Common Themes the Readings of AIS 377 Shared

What common themes do the readings share?

Selected Readings, October 16, 2019 Tommy Pico “Nature Poem” (NP 36-39), “IRL” (NP 31-35) Trevino L. Brings Plenty “Red-ish Brown-ish” (NP 115) Billy-Ray Belcourt “AND SO I ANAL DOUCHE WHILE KESHA’S “PRAYING” PLAYS FROM MY IPHONE ON REPEAT” (SNN 103-105) All of the poems share the theme of the experience of existing while Native in the modern day, and the difficulties that come with navigating others’ perceptions as well as internal conflicts. In “IRL”, Pico utilizes abbreviations, typical internet slang, and shortened words to create a contrast between the heavy subject matter and the superfluity of life in the social media era. To me, the most striking line from the poem was, his response of “But I guess it is a NDN thing in the sense that I’m NDN n doing this thing” (NP 31-32) when a white person mockingly questioned his motives, asking if it was an “Indian thing”. In “Red-ish Brown-ish”, Trevino shares a similar sentiment to Pico but has a more direct approach to address how to negative effects of colonialism playing out to this day. Trevino’s closing line resonated deeply with me, “I feel hypocritical. I dream English language.” (NP 115) Although I am not Native, I can relate to the feeling of not speaking my mother tongue and feeling like a traitor for thinking, dreaming, and existing in English. Billy-Ray Belcourt’s piece was one of my favorites from this class so far, its unique style and raw emotion make it extremely impactful. He deals with the darker side of coping mechanisms and interracial love in a very honest and touching way that I have never seen before in literature. Again, while I am not Native, some of the sentiments Belcourt expressed are applicable to multiple different non-white groups, and the line, “I TEND TO PAUSE WHEN DATES ASK IF I AM RELIGIOUS BECAUSE MY RELATION TO WHITE MEN FEELS ALMOST HOLY” (SNN 105) struck a little too close to home. However, this relatability and realness is what made Belcourt’s piece extremely poignant. Selected Readings, November 20, 2019 Adrienne Keene “To The Man Who Gave Me Cancer” (SNN 139-148) Alicia Elliot, “A Mind Spread Out On The Ground” (SNN 246-255) Toni Jensen “Women in the Fracklands: On Water, Land, Bodies, and Standing Rock (SNN 204-213) Sasha LaPointe “Blood Running” (SNN 242-245) UIHI MMIWG Report The selected readings for this week all focus on the involuntary pain, suffering, and sacrifice indigenous women are subjected to at the hands of colonist white patriarchy. It goes without saying that all women are negatively impacted by the patriarchy, but the oppression women of color face is so radically different and more harmful than the oppression white women face. And of women of color, indigenous women have arguably been and are treated the most poorly (alongside Black women) as illustrated in numbers by the “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report”. The disrespect of BIWOC is a cornerstone of the growth of white American settlement and culture. The first reading, “To the Man Who Gave Me Cancer,” showed how the system was set up against Keene in a way I have never experienced and hopefully never will, but held some not so eerie similarities to some of my own medical experiences as well as women I know. Learning that the speculum was invented by a white man who tortured enslaved Black women for the sake of “science” and is still used commonly today disgusted me, but did not surprise me. Another particularly cruel fact that struck me from this reading was the fact there is not a test for men to know if they have this deadly disease, which would seem ridiculous if the roles were reversed.

Selected Readings, November 27, 2019 "The Theft Of Life," "To Take Back Our Power" in "Women of All Red Nations" + "Sharing Our Stories of Survival" "Dawnland" The readings for today covered the topics of the displacement [of] Native children, and correspondingly the rights of Native women. “The Theft of Life” and “To Take Back Our Power” discuss the unjust medical practices Native women are subjected to at the hands of white colonizer doctors, namely involuntary sterilization. Native women are coerced into sterilization because colonizers believe that they have the divine right to choose who creates life and they do not value Native women’s autonomy and power. I found this to be unsurprising but disgusting, another harmful form of genocide against Native people as well as an affront to the rights and respect of Native women. Another way the Native American family is diminished is through the placement of Native children in white foster care and adoption when they have perfectly fit Native families as “Sharing Our Stories of Survival” illustrates. This phenomenon is not new information, as we learned about this separation of Native families while learning about boarding schools, which have the same purpose of forcibly separating Native children from their culture in an attempt to assimilate them. Although they have distinct differences, all of the readings for today share the topic of white methods used to splinter the Native family.

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© Copyright Hannah Hardisty, 2019