Precious Knowledge Reflections

       "It's not all about the individual and how much they try. There's something in place that's stopping them from achieving their goals." I agree with this quote, and disagree with the people who say otherwise. In all single stories, there is a truth. But it is not complete. It is definitely about hard work to get what you want -- but even this, what you want, which could be less than you deserve -- is enforced by the societal systems, institutional and environmental, that govern our daily lives. Evaluating systems of oppression, in racism, classism, sexism, and from an intersectional perspective helps shift our focus to the real problem: the roots. The roots shape the individual, and their identity.
       "Studying race is contrary to American ideals." I disagree with this quote because America's founding, all presidents will agree with, was based upon the idea of the American dream, that anyone should be able to achieve anything if they work. But because I agree with the above quote that there is something in place that stops individuals from achieving their goals, systems of racial oppression and injustice, bias that we often are not conscious of in critical aspects of who gets what and how today (like in the justice system), I say that the American dream is incomplete without looking at race. America has always been a place of diversity, a place of refugees, immigrants, welcoming all -- persecuted, oppressed, sick, poor; of all races. And recognizing the impacts of these in the struggle to live the American dream, to be Americans, is critical. The freedom to learn your identity is also important in finding yourself in the world, also synonymous with an American ideal.
       "When you grow up in a poor area, you don't have the same chances as everybody else." This quote is powerful because of its truth that people ignore, or fail to see because of circumstances. Everyone deserves the same chance, but not everyone comes into the world with it. This is why education should do the job of giving people that equal chance, through mentoring and empowerment of youth. People who are poor have to work to support their families, often do not have help at home to get them through their studies, or have resources necessary for achievement. I have always had a computer at home, and parents who have time to help me, but some of my friends do not, and this is not fair. This is classism, and it goes hand in hand with racism -- youth of color who are poor are especially burdened by societal stereotypes that go with their race, hindering success.
       "We are being told we’re not part of America and not part of this culture." This quote makes me wonder what America really is, if these Latino students are being told they are not part of America. Is American culture white culture? I am frustrated with those people who do not embrace Mexican culture, Nigerian culture, Chinese culture, for example, as American culture. Again, it is roots that empower people to achieve. America is all this, and it is this mix that people should embrace.
       Mexican-American students feel passionate about their high school's Ethnic Studies program and its preservation. It gives them a sense of empowerment and family, while giving them meaning in education that they were not necessarily receiving before and helping the students to achieve. When Arizona politicians look to eliminate the program on the basis of color-blindness, apathy, and lack of perspective, they respond with fire. The students go to prepare testimonies to uphold their school's program when a bill proposing to reject it passes through committee, bring legislators into their classroom to hear what the Ethnic Studies program is like, engage and orchestrate symbolic awareness events, and advocate for change in ideas among legislators through protest and marches. Their solidarity to uphold freedom to learn information that will help their lives is beautiful.
       I think the documentary is more about the Ethnic Studies program itself, that is, an effort to decolonize minds, to empower youth. This rises greater out of a movement towards censoring curriculum and colonizing minds. It shows the hypocrisy of the efforts of legislators to pass a bill that would censor curriculum. A female state legislator said that the goal was to empower youth through education. The Ethnic Studies program was doing it, and education norms were not. The decolonization was powerful in the protest, and it showed an effort to keep Chicano culture alive.
       The César Chávez quote is all about empowerment and pertains directly to the decolonization efforts of Mexican-American adults and students in the movie. The knowledge that they learn in their Ethnic Studies class is precious because it shows them that they do not have to be oppressed anymore. They can move past obstacles in solidarity and education. I love the quote, and think it is very powerful. When an idea takes root, it cannot leave. Change can reverse oppression. It makes me think about moving from innocence and apathy towards experience, as youth trying to make impact in the world.

TPCASTTs of Poems

Title
Paraphrase
Connotation
Attitude
Shifts
Title
Theme

Root Words ~
T: The source of life and being for the Dakota people, their home grounded on identity and culture
P: The prairie grasses are like the Dakota and their language, with deep roots that keep them alive despite much oppression
C: The poem itself is an extended metaphor of the prairie grasses surviving through droughts, floods, and fires of white, colonial influence to stand tall because of its roots -- the Dakota language; the words of vast inland sea is the tradition of the Dakota, which used to be alone, and wide and powerful before colonialism; unremitting and surviving show persistence; the roots are being broken at the bottom, but they are too deep to be fully severed
A: Solemn and pensive, spiritual; sad yet resilient
S: The movement towards showing oppression that the Dakota faced is a shift, as well as at the end from English to the Dakota language.
T: The language of the Dakota is strong and ceaseless, powerful in its roots in the land
T: Language brings people together and has roots in our identities, so powerful that it cannot be lost

We Come from the Stars ~
T: Homelands and origin of the universe
P: The universe is expanding; the origin of the Dakota universe is Bdote, but the astrophysicists know that stellar nucleosynthesis expands the Milky Way; the stars are leaving; the people will remain as long as they are still in the stars, a part of the universe
C: The stars are leaving with the Dakota universe and culture; the excessive glow of cultural invasion causes mitigation of the Dakota universe; the Star people are at one with nature, complete, and bright
A: Knowing, solemn, reflective
S: The shift is from the story of creation of science to the Wicanhipi Oyate's story of origin.
T: The Dakota people have a connection to nature that is prevailing and more complete than science; they were their first
T: People's belief in their origins gives them a sense of power

Mni Sota Makoce

1.       When Wasicuna's father says, "It is hard to be an Indian," he is referring to the roots of the American Indian people being stripped from them and the struggle of living life without an identity.  Wasicuna alludes to the fact that the struggle of American Indians today has its roots in past colonists' oppression and forced assimilation into white society, and has been perpetuated by oblivion.  Dakota history, until recently, has not been a part of American history.  People are instead taught falsehoods solely from the perspective of colonists, that do not reflect truth or Dakota ideals.  To have people learn lies about you takes away a truth from your identity.  But overall, the Dakota people have a sense of respect for everything.  For the land, the water, and the people.  All people.  Largely, in the past, white people treated the Dakota with abhorrent disrespect, taking their home: the land.  But the Dakota people did not fight back with violence; it is not in their way.  As a result, they lose themselves.  It is hard for them to stay in touch with who they are today, as American Indians, because of the past.

