ipl-logo

Essay On Waterlily

1378 Words6 Pages

When analyzing the book Waterlily, by Ella Cara Deloria, it is important to recognize the vital relationship she illustrates between the Dakota Sioux tribe and their values of kinship. The book both incorporates the complex nature of kinship, but also constructs a comprehensive timeline of the traditional lives of the Dakota Sioux and how the interact within their society. Deloria strives at epitomizing how important kinship is in everyday life for the Dakota Sioux; and how it keeps them organized into one exhaustive, organized society, thus allowing them to stand together in solidarity. The entire idea of how vital kinship is for the Dakota Sioux tribe is exemplified in the beginning of Waterlily, when Blue Bird and her grandmother leave the camp in order to gather food for the merciless winter which was ahead of them. After returning to their camp they were shocked to find that the camp had been ravaged, with the inhabitants of it either missing or slain. (Deloria, 10) After this event they were forced to relocate and join the Dakota tribe, which kindly took them in after their unfortunate circumstances. This was the beginning of Blue Bird’s experience with kinship and how it shaped and affected her and her grandmother’s lives. Had the Dakota tribe not been so welcoming the two could have been presented with a much greater problem, with the potential of them not even having a place to live or belong. …show more content…

For example, if an outsider of the tribe were to kill one of the tribe’s members, the person accused of committing the murder would be inducted into the Dakota Sioux tribe in order to replace the member which they had killed. The members of the tribe would even go as far as giving the new member who murdered their tribe members gifts and tokens as a gesture of candor and

Show More
Related
1197 Words | 5 Pages

Little Crow follows the story of the easternmost Sioux people, but the book mainly ponders the decisions and actions of Chief Little Crow. By blending in an analytical style, Anderson can create a book that challenges social and political beliefs of the time period. Anderson scrutinizes the relationship between native people and the United States government to show how politics shaped many of the social issues for native people. Since he creates a book that combines storytelling and historical understanding, Anderson can truly explain the social and political landscapes of Sioux and United States

Read More
1204 Words | 5 Pages

Salmon, Cedar, and People Not only does nature have the power to incite physical change, but it has the ability to influence important aspects of human life. Through “The Salmon Eaters” by Eden Robinson and “In the Shadow of Red Cedar” by Wade Davis, the link between First Nations culture and nature is examined. While both texts analyze the relationship between the natural world and Indigenous cultures, Robinson presents a personal exploration into the relationship between nature and cultural identity, and the importance of salmon in Haisla culture. Conversely, Davis presents an analysis into the growth of BC First Nations cultures through the dispersion of red cedar. Ultimately, these differing insights provide a deeper understanding of the value of nature and its significance to the cultural identity of Indigenous Peoples.

Read More
1698 Words | 7 Pages

Author Dee Brown presents a factual as well as an emotional version of the relationship among the Indians, the American settlers, and the U.S. government. The massacre at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota on December 29, 1890, provides the backdrop for the narrative. In his introduction, Brown states the reason for his work. Thousands of accounts about life in the American West of the late nineteenth century were written. Stories are told of the traders, ranchers, wagon trains, gunfighters, and gold-seekers.

Read More
1052 Words | 5 Pages

The Sioux were a less developed society of Native Americans than the Iroquois. They didn’t normally establish permanent settlements because their lives revolved around hunting buffalo and following their herds everywhere they went. The Sioux had an interesting perspective of the supernatural world – they believed it was not separate from the physical world and that it was simply too complex of a thing for humans to comprehend. There was not necessarily an all-powerful being, but there was something they referred to as the “animating force,” called Wakan Tanka, which was responsible for the existence of all things, and that all things were not “real,” but instead “manifestations” that appeared real, yet everything had a living, spiritual value, and all things were connected. The Sioux held a strong belief that they and the buffalo shared a special relationship in the grand scheme of things and for this reason, though they hunted them for food, they held a deep respect for the animals.

Read More
1518 Words | 7 Pages

Theda Perdue`s Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835, is a book that greatly depicts what life had been like for many Native Americans as they were under European Conquering. This book was published in 1998, Perdue was influenced by a Cherokee Stomp Dance in northeastern Oklahoma. She had admired the Cherokee society construction of gender which she used as the subject of this book. Though the title Cherokee Women infers that the book focuses on the lives of only Cherokee women, Perdue actually shines light upon the way women 's roles affected the Native cultures and Cherokee-American relations. In the book, there is a focus on the way that gender roles affected the way different tribes were run in the 1700 and 1800`s.

