ipl-logo

Pros And Cons Of Native American Women

1767 Words8 Pages

Native American Women: Economic and Political Mores “That all these women be shared among the men, that no individual woman and man should live together, and that the children, too, should be shared, with no parent knowing its own offspring, and no child its parent”(147 Plato) Up until approximately 400 BC, it was inferred that women should have the basic political, principle rights men do. In Minnesota, there is evidence and examples of how the tribes such as the Ojibwas dealt with and were influenced by some of the actions that took place. The Indians were forced deeper into dependency, women treated disrespectfully, and exploitation was taking place at a rapid pace. Because of the changes that took place from the invasion of European settlers, …show more content…

The autobiography of Zitkala-Sa capitalizes on the role of Native American women. Zitkala-Sa’s mother had to choose whether she wanted her daughter with her in the village or to be taken away to the Western culture and go to school where she could be safe from Americans settling on their Dakota land. Her decision was further complicated by the fact the Americans persuaded Zitkala-Sa to attend the American school. Ultimately, she did decide to attend school where she would then be separated from her mother, which eventually led to regret and remorse. “The tears trickled down my cheeks, and I buried my face in the folds of my blanket. Now the first step, parting me from my mother, was taken, and all my belated tears availed nothing” (Zitkala-Sa pg.432) Society attempted to change Zitkala- Sa into a new generation and nationality. Returning from her education and time away, she saw her mother and wonders to herself, why she didn’t meet the standards of the newcomer’s adjustments. "Mother, why is not your house cemented? Do you have no interest in a more comfortable shelter?" I asked when the apparent inconveniences of her home seemed to suggest indifference on her part.”(Zitkala-Sa 454) This is inferred that due to the actions taking place in the New World and what is becoming of Minnesota, that there is no power asserted with the mother figure as much as it used to

Show More
Related
1518 Words | 7 Pages

One thing Perdue could have done to have taken this book to the next level, is include more insight from specific Cherokee women. With their insights, it would have given more of a direct insight as to actual stories making the book more interesting. If she had included more examples of Cherokee women today and how they demonstrated strength this book could have been better. Also, Perdue’s analysis reveals the burden of her politics. It is evident that at times she uses communitarian and the female centric nature of Cherokee society to criticize modern American gender relations and society.

Read More
1573 Words | 7 Pages

Of all the articles and videos available on the culture and history of the Native American people and specifically of the Oceti Sakowin, the PBS documentary, Oceti Sakowin - The People of the Seven Council Fires that aired on September 8, 2007 was the most enlightening. This documentary was a collection of stories about The Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people, presented by the elders of these tribes, just as was their tradition. ESSENTIAL UNDERSTANDING 5: History told from the Oceti Sakowin perspective, through oral tradition and written accounts, frequently conflicts with the stories mainstream historians tell and becomes subjective information. Currently historical perspective is being revisited to be more inclusive (Whirlwind Soldier et.

Read More
213 Words | 1 Pages

The Dakota and Lakota are known for Siouan languages of the Great Plains. These tribes are so close that most linguists consider them with a particular, but of the same language. It is consider the same as, but has its difference between the British and American English. Some pronunciation are very regular. These two tribes can sometimes have difficulty understanding each other.

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

The award winning novel Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich contains various viewpoints from Native Americans of the Chippewa tribe. Many of the stories in this book contain some sort of heartache or struggle due to an affair or some external source, but interestingly there is one relationship that is not strained in that way. Instead, it is the conflicting ideas of a mother-daughter relationship. Even though Zelda Kashpaw and her daughter Albertine Johnson at first seem to be a living dichotomy, they realize the need for each other. Zelda Kashpaw is a Chippewa and aligns herself to the traditions of her family and tribe, except for one major decision.

Read More
331 Words | 2 Pages

The text “School Days of an Indian Girl” by Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) is an autobiographical short story written in the early 1900’s in which the author recounts her experience in a government-subsidized boarding school. The purpose of her short story is to show the difficulties of being a Native American in a white, American-dominated school while at the same time showing how white Americans treated the Native American minority in educational situations or environments while her audience targets people with similar experiences as her or arguably even the white Americans due to the text being in the lingua franca, English. In this text, the author has an interesting way of representing her white American counterparts due to her culture’s

Read More
615 Words | 3 Pages

Surprisingly, Native American women had more freedom than the white women in the Chesapeake, Middle Colonies, or New England region. Some Native American women were given rights such as controlling land, political power, marriage and divorce in choice. There were matrilineal kinship system, in fact, marriage was not the most top rite of passage for them. The author covers around the 1600s- 1800s century time period while focusing on mainly white women but also women of color.

