8/2/2019 anandrs14

1/3

Ananda Das

Religious Studies 14

The crucible of American Indian IdentityWard Churchill

In this article, the author analyzes what it means in todays society to be considered a Native

American. He traces back US Policy regarding the right to identify oneself as Native American

and also presents the internal idea of what it means to be Native American.

From a Native American perspective, the author says that being Native American is more of a

lifestyle. He talks about how interbreeding between tribes was a common occurrence with

examples such as the Cheyenne intermarrying the Arapaho or the Ojibwa with the Cree. He

mentions this so as to point out the silliness in trying to classify Native Americans by genetic

distinction. He then talks about how, once the Europeans arrived, this attitude still prevailed

resulting in many intermarriages. He presents the idea that Native Americans were very

hospitable and caring to the white people and gives evidence of accounts of captives who were

so charmed by the native way of life that they didnt want to be freed.

He then proceeds to talk about US Policy and how the US Government used this mixed breeding

to undermine that Native American Culture. He gives examples of treaties where those with

mixed blood were favored such as the 1847 treaty with the Chippewa of the Mississippi where

those with mixed blood were given land as opposed to the pure blood Indians who were only

given common land.

This article paints a bleak picture as far as the US governments treatment of the Indians goes. It

sheds light on something that most of the general populace is not aware of, how through

8/2/2019 anandrs14

2/3

pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics and phrenology, the Indians were made to think of themselves

as inferior to white men and how this white supremacy idea gave the government power to

undermine the nations even more, solving as the author put it the Indian problem.

Wisdom Sits In Places: Quoting the AncestorsKeith H Basso.

In this chapter of his book Wisdom Sits In Places, Basso talks about the importance that

Native Americans bestow on places. He relates the account of a man who with the help of Fort

Apache Indians takes on the task of making a map of the places around the Cibecue community,

marking the landmarks that the natives know as opposed to the Western landmarks that can

normally be found on a map of the area.

Through this account, Basso shows how important a place is to the natives as it often has a

history and a meaning. He talks about how most places are named after the natural habitat,

particularly places where water was or is. He describes the Native American tradition of

assigning a story to a place and how, in contrast with Western culture where history is written

down as hard , cold facts, Native American story tellers are given more liberty with the stories

they tell about the place. The story tellers create place worlds where the name of a place is

explained with a story that may or may not be true. Due to the fact that the Native Americans are

mostly an oral culture, often it is the idea that the story encapsulates that is important rather than

the facts of the story itself.

This knowledge of the relationship between Native Americans and their native place really puts

into perspective the hardship they suffered when they were relocated. Nothing only were they

put in unfamiliar terrains with harsh conditions but they were robbed of the stories that were

associated with the place that they were from. Removing them from their familiar places and

8/2/2019 anandrs14

3/3

forcing them to start anew was certainly a crippling move, eradicating a part of their culture just

as effectively sending the children to missionary schools or creating resentment against the

mixed bloods did.

Vine Deloria,Jr. and the Development of a Decolonizing Critique of Indigenous Peoples and

International RelationsGlenn T. Morris.

In this article, Morris covers Vine Deloria, Jr.s idea that in order for the Native Americans to

heal from the harms that colonization instilled upon them, they must first decolonize their minds.

It has strong ties to the first article as both of them carry the sense of understanding leading to

power. In this article, Morris tries to deconstruct the complicated ideas of Doctrine of Discovery,

Reserved Rights and Plenary Powers as often, a lack of understanding of these important ideas in

defending Native American rights leads to no defending of Native American rights. Just as when

Colombus sailed to America and renamed all the places, Morris claims that it is important now to

understand the power of language, in this case the legal language of the court, if the Native

Americans are to fight for themselves.

These three texts cover hugely different topics, with one talking about identity, the other dealing

with importance of place and the third dealing with the legalities of Native American rights.

However all three are connected in that they provide necessary information in better

understanding and it is only through this understanding, an understanding of how Native

Americans consider themselves or how important places are to them or how things like the

Doctrine of Discovery unfairly robbed them of their land, that we can understand a way to set

things right and try and make a world where we all can coexist in peace.