John.Ascher-Roberts 4/9/15 ARLT-100: Emily.Zeamer Communal Good Versus Personal Strife Within Fools Crow In his novel Fools Crow, James Welch depicts the historical conflict in ideals and territory between the native Pikuni tribes and the Napikwans, or whites, in the Montana plains. Through perspectives of different members of the Lone Eaters and their personal progression, Welch presents the dichotomy of acting for the good of the community versus acting for personal gain and wealth. No narratives more accurately describe this internal struggle than the ones provided through Fools Crow’s and Fast Horse’s experiences. Since both start from the same relatively low status, each of their trajectories through the novel explicitly show how different …show more content…
On one hand, during the raid of the Crow camp, Fools Crow never acted for personal gain and everything he did was motivated for his tribe’s success. Thus, Fools Crow experiences great personal success and is honored for the raid with a proper title, wife and horses. It is because of this positive reinforcement that Fools Crow lives his life as an embodiment of how a Lone Eater should act. Contrarily, Fast Horse acts against Lone Eater virtues, which echoes his innately selfish ways that contrasted the tribe’s beliefs. During the raid Fast Horse was boastful and selfishly cried out: "Oh, you Crows are puny, your horses are puny and your women make me sick! If I had time I would ride among you and cut off your puny woman heads, you cowardly Crows” . By ridiculing the enemy, Fast Horse was trying to achieve personal recognition amongst the tribal communities. Instead, it led to the capture and torture of Yellow Kidney, the band’s leader. Fast Horse’s actions eventually cause him great personal suffering as he is banished from the community after the tribe discovers it was him who was responsible for Yellow Kidney’s …show more content…
During a trip to the Black Patched Moccasins, Mad Plume warns Fools Crow of such individualistic behavior by saying: "(the young men) are off hunting for themselves, or drunk on the white man's water, or stealing their horses. They do not bring anything back for their people. There is no center here.” The lack of a “center” illustrates how individualistic ideals can deteriorate a community. The exotic wealth and spoils of the white society blind the young men, and in their pursuit of its pleasures they unknowingly destroy themselves and their people. These desires of wealth tempted even Fools Crow himself when he searches Fast Horse to tell him of the tribe’s desire for his return. Fools Crow, alone at the time, feels the power of the individualistically minded life that Fast Horse converted to. He feels a freedom "from accountability to the group" where he wouldn’t "worry about the consequences of his actions." Although Fools Crow ultimately rejects such a lifestyle, it’s clear that the seeds for the deterioration of the communal ideals have been
The book “The Road on Which We Came, by Steven J. Crum is a chronological report of the Shoshone peoples, and their history during the times from the Frontier to present-day. The main objective of Crum’s writings is the disposition of the Western Shoshone people. Unlike the majority of other Tribes, forgotten in history books as they assimilated into white society, the Western Shoshone have preserved their existence by cautiously dealing with settlers, defending their territory, and maintaining a large portion of their lands. From the initial mid-nineteenth century white contact, Crum describes the disruption of a way of life for the Newe, to the accepted need to adapt in the large modern society around them. The depiction of the Newe people as resilient and resourceful in the fight to preserve their culture and tradition, all while adapting to the forcefully changing environment around them (Crum, pp.
Adrian C. Louis’ novel, Skins, is a caricature of Native American Reservation life. In broad sweeping strokes, Louis paints a picture of impoverished, overweight, drunk Indians. His protagonist, Lt. Rudy Yellow Shirt, serves as a ‘could-be’ hero who falls into an increasingly criminal lifestyle as he tries to avenge his people. Through the life of Rudy, the plights of Native American people are detailed over and over again. Louis embraces stereotypes in his characterizations of both Native Americans and whites.
We all consider ourselves relatively civil people. That we have evolved over time. That we could never go back to savagery. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys crash on an island without any adult guidance or supervision. They quickly make Ralph their chief, and Ralph decides to make Jack the leader of a group of hunters that were in the choir group that Jack aso lead.
It was the year of 1870 in northwestern Montana. A group of Lone Eaters, a small band of Blackfeet Indians are trying to overcome the presence of the Napikwan-white men that threatens their existence. The Lone Eaters are like a lion that's protects his group. They protect their camp from the bad attacks, and the people that fight to protect earn respect. In addition, when people respect someone, that someone acts differently than when they had no respect from others.
The novel Reservation Blues, written by Sherman Alexie reveals different struggles encountered by the Native Americans on the Spokane Indian Reservation through the use of history, traditions, and values. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, a pureblood Indian, forms a band with his childhood acquaintances Victor Joseph and Junior Polatkin called Coyote Springs. Alexie uses a variety of scenes and personal encounters between characters and their dialogue to portray the meaning of tribal identity throughout the novel. A cultures goal is to prove their identity and be superior to one another; The American culture has achieved dominance through white hegemony while the Spokane American Indian tribe is in a battle of oppression struggling to preserve their tribal identity. Spokane Native Americans are very passionate about their tribal identities yet are envious of the power that the white hegemony holds against them, leading them to their depression.
