Native American Literature

1. Native American Literature Unit 1

2. Colonists • Explorers (Columbus, 1492) • Those seeking religious freedom (Puritans and Pilgrims) • Jamestown, VA (1607) 1st colony • Plymouth, MA

3. Puritans • Puritans, also in New England areas: intended to reform the Church from within; hoped to build a “model community guided in all aspects by the Bible.” • Theocracy – a state under immediate guidance of God • Also believed in predestination (i.e. God already knows who he will save), but you can’t take it for granted… • Therefore, they were very devout (hard work and self-discipline) *extreme

4. Pilgrim • Pilgrims in Plymouth, MA: Mayflower, 1620. • They broke from the Church of England because they found it corrupt; abandoned the idea of reforming from within • Practiced their religion as they saw fit; not as extreme as the Puritans

5. Native/Colonist Meetings • Many Native Americans (Pocahontas; Squanto) helped colonists by showing them: • Agriculture (maize, beans, squash, maple sugar) • Woodcraft (snowshoes, toboggans, birch bark canoes) • New England, “first Thanksgiving” • Other meetings were violent; some N.Am.s saw them as invaders and attacked; sometimes retaliation, sometimes not

6. “They did not at first realize that these earlier Americans, like Europeans, had cultural values and literary traditions of their own.” “As we know now, these widely dispersed tribes of Native Americans differed greatly from one another in language, government, social organization, customs, housing, and methods of survival.” “No one knows for certain when or how the first Americans arrived in what is not the United States. It may have been as recently as 12,000 years ago or as long ago as 70,000 years. Even if the shorter estimate is correct, Native Americans have been on the continent 30 times longer than Europeans.”

7. Demographics In 1492, about how many indigenous people were here? In 1492, it was believed “a scant 1 million people” inhabited the continent. Today, many experts estimate that, in 1492, populations were probably closer to: Continental U.S. 12 million North America 18 million Western Hemisphere 100 million *from the NMAI Most population loss was due to violence and epidemics (diseases)

8. “This represents, even in the most conservative estimates, a population loss of 98-99%,leading many people to name this an American Holocaust.”

9. Demographics • Considered primitive and savage • Pagan = nature based belief system, usually multiple gods • Way of living • Some hunted and gathered, but many lived in large agricultural communities of 10,000 or more (think “city”), had extensive trade systems, and complex, highly developed political structures and systems of scientific and spiritual knowledge. Organized and civilized • 1000-2000 distinct cultural groups, speaking as many as 500 different languages.

10. Oral vs. Written Tradition • Natives didn’t write; symbolism & storytellers • European colonists did, so… • What is written about Natives is either from an outsider looking in OR • Written down much later in time once Native Americans learned to write and felt the need to do so

11. Language Additions • Native American language was hard to pronounce so they anglicized their words for things previously unknown to them • Otchock = woodchuck • Rhaugcum = racoon • Segankw = skunk

12. Literature • Narratives – story; an account of connected events. • Native American creation myths • Explorers/Colonists accounts

13. Narratives • Narrative – a work that tells a story; fiction and nonfiction • Nonfiction Narratives or “Narrative Accounts” tell the story of real-life events • Firsthand accounts/Primary Sources: created by people who lived through significant historical events *bias – personal opinion; one-sided perpective • Secondhand accounts/Secondary Sources: written by people who researched the events but did not actually witness or experience them. *objective, but may be less accurate

14. Narratives cont’d • The main purpose is to provide information about events and experiences • Types of Narratives: Nonfiction • Exploration • Journal • Historical • Captivity • Slave • Fiction • Short Stories • Novels • Narrative Poetry

15. After the United States of America was established…

16. U.S./Indian Relations • Long and complex • Policy has moved between periods of attempts to: • “disappear” or “terminate” the “Indian problem, ” and • reform / attempt preservation of the First Nations. • By 1900, Native populations in North America were reduced to their lowest points: Continental U.S. 237,196 Canada 101,000

17. The Treaty Era • Between 1778 and 1868, 367 tribal treaties were ratified by the U.S. Senate. • On the one hand, treaties recognized that tribes were sovereign nations. • On the other hand, most treaties were never ratified and the terms of the treaties were regularly and persistently broken.

