...Dark times of the Native American Indians The foundation of the United States is based on the belief of peace, freedom and equality, which is enjoyed and practiced by most of the people in this “Country of Liberty.” However, the idea of equality and freedom does not apply to every person living in the U.S. Luis Valdez, an American writer, once said: “No Statue of Liberty ever greeted our arrival in this country. We did not, in fact, come to the United States at all. The United States came to us.” Growing up, children in the U.S. learn little of what has truly happened to the vast population of the Indigenous people on the continent? What has led to such a drastic decease of their culture and tradition? The answer lies in a dark part of the...
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...This literature review will discuss the depiction of Native American history while trying to capture the true essence of their culture. It will emphasize the major diseases brought by European settlers that caused high mortality rates in the American Indian population during the 18th- 19th century. Fighting for their land physically and politically became a hard battle for them and this paper will discuss their current status in America. Native Americans are the indigenous people of the Americas inhabiting the country roughly 15,000 – 40,000 years ago. The Bearing Sea land ice-bridge was created by the last Ice Age and that is what the Siberian (Northeast Asian) people used to cross into Alaska where they migrated to other parts of the Americas. In James Dixon’s Bones, Boats, and Bison:...
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...Today was finally the day. The smell of freshly cooked soup permeated throughout the longhouse as I began rubbing my weary eyes. All the women were gathered around the stone hearth when I walked into the main area of our longhouse. My dad and older brothers were sharpening their tools in preparation for the big hunting trip for the day. As soon as my dad saw me, he came over and congratulated me for finally becoming a man. My older brother came over and handed me a spear and a bow and arrow, today was my first day hunting with the men of my tribe. I took hold of the weapons and glanced out the opening of the door, the other women of the tribe were tending to the crops and the chores around the house. In the distance I could see the river my tribe uses for water and fish, four men were already spearing the fish for the day. I began feeling anxious about the hunting trip, as I had never killed anything before. The anxiety rumbled my stomache and I decided it was probably best not to obsess over it. After my father, my brothers, and I finished our soup, we walked out of the longhouse to meet with the other men of the tribe. The sun was beaming down on us and I looked out at our freshly planted rows of corn. I began to daydream about a conversation I had with one of the elders when I was younger. He had told me about our plan to join with other tribes around us to form a stronger society. About two harvests ago the plan finally materialized, we created a group called the Kanonsionni...
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...2012 In her essay, Se Habla Espanol writer Tanya Barrientos presents a memoir of a Guatemalan born Latina brought to the United States as a child but failed to identify with her native culture. Now, as an adult, she struggles to regain her Latino identity and acceptance. Barrientos was brought to the United States at a very young age by her parents who immersed her into the American culture by speaking only Spanish. This was to serve the purpose of blending her more readily into her new society and thus, ensuring her success. She describes how Americans during that time were not culturally tolerant and expected foreigners who entered the country to “leave their cultural baggage at the border”. As a result of her parents decision Barrientos assimilates to her new culture and rejects her old one. She took pride in not being able to speak Spanish; and furthermore, she took pride in her American peers saying that she did not seem Mexican. Barrientos states that those comments “made me feel superior. It made me feel American. It made me feel white.” Once her father realized how she felt about her native culture he set out to change her feelings. He sent her to spend time in Mexico City and his plan worked. She returned to the United States with a new appreciation for her Latino roots. She continues on to state that as she became more accepting of her native culture so had American society. The nation that had once ostracized ethnic cultures now accepted them...
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...because two cultures disagree and choose to settle it, and the strong culture prevails. African American and Caucasian people used to be exiled for getting married, because they were different. There are millions of different cultures in the world today and every day is an example of how they clash. An author, Mary Louise Pratt, wrote an essay referring to these conflicts. Her essay made it possible to further examine these struggles. In works such as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and “Family Stories From the Trail of Tears” Pratt’s essay makes it possible to deeply examine the clashing culture and gain insight into how it impacted the world today. Mary Louise Pratt’s essay is called “Arts of the Contact Zone”. She defines a contact zone as a space where two cultures wrestle with each other’s ideas and beliefs. She goes on to discuss how these contact zones have come to help shape society, and how the aftermath is world changing. Her essay provides an excellent analysis of what happens when two distinct cultures come into contact, and most importantly, how that affects others. She also examines the two phenomena that occur as a result of the Contact Zone. One sensation, authoethnography, gives the reader first hand insight into cultures. The other, transculturation, shows what happens after the contact zone. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao takes on an entirely new meaning with the help of Pratt’s tools of analysis. There are two distinct cultures, that of the...
