In regards to Robert Big Elks presentation, I have the following
to say. Firstly the presentation was very informative and educational.
In that presentation he expressed some of his views and shared his
experiences and an Indian boarding school. Was this a balanced view of
the situation? was there any good that came-out from these schools?
Roberts presentation was about what he and countless other native American
children experienced, and to him it was a very bad experience and
understandably so. To ignore and pretend this never happened is a greater
fallacy. Maybe we could learn from this and other tragedies to improve
the current state of affairs. The obvious parallels between Roberts story
and the books we have read is the struggle between scientific and
traditional values. This struggle seems to always show up, and comes in
many different forms. I am of the view that just because we do not all
share the same views and beliefs, that his makes the other person
inferior. We have a greater challenge to look beyond these minor and
petty differences. A question I would pose for Robert is this, In native
American religion is there a blending in of Christianity or other world
religions? I was kind of curious because I heard mention that he believed
in Jesus Christ.
Concerning the reading assignments, to me the Ceremony was a much
easier book to understand and follow. It provided me with much needed
insights into the traditional native American culture . The Story Teller
was much different, Silko wants to portray how important story telling is
to the native American culture. I think she is also saying to tell us
that this is a dying tradition in the modern world, and this will
consequently led to the loss of a culture.
Besides getting a Humanities credit, this course has allowed me to
gain some knowledge into a culture that is different from mine. It has
also rekindled my reading interest, and encouraged me to widen my spectrum
of books.
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