The last day of class we got back these papers that we wrote on the first day. We had to write words or phrases on how we imagined Native Americans or Indians. It felt like we wrote this so long ago because we came such a long way. When I joined this class I expected it to be straight history on Native Americans and how they lived in the past. I couldn’t have been more wrong. On my paper I wrote: teepees, feathers, lacrosse, half-naked, hard working, innovative, wigwams. As you can see the things on my paper were pretty much everything we learned when we were younger kids. Some of the things on my list were also from cultural appropriation, like seeing people dress up as an Indian on Halloween.
I am so glad I took this class because if I made a new list right now it would be completely different. My list overall would be a lot more current and about the bullshit the Native Americans deal with today. We need to start taking action after we are done with this class. It is now our obligation to inform people about the things these poor people go through on a day to day basis.
Jake July 20, 2018
Yeah I thought the list idea was great. When we first did it I wrote down a lot of stuff and I thought I knew quite a bit about Native Americans. After looking back at my list I can see that I knew very little and a lot of what I did know was based around stereotypes.
I am also glad that this class gave me a good outlook on what current and past events have happened to native Americans. I think a lot more people should take a class like this because it truly opens up your perspectives and you see things you haven’t before.
blengel July 20, 2018
Mike I couldn’t agree more. With all of the knowledge we posses now, we have to go forward and let others know the hardships that Natives have had to go through. We should do what we can in order to make up for events in the past, and treat Natives with as much respect as we would treat anyone else. Going back to what you said about your paper, I too wrote so many things that were just stereotypical. It’s the way our culture has imprinted this image in our mind. They don’t want us to see the Natives for what they really are, which is human beings. It’s hard to believe that 6 weeks ago, I still thought Native Americans were living in tee-pees.