One Take-Away From Native American Perspectives
One take-away from Native American Perspectives that helped me understand Native American history more was the idea of regimes of truth from French philosopher Michel Foucault. This idea was vital in understanding Native American and settler colonial relations. Foucault said, “Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by a virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it induces regular effects of power. Each society has its regime of truth, its “general politics” of truth: that is, the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true; the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true and false statements, the means by which each is sanctioned; the techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition
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of truth; the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true” (Foucault & Rabinow 73). Foucault states that truth is an ideology that depends on variables in a society. People decide what is true and thus truth is in constant flux. Societies are functions that are based off their accepted truths. Understanding that truth is not a concrete concept, yet an idea that varies depending on the society is useful when studying Native American history. This is because the idea of regimes of truth is applicable to the colonial culture that came to North America in 1492. In Momaday’s book, The Man Made of Words- Essats, Stories, Passages, he describes an incident in which the Pequods, a branch of the Algonquian, were massacred by Puritans, “In just more than an hour, some six hundred Indians were shot or burned to death. The English lost two men in the encounter… The devastation of the Pequods was a triumph of the Puritan spirit. There was a celebration in the New England towns, and the Reverend Cotton Mather called upon his congregation to thank God that ‘on this day we have sent six hundred heathen souls to hell’ (Momaday, 61). This massacre seems like a gruesome, and senseless act of violence. It is an unjustifiable act yet, recognizing Foucault’s idea of regimes of truth, it is understandable. The Puritans lived in a society where their regime of truth revolved around Christianity. Their ontology was centered around their religion- a religion that the Pequods did not follow. Anyone that did not follow the “truth” of Christianity was deemed evil by the Puritans. Reverend Mather saw the massacre as an act that would please his God. He warped the killings into something moral. Additionally, this was not an isolated incident of colonizers regimes of truth encouraging the massacre of Indians. Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian- A Curious Account of Native People in North America, lists other massacres, “In 1598, in what is now New Mexico, Juan de Onate and his troops killed over eight hundred Acoma and cut off the left foot of every man over the age of twenty-five…In 1871, around one hundred and forty Pinal and Aravaipa Apaches were killed in the Camp Grant massacre in Arizona Territory. Two hundred and fifty Northwestern Shoshoni were killed in the 1863 Bear River massacre…” (King 5). All of these massacres were committed by people who thought they were doing the right thing- murder was twisted by their regime of truth.
The genocide and assimilation that was inflicted by European colonizers to the autochthonous people of North America occurred because of the regimes of truth that the colonizers and their societies lived by. These regimes of truth clashed with those of the indigenous people. As N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa writer, said, “The relationship between the white man and the red was doomed from the outset by a conflict of attitudes and a disposition of intolerance” (Momaday 60). Part of the colonizers regimes of truth included intolerance for anyone who lived under a different regime of truth than that of their own. Indian people and European colonizers maintained different regimes of truth as they lived in very different societies. Momaday said, “The Indian and white man perceive the world in different ways. I take it that this is an obvious fact and a forgone conclusion” (Momaday 50). Eventually colonizers’ regimes of truth that once stimulated indigenous massacres evolved into regimes of truth that encouraged the massacre of indigeneity. This new massacre did not take blood but rather culture. The weapons were not guns but tools of assimilation like residential schools and the Dawes Allotment Act.
Second Take-Away:
Another take-away from class was place names, which helped me better understand Native American culture.
Place names are names that provide an abundant amount of detail about the location. Many indigenous languages have place names. As a Diné person I speak some of our language, yet I never recognized place names or their importance before. Clara Kidwell explains in her book Native American Studies, that place names “… express a sense of place- within, above, beside, and so on- by suffixes to or elements after nouns. They are often highly polysynthetic, that is, they combine elements into single complex words rather than using a number of discrete words…” (Kidwell & Velie 87). These places names describe a location’s appearance, an historical event that took place, or a religious sentiment. Additionally, some place names are viewed as especially sacred since the names were created by ancestors who long preceded the current …show more content…
speaker.
Cultural and linguistic anthropologist Keith Basso wrote, Wisdom Sits in Places- Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache, which fully explores place names in Native communities.
