Brittany Sobolewski
10/6/2014 07:33:32 am
Leslie Marmon Silko's Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit was a very interesting read. To read about the different ideas of a native culture was a positive experience. The Pueblo's see the landscape as everything around them including themselves. You are not just the viewer in the land, you are also a part of that landscape. You helped nature just as nature helped you. In hunting elk, the event was not just to hunt but to gather everything that you needed from the elk, nothing would go to waste. It was a ritual. The animal would be respected and prayed for by the natives. As we have read before all these are passed down via stories. The things that we learn about natives they learned through their ancestors and word of mouth. Another interesting thing to note is that both landscapes and dreams are similar to the people because of the fact that they instill feelings and emotions through images.
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Katharine Trahan
10/6/2014 08:18:21 am
Response to Leslie Marmon Silko’s Interior and Exterior Landscapes: The Pueblo Migration Stories and Winona Laduke's article
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Kyle Tocher, The Amazing
10/6/2014 10:09:30 am
I was in a really good mood when I started reading Leslie Marmon Silko’s work; it was some really great stuff. Even after I read everything she had to stay I was in a fantastical mood, it has been a pleasant day! Regardless, in fifth grade I did a project on the Pueblo Native Americans, I had to pick a tribe to study, I picked a New Mexican tribe, they were pretty cool. So everything I read was an interesting refresher to what I had studied back in fifth grade when I was an aspiring lad.
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Elizabeth Grillo
10/6/2014 11:04:46 am
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stephanie papasodero
10/6/2014 11:07:17 am
The story Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit by Leslie Marmon Silko made me really think about stories and what is the importance of them. Until now, I have never really thought about what the meaning of story-telling is and why it is done. I just thought that Native Americans re-tell stories so they can teach the younger children about things that happened in the past, but that is not the case at all. Pueblo people used stories to be the medium through which the complex of Pueblo knowledge and belief was maintained. Their stories all had specific topics and certain key elements in it that had special meanings. Like hunting stories described key landmarks and locations of freshwater and deer-hunt stories might serve as map. Although the story is told an important part of the story is the location or landscape that is being described in the story or where the story is taking place. Stories are able to re-tell the newer generations about places of importance where a fight took place, or where the best berries are located, or to warn the people to be careful around the edge because it has a past of engulfing cars. I never really looked deeper into the meanings behind landscapes when hearing a story, I usually try figure out the main idea of the story. I realized that the main idea of the story is only a small part of the story that is important, there are so many other things in the story that need to be a priority in order to fully understand the story. When the Pueblo people told stories they acted them out and imitated voices of figures or characters in the story. By acting it out and using different voices to identify what character is being portrayed it actually makes the person listening feel like the moment is alive again within them, within their imaginations and their memory. They can actually feel like they are actually at the place that is being explained in the story. The more connected you feel with a story the more you can understand it on a personal level. When re-telling a story about a horrific fight that took place and the Natives being raided by white settlers, the story-teller wants to make the listener be able to feel like they are actually in the middle of the fight so that they can feel the pain and hurt that the Natives are feeling at the time. The story-teller wants the listener to feel this way because this is part of their past and they want them to understand just what their people had to go through for their people to be where they are at now. Some landscapes are destroyed and are not even visible anymore, but by story-telling those places will always live on and survive from one generation to the next. Even though people try to hurt and break the Pueblo’s way of life, the Pueblo people won’t let that destroy them and their cultures, lands, people etc. will live on forever as long as the stories live on so will Pueblo people.
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Jenna Pelissier
10/6/2014 11:14:15 am
Upon reading Winona LaDuke’s “All Our Relations,” I was both intrigued and moved by the first few opening paragraphs. The first sentence, even, “The last 150 years have seen a great holocaust,” immediately sparked my interest and engrossed me in what the rest of the article would entail. It was mindboggling to read about how more species have been lost within the past two centuries than since the treacherous days of the Ice Age. Not only have countless species been lost, but thousands of groups of aboriginal peoples have become nonexistent throughout the western hemisphere as well. The narrator creates a parallel between the animals to the natives, as their extinctions are in direct correlation. These are astonishing numbers; how did this go about happening without having been detected or cared for?
