Great Speeches by Native Americans

Frozen in Time: Examining Historical Speeches from Influential Native American Leaders

© 2017 Haley Rains Photography 

Organization:

Date of Assignment: April 11th, 2017

Title: Frozen in Time: Examining Historical Speeches from Influential Native American Leaders

Book: Great Speeches by Native Americans 

Chapters: "With such people I want no peace"; "Thy mother doth complain, implores thy aid against this thievish people new come hither"; “You have got our country, but are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon us”; "The English who came first to this country were but a handful of people"

Author’s Full Name: Edited by Bob Blaisdell 

Background Research:

About this book:

Great Speeches by Native Americans is a book composed of 82 speeches that occurred over the span of five centuries by famous American Indian leaders like Tecumseh, Crazy Horse, Red Jacket, Sitting Bull, and many others. 

Summary Paragraph:

Three significant ideas:

1.   The great speeches by these American Indian leaders employed the use of metaphors and imagery to capture their audiences and spark social revolutions.

2.   The speeches serve as evidence of the brilliant and eloquent thinking of American Indians during a time when they were treated as having less than intelligent thought and comprehension.  

3.  Great Speeches by Native American Leaders is a testament to the power of the Oral Tradition. 

Three Key Moments in Plot:

1.   In "With such a people I want no peace" Timucua is challenging the notion of European valor and civility while pronouncing his refusal to accept the overthrow of his people. Acuera (Timuca) warns, "As for me and my people, we choose death -- yes! a hundred deaths -- before the loss of our liberty and the subjugation of our country" (3).

2.   In "The mother doth complain, implores thy aid against this thievish people new come hither" Chikataubut (Massachuset) shares a vision he had in which a spirit visits him and expresses its worry about the "wild people" (Europeans) who have "[disdained] our ancient antiquities, and honorable customs" (5) Of course, this is in response to the disregard on the part of the European settlers to recognize and respect the traditional culture and customs of the Indigenous American Indian population onto wich they imposed themselves.

3.    I found it interesting that throughout Red Jacket’s (Seneca) speech, “You have got our country, but are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon us” in which he addressed a missionary that came to convert the Seneca to Christianity, Red Jacket repeatedly refers to the missionary as, “Brother”; this is evidence for the remarkable amount of integrity that Red Jacket possessed, despite living in a time of extreme adversity. Red Jacket eloquently depicted the frustration he experienced when trying to understand why, after losing his land and his people to Europeans, missionaries wanted to force their religion (Christianity) upon them as well. Red Jacket was courageous as he justly interrogated the missionary and tried to understand his motives for converting Red Jacket’s people to Christianity. Christianity made little sense to Red Jacket; the Seneca had their own religion and their own idea about a creator and it reflected their way of life and their connection to the Earth. Why did the missionary dismiss that? Red Jacket even suggested that followers of Christianity fail to agree unanimously on what exactly being a Christian means. Throughout his speech, Red Jacket remained composed and respectful of the missionary as he intelligibly stated the needs and beliefs of his people. I was moved by his appeal to the missionary; his efforts to protect his people and their way of life were genuine and deserving of great honor. 

The Significant Ideas (Poetry):

1.   Throughout the book, Native American leaders use imagery and metaphors which increase the impact of their messages. Using vivid imagery that depicts the world around them, They articulate beautifully their positions in a way that is true to their oral traditions and storytelling. 

2.   By employing personification in their speeches, the Native American leaders do an outstanding job at emphasizing the importance of land in relation to their culture. Using this approach, the leaders were able to humanize themselves in a way that challenges the notion that it is acceptable to remove Native American communities from their homeland and impose European culture on their ways of life.

3.    The leaders were able to appropriate a language that is not their own and integrate their traditional forms of storytelling and tribal traditions with formal European speaking and writing conventions to construct and deliver speeches that made an undeniable impact on the course of their tribal histories. 

