Prompt:
After reading up to the end of section 2, what are some powerful scenes about storytelling and how it relates to either native American identity or just identity in general so far in the novel? What scene(s) stood out to you and how do you think it relates to furthering the purpose of the novel. Some scenes can include the conversation between Dene and Calvin in Dene's chapter on pages 147 or even some sections of the Interlude.
Before watching the microlecture I have never really hear of settler colonialism. Just thinking about the definition of settler colonialism: colonialism where the settlers never leave, I thought right away of the Americas. With the Interview of Tommy Orange, I learned that the Indian Termination Act and Indian Relocation Act was incredibly impactful to the different Native tribes in the United States. Orange mentioned that his story is basically rooted in these different Acts that happened in the fifties and are based off of the descendants of those who moved into urban locations. I see the effects of settler colonialism especially in the description of Opal in Orvil's chapter. Opal was one of the first generations to actually be growing up after the relocation and because of this she was subjugated to move incredibly often because her mother couldn't really afford to keep them in one place. In Orvil's chapter he mentions that Opal has intentionally refused to teach him and his brothers about their native background and culture. Perhaps Opal is wants the boys to grow up "normal" in the city and maybe doesn't even have much to offer them because she herself never really got to be a part of a tribe or overall native American community.
In the recent chapters the impact of settler colonialism and the Indian Relocation Act can be seen in Dene Oxendene's chapter when he is trying to get the story of Calvin. Due to all of the these acts and him grow up in a city, he doesn't entirely feel like he should consider himself a Native American. Due to all of the attempts to dismantle native tribes in the United States, Calvin doesn't really know his ancestral history and the meaning that it had. He doesn't have access to this information which actually means, in a way, that these acts achieved their goal in trying to erase and force natives to assimilate into the American society. This entire novel seems to be set with characters who are just trying to find out who they are, who their ancestors were, and just how to get by in this society.
So far I have at least one primary source for my final project and a few secondary sources that I plan to use. Beyond that, I have found it rather difficult to find the correct "keywords" that best encompass what I am looking for. So the research portion for me has been a little slow, but I think I am reaching a turning point as I look through different databases from the library in order to try and find anything that fits with my topic of misunderstood/controversial character. I have been trying to keep this topic pretty open in terms of what could qualify as controversial or misunderstood, partly because I am not so sure how these characters will look in different books. What really excited me about this topic was looking into characters who were a lot more human with their complexities and relatable in situations that I hope to never be in. For instance, my home text is Home Fire so I was looking for characters who are more than what they appear, such as Parvaiz. We were all told about Parvaiz in different perspectives but once we got to his perspective, like many things in life, it got a lot more complicated and controversial. If you all have any ideas or primary sources that you have read that would be great.
When it comes to actually putting together my project I am a little confused on how we are going to present the different sources on neatline. Are we just going to introduce our topic and place the book where it is said to take place and write about how it aligns with our topic or is there something a little more specific that we are going to do with all of our sources? Just how much is our home text supposed to influence or be apart of our final project ? Was it just a springboard to look for ideas or was we supposed to integrate it in some deeper way? These are just a few of my questions and thoughts regarding the final project.
I found it fascinating to learn about the medicine bundles in the second microlecture. Before this microlecture, I never really had any idea that medicine bundles actually existed and conveyed so much information. I do wonder what exactly or how exactly contents in the medicine bundle would reveal a spiritual path and what exactly a spiritual path would entail? I would agree with Michelle in wondering what would have happened if the Europeans who came to the Americas actually took the time to figure out the different Native Americans cultures or ask what the different gift that the natives gave them meant. One can wonder if the world we see today, the America we know today, would have been different. Perhaps some of those massacres mentioned in the book wouldn't have happened if the pilgrims knew what the Natives were trying to tell them.
The wampum belts were also something that I have found interesting. I believe that I have seen some version of them as more aesthetic designs over the years or at least belts that have been "inspired" by these wampum belts. Whatever the case, I know that I have seen them before and never realized that they told a story. Sometimes the way in which they are weaves are so simplistic that people in the past considered them designs when in reality they told narratives. It's amazing to see all the different ways in which Native Americans communicated with one another and the different mediums they used as an alternative to writing. Sometimes we need to try and look past our own cultural perspective and stop imposing them on other cultures in order to make it easier for ourselves to understand. Not every culture may have developed in the same way as others, and we need to realize that there isn't just one way of doing something that is superior to all the rest.
These microlectures have taught me to see different Native American ways in which they used to communicate and document in ways that I have never considered before. I am beginning to see the perspective Orange portrays throughout his novel There There and see beyond what my history classes have taught over the years.
