Semester Two: Book Club
Reflection:
The Honors book club took part during the second semester of the year. The book club consisted of reading Their Eyes Were watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey and Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. After reading each book we got the opportunity to reflect on it ourselves as well as prepare for discussing our thoughts with our peers through a seminar prep. In the seminar prep we were able to formulate our own questions to ask the group in seminar as well as formulate our answers to them. After reading each Seminar we wrote a seminar reflection that reflected on the content discussed the seminar as well as our takeaways from it. In each seminar reflection we were encouraged to reflect on the things that our peers said. I appreciated this part of reflection because it is easy to write about your own ideas but genuinely listening and thinking about what other people say later on is a whole different skill entirely.
After reading Their Eyes Were Watching God I missed a seminar and wrote a literary analysis instead of a seminar reflection. I enjoyed this experience because I got to look into the history of Zora Neale Hurston as well as multiple opinions of her. From this process and discussions with my mom and experienced profound learnings about racism, empowerment and Zora Neale Hurston’s visionary bravery. I learned the most from this book for multiple readings. One of the very enjoyable and educational experiences for me surrounding this book was that i listened to it on audio. Doing this enabled me to appreciate the beauty of Hurston’s prose and Folk Dialect without trying to struggle through worrying about reading it right. My mind was then able to explore thoughts and pictures in depth that Hurston conjured up for me. I really enjoyed reading what Richard Wright and Alice Walker had to say about Hurston so that i could talk to my mom and understand some deeper things about racism.
I loved this portion of honors humanities because I think that one of the best ways to understand as well as simultaneously create the human experience is through deep engagement with literature. I loved being able to work on all the things in class at a faster pace while having big slow concepts mulling over in my mind from the books that we read. It was certainly difficult at times for me to read quick enough to finish the book in time but over all I appreciated the pace because I often start books and don’t finish them because I am so preoccupied with other things. One of the things that I loved about the book club experience was the discussions. It is one thing to read literature, it is another thing to discuss it in depth with your peers. Every time that I have the opportunity to hear my peers talk in seminar I appreciate more and more that we learn in the collective way we do.
The Honors book club took part during the second semester of the year. The book club consisted of reading Their Eyes Were watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey and Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. After reading each book we got the opportunity to reflect on it ourselves as well as prepare for discussing our thoughts with our peers through a seminar prep. In the seminar prep we were able to formulate our own questions to ask the group in seminar as well as formulate our answers to them. After reading each Seminar we wrote a seminar reflection that reflected on the content discussed the seminar as well as our takeaways from it. In each seminar reflection we were encouraged to reflect on the things that our peers said. I appreciated this part of reflection because it is easy to write about your own ideas but genuinely listening and thinking about what other people say later on is a whole different skill entirely.
After reading Their Eyes Were Watching God I missed a seminar and wrote a literary analysis instead of a seminar reflection. I enjoyed this experience because I got to look into the history of Zora Neale Hurston as well as multiple opinions of her. From this process and discussions with my mom and experienced profound learnings about racism, empowerment and Zora Neale Hurston’s visionary bravery. I learned the most from this book for multiple readings. One of the very enjoyable and educational experiences for me surrounding this book was that i listened to it on audio. Doing this enabled me to appreciate the beauty of Hurston’s prose and Folk Dialect without trying to struggle through worrying about reading it right. My mind was then able to explore thoughts and pictures in depth that Hurston conjured up for me. I really enjoyed reading what Richard Wright and Alice Walker had to say about Hurston so that i could talk to my mom and understand some deeper things about racism.
I loved this portion of honors humanities because I think that one of the best ways to understand as well as simultaneously create the human experience is through deep engagement with literature. I loved being able to work on all the things in class at a faster pace while having big slow concepts mulling over in my mind from the books that we read. It was certainly difficult at times for me to read quick enough to finish the book in time but over all I appreciated the pace because I often start books and don’t finish them because I am so preoccupied with other things. One of the things that I loved about the book club experience was the discussions. It is one thing to read literature, it is another thing to discuss it in depth with your peers. Every time that I have the opportunity to hear my peers talk in seminar I appreciate more and more that we learn in the collective way we do.
Hurston’s Pioneering Bravery:A Literary Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston is a pioneer novel in regards to the voice that it lends to the complexity of human rights issues. In their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston writes with the intention of portraying an African American woman's journey to empowerment through the layers of oppression she is handed. Her novel is pioneer and brave because she tells a story that does not have the main goal of validating black culture as “good” before a white audience. Rather Hurston uses daggers of honesty, folk lore, beauty and mockery to carve a story of human flesh and emotion. Essentially, Hurston’s Their eyes were Watching God, is brave because it seeks to empower African American women and all women during the 1930’s in the context of the Harlem Renaissance. A time when women were not the focus of empowerment; because of this Hurston’s Novel was met with opposition from contemporaries such as Richard wright. At the core, her work was too progressive because its result does not necessarily validate black culture as “good” before a white audience, instead it takes the freedom of making some black characters unapealing or even over dramatized, knowing that it may appeal to white readers, but would ultimately hold the space for her to tell her individual story of Janie and the struggles of women meeting their horizons.
When analyzing Richard Wright's criticism of Their Eyes were Watching God, we see how Zora Neale Hurston’s work evokes conversations around the complexity of the system of racism as well as the traps that it causes for humanity. The oversimplification that Wright identifies as harmful by perpetuating stereotypes in Hurston’s novel, is a genuine issue in the reality of our racist society. However, the issue lies not in Hurston and her creative expression, but rather in the interpretive white lense consuming her work. An overbearing culture of racism has the ability to take the true empowering insights of Their Eyes Were Watching God and transform them into mocking dehumanizing images. Everything that Wright is concerned about in Hurston’s representation of Black people is quite legitimate. In his criticism he shares, “Her characters eat and laugh and cry and work and kill; they swing like a pendulum eternally in that safe and narrow orbit in which America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears.” (Wright “Between Laughter and Tears”).
The tragedy and subtlety of racism is that Hurston is trapped as a writer by the responsibility to make sure that the image of her “race” is protected and intact from a portrayal that will keep African Americans in this orbit. An orbit that people have to fight tooth and nail to get out from under. Here oppression is inflicted upon Hurston. In the eyes of society she is no longer able to hold her creative voice as an artist but is asked to bear the burden of speaking for her entire race. A theme that appears in her work as African American women are demanded to bear the weight and responsibility of oppression. Although taking a blow, Hurston refused to participate in the game of speaking for her entire race and chose to write a novel in a framework of equality. What I mean by this, is that a white feminist author would not be challenged about how they portrayed white men, whether that portrayal was accurate or dramatized. They would be praised for writing a book about experiences of power and dominance in intimate relationship. Although Zora Neale Hurston did not have this privilege she acted as if she did and so challenged the system of racism. Leaving us to grasp with the idea that our society has created an experience where being seen as human and as an individual are privileges rather than rights.
Another complex human rights issue that Their Eyes Were Watching God Addresses is the pain and the grief that comes from being a scapegoat and a bearer of false identities. Throughout the story the theme of the black women being the mule of the world appears. The mule is symbolic because not only does it represent the work and pain that comes of being at the bottom wrong on the latter of oppression, but it is also trapped because it has no voice to speak out with. The theme of the power of voice to tell truth entwines with that of the mule as Joe Starks describes how,“Someday got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none themselves” (Hurston 71). The idea of being a mule corresponds with power and the freedom that comes from having a voice. When Janie is in Court after killing Tea Cake she has no voice. She is submitted to the voices of others to not only make a verdict on her fate but also a claim on who she is as a person. Here we see that ultimate oppression is when the image of who we are and the power to decide that are taken away from us. However Hurston also reveals to us in the end of the book that although validation in others peoples eyes may never be met; we can fight not to be robbed of validation in the eyes of the god that lies within our soul. Janie does this when she let her pain soak out the window as she invites the reality of her and Tea Cake to live within her.
