Personal Narrative: A Ghostly Spark

Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.

Eileen Kane’s insightful work, Trickster: An Anthropological Memoir, illuminates the cultural atmosphere and life of the Northern Paiute people of Yerington, Nevada, during the early 1960’s while reflecting on the many contrasts and parallels to her own upbringing in Youngstown, Ohio. Guided by her research topic, documenting the religious beliefs the Paiute people practiced after the death of Jack Wilson (Kane, p. 155), Eileen Kane depicts the acculturative effects on Paiute religion occurring at this time. For those living on the reservation, the traditional-native spirituality had already witnessed the indoctrination of Christian beliefs by missionaries and whites among many Native American groups, though conservatory attempts to maintain

In Oglala Women, Myth, Ritual and Reality, Marla Powers portraits a powerful Native American community- Oglala, one of the main tribes of the Lakota (allied people) alliance located on the Oglala Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. They are known for being one of the biggest reservations in the United States who won the war in 1868 against the United States. In this book, Powers focuses on the women’s role within their community and how their sacred traditions and religion shaped their culture. Therefore, by using various readings on Lakota practices, this paper will examine the gender roles in Oglala culture in terms of marriage, religion and the effect that Americanization and Christianity have had on their culture and how they compare

Native americans were not able to adapt to western customs and integrate themselves into US societies. Although it is true that American Indians had little influence on modern technology and they have their own history and beliefs, their adaptation in modern US society has not flourished as much. In some cases like shown in Source 4, an American Indian woman is seen smoking from a cigarette. This could be evidence of American Indians adapting to the western world, but it is merely a photograph taken for a photographer's album.

It is January of 1704. As John Demos puts it, “A night of winter, a night of want, night of war.” The Iroquoi Indians and French invade an English frontier capturing or killing many of its inhabitants. This is the night that starts the ripple effect that John Demos traces in his book, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. Of the many that were captured by the Kahnawake Indians, Revered John Williams, a minister from Deerfield and his large family were among them. Two children were murdered at the beginning of the invasion and the rest of the family was marched to Canada with the rest of the captives. Eventually, John and four of his children were released but his daughter, Eunice Williams chose to remain imprisoned by

The topic of focus for my paper was the Long Walk of the Navajo and Navajo Wars during the Civil War period until 1868, as that period is remembered by the Navajo. I believe that a greater understanding of the history of the American Soutwest can be reached taking Navajoes’ memories and perspectives of these events into account. The Long Walk of the Navajo was migration of the tribe to a reservations across the Southwest, most prominently Bosque Redondo, wherein they suffered from a variety of degradations from violence and raids to starvation. This process of migration occurred in waves, and was triggered by warfare and violence at the hands of the Navajo’s enemies, including the United States (or Union), New Mexican citizens, and other tribes

In “Charlene Teters (Spokane) Asks ‘Whose History Do We Celebrate?’ 1998” the main author is Charlene Teters. The authors main purpose in writing this article is to raise awareness on the lack of education of Native American history and gives examples from his past. The article is written in the being of the year 1998 and is dated due to the anonymous letter being quoted at the beginning. The events taken place in New Mexico is what brought Charlene Teters attention to writing this article. Charlene Teters writes, “One of many brutal truths selectively omitted from most history books is this: in 1599, Oñate attacked Acoma Pueblo in retaliation for the death of his nephew, ordering that the right feet of all men in the pueblo above the age of 25 be chopped off” (492). There is no surprise once a

Today December 29, 1890 tensions rose high between the Sioux chief Big Foot and a force of US troops at Wounded Knee Creek. The Sioux Tribe has been struggling for a long time since the way of life they’ve always known was destroyed. Seeking to regain their glory, the Sioux traveled to Nevada to meet the self-proclaimed Messiah Wovoka. Wovoka prophesied that the dead would soon enough join the living and the Ghost Dance was performed to catalyze the event. This dance has spread throughout the reservations of Dakota instilling fear to the white troops. Sitting Bull was killed by order of the troops and his brother Chief Big Foot was next. Chief Big Foot along with 300 surviving Sioux were killed along with 25 troops. This massacre at Wounded

Towards the end of 1890 on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota, the US military and Sioux Native Americans got into an altercation. Around 300 men, women, and children died with casualties from both sides. By January 15, 1891 all of the Sioux had surrendered and war was averted. The main reason for the battle was the Sioux Native American’s resistance to the U.S. Army and white expansion which triggered The Ghost Dance movement.

We had a Ghost Dance movement that started in 1888. The dance spread rapidly throughout because for us, it was meant for a deliverer to come to rescue us and restore our lands. In South Dakota the dance movement alarmed the white authorities, American soldiers. They banned the ghost dance from the Lakota reservations and the Indians did not listen. In December of 1890 nearly two hundred Indians, twenty five soldiers died. Consisting of men, women and children. It was called the Battle of Wounded

In her book, Andersson quotes a New York Times article on the death of Sitting Bull that ended with a comment that said Indian police made a “good Indian out of him.” This plays on the proverb that the only good Indian is a dead one. This was a harsh and unsympathetic thing to say about a deceased man but it shows the views of whites towards Native Americans, especially those Native Americans who were considered “plotters” or troublemakers. This type of insensitivity was common in most newspapers; however, some did attempt to run more pro-native stories. Those that did often looked for the reasons behind why the Ghost Dance had taken roots and often pinned blame on the federal government for pushing natives to such desperation. Though these pro-Indian articles were few and far between leading up to the events of Wounded Knee they

1. The massacre of the buffalo herd was the end of a way life for the Plains tribes because thy depended on every part of the animal so much. The used the buffalo for food, clothing, tools, and shelter. The American’s single handedly drove the buffalo species to near extinction, which caused the Plains tribe’s way of life to drastically change. The American’s took away their life source and it was completely understandable that they became as angry as they did.

I am so sorry I’ve emailed you so many times but I would really really like to meet one on one with Gerardo. My initial meeting that was scheduled for February 14th, I had to cancel due to being very sick and not wanting to spread it to him or his family. Are there any open slots?

I was born in 1788 in the Shoshone tribe, my mother worked cleaning the house and gathering food, while my father was the tribal chief. My brother’s name was Cameahwait and my sister’s name was Pine Girl, I had a wonderful family. One day my tribe was camping down by the river, where the buffalo were plentiful. As my brother was preparing for a hunt, I told him to be careful as many evil spirits roamed the plains. Soon after

In the late 19th century of the United States, there was a push from western culture for the American agenda, which was to indoctrinate the Native Americans through any means necessary, to achieve their Manifest Destiny. This means that the Native Americans faced tragedies beyond imagination: massacre, disease, and assimilation. However, as described in James Welch’ historical fiction novel “Fools Crow”, Native Americans fought for their survival and cultural continuance despite the ultimate destruction.