Tracks by Louise Erdrich

Body, Spirit, Land

Native Americans: Some History

500 original cultures in North America (note, North America) 10,000 BC at least, tribesmen crossed the Bering Strait and began settlement Initially, somewhere between 4-8 million people speaking 500 distinct languages

Today, 315 "tribes" in the US 700,00 "full-bloods" also mixed bloods (parents from different tribes) also those with one non-Indian parent Today, about 80% of NA live on reservation lands, a total of about 90 million acres, down from the promised 140 million.

Who is a Native American?

Working definition:a person with at least 1/4 Indian blood and tribal membership
But many others suggests that being NA is more a process of self-identification, among these N. Scott Momday

NA were initially under the jurisdiction of the Department of War--established Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1824
The history of NA with white America, especially the government, was a constant breaking of faith.

Northwest Ordinance, 1787

George Washington signed the Northwest Ordinance and the first words of the treaty were: The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians and their land and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed. . .

Black Elk

Black Elk, chief of the Ogalala Sioux, said of events in the 1870's: They were chasing us now because we remembered and they forgot."

Legal status of tribes

Today Native Americans hold the status of domestic dependent nations--they are nations within a nation whose members are legally wards of the federal government, but remain sovereign

Cultural Genocide

In the 1950's, the federal governement began the practice of "adopting out" NA children to boarding schools---a practice now identified as cultural genocide, as the schools attempted to strip the NA children of their heritage. (Remember that Gordie was sent to one of these schools.)

Naming

Imprecise--a problem, in its inexactness Debate over NA, Indian, American Indian We need to remember that when we talk of NA culture, we are speaking in English. For example, in most Indian languages there is not a separate word for religion.

Tribes
1. a native language 2. an inheirited place 3. set of traditions such as speech, folklore, ceremony, religion 4. a heritage passed from generation to generation through songs, jokes, legends, healing rituals, spiritual rites of passage, and vision journeys.

Shared characteristics

idealize ancestral bonds spiritual bonds oral cultural traditions tribal life-styles involving shared goods and responsibilities personal concerns are communal concerns recognize ecological interdependence

Varied cultures and traditions

Imagine tribes from:

upstate New York Washington state the New Mexico desert Northern California South Dakota

Colonization

NA have been colonized for over 500 years Original population of 900,000 at the time of Columbus 250,000 in 1900 yet the cultures survives

History behind Tracks

1830 Indian Removal Act passed (under President Andrew Jackson) Cherokees appealed this to Supreme Court: Justice John Marshall declared the Cherokees a domestic independent nation
Marshalls decision overturned the next year

Trail of Tears

1837 Trail of Tears Cherokees from Georgia illegally removed to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) 4-8,000 died on the trip

Trail of Tears: from Georgia to Oklahoma

Robert Lindneux, 1942

Trail of Tears Memorial: Jerome, OK

Indian Wars

Occurred from about 1860 to the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 (Lakotas, Ghost Dance). Between 1881-83, the government hired marksmen to decimate the buffalo remaining--only 2 and 1/2 million down from 15 million One government official commented on the decimation of the buffalo as a practical policy to get the Indians to adapt to a different (read white) way of life.

Dawes Allotment Act

1887 Changed government policy to make it easy to divide Indian land formerly held communally and assign it individual Indians who then had control over it. Land to be held in trust for 25 years.

Results of Allowment

Before allotment Indians had 139 million acres

By 1934, only 48 million acres remained.

1886-70

Outbreaks of smallpox in North Dakota Outbreak of tuberculosis in North Dakota

189?-1901

1906 Burke Act: allowed the commissioner of Indian Affairs to shorten the length of trust time for competent Indians

1917

Declaration of Policy

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells defined competent Indians as those with more than white blood) who could then sell or lease their land

Thinking about Tracks

Narrative strategies NA figures of myth and religion: Trickster & Berdache Role of religion in the novel Characters of Fleur and Pauline: their roles, contrasts; similarities

Trickster

Erdrich relies on the figure of the Trickster, a prominent figure in NA culture. Tricksters can be sacred clowns, or non-sacred clowns, but are not human

They are clever, very sexual and lustful; irresponsible, foolish

They embody contradictions, but arent contradictory They can take human form or animal form They can cross boundaries (mind/body) but their actions simultaneously show boundaries They are amoral, clever, very sexual and lustful; irresponsible, foolish

Berdache

Another common figure in NA culture: term most used today is two-spirit people Lucky, independent, practices medicine and magic (a gift) distinct from sorcery or witchcraft which is conscious, can be learned, and in NA traditions, always harmful

Gender is suspended in the berdache; if a man, dresses as a woman; if a woman, dresses as a man)