Reflection Week 1/17

     This week former U.S. Navy Seal, Clay, came and talked to our class about his experiences in the Navy and throughout his life. One thing I thought was really cool was that he gave an amazing description of the intensity of P.T.S. and the severity at which he has it. First of all, it really helped me relate to P.T.S. I always related it to war veterans but now I know that I have P.T.S. with some experiences as well. It also really helped me relate to Ceremony better and see how Tayo is feeling a lot of the time. When Clay described being able to smell gunpowder in the air, hear screaming and shooting, and taste the blood in the air, I could see how vividly those things were appearing for him. I could feel the extreme qualities of those memories in his mind.
     Something that was extremely intense for me, was when Clay talked about the 12-year-old girl he killed in Jordan. I cannot imagine being in that situation or living with that situation everyday from then on. The reality of that situation made me so sad. The fact that there are people in our world, that would persuade a young girl to commit suicide in order to kill others sickens me. I feel sad for that girl. I feel sad for Clay and the severe emotional pain that comes with his job. I feel sad for our world. It is hard to imagine that things like that actually happen in our world. Even though I did not agree with everything he said, Clay made me thankful for his service and for coming and sharing his experiences with our class so that we can understand Ceremony better and the world we live in better.

Reflection Week 2/10

     This week the discussions really helped me understand Ceremony better. There were a lot of metaphors, double meanings, and time frames of the book where I was very lost that I now understand. I still have some unanswered questions but overall I have a much deeper understanding of the details of the story. The essential parts of the story that are crucial to understanding Tayo's current state were fuzzy for me until we talked through them, moment by moment. I now feel more confident about the reading.
     Now that I understand things better, I feel even more sad for Tayo. As I learn more and more about Tayo's past I can't imagine how he functions on a daily basis. He was repeatedly abandoned by his mother as a toddler. When he finally was given a stable environment and a consistent family he was subjected to Auntie's rude and uncalled for words and actions. Tayo feels so much guilt for everything that has gone on in his life that he has no control over. I feel that he is clinically depressed and I feel so sad that everyone that was supporting to him and kind, he has lost. Mainly Rocky and Tayo. I wish Tayo had a more loving and caring environment to live in so that he could find ways to deal with his grief and pain.


I chose this picture because I feel it represents all the parts of Tayo's life that are dying to get out of him.

Reflection Week 2/3

     This week the quote activity was hard for our group. Personally, I'm confused on the flow of the book and not so much the content so specific quotes didn't really help me overall. There are parts where metaphors are unclear to me and I wrote those down but the thing I am struggling most with is time. Ultimately, I have a hard time telling what is present and past, imagined and real, and if it is past or imagined why it is important to the whole of the story. I feel the specific quotes won't help me much because it is such a huge question and the story jumps around so often that there is no way to go through in complete detail what time frame Tayo is in throughout all the parts we have read. 

     I'm hoping that as we continue discussing quotes everything will become more clear to me. I feel as though I understand the details of the story, for example, when Tayo goes to see Night Swan. That portion of the story is very poetic and indirect but I was able to decipher the meaning behind it. It is figuring out when that happened initially and why Tayo is remembering it now that I struggle with. I also understood the direct parts of the portion about the homeless people living in shacks, hiding from the police. What I did not understand was how that pertained to Tayo's life. I couldn't tell if it was about Tayo, a memory of his, or if it was some sort of metaphor. I did pull quotes from that section to ask about but it is such a big portion with so many details it is hard to ask one specific question about it. I am hoping that as we continue discussing quotes as a class these will make more sense to me. 

 I chose this picture to represent Tayo. One thing I can understand very clearly from the reading is that Tayo has lead a very hard and sad life. Sadly enough, I think he will continue to be depressed beyond repair throughout the rest of the novel as he has so many hardships to deal with and hardly any support in dealing with them. 

Reflection Week 1/27

     This week Ceremony became more confusing for me. I just feel that it jumps around so much that I cannot figure out what is really going on, what is present and what is past. Something I do understand is Tayo's past and I felt so sad reading about all the hardships he has dealt with. He has a very strange life and I'm starting to understand why he has such depression, alcholism, and PTS. Psychologically, he must be very, very lost with everything he has been through. Something I was very confused about was the section of the book that desscribe a young boy living with his mom by the river in a box and being left around, hungry and cold, while she slept with men. I am wondering if this is Tayo or not as it was not very clear.

