Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Thursday October 8


Per the announcement in class, please post a question relevant to the selection from Ernestine Hayes's Blonde Indian in the comment section here. As we did on Tuesday, you'll want to post a question that you might ask the author, as she'll be visiting our class on Thursday.

See you Thursday,

kevin

PS: In case you misplaced your hard copy, I've pasted the text of the writing assignment below. Remember that we're asking you to take a draft to the learning center, so you probably want to get started on the assignment straight away. It's due next Thursday, October 15.





Humanities 120--Assignment #2:

Our goal in this section of Humanities 120 is to attend to the overarching question of how story, words, and images inform our sense of the world. All of the texts we have read in this section attempt to come to terms with how we ought to interact with the natural world, making claims (sometimes implicitly) about how we should engage with Alaska's landscapes and animals. That is, these are all stories that are about Alaska, Alaskan animals, or about a sense of place.

To give you an idea of what I mean, recall that I argued in lecture that Eliza Scidmore's 1893 Appleton's Guidebook asked nineteenth century tourists to see the landscape in terms of glacial history and potential wealth, while re-peopling an already storied landscape with tales about explorers and travelers. Sherry Simpson's more recent meditations on Alaska also ask us to think about how maps, placenames, and stories shape our interactions with the natural world. Werner Herzog and Nick Jans both explore Timothy Treadwell's bizarre attempt to forge a relationship with Alaska's wild bears, playing with and amplifying mythic ideas of these animals and our state. In The Glacier Wolf, Nick Jans tells of his experiences here in Southeast, ultimately telling stories that ask us to interact with place and animals in particular ways. Finally, Ernestine Hayes's compelling memoir Blonde Indian offers stories about a deeper sense of place, asking us to attend to history and story as we consider what it means to live in Alaska.

Your assignment, then, is to continue thinking about Alaska, animals, and place, composing a 2-3 page essay focusing on one of these texts. In this short essay you should first assess the point of view presented in the text you choose and then offer your own position on the issue you find of central importance in the text. You can frame your essay as a response to any number of questions, and you can make almost any argument that you want—the only guidelines are that you think carefully about your own sense of place or your relation to animals and that you address the sense of either Alaska or animals presented in one of the texts. This means that you should offer a quotation or two, and you should attentively "read" this quotation to make your point, but more importantly you should express your own position.

32 comments:

  1. In the very beginning of Hayes' memoire, she says that 'brown bears and people have often intermarried, hence we are cousins.' I was wondering exactly what she meant. Is it supposed to be a spiritual/religious experience?

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  2. Woops, sorry!
    Leah Gregg J03
    (the comment above this is mine.)

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  3. in ernesstine hayes' novel she writes of a young girl who lives in a smaller less welthy part of juneau. she goes to school with only one other girl from this part of the town. my question is was there other children that lived in this area? if so were did they go to school? or did they?

    travis johnson 092

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  4. Tom's father said to him on page 36 that the white man was going to change them, kill them, and take everything they had, and afterwards the white man will worship it all, like how they did to Jesus (in a nutshell..). And it's somewhat true: tourists love to hear about Native culture, we have museum exhibits about it, etc.. Are we doing this to try to make up for stealing their land and forcing them to be more like the "white man" ?

    Chelsey Welch J02

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  5. Before the chapter begins there is a short paragraph about a woman who is crying for her baby. Was there a meaning you wanted to get out to people if so what was it? Why start out the chapter like that? Also, was it hard to write about your past? How were you able to write so much detail about your history from so long ago?

    Kelly Fernandez, JO4

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  6. I wonder, does Ernestine Hayes or the Tlingit people believe that ALL people belong to their lands? Or just Tlingits? Do Europeans belong to their lands in the same way, regardless of their beliefs?

    -April Henderson, JO4

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  7. The missionary school sounded like it should have been illegal. Was it condoned by state or federal government? Did the Natives ever contest that kind of treatment in court?

    Dominic Lodovici
    J01

    P.s. I tried posting before, but I can't see my comment, so if it is already there ignore this one

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  8. Hayes mentions belonging to the land and what i was wondering was if she beleives this because of her heritage and being Alaska Native? If so, does she think that if all people believed this that things that happened in consequence of "the white man" would be different?

    I just wonder if all kinds of people were to respect the earth and things in relation, if all of the terrible things that happened could be avoided or damage lessened? Would the the people that had such an affect on the natives cahnge their ways if they had more respect for the world around them?

    Hannah Massey J04

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  9. As, an Inupiaq and being raised by my Grandfather, I understand where Ernestine Hayes is coming from. Land and the human are almost one in the same.

    I want to ask her if it's hard to hold on to her culturalistic values in this Western Society.

    LaTia Jackson, J03

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  10. are you friends with everybeing in the universe?
    michael caruso J02

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  11. In the excerpt, the grandmother talks of how "If [a bear] comes to you, don't run. Talk to him. Remind him that your his cousin..."
    I found this interesting, that how even in modern times this is the best advice when encountering a brown bear.(non violently at least) I wonder. What other native advice still holds relevance even today?

