Have attitudes changed as we move from early Native American Literature into later and present-day writings? What writers, along with specific examples, might you cite that represent this shift? What is the focus now and how does it compare to other minorities we have explored? Feel free to compare an early writer to a more recent writer (1945 and after). You will be asked to select a quote from the reading each week to incorporate in your first discussion post. This means that you will also include an in-text citation and reference for each quote (Author, year, p. X). Your post should be around 100-150 words in order to receive full credit. The Native American has a deep underlying connection to the Earth, land, and all living things. They have a troubled, sordid past, and have struggled long and hard to maintain their rights among people. We are familiar with this from history books, but now we will closely examine and carefully study the Native American culture from these writers perspective. If you have not read writers like Eastman, Silko, and Alexie, you are in for a treat. Please consider how the care and tending to the land and their heritages translates to the care of choosing words to write across the printed page.You will want to ask what it is each author is doing to add his/her version, or vision, to what is the Native American identity. Is the writer actively writing against commonly held beliefs, questioning the persistent images popular culture has inundates us with, or is it fueled by a different passion or concern? , one of a long line of chiefs, one of the first Native American authors to publish, and one of the first Native doctors, wrote about the Sioux life and customs with brilliant descriptions and influence. The opening lines of Winona, The Child Woman from Old Indian Days, shows this: \”The sky is blue overhead, peeping through a window-like openings in a roof of green leaves\” (Bryant, 2010, p 244). Eastman was also known to write collaboratively with his wife, Goodale Eastman., a highly successful poet, was a neighbor of poet Emily Dickinson\’s neighbor, shared the same mentor, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and, later, friendship. While used her poetry as a means to grieve for the deaths of her infant son and first husband, she also wrote to assert her opinions and views as seen in our reading, ., a truly gifted storyteller, writes, \”I sing with everything I have inside of me: pain, happiness, anger, depression, heart, soul, small intestine. I sing and am rewarded with people who listen. That is why I am a poet\” (Bryant, 2010, p. 268). Emotions, humor, and the truth are hallmark of his work as Alexie raises awareness and redefines what it means to be Native American. His is a place of honor. If you have not read his book, , you might want to after reading his story, \”What Your Pawn I Will Redeem.\”\”Momaday, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, poet, painter, and printmaker, grew up listening to his father tells stories from the Kiowa oral tradition\” (Bryant, 2010, p. 304). was equally influenced by his mother, who became an author of children\’s books and went on to be quite a successful novelist, educator, and mover for the Native American people. Here\’s an that shares his background in his own words. is a \”writer, musician, photographer, university professor, and feminist/activist,\” that is hailed as \”one of the real poets of our mixed, fermenting, end-of-century north American imagination\” (Bryant, 2010, p. 317). Here Harjoy, a rich storyteller, .Many bios claim while did not speak until the age of four, his fascination with language and literature started early on (Byrant p. 331). \”Ortiz\’s experiences at various boarding schools for Native-American children, where punishment was meted out to those who spoke in their own tongue, no doubt also reinforced his passion for words and for understanding their power\” (p. 331). He often speaks about the importance of listening: Listening, \”not really to find any secrets or sudden enlightenment, but to be improved with that whole process and experience the whole process and experience of language. That\’s the way we\’ll come to know how we are, who we are, what we know, what we\’ll come to know\” (p.331).As we read these authors who are central to the study of contemporary Native American literature we will find various tribal affiliations, primary communities mentioned. Others will present a wider approach and identity as simply Native Americans.Learn more about Explore more about Bryant, J. (2010). New York, NY: Pearson Learning Solutions.
