Subtle Resistance and the Enduring Spirit

Chapter 3 of Native American Studies is taking another look at Native American’s in Western history. So often, history books portray the victimized American Indian, detailing events such as Wounded Knee and the Trail of Tears. While Western expansion was overly aggressive and American Indians were severely mistreated and victims in many ways, Chapter 3 presents the idea that American Indians have, often subtly, resisted Western ideals and attempts to degrade or eliminate their cultures. This resistance has allowed for the cultures’ to endure into the modern day.
Rhetoric has played greatly into this resistance to the Western culture. For example, the text cites an instance of the French attempting to control Native American’s during early American settlement. The French referred to themselves as the “fathers” of the Native American’s so as to assert their supreme importance to the people (p. 44). The Native American’s appeased the French, calling them their “fathers” but with an important, and unnoticed, idea resting in the background (p. 44). While the father is of the utmost importance in a patriarchal society, the Native American’s were in fact a society that celebrated the importance of the matrilineal line. Thus, while the Native American’s called the French their “fathers,” fathers were actually of very little importance to the Native American’s. The mother’s uncle was actually the most influential family member (p. 44).
While the idea of rhetoric may seem insignificant, it reveals a deeper set of ideals that would hold throughout the Native American people’s into the 21st century. It suggests the deeper understanding that Native American’s had of what was occurring in their world and the idea that physical resistance was not going to be enough to preserve their way of life, particularly once the numbers of European settlers became overwhelming. The Native American’s began to look to new ways of preserving their identity, since the land they had tied it to was being taken away. Around the time of Wounded Knee, the Native American’s had become invigorated through the work of Ghost dance’s as an attempt to call upon their ancestors and the spirits to help them restore their old ways of life (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm). While there was still physical resistance occurring at this time, the Ghost dances were a spiritual way to identify with their ancestors and their tribe. The Sioux had been forced to the camp next to Wounded Knee creek, it was not the land to which their identity had been linked to (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm). However, the Ghost dances were a way to call upon the ancestors and spirits that may have been associated with their homeland, but whom they were now, in a way, carrying with them.
In the beginning of the 1900’s, there was a movement towards boarding schools as a way to assimilate Native American’s into Western culture (p. 50). Once again, the Native American’s are leaving their homes and their families to live under the strict rule of another culture. However, the children banded together in a new sense of resistance, forging friendships and a new tribal identity (p. 50). In the face of cultural elimination, the Native American children are finding their own unique ways to keep their past and cultures alive, forging new identities from the old instead of simply letting the old disappear.
This chapter opened my eyes and allowed me to take a new view of history. The Native American’s were not victims, but enduring spirits who have fought to keep their cultures and identities alive by adapting to new surroundings and lifestyles and continually forging ahead.