When Janie draws in her experiences or horizons, she finds a deep fortitude and conviction of knowing herself and knowing truth. This self determination is important so that when the other characters eyes begin to open to truth Jaine is there to help guide them through their oppression and stories. Janie is judged when she dresses in her overalls at Tea Cake's funeral, because she is not living other people's stories of what they want her to be. “She was too busy feeling her grief to dress like grief” (189). Here Hurston leaves us with and honest lesson. She shares, we are the only ones in the end who can decide who we are, what we want to feel, and what we want to wear. Where the complexity lies in humans, is that we are social creatures. It is painful for us to live alone and so we adapt to identities to survive. Yet at a deeper level we need our truth to be validated. Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a pioneer novel in the sense that it walks and talks bravery. It tells truths that are hard to reconcile with. Including the pain of oppression when identity is stolen. It also is written with a bravery that allowed for Hurston’s identity and prowess to be bashed in the name of equality.
Works Cited:
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.
Wright Reviews Hurston." Wright Reviews Hurston. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston is a pioneer novel in regards to the voice that it lends to the complexity of human rights issues. In their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston writes with the intention of portraying an African American woman's journey to empowerment through the layers of oppression she is handed. Her novel is pioneer and brave because she tells a story that does not have the main goal of validating black culture as “good” before a white audience. Rather Hurston uses daggers of honesty, folk lore, beauty and mockery to carve a story of human flesh and emotion. Essentially, Hurston’s Their eyes were Watching God, is brave because it seeks to empower African American women and all women during the 1930’s in the context of the Harlem Renaissance. A time when women were not the focus of empowerment; because of this Hurston’s Novel was met with opposition from contemporaries such as Richard wright. At the core, her work was too progressive because its result does not necessarily validate black culture as “good” before a white audience, instead it takes the freedom of making some black characters unapealing or even over dramatized, knowing that it may appeal to white readers, but would ultimately hold the space for her to tell her individual story of Janie and the struggles of women meeting their horizons.
When analyzing Richard Wright's criticism of Their Eyes were Watching God, we see how Zora Neale Hurston’s work evokes conversations around the complexity of the system of racism as well as the traps that it causes for humanity. The oversimplification that Wright identifies as harmful by perpetuating stereotypes in Hurston’s novel, is a genuine issue in the reality of our racist society. However, the issue lies not in Hurston and her creative expression, but rather in the interpretive white lense consuming her work. An overbearing culture of racism has the ability to take the true empowering insights of Their Eyes Were Watching God and transform them into mocking dehumanizing images. Everything that Wright is concerned about in Hurston’s representation of Black people is quite legitimate. In his criticism he shares, “Her characters eat and laugh and cry and work and kill; they swing like a pendulum eternally in that safe and narrow orbit in which America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears.” (Wright “Between Laughter and Tears”).
The tragedy and subtlety of racism is that Hurston is trapped as a writer by the responsibility to make sure that the image of her “race” is protected and intact from a portrayal that will keep African Americans in this orbit. An orbit that people have to fight tooth and nail to get out from under. Here oppression is inflicted upon Hurston. In the eyes of society she is no longer able to hold her creative voice as an artist but is asked to bear the burden of speaking for her entire race. A theme that appears in her work as African American women are demanded to bear the weight and responsibility of oppression. Although taking a blow, Hurston refused to participate in the game of speaking for her entire race and chose to write a novel in a framework of equality. What I mean by this, is that a white feminist author would not be challenged about how they portrayed white men, whether that portrayal was accurate or dramatized. They would be praised for writing a book about experiences of power and dominance in intimate relationship. Although Zora Neale Hurston did not have this privilege she acted as if she did and so challenged the system of racism. Leaving us to grasp with the idea that our society has created an experience where being seen as human and as an individual are privileges rather than rights.
Another complex human rights issue that Their Eyes Were Watching God Addresses is the pain and the grief that comes from being a scapegoat and a bearer of false identities. Throughout the story the theme of the black women being the mule of the world appears. The mule is symbolic because not only does it represent the work and pain that comes of being at the bottom wrong on the latter of oppression, but it is also trapped because it has no voice to speak out with. The theme of the power of voice to tell truth entwines with that of the mule as Joe Starks describes how,“Someday got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none themselves” (Hurston 71). The idea of being a mule corresponds with power and the freedom that comes from having a voice. When Janie is in Court after killing Tea Cake she has no voice. She is submitted to the voices of others to not only make a verdict on her fate but also a claim on who she is as a person. Here we see that ultimate oppression is when the image of who we are and the power to decide that are taken away from us. However Hurston also reveals to us in the end of the book that although validation in others peoples eyes may never be met; we can fight not to be robbed of validation in the eyes of the god that lies within our soul. Janie does this when she let her pain soak out the window as she invites the reality of her and Tea Cake to live within her.
When Janie draws in her experiences or horizons, she finds a deep fortitude and conviction of knowing herself and knowing truth. This self determination is important so that when the other characters eyes begin to open to truth Jaine is there to help guide them through their oppression and stories. Janie is judged when she dresses in her overalls at Tea Cake's funeral, because she is not living other people's stories of what they want her to be. “She was too busy feeling her grief to dress like grief” (189). Here Hurston leaves us with and honest lesson. She shares, we are the only ones in the end who can decide who we are, what we want to feel, and what we want to wear. Where the complexity lies in humans, is that we are social creatures. It is painful for us to live alone and so we adapt to identities to survive. Yet at a deeper level we need our truth to be validated. Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a pioneer novel in the sense that it walks and talks bravery. It tells truths that are hard to reconcile with. Including the pain of oppression when identity is stolen. It also is written with a bravery that allowed for Hurston’s identity and prowess to be bashed in the name of equality.
Works Cited:
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.
Wright Reviews Hurston." Wright Reviews Hurston. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.
The Condors are Coming
The condors are coming
Sun,
Sweat,
hunger,
heat.
These are the things that are real in this world.
Let men and women and children live in tender connection to them,
Let them die in dignity,
knowing that they have lived.
The condors are coming.
Listen,
you can hear it,
the dams are slowly fracturing on the thud of their mighty wings,
There are the first winds,
harbingers of a mailstrom.
The condors are coming.
the microcosms are moving
“set us free,”
plead the rivers,
“we are thirsting”
yern the people.
The condors are coming
unchain my heart,
unchain my soul
Let me drink of the blood of my ancestors,
so I can hear the laugh of my children.
for the condors are coming.
The condors are coming
Sun,
Sweat,
hunger,
heat.
These are the things that are real in this world.
Let men and women and children live in tender connection to them,
Let them die in dignity,
knowing that they have lived.
The condors are coming.
Listen,
you can hear it,
the dams are slowly fracturing on the thud of their mighty wings,
There are the first winds,
harbingers of a mailstrom.
The condors are coming.
the microcosms are moving
“set us free,”
plead the rivers,
“we are thirsting”
yern the people.
The condors are coming
unchain my heart,
unchain my soul
Let me drink of the blood of my ancestors,
so I can hear the laugh of my children.
for the condors are coming.
Seminar Reflection Monkey Wrench Gang:
I thought that people had a very interesting outlook into the substance of this book. I was inspired by the depth of reflection of my classmates. It was interesting how a lot of us had a visceral or at least a highly opinionated outlook on the characters and there act of monkeywrenching. In particular the discussion about how irresponsible and in a way pointless the mission was that the gang had. This discussion was poignant because it revealed the goal of Abbey in writing this book. By challenging our idea that environmentalism is a simple, hippy, peace loving act Abbey evokes readers to ask themselves hard questions surrounding the actual reality of mans violent relationship with nature. I think that we answered Abbeys call adequately in our seminar and delved deep into a discussion around what is possible in our quest to right the wrongs we see. Points that i thought were wonderful included Hayden's point about how the characters were pitted against something so large that in the end their violent tactics turned selfish. Her comment made me think that Abbey intentionally chose these the lives and traits of the characters to be so messy because he wanted to show us that we are in a messy issue. I think that he chose his characters to be messy to show us that the issue of environmentalism is an issue that includes our hearts not only our minds. In other words what effects the environment affects us. Another reason that I thought people were upset in a sense by the senselessness of the characters was because it brought into question what is effective. If policy is slow and destruction is futile that what will change things. I think that abbey makes us look at this issue as a very dire situation, which to be honest is uncomfortable in its reality.
