Ignatian Jesuit Values In Tracks By Louise Erdrich

Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation. This book explores an avenue of advocacy against social injustices. The most observable plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice acted against his mother, which has caused strife within his entire family and within

Almost everyone has heard the quote, “you can’t understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes” at least once in their life. It means that a person should not judge another person before considering their perspective on something. For the novel Tracks by Louise Erdrich, that quote is an important theme for its main characters. The novel gives a glimpse into the lives of Native Americans in 20th century America through the narrative of two characters: Nanapush and Pauline Puyat. The stories of the two alternate through every chapter, with each character narrating their own side of the same continuous timeline. The first narrator is Nanapush, a wise elder of the Ojibwe tribe, whose wisdom is a useful tool for the tribe’s people. The

From the first landing of Columbus’s ships in 1492, the Native Americans have been grossly misunderstood by the Europeans and subsequently, the Americans. Even the name coined for them, Indians, was only conceived due to the fact that the Spanish thought they had landed in India. Just from sheer ignorance of the culture alone, Americans have indirectly and directly persecuted thousands upon thousands of Native Americans young and old. Author Louise Erdrich, a Native American herself, explores the themes of stereotypes and disregard for a culture in her poem “Dear John Wayne”. Through her use of irony and juxtaposition, in combination with imagery, Erdrich paints a picture for the audience detailing the struggle of being a Native American teen in a largely white America.

From the first mention of Native Americans in American history, they are characterized as “savages” and “less intelligent” human beings. This characterization has remained predominate throughout American history, however in colonial times, this characterization had a larger emphasis in how Americans view Indians. Although this the way in which Americans viewed Native Americans, Native Americans, on the other hand, viewed Americans as “white [racially superior]” (Svingen). In today’s modern day and age, we understand the complexity when it comes to stereotyping certain ethnic groups. In regards to Native Americans in a post-World War II setting, labeling and stereotyping such ethnic group emphasizes the importance to integrate individuals of

Tracks is a fictionalized account of the Chippewa people in the early 1900. The novel primarily focuses on the Chippewa’s struggle to maintain and continue practicing their culture while at the same time embracing and resisting the European American hegemony. Erdrich recreates this conflict, allowing us a glimpse into the friction between those who refused to mingle their beliefs, those who accepted some European American ways and those Chippewa caught in the middle. In reconstructing the plot Erdrich cleverly couples the destruction and exploitation of nature with the treaties that the White Americans signed among the Chippewa to confiscate their lands. For this reason the novel mostly comprises the struggle to regain, maintain, enforce and

When the first colonists landed in the territories of the new world, they encountered a people and a culture that no European before them had ever seen. As the first of the settlers attempted to survive in a truly foreign part of the world, their written accounts would soon become popular with those curious of this “new” world, and those who already lived and survived in this seemingly inhospitable environment, Native American Indian. Through these personal accounts, the Native Indian soon became cemented in the American narrative, playing an important role in much of the literature of the era. As one would expect though, the representation of the Native Americans and their relationship with European Americans varies in the written works of the people of the time, with the defining difference in these works being the motives behind the writing. These differences and similarities can be seen in two similar works from two rather different authors, John Smith, and Mary Rowlandson.

Our nation’s history has been deep rooted in the conflict involving Native Americans, ever since the beginning of America and it is one hard to get rid of even as the days go by. The impact of colonialism can be seen in Native American communities even today, and it can only be understood through a cultural perspective once you experience it. Aaron Huey, who is a photographer, went to Pine Ridge reservation and it led him to document the poverty and issues that the Sioux Indians go through as a result of the United States government’s long term actions and policies against them. One must question all sources regarding these topics because there is a lot of biased and misinformation about Native American struggles, and sometimes schools do not thoroughly teach the truth so students can get an insight. There are also different sociological perspectives in this conflict, along with many differing opinions on how to approach the problem and deal with it. This is where ideas clash because people believe their views are right regarding how to handle it.