Oral Tradition:

       Native American cultures employ storytelling and oral tradition to teach lessons about morality as well as instructions on navigating the world around them, which is why Great Speeches by Native Americans is so remarkable; it is a testament to the way in which Native Americans were forced to appropriate and selectively assimilate the tools of a society that sought (and seeks) to oppress and marginalize them. 

        The Indian writer Raja Rao's in his preface to Kanthapura wrote, "The telling has not been easy. One has to convey in a language that is not one's own the spirit that is one's own. English is not really an alien language to us. It is the language of our intellectual make-up but not of our emotional make-up" (Rao). This is the challenge these Native American leaders were faced with. Being colonized people seeking justice, they were compelled to do so by way of the language of the colonizer -- a monumental task. 

Literary devices:

Theme:

Great Speeches by Native Americans contains several reoccurring themes including racism, colonization, hate, fear, hopelessness, despair, and courage. The most remarkable theme that we see throughout the book is resilience. By preserving these great speeches, the way in which these tribal leaders and communities honorably resisted and tirelessly combated the destruction of their worlds against opposing forces has been solidified in history. 

Voice:

The structure, syntax, and impeccable command of the English language on the part of the Native American leaders initiated the dismantling of an imposed American cultural identity by employing traditional methods of storytelling to regenerate and preserve their cultures. 

Additional literary devices:

In "With such a people I want no peace," Acuera uses a metaphor to describe the destructive nature of European colonization; he declares, "Other of your accursed race have, in years past, poisoned our peaceful shores" (3).

He also uses imagery to warn European settlers of what they will encounter if they continue to impose their way of life on his community: "Every captive will we quarter and hang up to the highest tree along the road" (3).

Digital Media:

https://youtu.be/Zxp2M3ewdGg

This video is a reading of Acuera's "With such a people I want no peace" as well as a commentary on the powerful nature of the speech. The video also contains a brief introduction to the background of Acuera and his speech.

Work cited:

Blaisdell, Robert. Great Speeches by Native Americans. Courier Corporation, 2000.

Rao, Raja. Kanthapura. Vol. 224. New Directions Publishing, 1967.

↞The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven↠

Sherman Alexie and the Role He Plays in the Oral Tradition

©2017 Haley Rains Photography

Organization:

Date of Assignment: March 14th, 2017

Title: Sherman Alexie and the Role He Plays in the Oral Tradition

Book: Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Chapters: Every Little Hurricane; This is What is Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona; The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore; The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor

Author’s Full Name: Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr.

Background Research:

About Alexie:

Alexie is a member of the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribe and grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. He attended Gonzaga University in 1985 and transferred to Washington State University in 1987 where he began writing poetry and short fiction.

Alexie suffered from health issues early on in his life which drove him to be somewhat introverted and inspired a life of reading and studying. Alexie’s childhood was far from perfect since, according to New York Times writer Timothy Egan, “Both his parents are alcoholics, one recovering, one not” (Egan). According to Egan, Sherman is the first member of his family to move away from the rez, as tribal members call it” (Egan).

Alexie’s writing inspired the “first Indian-produced, Indian-directed, Indian-written feature film” (Egan).

Today, Alexie is a poet, novelist, comedian (performer), and filmmaker and currently lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife and two sons. 

Summary Paragraph:

Three significant ideas:

1.   In his work, Alexie touches on the issues that plague many American Indian reservations. Alexie writes about the hardships that many American Indians experience as a result of poverty like alcoholism, addiction, suicide, unemployment, and dysfunctional family life.

2.   Alexie's characters try to live their lives despite being the products of a marginalized population with very little hope of ever escaping their oppressive environments

3.   Alexie, like many Native writers and artists, uses his ability to share engaging stories as a way to transmit information about the world around him; thus, the oral tradition.