I think that when everyone of our protagonists in the book except for Hyduke become tame as well as law abiding citizens again, Abbey is painting a metaphor for how people are adapted to the fake unhealthy ways of being but in the core are all dying because of it. Both people in general and the our protagonists change their ways so that they will survive in their changing context, even if that means sacrificing who they are. However when Hyduke and the mysterious horse man appear, beckoning them to realize what is wrong and unnatural about the ways that they are living forced or otherwise our characters and so I believe society will need to question what we are doing together. Here is where I believe a core answer may lie. We need to change things together as a community. For humans cannot do things alone because it means losing our livelihood and communities, however together we can alter the way we live. I believe that this altercation needs crazy visionaries like the monkey wrench gang working on the outside and sly collected collaborators working with people on the inside as well. “God, god, Doc thinks. And then realizes that he is not really surprised, that he has been expecting this apparition for two years” (Abbey 418). When Doc realizes that Hyduke is actually alive he realizes that he is not surprised that he knows that he would need to return in the end. I think that this is a metaphor for humans connection with nature and parts of ourselves. I think that we can pretend that we have died and become separate from nature, but in truth we are still alive and full somewhere.
To elaborate on this I would connect it to the thread that Abbey shows us in this work in regard to what he believes is real in this world. Through what I have read and interpreted I would describe Abbey as someone that believes in raw action. Throughout the Monkey Wrench gang Abbey shows us that people even though we have advanced are creatures of raw merrow, hunger, thirst and freedom. I think that what Abey shows us is that although his characters are crazy they are real. I think that he shows that their behaviors are natural because they speak so loudly against what is unnatural. In this following expert I think that the relationship between hyduke and bonnie portray Abbey’s commentary true human nature VS. our constructs. “‘well...shit. You're Doc’s woman.” “Like hell I am. I’m my own women” (Abbey 183.) I think that this quote beautifully shows us how the interaction of our crazy characters allows for fundamental societal norms to be shattered by the wanderlust of being truly free. Bonnie Hyduke and Doc could not have head the relationship they did if it weren’t for the monkey wrenching.
I would simply like to connect how the ideologies that Abby discovers and uncovers in desert solitaire grew to his work of intrepid inspiration in the Monkey Wrench Gang. I admire how Abbey seemed to live his ideology in desert solitaire by writing the Monkey Wrench Gang. It is cool that Abbey believed in environmentalism to the degree he did and actually took action by painting a story that would evoke action and at the very least reflection to the world that would read his book. I think that speaking in such a way is a powerful tool to create change.I enjoyed reading desert solitaire because I could experience the deep thought that Abbey had about the dessert and our place there, through his own experiences. I also reflect on the characters in the monkey wrench gang and maybe understand how each one of them represented a piece of Abbey’s environmental and human ethic. I think that Hyduke represents the wild piece of the soul that is both traumatized and fearful but is also profoundly free and will walk the talk so to speak. I think that Bonnie represents the bounty, and wonderment that is struck in the souls of those who experience the beauty of the desert wild. I believe that doc represents the ability and privilege of the American citizen to use money at an obscene rate. In the scene where he is running away from the man he flipped off and feels like he is dying or running out of time I think Abby reveals the pace at which things are happening in the 21st century. I believe that Seldom Seen Smith and his prayers represent the strange nature of the way that our wishes and gut desires often manifest against the things that seem to serve us.
I think that one of the biggest questions that I have after reading this book is a bigger question in regard to what we really need. I want to understand where the sources of power that harm the environment are actually needed and where they are fueling excessive growth and greed that we could do without. I think that there are two routes to bettering our relationship to the environment. In the first place I think that we need to put our brilliant minds toward innovation that will sustain us. In the other direction I also think that we need to put our brilliant minds and hearts to deveopling a consciousness of our place in regard to each other. I believe that we need to constantly question the way that we are living; what do we actually need and what are simple ways to do these things. On the Hopi reservation I experienced innovation in building a sustainable home that was simple but brilliant. The build pooled resources and both human and natural in a way that make me wonder if Abbey’s crusade and crazy ideas are not to far from a reality that could be created.
I thought that people had a very interesting outlook into the substance of this book. I was inspired by the depth of reflection of my classmates. It was interesting how a lot of us had a visceral or at least a highly opinionated outlook on the characters and there act of monkeywrenching. In particular the discussion about how irresponsible and in a way pointless the mission was that the gang had. This discussion was poignant because it revealed the goal of Abbey in writing this book. By challenging our idea that environmentalism is a simple, hippy, peace loving act Abbey evokes readers to ask themselves hard questions surrounding the actual reality of mans violent relationship with nature. I think that we answered Abbeys call adequately in our seminar and delved deep into a discussion around what is possible in our quest to right the wrongs we see. Points that i thought were wonderful included Hayden's point about how the characters were pitted against something so large that in the end their violent tactics turned selfish. Her comment made me think that Abbey intentionally chose these the lives and traits of the characters to be so messy because he wanted to show us that we are in a messy issue. I think that he chose his characters to be messy to show us that the issue of environmentalism is an issue that includes our hearts not only our minds. In other words what effects the environment affects us. Another reason that I thought people were upset in a sense by the senselessness of the characters was because it brought into question what is effective. If policy is slow and destruction is futile that what will change things. I think that abbey makes us look at this issue as a very dire situation, which to be honest is uncomfortable in its reality.
I think that when everyone of our protagonists in the book except for Hyduke become tame as well as law abiding citizens again, Abbey is painting a metaphor for how people are adapted to the fake unhealthy ways of being but in the core are all dying because of it. Both people in general and the our protagonists change their ways so that they will survive in their changing context, even if that means sacrificing who they are. However when Hyduke and the mysterious horse man appear, beckoning them to realize what is wrong and unnatural about the ways that they are living forced or otherwise our characters and so I believe society will need to question what we are doing together. Here is where I believe a core answer may lie. We need to change things together as a community. For humans cannot do things alone because it means losing our livelihood and communities, however together we can alter the way we live. I believe that this altercation needs crazy visionaries like the monkey wrench gang working on the outside and sly collected collaborators working with people on the inside as well. “God, god, Doc thinks. And then realizes that he is not really surprised, that he has been expecting this apparition for two years” (Abbey 418). When Doc realizes that Hyduke is actually alive he realizes that he is not surprised that he knows that he would need to return in the end. I think that this is a metaphor for humans connection with nature and parts of ourselves. I think that we can pretend that we have died and become separate from nature, but in truth we are still alive and full somewhere.
To elaborate on this I would connect it to the thread that Abbey shows us in this work in regard to what he believes is real in this world. Through what I have read and interpreted I would describe Abbey as someone that believes in raw action. Throughout the Monkey Wrench gang Abbey shows us that people even though we have advanced are creatures of raw merrow, hunger, thirst and freedom. I think that what Abey shows us is that although his characters are crazy they are real. I think that he shows that their behaviors are natural because they speak so loudly against what is unnatural. In this following expert I think that the relationship between hyduke and bonnie portray Abbey’s commentary true human nature VS. our constructs. “‘well...shit. You're Doc’s woman.” “Like hell I am. I’m my own women” (Abbey 183.) I think that this quote beautifully shows us how the interaction of our crazy characters allows for fundamental societal norms to be shattered by the wanderlust of being truly free. Bonnie Hyduke and Doc could not have head the relationship they did if it weren’t for the monkey wrenching.