Read More
1223 Words | 5 Pages

Like the narrator’s father, he notices the family’s cultural identity is slowly dying. His wife, a native Malaysian, is adopting a new identity as a “sales clerk at [Woodworks]” (340) in Canada. In marriage, a couple is supposed to share the responsibility to raise their children and support each other. However, she may have given up on the teaching responsibility from the moment the language “never came easily to [the daughter]” (340). Ultimately, the father is solely responsible handing down his family’s cultural and social roots to his children.

Read More
417 Words | 2 Pages

While reading about American history the thing that I found most appealing was the limited rights that women had during this era. Although women gave the early settlers longer life expectancy and brought hope to their future, women still were not considered equal to a man. Women were discriminated against and didn’t play an important role in early American history. Generally, women had fewer legal rights and career opportunity than men because they were considered weak and not able to perform certain tasks. Different women came from different ethnic backgrounds and were all created equal in the eyes of men.

Read More
1169 Words | 5 Pages

During the late 15th and early 16th centuries, eExplorers from Europe had made vast advancements on traveling methods and shipbuilding and had new methods to travel the world. Due to needs for faster trade routes or access to new markets, most powers, starting with Portugal, had started sending Explorers to find different ways to trade and navigate. This would eventually lead them to the New World where they would meet people of different culture. Explorers during this period have many positive and negative effects on the natives. Europeans indirectly killed off native with diseases, enslaved natives with cruel slave methods, and tried to completely erase the native cultures in place of the typical European cultures and religion.

Read More
1283 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the course of American history, Native American women have repeatedly become primary targets of sexual violence from non-native men. Around one in three Native American women has been raped or had undergone attempted rape, which makes them the largest race to experience sexual abuse than any other race in the United States. Before any contact was established between the Natives and the European settlers, the Native population had thrived off the land and they had their own criminal justice systems, which was meant to help all Native citizens find justice (Griffith, 5). Unfortunately, their efficient way of life would soon be interrupted forever following the arrival of white setters upon their lands.

Read More
524 Words | 3 Pages

My reaction: While working through this sections reading, videos, and other material, I felt ill to my stomach thinking about how Native American women are suffering so greatly. Their culture and beliefs were stolen away from them by colonization, which lead to a plethora of other problems such as violence and a loss of say in their culture. My Analysis: The Native American culture was a mostly egalitarian society before colonization took place.

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

Although Native Americans are characterized as both civilized and uncivilized in module one readings, their lifestyles and culture are observed to be civilized more often than not. The separate and distinct duties of men and women (Sigard, 1632) reveal a society that has defined roles and expectations based on gender. There are customs related to courtship (Le Clercq, 1691) that are similar to European cultures. Marriage was a recognized union amongst Native Americans, although not necessarily viewed as a serious, lifelong commitment like the Europeans (Heckewelder, 1819). Related to gender roles in Native American culture, Sigard writes of the Huron people that “Just as the men have their special occupation and understand wherein a man’s duty consists, so also the women and girls keep their place and perform quietly their little tasks and functions of service”.

Read More
435 Words | 2 Pages

Typical Native American and African society was often matrilineal. This meant that familial relationships were divided through the maternal line, rather than the paternal one like in Europe. This provided women in these societies a great more power and authority than it did in Europe. Women often were involved in making and influencing decision making in the tribe or group. To Europeans, this type of gender egalitarianism was not just foreign but also considered savage.

Read More
1455 Words | 6 Pages

Zitkala-Sa describes her life experiences and memories that express serious disagreements between culture and assimilation along with Native American religion and Christianity. A good example of how Zitkala-Sa assimilated to Quaker tradition is “School Days of an Indian Girl” specifically the first chapter “The Land of Red Apples”. Throughout the text the reader witnesses Zitkala-Sa’s literary techniques that make the reader sympathize with the character and become more invested in the text. Zitkala-Sa’s work exposes the flagrant abuse of depriving an adolescent of language, culture, religion and recognizable surroundings. The text goes on to explicitly tell the story of how Zitkala-Sa returned to her former home and becomes depressed due to

Read More
332 Words | 2 Pages

Being a European settler trying to make for a better life for my family, I would choose to settle on the Great Plains. The Great Plains would be my choice to settle because I could buy a lot of land for little to nothing. Of course there would be difficulties that came with the inexpensive price of land, such as that of the land being extremely dry and flat which isn’t of course the best for farming. As well, we wouldn’t able to get our hands on a decent amount of wood to build our homes out of; therefore our homes were built out of soil that was held together by grass. When it would rain, the dugouts would flood; we had to fill up buckets or water of water and strode around in the mud until the water dried out.

Read More

More about Pros And Cons Of Native American Women

Related Topics

Open Document