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Nicholas Machado
10/6/2014 11:46:55 am
All Our Relations by Winona LaDuke and Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit by Leslie Marmon Silko were the most upsetting readings assigned thus far in ENGL 326. It was difficult to read about the poisoning of sacred Native American lands and people, and to think about the devastating effects pollution and nuclear waste are having on the lives of American Indians living on reservations even today in 2014. Many of the readings so far this semester have focused on discrimination and brutality against Indians in the past due to European takeover of America, but today’s assigned texts actually described physical harm being inflicted on people living on reservations in the name as something as unnecessary as corporate greed. The most interesting part of both essays for me was the fact that the Native Americans being impacted by chemical exposure and toxins being dumped on their homelands were more concerned about the generations following them than their own lives.
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Scott Elliott
10/6/2014 01:33:07 pm
Scott Elliott
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A.J. Niakaros
10/6/2014 03:19:07 pm
I was really moved and inspired after reading Yellow Women and the Beauty of the Spirit, by Leslie Marmon Silko. It has shined a new light on the topic of being resourceful and has revoked an old feeling of longing for the days of well-rounded individuals. These days, the illusion of a food surplus and immediate access to resources has made us lazy and wasteful. Most people throw out more food than they eat while others struggle to eat once a day. However, for the Pueblo people, their deep connection with nature and their ancestral culture has taught them to not only be resourceful, but maintain a deep appreciation to nature that our modern day culture has lost.
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Merrilee Brown
10/6/2014 10:01:41 pm
Merrilee Brown
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Caitlin Rose Bradley
10/6/2014 10:52:01 pm
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article about how Christopher Columbus didn't discover America. I fully support the Portland, Oregon high school students of 1992. I think it is important to tell children when they are younger the truth about Columbus and various other topics about which we usually mislead them.
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Keri Rutherford
10/6/2014 11:16:46 pm
The Pueblo people illustrate how the remains of all things, animals, plants, clay and stones, make a return to Mother Earth “where they all may benefit living” beings. Nothing is wasted, as everything is either consumed or goes back into dust. Whether a rock or animal, each thing consists of an individual spirit or being. Humans are not separate from the environment but a part of the landscape that surrounds them. Ancient Pueblo’s saw the Earth and Sky as sisters, with humans included as the Earth’s children. The intensity and harshness of these environments call upon the people’s methods of survival by appreciating and making us of all that encompasses them, causing a grander respect for and understanding of Mother Earth. In the center of Pueblo belief and identity lies the landscape with narratives expending a great deal of detail and consideration to all aspects of the landscape. Silko illuminates how the stories she absorbed and experienced as a child continued to radiate within her as she explored landscapes with feelings of familiarity and interactions. The oral narrations of stories opened the door for spirits to arrive and live the stories once again, as they taught the listeners how they were the people they believed themselves to be. The Pueblo’s illustrate an admirable respect for Mother Earth and the connections of all beings. To perceive the world in such a way truly unveils an ability to detect the energies and interrelationships that encompass us throughout our lives within Mother Earth. All things breathe, coexist, and evolve within their time on this Earth, one only needs to open up his or her mind to the beauty of this world.
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Rachel Ivil
10/6/2014 11:23:39 pm
In Leslie Marmom Silko’s piece Interior and Exterior Landscapes she speaks of the relationship between what people use and what they give back. She begins by stating that when they take something from god they then must use each piece of it completely. They find use for the meat, skin, and other parts. Whatever they cannot find a use for the leave for other species to live off of. For example they leave bones with very little meat on them out for scavengers as they will clean the rest of the bone. Then even the bone becomes important as it will break down and become nourishment for the plants, which will then feed another cycle of animals and the cycle will continue. I had heard before that Natives used every piece of any animal they killed out of respect for the animal. It was interesting to read in Silko’s piece that it is done not just to keep their god happy but to keep the animals spirits happy as well. In Ladukes’ piece there is also the demonstration of the gratefulness and respect for the animals that feed them and keep them healthy. I appreciate how the Natives approach the animals they use as food both before and after killing them. I like that they treat them with respect and act as if they too are humans and deserve to be treated as such. This is definitely something I think should be adopted here, but instead we have animal cruelty, and slaughterhouses.
