ipl-logo

Zitkala-Sa Analysis

1050 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Native american culture shock essay

Zitkala-Sa: An analysis In the early 1900s, Native Americans went through a period of assimilation; That is, they were forced into adapting to American culture and customs. There were many methods to achieve this assimilation, including putting Native American children in US schools to teach them American ideals and values and to really Americanize them. One of these children was Zitkala-Sa, who was a Native American child that went through a US boarding school, where she did her best to resist the American assimilation and subsequent eradication of her culture. She was unable to, and in the process, demonstrated that the impact that boarding schools had on Native Americans was one of terror and indoctrination, which did not bode well for …show more content…

She writes that she screamed for her mother when her hair was being cut and how she began crying when she messed up the routines of eating at a meal, showing that she felt alienated and alone since she did not fit in with the other schoolmates. A historical reason for this was how the Federal government pushed for the assimilation, with Becky Little writing again that the “Boarding schools forbid Native American children from using their own languages and names, as well as from practicing their religion and culture. They were given new Anglo-American names, clothes, and haircuts, and told they must abandon their way of life because it was inferior to white people’s.” (Citation here). This showed a fundamental cultural change was starting with the Native American population and how some were feeling alienated because they had to change their entire culture in a few short years, with most, if not all, Native American children feeling alienated with this sudden cultural shift, and Zitkala-Sa was one of them. For instance, Zitkala-Sa writes in her memoir that she felt embarrassed when other parents and their children would look at her since she was a Native American and they would take notice to her blanket, which for the white children, was a strange thing. She recounts how she cried over being tossed in the air by a women, not realizing that this is what

Show More
Related

Pratt's Experiences Of African-Americans, Questions And Answers

208 Words | 1 Pages

1. Pratt opposed reservations because Jefferson’s treaty agreement meant the Great River would be the border between them and the whites. Indians would be isolated and not a part of the American life. 2. Schools would “kill the Indian and save the man” by introducing them to the life of an American.

Read More

Summary Of Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

1118 Words | 5 Pages

The native children that were sent to residential schools misbehaved to to the strict procedures they were forced to accept. They were punished through a variety of means. One punishment Saul experienced was the mouths of every child were washed out with Lye soap. “There was no tolerance for Indian talk. On the second day I was there, a boy named Curtis White Fox had his mouth washed out with Lye soap for speaking Ojibway.”

Read More

Junípero Serra

1262 Words | 6 Pages

These schools have been described as an instrument to wage intellectual, psychological, and cultural warfare to turn Native Americans into “Americans”. There are many reports of young Native Americans losing all cultural belonging. According to an interview with NPR, Bill Wright was sent to one of these schools. He lost his hair, his language, and then his Navajo name. When he was able to return home, he was unable to understand or speak to his grandmother.

Read More

Identity In Monica Sone's Neisei Daughter

925 Words | 4 Pages

In her autobiography, Neisei Daughter, Monica Sone shares her journey and struggles of growing up, a task made more difficult as she faced racial and gender discrimination. Over the course of the novel she becomes aware of her unique identity and goes from resenting it, to accepting and appreciating her identity. At the age of six, Sone became aware of the fact that she was different, “I made the shocking discovery that I had Japanese blood. I was a Japanese (p. 3).”

Read More

Analysis Of Superman And Me By Sherman Alexie

165 Words | 1 Pages

In Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie, Alexie’s father’s love for books grew to make his self-love books ending up in Alexie teaching himself how to read. Alexie describes the stereotypes and what is expected of Indian children and how Indian children were expected to basically have no knowledge Many lived up to those expectations inside the classroom but invalidated them on the outside. While other children were doing this, Alexie’s father was one of the few Indians on the reservation who went to Catholic School on purpose and was also an devoted reader. Alexie grew up around books. His father had a strong love for books as he bought them by the pound from pawn shops, goodwill and the salvation army.

