In this segment, we are going to talk about the Native American Perspective in writing. As someone with Native American ancestry, I find myself enjoying the stories of the Natives. Some stories were sad and others were heartfelt. The main theme that we are going to discuss is what the Native American are known for: Spirituality. This is very important. Despite what the Natives went through, they manage to hang on to their spirituality. Today, we are going to review three selective readings for this blog. So lets begin…
The Conquest of Mexico
In this reading, we have the Spanish and the Natives here in Mexico having a quarrel. Now it was more of a take over then it was a quarrel. Montezuma, leader of the Aztecs, was afraid when he heard of what the Spanish people had lots of militia. But he was also amazed by the food that the Spanish had also. Then he decided to try and befriend the Spanish. However, the Spanish was angry and they decided to take everything that they saw as good and then burned the rest.
Finding The Theme
Montezuma thought of the Spanish was like the gods. He marveled at their strength and he was very impressed of their culture. He even said that he guarded the city of Mexico and even kept everything in order until they came.
The Night Chant
The Navajo Nation talks about healing of the spirit through time and expressing how the night can restore the body as it rests. They put Nature in a way that is so beautiful. It was like a prayer to the God of Nature to restore them back to health. Whether it be physical, mental or spiritual loss. I really liked this reading because it reminds me of what the Hebrews would talk about when they talk about the God of Israel. Beautiful and Empowering.
Finding The Theme
The Spiritual senses are placed in personalization of Nature in the Navajo prayer. There is a lot of repetition but I believe that this is to pass it down to later generations. Just like the Lord’s prayer passed down from Jesus to his disciples and then the world. I found a lot of similarities but this one is one of the best examples.
Analysis: https://navajocodetalkers.org/navajo-night-chant/
Yellow Woman
Miss. Silko wrote Yellow Woman and it was very much a heartfelt story. Its about this guy named Silka and he calls the main character Yellow Woman. She doesn’t believe that she is Yellow Woman from the stories and that Silka is the Ka’tsina spirit. Silka tells her that soon they will be telling stories about them as such. She is caught in temptation. Either to be with Silka or with her family. As the story unfolds, Silka tells her to go back to her family and shots were fired. (He carried a rifle and has stolen things from the Mexicans before. So I believe that he was going to do that again.) In the end she never saw him again and things seem to go back to normal.
Finding The Theme
This story dealt with temptation and even had double meaning. In a spiritual sense, I believe that the main character was living a double life. Yellow Woman and herself. However, the Yellow Woman lifestyle seemed to be the better take than her normal life. The adventure and the mystery of Silka gave her an adrenaline rush. However, she overcame temptation and returned to her family.
Analysis: https://owlcation.com/humanities/How-the-west-was-one
Test The Knowledge Of Your Students
The spirituality of the Native American people is the theme that we can have to students focus on for this topic. The reflection sheet consist of 3 questions. I believe that the main idea I would like the students to take from this topic is writing in a more spiritual sense of the natural world and how does it compare to the spirituality of Christians? There are similarities and there are differences in the discussion. However, for now, I would like to focus on the similarities.
Disney’s Pocahontas Colors The World With Spirituality
My all time favorite Disney movie is Pocahontas. It is inspired by the real life Pocahontas as far as the characters. However, the stories are different. For right now, we are going to focus on the Disney version of Pocahontas. In the movie, she had Grandmother Willow, Meeko and Flit. All of these characters were based on nature and the spirituality of the Native Americans. In the story, she is guided by them to follow her heart to be will John Smith. Because John shot Kocoum, things got rather complicated. Pocahontas shows John her culture and that they are not “savages”. John tries to stop the British from building on their land, which is stopped temporary. John ultimately gets sick and has to go back to his place.
Movie Analysis: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED427892.pdf
References
Puchner, Martin. (2012) The Norton Anthology of World Literature. https://digital.wwnorton.com/3461/r/goto/cfi/1180!/4
Khan Academy. (2021). Bernardino de Sahagún and collaborators, Florentine Codex. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/new-spain/viceroyalty-new-spain/a/bernardino-de-sahagn-and-collaborators-florentine-codex
Navajo Code. (2021). Navajo Night Chant. https://navajocodetalkers.org/navajo-night-chant/
Brenner, Alexander. (2012). Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: An Analysis. https://owlcation.com/humanities/How-the-west-was-one
Bridges, Carmen. (2021). Native American Spirituality Reflection Sheet. https://docs.google.com/document/d/112wY1fVPjSfxSSRoZoAM6aXdiqb6xkBECIB-4SRVrkA/edit?usp=sharing
Aidman, Amy. (1999). Disney's Pocahontas: Conversations with Native American and Euro-American Girls. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED427892.pdf
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