I believe that the main purpose for this poem is to show Americans that their minority group didn’t want to have their lands taken and ways changed.  They didn’t want a new way of life and they are not the ones who signed the treaty.  For this group, the American Dream that rings true for immigrants became their American Nightmare as Dr. White put it in our syllabus.

The second Objective that is present in this poem is Objective 3 “to compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative—or American Dream versus the American Nightmare”  For example, “Minorities did not freely choose the American Dream and may speak of exploitation instead of opportunity” 

For example,  the poem is full of anger and in several places it attacks the American way of life because of its oppressive force and what it did to their culture.  They did not choose this, they were force so it is only natural that Native Americans will be angry and hostile to America and its way of life.

The final objective that this poem contains is Objective 4.  “To identify the Unites States’ dominant culture to which immigrants assimilate.”  There are several places in the poem that reference the dominant culture such as, McDonalds, or the treaty that their ancestors supposedly signed, and the gray glow of TV.  The only major difference is again the Native Americans are not immigrants, they were here before we were. 

Analysis of the poem

Most of the poem is about a fed up Native American community that refuses to accept the oppression of the dominant American culture.  Chrystos, the poet who wrote this poem, is using this to show the US that Native Americans are not happy with this forced way of life.  They are not willing to acknowledge the treaties of old because they were not there.  The poet turns it around on the Americans by treating them like the invaders of their country.  It is clear that they don’t want the American Dream because for them it is an American Nightmare.

Questions

1. Because this exploitation of Native Americans happened so long ago, is it fair for this minority group to be so openly hostile to today’s Americans who had nothing to do with what happened in the past? 

2. Should Americans try to right the wrongs that were done to the Native Americans?  If so, what can we do to make it up to them?  Are we responsible for fixing this injustice?