Amanda Byler

English 112B

Dr. Warner

10 December 2008

History-Makers: Native American Literature and Importance

Many students living in the United States are not fully aware of the native peoples that lived here before them, which is why a unit on Native American Literature is so important, especially for students who are living in places that used to be permanent reservations for Natives. While most of the �canonical� works on Native American Literature are anthologies, I chose to focus this unit around several modern pieces on Native American history and prose. These works include Sherman Alexie�s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Louise Erdrich�s novel Tracks, and Scott M. Momaday�s novel House Made of Dawn. All of these authors have written several novels on the history of Native people or the characteristics of some part of Native American culture and while some can be considered canonical, others are not as wide spread. This unit would most likely be taught to a high school junior because that is when students are most likely to be taking American Literature coupled with American History.

For the unit, my intention is to educate students on the Native American culture so that they can make connections with a culture other than their own, hopefully opening the student�s minds to different cultures with unique histories. To do this, the beginning of the unit is dedicated to some traditional tales from Native American culture including creation stories and trickster tales, both heavily focusing on the oral tradition. After a week or two introducing the culture, the next step would be to start reading some of the novels.

The three that I noted above are all different outlooks on Native American people but come together nicely with the themes of isolation and assimilation. These themes can be seen in Alexie�s novel because his main character Junior is the only Indian in an all-white school, a forcible isolation, but he is trying to be educated through assimilating himself with the new culture. Erdirch�s novel also focuses on isolation and assimilation through several of her characters because the white majority is closing in on the little Ojibwe reservation, taking most of their land, but some of the characters are trying to be like the white people, which shows the bad side of assimilation—alcoholism and other negative traits. Lastly, Momaday�s novel includes a character that must assimilate but while trying to do so, commits a crime and is isolated from his family and the community. It is important for students to learn the process of assimilation, because most of the people in the United States are not natives and there are always new cultures trying to assimilate into another culture.

My original intent for this unit was to do the comedic side of writers like Alexie, but it turned into much more than that. I realized that there is only a small introduction to Native American culture and that usually it is just passed by and the class moves on to the Pilgrims or Columbus. This is why I created a unit on Native Americans because living in the United States and not knowing what was happening before our time in our country seems ignorant. There is not much cultural history in the United States because it is such a young country but if people looked back to the natives of this country, they would realize that a lot more was happening here before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.

Launching the Unit:

1. Begin the unit with a Native American creation story from any tribe; possibly involving the tribes native to the state you teach in. For example, if you are teaching in North Carolina, the Iroquois creation story might be most appropriate; or if you are teaching in Arizona, the Pima creation story would work. For the purpose of this unit plan, the Iroquois creation story will be the example but for the first day of the unit, reading several creation stories will help introduce the culture of the oral tale and show students the beliefs of the Native Americans.

http://wsu.edu/~dee/NAANTH/IRCREAT.HTM This is a link to one version of the Iroquois creation story, which can be read to students at the start of the unit.

Iroquois creation story:

In the faraway days of this floating island there grew one stately tree that branched beyond the range of vision. Perpetually laden with fruit and blossoms, the air was fragrant with its perfume, and the people gathered to its shade where councils were held.

   One day the Great Ruler said to his people: We will make a new place where another people may grow. Under our council tree is a great cloud sea which calls for our help. It is lonesome. It knows no rest and calls for light. We will talk to it. The roots of our council tree point to it and will show the way."

   Having commanded that the tree be uprooted, the Great Ruler peered into the depths where the roots had guided, and summoning Ata-en-sic, who was with child, bade her look down. Ata-en-sic saw nothing, but the Great Ruler knew that the sea voice was calling, and bidding her carry its life, wrapped around her a great ray of light and sent her down to the cloud sea.

   Dazzled by the descending light enveloping Ata-en-sic, there was great consternation among the animals and birds inhabiting the cloud sea, and they counseled in alarm.

   "If it falls it may destroy us," they cried.

   "Where can it rest?" asked the Duck.

   "Only the oeh-da (earth) can hold it," said the Beaver, "the oeh-da which lies at the bottom of our waters, and I will bring it." The Beaver went down but never returned. Then the Duck ventured, but soon its dead body floated to the surface.

   Many of the divers had tried and failed when the Muskrat, knowing the way, volunteered to obtain it and soon returned bearing a small portion in his paw. "But it is heavy," said he, "and will grow fast. Who will bear it?"

   The Turtle was willing, and the oeh-da was placed on his hard shell.

