Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cooper, 2
AP Lang
05/20/19
Changing the future before it begins: taking a look at the past so as not to repeat it
Throughout my junior year the main topic of my English and History classes has been
Native American culture through the study of different sources from articles, movies, and even
hands on experiences. In the beginner of the year I developed a question that I would focus on
throughout my studies which ended up being: How has modern society marginalized Native
Americans politically, socially, and economically? This question has shaped my assignments
that I have completed this year giving me direction as far as the topic for each. This has helped
me learn a lot about how culture differs within our nation. Because of these differences there are
many ways that natives are persecuted, the most influential of these ways being in their culture
The culture of Native Americans has many differences from our culture demonstrated in
their storytelling and fighting. In the short story “Every Little Hurricane,” the author, Victor, is a
young boy who is in his room while his parents throw a party for New Year’s. During the party
two of his uncles started to fight and it continued to escalate but still no one intervened. “They
were all witnesses and nothing more.” (Alexie 3) This shows one aspect of Native culture that is
brutality. This type of fighting is normal in many tribes and is a common part of their daily lives.
Another way the culture is portrayed differently is through the telling of stories. There is a short
story called “How to Tell a True War Story” which tells, from the perspective of a Native
American, the right way to tell a war story. He states that a war story should not be
chronological with a moral that ties the story up into a nice neat bow. A war story should be all
over the place and shouldn’t make sense to anyone but the storyteller because that’s all that
matters. The purpose of the story is not to entertain it’s to give the storyteller peace.
Some opportunities that Natives are offered are not as plentiful as the opportunities
given to whites regarding jobs and education. For example, some tribes have reservation
schools which are created in order to give tribes access to education when they don’t have it
any other place. This is important because it’s one of the few times that Natives have been
provided for. We watched a movie called “The Mission” which followed the journey of father
Gabriel as he converted the tribe of Native Americans over the Amazon river. This movie
showed how much the white colonizers don’t take into account the Natives lives and beliefs.
The only colonizer who actually did care about them was Father Gabriel and him alone couldn’t
stop the conversion and killing of many natives. Because Native Americans were put into
reservations in history when whites were expanding west they haven’t really been able to get
out of that situation. Another way Natives are oppressed is through the employment of whites
over Natives in many jobs because of race discrimination. This has continued on for centuries
since Columbus came from Europe to the Americas. This discrimination has contributed to the
marginalization of natives in modern society and does not give them equal opportunities as
whites.
The native lifestyle is very different from that of whites in their dancing and their food. For
example, when we travelled to New Mexico we visited the To’hajiilee community. While we were
there we had the opportunity of learning one of their traditional dances where we walked around
in a circle with a special rhythm in our steps. Before we learned it however, we got to see some
of the elementary school kids do the dance. They were dressed in traditional clothes for pow
wows with deer hide headbands and moccasins. This was really cool to experience because our
dancing in our society is very different and very uncultured. Finally, they also have differences in
their food. For example, when we were in New Mexico we got to make fry bread, a traditional
food of many Native tribes. This was very interesting because personally, I have never tasted fry
bread before and to not only get to try something so personal to them but to get to make it as
well and see how hard it can be was very eye opening.
In conclusion, this year has been a very influential year for me in regards to learning
about other cultures, specifically Native American culture. I learned about how they have been
marginalized in society and how their culture has been oppressed especially in regards to food,
and dance. This year was very big for me as well in regards to growth. I think that through
learning about other cultures has made me more aware of myself and who I want to be. Overall,
this year has been a very influential year in my life by making me a more globally aware citizen.