Three Key Moments in Plot:

1.   In "Every Litte Hurricane," Alexie writes about the violence that his character, Victor, witnesses regularly. Alexie uses vivid imagery to describe the drunken altercation that takes places between two of his uncles, Adolph and Arnold

2.   "This Is What It Means to Say Pheonix, Arizona" provides an intimate window into the lives of the two young Native men, Thomas and Victor, and how their unlikely friendship spawns through the tragedy of Victor's father's passing. This story is particularly touching because of the changes that Victor experiences while he is trying to process the loss of his father.

3.   In “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor,” Alexie shares the way in which Jimmy and Norma deal with Jimmy’s terminal cancer prognosis, thus allowing us to see the unique way in which these tribal members process the experience of loss and death. 

The Significant Ideas (Poetry):

1.   Alexie uses imagery, metaphors, similes, personification, and idioms to depict the world around him.

2.   His abrasive nature of writing and his witty one-liners all tell the story of a frustrated Native American individual trying to navigate the world in his own way.

3.   He combines traditional forms of storytelling and tribal traditions with formal writing conventions to create a hybrid style of writing, which ultimately contributes to the original and authentic voice from which he writes.

Oral Tradition:

I appreciate Alexie for the contribution he has made to American Indian literature and the oral tradition. I think he provides a valuable insight into the life of an American Indian while showcasing the multitude of talents that American Indians possess—particularly their talent for storytelling.  According to Alexie, ''Most of that stuff I write about happened to me or somebody I knew'' (Egan). Alexis is a new breed of Indigenous writers and has, in his own way, carried on the form of storytelling and oral tradition; he just possesses his own ideas and interpretations of what it means to be a modern Native American.

Literary devices:

Theme:

Alexie’s book contains several reoccurring themes including racism, love, hate, alcoholism, hopelessness, despair, courage, and resilience. Many of his chapters drag us, as readers, through a rollcoaster of emotions; worry, laughter, sadness, and awe. 

Voice:

If you look at the structure, syntax, punctuation, dialogue style and overall character development within Alexie's novel, you can see how he created a voice that is unconventional and authentic. He shattered typical writing styles in order to create his own voice. 

Additional literary devices:

Alexie uses Foreshadowing in "The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor" to imply that, even though Norma has left Jimmy, she will return to him because their love is stronger than any other emotion they are experiencing. 

He also uses hyperbole when describing this interaction in "The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore":

"While I still held that pistol to my temple, I used my other hand to flip Adrian off. Then I made a fist with my third hand to gather a little bit of courage or stupidity and wiped sweat from my forehead with my fourth hand" (43).

Digital Media:

https://youtu.be/uwcJaUaVfR0

This clip from Smoke Signals (1998) encompasses the conflicting nature of Native Americans trying to live off of the reservation. Victor and Thomas feel the pressure to conform to a circumscribed identity in which they're supposed to be stoic as if they've been "hunting buffalo," but Thomas shatters this misconception with the comment about his tribe never having been buffalo hunters. He shares that Thomas and Victor belong to a tribe that relied on fishing as their main source of sustenance. The irony is that anyone outside of their reservation is probably not aware of this fact. This video captures the essence of Alexie's complex characters in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. 

Sherman Alexie's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/ShermanAlexieAuthor/

Work Cited:

Alexie, Sherman. Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. N.p.: Open Road Media, 2003. Print.

Egan, Timothy. "An Indian Without Reservations." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Jan. 1998. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

"Sherman Alexie." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

Signals, Smoke. "Chris Eyre." Film. Miramax Films (1998). 

↞A Breeze Swept Through↠

Championing the Native Voice: Examining the writings of Luci Tapahonso

by Haley Rains 

© 2017 Haley Rains Photography 

Organization:

Date of Assignment: February 21st, 2017

Title: Championing the Native Voice: Examining the writings of Luci Tapahonso

Chapters: Hills Bros. Coffee;  Dear Alvin;  All I Want;  Raisin Eyes. 