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...Virginia Leslie. She is mixed with Mexican and Anglo-American background. Leslie grew up on a reservation called Laguna Pueblo. She attended a school on her reservation until fifth grade, she then relocated to a Catholic school in Albuquerque. She was not allowed to speak her language but it never stopped her from becoming successive. She then went and got her Bachelor’s degree at University of New Mexico in 1969. The same year she printed her first story “The Man to Send Rain Clouds.” She attended law school for a short time but left to continue her writing in 1971. She won an award called the National Endowment for the Arts Discovery Grant in 1971. Leslie accomplished many things throughout her career. She was awarded a-lot throughout her years of writing including for the Pushcart Prize for poetry and the MacArthur “Genius” Award....
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...Humanities 332: American Humanities Fall 2015 Professor Kim Codella PhD. Office Phone 916-691-7633 Office SOC #128 Office Hours MW 4:30PM-5:30PM TTH 4-5:30PM, online 11-12 pm Friday. codellk@crc.losrios.edu Required Text. The House made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday. This book is available in the bookstore for you and there is also a copy in the library for your use. In addition there will be weekly online readings in D2L. You must do the required reading to pass the class. Students must attend lectures and take notes. Participation, i.e., your attention is required. Course description: This course examines the arts and ideas taken from the American experience in the 20th century and today. Material covered includes literature, art, music, philosophy and history of the twentieth century. The course draws upon the arts of African American, Native American, Asian American, Anglo and Latino cultures as avenues for understanding issues of ethnicity, class and gender as they intersect with mainstream American values. Course presentation: Lecture, discussion, audio-visual materials and readings from the text, online, and material to be supplied by the instructor. In addition an extra-credit will be offered. Attendance: Required, a student missing more than 5.4 class hours may be dropped from the course (this is four class sessions). Because of the recent budget situation instructors are encouraged to drop students who are not attending class. Basic Rules: ...
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...Blanca Fuentes English 099 2538 October 15,2015 What Does it Mean To Be an American What does it mean to be bilingual to society? As Jake Jamieson states “ …holding to their past…”(266). Jamieson presents a well-constructed argument by presenting the two points of view; from an American and a native speaker. Jamieson mentions, how Americans feel offended when hearing a native language assuming that if a person is moving to America, then it should learn the language and adjust to their culture. Yet, Americans are forgetting that one of their constitution laws encourages freedom of speech. Then why deprive a person from exercising their right? As Maryam Marquez introduces a new point of view as a native speaker herself she states: “ Being an American has very little to do with their language we use during our free time in a free country”(528). Although Jake Jamieson presents both views, it would be fair to say that both authors agree to the importance it is to keep and respect our culture. “ …Twenty-seven states…have made English their official language…official-English laws always seem to be linked to anti-immigration legislation, such as proposals to limit immigration or to restrict government benefits to immigrants”(Jamieson, 269). Jamieson’s argument suggests that this is not a native language problem but a cultural problem where immigrants are not wanted in America. The author Myriam Marquez in “Why and When We Speak Spanish in public,” also presents a...
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...odds with a new culture for these two writers, both of them tried to assimilate into the American culture which they immigrated to and longed for getting involved with, by overcoming the inability of fitting in the society while struggling with their own particular difficulties, emphasizing that sometimes you have to do something against your original heritage in order to achieve the assimilation. The author, David Jacobson, of the essay “Reflections: Growing-Up Grown” expresses how grateful he was for his non-English...
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...NATIONALISM IN EDUCATION To have nationalism, Filipino must understand their Filipino culture on discipline, to have a unity in pursuing well-organized educational leaders that nationalism is important in education. Filipino must practice etiquette in education to pursue a goal. NEW PERSPECTIVE The relation of America and Philippines to improve the nationalism and to complete the agenda of our revolutionary leaders the perspective of education is to brighten the educational system and philosophy which was first introduced by the American. CAPTURING MINDS Education is very important in our life. It will be a weapon to fight in every trial we are facing. To win something, you must strive for it. The most effective way to conquer a person is to capture their minds. Despite the terroristic way of Japanese, the Filipino was never conquered. Because of being hatred of Filipino to Japanese, Filipino’s minds were so eager to let the Japanese leave our country. BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL EDUCATION Not all who colonized our country gives us hardship or disadvantages among us. There are also advantages. Because of them we learn how to be strong, the development of our literature slowly developing. Every colony, we adopt new things. Without them we were not who we are now. THE AMERICAN VICE-GOVERNOR During the American regime, the American Soldiers acted as a teacher in school. Americans influence our English...
