It is important for children to make their own decisions on how they look at the world. But it is up to the parent to influence their child on how the outlook is. Children get most of their perception of culture from their parents. Three ideas that play a major role on a child’s perspective on culture are: social interactions between parent and child, the passing down of heirlooms, and emotional connections. These concepts are seen in the poems Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde and My Mother Pieced Quilts by Teresa Palomo Acosta.…
The book is chock-full of mentors and teachers, from both sides, who help give insights on situations that are too complex to understand in itself. These mentors, the elders, are a precious and powerful thing; that despite the death of an elder their teachings can still be passed down orally as is the tradition of native storytelling.…
Author Conrad Richter once said, “A man needs obstacles and hardships to make him physically, emotionally, and intellectually strong.” True Son, a white boy captured and raised by indians from a young age, faces many hardships and obstacles that end up teaching him valuable lessons in The Light in the Forest penned by Conrad Richter. Three specific hardships True Son faced in the novel greatly affected him: being taken away from his Indian family and being forced to go back to the whites; being offended and ridiculed by his white relatives; and being banished from both his families and cultures at the novel’s conclusion.…
As it was revealed throughout the essay how the Indian youth were being treated in order to refine their own culture and turn it into American. As such, it said that “upon graduation, Indian children were encouraged to either return home to the reservation where they were to lead their people into a more civilized life, or find menial employment in white society”, however many of them weren’t even permitted into coming back home. But there were always some that could combine both worlds “Some boarding school graduates … were able to combine the best of both Western and traditional education systems in a way that allowed them to adapt to both worlds” to emphasize that yes the Indian School did work for some Indians and it went very well for them. This is historically significant because by having created Phoenix Indian School it allowed opportunities to all Indian children from all throughout United States, but mostly from Arizona to help Indian children learning academics and simple…
In Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, is a tale of a young Native American boy who has a struggle with poverty, a need for support in his decision making, and a show of courage when times seem hopeless. Junior is not a typical Native American boy. He wants to succeed in life and the only way to do that is leave the reservation for better schooling. The story takes place in times of great despair as well as happiness. On every reservation there is poverty. On every reservation there is alcohol abuse. On every reservation there is domestic abuse resulting from alcohol abuse. Every day there are victims on the reservations around the world, and this story is a sneak peek into one young boy’s life.…
Teenagers must come to terms with reality at sometime throughout their existence. They arrive at a point where their perception of the world is at once shaken and shattered. In the novel, The Light in the Forest, the story of a fifteen year-old boy's struggle to face his reality is revealed. This character, True Son, who is captured and raised by Indians at age four, believes his Indian lifestyle is perfect and flawless compared to the despicable practices of the white man. After he is forcibly returned to his white family, he finds himself suffering through the state of confusion at being referred as an uncivilized heathen when he knows that they thought nothing about killing innocent childrensomething an Indian would never intend on doing. He believes his white family's reports about the scalping of white children are lies designed to betray his peers. Eventually, True Son faces the crucial truth that his Indian people are no more perfect than the white people when he discovers that one of his own family members has scalped a young white child. This and several other stereotypes concerning the two cultures is a main focus of the novel. Thus, this paper will compare and evaluate the opinions of two critics regarding the major theme of Conrad Richter's The Light in the Forest.…
He lives in constant fear of being physically assaulted, “ Sure I want to go outside. Every kid wants to go outside. But it is safer for me to stay home. So I mostly hang out alone in my bedroom, read books and draw cartoons”. ( p. 8) While Junior does have one friend on the Reservation, and a family that loves him, he feels trapped by the social climate in which he lives. Junior is not the only person on the Reservation facing violence…… it is pervasive, he has been to 42 funerals, engaged in over 100 fights, and he is only 14 years old. His outlook is bleak, but he has his art as a coping mechanism, “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats. (p. 11). The honest depiction of life on the Reservation may be the first exposure young readers have to the living conditions young Native Americans are faced with. Furthermore, most young adults have not been in 100+ fights, but they can recall that one altercation or moment of bullying that has a lasting impression on their…