Read More
2277 Words | 10 Pages

What Jonathan Hook’s purpose for writing this book “was to illustrate the dynamic and contextual based nature of personal and communal ethnic identity. ”1 The case study is done to show how the Alabama-Coushatta Indians of East Texas have responded to external forces to stay true to their people. Jonathan Hook is of Cherokee heritage and tribal membership, which would provide some of the insight he has into Indian identity. Hook lives in Houston, Texas which is ninety miles southwest of the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation.

Read More
1273 Words | 6 Pages

All of the tribes are important in their own ways, but for this paper, I will be focusing on these two tribes. “In their own language, the word Potawatomi means "Keepers of the Sacred Fire," but they call themselves "Neshnabek," which means "the True People" (Potawatomi History, 2017). The Forest County Potawatomi tribe is presently

Read More
1666 Words | 7 Pages

In 10 Little Indians, the poet turned extreme introvert is standoffish and rude, a product of his loneliness. A Spokane Indian who was adopted to a white family as a child, became a poet and used the name “Harlan Atwater” to sound more like a Spokane, as his white parents gave him a white name when they adopted him. His journey from childhood as an adopted son to a hermit is muddled in the book, as his story is more of a reflection of himself by himself than a profile such as the ones of Joshua Febres and Patrick Harris. Harlan Atwater was a poet and a sad man, and his journey was not a journey to be out on the water, or a journey to get away from a rough and tumble lifestyle. Atwater’s journey was simply one trying to find themselves in the midst of a life that really was not his.

Read More
1187 Words | 5 Pages

Initial Assessment Garnet from the novel Keeper N’ Me seems like a rather resourceful individual that has relied mainly on himself to navigate through life ever since he aged out of the foster care system. The way in which he chose to survive during this time may have been influenced by the pervasively negative stereotypes against Indigenous people, his detachment from his community, family, and heritage, as well as the observed desire to fit in or belong. Garnet’s primary presenting clinical issues seem to be a diminished sense of self and self-esteem. This may be due to growing up in all-white households and schools with no formal education about his family history/heritage or of Indigenous teachings in general. The knowledge that he was able to gather from within these

Read More
870 Words | 4 Pages

As the son of a Comanche chief and a white captive by the name of Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah Parker rose from the status of a Comanche warrior to their tribal leader. Although not much is known about Parker’s personal life and early years, he plays a vital role in William T. Hagan’s book “Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief”. In this book, Hagan identifies the Comanche Chief through his upbringing to his death, describing his transactions with local Indian agents, presidents, high officials in Washington and the cattlemen of the western United States territory. The author presents the Indian chief as a “cultural broker” between the cultures of the white southerners and his tribal members, presenting a blend of beliefs that are heralded as progressive and traditional as he maintained the control and organization of his tribe. During a period of transition for the Comanche people,

Read More
282 Words | 2 Pages

Hilary Weaver argues in her piece of writing; that identifying indigenous identity is complex, complicated, and hard to grasp when internalized oppression and colonization has turned Native Americans to criticize one another. Throughout the text, Weaver focuses on three main points which she calls, the three facets. Self-identification, community identification, and external identification are all important factors that make up Native American identity. The author uses a story she calls, “The Big game” to support her ideologies and arguments about the issue of identity. After reading the article, it’s important to realize that Native American’s must decide their own history and not leave that open for non-natives to write about.

Read More
493 Words | 2 Pages

The Dakota Access Pipeline is a mile-long from Northwestern North Dakota to Illinois. This pipeline affects drinking water for everyone and invades reservation and treaty land owned by the Native Americans. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, when informed about the pipeline, declared the tribe objected to the pipe construction. The Standing Rock Sioux begin to fight a “legal battle against the pipeline” and soon a “protest diverge” In “An Indian Protest for Everyone” by David Treuer builds an argument that Native Americans have developed a new type of protest when gathering at Standing Rock.

Read More
1352 Words | 6 Pages

The Lakota Sioux, facing pressure to conform to “civilized” norms, adopted a new belief consisting of a central creed, code, and cultus. This

Read More
1246 Words | 5 Pages

It served only few limits but it was achievable. As a Creek, the membership of a tribe was decided upon the mother. This culture supports a matrilineal culture where Mary Musgrove belonged to her mother’s line; therefore, her father considered as a relative by marriage and not a blood relative. Mary’s mother was closely related to Coweta’s chiefs, granting her by birthright a privileged place in Coweta’s

Read More
1122 Words | 5 Pages

The Sioux man had an option of marrying someone in his tribe or a non-Sioux captive. If the Sioux man were to marry a woman of his tribe, there would be a marriage ceremony. If a man were to marry a woman that is not from his tribe there would be no ceremony at all. A non-Sioux spouse was considered property instead of actually being a human being. The Sioux men made it seem as if a woman who is not a part of their tribe, ought to be lucky to marry someone of their tribe.

Read More

More about Essay On Waterlily

Open Document