Basso is not Native himself, but he was emerged in Western Apache culture on the reservation and studied the language. Basso was challenged in his quest to understand and correctly pronounce the Western Apache language. In one instance, Basso gave up in pronouncing a place name in Western Apache and an elder scolded him. The elder’s response demonstrated the importance of place names in indigenous cultures. He said “Why is he in a hurry? It’s disrespectful. Our ancestors made this name. They made it just as it is. They made it for a reason. They spoke it first, a long time ago! He’s repeating the speech of ancestors” (Basso 10). Similarly to myself, Basso was struck in the realization of the sacredness of a place name. After reflection Basso said, “And never had I expected that using Apache place-names might be heard by those who use them as repeating verbatim- actually quoting- the speech of their early ancestors” (Basso 10). After better understanding the idea of a place name he could recognize them on a regular basis. Place names described stunning landscapes as well as historic sites and were often accompanied by stories or songs. Some place names he encountered included Sáan Łeezhiteezhé or Two Old Women Are Buried (a hill), Tú ‘Ahiyi’ee Nziné or They Are Greteful For Water (a small
flat close to an arroyo), and Kolah Dahch’ewoolé or She Carries Her Brother On her Back; a steep slope (Basso 29). If the place names are forgotten then so are the knowledge that they hold.
Place names are full of knowledge from their ancestors and if Native people stop speaking their languages than this knowledge will be lost. Yet indigenous communities are resilient and can recover from these language loses, as exemplified in the documentary We Are Still Here, that was played in class. I was always aware that learning Native languages was important, but there is a deeper level to language -like place names- that I learned about through the class literature. In this deeper level, Native languages and words contain irreplaceable, sacred, and ancestral knowledge in language.
Place names are valuable not only because they hold information about places and tie back to Native ancestors but also because intertwine place, people, and language. One of the core principles of indigeneity is the sacred relationship to the land. Language- which manifests into place names, oral tradition, and songs- is a mechanism that connects Native people to their land. These mechanisms aid Native people in understanding their history and identity. Basso said, “The people’s sense of place, their sense of their tribal past, and their vibrant sense of themselves are inseparably intertwined. Their identity has persisted. Their ancestors saw to this, and in the country of the past, where the ancestors come alive in resonating place- worlds, they do so still today. Their voices are strong and firm- and sometimes it is unclear who is quoting whom” (Basso 35). Understanding the interconnectedness of place names is valuable tool in better understanding Native American culture.
Summary:
Native American Perspectives had a wide arrange or literature and discussion that expanded my understanding of Native American history and culture. The perspectives in the literature from both indigenous and non-indigenous authors melded the history of the Native people and settler colonizers. Foucault, a French philosopher, with his idea of regimes of truth helped me better understand the reasoning behind settler colonizers massacres of indigenous people as described by King. Additionally, Kidwell as well as Velie, and especially Basso introduced me to place names which is a tool that intertwines indigenous culture, history, and language to traditional lands. These philosophic tools bettered my understanding of the history and culture of America’s indigenous people.
of truth; the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true” (Foucault & Rabinow 73). Foucault states that truth is an ideology that depends on variables in a society. People decide what is true and thus truth is in constant flux. Societies are functions that are based off their accepted truths. Understanding that truth is not a concrete concept, yet an idea that varies depending on the society is useful when studying Native American history. This is because the idea of regimes of truth is applicable to the colonial culture that came to North America in 1492. In Momaday’s book, The Man Made of Words- Essats, Stories, Passages, he describes an incident in which the Pequods, a branch of the Algonquian, were massacred by Puritans, “In just more than an hour, some six hundred Indians were shot or burned to death. The English lost two men in the encounter… The devastation of the Pequods was a triumph of the Puritan spirit. There was a celebration in the New England towns, and the Reverend Cotton Mather called upon his congregation to thank God that ‘on this day we have sent six hundred heathen souls to hell’ (Momaday, 61). This massacre seems like a gruesome, and senseless act of violence. It is an unjustifiable act yet, recognizing Foucault’s idea of regimes of truth, it is understandable. The Puritans lived in a society where their regime of truth revolved around Christianity. Their ontology was centered around their religion- a religion that the Pequods did not follow. Anyone that did not follow the “truth” of Christianity was deemed evil by the Puritans. Reverend Mather saw the massacre as an act that would please his God. He warped the killings into something moral. Additionally, this was not an isolated incident of colonizers regimes of truth encouraging the massacre of Indians. Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian- A Curious Account of Native People in North America, lists other massacres, “In 1598, in what is now New Mexico, Juan de Onate and his troops killed over eight hundred Acoma and cut off the left foot of every man over the age of twenty-five…In 1871, around one hundred and forty Pinal and Aravaipa Apaches were killed in the Camp Grant massacre in Arizona Territory. Two hundred and fifty Northwestern Shoshoni were killed in the 1863 Bear River massacre…” (King 5). All of these massacres were committed by people who thought they were doing the right thing- murder was twisted by their regime of truth.
