Preview

Native Americans Analytical Essay Example

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1209 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Native Americans Analytical Essay Example
University of Puerto Rico in Bayamón

English Department

Native Americans
Analytical Essay

Jhon Smith
841-03-9669
INGL 3326 LJ1
Dr. Vallejo
Native Americans Analytic Essay

Among the many cultures around the world, the Native American community is one of the many minorities who have gone through horrid times and still struggle to preserve their traditions. Their submission to the mainstream Anglo-Americans has led to a lot of issues. These are presented in Blue Winds Dancing by Tom White Cloud, This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona by Sherman J. Alexie, and Black Elk Speaks by Black Elk for comparison. Of all the different narratives, pieces, and poems read about native Americans. These three drew particular attention. The similarities between them share the same issues that many native Americans have gone through since decades. As a minority, there are many issues they have suffered from. As simple as demeaning offenses to even death, both to have their culture live. These three narratives mentioned above bring out particular themes that link them together: exploitation of cultures; confusion with identity; and keeping faith in their beliefs and cultures against all odds.

In the three narratives, the exploitation of cultures is presented in one form or another. Loss and changes in culture are shown in their own ways, but still share the same basic concept of oppression for the Native American culture. In The Black Elk Speaks, in the struggle for the battle of Little Big Horn (1876), many lives were lost due to a fight that started out because of difference of skin, culture, ways and beliefs. The clash of military customs versus native culture put the tribes involved in the fight up to a great disadvantage of losses. Quoting Black Elk on The Black Elk Speaks: "A people's dream died there". As a result to this the tribes had to adjust their way of life in order to survive and retain their customs. Eventually, as also history itself

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    As we learned in class, the Pueblo Indians is a specific group of Native Americans found in central New Mexico to northeastern Arizona. The Laguna Pueblo Reservation in found between Albuquerque and Los Alamos, New Mexico. The conflicts between the Pueblos and the whites began in the sixteenth century, when the Spanish decided to settle within the area of the Pueblos. After the Mexican-American war, the United States took control of the area surrounding the reservation. From there, the United States government implemented a “Reservation system, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and government-run schools for Native Americans.” (Native Americans of Southwest: 1). The use of storytelling is used in traditional Native American culture and is portrayed throughout the novel. The author uses the main character, Tayo, to intertwine the stories told by Native Americans into the life that in portrayed in the novel. Ceremony was created to help spread the word about the importance of preserving the Native American culture, and creating an awareness of the cultural hybridity between the Native American traditions and the whites.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The expansion into the new world was an almost instantaneous ordeal. The Spanish and Portuguese delved into Southern and South America, and western North America, while the British explored the east coast of North America. In different regions, people are different; different cultures, tastes, beliefs, etc. With each conquering people, cultures, tastes, and beliefs all differ as well. It is the clash of these two civilizations that bring about responses, and they’re different every time. In the case with the Spanish, the strove to conquer, imposed their own culture on the conquered as shown by Cortés and his hostile takeover of the Aztecs, and extensive merging; while at first the British, to varying degrees of success, attempted to merge with the resident cultures, as shown by the Indian children carrying European dolls.…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Native Americans have always received the short end of the stick in history, when the colonialist came to what is now known as America, the people of the land where shown in a different light. They became the stories of terror and fear for the colonist to be afraid of, however this was not done in one night know this spans over a time of great explores and those who became American literalness, those who detailed history in documents and trades. Using works from John smith and William Bradford in their tales and encounters with Indians, the light and representation of the natives might become clear. Both authors had completely different experiences during their times in the new-found land.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The quality of life on some reservations can be comparable to that of life in countries like Mexico with issues of poverty and alcohol and drug abuse. Starting at a very young age Alexie had overcome many obstacles as does his characters in his stories. In the short story, “This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” the author Sherman Alexie shows the struggles of Native Americans in a white man’s world. To help us better understand these struggles, this paper will analyze the characters, theme and setting of this story.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hurt, shame, humiliation, and pain. The struggle for Indigenous people is a continuous cycle of abuse and one of broken hopes and dreams. In Deborah Miranda’s tribal memoir, Bad Indians, she uses her narrative along with primary sources and related stories to reassess previous knowledge about how the lives of American Indians were affected by colonialism. Through the use of tone, point of view, and counter discourse, Miranda sheds light on how the gender-based violence and sexual abuse that accompanies colonialism, despite the notion that settlers were following Christian ideals, shaped a new Indigenous society that tore their culture apart and led to a mosaic of their broken identities. By creating a distinction between historically dominant…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the story “An Indian Father’s Plea”, the story shows how culture is oftenly affecting how one views others and the world by showing what Wind-Wolf did as a child before he went to school. For example, throughout the story, the father of Wind-Wolf shares to his teacher what Wind-Wolf was exposed to as a child, “. Because of this, Wind-Wolf’s educational setting was not only a “secure” environment, but it was also very colorful, complicated, sensitive, and diverse.” This can show that the child is exposed to his Native-American culture and later in the story, the father talks what the child does spiritually with his mother and what he experienced in his tribe. “Wind-Wolf was with his mother in South Dakota while she danced for seven days straight…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Spirits For Sale