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Casner Parfait
10/6/2014 11:34:22 pm
Casner Parfait
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Zack Teixeira
10/6/2014 11:52:19 pm
Zack Teixeira
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Abbie DeMagistris
10/7/2014 12:20:00 am
Abbie DeMagistris
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Ashley Chesworth
10/7/2014 12:41:48 am
A major theme I noticed in Leslie Marmon Silko’s writing was “rebirth.” Rebirth through life, food, stories- everything should always be passed on and continue living through time. Silko begins her essay on the importance of giving back to Mother Earth. Everything, she says, has some sort of spirit and all should be treated with respect, “The remains of things—animals and plants, the clay and stones—were treated with respect, because for the ancient people all of these things had spirit and being.” (26) Silko explains that as our bodies decompose, after our spirit is gone, everything we have should be left to the Earth. The animals will feed on us, the plants will absorb what is left and we will continue on to something else. In the end we are all connected.
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caitlin seddon
10/8/2014 05:45:20 am
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caitlin seddon
10/8/2014 05:55:40 am
I didn't see a section for todays reading so I'm going to put it here.
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Timothy Morrison
10/8/2014 06:45:45 am
With Columbus Day approaching, I think the assigned readings offer a very important chance to discuss much of the controversy surrounding Christopher Columbus’s legacy in America. In the Rethinking Columbus Collection, I enjoyed how the editors and featured authors referred to the traditional Columbus story as the “Columbus myth”, because, at the heart of this universally accepted story, there are myth-like features distorting the reality of Columbus’s character. I think this feature alone, and the language accompanying the story, is what drives some of the anger surrounding this issue. Every writer in this reading points to the significance of the word “discovery” and “discovered”. Anyone raised in the United States from an early age gets taught the white-washed, simplified version of Christopher Columbus and his voyage to America. Most likely, many of us, at some point or another, were told he “discovered” America. Over time, some of us gradually come to understand this wasn't the case, but there is still some effect that lingers on in the culture. I think many of the Authors are correct in their criticisms, because they point out the thematic implications of the “discovery” story. This version of the story treats the Americas as if they were like the Higgs Boson or DNA, like they were discovered by a group of higher individuals wearing lab coats in a science lab. Additionally, I think Suzan Shown Harjo makes a great point as she writes that “no one knows the truth about Columbus” (Harjo 13) and that “Too often, this history is posed as romantic myth, and the uncomfortable facts about Columbus are eliminated” (Harjo 13). Harjo notes how certain aspects of Columbus, his voyage, and much of the earliest interactions between the Europeans and Natives contain some “romantic” notions- qualities that form from the need to glorify a country’s genesis. She also uses the word “uncomfortable”, and I think this particular language is significant. When we look back at our Nation’s history, the unfortunate reality for us to face is that it is overflowing with despicable human behavior and injustice. We don’t have to teach fourth graders about the horrors of genocide, but we should start to help them understand the truth behind our history.
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Caitlin Rose Bradley
10/8/2014 08:34:48 am
I like that the Leslie Marmon Silko article begins with talking about returning to dust after death and about not wasting anything. This is the most important aspect about native life, in my opinion. The Native Americans and native peoples around the world all understand this concept of borrowing from the earth and getting the most of everything they take, even knowing that they themselves are a part of this circle of life. They understood and appreciated the relationships between earth and sky, people and plants and animals, air and fire and water and earth. Stories they told emphasized these relationships, including everything.
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Scott Elliott
10/8/2014 09:45:12 am
Scott Elliott
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Jenna Pelissier
10/8/2014 10:59:52 am
Reading Response
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Ashley Chesworth
10/8/2014 11:56:39 am
I enjoyed both, Rethinking Columbus by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson and Debbie Reese’s Blog mostly because they focused on either school systems or books children might read- both of which have to do with teaching. In Rethinking Columbus Bigelow and Peterson stress the importance of teaching students the correct information about Native Americans and Columbus but also doing it in an interactive and thought provoking way. The first lesson they describe had the students stealing their teachers purses and claiming it as “theirs.” Students were able to see how the change in words can completely alter an action. For example instead of saying the students, “stole” their teachers purses you could say the students, “discovered” them. The essay then goes on to remind students of books and how it is the students responsibility to decipher was is accurate and what is not. “The assignment’s subtext is to teach students that text material, indeed all written material, should be read skeptically. . . that to read is both to comprehend what is written, but also to question why it is written.” (20) Students, reading all things need to understand the importance of accurate writing and what is reliable. Wanting to be a teacher I can see the importance of not only the Native American teachings here but also just as a general lesson to not always believe what you read. Many stories are one-sided or are two-sided but missing part of the story.
