The Mission, Dir. Roland Joffe. Performances by Jeremy Irons, Robert DiNiro. Warner Brothers. 1986.
In our English class, we watched the movie "The Mission," which offered a two sided European view on indigenous people. The native guarani tribe is met with missionaries who want to help them. Although the Jesuits had good intentions, they wanted to convert the natives to their religion of Christianity, a good example of assimilation. This other dimension of the perspective of the assimilating people can also explain how it was justified in the time and why it occurred so often. Because they were working for what they thought was a better world, they were unopposed morally. On the other side of the incoming explorers, the state was wanting to capture the natives and use them for slaves. The perspectives of these dominating cultures show the way they disregarded native culture, whether intentional or not. The natives had no say in their future. |
Smoke Signals, Dir. Chris Eyre. Performances by Evan Adams, Adam Beach, Gary Farmer. Alliance Vivafilm. 1998.
Our language class watched and answered questions about the movie Smoke Signals as a cumulative activity to our focus on Native Americans. Smoke Signals is the journey of two reservation kids traveling to retrieve the ashes of Arnold, Victor's father. As they meet people off the reservation, they are exposed to support and malice from many white Americans. The movie uses irony and humor to show the perspectives of the boys throughout their interactions with the outside world. The idea of perspectives is also played with as Victor sees his dad for all the worst parts of him while Thomas remains positive and deeper into the motives of Arnold. For our Language class, we analyzed how devices such as the irony were used to add to the perspective of the story, as well as situations and a the ending poem read by Thomas. |
In our AP US History class we analyzed a document about the Cherokee Removal. The Cherokee removal was part of the Indian Removal Act allowed president Jackson to negotiate treaties with natives and force them off their land for American use. The Cherokee Nation in Georgia fought for their right to stay on the land, but lost due to the implications of statehood and the tribe went through The Trail of Tears, coined Cherokee Removal. SOAPSTone charts helped us analyze both where the speaker is coming from and where they want to connect to the audience by making us find the perspectives. The speaker's bias, the occasion of the writing, the audience they are writing to, the purpose, subject, and tone of the writing all support the perspective and overall effect of writing. In this particular passage, the speaker was a member of the Cherokee Nation. The speaker effectively used pathos to draw out sympathy from the listeners by exposing the lack of freedom given to their people, while also incorporating a speculation about American policy and the double standard held over their situation.
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Our AP US History class, we read a Zinn article about the shift from indentured servants to slavery. Native Americans were commonly indentured servants and sometimes slaves, although this trade shifted mainly toward the African slave trade. In the reading, we learned about the historical pushes and stresses that led to this switch. The indentured servants were treated as temporary slaves, serving for an allotted time and then being free. This activity taught us the most about the perspective of the dominant culture. Originally oppressing Natives, the white Americans made them work on their own land as if they were livestock. Backlash against servitude came the hardest from the indentured servants rather the slaves, most likely because they had some semblance of freedom compared to the holistic oppression of the slaves who had no control in their lives. Another factor in this switch was the race of other servants. Immigrants seeking new lives came over as indentured servants because it was easy work to attain and once their time was over they were in charge. Because these people were familiar with the liberties they should've had, losing them in servitude helped them fight back. The masters had to switch to a culture of routinely oppressing so that the people would not believe they were worth fighting for. By recognizing this perspective, it is easy to see how in the future American had a hard time granting the rights they pride to the people that were here before them.
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http://www.crazycrow.com/site/event/gathering-of-nations-pow-wow/
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While we were in New Mexico, we stopped by the largest Pow Wow in the country, The Gathering of the Nations. I have been to a Pow Wow when I was a kid, but it was just for one tribe. This celebration to me helped me recognize perspectives because I was always taught in school how different all the tribes were. Here all the people were making the same jokes even as they wore different regalia and danced different dances in all the displays. Seeing all the cultures represent and respect each other showed me how tight knit they were in their past, having suffered much of the same persecution.
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