Monday, September 27, 2010
Native American Artifact Discovery
Today we had the opportunity to observe various artifacts related to Native American culture and history. Along the way, you took notes making observations and asking questions. We want you to share some of that thinking here. Identify one artifact that had a significant impact on your thinking and explain why. Include the questions that were raised in examining the content. Feel free to elaborate on your experience explaining anything that was particularly surprising and/or reaffirming.
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I think the mascot one with the Cleveland Indians was a shock because i have never thought about it that way. i didn't know that the native Americans took offense to that and i understand now that they put the different ethnicity's as the mascot and it is making fun of that group.
ReplyDeleteOne artifact that really caught my attention was artifact number 5. In the folder was three pictures of students either standing or sitting in front of a building. They were all wearing matching uniforms and all the girls stood in the front or sat in the front. No one was smiling. :( Also inside the folder was a reading about how children would go to school half of the day then go to work the rest of the day. It also talked about how women were discrimated more than the men were by having to take on more responsiblities then the boys. Some questions i had to this picture was; 1) Was it planned for no one to smile?, 2) Why were the boys seprated from the girls in the photo?, and 3) Why were the women treated differently?
ReplyDeleteThe folder that caught my eye wasthe one about the treaty in which Indians got to be citizens. This was interesting because we came to there land and thenhad to have them sign a treaty to become citizans of a place they have lived their entire lives. A couple f questions I had about this were are there limitations to their citizenship and are there still racist acts towards them now that htyeare citizens?
ReplyDeleteOne interesting artifact that I examined with my partner during class was artifact 4. It was a written speech that was never presented. I noticed that it was recent, being only 40 years old. Also, the man seemed extremely proud of his heritage and wanted to express it to the country. The speech was never presented to the people in Plymouth, MA because it was deemed inappropriate by the government. If they wanted to have Mr. James speak about his tribe, why couldn't he use his own speech? Who was this speech aimed towards? These are questions that puzzled me after looking at this artifact. Overall, artifact #5 was really interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the three pictures of the various indian soldiers fighting along side the Americans in 3 different wars (WWII, a battle in 1890s, and protesting in the 70s.) I found this was pretty cool, because it said that there were about 40,000 or so Indians fighting along side the Marines, Army, Navy, and Air Force in WWII, and I never knew that there were that many fighting along with us. Overall, I found out that yes, Indians fought along, and against us (in a protesting way). Some questions that were raised were: Why did they fight along side us, the Americans? In which areas did they fight in in the many wars?
ReplyDeleteOne artifact that stuck out to me the most was the one with the three different pictures of large groups of students, and a description. The first thing that I noticed was how there were many more boys than there were girls. This made me wonder why is that? Do they favor boys to receive an education rather than the girls? Are the girls only seen as good enough to stay home and do the chores and take care of the sewing and household chores? This artifact also made me think about the amount of students in each classroom, if any. Were there enough teachers to teach the students? Were there teachers at all?
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that caught my attention after examining artifact 5 was how none of the children were smiling. In the description it stated that the school was military based, which left the life for students in a horrible no fun state. Also, I was shocked that they only go to school half of the day, and that the other half of the day they spend working/doing trade. Why don't they have a full day of learning? How come they are in a school that is military based? Why do none of them seem happy one little bit? If it was so important to work, then why would they have created schools to begin with? This artifact had a huge impact on my thinking about the lifestyle for the Native Americans.
The artifact that caught my attention was artifact # 20. It was a comic of an Indian meeting up with 2 regular people in Arizona and the indian said "Let me see your papers". This surprised me just because I knew once I saw the sign that said Arizona that it was making fun of the new immigrant laws that they want to have in Arizona. But I understand the comic because it showed that when Indians see white people, or anyone that is not like them that they look like total outsiders. This is how it seems in the world today when we see people that we think are illegal immigrants, as in the case in Arizona they are soley looking at the appearance of the person. I just find it a little bit funny that this immigrant thing did start with the indians and still happens in society today.
ReplyDeleteMy attention was drawn to audio #2. I thought it was extremely interesting that there was a separate “woman’s society” within the Native American tribe. For a coming of age ceremony the girls are isolated for four days. During these four days the mother figure gets to treat the girl like a child one last time. This made me wonder: is there a ceremony similar to this for boys? Why are the girls “rejected” in the tribe? What makes childhood so difficult for girls on the reservation?
