Cezanne Losing-Cann

Cooper
English
8/20/16 Like a Hurricane Soapstone Responses
Speaker
Preface a great many books written about American Indians have shared two
characteristics. They have been written by people who are not Indians, and they usually sought to
persuade readers that government policies were cruel and misguided. That tradition has on
occasion produced important even brilliant books, but is not a tradition that guides this work.(2)

The speakers in the book come from a place of experience as both writers of the book are
Native American. With an aim to educate the readers about specific events that occurred during
the Native American movement, personal bias is reduced because the author's argument,
although concerning them, does not seek to show events as cruel or misguided

Occasion
Chapter 7 The American Indian Movement
A significant confrontation took place in Oklahoma on October 3. Carter Camp, an up and
coming aim leader, led a midnight attempt to seize the Fort Sill Indian school in Lawton, a BIA-
run school where tensions between students and administrators had been rising. (144)

Many protests over the course of the book are described over the course of the late 1960s
and the 1970s. Each of the significant confrontations described in the book helps to piece
together the nation-wide movement that struck the nation in almost every state. Many of the
events in the book displaying acts such as the attempt to take Fort Sill School also help to
illustrate the tension between many American Indians and the government.

Purpose
Chapter 11, All Things Twice
Some in AIM had argued they had scored a tremendous victory by gaining the world's attention
and sympathy and forcing the government to back down. It was a moral victory, true, but one the
movement could find ways to capitalize on, turning public sympathy into more concrete
achievements.(220)

In this paragraph, the authors illustrate the fight and difficulty the American Indians of
the 1970s faced. The purpose of the book clearly describes the fight that the groups such as AIM
faced were a battle for sympathy. Despite the victories scored in gaining the world's attention
there was yet to be more concrete achievements. Each act of protest was a work for change to
get the government to back down

Audience
Chapter 3 Fancy Dance revolution
Since the late 1950s, student groups had been working on campuses and in communities,
producing cohorts of college-educated tribal officials and administrators. At the same time,
traditional people and local poor and working class people had been getting to know each other
around the country and staging courageous, if often ignored, protests. Indians in the cities were
organizing themselves into impressive organizations that could swing deals with the city
halls(37-38)

Talking of people from different walks of life producing college educated officials and
administrators as well as impressive organizations shows the targeted audience. By giving the
readers an idea of the kind of people that participated, it can be inferred that the target audience
is people that are of Native American descent and people that are interested in well supported
information on the American Indian movement. This is supported when the author talks of
working class people to show support for multiple education/economic groups that participated
in the movement.
Subject
Chapter 5 The Monument Tour
The future of Indian Activism would belong to people far angrier than the student brigades of
Alcatraz. Urban Indians who managed a life beyond the bottles of wine cruelly named
thunderbird would continue down the protest road. And, more importantly, the invisible
reservation people whose tribal leaders were so uncomfortable with the wave of direct action that
was continuing to grow,[...] were about to add themselves to the mix. (111)

The idea of Indian activism of the American Indians is brought to our attention in this
paragraph by throwing in words such as direct action, future, and invisible. These words
show the direction of the piece through how it brings in the words that describe the action of
protest, as well as the growing tension that was occurring in between the people and the
governmental programs that were to control reservations. A concept brought to light for main
subject of protests and overall struggle of the American Indian Movement.

Tone
Chapter 12 Hundred Gun Salute
At one point, the group had to lay motionless in a gully for two hours when the APCs were
heard nearby. They finally moved on, and at sunrise on Monday morning walked over the last
ridge and looked down at the encircled village. The group walked straight through the federal
line and then the Indian bunkers, across Wounded Knee Creek and behind the Catholic Church.
No one stopped them.(248)

The intensity of the moment when the group had to lay in a gully for two hours shows the
harsh tension that occurred between the government and the activists of AIM. The drama of what
happened at Wounded Knee was the most direct example of this conflict due to the death of
multiple people and the tension with the surrounding of the Wounded Knee village. By showing
the group making it into the village again, it demonstrates the breakthrough that their struggle
was highlighting.
 Work Cited Page
Smith, Paul Chaat and Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from
Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, New Press 1996.