Native American Flashcards
Name 3 characteristics of NA poetry/literature
- Traditionally always oral poetry passed down through generations
- The spiderweb (in case of Leslie Marmon Silko - non linear)
- Had functional purposes - associated with religious or supernatural ends, part of daily life
What is a POW WOW?
NA ritual allowing the sharing of information & stories - since these were transmitted orally and not recorded
What 2 deadly/dangerous things did colonisers bring to Turtle island (US)?
- Disease
- Alcohol - Native Americans had no tolerance, hence high rates of alcoholism
When were stories/poetry mostly transcribed?
late 19th & early 20th century
Give some information about NA spirituality/ religion
No origin myth identifies anything similar to christian belief of sin, no supreme being, shared common beginnings with animals
One of main conflicts between european ideology and NA ideology
The idea of common vs private ownership
How did colonisers steal land from Natives?
Treachery, bribery and cruelty - used english as Natives couldn’t read or write
(we see example of this manipulation in Leslie Marmon Silko’s story Lullaby)
Key dates of colonisation
1492 - Columbus ‘discovers’ america
First English settlement in Virginia in 1607, hostilities broke out in 1608
1620 Puritans arrived
English went to total war in 1629 to ‘root out Indian people’
Little Big Horn battle in 1876
What happened after the Civil War?
Native Americans suffered poverty and were restricted to reservations. They also were dispossessed through fraud.
What were colonisers attitudes towards Natives?
believed they were sinful - for some groups they were unsavable (virginian europeans) because of their skin colour and race. later tactics changed to forced assimilation and conversion.
Why did Natives struggle to fight back?
From a diversity of (sometimes warring) tribes, they struggled to work together.
What was the General Allotment act of 1887?
It dissolved the collective tribal title to land and allotted individual natives plots, with which they became citizens, forced to pay taxes and subject to laws.
What type of Native American Literature became popular and why?
Autobiographies talking about double consciousness and the difficulty of assimilation, were prominent due to debate of what it meant to be american in time of increasing cultural diversity.
Who was Zitkalasa?
Native american, raised in a white residential school. Wrote about the damage of assimilation process and fought to retain her native identity.
Recurring contexts in NA literature
Destruction of land, religion, extermination of a people, assimilation trauma, poverty, alcholism, depression/insanity
