Night Flying Woman

The stories in Night Flying Woman put a face on the Ojibway story and made it more personal for me as a reader. This book showed the struggles of Native Americans and the manners of the Europeans in a harsher light than most other tales of Native Americans that I have read. I was already aware of most of the atrocities committed by the Europeans but this book made it more personal for me to see who was affected by the Europeans actions. Most books that I have seen through my childhood and young adulthood do not portray Europeans as people who forced the Native Americans to change their traditions and lifestyles that they had lived with for hundreds of years. For adults and older students the narrative seems to be more truthful on the relations
between Native Americans and Europeans, but textbooks and literature still seem to glorify the Europeans and the horrific acts they committed. Night Flying Woman put perspective on the history of Native Americans and Europeans because it is the story of real people and their experiences which I had not been exposed to before. Instead i had only read realistic fiction stories and textbook accounts that were tailored to show a different side of the Europeans. The Native American perspective made me think of the history of Minnesota and what the places I frequent in Minnesota were like hundreds of years ago before European settlers came and striped the Native Americans of their land. Places that I love and think are beautiful in Minnesota, Native Americans might of cherished, but these places were taken away from them for my people's benefit and greed. It also makes me reconsider the the history you are told in elementary school of this state and what a wonderful place it is to live and the nobel founders. For example, I learned last year that Fort Snelling, a place I had gone on many field trips to and attended summer camps at was a concentration camp for Native Americans. From what I recall this was hardly mentioned on tours and instead I was told about the friendship between Native Americans and Europeans and their great trade relations. Minnesota is a state with lots of history that is mainly told in a positive light when truthfully there are dark parts and things that must be acknowledged so it can be the best state possible. After reading Night Flying Woman I realized that Minnesota is a place that I love but I need to be aware of the gruesome past and the harm the Europeans caused.