Assimilation In Zitkala Sa's The Soft-Hearted Sioux

They were being taught the American culture. Assimilation was the main reason as to why Native Americans lost their culture. The U.S. expansion greatly affected Native Americans. They lost land, their culture, and many lives.

One day, Ohiyesa’s father comes to the Native American’s tribe and takes Ohiyesa away from his people. At first, Ohiyesa feels very uncomfortable with the Europeans’ living style. In the town, Ohiyesa is forced to cut his long hair so that he wouldn’t stick out in the crowd. He is also being forced by the teacher to adapt a Christian name in school. At the beginning, he refuses to have a Christian name.

Because the Indian's didn't behave like the settlers, they were labeled savages. The Native Indians were the first people in the U.S. and their way of life was looked down upon. However, in captivity, Rowlandson learned that these people were hospitable and resourceful. There were hopes that maybe her "observations, [which is] acknowledging the humanity of the Indians, were possibilities for the English to understand, even empathized with, the people they were dispossessing"(Takaki 44).

Chief Red Jacket explains, “We understand that your religion is written in a book; if it was intended for us as well as you, why has not the Great Spirit given it to us, and not only to us, but why did he not give to our forefathers the knowledge of that book, with the means of understanding it rightly? We only know what you tell us about it. How shall we know when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people?” In analysis, he wants the Americans to see how illogical it is to force their religion upon the Native Americans. Chief Red Jacket describes, “Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit; if there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it?

Speech purpose is to acknowledge that the Indians will not allow the Whites to force conversion in Christianity upon them by using pathos , repetition and imagery. Chief Red Jacket uses pathos to make the reader feel sympathy on the Indians being forced to convert to Christianity. Chief Red Jacket states

Bethia and her family learned to speak the natives language which was not seen in the textbook. Furthermore, Caleb also taught Bethia about his tribes’ polytheistic religion which was not even broached in the textbook. In The American Pageant the transculturation is mainly the Indians gaining and giving knowledge in order to help the English, but in Caleb’s Crossing Bethia’s village gives their knowledge to help the Indians prosper and incorporate them into

The constrained digestion of Native Americans was in this manner defended as being better for the Indians themselves. Numerous Native Americans, be that as it may, declined to acknowledge what the administration was giving them. They would not surrender their otherworldly convictions. They declined to figure out how to ranch, and they wanted to end up "socialized." To most individuals from white society, Native Americans were viewed as primitive, because the the fact that they didn 't meet society 's qualities and standards.

He then questioned whether any of them would go near Christ. He quoted scripture “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” to indicate that when his audience looks in the mirror they see Native Americans (Apess B:156). Petalesharo’s approach was much different than Apess’s in that he did not criticize the whites. He acknowledged the differences between whites and Indians and asserted that the government should just leave them alone.

Kay had to not only adapt to those values but figure out who she was through the layers of judgment she had learned. Kay’s identity could not fully develop due to the restrictions put up on her and her life since then was spent restraining her true identity, until she ultimately reunites with her cousins for the tour in Vietnam. “Don't go telling me what I am and what I'm not. I didn't get a say in how things worked out for me” (Kay). The loss of the land and culture to the people who were snatched from their homes proved to be problematic later in life when they were in dire need of figuring out who they were and what they wanted from

In “The Soft-hearted Sioux”, a Native American boy goes back home to his tribe after living at a mission school. The Sioux boy no longer connects with the people of the tribe or their culture because of his newfound belief in Christianity. As soon as he arrives, the Sioux boy finds that his father is ill. Because of his conversion to Christianity, the Sioux boy does not believe that the medicine man is healing his father and tries to guide the tribespeople away from their cultural beliefs. When the Sioux boy attempts to speak to his people about Christianity, the medicine man states, “What loyal son is he who, returning to his father’s people, wears a foreigner’s dress” (649)?

It all started when Edward Schempp, a resident of Abington, Pennsylvania filed a suit against the Abington School District to prohibit the enforcement of requiring children to hear and read portions of the Bible as part of their education. Schempp’s children attended the school and felt it was not right and against their religious freedoms. He and his family are also Unitarians. The case was lost at the Federal district court level, which then with hopes of Schempp dropping it, the school with parental consent aloud kids to opt out of it, but Schempp was still not pleased. This case seemed to cause difficult and social issues like no other.

However, Dowd progresses the course of history by arguing that the nativist rejected the accommodationists. Accepting Anglo-Christianity and culture, Dowd states that the nativists viewed the accommodationists as aiding in the transformation of native culture. Citing Josiah Gregg’s memoirs, the author states how many of the prophets preached that Christianity did not provide “salvation” to the Native Americans. Offering the importance between Native religion and politics, Dowd provides historians with a different outlook on the identity and culture. The author’s different approach to identity enables historians to investigate new inquires on the character and history of the Native

Children were also forced away from their families and into boarding schools to try and assimilate them. While many things changed due to this Act, some things continued to stay the same. Despite the massive amounts of land that was taken from them, the goal of assimilation did not take the effect that the government hoped. Efforts to end Indian religious rituals and to spread the idea of Christianity did not affect Native Americans like it was thought it. Instead, the overall discontent that the Indians had toward forced assimilation caused its

Throughout assimilation, there was a cultural barrier between the Indians and the teachers. At the core of this barrier was the idea that one culture was more civilized than the other. This idea can be seen in both Native American boarding schools and at St. Lucy’s. As stated in Sarah E. Stone’s dissertation, the teachers at Native American boarding schools were not “culturally familiar” (57) with the students and, as a result, treated them differently. Similarly, at St. Lucy’s the nuns saw the wolf girls as barbaric people and treated them accordingly.

In the Salishan autobiography “Mourning Dove”, author Mourning Dove gives insight into how the culture of her people was ultimately altered during the late 1800’s; primarily caused by the catalyst that was the arrival and the integration of white values into their society. The main force that drove these transitions to occur stemmed from religion. Through the influence and encouragement of pastors, in this case, Father De Rouge, the Natives beliefs in their ancient customs gradually declined, as his determined efforts to spread the word of Christianity had reached the ears of the Native tribes (Mourning Dove, 26). Whether that be holding service in tipis or aiding the sick and needy. An example of this change regarding their beliefs could be