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...Native American Culture Native American Culture America has always been described as one of the richest cultural regions. If you look at the American culture now, you will find that it has a really huge variety and diversity. And so if you study the history of America, you will find the same thing. America passed through multicultural stages until it reached what it is now. In this essay I will talk about the indigenous people in North America, which called Native American, or sometimes American Indians. First of all, I’m going to talk a little about some facts in the history of Native American people. The Native people were first who lived in this land “America” “They had lived in the land many, many years before white man set foot on their soil”(1). As any other cultures there are prosperity periods and another tragic periods. The period from the 16th through the 19th centuries was a tragic period for Native American. The population of Native American people was declining considerably in that period because of many reasons. The most harmful cause of this decrease in population was the epidemic disease that brought from Europe. An interesting piece of information is that the Native Americans were named “Indian” mistakenly! You would ask how is that? That accidentally happened when Christopher Columbus mistakenly believed that he landed in India. One of the most important aspects in the Native American people culture is their rituals and beliefs. Native American...
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...NATIONALISM IN EDUCATION To have nationalism, Filipino must understand their Filipino culture on discipline, to have a unity in pursuing well-organized educational leaders that nationalism is important in education. Filipino must practice etiquette in education to pursue a goal. NEW PERSPECTIVE The relation of America and Philippines to improve the nationalism and to complete the agenda of our revolutionary leaders the perspective of education is to brighten the educational system and philosophy which was first introduced by the American. CAPTURING MINDS Education is very important in our life. It will be a weapon to fight in every trial we are facing. To win something, you must strive for it. The most effective way to conquer a person is to capture their minds. Despite the terroristic way of Japanese, the Filipino was never conquered. Because of being hatred of Filipino to Japanese, Filipino’s minds were so eager to let the Japanese leave our country. BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL EDUCATION Not all who colonized our country gives us hardship or disadvantages among us. There are also advantages. Because of them we learn how to be strong, the development of our literature slowly developing. Every colony, we adopt new things. Without them we were not who we are now. THE AMERICAN VICE-GOVERNOR During the American regime, the American Soldiers acted as a teacher in school. Americans influence our English...
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...Argument Analysis “Perhaps the most intangible aspect of Native peoples’ existence is compromised within [tribal] stories” (Tsosie 302). In society today we are seeing the growth of other cultures being incorporated into the fashions trends, movies, and in commercial use. The term, “cultural appropriation”, comes into use when discussing the problems Native Americans face in society today. It is defined as “the taking- from a culture that is not one’s own-of intellectual property, cultural expressions or artifacts, history and the ways of knowledge” (Tsosie 310). Cultural appropriation today under the liberal tradition follow these suppositions “if non-Indians want to dress up like Indians and imitate Indian religion, then they should have the freedom to do so” (Tsosie 310). The fight for the right of ownership of cultural rights and property is not only intellectual but political as well. For many years, ethnic groups, especially Native Americans, have been in the fight to have returned what was originally them. They also argue that the portrayal of their culture in movies promote stereotypes about them within society (Tsosie 301). People misuse their clothing, symbols, and religious practices. Other arguments also exist like that “cultural appropriation harms the appropriated community because it interferes with the community’s ability to define itself and established its own identity” (Tsosie 313). In the United States, Native people are protected by “special rights” (Tsosie 301)...
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...The impact of exploration and colonization on the Native people annihilated and destroyed many people and their cultures. As a result of this they were enslaved, killed, and evicted off of their homeland. For example when colonists came over their main goal was to obtain land, gold, and other materials.In addition, the Europeans did a supreme job. In which today it is now called “Human Progress.” Which resulted in more money and the conversion of “ Indian” to christianity. This is where the very famous quote “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” first originated. A long time ago, Europeans could not grow enough food. This resulted in the starvation of many Europeans. To solve this problem Europeans enslaved many Natives so they could do their laborious work. The way it had effected the Natives when they were enslaved was by forcing them to abandon their culture. For example when Columbus had came he enslaved many Natives so the...
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...Early European Perceptions of Native American Initial European perceptions of Native Americans viewed them as uncivilized savages who, with time and effort, could be educated and assimilated into European culture. Christopher Columbus reported his opinion of the Indians in the following manner: “They should be good servants and of quick intelligence, since I see that they very soon say all that is said to them, and I believe that they would easily be made Christians, for it appears to me that they had no creed. Our Lord willing, at the time of my departure, I will bring back six of them to your Highness that they may learn to talk (Hurtado 46)”. This passage shows that Columbus believed the Indians intelligent and would be easily converted to European ways, but did not think them equal to Europeans. Columbus demonstrates his ethnocentricity by disregarding Native American religious beliefs, and by assuming that because they did not speak a European language they could not "talk." Europeans viewed the Indians as having inferior cultural practices such as their laws, government, economics, and mode of living, religion, property ownership, and education/writing. However, the Europeans believed that these cultural traits of the Native Americans could with little difficulty be changed to resemble European cultures. In 1620, the first college for Native Americans was established to educate Indians in European ways, and in 1640, Harvard opened a college for Indians. This proves that...
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