Difference between revisions of "328--Week 3 Questions/Comments"
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I had the same questions about the essay by Mihesuah about the female Cherokee seminary as Ashley. What I didn't understand was why whiter was better? I found it interesting that full-blood Cherokees were sending their children to this extremely expensive school to become whiter. Is it to try to become equals with white people or is it to pull ahead of them? What I really don't understand is why are the Cherokees trying to wipe out their culture. That is what happened when we first settled the Indians became "whiter" and look at where they are now, language has been lost, traditions stories the list goes on. To me it seems like this school was good for the purpose of education but I felt as if it took away culture. -- Amanda Taub | I had the same questions about the essay by Mihesuah about the female Cherokee seminary as Ashley. What I didn't understand was why whiter was better? I found it interesting that full-blood Cherokees were sending their children to this extremely expensive school to become whiter. Is it to try to become equals with white people or is it to pull ahead of them? What I really don't understand is why are the Cherokees trying to wipe out their culture. That is what happened when we first settled the Indians became "whiter" and look at where they are now, language has been lost, traditions stories the list goes on. To me it seems like this school was good for the purpose of education but I felt as if it took away culture. -- Amanda Taub | ||
| + | I agree with you Amanda, but at the same time I can't help but wonder how much of a choice these Cherokee Indians had. I feel as though whites had such an influence when they began migrating west, that it was almost a means for survival. In order to compete with whites and be as successful as they appeared to be, they almost had to acclimate. I believe it was definitely a positive by way of education, but I'm just curious how much these Cherokee really wanted to become "whiter," if that makes sense. -Kelly Wuyscik | ||
I think that Antonia Castaneda's essay makes some far-reaching claims that are not completely warranted. Castaneda credits the biased work of Bancroft with informing all later popular and scholarly works with specific stereotypes of Spanish women (pg 59). While perhaps not central to Castaneda's essay I don't understand how one, or even a few historical scholars could be solely responsible for passing on biased perceptions. I think Castaneda ignores other ways that negative stereotypes get passed on. The fact that these negative stereotypes persist in persons who are not scholars of history indicates that later scholars might not have adopted the same stereotypes that Bancroft did solely because he did, but because they embraced these stereotypes in their daily lives. ~ Matt Struth | I think that Antonia Castaneda's essay makes some far-reaching claims that are not completely warranted. Castaneda credits the biased work of Bancroft with informing all later popular and scholarly works with specific stereotypes of Spanish women (pg 59). While perhaps not central to Castaneda's essay I don't understand how one, or even a few historical scholars could be solely responsible for passing on biased perceptions. I think Castaneda ignores other ways that negative stereotypes get passed on. The fact that these negative stereotypes persist in persons who are not scholars of history indicates that later scholars might not have adopted the same stereotypes that Bancroft did solely because he did, but because they embraced these stereotypes in their daily lives. ~ Matt Struth | ||
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Before reading Devon Mihesuah's article on the class system in the Cherokee semiaries, I didn't have any prior knowldege to these schools, how they were instructed and would've thouht that the teacher would be white. I found it surprising that whites would hire mixed-Cherokees to teach these children, having already deprived THEM of their roots and brainwashing them into doing this to the younger generation. I found it kind of sad that the teachers believed that the more white the Cherokee girl had in her, the smarter she was whereas pure Cherokee girls as pathetic for holding on to their traditional ways and not advancing up to the ideals of the white world which was "better". Emely A. | Before reading Devon Mihesuah's article on the class system in the Cherokee semiaries, I didn't have any prior knowldege to these schools, how they were instructed and would've thouht that the teacher would be white. I found it surprising that whites would hire mixed-Cherokees to teach these children, having already deprived THEM of their roots and brainwashing them into doing this to the younger generation. I found it kind of sad that the teachers believed that the more white the Cherokee girl had in her, the smarter she was whereas pure Cherokee girls as pathetic for holding on to their traditional ways and not advancing up to the ideals of the white world which was "better". Emely A. | ||
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| + | - I'd also like to comment on Violet Cragg's army pension request, and I'm actually kind of surprised not many others have commented on it! (besides Kendall above me) I'm amazed how much information Violet spewed out to get a pension. Like Kendall said, it was like reading a mini-biography. What I find interesting about it, is not only how much information she had to give in order to request a pension, but also how much detail historians are given about life as a slave woman in the antebellum south. Her one testimonial follows her from master to master and explains interracial relationships as well as slave and master relationships. It's a very rich document to have, but I can't help but ask the same question - was this much information required of everyone? I know we discussed in class that once granted a pension the government intervened in your life on a regular basis, so was this much of a biography really the norm? - Kelly Wuyscik + | ||
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| + | - When I read the Castaneda essay, it angered me that historians in the past stereotyped Mexican women as immoral and sexually and racially impure simply because they did not live under the norms of middle class white women - pure, pious, domestic, and submissive. It was also unfortunate in both Castaneda's essay as well as in the anonymous letter to the editor of the Beacon that Native women in the West were viewed as objects of sexual conquest by white soldiers and settlers. - Marilyn + | ||
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| + | - It was sad to read that the intent of the Cherokee seminary schools for females was to teach girls to conform to the ideals of white society instead of learning about and maintaining their own Cherokee heritage. -Marilyn + | ||
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| + | - I found some interesting facts in the article by Antonia l. Castaneda. The part of the article about the Teutonic historians where they barely mentioned information about women. They did this because women were not part of the formal life. Although amateur historians did write about women especially stereotyping Mexican women. Could this be because it was a younger generation of historians that knew women should have information on them, so Americans could understand how a women of a different race acted? -Ashley Scutari | ||