Life on the Spokane Indian reservation was not easy for Sherman Alexie. Members of the Native American community were plagued by poverty, violence, and substance abuse (Donovan, 2011). Sherman was no different. He was troubled by his family’s misfortunes and his health. Sherman stood by his Native American heritage.
The Life of Pretty Shield and Plenty Coups The lives of the Crow Indians were long a mysterious and little known area of information. When Pretty Shield was written in 1932 it gave greatly needed insight into the life of Native American women which had not been previously researched. However, Pretty Shield though it is a valuable source of information is not complete without its counterpart, a novel known as Plenty Coups Chief of the Crows which was written several years before.
Alienating and Suppressing the Wild Thomas King’s A Short History of Indians in Canada introduces the effects of colonialism and bias established on indigenous peoples’ reputation through satire. King’s play on major metaphors and animal depiction of indigenous people paints an image of an abhorrent and gruesome history. Through moments of humour, King makes references to racial profiling, stereotypes and mistreatment as historically true. Thomas King utilizes industrialization versus the natural world to incorporate the effects of colonialism and how representing indigenous people as birds made them the spectacle of the civilized world. The colonizer dominance and power imbalance is evident and demonstrated often in the short story through
William Golding’s fictional, British novel, Lord of the Flies, presents a character that serves a two-part function as a “scapegoat” and a certain commentary on life. During WWII, a group of British boys are being evacuated via plane when they crash and are stranded on an island without adults. As time progresses, the innate evilness of human nature begins to overcome the savage society of young boys while Piggy, an individual representation of brains without brawn, becomes an outlier as he tries to resist this gradual descent of civilness and ends up shouldering the blame for the wrongdoings of the savage tribe. Up until his untimely death, Piggy is portrayed as the most intellectual and most civil character in the group of stranded boys. Right from the beginning, Piggy realized that “[they] got to do something,” (8) and he recognized the shell Ralph had picked up as a conch.
Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.
William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies is about a group of young boys, aged around 6-12, that crash land on an uninhabited island, and without adults, they fail miserably. In E.L Epstein’s article “NOTES ON LORD OF THE FLIES” Golding reveals in his novel that the flaws in human nature lead to a flawed society; which is seen in society (Epstein par. 3). Lord of the Flies provides an example of how imperfections in human nature start to surface when people are in a groups. One imperfection is their tendency to do violent and demeaning things as a mob.
Science journalist, Charles C. Mann, had successfully achieved his argumentative purpose about the “Coming of Age in the Dawnland.” Mann’s overall purpose of writing this argumentative was to show readers that there’s more to than just being called or being stereotyped as a savage- a cynical being. These beings are stereotyped into being called Indians, or Native Americans (as they are shorthand names), but they would rather be identified by their own tribe name. Charles Mann had talked about only one person in general but others as well without naming them. Mann had talked about an Indian named Tisquantum, but he, himself, does not want to be recognized as one; to be more recognized as the “first and foremost as a citizen of Patuxet,”(Mann 24).
Even though Fast Horse has left the tribe and gone away, Boss Ribs hopes that his son will come back and after learning the secrets and history of the Beaver Medicine Bundle assume his role as a tribal elder. Fast Horse is found several years later after being shot. He is wearing white man’s clothing including: buffalo coat, black hat, a collarless shirt, and boots. His old friend, White Man’s Dog, brings Fast Horse back to the tribe to be healed and treated after being shot by the old medicine man, Mik-api. Even though Fast Horse has left the tribe, associated with bad people and lives among the white man, Boss Ribs welcomes him back and wants him to assume his role as the next keeper of the Beaver Medicine Bundle. Fast Horse wants no part of his father’s plan and runs away from the tribe again.
Petalesharo’s writing reflected the treatment of Native Americans during the 1800s. Being a Native American himself, Petalesharo was able to give perspective on a point in history typically viewed from a white man’s opinion. The excerpt “Petalesharo” explains how the Native American was able “to prevent young women captured by other tribes from being sacrificed”, making Petalesharo well liked by the Americans (588). Petalesharo gave the “Speech of the Pawnee Chief” infront of Americans to convey the differences between Native Americans and Americans through emotion, logic, and credibility, which showed how the two groups will never be the same, but still can coexist in the world together.
As the son of a Comanche chief and a white captive by the name of Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah Parker rose from the status of a Comanche warrior to their tribal leader. Although not much is known about Parker’s personal life and early years, he plays a vital role in William T. Hagan’s book “Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief”. In this book, Hagan identifies the Comanche Chief through his upbringing to his death, describing his transactions with local Indian agents, presidents, high officials in Washington and the cattlemen of the western United States territory. The author presents the Indian chief as a “cultural broker” between the cultures of the white southerners and his tribal members, presenting a blend of beliefs that are heralded as progressive and traditional as he maintained the control and organization of his tribe. During a period of transition for the Comanche people,