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Some Like Indians Endure, By Paula Gunn Allen

Decent Essays

In the poem, “Some like Indians Endure,” Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo) novelist compares two different types of people to talk about oppression and injustice. The two types of people being compared is about lesbians, which Allen refers as ‘dyke’ to Indians. Her usage of ‘dyke’ is to present how it can be seen as offensive to lesbians, just like how ‘Indian’ is offensive to many Native American people. Novelist Allen represents strongly as a lesbian and a proud Native American. With the understanding that she is a lesbian, the usage of dyke lessens the fact of it being used as a derogatory term. The conception that dykes and Indians faces similar suffrage issues and relate relatively well in surviving what the society has expressed of them, …show more content…

Both groups have resultantly encounter torture, discrimination, oppression, prejudice, and the act of being killed for who how they represent themselves in society. Like Indians, dykes were discriminated by the society for representing who they wanted to be, because of that they were killed for not being wanted on Earth for claiming as lesbian. In distinction to claiming themselves as lesbians, they eventually traveled as a group. Oppression has continued to play a large part of dykes and Indian communities. From the poem Allen states, “so dykes are like Indians because everybody is related to everybody in pain/in terror/ in guilt/in blood/in shame/in disappearance that never quite manages to be disappeared/we never go away even if we’re always leaving,” from this, it is predictable that the comparison Allen makes is creditable in dykes being similar to Indians in the act of oppression. Although, struggling through all these social justice issues, both groups have risen above and resume their activities as a human being, individually and as a group. Without mentioning the solutions to social justice, it is understandable because I believe that the only way to resist social justice is to live on and continuing being who you are. Regardless of what society sees of you, be yourself and keep living strong. We are all human beings, …show more content…

At first, it came as a surprise to me that there are still many tribes who are trying to become federally recognized and colonize land again just like before to continue their culture and identity. By now, I would had imagined that the Native Americans are at peace and can continue their traditions. However, I have come to discover that Natives Americans are still fighting for social justice when they have existed here way before Christopher Columbus discovered their land and called them, Indians. The impact that these social justice issues has on me is that the issues in which Native Americans face cannot be entirely solved. It is an impossible action to fix. The government is not acting on the issue but this is impossible, because realistically, everyone’s actions cannot be set and enforced by the government but the individual

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