For his father, he took it a little harder than his son did, academically, because of the teacher’s lack of understanding of their culture’s way of teaching the children. But socially, the son, Wind-Wolf, took the criticism of his peers and his friend’s mother hard, because he was afraid to live his life according to his culture, publicly and privately, in which he’s altering his culture and what he does according to the judgement being passed and the “American beliefs.” His father states that,”He is not culturally disadvantaged, but he is culturally “different”(Lake 76). Being picked on at this of an age by other children, and even adults, it’s bound to tear him down, and that is very discouraging, fortunately for others, they aren’t phased by judgement. On the contrary, we come across a girl who was also exposed to harsh…
In the novel, we get into the life of a fourteen-year-old Native American named Arnold Spirit, also called Junior. He lives with his alcoholic mother and father and a depressed sister on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Willpinit. Junior is, besides being a teenager struggling with the usual teenage-problems, a hydrocephalic. This makes him stutter and lisp and regularly get seizures, something that makes him the outcast of the reservation. He gets picked on and beaten up on daily basis. This, although, does not stop him from being a funny, sensitive and utterly brave kid.…
In David Cusick’s “The Iroquois Creation Story”, the story itself shows how native oral stories lack the excitement when on paper as they would being told or performed: “the bad mind became so unmanly that he could not conduct his brother any more”…
In the heat of the deserts of New Mexico, the Indians value spirituality and religion, truth and sacrifice, love, marriage, and family. The Indians hold ceremonies of sacrifice to the eagle, a symbol of freedom, and to Jesus. In addition to being viviparous, they practice monogamy and frown upon infidelity, exhibiting a high respect to life, love, and marriage. Aging is prevalent in many of the reservation’s inhabitants which appalls the “civilized.” While this world is seen as harsh and uncivilized to those in the World State, it is clear that Huxley attacks the fact the “Happiness is never grand (Huxley, 221).” One needs the hardships to see the beauty in overcoming obstacles and reaching success. Misfortunes are needed to see the glamour of true contentment. It is the imperfections that reveal perfection. The emotion, feeling, and truth, as found in the Savage Reservation characterize the venture towards true happiness within a society, the true happiness which the World State fails to…
For Pueblo people story telling was the verbal chronicle of their existence, some stories were so sophisticated and detailed they could be used as map to trace up the herds of bulls or places to graze for sheep. And yet stories were so intertwined and layered that it could also contain the story of one's grandparents death or their own birth. It is note worthy that Silko named this part of her essay "Through Stories We Hear Who We Are" and indeed in stories we revel with our ancestors we understand their values, their priorities, their challenges and struggles, we relate to them so much more and it does clear up for us where we are coming from and maybe even "Quo Vadis"…
The focus of the short story “Dancer” by Vickie Sears is the positive progression of the main character, Clarissa, a foster child who gains a sense of her cultural identity as a Native. In the beginning of the story, she is introduced as a child with next to nothing and is portrayed to have psychopathic traits. Towards the end of the story, there are positive changes in her character. The main factor that led to Clarissa’s progression was her developing a strong interest in the powwow that led her to gain a sense of being a part of a family, knowledge about the community, and a better understanding of her history and culture.…
Native American education delineated social responsibility, skill orientation, political participation, and spiritual and moral values. The cardinal goals of Native American education were to develop the individual’s latent physical skills and character, inculcate respect for elders and those in authority in the individual, and help the individual acquire specific vocational training (Franklin, 1979). Native American education was also for developing a healthy attitude toward honest labor, developing a sense of belonging and encouraging active participation in community activities. Both boys and girls had equal access to education. Boys were taught by their fathers, uncles, grandfathers, and other male elders. Girls were instructed by their mothers, aunts, grandmothers, female elders and other members of their families. Sometimes, both boys and girls received instruction at the feet of either male or female elders (Mould, 2004). There were barely any dropouts and the community ensured that every child received a full education.…
Introduction: As most of us know, Native American’s have a rich history of struggle and also triumph. Many modern Native American traditions reflect the story and struggle Native American’s experienced. These stories are filled with tradition closely tied to Mother Nature. I’m sure many of you have seen Native American art and objects, such as teepees, totem poles, and moccasins. These are articles that tied together Native American life. I’m going to share with you the meaning behind these symbols and traditions, and how they affect modern…