Read More

Gender Roles In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

1288 Words | 6 Pages

Her tragedy reflects not only the sexism in the African American families in early 20th century, but also the uselessness

Read More

Mary Courchene On Native American Children

319 Words | 2 Pages

I hated them because they were Indians.” Mary Courchene, a former residential school student said this about her own parents. I believe that this is just an awful thing to happen to children, that they are pulled away from their family and told to despise them because of their skin color and culture. When the Native American children were brought to the residential schools the main goal was to assimilate them by eliminating their culture and native tongue. When I think of what Mary Courchene said I can’t help but feel unsettled, because

Read More

Why Do Native Americans Attend Schools

168 Words | 1 Pages

Many Native Americans, as well as the pack in “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, were forced to receive an education. Figures of authority tried, and usually succeeded, to force Native American children to attend school. These figures of authority did not give the Native Americans a choice in this matter, nor did they care about these individuals or their culture. Not to mention, over 100 Native American youth were chosen to attend school in PA. This was a noticeable number of people that were forced to attend school, and this was not very considerate.

Read More

Effects Of Assimilation On Anglo-American Culture

1058 Words | 5 Pages

Intimate Colonialism is when the government tried to set up a policy that would encourage Indian Service staff members to intermarry with Native Americans. During the late 19th century, immigration was rising and the big thing in this era was assimilation. Assimilation is integrating people to be accustomed to the United States culture, behavior, value and norms. Though Native Americans have lived in America longer than anyone, the federal government thought that instead of ostracizing them for wanting to value their traditional culture, they created an assimilation policy for Native Americans. “The government’s assimilation policy sought to destroy Native nations’ cultural and political identities by replacing them with Anglo – American norms of behavior (108).”

Read More

Analysis Of Gertrude Bonnin's The School Days Of An Indian Girl

1138 Words | 5 Pages

The nature of these boarding schools was to assimilate young Native Americans into American culture, doing away with any “savageness” that they’re supposedly predisposed to have. As Bonnin remembers the first night of her stay at the school, she says “I was tucked into bed with one of the tall girls, because she talked to me in my mother tongue and seemed to soothe me” (Bonnin 325). Even at the beginning of such a traumatic journey, the author is signaling to the audience the conditioning that she was already under. Bonnin instinctively sought out something familiar, a girl who merely spoke in the same “tongue” as her. There are already so few things that she has in her immediate surroundings that help her identify who and what she is, that she must cling to the simple familiarities to bring any semblance of comfort.

Read More

The Impact Of Westward Expansion On Native Americans

847 Words | 4 Pages

Native Americans flourished in North America, but over time white settlers came and started invading their territory. Native Americans were constantly being thrown and pushed off their land. Sorrowfully this continued as the Americans looked for new opportunities and land in the West. When the whites came to the west, it changed the Native American’s lives forever. The Native Americans had to adapt to the whites, which was difficult for them.

Read More

Stereotypes Of Racism And White Superiority In Washington State

1109 Words | 5 Pages

They did this by "cleaning" them up, cutting their hair, changing the traditional clothing worn, and taking away any other part of them that connected to back home. These institutions were places "…where traditional ways could be replaced by those allowed by the government" (Marr 1). Without the culture that had carried on within the Native Americans for generations, those who were forced to go to the cruel boarding schools were isolated whenever allowed back home. A different language, clothing style and living style was pushed upon the Native Americans by the government and the White Americans which showed the lack of respect coming from them. When people tried to prove that they should be treated as humans, which was the point of the schools, they tried to change everything about them.

Read More

Native Americans In The 19th Century

951 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.

Read More

Essay On Native American Boarding Schools

527 Words | 3 Pages

Neither were the parents allowed to visit their children so the time the kids were finally able to go back with their family they started to become practically like strangers to each other because they knew very little about each other especially since many of the children were younger and had spent most of their lives in these school. The lack of communication between the Native American parents and children was another reason many parents weren’t aware of the trauma the kids were suffering in the homes. The kids were so affected they remember that even at night when they were left alone to sleep they were all so quiet and no one talked about what was happening to them. The native children didn’t have normal childhoods they didn’t play or interact with each other this alone shows how affected they were with the boarding

Read More

To Speak Is To Blunder Analysis

1635 Words | 7 Pages

She has a secret language in which she does not want to expose to her mother and family because the native language that she already knows should be the only language she should only speak. “Over the years, my brain has banished Chinese. I dream in English. I talk to myself in English. And memories—not only those about America but also those about China; not only those carried with me but also those archived with the wish to forget—are sorted in English.

Read More

More about Zitkala-Sa Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document