   Having received a resting place for the light, the water birds, guided by its glow, flew upward, and receiving the woman on their widespread wings, bore her down to the Turtle's back.

   And Hah-nu-nah, the Turtle, became the Earth Bearer. When he stirs, the seas rise in great waves, and when restless and violent, earthquakes yawn and devour.

   The oeh-da grew rapidly and had become an island when Ata-en-sic, hearing voices under her heart, one soft and soothing, the other loud and contentious, knew that her mission to people the island was nearing.

   To her solitude two lives were coming, one peaceful and patient, the other restless and vicious. The latter, discovering light under his mother's arm, thrust himself through, to contentions and strife, the right born entered life for freedom and peace.

   These were the Do-ya-da-no, the twin brothers, Spirits of Good and Evil. Foreknowing their powers, each claimed dominion, and a struggle between them began. Hah-gweh-di-yu claiming the right to beautify the island, while Hah-gweh-da-et-gah determined to destroy. Each went his way, and where peace had reigned, discord and strife prevailed.

   At the birth of Hah-gweh-di-yu his Sky Mother, Ata-en-sic, had died, and the island was still dim in the dawn of its new life when, grieving at his mother's death, he shaped the sky with the palm of his hand, and creating the Sun from her face, lifted it there, saying, "You shall rule here where your face will shine forever." But Hah-gweh-da-et-gah set Darkness in the west sky, to drive the Sun down behind it.

   Hah-gweh-di-yu then drew forth from the breast of his Mother, the Moon and the Stars, and led them to the Sun as his sisters who would guard his night sky. He gave to the Earth her body, its Great Mother, from whom was to spring all life.

   All over the land Hah-gweh-di-yu planted towering mountains, and in the valleys set high hills to protect the straight rivers as they ran to the sea. But Hah-gweh-da-et-gah wrathfully sundered the mountains, hurling them far apart, and drove the high hills into the wavering valleys, bending the rivers as he hunted them down.

   Hah-gweh-di-yu set forests on the high hills, and on the low plains fruit-bearing trees and vines to wing their seeds to the scattering winds. But Hah-gweh-da-et-gah gnarled the forests besetting the earth, and led monsters to dwell in the sea, and herded hurricanes in the sky which frowned with mad tempests that chased the Sun and the Stars.

   Hah-gweh-di-yu went across a great sea where he met a Being who told him he was his father. Said the Being, How high can you reach?" Hah-gweh-di-yu touched the sky. Again he asked, "How much can you lift?" and Hah-gweh-di-yu grasped a stone mountain and tossed it far into space. Then said the Being, "You are worthy to be my son"; and lashing upon his back two burdens, bade him return to the earth.

   Hah-gweh-di-yu swam for many days, and the Sun did not leave the sky until he had neared the earth. The burdens had grown heavy but Hah-gweh-di-yu was strong, and when he reached the shore they fell apart and opened.

   From one of the burdens flew an eagle guiding the birds which followed, filling the skies with their song to the Sun as they winged to the forest. From the other there came animals led by the deer, and they sped quickly to the mountains. But Hah-gweh-da-et-gah followed with wild beasts that devour, and grim flying creatures that steal life without sign, and creeping reptiles to poison the way.

   When the earth was completed and Hah-gweh-di-yu had bestowed a protecting Spirit upon each of his creations, he besought Hah-gweh-da-et-gah to reconcile his vicious existence to the peacefulness of his own, but Hah-gweh-da-et-gah refused, and challenged Hah-gweh-di-yu to combat, the victor to become the ruler of the earth.

   Hah-gweh-da-et-gah proposed weapons which he could control, poisonous roots strong as flint, monsters' teeth, and fangs of serpents. But these Hah-gweh-di-yu refused, selecting the thorns of the giant crab apple tree, which were arrow pointed and strong.

   With the thorns they fought. The battle continued many days, ending in the overthrow of Hah-gweh-da-et-gah.

   Hah-gweh-di-yu, having now become the ruler, banished his brother to a pit under the earth, whence he cannot return. But he still retains Servers, half human and half beasts, whom he sends to continue his destructive work. These Servers can assume any form Hah-gweh-da-et-gah may command, and they wander all over the earth.

   Hah-gweh-di-yu, faithful to the prophesy of the Great Ruler of the floating island, that the earth should be peopled, is continually creating and protecting.