Author’s Full Name: Luci Tapahonso

Background Research:

About this Author:

Luci Tapahonso is a Navajo poet and writer from Shiprock, NM. Tapahonso serves on numerous Editorial Boards and Advisory Boards, writes for Magazines like New Mexico Magazine and has even been featured as a guest speaker on major networks such as PBS, CBS, and ABC.

Her work has been published in countless books, anthologies, and articles. For her contributions to Native American literature, she has received several awards and recognitions. She received the Excellent Instructor Award at the University of New Mexico as well as being recognized by the City of Sacramento in 1993 as an Outstanding Native American Woman. 

About this book:

A Breeze Swept Through is a collection of poems by Tapahonso about her life as a Navajo woman living in New Mexico. Tapahonso shares intimate moments of her life that involve relationships, friendships, family, love, and loss. She dedicated A Breeze Swept Through to her brothers, Eugene Tapahonso, Jr., Alvin Tapahonso and Calvin Tapahonso.

Summary Paragraph:

Three significant ideas:

1.   Tapahonso encompasses the traditional Native American way of transmitting information through art and storytelling.

2.   Native American cultures use stories not only to teach moral lessons and convey practical information about the natural world but to confer identities onto tribal members, validating their existence.  Tapahonso allows us to see the way in which she, her family, and her tribe navigate the world through the lens of tribal (Najavo) citizens.  

3.   Tapahonso uses the land and her environment as a way to interpret her experiences and express her emotions -- something that is authenticly Native American.  

Three Key Moments in Plot:

1.   Tapahonso's poem "Dear Alvin" is a beautiful tribute to her lost loved one -- her brother Alvin. She shares the emotions she experiences as a result of losing someone close to her in a way that is artful and full of symbolism. She describes the sunshine after a rainstorm as, "a new strength. A new life" (11). It's a privilege for us as readers to be able to see inside the mind of a Navajo woman and observe the way in which she processes life and death; she appears to celebrate the life of the one that she lost as opposed to mourning his passing. 

2.   In her poem, "Hills Brothers Coffee," Tapahonso illustrates a moment between her and her uncle in which they bond over coffee. Tapahonso elegantly and subtlety articulates the way in which family traditions are transmitted intergenerationally. Tapahonso, referring to the coffee, repeatedly writes, "It does it for me" (8). Initially, it is her uncle that shares with Luci the pleasure he receives from enjoying his coffee by saying, "Ahh, that's the one that does it for me. Very good coffee" (8). At the end of the poem, Luci shares that she buys "Hills Brother Coffee" because that is the coffee her and her uncle enjoyed together.

3.   In her poem "All I want," Tapahonso begins by stating her desire to make bread as well as her grandmother does. As the poem continues, it becomes evident that Tapahonso admires more than just her grandmother's homemade bread; she enjoys spending time with her grandmother. Tapahonso articulates wonderfully the way in which moments spent bonding with loved ones can be as simple as baking bread together. She uses vivid details to describe her experience. For example, the way she describes the soft, warm bread, the sounds of children, and even the breeze that finds its way inside the kitchen. She places us, as readers, in her grandmother's kitchen and provides for us a window into an intimate moment shared between her and her grandmother. 

4.  "Raisin Eyes" is about Luci's friend, Ella, who is in a relationship with a man that is not good for her. Tapahonso illustrates Bella's inability to leave him despite wanting out of her relationship with the "Navajo [cowboy] with the raisin eyes" (39). But can't seem to help herself from engaging in "down-and-out love affairs" (39).  Ella, despite being taken advantage of, does not leave her dysfunctional relationship.

The Significant Ideas (Poetry):

1.   Tapahonso employs the use of Free Style poetry which, according to Familyfriend Poems, "does not follow any rules. Their creation is completely in the hands of the author. Rhyming, syllable count, punctuation, number of lines, number of stanzas, and line formation can be done however the author wants in order to convey the idea. There is no right or wrong way to create a Free Verse poem" (Familyfriend poems). 

