Socio-Cultural Issues In Native American Literature

Native American literature is comes the under the umbrella term of “American literature” which sprouted during the period of Native American Renaissance. It commences with the oral tradition of the amble of Indigenous cultures of American and it reaches the evolutionary transformation in the aspect of writing. The writing of the Native American writers deal with their rich cultural heritage, ethnicity, identity, transracial issue, multi (bi)-cultural conflicts, history, religion, mythology, folklore and experiences in the form of novels, poems, short stories etc. It helps them to voice out their victimization and sufferings by the non-natives, especially when non-natives impose their values and principles on them to abide either directly

It is inevitable to know about historical significance behind the novel; which provides the better understanding of the socio-cultural issue prevails in it. The novel set during the historical period when the Dawes Act (General Allotment Act) of 1887. The objectives of the Dawes Act are to lift the Native Americans out of poverty and to stimulate assimilation of them into that so called mainstream American society. It allowed tracts of arable land that had been communal reservation property to be allotted to individual tribal

Thus members of the tribe are divided one against another, and even families and friends suffer divided loyalties. When the Kashpaws learn that the money they, Fleur and Nanapush have worked together to rise is not sufficient to cover all their taxes, Margaret and Nector use the entire sum to pay the fees on their own land by betraying Fleur Pillager, their -in laws. In the end, the loss of her land and the life it represents cause Fleur Pillager to give up her beloved daughter. Thus, the advent of the Euro-American culture imposed Dawes Act, which eventually make the indigenous people socially distracted and also make them cunning/selfish in nature which is new to the native