The genocide and assimilation that was inflicted by European colonizers to the autochthonous people of North America occurred because of the regimes of truth that the colonizers and their societies lived by. These regimes of truth clashed with those of the indigenous people. As N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa writer, said, “The relationship between the white man and the red was doomed from the outset by a conflict of attitudes and a disposition of intolerance” (Momaday 60). Part of the colonizers regimes of truth included intolerance for anyone who lived under a different regime of truth than that of their own. Indian people and European colonizers maintained different regimes of truth as they lived in very different societies. Momaday said, “The Indian and white man perceive the world in different ways. I take it that this is an obvious fact and a forgone conclusion” (Momaday 50). Eventually colonizers’ regimes of truth that once stimulated indigenous massacres evolved into regimes of truth that encouraged the massacre of indigeneity. This new massacre did not take blood but rather culture. The weapons were not guns but tools of assimilation like residential schools and the Dawes Allotment Act.
Second Take-Away:
Another take-away from class was place names, which helped me better understand Native American culture.
Place names are names that provide an abundant amount of detail about the location. Many indigenous languages have place names. As a Diné person I speak some of our language, yet I never recognized place names or their importance before. Clara Kidwell explains in her book Native American Studies, that place names “… express a sense of place- within, above, beside, and so on- by suffixes to or elements after nouns. They are often highly polysynthetic, that is, they combine elements into single complex words rather than using a number of discrete words…” (Kidwell & Velie 87). These places names describe a location’s appearance, an historical event that took place, or a religious sentiment. Additionally, some place names are viewed as especially sacred since the names were created by ancestors who long preceded the current …show more content…
speaker.
Cultural and linguistic anthropologist Keith Basso wrote, Wisdom Sits in Places- Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache, which fully explores place names in Native communities.
Basso is not Native himself, but he was emerged in Western Apache culture on the reservation and studied the language. Basso was challenged in his quest to understand and correctly pronounce the Western Apache language. In one instance, Basso gave up in pronouncing a place name in Western Apache and an elder scolded him. The elder’s response demonstrated the importance of place names in indigenous cultures. He said “Why is he in a hurry? It’s disrespectful. Our ancestors made this name. They made it just as it is. They made it for a reason. They spoke it first, a long time ago! He’s repeating the speech of ancestors” (Basso 10). Similarly to myself, Basso was struck in the realization of the sacredness of a place name. After reflection Basso said, “And never had I expected that using Apache place-names might be heard by those who use them as repeating verbatim- actually quoting- the speech of their early ancestors” (Basso 10). After better understanding the idea of a place name he could recognize them on a regular basis. Place names described stunning landscapes as well as historic sites and were often accompanied by stories or songs. Some place names he encountered included Sáan Łeezhiteezhé or Two Old Women Are Buried (a hill), Tú ‘Ahiyi’ee Nziné or They Are Greteful For Water (a small
flat close to an arroyo), and Kolah Dahch’ewoolé or She Carries Her Brother On her Back; a steep slope (Basso 29). If the place names are forgotten then so are the knowledge that they hold.
Place names are full of knowledge from their ancestors and if Native people stop speaking their languages than this knowledge will be lost. Yet indigenous communities are resilient and can recover from these language loses, as exemplified in the documentary We Are Still Here, that was played in class. I was always aware that learning Native languages was important, but there is a deeper level to language -like place names- that I learned about through the class literature. In this deeper level, Native languages and words contain irreplaceable, sacred, and ancestral knowledge in language.
Place names are valuable not only because they hold information about places and tie back to Native ancestors but also because intertwine place, people, and language. One of the core principles of indigeneity is the sacred relationship to the land. Language- which manifests into place names, oral tradition, and songs- is a mechanism that connects Native people to their land. These mechanisms aid Native people in understanding their history and identity. Basso said, “The people’s sense of place, their sense of their tribal past, and their vibrant sense of themselves are inseparably intertwined. Their identity has persisted. Their ancestors saw to this, and in the country of the past, where the ancestors come alive in resonating place- worlds, they do so still today. Their voices are strong and firm- and sometimes it is unclear who is quoting whom” (Basso 35). Understanding the interconnectedness of place names is valuable tool in better understanding Native American culture.
Summary:
Native American Perspectives had a wide arrange or literature and discussion that expanded my understanding of Native American history and culture. The perspectives in the literature from both indigenous and non-indigenous authors melded the history of the Native people and settler colonizers. Foucault, a French philosopher, with his idea of regimes of truth helped me better understand the reasoning behind settler colonizers massacres of indigenous people as described by King. Additionally, Kidwell as well as Velie, and especially Basso introduced me to place names which is a tool that intertwines indigenous culture, history, and language to traditional lands. These philosophic tools bettered my understanding of the history and culture of America’s indigenous people.