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U.S. Minority Literature Week 2c

U.S. Minority Literature Week 2c. Schedule. Announcements: first paper due tomorrow, please save paper as Last Name First Name Close Reading Paper Quiz 3 ) Presentation by Amanda, Jessica, Lisa, and Will 4 ) Lecture on Manifest Destiny

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U.S. Minority Literature Week 2c

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  1. U.S. Minority LiteratureWeek 2c

  2. Schedule • Announcements: first paper due tomorrow, please save paper as Last Name First Name Close Reading Paper • Quiz 3) Presentation by Amanda, Jessica, Lisa, and Will 4) Lecture on Manifest Destiny 5) Discussion on Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories third section 6) Office hours from 4-6p today! 7) Film screening tomorrow: Stephanie Black’s Life and Debt (text from Kincaid’s A Small Place)

  3. New Due Dates: • Final paper draft due on Wednesday, 7/23 • Final paper due on Wednesday, 7/30 • *These due dates will be reflected on the online syllabus on our course blog.

  4. Quiz: • In 2-3 sentences, describe two Iktomi stories from the first section of American Indian Stories. 2) What do the two “pale face” missionaries want with Zitkala-Sa in the second section of American Indian Stories? 3) What is the Trail of Tears? 4) How does the gold rush impact California Native Americans?

  5. Manifest Destiny • coined in 1845, Manifest Destiny is the belief that the nationis destined to expand and conquer the West in the name of God, nature, civilization and progress

  6. Impact of Manifest Destiny • the 1860s saw the US government abandon the policy of treating much of the west as a large Indian reservation and introduced a system of small, separate tribal reservations • the Dawes Act in 1887 broke up reservations and the treatment of Indians as individuals rather than tribes. To anyone who accepted the act’s terms, they could become a US Citizen in 25 years

  7. Impact of Manifest Destiny • These laws, which dismiss the Native American oral tradition of living on the land but not owning the land, also continually oppress individual Native Americans

  8. “I Hear America Singing” (Walt Whitman, 1867) I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

  9. Zitkala-Sa on America • Page 242-44 • How does this vision of “America” relate to Whitman’s?

  10. “A few weeks ago a party of tourists stood under some big trees and exclaimed about their height, their circumference and their reputed age. I ventured the remark: “If only we could understand the language of these big trees we might learn interesting things of the past, the experiences of ancient people now gone away to the unknown…” (250)

  11. The very next time you spend your vacation among the redwoods or climb old Indian trails in the Yosemite Valley, take your radio set and “listen in” on the life of the American Indian, past and present. “Live and let live” (253)

  12. Native Americans at the turn of the century “The California Indians dwindled from 210,000 to 20,000 during the siege of seventy cruel winters, repeated evictions and the spread of white man’s diseases among them. They were unable to get away far enough to escape deadly epidemics” (258) “Their wages are low and only the utmost economy saves enough money to take them through the winter. Some less successful suffer for food and warm clothing before springtime returns. […] Indian children sometimes are kept out of schools for lack of shoes and suitable clothing requisite for their admitance… (259)

  13. Native Americans today • Less than 1% of population according to 2010 census is Native American • Native Americans still only graduate high school at about a 50% rate. There are significantly fewer Native Americans who graduate from college once they enter the university. • The “digital divide”: many Native Americans have yet to be connected to basic telephone networks and therefore cannot access the Internet. • American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 • Violence Against Women Act in 1994

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