     Reel Injun really opened my eyes to a lot of things that I have never realized. I know racism has been prominent in our country since our birth but I never noticed the severity of it toward Native Americans until we started this unit and Reel Injun especially. I am thankful that I have this whole other perspective now and I'm seeing this sooner rather than later. I hope that as a country we continue to progress forward on these issues. I am glad the film industry has started to show the truth about Native history. After learning about all these issues, I may end up in a different career path than I originally planned. 

 

Reflection Week 1/20

     After starting Ceremony, I'm interested but confused. The story is pulls me in but it is a lot of information at once. It is also kind of confusing because it jumps around a lot between Tayo's thoughts and experiences throughout different times in his life and it doesn't make it very clear which are memories and which are actually happening. I also feel like there are so many metaphors throughout the reading that it is hard to uncover and understand each one. I definitely need help finding the hidden meanings behind the text. I am trying to annotate very thouroughly so that I won't have trouble with my essay and I am putting question marks anywhere that I would like to dicuss further. I think it will be a good experience to read Ceremony but a challenge. 

     The class discussion from Friday did help me a lot. Being able to ask questions and clarify the meaning behind certain sections really helped. I am still confused but there are some things I do understand better. The writing we did Thursday was hard for me because even though I read I really didn't have a clear understanding of what was going on in the book. I think it would be helpful to read then discuss then write so that I could write a more thourough analysis because I would be able to understand the reading a little better. Overall, I like the story and the parts that I can follow. I think it is very sad and I feel bad for Tayo but I am glad that I am being made aware of the way things were during this time for the Laguna Pueblo people. 

Dances with Wolves Reflection 2

     Dances with Wolves impacted me in a way that I was not expecting. I feel more educated on native american life and I feel sad about the way the white settlers treated the natives and anyone associated with them. I never knew much about what really happened when white people came to settle in North America except that it wasn't pretty and they did some horrible things to the natives. Now I feel more enlightened as to why things happened the way they did. I feel that the white settlers saw themselves as more advanced than the natives and therefore superior. They also came, generally, with a mind set of domination. As far as the Sioux go, they only wanted peace and respect. Then the struggle with communication had a big impact. In the movie, John Dunbar makes a genuine effort to understand and the natives do the same. However most white settlers assumed the worst and immediately started to "prove" their power over the natives.
      I'm really glad that Dances with Wolves was our introduction to this unit. I enjoy exploring topics that I don't know anything about and I think opening my eyes to these kinds of situations will only help me grow as a person. When we read The Laramie Project I was thankful for the way we were steered away from any sort of judge mental views and we were encouraged to look at all different sides of the story. I am carrying that policy with me into this unit. I am keeping and open mind and considering why things occurred the way they did. I am excited to learn more about the topic though. With The Laramie Project, I had witnessed discrimination against homosexual people and I knew a lot about the issue. The discrimination against Native Americans is something I know very little about and it is something I want to become more educated on.
 
(I picked this picture with the description of the Sand Creek Massacre to depict the type of discrimination natives dealt with)

Native Study

Arapaho Tribe


 
 
The Arapaho Native Americans lived mainly in Colorado and Wyoming but there are traces of some branches of the tribe living in North and South Dakota as well as Montana. There were 5 dialects of their language spoken but now they are no longer spoken even though some people are familiar with it. They hunted buffalo, rode on horseback, and lived in tepees. They got along well with the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Gros Ventre tribes and fought with the Crow, Kiowa, and Comanche.







One of the famous chiefs of the Arapaho tribe was Little Raven. He is remembered as a very peaceful man that tried to make peace with enemy tribes and the white settlers. He was a part of the tribe at the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. He still sought peace and fought until the Arapaho were granted reservation rights.
 

Kiowa Tribe

The Kiowa tribe lived in Montana at the sources of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. Their region had deep snows. They were hunters, with bow and arrows, that hunted with dogs. Dogs were their only domesticated animal for awhile. Later on they learned to ride horses and hunted on horseback. They always kept the largest herd of horses of all the Plains Native Tribes.
 

One of the most famous Kiowa Chiefs was Satanta or White Bear. He was a very smart negotiator, philosopher, but at the same time he was a murderer. He was known for his big build his whole life and was called Big Ribs as a baby. He was well recognized by white soldiers for his size as well. He negotiated multiple treaties with the soldiers and fought against them in many battles. He was well known for his bugle that he would sound as the indication of a battle beginning or simply to make his presence known.