reaction paper

Reaction Paper 2 In the 4th chapter of “The Land Looks After Us” Martin starts by talking about a weather doctor that the tribe turned to for guidance after a total eclipse blocked out the sun. Though he was ill he helped and went into a trance which allowed his soul to find out what was going on. What he ended up seeing was a vision of god and all that neat stuff. After he became a prophet, I think what martin was trying to address with this story was that religion was not only spreading but it was also expanding and changing. One thing I think is kind of unfair of us (the white man) to do was basically force our religion onto them. Wovoka starts this new religion that was based around a dance that’s wasn’t new at all, which I find a little strange how he could get followers and believers with something that has been around for a while already. Another thing I believe Martin was trying to get across was that Wovoka’s new religion was very close to Christianity. Martin compares and contrasts the two very well. In the end I think that they are the same story told by a different person. Martin did a very good job with not only stating his idea but putting it in terms of not, “hey this happened” he actually explains and gets those small details that maybe don’t need to be said but should. In the 5th chapter Martin definitely confuses me a little more than the rest of the book it kind of seemed like he jumped around a little more rather than staying on one main topic but one thing he brings up a lot is how Mt Graham is sacred to the Apache Indians. Also how the University of Arizona invaded it for their astronomy stuff. I simply don’t agree with that. I feel like it is their thing to pray near that mountain and us white folk just come in and take over that would be like Indians coming to our churches and commandeering them, it wouldn’t fly with us. Though if we do it to them it’s a okay. I think In the 5th chapter Martin was trying to bring discussion out with the controversial subject matter.