Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Mankiller was a Cherokee women activist for all Native Americans and was the first female Cherokee Chief. She fights for the vast range of rights that they deserve and to set the record straight on 21^st century Indian stereotypes. A goal of Mankiller’s is to preserve tribal culture by embracing many different aspects of native life such as language, medicine, ceremonies and stories and supporting the efforts to continue education on the topics. In the video Mankiller says that preserving this knowledge will give her people a sense of continuity and help to understand and know their place in the world. (Mankiller)

Mankiller encourages tribes’ people to work together in an interdependent way to help all Native Americans in general gain rights and preserve their history and culture. Mankiller is realistic in her hopes for Natives and also understands the challenges of modern day life. Mankiller talks of the importance of staying connected to one’s home land and values regardless of where or how they live. She encourages everyone to enter the meetings with a clear and positive mind to resolve issues without other problems weighing on their mind. Mankiller strives to show the benefits of the tribal community such as sense of community, willingness to see positive in problems and the Native ceremonies rather than to focus on the poverty and run-down buildings that cannot afford to be fixed. Mankiller wants to present a different kind of truth to those who are only exposed to mainstream media

Overall Wilma Mankiller strives to spread knowledge and gain equality for all Native Americans. However valiant her effort, it will take the effort and banding together of many groups to bring notoriety and support to the issues she is presenting and culture she is striving to preserve.

Work Cited

Mankiller, Wilma. "Wilma Mankiller." YouTube. YouTube, 6 Feb. 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVLgwpHSYv0>.

Illustrations 

"Wilma Mankiller, Lead On | Daily Yonder | Keep It Rural." Wilma Mankiller, Lead On | Daily Yonder | Keep It Rural. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. <http://www.dailyyonder.com/wilma-mankiller-lean/2010/04/14/2693>.

Native American Resource Center

(This picture is described only as “Native American Family, 1910) 
Retrieved from one of the exhibits from this museum

The source that I chose to look into for this blog post was the Native American Resource Center at the University of North Carolina Pembroke. “The mission of the Native American Resource Center is to educate the public about the prehistory, history, culture, art and contemporary issues of American Indians, with special emphasis on the Robeson County Native American community” (Native American Resource Center) The museum has Native American artifacts, crafts, art, literature, spoken stories and so many other kinds of history to learn from. From viewing the pictures of the homes and schools from the early 1900’s it amazes me how much detail must of gone in to each and every piece to create it by hand to work perfectly. The perspective to this page is definitely from an educational stand point. The university is trying to share its great wealth of knowledge and history through the use of pictures and stories of Native American life. This museum site explores many aspects of any everyday life for Native Americans from their music and art to their beliefs and culture that they are striving to still protest and preserve.

I believe this web source was selected because of its authenticity and rich history with many different types of artifacts and history. I think this sight was selected not only for its academic caliber but for the fact that it was research and compiled by not only history experts but also students of Native American studies. “The University of North Carolina at Pembroke was established in 1887 as an institution for Native Americans. Since 1953, it has had a multi-racial student body. Because of its heritage, the University, through this Department, offers a program to educate students about the rich diversity of American Indian history and culture, to promote research and scholarship concerning American Indian issues, and to prepare students for professional or scholarly careers.” (Native American Resource Center) Not only was the school once for Native Americans but it continues to teach and support the Native American traditions with their students.

The more I continue to learn about Native Americans and life in the time the more I am amazed by the complexities of tasks that they did by hand. Their levels of ingenuity and resourcefulness in a time with no Walmart’s or grocery stores are something that could not be matched by the lazier generation of today. I am awed by their levels of resourcefulness and making the best of and eventually thriving in lands and locations that many people would find unsuitable and undesirable today.

References

Native American Resource Center. (n.d.). University of North Carolina Pembroke. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://www.uncp.edu/academics/opportunities-programs-resources/opportunities-programs/native-american-resource-center

Alice Fletcher Module 2

Alice

Fletcher

              For this piece I would like to examine the biography of Alice Fletcher as written by the Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of Natural History. Alice Fletcher was interesting because she was one of the first that chose to live among Native Americans in a Native American lifestyle and would gain nothing from it but knowledge of the people and their culture.

              Alice Fletcher seemed to have a privileged upbringing which makes it ever more surprising that she would chose to live a Native American lifestyle which is very basic and natural. As a young child Alice and her family moved to Cuba because her father was sick and they hoped that a change to a warmer climate would cure him. Unfortunately they were wrong and her father passed away shortly after. “After her father passed away, Fletcher’s mother, whom she recalled as a "highly educated lady of Boston," moved the family back to the East Coast so that her daughter might attend the "best schools" available.” (Camping with the Sioux) This shows the status her family held if they were able to send Alice to the best school despite no longer having the income of her lawyer father. This shows me that it must have been very unexpected by the ones around her that she would give up life as she knew it to move into the Sioux tribe and live as one of them. I think the high economic status on her family might also be part of the reason she was chosen to examine for this course, she is rare in what she did. A privileged white woman in that time would not often give up everything to give with, learn from and help native American’s that many in her economic group looked down on greatly.