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stephanie papasodero
10/8/2014 12:32:35 pm
The blog “American Indians in Children’s Literature” by Leslie Reese was really interesting and made me realize just how bad Native Americans are stereotyped by, not only white authors, but by society as a whole. It seems insane to me that these authors were allowed to publish these books in the first place because of some of the negative and harsh things they write about. It is pretty disturbing that when authors put “as told by” in a title of a book they don’t actually get the Native people’s permission even though they make the reader believe so. Yes, I bet a Native person did tell the author a story of some sort but I don’t think after the story he told the writer “ok, please go and write my story down and publish it for everyone to see.” As Leslie states in her blog, Natives are very personal people and most of their culture is for the eyes and ears of their tribes, not outsiders. Not only is it bad for the writers to write “as told by” when the story really wasn’t “as told by” in the first place but, also, the writers are putting their personal stories out there and they aren’t even re-telling it the right way. When a Native person tells a story and a writer re-tells it, even without permission, it is so disrespectful and just wrong for the writer to add different things in the story that are not the truth. I don’t understand how an author is allowed to write a book based on the “facts” from a Native person, but then is able to change the story any way they want so that the story sounds more intriguing for the reader. Another thing that really upset me is that when an author says in their book that “they promise to give some of the profits from the book to the tribe”, and Leslie reacts by saying this is a “red flag” for her. What I interpret from Leslie’s statement that she believes it’s a red flag is that this doesn’t really happen and if it does happen I bet it’s not even half of the profit because, from everything else I wrote about, the authors are selfish, liars that are only looking out for themselves. The biggest thing that makes me upset is that this is all based on white authors and these authors make it look bad for not just them, but white people all together. We get a reputation that the way we perceive Natives is unjustly, unfair, and disrespectful. It hurts me to think about what Native people have to go through, not only from books that make them look like something they are not but in everyday life.
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Ronaldo Fontes
10/8/2014 09:14:25 pm
Ronaldo Fontes
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Casner Parfait
10/8/2014 11:49:26 pm
Casner Parfait
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Brittney Melvin
10/8/2014 11:50:20 pm
Brittney Melvin
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Abbie DeMagistris
10/9/2014 12:06:40 am
Abbie DeMagistris
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Katharine Trahan
10/9/2014 12:10:29 am
Response to "Rethinking Columbus"
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Rachel Ivil
10/9/2014 12:46:56 am
I can remember as a child in school learning about Columbus, and praising him as the founder of our land and discovering our country. It wasn't until I was in high school that teachers finally elaborated on what kind of person Columbus really was. I think being told our entire childhood that this man was great, and that we have a day to celebrate how 'great' he is, made it hard to believe when we were told how he went about getting this land and all of the people he hurt to do so. "Rethinking Columbus" is something that I think would be useful in showing students the real truth behind Columbus and his day. I liked how the writer pointed out that we are living on stolen land, but that that should not be used as a way to make white students feel guilty as they are not responsible for the past. I liked this because I do think that even though students need to know the truth, it does need to be told in a certain way as to not squash everything the child has ever known. Honestly, one of my favorite parts of the entire reading was the comic on page 13. It is of an 'American' man yelling stating that we need to remove the illegal immigrants from America to which the Native American replies " I'll help you pack". This was humorous to me knowing the history of the Natives
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Zack Teixeira
10/9/2014 02:59:16 pm
Zack Teixeira
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Elizabeth Grillo
10/10/2014 12:05:28 pm
Rethinking Columbus is a great essay that I thoroughly believe in. The Columbus myth is the foundation of children's beliefs about society. Columbus is often a child's first lesson about encounters between different cultures and races. What we learn about Columbus is not correct and it tells us false information about who to accept in society and who to ignore. It says nothing about the brutality of the European invasion of North America.
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Merrilee Brown
10/13/2014 05:06:24 am
Merrilee Brown
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Nicholas Machado
10/13/2014 11:59:08 am
Rethinking Columbus by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson is a compilation of articles, interviews, and cartoons designed to inform readers of how harmful it is to Native American people to watch hundreds of people celebrate Columbus Day each year. By divulging some of the harsh truths behind the story of Christopher Columbus, Rethinking Columbus is both startling and informative, and it certainly made me think twice about what I learned in grade school regarding the alleged “discoverer of America.” While the editorial does a great job of putting modern American understanding of Columbus Day into perspective, my favorite segment was the interview with Suzan Shown Harjo in which she goes into detail about what can be done to change Columbus Day (for the better) once and for all.
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