Tayo

During this past week my class and I have been reading the book Ceremony written by Leslie Marmon Silko. Although we are not very far into the book yet, it is already very interesting. The book focuses on a World War II soldier named Tayo who happens to be half Native American and half White. So far the biggest things that have stuck out to me from this book are the roles that racism and post traumatic stress play. Racism has already played a huge role in this book. This book is constantly talking about how Tayo feels rejected from both the Native American and White societies, and even rejected from his own family because of the fact he is both Native American and White. Another very prominent piece of this book that has play a huge role is post traumatic stress. As I said before, Tayo fought in World War II which lead to a huge mount of suffering in his life due to post traumatic stress. The book constantly refers to nightmares and basically hallucinations that Tayo has suffered from as a result of his service in the War. Overall, these were the two ideas that stuck out to me the most, and I believe the two things that have played the biggest roles in this book thus far. I am very interested to see if this trend continues and how these roles may change throughout the remainder of the book.

Ceremony

Navajo Tribe

    
        Treaty of 1868                                     Navajo Family

The Navajo Tribe is the largest federally federally recognized tribe of the United States of America, with over 300,000 enrolled tribe members. The Navajo tribe was established on June 1, 1868, as a result of the Treaty of 1868. The Navajo Indian Reservation is located in the Four Corners area, occupying parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, with the largest concentration of Navajo population being in the state of Arizona. The Navajo land is also the largest area of land belonging to Native American Jurisdiction in the United States, covering 27,425 square miles.
                                  
          Navajo Flag                                         Navajo Seal


       Navajo Nation Borders
Manuelito is one of the most important war chiefs from the Navajo Tribe. Manuelito lived from 1818 to 1893 and was born in Southeastern Utah. Manuelito translates to "Little Manuel" and he was known by different names in his tribe, such as "Holy Boy" and "Black Weeds". Manuelito was known for leading his nation in a rally against the oppression of the United States military.

                               Manuelito in his younger and older years

Cherokee Tribe

             
                 19th Century Cherokee Members

The Cherokee tribe is the second largest federally recognized tribe in the United States with just over 285 thousand members. The Cherokee tribe is located in the Southeast United States, primarily in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and East Tennessee. The original Cherokee Nation was founded on November 7th, 1794.
     
                        Cherokee Nation Flag                                    Cherokee Nation Seal

One of the most famous Cherokee members was a man named Sequoyah. The name Sequoyah translates into the English name "George Gist" or "George Guess". Sequoyah lived from 1770 to 1840. Sequoyah was a silversmith, but was more widely known for his creation of the Cherokee writing system that became official in the year 1825.
                    
   A painting of Sequoyah               The Cherokee Alphabet, developed by Sequoyah

Dances with Wolves

Generally, films that we watch in school are boring and slow, but so far I have been pleasantly surprised by the film, "Dances with Wolves". I was honestly just expecting this movie to be a boring, old film but I was far from correct. There was something about this film that immediately hooked me and immersed me in its story.

The first thing that interested me was the fact that this movie took place during the Civil War. I have been strongly interested in the Civil War ever since I learned about it in fifth grade, so anything related to it instantly grabs my attention. Another thing that I have found very cool about this film so far is how big of a role animals had. I really enjoyed seeing the bonds between Animals and Humans so far and how they played into the movie as a whole. One more thing that really interested me about this film was of course the Native American culture that is displayed. I have always been interested in this culture, so it was interesting to learn a little bit about the culture of these people, and it made me realize how different two cultures can really be from one another, in ways such as clothes, communication, gestures, manners, and other things along these lines. All in all, the film "Dances with Wolves" has been very enjoyable so far, and I look forward to watching and studying the rest of this movie.