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The rituals were reviewed as an important significance in facilitating interactions with the sacred. In other words, it can mean communing with deities, and honoring ancestors. This underscores the connection of Native American’s relationship with their spirits and ancestors. However, the Native Americans are having to fight a major battle in maintaining tradition yet allowing for the influence of contemporary values they face every day. It proves to be challenging because the beliefs that make contemporary society are drastically different from their traditional customs. In addition, being a Native American had a stereotype associated to being drug addicts and alcoholics. This meant no jobs, and no housing. Due to the lack of respect for the way these people pray, and live to understand their relationship of the world around them the biggest problem, Annika explains, for the Native American people today is invisibility. She explains throughout the film how the American people forgot about the natives, where they made treaties with them and yet failed to uphold their part of the treaty, by stealing lands. One of the many ways these Native Americans have been countering these issues have been where one out of four tribes in the US have casinos and use that money to fund education, housing and have control over their own finances and resources. This creates freedom for the community while at the same time holding on to their identity. Vic Camp, one of several interviewees of the film beautifully summarizes the reflection of the Native American’s struggles by stating, “[w]e live in America, but we are not Americans. But we are the first nation here, protectors of this land. So we are going to be here on the July 4th to celebrate our independence…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kiowa Culture

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages

    ne of the common features found in the literature about Native American folklores is that it exhibits a big and rapid influence by the dominant culture which results in the discontinuity between old and new, mostly the latter selected over the former. This book’s chapters except for the prologue and epilogue each chapter is consisted of three voices: folktale narrative, historical, and modern personal feelings. The author seems to model via this format how in Kiowa people’s conscience the time and space work and how they view the discord between the enriched past and nihilistic present for them, as seen in the different tones. This book explains how the mixing of culture during their history has molded Kiowa’s contrasting views towards the…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Native Americans were the first people to have arrived in America, and to have built an establishment in America. Many people have a stereotype on how they lived and still live currently, and many Native Americans don’t consent to that at all. The way many people believe that the Native Americans lived a nomadic type of lifestyle, such as hunting large animals for food, using animal parts to create clothing, and many other actions. This article that the author has wrote is very convincing on how a Native American feels about how people are stereotyping him and his type of people. It gives a perspective from a Native American’s point of view of what they deal with on a daily basis, and throughout their entire life. The main reason that is convincing…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story is the most powerful tool in Native American culture passed down through generations. Stories connect them to the past, the present and their surroundings. However the world is always changing, and because of this, some Native Americans have lost their connection to their culture. In Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, Tayo is going through this loss, along with many other characters in the novel, and has to use the stories to reconnect with his culture and help others do the same. Leslie Marmon Silko’s characters, structure, and symbols develop the argument that remembering Native American cultural and spiritual roots in the modern world is essential for their culture to survive and for them to achieve inner peace.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States has definitely succeeded in tarnishing and corrupting the Native American culture, as evident in Sherman Alexie’s poem, “How to Write the Great American Indian Novel”. One researcher records that, “The poem is a painful reminder of how the United States has at one and the same time decimated native peoples and their culture while exploiting those people and that culture for its own gain.” I most definitely agree with this statement. Alexie’s poem, “How to Write the Great American Indian Novel” demonstrates the degradation and abuse of his culture and people through stereotyping.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Black Americans, segregation, and slavery. Most of the people who have studied American history recognize the inhumane actions towards people of color during the 1960’s and 1980’s. Yet, people often are not aware of the similar acts perpetrated on the Native Americans during the same period of time. The Native Americans had to suffer their past of external shame imposed on their culture and tradition by the White American society, followed by a coercion of White American culture due to the government proposal of the “Indian problem.” Nevertheless, the Native Americans maintained their pride in their identity and culture internally, within their tribes, and carried out such acts as Ghost Dance, valuing their own tradition. While it may seem paradoxical, both shame and pride of culture and identity simultaneously resonate in Native Americans today as a means of letting go of the unpleasant past and moving on to the future with a new hope.…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cherokee Voices first talks about the relationship between the Cherokees’ and the Anglo-Americans and how they did not get along. White men would constantly attack the Cherokees’ for their land, since they established in a foreign land that belonged to the…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Since the arrival of the Europeans in 1492 the Native American has systematically been dehumanized, decivilized and redefined into terms that typify a subordinate or minority role, restricted life opportunities persist today as a result.…

    • 3494 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thesis: Modern Native American traditions reflect the history of struggle, strife and triumph they experienced in history.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays