Native American Literature

http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/hhr93_2.html

Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony:
Ceremony I will tell you something about stories,[he said]They aren't just for entertainment.Don't be fooled They are all we have, you see,all we have to fight off illness and death.You don't have anything if you don't have the stories.Their evil is mighty but it can't stand up to our stories.So they try to destroy the stories let the stories be confused or forgotten They would like that They would be happy Because we would be defenseless the.

Response:
I have chosen this selection of Indian Literature because it symbolizes their the importance of literature in there community. In this specific selection Silko describes the white men as people who brought illness and death to her people. She also explains to her audience that they also do not respect their stories and she mentions that they tried to get rid of them. Through my eyes it seems that the Indian culture highly valued literature and disliked humans.

Journal entry:
Dear Diary,
Today was the day my people had met a white man. I have heard stories of these people and how they have harmed us. I've herd that they brought death from where they live and weapons in which i can not describe. I was told that they are barbaric they only know how to kill and nothing else. But today my opinion has changed this white man was no monster he was pretty friendly. It seems that they are pretty stupid though because we traded them for 10 acres for beautiful glass beads.

With hope in our future,
Big Bear

Essential Question:

The Native Americans did not have an American dream but they dream of something else. They dreamt that there land will be free that all will live in harmony. It sounds nice but i never happened because of the white men.