2.  Tapahonso uses descriptive imagery to convey her emotions and engage us, as readers. She writes from a personal and introspective point of view which allows us as readers to sympathize and identify with her and her characters. 

3.   Tapahonso has a voice that is uniquely and authentically Indian. She incorporates traditional tribal values, experiences, and histories into her tales of love, loss, and daily life in Shiprock, New Mexico.

Oral Tradition:

Through her writing, Tapahonso has identified a way in which Native Americans can liberate ourselves from circumscribed identities conferred by colonial powers and redefine our own lives according to our traditional cultures. She has brilliantly employed the use of oral tradition in a new-age, hybrid form of poetry. 

   

Literary devices:

Theme:

A Breeze Swept Through contains several reoccurring themes including love, loss, tradition, culture, hope, and optimism. 

Voice:

Her unconventional writing structure and use of syntax and punctuation give life to her characters in a way that is endearing to her audience. 

Additional literary devices:

She frequently uses similes, metaphors, and symbols to describe the places and sensations that she is experiencing. For example, in her poem, “Dear Alvin,” she uses the metaphor, “the clouds were low and heavy veils of gray” (11). to express the way in which her environment and the weather depicted the way she felt by the passing of her brother, Alvin. 

She also uses another writing convention called Personification to convey her emotion. In “Dear Alvin,” she writes, “as we drove back to Albuquerque, it rained most of the way – a strong male rain"  (11). She refers to the rain as “strong” and “male” to project her brother, who she had just lost, on to something tangible. 

Digital Media:

https://youtu.be/CbzpugVpnd0

This video is a reading of  Tapahonso's "Raisin Eyes" by the author herself. 

Luci's Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/luci.tapahonso.5

Work cited:

Tapahonso, Luci. A breeze swept through. West End Press, 1987.

Family Friend Poems. "All Types Of Poems." Family Friend Poems. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2017.

↞A First American Views His Land↠

N. Scott Momaday as the Quintessential Native American Writer

by Haley Rains

 © 2017 Haley Rains Photography

Organization:

Date of Assignment: January 31st, 2017

Title: Momaday as the Quintessential Native American Writer

Book: The Man Made of Words: Essays, Stories, Passages

Chapters: "The Native American Voice in Literature"; A First American Views His Land.

Author’s Full Name: Navarro Scott Mammedaty

Background Research:

About Momaday:

Momaday is a Kiowa Indian from Lawton, Oklahoma. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of New Mexico and his MA / PhD in English from Stanford University. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author as well as an editor of anthologies. 

He's won numerous awards including an Academy of American Poets Prize as well as the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement. 

Momaday has taught at Standford, University of Arizona, UC Berkley, Columbia, and Princeton. Today, he is the Regents Professor of the Humanities at the University of Arizona. 

Summary Paragraph:

Three significant ideas:

1.  In "The Native Voice in Literature", Momaday suggests that man, in his earliest forms, set the precedence for what is now modern literature. 

2.    Momaday argues that "writing defines the very terms of our existence" (15). 

3.   "Oral tradition is the foundation of literature" (14)

Three Key Moments in Plot:

1.    Momaday argues that "Language and literature involve sacred matter" (13) and that to understand the significance of traditional tribal life, we must first understand what it means to exist within the context of oral tradition. 

2.   Momaday encourages people -- particularly Native scholars -- to redefine and rediscover Native "literary heritage."

3.  Momaday suggests that "Words are rare and therefore dear" (15) and stresses the importance of "taking words seriously."

The Significant Ideas (Poetry):

1.   In "A First American Views His Land," Momaday uses poetry in a way that resembles traditional tribal songs.

2.   He uses intense, vivid imagery (typical in traditional tribal storytelling) to place us, as readers, on the landscape of northern New Mexico along side a man in the midst of a hunt for bison. 

3.   When reading Momaday, you can see the way in which he combines traditional forms of storytelling with beautifully rich, detailed -- but still formal -- writing conventions to create a hybrid style of writing incomparable to any other Native American writers.