I would simply like to connect how the ideologies that Abby discovers and uncovers in desert solitaire grew to his work of intrepid inspiration in the Monkey Wrench Gang. I admire how Abbey seemed to live his ideology in desert solitaire by writing the Monkey Wrench Gang. It is cool that Abbey believed in environmentalism to the degree he did and actually took action by painting a story that would evoke action and at the very least reflection to the world that would read his book. I think that speaking in such a way is a powerful tool to create change.I enjoyed reading desert solitaire because I could experience the deep thought that Abbey had about the dessert and our place there, through his own experiences. I also reflect on the characters in the monkey wrench gang and maybe understand how each one of them represented a piece of Abbey’s environmental and human ethic. I think that Hyduke represents the wild piece of the soul that is both traumatized and fearful but is also profoundly free and will walk the talk so to speak. I think that Bonnie represents the bounty, and wonderment that is struck in the souls of those who experience the beauty of the desert wild. I believe that doc represents the ability and privilege of the American citizen to use money at an obscene rate. In the scene where he is running away from the man he flipped off and feels like he is dying or running out of time I think Abby reveals the pace at which things are happening in the 21st century. I believe that Seldom Seen Smith and his prayers represent the strange nature of the way that our wishes and gut desires often manifest against the things that seem to serve us.
I think that one of the biggest questions that I have after reading this book is a bigger question in regard to what we really need. I want to understand where the sources of power that harm the environment are actually needed and where they are fueling excessive growth and greed that we could do without. I think that there are two routes to bettering our relationship to the environment. In the first place I think that we need to put our brilliant minds toward innovation that will sustain us. In the other direction I also think that we need to put our brilliant minds and hearts to deveopling a consciousness of our place in regard to each other. I believe that we need to constantly question the way that we are living; what do we actually need and what are simple ways to do these things. On the Hopi reservation I experienced innovation in building a sustainable home that was simple but brilliant. The build pooled resources and both human and natural in a way that make me wonder if Abbey’s crusade and crazy ideas are not to far from a reality that could be created.
Seminar Reflection on Cats Cradle:
I thought that the our seminar discussion was very thorough and thought provoking. I appreciated how every person took the time to ask the sort of questions that we were not sure if we could answer. I liked this because I believe that it got at the layers that Cats Cradle holds when regarding humans and our peculiar nature. I was particularly inspired by the discussion that we had around human construction about what we believe. I thought this was an important conversation to have because it got at a key point that Vonnegut was trying to convey. I thought that a major message around this book was showing people that they are so complex that they can often create realities that are removed and warped. I thought that in this Vonnegut asks us the question about if the things that we believe and tell ourselves and each other are in his words “make you Brave, and kind and healthy and happy (Cats Cradle 0). I thought that we were insightful to discuss this the way that Vonnegut mocks the similarity of religion and science as means to explain our experiences. It is interesting that through this mockery Vonnegut also achieves a deep celebration and love of human beings. I think that this is a good message to interpret because I believe that even with all of our horror humans are something to celebrate. This brings up another concept that Vonnegut explores. That is that humans in relation to each other create a lot of horror yet in relation is the only way we can thrive. I would sum up a lot of our discussion around human construction in this quote. “ Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; man got ot sit and wonder, “Why, why, why?” Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; man got to tell himself he understand.”
To begin looking at the theme of social construction up in Vonnegut’s Cat's Cradle we only need look at the title and metaphor of a Cats Cradle. Here the idea of what people create comes an enthralling theme “No, damn cat and no damn cradle” (Cat's Cradle 166). here Vonnegut encapsulates how we make things that are not there, and begs the question does that mean that they're not there?
I think that Kurt Vonnegut uses the character of Bokonon to show us that religion in itself nor any set of beliefs does not have to be evil. However can be used as a vehicle and an an excuse to gain power and commit heinous crimes against humanity. This takes form in the story when Bokonon and general MCcabe construct the idea of bokononism being outlawed in order to create a system where they benefit from. Another theme the Vonnegut explores in this situation is the idea that people begin to become players of their own constructing, actually becoming certain roles and believing certain things that will uphold their original goal of power. “ But then I understood that a millennium would have to offer more than a holy man in power… things that Bokonon and i were in no position to provide” ( Cats Cradle 226) here I think that Vonnegut is conveying these messages of constructions that I mentioned and asking us whether we value complete truth of security and comfort at the expense of some or a lot of people suffering and vices like the “hook.”
I think that Vonnegut attacks the idea of human social constructions at many different angles. Another powerful Angle that he takes is in the character of Mona. Mona represents much in this story about what people decide to value, how we come about valuing it. Mona first represents the concept of American consumerism in the way that our main character wants her with his first glance. When we start to Know Mona at a deeper level we are shown how American Consumerism and hoarding is in contrast with true human nature of love when John wants Mona to love No other than himself and perform no more Boka -mar- uu all the people she loves. “ As your husband, I’ll want all of your love for myself.” She stared at me with widening eyes. “A Sin- wat!” “what was that?” A sin-wat!” she cried. “A man who wants all of somebodies love. Thats very bad” Cats Cradle 208.” The idea that of owning someone in any way instead of valuing them and rejoicing in them is a huge social construction that Vonnegut again brilliantly points out.
I would like to connect the poem of Bokonon that I recited in the beginning to the idea of an environmental position and the land ethic.“ Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; man got to sit and wonder, “Why, why, why?” Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; man got to tell himself he understand.” I would like to connect this to the land ethic in the sense that through endless work wondering and creating we have harmed a lot. however as Vonnegut identifies it is human nature to wonder. I think that our wondering can have two paths one along the road that Vonnegut paints and one along the road of evolving to work together like the Ants. I still want to know more about the title of Cats Cradle. I’m curious to really get into the politics of the time to understand the book. I am also curious to read some more of his work to understand his ideology at a deeper level. I finally would like to take a deeper look at the Ant Metaphor.
I thought that the our seminar discussion was very thorough and thought provoking. I appreciated how every person took the time to ask the sort of questions that we were not sure if we could answer. I liked this because I believe that it got at the layers that Cats Cradle holds when regarding humans and our peculiar nature. I was particularly inspired by the discussion that we had around human construction about what we believe. I thought this was an important conversation to have because it got at a key point that Vonnegut was trying to convey. I thought that a major message around this book was showing people that they are so complex that they can often create realities that are removed and warped. I thought that in this Vonnegut asks us the question about if the things that we believe and tell ourselves and each other are in his words “make you Brave, and kind and healthy and happy (Cats Cradle 0). I thought that we were insightful to discuss this the way that Vonnegut mocks the similarity of religion and science as means to explain our experiences. It is interesting that through this mockery Vonnegut also achieves a deep celebration and love of human beings. I think that this is a good message to interpret because I believe that even with all of our horror humans are something to celebrate. This brings up another concept that Vonnegut explores. That is that humans in relation to each other create a lot of horror yet in relation is the only way we can thrive. I would sum up a lot of our discussion around human construction in this quote. “ Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; man got ot sit and wonder, “Why, why, why?” Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; man got to tell himself he understand.”
To begin looking at the theme of social construction up in Vonnegut’s Cat's Cradle we only need look at the title and metaphor of a Cats Cradle. Here the idea of what people create comes an enthralling theme “No, damn cat and no damn cradle” (Cat's Cradle 166). here Vonnegut encapsulates how we make things that are not there, and begs the question does that mean that they're not there?
