Native Americans

Writing Prompt:

• What do you know about Native Americans? How do you know it? Describe or list specific stories or histories you have been exposed to through movies, music, books, cartoons, comics, etc.

• What do you want to know?

• Researchers estimate that there were 2, 000 independent people speaking 350 languages across the North American Continent.

• Without a written language, many oral traditions went undiscovered for years.

Local Link Today there are no federally recognized tribes

in Missouri. Most Native Americans were forced to leave during the Indian Removals of the 1800's.

Native American’s were a popular draw at the 1904 World’s Fair held in St. Louis. Chiefs from the Sioux , Dakota, Cocopa, Pawnees, Arapaho, Navajo, Hopi, Cheyenne and Chippewa tribes lived in exhibits at the Fair. None drew as much attention as Apache chief, Geronimo did. By now the chief was in his 70s, but everyone still wanted a glimpse of the old warrior and other “primitives”.

In 1972 Marlon Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Godfather. He turned down the Oscar, becoming the second actor to refuse a Best Actor award (the first being George C. Scott for Patton). Brando boycotted the award ceremony and sent American Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather. She appeared in full Apache dress and stated Brando's reasons for refusing the award (his objection to the depiction of American Indians by Hollywood and television). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU&feature=search

An Offer He Could Refuse…

What’s to protest?

• Tonto from the Lone Ranger 1956– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkl2iT0eS94

• Little Hiawatha 1937– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MUuDFeoyvM&feature=rec-LGOUT-real_rn-1r-7-HM

• Peter Pan 1953: The only criticism at the time was regarding the stories deviation from the original. It was not until recently that the negative portrayal of Indians became an issue.– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YurMTjV1384&feature=search

• Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam in "Horse Hare" 1960– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0CnGzIFBU&feature=search

• Pocahontas 1995 : The film was harshly criticized by Chief Roy Crazy Horse as historically inaccurate and offensive for glossing over more negative treatment of Pocahontas and her tribe by the English. He claims that Roy Disney refused the tribe's offers to help create a more culturally and historically accurate film– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1klLTb1rbE&feature=related

Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian transfers from the reservation school to the rich, white school but soon finds himself making friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the basketball team. Meeting his old classmates on the court, Junior grapples with questions about what constitutes one's community, identity, and tribe. • In April 2010, the Stockton

School Board, located in Missouri, USA, voted to remove from the school library after a parent complained about its content (sex, drugs, racial epitaphs).

• A teen convicted of brutality spends a year on a isolated southwestern Alaska island

• Warnings for violence and emotional distress

• The story takes place in 1757, during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years' War), when France and Great Britain battled for control of the North American colonies. During this war, the French called on allied Native American tribes to fight against the more numerous British colonists.

What’s In a Name?A Native American Perspective

• What do you say? Indian or Native American? Why?

• What is the purpose of categorizing people into groups?

Activity: New Name Presentation

• From the provided list choose a Native American name that represents you. Choose carefully!

• Explain your choice by writing a journal or a poem or by drawing an illustration. (“I just like it” is not an acceptable answer.)

Vocabulary: Archetype

• ARCHETYPE: An original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life in an entire culture, or even the entire human race. These images have particular emotional resonance and power. Archetypes recur in different times and places in myth, literature, folklore, fairy tales, dreams, artwork, and religious rituals. Examples of archetypes found cross-culturally include the following:

• (1) Recurring symbolic situations (such as the damsel in distress rescued from monster by a handsome young man who later marries the girl. Also, the long journey, the difficult quest or search, the pursuit of revenge, the descent into the underworld, the great flood, the End of the World),

• (2) Recurring themes (such as the Faustian bargain or selling soul to the devil; pride preceding a fall; fate; madness; forbidden love)

• (3) Recurring characters (such as witches, womanizing Don Juans, the hunted man, the femme fatale, the wise old man as mentor or teacher, star-crossed lovers, the caring mother-figure, the helpless little old lady, the bully, the villain in black, the mad scientist, the underdog who emerges victorious)

• (4) Symbolic colors (green represents life, vegetation, or summer; blue for water or tranquility; white for purity; or red for blood, fire, or passion) .

• (5) Recurring images (such as blood, water, the rose, the lion, the snake, the eagle, the feast or banquet).

Other Common Literary Archetypes

• The Child• The Hero• The Great Mother• The Wise old man or Sage• The Trickster or Fox• The Devil or Lucifer• The Scarecrow• The Mentor• Superhero• Antihero• Old man, probably a miser • Young man in love,

possibly the miser's son, who rebels against authority

• Clever (or perhaps

cunning) slave • Stupid slave • Hanger-on (parasite)

or flatterer • Courtesan • Slave dealer or pimp • Braggart soldier • The Insincere Man • The Flatterer • The Garrulous Man • The Boor • The Complaisant Man • The Man without Moral

Feeling • The Talkative Man

• The Fabricator • The Shamelessly Greedy

Man • The Penny pincher • The Offensive Man • The Hapless Man • The Officious Man • The Absent-Minded Man • The Stingy Man • The Show-Off • The Arrogant Man • The Coward • The Late Learner • The Slanderer • The Lover of Bad Company • The Basely Covetous Man

The Trickster!• Six Trickster Traits:– fundamentally ambiguous and

anomalous– deceiver and trick-player– shape-shifter– situation-inverter– messenger and imitator of the gods– sacred and lewd

Two Native American Stories

“The Sky Tree” • What are the Archetypes?• Identify Symbolism.

“Coyote Finishes His Work”• Who is the trickster in this

story?• What aspects does he

display?

Writing Prompt:• Imagine the story of your life was being made into a

movie.• What archetype would the writers use to portray you?

(It doesn’t have to match you exactly but represent you generally. Script writers rarely get these things perfect!)

• Who would play you in the film? Remember they don’t need to be look like you but may be an actor who is typecast and plays similar roles in different movies. (If you can’t think of their name then describe it IMDB style: the movie and role they played.)