Going into week 6 we have been reading the book The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline. The book is set in the future and is about the white men attempting to capture the Indians and take their bone marrow in order to dream again. The characters in this book are younger generations and have to keep moving in order to stay alive and not be captured, while doing this they all have roles and practices in order also to help preserve their cultures. During the run from the white men, they all share their stories and the backgrounds that they come from. This book was easy for me to reflect back on to westward expansion, because I feel like as they moving around so much they would run across new people and would share stories as well. Also it was easy for me to reflect back on as them being hunted for their bone marrow to when we had fliers out for hunting Indians down for cash rewards. I feel as if this book also had a message, and the message to me was they were chasing the Indians down for the bone marrow because the Indians always are having the positive dreams and looking toward the better future.
tkyle July 18, 2018
It also shows how strong and desired the Indian people really are. It gives an example of the non-Natives needing the Natives for something because after all, we do need them. We all have to work together for this country to be efficient. The Native Americans have been put down and dehumanized for so long. Really and truly, they have advantages just as some other seem to have. This book just tells a story that keeps the readers’ minds off of the stereotypes. The symbolism explains how the Native Americans have to fight and believe in themselves and their culture despite the outside world’s attempts to break them down and take what they have.
makayla7 July 18, 2018
There are so many parallels to the history of Native American assimilation. I agree with you when you say that it easy to reflect this story back to westward expansion. An example of a parallel in his story was on page 88 when it said, “We were moved off lands that were deemed ‘necessary’ to that government, same way they took reserve land during wartime”. This is similar to the reservations and allotments that Native Americans were forced onto. The author of this book, Cherie Dimaline, did a great job with taking real-life events and transforming them into a fictional novel that has the potential to educate younger children without completely stripping them of their innocence.