I think that Kurt Vonnegut uses the character of Bokonon to show us that religion in itself nor any set of beliefs does not have to be evil. However can be used as a vehicle and an an excuse to gain power and commit heinous crimes against humanity. This takes form in the story when Bokonon and general MCcabe construct the idea of bokononism being outlawed in order to create a system where they benefit from. Another theme the Vonnegut explores in this situation is the idea that people begin to become players of their own constructing, actually becoming certain roles and believing certain things that will uphold their original goal of power. “ But then I understood that a millennium would have to offer more than a holy man in power… things that Bokonon and i were in no position to provide” ( Cats Cradle 226) here I think that Vonnegut is conveying these messages of constructions that I mentioned and asking us whether we value complete truth of security and comfort at the expense of some or a lot of people suffering and vices like the “hook.”
I think that Vonnegut attacks the idea of human social constructions at many different angles. Another powerful Angle that he takes is in the character of Mona. Mona represents much in this story about what people decide to value, how we come about valuing it. Mona first represents the concept of American consumerism in the way that our main character wants her with his first glance. When we start to Know Mona at a deeper level we are shown how American Consumerism and hoarding is in contrast with true human nature of love when John wants Mona to love No other than himself and perform no more Boka -mar- uu all the people she loves. “ As your husband, I’ll want all of your love for myself.” She stared at me with widening eyes. “A Sin- wat!” “what was that?” A sin-wat!” she cried. “A man who wants all of somebodies love. Thats very bad” Cats Cradle 208.” The idea that of owning someone in any way instead of valuing them and rejoicing in them is a huge social construction that Vonnegut again brilliantly points out.
I would like to connect the poem of Bokonon that I recited in the beginning to the idea of an environmental position and the land ethic.“ Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; man got to sit and wonder, “Why, why, why?” Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; man got to tell himself he understand.” I would like to connect this to the land ethic in the sense that through endless work wondering and creating we have harmed a lot. however as Vonnegut identifies it is human nature to wonder. I think that our wondering can have two paths one along the road that Vonnegut paints and one along the road of evolving to work together like the Ants. I still want to know more about the title of Cats Cradle. I’m curious to really get into the politics of the time to understand the book. I am also curious to read some more of his work to understand his ideology at a deeper level. I finally would like to take a deeper look at the Ant Metaphor.
Semester One : Independent Study
Native American Boarding schools public education frameworks and indigenous educational values and their effects on Native American Culture, Identity and Multiple Levels of success.
In the independent studies project I was able to dive into the Intensity of the learning about how systems of education have been used as a vehicle to obliterate culture and cripple a people. I was able to dive into the effects that American Indian Boarding schools have had on Native culture and the oppressive Ideologies that have carried through to the present day in perpetuated cycles. I was then able to look at the values of Indigenous education that can foster cultural pride, healing and in my opinion contribute to mainstream education in a holistic approach of learning.
In my School and in our community their is a large amount of energy, rhetoric and desire put into creating an environment for students where their learning is project based, applicable, relevant and inspiring. I can say that through the many privileges of my educational experience the honors Humanities program and independent study has allowed me to feel a passion and learn in such an intimate level. As a Junior I will say this, students, children, and youth have a passion and a desire to learn in this wondrous world. I believe that there is no such thing as a stupid, or dull student, you need only feed us with a way of learning that is meaningful to us and we will take wing from there. Every individual in this world has a story that their heart beats too. With the freedom, depth, and time of this study, coupled with Jessica's astute and passionate mentoring, I have been able to learn in the way i speak of.
The subject that I chose to dive into came with a steep and profound leaning curve. The truth of the history of human tragedy, beauty and Violence is that it is complex and interconnected to our experience in the waking moment. history did not end when the "event"ended the things that we do ripple through generations of minds, hearts, and souls. I was Very humbled by the complexity and the Intensity of Cultural genocide and Boarding Schools. The truth is that along with all of my learning I gained an understanding into how much i don't know. I will say that this experience developed the ears and the eyes in me to be a life long learner about the systems that oppress people, and the silent stories that need to be herd and the quite questions that need to be asked.
In my School and in our community their is a large amount of energy, rhetoric and desire put into creating an environment for students where their learning is project based, applicable, relevant and inspiring. I can say that through the many privileges of my educational experience the honors Humanities program and independent study has allowed me to feel a passion and learn in such an intimate level. As a Junior I will say this, students, children, and youth have a passion and a desire to learn in this wondrous world. I believe that there is no such thing as a stupid, or dull student, you need only feed us with a way of learning that is meaningful to us and we will take wing from there. Every individual in this world has a story that their heart beats too. With the freedom, depth, and time of this study, coupled with Jessica's astute and passionate mentoring, I have been able to learn in the way i speak of.
The subject that I chose to dive into came with a steep and profound leaning curve. The truth of the history of human tragedy, beauty and Violence is that it is complex and interconnected to our experience in the waking moment. history did not end when the "event"ended the things that we do ripple through generations of minds, hearts, and souls. I was Very humbled by the complexity and the Intensity of Cultural genocide and Boarding Schools. The truth is that along with all of my learning I gained an understanding into how much i don't know. I will say that this experience developed the ears and the eyes in me to be a life long learner about the systems that oppress people, and the silent stories that need to be herd and the quite questions that need to be asked.
Final Poem
A matter of Education
What we learn is who we are.
How we learn it is the way we walk.
It is in our violent silence that you can hear it.
In the fingers that type texts that cut through hearts like blades to flesh in both directions. What?
They’re only just texts after all.
Just books and pages of dusty things that happened.
The girls behind me laugh as they call the walk from our school’s parking lot the “Trail of Tears,”
A tear falls from our eyes, leaving a path like the dried up blood rivers of our earth,
for we cannot know, it might hurt too much.
At Wounded Knee bullets mutilated bodies outside the locked doors, of the boarding schools that held children prisoners from their parents.
lacerating souls, dreams, tongues, and roots.
Now bullets sound inside the blank white walls of our schools.
The smoking guns appear in the hands of the same children, and reside in everyone’s.
Yet we cannot know this either,
for then we would have to advance in the science of humanity.
We cannot touch each other now,
I cannot feel your breath,
we can only stare at each other, through the warped glass,
our individual light fading away into pale molds of identical shape.
For now our hands will only meet on pen and paper?
Oh there's not a problem with one culture, theres a problem with no culture.
When the stories dry up on our lips, there will be nowhere left to walk.
We will all dwindle of the face of the earth into memory that will no longer exist.
Open your hearts we ask us,
so we can fill them with stories,
be the fire we ask us,
so we can live from the spirit of our breathe.
I receive my PSAT scores,
watch my creativity and passion rip from my chest,
feel as if I’m signing a piece of paper for all the raw pulsing magnificence of the lands that holds us.
Don’t you know,
we want to shout it,
we want to sing it,
we want to dance it,
we want to live it.
Do not teach me without your heart.
Assimilation
the word washes people up in a flood of synthetic white paint, until they are as blank as the walls of the boarding schools that they sat in
and as hollow with shame as the bullets shells that littered Wounded Knee Creek.
There is more than one type of massacre.
In this I am only a white school boy writing and reading, reading and writing, but I need to know this for what I can, I need to tell this to the way I know,
I cannot do that alone...
Dennis Banks speaks…
“ In the second one there was a letter to the superintendent of the school that said here’s five dollars, please send my children, please send my son back to me.”
When I was manipulated to believe my mother had abandoned me, it crushed me as if all the ocean was weighing on me, it crushed me like the led universes that expanded on my chest at night when the world was shaking, Yet I still had the contact with her to break those bonds of illusion, what did he have?
voice.
Robert Bennett speaks…
“Still my grandmother wanted me to be leery of the “bad Indians” from the reservation. ““They are bad people who will stab you in the back. They are all so jealous and will try to bring you down because you are doing so well in the world,” she said very sternly. She loved Indian people but she also remembered the teachings of the mission school .”
The Knife of oppression carves the lines of separation through our skin, splits the knowing in our hearts of how to love, how to trust, how to be. Its planned that way when the knife is in your own hands its harder to stop.
Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart speaks, participants speaks…
“I've never been in a boarding school, I wished I [had] because all the things ... happened in my home—the sexual abuse, the neglect. Maybe if it happened by strangers it wouldn't be so bad.... Then, I could blame it all on another race instead of my own family... .”
I shudder in the utter enormity of knowing that my toes have only touched the icy waters of this lake as dark as oblivion, as cold as annihilation.
Many speak of being unbroken,
but that is not of substance,
what is,
is that we are allowed to peace ourselves back together,
each quivering sinew,
each feeble touch,
each broken vertebrae,
into a mosaic of beauty, and stand like the elder elk with his single adorning antler,
bathed in the light of forgiveness.
It’s that our hearts keep beating.
It’s that we can split these hearts wide and let the wind rip and sing and pour through our ragged bodies.
It’s that we can look at what is asking to die and let it sleep in deep winter snow,
let it slip from our hands into the mystery.
It’s that we can say no to mutilating bodies and killing souls,
ours and theirs.
It’s that we can tell these stories in their truth of being matters of us and of now.
Walk in beauty….
we undulate ,we bend,
our bodies glistening with the beads of sweat that fall from the rivulets of our time warn brow’s,
the blood sweat and tears that hold us together,
that make us brother that make us sister, that make us mother, father, son, daughter and lover.
That make us rage and fight and hate and love and create.
listen.. The earth has a heartbeat.
It is in the pitter patter of a child’s eyes showered in the wonder of a spring storm,
it is the thrum of a drum resounding of the roots of the still trees and the twirling feat of the dynamic dancers,
it is the jolt of lightning that passes through the runners body on the craggy snow capped gale swept peaks.
Pin pe obi. Look to the Mountaintop…
Walk with me in the void for we are only precious particles of dust in a sea of nothingness that matters,
be with me in the warmth of the dawn,
let time fade away into the ether so that we can in time heal.
Look into the deer's eyes with me, for there is a future to provide for.
Learn of people with me, for nature is not a mold it is a work of art.
I’ve asked this question and got this answer. What we learn is who we are. How we learn it is the way we walk.
-learning,-
real learning,
is not of myth.
it is of sacred knowing,
passed down through the generations through the records of our earth,
It is of the cells in our skin and the strands of our hair,
the twinkle of our eyes and the glint of our smiles.
It is of the way of our words and how we walk among our relations,
it is of the stars we are born of
and the soul winds that fill us up,
it is of the grace of rain,
the bounty of soil
the cleansing of flame.
It is the scene of our own families faces in history class.
It is made of the rainbows of our colors, thoughts, teachings, knowings, and ways of loving.
It is of flesh,
it is of substance,
it is in time,
it is of our humanity.
Research Synthesis
Nicholas Turco
Systems of Education and their Effects on Native American Culture and Identity
When we look at what roles educational systems have played in our nation's history we will find many tales of both liberation and empowerment, as well as oppression and dehumanization. Ideologies of assimilation have used education as a vehicle to wipe out Native culture, identity and power. Much of this ideology remains in education systems and mainstream culture. To counter this we must look to empowering models of holistic education, in order it promote cultural healing, pride and liberation, as well as lead a path for all education.
In 1879 Carlisle Indian Industrial school, was created by Richard Henry Pratt. With a twisted ideology of superiority as well as a specific and divisive plan to assimilate American Indians into a “civil” white society, Pratt set a model for the Bureau of Indian affairs to commit cultural genocide. Over 12,000 Native Americans from 140 different tribes were sent to Carlisle by 1918 by its end. The beginnings of Pratt and his school come from the time when he was in command of 72 Native American prisoners held in Florida. He treated them with military discipline as well as arranged for them to be taught to read and assimilate them into “civilized culture.” He had the goal to destroy the existence of the people of the of Turtle Island without bloodshed.
General Pratt held the leading ideology for many of his contemporaries. "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man…It is a great mistake to think that the Indian is born an inevitable savage. He is born a blank, like all the rest of us. Left in the surroundings of savagery, he grows to possess a savage language, superstition, and life. . . As we have taken into our national family seven millions of Negroes, and as we receive foreigners at the rate of more than five hundred thousand a year, and assimilate them, it would seem that the time may have arrived when we can very properly make at least the attempt to assimilate our two hundred and fifty thousand Indians…The school at Carlisle is an attempt on the part of the government to do this. Carlisle has always planted treason to the tribe and loyalty to the nation at large. It has preached against colonizing Indians, and in favor of individualizing them..." ( Children and Youth in history #291)
This excerpt brings to light first that “education” in the United States has been used as a tool of oppression, and second that this oppression is calculated and planned. However an even more haunting reality is the way that this ideology still circulates to create oppression today. When compared with the expert from Pratt this description by wikipedia unveils how harmful Ideologies are still accepted and validated . “It was founded on the principle that Native Americans were the equals of European-Americans, and that Native American children immersed in mainstream Euro-American culture would learn skills to advance in society.” ("Carlisle Indian Industrial School." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2014.)
In this subtle language it is conveyed that the mission of the American Indian boarding school was one of valor. It is conveyed that immersing Native people in eurocentric culture was a heroic act that saved them from their own “savage demise.” While in truth there was great harm done in the act of assimilation and “advancement of white society. It is also a falsehood to state that Carlisle Boarding school was founded on the Principle of equality for even in Pratts words it is apparent that he saw Native People as inferior with the need to be changed. It is important to be aware of the way that racist ideologies and systems how ever subtle can continue if we want to understand oppression in our time.
American Indian boarding schools were a wicked tool of dehumanization and cultural genocide. From violent physical beatings for people speaking in their language to verbal and physiological manipulation, many people were left assimilated and broken. On October 12, 2012 Dennis Banks one of the founders of the American Indian Movement, shared his personal story on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. Dennis Banks was taken away from his mother and the Ojibwe people and was sent along with many other children to the Pipestone Indian boarding school. He shares that between the three boarding schools that he attended he was able to see his mother for thirty days and asked her every time why she was not writing letters to him. He then explained that when he was older his kids found his boarding school records and with them letters that his mother had written to him.
“In the second one, there was a letter to the superintendent of the school that said, here’s five dollars, please send my children, please send my son back to me.” Mr. Banks shares that it is key to understand that this was not an isolated event, physiological manipulation that shattered a sense of self and culture has happened to thousands upon thousands of people. When relationships are destroyed and people are separated, it is easier to harm them. This violence has been implemented to oppress people many other times in history as well. For example families were separated in the holocaust and in slavery. This tool of assimilation was successful because severing the trust between children and their parents created a fear and shame of self, relationship and entire culture.
The destruction of many Native languages In boarding schools was a very harmful weapon that cut people from their identity and strength. In his Ecology of Indigenous Education “Look To The Mountain” Gregory Cajete describes a central concept to the Dine (Navajo) that is shared closely with many other tribes. “Among the Navajo and other tribal groups language is sacred because it is an expression of the holy wind that exists as the breath of life in each person.” This idea that our words have power of creation and destruction and should be shared and valued with the utmost importance is a basis of many indigenous ideologies. Through this lense a better understanding can come of the intensity of the destruction of Native languages. It is apparent that the harm goes past the words and into the human psyche where core values, connections and Identities are held. In a PBS film “Original Coloradans” about the ute people Lynda Grove D’Wolf Southern Ute elder and owner of Kavie Nuccie Nu-u-apa-ga-pi shares; “The Ute language is who we are, its a gift from mother earth. It identifies us with the creator. “ Without the language we are only paper people. We don’t have an Identity.” May Lee mountain, elder, northern ute tribe. “ The power of the language in any Nationality is the most powerful thing you cary.” My Lee mountain, elder northern ute tribe.
