Hey ALL!!!
This my video that I presented today in class that I am VERY proud of. It is about American Indian Boarding Schools. While researching the subject I kept running into these pictures and I have always been under the impression that "a picture is worth 1000 words" and that was not the case with these pictures. The people in them seemed very silent, and repressed. It was not my intention to give them voices, but I wanted to help to give them something through the voices of survivors. I used quotes from Laura Tohe who is (Navajo(Dine)), Eva Tulene Watt (White Mountain Apache) & Tim Giago (Lakota). So with that...I hope you enjoy!!!!
Friday, December 12, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Thanksgiving Collage
Hey all this the collage that I created that relates to my project I have been working on during the semester. My project was exploring Indian Boarding Schools. While I googled things like "Indian boarding schools," "Native American Assimilation" etc. I found many of the pictures which helped me to make the point of what Thanksgiving really means. I found the picture of the Native American and the white man shaking hands with the saying "Thanksgiving is a time to remember all that we have....And the genocide that it took to get it". I placed this in the middle of my collage and surrounded the picture with images I found online of the children going to boarding school and their assimilation process from start to finish with the small photo of a woman named Woxie in "traditional" western wedding clothing. It shows what was left behind during the process. I used a program calle Picasa to put this all together... Hope you all enjoy!!!
Charla
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Strong Women Stories Chapter 9
This chapter titled “Two-Spirited Women Artists and Social Change” by Nancy Cooper speaks about two spirited women or native lesbians who are using art as their way to make change in their communities. Cooper says that “art has always been a vehicle for political changes, and artists have often been the first ones brave enough to hold a mirror up to a community or a society and bring to the fore issues such as racism, the effects of colonialism, classism, and homophobia”(135). Although these women are not well known their art has and impact beyond the Native American community. These women are moving to change their place in the world and get people to realize there are Native American lesbian poets/artists and I really like the fact they are reaching people thanks to their art and a good way too. I wish the chapter was longer to know more about them and see more samples of their work.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Dissident Women Chapter 5
This chapter titled “Indgenous Women’s Activism in Oaxaca and Chipas” by Lynn M. Stephen explores the complexity for indigenous women’s struggles where they are trying to gain access, power, and leadership roles in their own communities, but they are still faced with their own home life of “traditional” values which says that these women are not entitiled to such rights. These women are moving to change these gender roles by contributing to the Zapatista movement. Stephen argues that in order for these women to obtain some of the power that they are looking for there has to be
“…a combination of women’s local, ethnic-based skills and leadership knowledge and their experience in new forms of local and regional organizational permits them to broaden their participation in local politics and create more egalitarian gender relations of power” (158).
A piece that I thought was very interesting was an original ejido law which was unchanged until 1971 only let women to use their rights if they were “…mothers or widows maintaining their families. Single men over twenty-one or younger who lacked guardians could be given land, but women could not” (159). I felt this was interesting because it’s another way for the government to oppress women’s rights. I could only imagine if this law never existed of how many women would actually have been able to acquire land. I think it should be changed anyway because many women do work as if they were single mothers although they are married because they do so much for the family inside and outside of the home. But change is coming for these women because “traditional” roles are being challenged thanks to women organizing and trying to work along side the men by producing free-trade coffee. It’s a long road but these women are trying their hardest to find a niche in these roles and change them from the inside out.
“…a combination of women’s local, ethnic-based skills and leadership knowledge and their experience in new forms of local and regional organizational permits them to broaden their participation in local politics and create more egalitarian gender relations of power” (158).
A piece that I thought was very interesting was an original ejido law which was unchanged until 1971 only let women to use their rights if they were “…mothers or widows maintaining their families. Single men over twenty-one or younger who lacked guardians could be given land, but women could not” (159). I felt this was interesting because it’s another way for the government to oppress women’s rights. I could only imagine if this law never existed of how many women would actually have been able to acquire land. I think it should be changed anyway because many women do work as if they were single mothers although they are married because they do so much for the family inside and outside of the home. But change is coming for these women because “traditional” roles are being challenged thanks to women organizing and trying to work along side the men by producing free-trade coffee. It’s a long road but these women are trying their hardest to find a niche in these roles and change them from the inside out.
Monday, December 1, 2008
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
• “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.
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”?
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