Oral Tradition:

N. Scott Momaday's command of the English language in combination with his rich, deep roots in Native American heritage is unparalleled in modern Native American literature. He blows us away with his ability to place us in the center of an ancient hunter's world; he allows us to feel what it's like to be "the lord of the universe" (31). 

"The earth is our mother. The sky is our father.' This concept of nature, which is at the center of the Native American world view, is familiar to us all. But it may well be that we do not understand entirely what the concept is in its ethical and philosophical implications" (33).

Literary devices:

Theme:

Oral tradition and culture are the most present themes in A Man Made of Words. 

Voice:

Momadays use of poetry, incorporation of tribal songs, perfect use of punctuation and syntax as well as his rich and diverse vocabulary create a purely authentic Native voice.

Additional literary devices:

Through Momaday's use of imagery, we can also smell earth and feel the wind that blows through the hunter's hair. What a stunning visual experience Momaday creates for us. 

Momaday employs -- to perfection -- the use of metaphors in order to describe the intense moment when the hunter springs towards the bison with his spear: "Then the scene explodes. In one and the same instant the man springs to his feet and bolts forward, his arm cocked and the spear held high, and the huge animal lunges in panic, bellowing its whole weight thrown violently into the bank..." (31).

Digital Media:

https://youtu.be/rbqzm6x7Noo

This video is a presentation by N. Scott Momaday which includes some of his writings from A Man Made of Words.

N. Scott Momaday's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/scott.day.921230

Work Cited:

Momaday, N. Scott. The man made of words: essays, stories, passages. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. Print.

↞Indian Law Outline↠

Navigating Life After Colonization: A Response to the Indian Law Outline

by Haley Rains

© 2017 Haley Rains Photography

↠ Native American societies are no strangers to having foreign belief systems imposed over their own on their cultural traditions, but what happens when these foreign belief systems become institutionalized devices used to dismantle and destroy traditional Native American ways of life?

       Since the arrival of the Spanish to the Americas in the late 1400s, Native American societies have faced drastic and even catastrophic change on an extraordinary level. From disease to land dispossession, to forced labor (slavery), many Native tribes in North America would see their societies forever disrupted and changed. Organized religion played a major role in this transformation of tribes from independent, thriving cultures to colonized, dependent nations.

William Gilpen writes:

The American realizes that 'Progress is God.' The destiny of the American people is to subdue the continent -- to rush over this vast field to the Pacific Ocean... to change darkness into light and confirm the destiny of the human race... Divine task! Immortal mission! The pioneer army perpetually strikes to the front. Empire plants itself upon the trails. (Gilpen, 1874)

      When we learn about the role that religion (predominantly Christianity) played in the formation of what is now the United States, it is easy to assume that religious influence on tribal societies is a simple matter of the natural trajectory of history, but what we often fail to acknowledge in this simplistic view is just how much influence historical Christian institutions continue to exert on contemporary Native societies.

      Today, many Native people still struggle to reconcile the cultural disparities between their own societies and the Western societies that have imposed their culture and customs on them.  Because the narrative of “manifest destiny” is so ingrained in American society, it is often difficult for Native people to form their identities in a way that allows them to be a member of the dominate society while still remaining connected to their traditional customs; one could argue that this struggle for identity is due to the fundamental difference of traditions, values, and ways of life.

                   ↞⥈↠

Work Cited

Gilpin, W. (1874). Mission of the North American people, geographical, social, and political. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott &.

↞Native American Oral Tradition↠

The Impulse to Make Art: Examining Oral Tradition

by Haley Rains

  The Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc, Southern France

↠ "Native American cultures use stories to teach moral lessons and convey practical information about the natural world." The Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc was discovered in 1994 and is located in Southern France, about 400 miles from Paris. Before landslides and other natural occurrences within the environment around the cave exposed it, the cave was sealed tightly for around 20,000 years. Inside of the cave, discoverers found elaborate paintings that--according to radiocarbon dating--are from as long ago as 32,000 years. This makes these paintings some of the earliest known artifacts of present-day man’s ancestors; in fact, the paintings are two times older than any painting ever discovered elsewhere.  