               “She resolved to reform Congressional legislation regarding Native American affairs and to help Native Americans become Americanized. Fletcher felt, as did many Americans in the late nineteenth century, that the only way Native Americans could avoid extermination caused by civilization was by adapting to the "civilized" mannerisms of white Americans. “ (Camping with the Sioux) This quote conveys Alice’s perspective on the Native Americans and what they would need to do to survive the westward coming of the white man. Alice Fletcher is unique because she entered the group in hopes of helping them to assimilated, but unlike many before her she tried to Americanize them to protect them from being killed instead of trying to Americanize them for the benefit for the white man. I think this shows a different side of interactions between Native Americans and white because Fletcher acted as an advocate for the tribes people.

          After reading the Smithsonian article and passage in Alice Fletcher’s journal my views of Native American’s continue to change greatly from the stories of savages I remember hearing as a child. “They stopped and greeted each other, in a few moments further Indians had driven ahead of us. The wagon stopped and the Indians jumped out and came, saying, "How!" and taking off their hats shook hands with Mr. T. Wajapa rode through the new town with them and after a mile or two, Wajapa left them and joined us, our ways parting. Wajapa retailed the conversation. "What are you all doing?" asked the Indian. "Going to visit". "What is that woman doing?" "Going to visit the Indians". "Who is the man?" "The one who helped the Poncas". "Ah, he is the only good man, I’ve wanted to see him", and then it was that the Indian, a Sioux jumped out and came to us.” (Camping with the Sioux) This passage shows a different side of the Native Americans. The tribes people that approached were friendly and curious and were happy and almost excited once they received the answers to the questions. This shows a very different side of Native Americans than I can many others have been taught about

References

"Camping With the Sioux: Fildwork Diary of Alice Cunningham Fletcher." Smithsonian Institue National Museum of Natural History. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/fletcher/foreword.htm>.

George Catlin

At the age of 30, in 1830 a young curious artist named George Catlin set out into the unknown Western United States in search of knowledge and the experience of meeting and painting the Native American’s he meets along his travels. Only 23 years before had the West just begun to be explored by Lewis and Clark who were sent by Thomas Jefferson on a three-year mission to discover the newly attained Louisiana Purchase.(Smithsonian) “’ If my life be spared, nothing shall stop me from visiting every nation of Indians on the Continent of North America.’ With these words George Catlin staked his artistic claim. He was the first great painter to travel beyond the Mississippi to paint the Indian.”(Smithsonian) Catlin’s interest in the Native Americans seems unique and interesting for this time period where so many people feared Native Americans.

Catlin’s journey to paint the Native Americans began in 1830 when he went to St. Louis to meet explorer William Clark to learn as much as he could about the Native American’s before he began his adventure. Once in the West, Catlin was faced with a new challenge. The Native American’s were not all being relocated by the Indian Removal Act.  The Indian Removal Act was a law signed on May 28, 1830 by President Andrew Jackson that gave the President power to trade unsettled land to the West for Native American land in what was the current United States. The catch to this law was that the Native American’s had no option whether they left or not. Although a few of the times peacefully made the transition to other land, others were forced off their land. An example of this was the Trail of Tears which was the path the Cherokees were forced to take from their old land to their new land, over 4,000 lost their lives along the way. (Primary Documents in American History)

In 1832, Catlin’s real journey began as he set out to begin painting the Native Americans he would meet along the way. By the end of his travels Catlin had painted “more than 500 portraits, scenes and landscapes and accumulated an astonishing collection of Indian artifacts.” (Catlin) Many of the artifacts that Catlin collected on his journey were later displayed in museums and galleries in major cities around the United States. I think it is noble that Catlin shared what he had found because at that point it was somewhat taboo to associate with the Native Americans. 

Catlin’s art and collected artifacts gave people who may have no firsthand experience with Native American’s a less biased picture than what is being presented by the government. Catlin strikes me as a pioneer of his time on spreading Knowledge of Native Americans and their culture. Although many of Catlin’s art does not show happy smiling Native American’s it does not picture them as harshly as many other photos.  The Native American’s pictured in Catlin’s painting appear to be strong and noble looking such as seen in “Stu-mick-o-súcks, Buffalo Bull's Back Fat, head chief, Blood Tribe, 1832, George Catlin, oil on canvas.” (Catlin, 1832) Catlin takes a more respectful approach by picturing the Native American’s as they are instead of trying to make them appear scary and dangerous through his art.

Catlin was a pioneer of his time because he went against the norm and embraced and pictured the Native Americans as real people and not the savages or barbarians that many thought them to be

Illustrations:

Catlin, George. Stu-mick-o-súcks, Buffalo Bull's Back Fat, head chief, Blood Tribe, 1832, . 1832. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Wishington, DC. George Catlin and His Indian Gallery. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.

Catlin, George. Self Portrait. N.d. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Smithsonian American Art Institue. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.

                                                                                                        

Reference:

Smithsonian American Art Museum, George Catlin / American Art. Retrieved January 30, 2014, from http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=782

Primary Documents in American History. (n.d.). Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress). Retrieved January 30, 2014, from http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Indian.html

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