Anthropology 210 Reflection Paper Jacob Reidl Firstly, I want to start this paper of with a summary, or my opinion, of Anthropology 210 – Introduction to Native American History and how my knowledge of Native American history was challenged. I’ve always enjoyed learning and exploring the history of cultures and groups of people. To see what people had gone through to get to where we are now is interesting and important for the modern day people. We want to take this information and learn how to handle similar situations in the future. Our childhoods are filled with misinformation and misrepresentations that give people the wrong view of people. The history of Native Americans is shown to be filled with crime and savagery when presented by the ill-informed people. Native Americans are presented as such in history classes and modern media, savages and criminals. With that being said, I found the previous information to be false I had previous knowledge about the larger aspects of Native American history through my high school experience. In my A.P. US History class, we learned about Andrew Jackson and the terror of the “Indian Removal Act”. In my Spanish class, I learned about Aztec, Mayan, and Incan society’s and how the Spanish destroyed those communities. We learned about the atrocities but we stopped at that. I found it interesting to learn of the impacts of those atrocities on modern day Native American culture. I liked how not only we were taught what is misunderstood about Native Americans, but we are taught small details that are glanced over in other forms of education. It’s interesting that these small details impact a seizable group of people in, most of the time, a negative way. For example, Native languages and cultures being banned in school. In a free country, I would never expect this to be true, but at the same time it makes sense that this would be happening. It was sad to read about. We then went on to learn about how Native Americans didn’t let these wrongdoings stop them from continuing their culture. We learned about their resilience to the changing times and how that shaped the “Powwow”. Powwows are interesting because they bring together natives and those interested in the culture together to celebrate the history of Native Americans. The history and future of Natives is present at powwows and they create big impacts to re-igniting the culture and language. Powwows are relevant in the novel “There There” by Tommy Orange. “There There” centers around multiple characters and their stories that will be attending a Powwow in Oakland California. All of these characters are unique in a way that shapes their view on life and what it means to be a Native American. While these characters are unique, the have a lot of similarities. They go through similar struggles and hardship that is easy for the reader to relate to especially if they are of Native American heritage. The novel also covers multiple generations and explores the differences between each other but, again, they are similar. The Powwow is the physical event that brings people together and shows how similar these individuals are. For example, when Tony Loneman puts on his Native regalia, he sees a Native dance and not his face misalignment or Drome. That being said, my favorite character in “There There” is Tony Loneman. Tony Loneman was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and believes he’s not smart in anyway although he is fairly street smart. He feels like he belongs on the streets. Along with Octavio and some others, planned to rob the powwow and his own people. He goes through some personal issues with the idea of robbing the powwow because when he tried on the regalia he felt a connection with his culture. This builds on the idea that Native Americans have been presented with many problems, alcoholism, crime, low employment, drugs, etc. but they all share a connected feeling with their culture. This idea is present among many/all of the characters. Tony, Octavio, and their crew went to the powwow and tony was supposed to perform the hold up so the others can rob the participants and stay on guard. When its time for action, Tony cannot let himself preform these acts against his own people, his culture. We start to see Octavio, Charles, and Carlos get into a gun fight. People were getting shot and killed. Tony sees that pedestrians are getting caught in the crossfire and he decides to fight the three. He ends up killing Charles but unfortunately he was shot too many times and dies soon after. Multiple other characters also get caught up in the crossfire. Thomas dies, Edwin and Orvil end up in the hospital and we don’t know their condition at the end. The Character of Tony shows character development as he changes from bad to trying to do good. This is fueled by his heritage and feeling for others. He turns to be a decent person that was wrapped up with the wrong crowd. “There There” was an interesting book. The writing style was something I’ve never seen before. Reading the backstories of all these people that seem unconnected at the start but either have some real actions or end up together at the powwow. Tommy Orange does this to show that Native Americans might be living separate life’s with separate troubles but share the same history. The powwow embodies the similarities between individuals. It is sad that some Native Americans grow up in a society filled with crime and hate, part of that problem comes from the culture built into cities and its time for that to change. Times have changed since natives were first being moved and discriminated against. I believe that still is happening in today’s world and the results are still being felt but its not as revenant as it was. I think Natives should be welcome to live on reservations if they would like but they should also be working hard to escape the terrible situations they are in. Through activism, education, entrepreneurship, and grit this is possible. Overall, ANT 210 was an interesting class that expanded my knowledge of Native Americans and their history. Ive been attracted to learning about culture and this helped fulfill that hobby. I also enjoyed reading “There There”. It was a different style of writing but was a great story with a lot of truth mixed in.
