Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

In school, my class and I have begun to read Ceremony By Leslie Marmon Silko, a post World War Two story of a Native American,  Laguna Pueblo man, Tayo, after seeing the hardships of war in Japan. Tayo, a half White half Laguna Pueblo, lives on the Laguna Pueblo reservation on New Mexico and is trying to survive the P.T.S.D that he now lives with by healing with stories, nature, and and other culture methods of his people. Although the novel does not yet have an obvious plot line, the novel is written gorgeously, and digs deep into inside battle of P.T.S.D, the Laguna Pueblo culture, along with human nature. I am right now having a lot of trouble focusing on the story just because the book is so beautifully written. Below I have put in parts of my favorite paragraph from the book thus far, because of the amazing language within the paragraph, and how it is used to create the desired  feelings and setting of which Tayo is in.

"Jungle rain had no beginning or end; it grew like foliage from the sky, branching and arching to the earth, sometimes in solid thickets entangling the islands, and other times, in tendrils of blue mist curling out of coastal clouds...this was not the rain he and Josiah had prayed for, this was not the green foliage they sought out in sandy canyons as a sign of a spring. When Tayo prayed on the long muddy road to the prison camp, it was for dry air, dry as a hundred years squeezed out of yellow sand, air to dry out the oozing wounds of Rocky's leg, to let the torn flesh and broken bones breathe...Tayo hated this unending rain as if it were the jungle green rain and not the miles of marching or the Japanese grenade that was killing Rocky. He would blame the rain if the Japs saw how the corporal staggered; if they saw how weak Rocky had become, and came to crush his head with the butt of a rifle, then it would be the rain and green all around that killed him." (pg. 10 Silko).

My Reaction on the Native American Culture

When doing my research in my past blog, and as watching Dances with Wolves, I have become really excited to learning about the Native American culture on a more personal level in the novel Ceremony  by Leslie Marmon Silko, and seeing how being part of this culture in the modern worlds effects the Native American every day.
As I was doing the research on the Chippewa Native Americans, I wanted to keep writing about their amazing culture in my blog post, which in the end, would have been almost a novel itself. I have always really enjoyed looking into the personal life of the other cultures and I find it amazing, and the Native Americans are no exception. Although I wish to learn more about the different Native Americans  tribes past, I understand that I now to dig deeper then just the culture and being to look into the personal affairs with politics and racism that Native American continue to have to learn how to overcome, even in this modern day, and I hoping the Ceremony and other films such as Dances with Wolves will achieve that.

The Chippewa Native Americans

The Chippewa Indians, also know as the the Ojibwa and Saulteurs  in some parts of Canada and Northern Untied states are from the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan area of the U.S. and is the  Fourth largest surviving tribe in modern day with about 115,859 members. It is thought that the Chippewa native people first lived in Canada and moved slowly down in the U.S due to spiritual visions. They eventually made it all the way to great lakes where most still live to this day.
The culture and religion of the Chippewa is very completed and not fully understood. One thing that is understood though and has been passed down since their beggings is that the Chippewa live in doodem's or clans. As of today there is about 150 different clans.
These clans have a major connection to the Chippewa's complicated religion. It is believed that seven great miigis, or holy beings, appeared to there ancestors to teach them a good way of life. One the miigis was unkind to the people and returned to the ocean. The other six remained and created the first doodem's. There was five, the Wawaazisii (bullhead), Baswenaazhi ( crane), Aan'aawenh (pintail duck), Nooke (bear), and Moozoonsii (little moose). Each of these tribes was symbolised with an animal.
Due to this  method of different clans, one can only marry if there are from different clans and
 the wife and husband pair will live in the clan of the husband.
The Chippewa speak the Ojibway language and in modern day many speak English. They are a people know for the Birch bark canoes, sacred Birch bark scrolls, cultivation of wild rice, use of copper arrow points, beautiful bead work and using cowrie shells for trading. They lived a wooden lodges called a wiigwaam, and they are also known for their strange burial mounds. The Chippewa do to bury their dead but instead create a jiibegamig or "spirit-house" over a mound. This is a wooden stake in a mound engraved with the decease's clan sign. Although interesting, this caused many grave looting when the white man started to arrive in that area of the U.S.
The Chipppewa was involved in many American Treaties in its earlier days like most Native Americans and they have done a pretty good job at keeping there land and being humble in it all. One of the hero's from history though was Kechewaishke, or "Great Buffalo".  A man of extremely high stature for his was labeled as the chief of Lake Superior Chippewas, a group of 41 Ojibwa leaders in 1825.  No treaties went through without Kechewaishke approval. He is known for is work, dedication and signing of The Pine Tree Treaty in 1837 to change the laws of foresting in the Ojibwa territory, The Copper Treaty of 1842 over the production of copper across the land and the Ojibwa need for that copper,
and the 1845 Treaty of which led to the guarantee to hunt, fish and gather on all the ceded territory for the Ojibwa. Kechewaishke died on Sep. 7 1855, but helped much in creating territory and land for his people.


Sources:

wikipedia.org
www.indians.org
www.bigorrin.org
http://www.infoplease.com/

Dance With Wolves

The famous movie Dances With Wolves has always been part of my childhood. Although I never sat down and watched in the movie in one sitting as younger child, and  rarely understood what was happening in the film, it is a found memory of my weekends and of the person my mother is, for she loves the film. Now watching again as a young adult and in a different setting then I am used too, I have begun to see the true beauty of not only the cinematography, but the story as well of this film.
In the film I have begun to notice how the camera shots and such cinematography elements, such as music, tiny details in set and costume, and areal shots, have really made this story come to life. I like how our teacher told us when watching this film to think for certain elements that help the story along. Since I have been told to look for these elements, I have gained a lot  respect for the  movie now more then ever because of a the small beauty's that shine through  and then to truly make the movie rememberable. Even though the cinematography in great in the film I feel that there are parts where the story it self lacks and I wish the film stretched m
ore into the life of the Sioux people. I understand how the film tried to show the communication between the white man and the Native Americans of past, and to show that communication and understanding can be gained if given the effort, but on a very personal level I wish that in the movie they showed more of John Dunbar learning of the Sioux's culture. All in all though, I have really come to love this film's beauty and its message.