Zitkala Sa essays

Zitkala Sa essays During the time of western development in the 19th century of American history, the Sioux Nation was at the forefront of political aggression. Already forcing the Native American people onto cramped lands, the dominant white man began to turn to new solutions in order to kill the salvage and westernize the Indians. While it was obvious for the most part it is hard to school an elder and force him/her to repent their ways, the best possible solution was to disconnect the future generations from their heritage and exploit their innocence and purity. Methods such as cutting each natives hair in order to separate them from their former people, banning the young Indians from making snow angels which in turn reminded each who they really are, installing proper eating habits and not tolerating any language except English to be spoken by every native even if he/she did not know how. Call these methods culture shock, trauma schooling or whatever you must they slowly helped minimize the Native American culture. If it was not for those wise enough to cherish their heritage, it is quite possible the culture would have been lost for ever. Zitkala-Sa was one of those people. Capturing a feeling of anger and distrust while preserving on paper the rebellions of her youth that helped form her independence from society, she was able to find her own place between her lost past and the world of the white man. The cruel intent of the so called missionaries shaped Zitkala-Sa's future into what it has become. The education she received that was meant to erase her reflection that she could so easily find in the "snow" was the greatest gift she received. Instead of westernizing she used the white man's words to tell her tale of bead work, oral story telling, schooling and her lonesome world If only her mother truly knew at the time of Zitkala-Sa's youth of what impact she ...