Winona Laduke's Last Standing Woman

Colonialism has a historical context that has long obscured and distorted the experiences of indigenous people, particularly those who endured the brutalities of the California Missions. Although indigenous people are portrayed in history as docile people, who openly embraced invasion, Deborah Miranda dismantles this depiction in her memoir, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, through two stories called “Dear Vicenta” and “Novena to Bad Indians”. Throughout the stories run various narratives of survival and resistance, which form new understandings of colonization and missionization. Miranda practices decolonization through oral history in order to form new and ongoing indigenous identities. Evidently, through decolonial practice and deconstructing dominant narratives about “colonized” peoples and replacing them with stories that use traditional memory and practice, Miranda disrupts the commonly accepted narrative of indigenous peoples by reconstructing the dichotomy between good and bad Indians through acts of resistance and survival.

Love that Native women have for their families, nations and who they are has made them motivated to resist, protest, and hold responsible indigenous and non-indigenous allies to their cause to stand for their values and traditions, which serve as the basics for the survival of their nation (par 2). However, Nason argues that is the same love has made Indigenous women targets of settler colonialist societies subject to levels of violence, sexual assault, and cultural and political

From its birth, America was a place of inequality and privilege. Since Columbus 's arrival and up until present day, Native American tribes have been victim of white men 's persecution and tyranny. This was first expressed in the 1800’s, when Native Americans were driven off their land and forced to embark on the Trail of Tears, and again during the Western American- Indian War where white Americans massacred millions of Native Americans in hatred. Today, much of the Indian Territory that was once a refuge for Native Americans has since been taken over by white men, and the major tribes that once called these reservations home are all but gone. These events show the discrimination and oppression the Native Americans faced. They were, and continue to be, pushed onto reservations,

In Deborah Miranda’s memoir “Bad Indians”, she uses documents, images, and drawings to expose colonial violence and provides evidence of a history of conquest. There are different types of colonial violence that are depicted throughout her memoir, such as: physical, emotional, sexual, and cultural violence. Additionally, Miranda exposes the nature of colonial violence by providing evidence by implementing particular sources to contribute in confirming the history of conquest throughout the lives of California Mission Indians.

As we know, the first Americans to inhabit what is now the United States was not the Europeans, but instead Native Americans. Part of our great nation’s history involves history that is not always so great. Our country has endured many wars, struggles, economic and agricultural hardship and history that many would call shameful. However, the United States has evolved over hundreds of years and has transcended its very existence and influenced every corner of the globe, because of those past hardships our country has grown into what is now the most diverse, opportunistic and free country the world has ever known. In this essay, I will discuss the Apache Indians long and proud culture in conjunction with their own personal struggles as a Native American tribe in North America.

In addition to being victims of poverty, these female protagonists also suffer as victims of their gender. In her book, Feminist Readings of Native American Literature: Coming to Voice, Katherine M. Donovan wrote, “Although [Native American women] face many of the same problems as their male counterparts – alcoholism, drug abuse, unemployment, poverty, suicide, loss of tradition and identity – they also face problems that are distinctly female-gendered: a loss of power and esteem in formerly matrilineal cultures; the trauma of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse from Native and non-Native men” (Donovan 18) First Nation women had very few rights in the 1900s and their issues drew very little attention. Even today, many First Nation’s women are murdered and raped without much police or media attention. In the 1940s until the 1980s, the setting of these books, their rights and attention to their issues would have been even fewer, and many men will have taken advantage of First Nation women.

A wave of “humanitarian paternalism” (King, 2014, p. 102), often valued and enacted by religious whites, sought to care for, civilize, and instill religion in Native Americans by isolating Indigenous individuals and children from their communities so as to make way for god--it only worked to further endanger Native Americans in the context of whites, and perpetuated subhuman regard of Indigenous people by ignoring basic human needs (especially of children in boarding schools) and committing serious offenses of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Colonial governments justified neglect of the importance of community and family to human development in the case of Native Americans through the narrow characterization of Natives as soulless savages, whose communities perpetuated immorality and prevented Indians from being civilized, productive, moral, White citizens. This narrative was constructed in ignorance of Indigenous history on the land, vast, complex knowledge systems, and massively diverse and successful cultural, social, and governmental systems. The colonial governments of En masse, all tactics applied by the U.S. and Canadian governments destroyed Indigenous homes, cultures, languages, families, resources and lives; countless Native Americans died, but the governments could not truly kill their

