Neither Wolf Nor Dog Essay

For many years now history has been shown from one perspective, the winning side. For Example, Neither Wolf nor Dog by Kent Nerburn discusses the hardship the Native Americans suffered during the westward expansion. Most people only know it through the U.S. government’s view and not the people affected by it. The book gives a first-hand story about what happened and how the Native Americans felt about the movement. When reading the book, many people find something different about what they learned and see that looking through both perspectives will help them understand what actually happened. Although people believe that history should be shown from the winning side, it is better to show multiple perspectives, if not it can cause false

According to Neither Wolf Nor Dog, it states, “‘I see a lack of concern for the land you claim to revere,’ - ‘ You mean, you see a bunch of shit, right?’ - His candor was liberating. ‘Yes,’” (Nerburn 75). As shown most white people only see Natives as people who keep junk, but if the perspective was shown from both sides people would see its part of their culture. In comparison, it hides how people actually are. “‘See, it never bothered me about the way those movies made Indians look. But it bothered me about the way they made us look to white people - like a bunch of savages who just rode around faster than hell on horseback shouting and hollering. Made white people treat us bad,’” (Nerburn 86). This illustrates that false things about Native Americans were shown even though they are good people that were just trying to protect their

A reason for motivation from a side can be because they weren’t listened to. “ ‘ The worst thing is that you never even listened to us. You came into our land and took it away and didn’t even listen to us when we tried to explain. You made promises and you broke every one. First, you said we could have our sacred lands, but then when you wanted them you took them. That is what happened with the black hills,’” (Nerburn 49-50). This clearly reveals that the Natives didn’t have anyone listen to them and were lied to. Most people don’t know about this because it was only shown through one side and not the other. Similarly, Native Americans were forced to change their lives. “Then later you tried to divide our land up and give us little pieces, you tried to make us have last names and marriage certificates, like we were white people,” (Nerburn 272). Undoubtedly, the U.S. was trying to change the way the Natives lived and