    Stephen Bishop J03

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  12. On one hand I can relate to the story, on the other hand I feel like i'm coming at it from the opposite direction. Speaking as a white person who grew up in a mostly native culture where being native was a good thing and being white meant you had to prove that you were just as good. And yet, what confused me most was the amount of fried food. Why was her diet mostly store bought fried food?

    Sarah Ryan, J03

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  13. If all of the horrible things happen in the school, why was none of it reported. Why didn't she tell her grandparents? I know that the children were suppost to be strong but doesn't someone notice a child walking down the street covered in dirt and blood covering their eye? And Is it better for them to have things like this happen in order for people to learn how treating someone else differently because of where they come from help problems in the future, because you get to see how it effects people?

    Angelia Normandia
    J03

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  14. Why do the bluebirds seem to be such an unattainable goal? Does this barrier actually exist or is it only a barrier created in her own mind or to make the reading more interesting?

    Chelsea Green
    J03

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  15. When I was reading the very beginning of the selection, I was interested in what Hayes said about belonging to the land. I'm wondering, then, how she feels about us having used the Corporation system here in Alaska as opposed to the reservation system. Which does she think is better?

    Kimberly Watt, J02

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  16. Blonde Indian
    Why was she being treated that way in school?
    What year was that?
    How did you feel about being Native and living in Juneau?
    Ive heard more racial comments against Natives here than ive ever heard in my life..

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  17. Was it very hard to interact with the "dainty and clean" boys and girls at school? Did any of them understand why you were the way you were? Or did they never bother to learn?

    Beky Ulmer, J03

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  18. It was very hard to hear how she was being treated at school do you think that there are similiar things happening in our schools today. If so why havent they changed?

    Freddie Munoz
    JO1

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  19. It seems as though the last three paragraphs on page 9 are much longer sentences than used in the rest of the text. In other passages she uses concise sentances to make her point. Was Hayes trying to put emphasis on these paragraphs? It seems as though they set the setting for the rest of the piece, which mainly consist of her connections with her mother, her grandmother, and her aunt. May this also signify that those three people may be representations of her conflicts throughout the story? As in her grandmother is her heritage. Her Aunt is married to a "white man", has a garden and works in a "white office." It seems as though she is caught between past and new. Her mother is an obscure figure that she idolizes but cannot learn to please. Also like her hardship of moving from a Seagull to a Bluebird. Were these parallels made consciously.

    Callie Dietrich
    Jo3

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  20. In the story it says that you felt you could never quite become a bluebird. I was wondering if you ever felt like you became a bluebird or maybe that you no longer felt the need to try and become a bluebird?

    Johanna Christensen- J01

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  21. Tom's sliver of presence begs for elaboration; do Ernestine and Tom ever cross paths? What ever became of Tom? I'm also curious how Ernestine felt about living with her mother, in the apartment. Did she long for the village she knew so well?


    Nicole Lopez J03

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  22. How were you able to remember so much about your culture after you moved away from alaska? When you came back to alaska, were there elders of your family that helped you discover the things of your culture that you had not remembered? or did you have help from other familys of your culture to ask upon?
    Chelsea Durham J03

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  23. How has your culture shaped how you view nature, especially when it comes to how humans should act around animals? In Blonde Indian it states that you are cousins with the bear, well Timothy Treadwell thought he was friends with the bear, how do you view this relationship?
    Sammy Becker
    JO1

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  24. The natives had very spiritual beliefs and interacted with the land and animals as if it were a living being. On page 18 it says, "The signs manifest on its outer side reveal the spirit of the child." It then goes on to say, "By the mark, the child's real name is known." These beliefs in reincarnation are very strong in the native society. Do natives still follow these beliefs or have they long since been converted to Christianity?

    Eric Mountcastle
    JO2

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  25. Did you think it as funny or odd about people using umbrellas?


    Westin Dollmont
    J01

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  26. ^ for comment above: i say this question for your early child hood

    *Typo change as to was

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  27. How do you feel about how she was being treated, did it change today or can you see the way natives being treated in a different way today, still?
    Florence Hadley, j01

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  28. In the book early on seems to relate birds to humans is this because of the indians culture or why?
    malcomb vrecenar

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  29. Talking to bears used to be a Native tradition to let the bears know you were there. Now it is suggested that people hiking should make noise by chatting to have a lower risk of being attacked. Are there more Native traditions that are used today?

    Danielle Orbistondo

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  30. What do you find is the hardest part of being a writer?

    Edith Grover J04

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  31. Does Ernestine Hayes have any other books on the tpoic of her native people?

    -marc Lapeyri J02

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  32. How does she feel towards the change that is happening in her native culture? Especially the fact that most of the younger generation can't speak their native tongue!


    -Nani Toetuu J02

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