Difference between revisions of "Week 11 Questions/Comments-327 09"
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Reading this piece, I felt very sad for both the mother and the daughter. It must have been such a difficult decision for Zitkala-Sa's mother to make. On one, hand, she already lost three years out of her sons life, and I'm sure he came home as a very different person from what he was like when he left, but on the other hand, the educational opportunities for Zitkala-Sa must have been hard to ignore. I thought the aunt's foresight on the issue was interesting, when she commented that as Zitkala-Sa grew up there would be fewer and fewer real Dakota and more white men. That recognition of the slow decline of her culture just struck me as very sad, and it made me wonder if that was a common viewpoint among the adults of the tribe. Finally, It was interesting to see how the missionaries tempted Zitkala-Sa into going with them, and how little enticement was actually needed before she was willing to go to the missionary school. ~Melissa Patterson | Reading this piece, I felt very sad for both the mother and the daughter. It must have been such a difficult decision for Zitkala-Sa's mother to make. On one, hand, she already lost three years out of her sons life, and I'm sure he came home as a very different person from what he was like when he left, but on the other hand, the educational opportunities for Zitkala-Sa must have been hard to ignore. I thought the aunt's foresight on the issue was interesting, when she commented that as Zitkala-Sa grew up there would be fewer and fewer real Dakota and more white men. That recognition of the slow decline of her culture just struck me as very sad, and it made me wonder if that was a common viewpoint among the adults of the tribe. Finally, It was interesting to see how the missionaries tempted Zitkala-Sa into going with them, and how little enticement was actually needed before she was willing to go to the missionary school. ~Melissa Patterson | ||
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| + | When I wrote that, I didn't even think about Seth's comment that perhaps the young Indian children would undergo physical changes, as well- but it makes a lot of sense and opens up a lot more questions. I guess I was thinking more about the emotional aspect of things. I can't imagine sending your child off to go to school and then having him or her come home with a new haircut and perhaps different clothes. I can only think that it must have increased the tension and generation differences in the household even more. I think her mother could have felt perhaps a bit helpless by these changes- she is supposed to be the provider and caregiver for her children (along with perhaps the tribal community as a whole), and yet she is watching as the white men and missionaries take her children away and they return changed, both physically and perhaps emotionally. I wonder how the children reacted to these changes- did they welcome them and the process of assimilation, or did they wish they were back with their parents and family, and tribe? I wonder if, like Zitkala-Sa, at first they were excited but then came to realize it was very different than what they expected. -Allison Godart | ||
== Mrs. A. M. Greene, in Colorado Territory -- Frontier life – 1887 == | == Mrs. A. M. Greene, in Colorado Territory -- Frontier life – 1887 == | ||