ReplyDeleteThe artifact that drew the most attention to me was the cartoon with the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Africans, Cleveland Asians, and Cleveland Hispanics. I agree with Brian on this because you really don't look at Indians the same minority as blacks and asians today. This perspective made me realize how much the Indians take offense to this stuff, and see it as they are being made fun of. A question that came to mind is if these comics were really published in the paper, because I feel like it would of caused a lot of controversy from different groups disagreeing on if naming a team the Cleveland Indians is the same as the Cleveland Africans...Now that I look closely at it, it makes more sense to me how the Indians take this to offence.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by audio #1. It talked about how the Native Americans used to speak hundreds of languages but now those languages are extinct, and are called "sleeping languages." But people are looking to retrieve these languages so that they can feel close to their tribe and feel like a part of their culture. I was surprised that these languages are being taught to the children.. I find it weird that they just all of a sudden started teaching something else as a new generation came into the school. I know its not the same, but to me that just seems like if all of a sudden the 2nd graders in Hudson were taught Portuguese instead of English. It just doesn't make sense to me why they'd want to revive these languages. And how do they even figure out the language? I'm sure its not easy because its most likely not all written on paper, and all of the people who used to speak the language are dead. I was also surprised that the children want to text in their language. It doesn't match up that they want to connect with their old culture, but connect it with modern times. Its pretty interesting, but I don't think it's anything I'd ever do.
ReplyDeleteThe one that caught me the most was the sports logo one. We all can say these teams without a problem but they have never asked the tribes to use them as a logo. One of the tribes might find that as downgrading because they could think the Cleveland Inians are making fun of them. The other thing is that some schools have to change long stadning nicknames but can ask the tribe to use it like Florida State did with the Seminoles who took it as a honor. I now get that we sterotype and why the Native Americans take offense.
ReplyDeleteThe picture that caught my attention most was the one of the Native Americans and White people negotiating something, which was being done in front of an American Flag. What caught my eyes most was what was happening in the background. It seemed as if Two Native Americans were doing something to a Black man. I am not sure what it was, so that sparks my question: What were they doing to the black man and why?
ReplyDeleteThe artifact that stood out for me was the Native American concentrations in the United States, artifact #13. Most of the country had low concentrations all around but the eastern coast was just ridiculously low in concentrations. I always thought that Native Americans were not as much as a long time ago but I never knew it had gone this far. Most of the U.S. having less than 1% concentration of Native Americans is shocking. Also, I noticed that Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico had high concentrations of Native Americans in their corners to form what seemed like a shared location. However, Colorado's corner which appeared to be part of the location, was just like the eastern coast. Why is the eastern side of the United States extremely low in Native American Concentration. In addition, why is the small corner of Colorado that should have completed the high concentration location, just like the east coast?
ReplyDeleteOne of the artifacts that caught my attention was the picture of the pow wow advertisement. The thing that caught my attention was the fact that the Native Americans had to actually advertise their tribal gathering in an article, making it seem that it was more like some sort of costume party rather than a real tradition. I think that it shows that even though the Native Americans practiced their tribal influences for hundreds of years, it's sad that they can't really enrich themselves in their old lifestyle anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe artifact that made me think the most was Artifact #7. It made me think the most because it was a woman that was floating above what looked like both Americans and Native Americans. She was portrayed to look like an angel or goddess, and had a strange book in her hand. I wondered what the book was and whether it was an angel or not. I also wondered why the clouds appeared so grey in the photo and there was also a large body of water I wondered about.
ReplyDeleteJust like Evan, artifact #8 really grabbed my attention, more than the others. There was an American flag in the background and it seemed as if the Americans had set up camp there and claimed that area (the flag makes me think that). I wonder if they took that land from the Native Americans. The white men seem at home in this place. A man is cooking in the background and people are going about their day. But what is strange, is in the picture there is a white man conversing with a Native American and it doesn't look like a conflict. So, this leads me to the question: are they making/discussing a treaty?
ReplyDeleteOn another note, like Evan said, there is a black man in the background seeming to be held hostage. This surprised me as well and I wonder, is he a slave to the white men? If not, are they about to make him their slave? What is he doing there?
The "artifact" that caught my attention was #11, a paragraph of writing. It was about how a cheif was planning on christianizing indians. It mentioned how congress recently passes a law forbidding anyone to bring liquor across mississippi. Due to this, the tribe's chief wanted to move their camp west. The tribal leader said that he wants to teach kids to read, do labour and give them no whisky. This had me wondering a lot. Do the tribes give their children alcohol, is that why congress believes this is a problem? I also wondered if the reason holding the leader from converting his tribe to christian was because the "white men" were taking their booze. Which leaves me wondering, how big of a deal is drinking to Native Americans, does it have a significance.