An emphasis on family is one of the central facets of Native American culture. There is a sense of community between Native American. Louise Erdrich, a Chippewa Indian herself, writes a gripping bildungsroman about a thirteen year old boy named Joe who experiences all forms of family on the Native American Reserve where he lives. He learns to deal with the challenges of a blood family, witnesses toxic family relationships, and experiences a family-like love from the members of the community. In her book, The Round House, Louise Erdrich depicts three definitions of the word family and shows how these relationships affect Joe’s development into an adult.

Until fairly recently the popular culture of American literature and film did not attempt to study the true representations of Indians in North America. Instead they chose to concentrate on the romanticized/savage version of Native people: which is an idealistic view of a Native with long, beautiful flowing hair riding on a horse obsessed with chanting and praying to the savageness of a rowdy, wild Native causing unnecessary mayhem to the white people. This portrayal of Native people in mass media had led to the stereotyping of Natives, which in turn had ricocheted into real life. Not only do non-natives succumb to these ideals, but Natives do as well.

One of the themes used in the book is of racism towards the Natives. An example used in the book is of Edward Sheriff Curtis who was a photographer of 1900s. Curtis was interested in taking pictures of Native people, but not just any Native person. “Curtis was looking for the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the imaginative construct” (King, 2003; pp. 34). He used many accessories to dress up people up “who did not look as the Indian was supposed to look” (King, 2003; pp.34). He judged people based on his own assumptions without any knowledge of the group and their practices. Curtis reduced the identity of the Native Americans to a single iconic quintessential image of what Native meant to white society. The idea related to the image of this group of people during the 1900s consisted of racism in terms of the “real looking Indian”. This is not

The Native Indian history of violence and debasement changed their views and self-image as well. This change later affects how they adapt to American culture and education after being dissuaded from embracing their own for so long. The violence and indifference shown towards the Native Americans during the “Trail of Tears” contributed greatly to this change. In this dreadful journey, Natives of all kinds were forced off

For most of my life, the word “Native American” had immediately made me think of feathers, powwows, and a society uncorrupted by civilization. However, in watching the movie Smoke Signals, a movie that depicts the modern Native American culture, I learned many other things. For one, I learned that many of the customs that modern Native Americans have are very similar to my own. I also saw that the family life of the Native Americans in the film had many of the same problems that my family had undergone in the past years. This film was unlike any that I have ever seen; therefore, it reached me on a very personal level.

In fact, traditions and old teachings are essential to Native American culture. However, growing up in the modern west creates a distance and ignorance about one’s identity. The author takes a more blunt approach to the idea of the Native American

With all the darkness that comes with American Indian Literature comes light. Natives can go on for days about bad things that have happened to ourselves because of who we are and who our ancestors were. But we are still here and we gain more and more power each year to set our people up for a better future. We have all Native Colleges with thousands of Natives working towards degrees so we can go home and help the tribe. This gives rez kids hope and we will continue to pave the way for them and to document our experiences so they can feel they are not alone. This is what American Indian Literature means to me, we pass on everything about our ancestors and ourselves to the next generation so we never forget who we are and what we come from no matter if it’s good or

Society categorizes people in many different ways. The impression of a status often manifests itself in the way that one group regards and views another one;Society categorizes people in many different ways. Beginning as a proud group of nations, the perception of Native Americans changed when Christopher Columbus first arrived in the New World in 1492. After describing the people who inhabited the land as animals inferior to himself, Columbus created a lasting image of Native Americans that would become adopted by other Europeans as they began to establish settlements in North America. With theBecause of the belief that native Americans were simply inferior, Europeans began to take the land of the indigenous people land as their own, simultaneously conducting a mass genocide so as to , nearly erase their Native culture. Native Americans became forgotten and had of little value in society as their voice and place in America diminished. This perception of Nnative Americans as unimportant is still prevalent today. By examining Layli Long Soldier's poem Whereas, the NPR interview U.S. Apology To Native Americans: Unnecessary Or Not Enough?, and the Hyperallergic article Navajo Nation Responds to the Threat of Uranium Radiation, it is evident, based on their treatment, that Native Americans are viewed as unimportant in the eyes of the American people America’s eyes.