Native American Flashcards
Name 3 characteristics of NA poetry/literature
- Traditionally always oral poetry passed down through generations
- The spiderweb (in case of Leslie Marmon Silko - non linear)
- Had functional purposes - associated with religious or supernatural ends, part of daily life
What is a POW WOW?
NA ritual allowing the sharing of information & stories - since these were transmitted orally and not recorded
What 2 deadly/dangerous things did colonisers bring to Turtle island (US)?
- Disease
- Alcohol - Native Americans had no tolerance, hence high rates of alcoholism
When were stories/poetry mostly transcribed?
late 19th & early 20th century
Give some information about NA spirituality/ religion
No origin myth identifies anything similar to christian belief of sin, no supreme being, shared common beginnings with animals
One of main conflicts between european ideology and NA ideology
The idea of common vs private ownership
How did colonisers steal land from Natives?
Treachery, bribery and cruelty - used english as Natives couldn’t read or write
(we see example of this manipulation in Leslie Marmon Silko’s story Lullaby)
Key dates of colonisation
1492 - Columbus ‘discovers’ america
First English settlement in Virginia in 1607, hostilities broke out in 1608
1620 Puritans arrived
English went to total war in 1629 to ‘root out Indian people’
Little Big Horn battle in 1876
What happened after the Civil War?
Native Americans suffered poverty and were restricted to reservations. They also were dispossessed through fraud.
What were colonisers attitudes towards Natives?
believed they were sinful - for some groups they were unsavable (virginian europeans) because of their skin colour and race. later tactics changed to forced assimilation and conversion.
Why did Natives struggle to fight back?
From a diversity of (sometimes warring) tribes, they struggled to work together.
What was the General Allotment act of 1887?
It dissolved the collective tribal title to land and allotted individual natives plots, with which they became citizens, forced to pay taxes and subject to laws.
What type of Native American Literature became popular and why?
Autobiographies talking about double consciousness and the difficulty of assimilation, were prominent due to debate of what it meant to be american in time of increasing cultural diversity.
Who was Zitkalasa?
Native american, raised in a white residential school. Wrote about the damage of assimilation process and fought to retain her native identity.
Recurring contexts in NA literature
Destruction of land, religion, extermination of a people, assimilation trauma, poverty, alcholism, depression/insanity
What is “colonisation of the mind?”
Coined by Zitkalasa
the imposition of foreign language & culture coupled with amputation of native identity
Themes of reservation literature
Agony of the past, desire to reclaim land and culture, destruction of nature, portrayed like slave like state, dehumanising stage
Leslie Marmon Silko
Belongs to the laguna people
Wrote in the 70s
Models story telling on laguna storytelling - patterned like a spiderweb, non linear time pattern
Lullaby themes
Healing, forced assimilation/change of culture, alcoholism, reservation life, memory as source of escapism, joy but also sadness, residential schools
What is Yeibichi?
Traditional healing song
Indicates vitality of oral tradition and spiritual life
Is the frame on which the story is built.
Sherman Alexie
Spokane Coeur d’Alene
Born in 1966 in spokane indian reservation in washington state
fought alcoholism
focused on challenging racial stereotypes
Techniques present in BMFASHWTOIWSJHPSSBAW
Constant oxymorons
Shows the romanticisation of NA and their culture
References to music
Use of memory - unreliable narrator
Parental/familial relationships
Context for BMFASHWTOIWSJHPSSBAW
Woodstock - hippie festival in 60s/70s lots of drugs
time of political and cultural moments condemning terrorism, war, fighting for free love and transgression of conventions of 50s
Jimi Hendrix - african american musician, played ssb probs under influence on electric guitar
Moved & Song
Recurring themes : respect and admiration for nature, overwhelming power of nature
Transcendence/spirituality - there being something larger
Widow song
- Loss of husband and son (husband murderd by enemies, impossible to properly bury/honour as his corpse was decayed) Isolation from her community and lack of consolation. Feeling of being trapped - a beast in a trap
Woman’s divorce song
Dichotomy of silver vs lead
I am like sunlight itself - free of burden, part of nature, the divine
Purpose of Songs
Mourning/Honouring the dead (eg. Widow’s song)
Assimilation Policies
-Residential Schools
- Reservations
- Forced language learning, cutting of hair
etc.
Lack of spirituality - lead them to feel empty Zitkalasa