ReplyDeletethe artifact that caught my attention was the two photos of the same man where he is dressed as a Native American and as a white business man. The reason that this caught my attention was the two photos were of around the same time period you could tell this by looking at his facial featurs he looked about the same age in both pictures so a question that comes to mind is was this man taking a photo of as a Native American as a joke or the other way around? Or was he a Native American who was culturaly influenced by the white settelers but he still looks like the photos were taking on the same day. The main impact of this was that this shows how fast the whites put their cultural influences on the Native Americans.
ReplyDeleteThe artifact that I was interested in most was Audio Two. I read the article at artifact 24. This interested me because it was talking about the coming of age laws and coming of age ceremony. When I read that the mother's had to feed their daughter, I didn't really understood. They wanted to treat the daughter's as young children. When I was reading the artifact, I kept questioning if boys' were involved and when we heard the audio it made more sense. It said that boys were involved, but only young boys. The daughter's had to show that they knew how to survive on their own. They had to house themselves and put tepee's together.
ReplyDeleteOne artifact that caught my attention when going around the room today was artifact 5. This was a picture of a segregated school for people who were Indian. I found this interesting because I wouldn’t think that Indians would be segregated. In this picture there were mostly men or boys very few boys. They also had uniforms it was like a military base. They had half day schooling and the other half of the day and work the other half.
ReplyDeleteSome of the questions that I had when looking at this was 1) why were there so many more men? 2) Were the men and women segregated during the classes or were they mixed together? And 3) Why were woman less important then men. These questions had gone through my mind when looking at the artifact.
The advertisment for the Pow Wow caught my attention. I wondered if everyone was allowed to attend these events. Also, it showed that the Native Americans are still trying to maintain their culture. This Pow Wow has been going on for over a hundred years annually. If this was not a succesful event it would not still be going on, meaning that many Native American's attend it. Many of the activities were contests. This made me wonder if they were culturally based games. One of the activities was a dance that seemed to be a traditional dance. I wonder if this is a dance from their ancestors.
ReplyDeleteThe artifact that really caught my attention was, artifact #6, an image of Native Americans sitting down on the floor inside of a structure. I thought at first that the people in the image were performing a ritual of some sort. My partner and I noticed that the building looked like a home so we thought that everyone inside was family and that they were cooking food. Some questions that we came up with was what was the season, because some people were heavily dressed and some did not have any clothing on. Also, what were the people in the center of the image doing, because it was unclear if they were burning something or cooking food. I am curious to find out what these people in the image are really doing.
ReplyDeleteI found article 11 to be very intresting. It was a paragraph talking about the changes that the chief of a Native American tribe wanted to make. The first thing he wants to change is alcoholism. He has found that many people in his tribes are alcoholics and aren't going anywhere or helping anyone if they continue to drink. The chief was very excited to hear that there was a new law forming that says you can't bring liquor west of missouri, where his tribe was relocating to. Another thing that the chief was trying to do was integrate Native American children, with regular children in schools. I think that he wanted to do this, to get a better education so the tribe can successfully continue.
ReplyDeleteOne artifact that really caught my attention was artifact #5. When you first look at the pictures you see large groups of school children dressed in strict uniforms all following the same color pattern(blacks and grays). But, when examined closer I quickly discovered that they were all Native Americans. If you looked carefully you could see that there were a few rows of adults/ older people blended in to the mix. The first question that popped into my head was, "Why do they look so unhappy?"
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the paper that went along with the pictures I quickly realized the answer to my question. These military-based schools took Indian children from the reservations and aimed to transform them for white purposes. While at the schools they were not aloud to speak their native language and had to learn "white" trades and skills.
It made me wonder what became of the kids who went to these schools. Did they lose some of their pride? Did they lose the importance of their heritage?
The artifact that really stuck to my mind was the picture of the group of children. Amber was my partner and she and I found a lot of detail in the picture that made us really upset about what we were looking at. we were confused about what exactly was going on, and where they were. we really wanted to know what happened to these kids at the school.
ReplyDeleteI do not remember the exact number of the article - however there was one that made me genuinely think. There was a picture of the massacre performed by the U.S. government on the Native Americans. It was crazy to see that our own nation, a nation that wants to mix races together could commit such an atrocity. Then there was a picture of the Native American soldiers, and it shows that the Native Americans fought for this country and deserve respect.
ReplyDeleteThe artifact that stuck with me was arftifact #5. I found it shocking that there were so many students. The schools behind them looked so small as well. The uniforms looked extremely strict. There were also a lot more male student than there were female students. How many students were in one school? It seems imposible that they could fit that number of students into one of those tiny school buildings. Sure they'd have ft in our school but those buildings were so much smaller. It makes me thankful that I have such a good school and such an easy life. I don't even have to wear a uniform.
ReplyDelete