2.       Another claim from Wasicuna's foreword is that one reason that the true history of the Dakota people has not been taught in schools is their honorable nature -- listening always.  This has made the Dakota history distorted, false, and untold.  People cannot have solidarity in their hearts, as a result.  Names of Minnesota cities like Shakopee and Chaska are misspelled and mispronounced, and the stories are shallow, Wasicuna says.  Furthermore, the Dakota people accept this, because they listen.  They were told not to be who they were, and they lost themselves.  Wasicuna states, "we were told not to speak our language and we listened."  As a result, their language is on the brink of extinction.  Wasicuna appreciates a move towards people seeking to hear Dakota stories, 150 years after the Dakota-U.S. War, so that healing can finally take place between people.

3.       The chapter is titled "Homelands" because it tells of the rich, spiritual connection that the Dakota feel to their home.  It talks about the meaning of home, the location of home, the presence of home in the Dakota language, and the spiritual nature of home.  All of these ideas contribute to a greater importance of home for the Dakota people.  Home is the land, where the Creator originates, and where life has meaning.  Therefore, taking away land -- home, earth, Ina, the mother -- the life that it provides is taken away.  Bdote Mni Sota, the confluence of the two rivers, is the home.  The spiritual home, where all Dakota are from.

Dakota 38 Post-Viewing

1.       Dakota 38 helped me show the impact that colonialism has today, to people close by.  It shows the importance of understanding how the past affects the present, and not forgetting it, but reconciling with it and moving onward.  Reading Things Fall Apart brought to my attention the evils of colonialism, but not its impact today.  The way in which colonialism puts a knife on what holds people together and splits it apart (Chinua Achebe) has reverberations generations after the first settlers come.  In the United States, it led to an indigenous population that lost about 15 million people over the course of four centuries.  It also led to a growing disappearance of Native American tradition.  American Indians in Minnesota lost their home, and with it, love, security, and comfort.  They were forced to assimilate into white society, and had to leave their happiness.  Still, today, many American Indian reservations have somber feelings of loss.  Because of colonialism, it is difficult for them to continue their native practices while being successful in society today.  A hatred of white people is another lasting effect that was interesting.  Despite kindness shown in the film, many American Indians, understandably, cannot get over what happened in the past.  Colonialism, at home, has torn at the lives of Native Americans.

2.       The main conflict presented in the movie is that of the struggle of Native Americans to find their place in society today, by upholding their cultural traditions and reconciling with the white people who oppressed them.  Causes of the conflict are broken treaties between colonists and American Indian tribes that unjustly displaced them, actions of the American government to criminalize Native Americans and force their assimilation into white society (boarding schools, etc.), and racist sentiment that perpetuates tension between whites and Native Americans, still boiling over today.  Essentially, the causes of the conflict are the results of colonialism on the part of the United States, and the conflict is recuperation.  Effects of this conflict are poor quality in the lives of many American Indian children, who have the highest suicide rates of any other race in the U.S., but also, healing directed by American Indians like Jim Miller, who are seeking to uphold native tradition, in addition to current efforts of the United States government towards affirmative action, and betterment of the quality of reservations.  To overcome centuries of oppression and loss of identity is a difficult battle, but the American Indian people have always been resilient.

3.       An image from the movie that will stick with me is the riding of the horses against the whipping snow, and really, the music.  This resilience in riding, in upholding Native American tradition to heal is powerful, and the music gives soul to this fight.  I will remember the words of the boy whose brother is moving away, and is losing is family, and how he will take back the strength in his own identity that he received from the ride to his life.  Another is the warfare of Vietnam, which blends in well with the violence at Mankato as senseless and evil.  It shows also how much the film is about the idea of coexistence and peace.  Understanding differences, and respecting them, going along with Dakota values.

CER on Things Fall Apart

       The vice of colonialism is brought out by the hypocrisy of white settlers in blindly achieving their ends, condemning already established culture despite knowing scarcely anything about it.  Yet it also festers in the native people who blindly follow these settlers, and polarize their homeland as a result.  As the threat that the white people pose to the Igbo people and the realm of Umuofia becomes increasingly grave, Obierika and Okonkwo have a conversation that channels author Chinua Achebe's perspective on colonialism.  They say, "'Does the white man understand our customs about land?'  'How can he when he does not even speak our tongue?  But he says our customs are bad...  How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us?  The white man... has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one.  He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart'"  (Achebe 176).  Unity is what makes a community strong and well.  It is also necessary in resistance to colonialism.  Therefore, the way in which colonialism takes its toll, by attracting native community members to colonists, fosters disunity.  This diminishes the impact of any resistance and ensures that the settlers will have power.  It is the metaphorical knife with which white colonists, Achebe says, tear already established communities apart.  This passage's tone of gravity and severity, as well as use of metaphor, extend the impact of this idea.  Colonialism preys on those who are susceptible to influence and pits them against their community members, in a rejection of the cultural traditions that keep them together.