              According to Werner Herzog—a well-known documentarian and the writer and director of “The Cave of Forgotten Dreams” (a documentary about the paintings in the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc)—what is most intriguing about the paintings is what they represent; the horses, bison, cave lions, cave bears and woolly mammoths that cover the walls within the cave represent the “instinct to make art in order to represent the world around them.” 

               As soon as humans evolved to the point where they could walk upright (by way of changes to the environment in which natural selection selected favorably for)--thus allowing for the use of their hands (which were previously used to walk on)--they began to develop tools; these tools increased their ability to hunt and gather more efficiently and subsequently created more time for them to develop early stages of culture, which included the production of art and early forms of language. 

                Like our early human ancestors, Native Americans encompassed this transmission of information through art and storytelling within their culture.  As stated in Key Elements of Oral Literature, "In this one brief tale, important, life-sustaining lessons about greed, the wisdom of elders, and game management are conveyed in an entertaining and engaging way."

↞⥈↠

Works Cited:

Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Dir. Werner Herzog. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.

"Herzog Enters 'The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams'" NPR. NPR, 20 Apr. 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.

↞How to Write the Great American Indian Novel↠ By Sherman Alexie

 ©2017 Haley Rains Photography 

"...White people must carry / an Indian deep inside themselves.
Those interior Indians are half-breed / and obviously from horse cultures. If the interior Indian is male / then he must be a warrior, especially if he is inside a white man."(Alexie 27-30)

↠ In his poem, "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel," Sherman Alexie gives out very little sugar with his pronouncements. "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel" is his unforgiving commentary on the all-to-familiar portrayal of American Indians in American art and entertainment. Alexie uses humor to expose the inaccurate, stereotypical image of the "tragic Indian." Alexie observes, "All of the Indians must have tragic features: tragic noses, eyes, and arms. / Their hands and fingers must be tragic when they reach for tragic food." (1-2) American Indians are portrayed in American art and entertainment in way that romanticizes them; by painting an image of an all-knowing, spiritual warrior that belongs to a mysterious, vanishing culture, non-Indian artists and writers are perpetuating a wildly inaccurate (at times amusingly so), cliché,  and an even harmful stereotype of American Indian culture.

              The phrase “preferably from a horse culture” appears throughout the poem. Alexie is commenting on the tendency of non-Indians to reduce all Native American cultures to one group: Plains Indians. This group has been romanticized and vilified in American culture—from dime-store novels to Hollywood westerns. Additionally, these groups represent a historical period that has been well-preserved in America’s imagined history. These groups resided in the West, a region that has itself been romanticized and mythologized in America’s collective conscience. Therefore, “horse cultures” are a trope, a cultural shorthand that Americans invoke then they are talking about Native Americans—and it is, of course, inaccurate and misguided.

"There must be one murder, one suicide, one attempted rape./

Alcohol should be consumed. Cars must be driven at high speeds." (23-24)

          Alexie refers to racist stereotypes throughout his poem. He uses a tone of sarcasm, This line refers to the often cited criticisms of contemporary Native American cultures. According to these stereotypes, all Indians are violent, depressed, sex offenders, alcoholics, or careless. Or, they are perpetual victims of these things. Either way, they are tropes used by the dominant culture to categorize—and limit—Native American people. Alexie’s poem is actually a commentary on the way the dominant culture—through its popular culture—continues to define and limit the way it chooses to think about Native Americans. When white Americans think about Native Americans, they do so on their own terms.

  ↞⥈↠

Works Cited:

Alexie, Sherman. "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel." Nothing But The Truth: An Anthology of Native American Literature. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice-Hall Inc., 2001. P. 425-426. Print.