The reality is that boarding schools did not simply affect one generation but have created a battle for many generations to overcome. This idea of cross generational trauma is referred to as cultural trauma by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart. In her work, Carrying The HIstorical Trauma of the Lakota. Dr. Braveheart interviewed many people about their multigenerational traumatic experiences. Another participant shares, “At six years old when I first went to school I had a ruler broken on my head because I couldn't speak English. This was my first contact with the Whites ... Monday morning, I was sent into the bathroom— hot scalding water and [they'd] wash my hair with DDT. When I'd come back that evening, my mother would wash that DDT off ... DDT permeates the skull and the bones and eventually that's what kills all the brain cells... . DDT was used at the schools on our reservations.... At 16, I was beaten again at a day school by a Catholic priest.” ( Carrying The Historical Trauma of the Lakota 255). This shows the violence, fear and shame that boarding schools inflicted upon people about their culture and language to achieve assimilation.
Another Participate shares ,“I've never been in a boarding school, I wished I [had] because all the things ... happened in my home—the sexual abuse, the neglect. Maybe if it happened by strangers it wouldn't be so bad.... Then, I could blame it all on another race instead of my own family... .” (254). This experience illustrates how trauma is cross-generational and self perpetuated. The traumatic experiences that this person's family had coursed down through generations and created the same pain for them that they would have experienced in a boarding school; because of the shame that experiences like this create, the systems of self perpetuated oppression and multi generational trauma can be hard to break.
Robert Bennett shares that in highschool he grew up with the pressure from his grandmother and his mother to blend into white culture as much as possible because of the fear that his grandmother had for him because of her experiences in mission school. “Still my grandmother wanted me to be leery of the “bad Indians” from the reservation. “They are bad people who will stab you in the back. They are all so jealous and will try to bring you down because you are doing so well in the world,” she said very sternly. She loved Indian people but she also remembered the teachings of the mission school, ” Bennett shares (page #). This account is another example of how the oppression of schools modeled for assimilation harm people at a multigenerational level and in an internalized fashion. The teachings that Bennett's grandmother received in mission school ingrained a belief of mistrust and superiority in her mind towards her own people. Many of Bennett’s experiences at Dartmouth were also filled with struggles to find identity and reverse cultural trauma.
This darkness cannot be discounted and must be understood to allow for healing and knowledge to reweave oppressive systems. A part of doing this is to creatively and passionately fuel things that allow for the rebuilding and reclaiming of individual and cultural Identity. An example of a program that is successful at the very least in Durango is title VII. Title VII is a grant based program that is funded by the federal government. Native American districts apply on the number of Native American students enrolled, and receive money based on that number. Lucinda Webb Long is the title VII Educator for K-5 students in Durango.
She shares in her interview with me the goals of title VII in Durango…”enrich the knowledge of personal culture and enhance reading and writing skills as well as instill pride and cultural Identity.” Lucinda shares that she reads books to students by tribe. By doing this she is working within the fabric of reading requirements to reclaim cultural and personal identity as well as preparing people for mainstream success. Lucinda also explains the experiences of many people in mainstream schools today. she also invites guests such as Author Brushaie Abenick, storyteller Willy Gang Noonsack and dance troop leader Rulan Tangen to help her in her mission.
Lucinda describes now as “a time of culture directed self identity, rebuilding of pride, family regenerated cultural tradition, and a resurgence of identity.” She explains that a number of her students struggles in modern day schools include a feeling of “difference,” she says that fitting in can be a struggle and that finding a way to do so is key. Lucinda expresses that this is where title VII comes in. Of many powerful things Lucinda shared with me, she emphasized that all experiences must be validated and understood because people have had positive and negative experiences with “boarding schools.” For example Lucinda's experience at Wingate boarding school in Gallup New Mexico, was very positive, “like a second family,” an opposite experience from people’s experiences in Pratt’s area. Another thing that Lucinda shares, is that an integral piece in rewriting our history, is the balanced way that she and others combine traditional teachings with 21st century life.
The “Beauty Way” is a way of life that Lucinda gives a glimpse into in these teachings. “Four thought process... life begins with thinking,to planning, to Living the “good life,” then to hope... based on four cardinal directions. East: thinking, South: planning. West: good life. North: hope... Tell youth to participate in cycle, from that all interconnected by nature and the universe. great spirit holy people.” If mainstream culture and education can develop a true respect and value for different models of learning and lenses of looking at the world, we could set ourselves on a path to foster healing for people. We could also change oppressive values that exist in mainstream society and education such as standardized testing.
To understand the complexity and different levels of our stories, it’s crucial if we want to weave systems that empower all people. The way that we teach people is a potent tool that crafts the very basis of our human experience. In the present and in the future we would do wise to be aware of and validate many different teachings from many different cultures. For embracing and valuing diversity of learning will empower people and obliterate oppression.
Works Cited:
"Carlisle Indian Industrial School." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2014.)
"Carlisle Indian School Students [Photograph]," in Children and Youth in History, Item #291, http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/291 (accessed December 30, 2014.
"Historical Trauma Webinar by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, PhD."Historical Trauma Webinar by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, PhD. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2015.
Long- Webb L. (November, 14th 2014.) Telephone Interview
Banks Dennis ( October *th 2012.) TV Interview on Democracy now
Garrod, Andrew, and Colleen Larimore. First Person, First Peoples: Native American College Graduates Tell Their Life Stories. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997. Print.
Systems of Education and their Effects on Native American Culture and Identity
When we look at what roles educational systems have played in our nation's history we will find many tales of both liberation and empowerment, as well as oppression and dehumanization. Ideologies of assimilation have used education as a vehicle to wipe out Native culture, identity and power. Much of this ideology remains in education systems and mainstream culture. To counter this we must look to empowering models of holistic education, in order it promote cultural healing, pride and liberation, as well as lead a path for all education.
In 1879 Carlisle Indian Industrial school, was created by Richard Henry Pratt. With a twisted ideology of superiority as well as a specific and divisive plan to assimilate American Indians into a “civil” white society, Pratt set a model for the Bureau of Indian affairs to commit cultural genocide. Over 12,000 Native Americans from 140 different tribes were sent to Carlisle by 1918 by its end. The beginnings of Pratt and his school come from the time when he was in command of 72 Native American prisoners held in Florida. He treated them with military discipline as well as arranged for them to be taught to read and assimilate them into “civilized culture.” He had the goal to destroy the existence of the people of the of Turtle Island without bloodshed.
General Pratt held the leading ideology for many of his contemporaries. "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man…It is a great mistake to think that the Indian is born an inevitable savage. He is born a blank, like all the rest of us. Left in the surroundings of savagery, he grows to possess a savage language, superstition, and life. . . As we have taken into our national family seven millions of Negroes, and as we receive foreigners at the rate of more than five hundred thousand a year, and assimilate them, it would seem that the time may have arrived when we can very properly make at least the attempt to assimilate our two hundred and fifty thousand Indians…The school at Carlisle is an attempt on the part of the government to do this. Carlisle has always planted treason to the tribe and loyalty to the nation at large. It has preached against colonizing Indians, and in favor of individualizing them..." ( Children and Youth in history #291)
This excerpt brings to light first that “education” in the United States has been used as a tool of oppression, and second that this oppression is calculated and planned. However an even more haunting reality is the way that this ideology still circulates to create oppression today. When compared with the expert from Pratt this description by wikipedia unveils how harmful Ideologies are still accepted and validated . “It was founded on the principle that Native Americans were the equals of European-Americans, and that Native American children immersed in mainstream Euro-American culture would learn skills to advance in society.” ("Carlisle Indian Industrial School." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2014.)
In this subtle language it is conveyed that the mission of the American Indian boarding school was one of valor. It is conveyed that immersing Native people in eurocentric culture was a heroic act that saved them from their own “savage demise.” While in truth there was great harm done in the act of assimilation and “advancement of white society. It is also a falsehood to state that Carlisle Boarding school was founded on the Principle of equality for even in Pratts words it is apparent that he saw Native People as inferior with the need to be changed. It is important to be aware of the way that racist ideologies and systems how ever subtle can continue if we want to understand oppression in our time.