18. 3 “Choices” “Since first contact, Native Americans have been given three choices — which weren't really choices at all.” 1. Genocide Some tribes chose to fight or were forced to resist. While many have won some battles, they lost all the wars. Hundreds and thousands of Native Americans were killed in battles or by disease or starvation. One of the worst examples of genocide was what happened to the California tribes. 2. Relocate Even if a tribe, like the Cherokee, tried to join the American society, they could still be forced to relocate to Oklahoma Indian Territory hundreds of miles away. Hence, what happened on the Trail of Tears. 3.Assimilate The first “choice” was for a tribe to assimilate into the dominant American culture, become "civilized," aka give up tribal ways. Education was the tool for assimilation in the boarding school experience. The government push to assimilate native tribes continued through the 1950s Urban Relocation Program.

19. American Indian Boarding Schools According to Col. Richard Pratt's speech in 1892:  "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."

20. Boarding Schools • Between 1880 and 1902, 25 off-reservation boarding schools were built and 20,000 to 30,000 Native American children went through the system. That was roughly 10 percent of the total Indian population in 1900. • By 1900, 460 boarding and day schools had been built near the reservations, most run by religious organizations with government funds. All told, more than 100,000 Native Americans were forced by the U.S. government to attend Christian schools where tribal languages and cultures were replaced by English and Christianity. • Yet, despite the negative aspects of boarding schools, many students stubbornly held on to their tribal identities. Studies have shown that many students went back to their reservations and became leaders in tribal politics.

21. A Day in the Life: • When they got to Carlisle, the students were extremely homesick. Their long hair was cut. One boarding school student, Lone Wolf of the Blackfoot tribe, remembered: “[Long hair] was the pride of all Indians. The boys, one by one, would break down and cry when they saw their braids thrown on the floor. All of the buckskin clothes had to go and we had to put on the clothes of the White Man. If we thought the days were bad, the nights were much worse. This is when the loneliness set in, for it was when we knew that we were all alone. Many boys ran away from the school because the treatment was so bad, but most of them were caught and brought back by the police." The students were thrown into a military style regimentation of classes and activities. They were up at the call of a bugle at 5:45 a.m. with exercise and military drills following. Breakfast was at 6:45. Industrial work began at 8:00 and formal school at 9:00. After lunch there was more industrial work and school with lectures into the evening. There was less than an hour of free time during each day, and the students were in bed at 9:00 p.m.

22. Tom Torlino, before and after

23. Speak and Think English • Students were prohibited from speaking their native languages. Instead, they were supposed to converse and even think in English. If they were caught "speaking Indian" they were severely beaten.

24. Top: A group of Chiricahua Apache students on their first day at Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, PA. Bottom: The same students four months later.

25. Today Population increasing: • The 2000 Census lists a U.S. Indian population of around 2 million (about 1½ % of the U.S. population) • About 400,000 live on reservations • More than 570 Federally Recognized Tribes, still speaking some 300 Native languages.

26. Current Populations

27. Reservation Life • Reservations were originally situated on land that the white people didn’t want. i.e. Poor soil, remote locations, or any number of undesirable conditions. • Scarce job opportunities • “Tourist Attractions”

28. Still… • high rates of unemployment, • infant mortality, • illness (especially diabetes), • alcoholism, • suicide, and • a life expectancy in the mid- to high 40s for adults. • Sociocultural Theory: historical trauma

29. Identity & Sovereignty • Must prove who they are (and the only minority group that members of the dominant culture will lie to get into!) • Gov’t: At least ¼ “Indian blood” • Recognized and Active membership in an Indian community

30. The National Museum of the American Indian September 2004 Washington D.C. Designed, directed, and curated by Native professionals Emphasizes contemporary Native lives

31. Stereotypes “‘Real Indians’ are often relegated to the past, and today’s Native Americans (if their living presence enters awareness at all) are often thought of as a handful of poverty-stricken drunks or rich casino profiteers.”

32. Native Americans Gil Birmingham LeAnne Howe Sherman Alexie

33. Characteristics of Native American Lit. • Nature/Natural World • Animals • Directions • Dreams • Community aka: MOTIFS

34. MISreading • read based on stereotypes • read for “authenticity” • read as representative of all Native Americans • read as “a historical truth” (Native Americans do this or that; Native Americans are so-and-so, regardless of time period.)