The experiences of Native American women between the 17th century and the 18th century were outlined by a steady, persistent morphing of village life, penetrating their culture and the rhythm of their every day activities. This change was brought about by no other than the Euro-American colonists, crusading through the North-East United States, causing Native Americans everywhere to pick up their arms and answer the call to fighting, bloodshed, and

The Europeans that colonized Aboriginal communities had a specific idea of what “appropriate behavior” was for women. Yet, hese Aboriginal women didn’t follow these behaviors. Europeans thought Aboriginal women were dirty, and inferior. In contrast to European women, Aboriginal women helped with hard labor. In the eyes of European colonizers, this was not “appropriate behavior.” “The colonizers believed how a society treated its woman determined the social evolutionary state of the society.” [2] Europeans believed that a women’s role was to cater to fathers, husbands, or the closest male relative she has. It was her job to support the family. These ideals were pushed onto Aboriginal women in an attempt to transform them from “savages” into civilized citizens. The way that colonizers thought of themselves as better than Aboriginal women was a hateful and evil outlook. Aboriginal women were now placed in a very uncomfortable position. If they did conform to the ideals of Europeans. They would despise and rejected by their family and community for not following their own traditions. Aboriginal women were deemed as lesser or “uncivilized” compared to that of Europeans, and so Europeans did their best to influence Aboriginal women to follow what they considered “appropriate

be used to look at sexual and domestic violence, especially when considering colonial relationships, which are “themselves gendered and sexualized” (8). Smith closely examines this specific relationship between the colonists and Native American women. The colonists’ oppression of Native women influences perception of indigenous women’s behavior, beliefs, and views. This oppression acts on racial, gender, and sexual levels and also dictates the treatment of Native women. As Winona LaDuke writes in her foreword to this text, “as a Native woman, you always know that you will be viewed as a woman of color, hence your politics will be race based, you analysis marginalized, and your experience seen as limited” (xvii). Colonial based oppression has taken over the lives of Native people, until it exerts an influence—such as the one mentioned by LaDuke—in all areas of their culture and lives. Racism and oppression have, as Smith argues, become a “part of the social fabric” (8). According to Smith, racism is utilized as a method to eradicate certain enemies of the state; in this case, Native Americans. This erasure can be seen through the seeming “absence” of indigenous people. Smith states that “Native peoples are a permanent ‘present absence’ in the U.S. colonial imagination, an ‘absence’ that reinforces at every turn the conviction that Native people are indeed

During my reading and research on the American Indian Genocide, I became familiar with the removal of Native American children via boarding school systems where families were separated, the children taken from their homes and culture purposefully to assimilate them into the mainstream society. Meanwhile, parents who resist were threatened with discontinuation of food rationing. Survivors recounted cruelties such as physical, emotional and sexual abuses which resulted in illness and death in some of the cases. This period had a traumatic effect on the family structure and the fabric of the societies at large.

Native Americans have been neglected, abused, and tormented since the 1700’s when their land was abruptly invaded by Europeans. Europeans declared this “unknown” territory to be their property from then forward and did anything and everything to make sure this would happen. This included forced assimilation, where Natives were stripped of their cultural traditions and forced to assimilate to an english speaking, westernized culture (McLeigh, 2010). This included taking children from their families and sending them to boarding school to learn a new language, new cultural traditions, and new religious practices. Starting in 1860 and lasting until 1970, children were taken from their families at a young age and often lost touch with their family

One-third of Native Americans live under the poverty line. Most families struggle with finding a suitable and manageable job that allows them to provide a home and food for their families, (“Native American Living Conditions on Reservations”). However, a lot of their efforts go to waste. According to the article “Native Americans”, Native Americans have “high rates of poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, and low high school completion rates,” (“Native Americans”). The main causes of these problems can be traced back to the beginning of the settlement of the United States. Although Native Americans have lived in America for thousands of years before the Mayflower arrived in America, they have been deprived of their rights and opportunities by settlers, and have been the

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.

When European settlers arrived, they had a pre-decided vision of what women ought to behave like based on the European women, which the indigenous women didn’t align with. Indigenous women were comprehended and characterized in ambiguous and conflicting terms. They could firstly be viewed as “noble savages” where they were seen as classic Indian Princesses, virginal, childlike, naturally pure, beautiful, helpful to European men, and open and willing to