American Indian boarding schools were a wicked tool of dehumanization and cultural genocide. From violent physical beatings for people speaking in their language to verbal and physiological manipulation, many people were left assimilated and broken. On October 12, 2012 Dennis Banks one of the founders of the American Indian Movement, shared his personal story on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. Dennis Banks was taken away from his mother and the Ojibwe people and was sent along with many other children to the Pipestone Indian boarding school. He shares that between the three boarding schools that he attended he was able to see his mother for thirty days and asked her every time why she was not writing letters to him. He then explained that when he was older his kids found his boarding school records and with them letters that his mother had written to him.
“In the second one, there was a letter to the superintendent of the school that said, here’s five dollars, please send my children, please send my son back to me.” Mr. Banks shares that it is key to understand that this was not an isolated event, physiological manipulation that shattered a sense of self and culture has happened to thousands upon thousands of people. When relationships are destroyed and people are separated, it is easier to harm them. This violence has been implemented to oppress people many other times in history as well. For example families were separated in the holocaust and in slavery. This tool of assimilation was successful because severing the trust between children and their parents created a fear and shame of self, relationship and entire culture.
The destruction of many Native languages In boarding schools was a very harmful weapon that cut people from their identity and strength. In his Ecology of Indigenous Education “Look To The Mountain” Gregory Cajete describes a central concept to the Dine (Navajo) that is shared closely with many other tribes. “Among the Navajo and other tribal groups language is sacred because it is an expression of the holy wind that exists as the breath of life in each person.” This idea that our words have power of creation and destruction and should be shared and valued with the utmost importance is a basis of many indigenous ideologies. Through this lense a better understanding can come of the intensity of the destruction of Native languages. It is apparent that the harm goes past the words and into the human psyche where core values, connections and Identities are held. In a PBS film “Original Coloradans” about the ute people Lynda Grove D’Wolf Southern Ute elder and owner of Kavie Nuccie Nu-u-apa-ga-pi shares; “The Ute language is who we are, its a gift from mother earth. It identifies us with the creator. “ Without the language we are only paper people. We don’t have an Identity.” May Lee mountain, elder, northern ute tribe. “ The power of the language in any Nationality is the most powerful thing you cary.” My Lee mountain, elder northern ute tribe.
The reality is that boarding schools did not simply affect one generation but have created a battle for many generations to overcome. This idea of cross generational trauma is referred to as cultural trauma by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart. In her work, Carrying The HIstorical Trauma of the Lakota. Dr. Braveheart interviewed many people about their multigenerational traumatic experiences. Another participant shares, “At six years old when I first went to school I had a ruler broken on my head because I couldn't speak English. This was my first contact with the Whites ... Monday morning, I was sent into the bathroom— hot scalding water and [they'd] wash my hair with DDT. When I'd come back that evening, my mother would wash that DDT off ... DDT permeates the skull and the bones and eventually that's what kills all the brain cells... . DDT was used at the schools on our reservations.... At 16, I was beaten again at a day school by a Catholic priest.” ( Carrying The Historical Trauma of the Lakota 255). This shows the violence, fear and shame that boarding schools inflicted upon people about their culture and language to achieve assimilation.
Another Participate shares ,“I've never been in a boarding school, I wished I [had] because all the things ... happened in my home—the sexual abuse, the neglect. Maybe if it happened by strangers it wouldn't be so bad.... Then, I could blame it all on another race instead of my own family... .” (254). This experience illustrates how trauma is cross-generational and self perpetuated. The traumatic experiences that this person's family had coursed down through generations and created the same pain for them that they would have experienced in a boarding school; because of the shame that experiences like this create, the systems of self perpetuated oppression and multi generational trauma can be hard to break.
Robert Bennett shares that in highschool he grew up with the pressure from his grandmother and his mother to blend into white culture as much as possible because of the fear that his grandmother had for him because of her experiences in mission school. “Still my grandmother wanted me to be leery of the “bad Indians” from the reservation. “They are bad people who will stab you in the back. They are all so jealous and will try to bring you down because you are doing so well in the world,” she said very sternly. She loved Indian people but she also remembered the teachings of the mission school, ” Bennett shares (page #). This account is another example of how the oppression of schools modeled for assimilation harm people at a multigenerational level and in an internalized fashion. The teachings that Bennett's grandmother received in mission school ingrained a belief of mistrust and superiority in her mind towards her own people. Many of Bennett’s experiences at Dartmouth were also filled with struggles to find identity and reverse cultural trauma.
This darkness cannot be discounted and must be understood to allow for healing and knowledge to reweave oppressive systems. A part of doing this is to creatively and passionately fuel things that allow for the rebuilding and reclaiming of individual and cultural Identity. An example of a program that is successful at the very least in Durango is title VII. Title VII is a grant based program that is funded by the federal government. Native American districts apply on the number of Native American students enrolled, and receive money based on that number. Lucinda Webb Long is the title VII Educator for K-5 students in Durango.
She shares in her interview with me the goals of title VII in Durango…”enrich the knowledge of personal culture and enhance reading and writing skills as well as instill pride and cultural Identity.” Lucinda shares that she reads books to students by tribe. By doing this she is working within the fabric of reading requirements to reclaim cultural and personal identity as well as preparing people for mainstream success. Lucinda also explains the experiences of many people in mainstream schools today. she also invites guests such as Author Brushaie Abenick, storyteller Willy Gang Noonsack and dance troop leader Rulan Tangen to help her in her mission.
Lucinda describes now as “a time of culture directed self identity, rebuilding of pride, family regenerated cultural tradition, and a resurgence of identity.” She explains that a number of her students struggles in modern day schools include a feeling of “difference,” she says that fitting in can be a struggle and that finding a way to do so is key. Lucinda expresses that this is where title VII comes in. Of many powerful things Lucinda shared with me, she emphasized that all experiences must be validated and understood because people have had positive and negative experiences with “boarding schools.” For example Lucinda's experience at Wingate boarding school in Gallup New Mexico, was very positive, “like a second family,” an opposite experience from people’s experiences in Pratt’s area. Another thing that Lucinda shares, is that an integral piece in rewriting our history, is the balanced way that she and others combine traditional teachings with 21st century life.
The “Beauty Way” is a way of life that Lucinda gives a glimpse into in these teachings. “Four thought process... life begins with thinking,to planning, to Living the “good life,” then to hope... based on four cardinal directions. East: thinking, South: planning. West: good life. North: hope... Tell youth to participate in cycle, from that all interconnected by nature and the universe. great spirit holy people.” If mainstream culture and education can develop a true respect and value for different models of learning and lenses of looking at the world, we could set ourselves on a path to foster healing for people. We could also change oppressive values that exist in mainstream society and education such as standardized testing.
To understand the complexity and different levels of our stories, it’s crucial if we want to weave systems that empower all people. The way that we teach people is a potent tool that crafts the very basis of our human experience. In the present and in the future we would do wise to be aware of and validate many different teachings from many different cultures. For embracing and valuing diversity of learning will empower people and obliterate oppression.
Works Cited:
"Carlisle Indian Industrial School." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2014.)
"Carlisle Indian School Students [Photograph]," in Children and Youth in History, Item #291, http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/291 (accessed December 30, 2014.
"Historical Trauma Webinar by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, PhD."Historical Trauma Webinar by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, PhD. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Jan. 2015.
Long- Webb L. (November, 14th 2014.) Telephone Interview
Banks Dennis ( October *th 2012.) TV Interview on Democracy now
Garrod, Andrew, and Colleen Larimore. First Person, First Peoples: Native American College Graduates Tell Their Life Stories. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997. Print.