Everyday Is A Good Day Chapter 5

This chapter is about “Womanhood” and what being a woman to indigenous women means. Wilma Mankiller believes that most of the women “speak of their womanhood within the context of the family, community, and nation” (95). For these women it is important for them to define what is to be a woman themselves and do not ask not want any other person to define the moment for when they became a woman. Some of the people may never understand what its and also the “complexity of relationships” because the women are still fighting for gender equality against men whose “values [have been] systematically destroyed by a society” (97). Wilma Mankiller in this chapter speaks greatly of the women her life which introduced her into being a woman but the stories they told or by their actions. Some of my favorite quotes are listed below:
• “Western Shoshone women are taught that a woman is like the Earth: she gives and nurtures life” (103). – Mary & Carrie Dann
• “Indigenous women are going to have to fight for the rights of the Earth” (103) - Mary & Carrie Dann

These quotes from the two sisters says that just like mother Earth indigenous women who are connected to the earth and the land must feel like the personification of mother earth because they not very respected and are seen to give life to others without little or not appreciation, respect, or dedication from those that she takes care of.

• “The role of the woman is very complex and important. Many women have begun to lose a sense of self-esteem, of their importance to the human race and to this Earth” (104)- Audrey Shenandoah
• “Our identity as Indian women is very grounded in the land. We can’t separate ourselves from that” (106) –Gail Small
• “Gender equity is an integral component of traditional Yaqui culture” (107)- Octaviana Valenzuela Trujillio
• “My personal identity as a woman and a human is very tied to my people” (108)- Octaviana Valenzuela Trujillio
• “We are teachers, healers, storytellers, peacemakers, problem solvers, and visionaries” (117)- Rosalie Little Thunder

Don't Let The Sun Step Over You Chapters 10-12

In chapter 10 she speaks about the cities/areas around Cibecue and say that they actually ventured away from their house, however not off the reservation very often. However for this post I want to focus more on chapters 11 and 12.
In chapter 11 Tulene Watt speaks of her journey to live in Spokane for 2 years. I love to hear that story because it brings closer connection for me because it’s a “close to home” story. She speaks of going to help out the woman with her child in Spokane and in the end finds her husband. I wonder what would have happened if the woman Barbara Miller whose child she was taking care of hadn’t fought for Eva to come how different would her life be? Also in chapter 11 you see her finally traveling away from home although this was in the section of book “Leaving Home Was Hard”. She was able to see the world (or part of it) beyond her life with her family. I wonder if deep down she ever felt this was the wrong decision to leave and explore because it changed her life so dramatically in such a short amount of time.
In chapter 12 Tulene Watt speaks of her finally going back home after he husband was discharged medically from the air force. There was a lot of death in her family & her children were having trouble with school. Tulene Watt says about her mothers last moment “…she had a picture of Jesus on the wall above her bed. She went like this every times he looked at it [she extended her arm and pointed to the picture with her hand]. “Some day,” she said, “he’s gonna help me out. He’s gonna hold my hand one day” (284). I think what she remembers from her mother is big deal and I would see that would have affected her greatly from that moment on.

No Parole Today

This last section of No Parole Today chronicles Linda Tohe’s life after the Indian boarding schools, and her moving into going to college. This section is called No Parole Today. Based on the free verse poems and the short stories, it seems like although she and her classmates had “made parole” and were free from the lives at the boarding schools, they were still systematically, internally, and emotionally in jail but not physically jailed. They still remained effected individuals and lots of trouble followed them in a world not prepared for them and a world that did not want them. Tohe speaks about “Sarah T’s husband shot her at the Tohatchi Laundomat” or of hearing of the death of a friend in a small obscure section of a newspaper. It seems that the life that she speaks of after the boarding schools was very sad, dark, and not the least bit uplifting. I wonder why she decided to do that? Did she want to show the reader of her work true reality rather than “feel-good stories”?