This story explains how the Iroquois people came to this earth, by being created from a piece of dirt on a turtle back because the turtle is the only one that can hold his breath under water for the longest period of time; resulting in the life of humans. Hopefully this reading will help get students involved in the story, since such a huge history of Native American culture is emphasizing the oral tale. Tell students that the creation story, and the trickster tale, are important to the Native American culture because it is how the elders of the reservation teach children what is right from wrong and other important lessons that children learn now from television shows or books.

After reading the creation tales, an assignment can include the students creating their own creation tale of how their family came to this earth, or how, like the Native Americans, their people came to this earth. Once they are written, have students read aloud their work, reiterating the oral component of this culture.

2. After a day or two on creation tales, introduce the trickster tale to the students. Instead of doing all the reading like with the creation stories, have students do a reader�s theater of trickster tales, giving every student a chance to read part of the trickster tale from any tribe or reservation.

http://fiction.eserver.org/short/coyote-and-the-giant.html This is an example of one Navajo trickster tale that is divided up so that every student should have a chance to read at least once.

Coyote was walking one day when he met Old Woman. She greeted him and asked where he was headed.

"Just roaming around," said Coyote.

"You better stop going that way, or you'll meet a giant who kills everybody."

"Oh, giants don't frighten me," said Coyote (who had never met one). "I always kill them. I'll fight this one too, and make an end of him."

"He's bigger and closer than you think," said Old Woman.

"I don't care," said Coyote, deciding that a giant would be about as big as a bull moose and calculating that he could kill one easily.

So Coyote said good-bye to Old Woman and went ahead, whistling a tune. On his way he saw a large fallen branch that looked like a club. Picking it up, he said to himself, "I'll hit the giant over the head with this. It's big enough and heavy enough to kill him." He walked on and came to a huge cave right in the middle of the path. Whistling merrily, he went in.

Suddenly Coyote met a woman who was crawling along on the ground.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"I'm starving," she said, "and too weak to walk. What are you doing with that stick?"

"I'm going to kill the giant with it," said Coyote, and he asked if she knew where he was hiding.

Feeble as she was, the woman laughed. "You're already in the giant's belly."

"How can I be in his belly?" asked Coyote. "I haven't even met him."

"You probably thought it was a cave when you walked into his mouth," the woman said, and sighed. "It's easy to walk in, but nobody ever walks out. This giant is so big you can't take him in with your eyes. His belly fills a whole valley."

Coyote threw his stick away and kept on walking. What else could he do?

Soon he came across some more people lying around half dead. "Are you sick?" he asked.

"No," they said, "just starving to death. We're trapped inside the giant."

"You're foolish," said Coyote. "If we're really inside this giant, then the cave walls must be the inside of his stomach. We can just cut some meat and fat from him."

"We never thought of that," they said.

"You're not as smart as I am," said Coyote.

Coyote took his hunting knife and started cutting chunks out of the cave walls. As he had guessed, they were indeed the giant's fat and meat, and he used it to feed the starving people. He even went back and gave some meat to the woman he had met first. Then all the people imprisoned in the giant's belly started to feel stronger and happier, but not completely happy. "You've fed us," they said, "and thanks. But how are we going to get out of here?"

"Don't worry," said Coyote. "I'll kill the giant by stabbing him in the heart. Where is his heart? It must be around here someplace."

"Look at the volcano puffing and beating over there," someone said.

"Maybe it's the heart."

"So it is, friend," said Coyote, and began to cut at this mountain.

Then the giant spoke up. "Is that you, Coyote? I've heard of you. Stop this stabbing and cutting and let me alone. You can leave through my mouth; I'll open it for you."

"I'll leave, but not quite yet," said Coyote, hacking at the heart. He told the others to get ready. "As soon as I have him in his death throes, there will be an earthquake. He'll open his jaw to take a last breath, and then his mouth will close forever. So be ready to run out fast!"

Coyote cut a deep hole in the giant's heart, and lava started to flow out. It was the giant's blood. The giant groaned, and the ground under the people's feet trembled.

"Quick, now!" shouted Coyote. The giant's mouth opened and they all ran out. The last one was the wood tick. The giant's teeth were closing on him, but Coyote managed to pull him through at the last moment.

"Look at me," cried the wood tick, "I'm all flat!"

"It happened when I pulled you through," said Coyote. "You'll always be flat from now on. Be glad you're alive."

"I guess I'll get used to it," said the wood tick, and he did.

It is about how the coyote, the trickster in most Native American stories, must help a community, showing how he fits into the community, while still pulling a lot of tricks up until the very end. Again, explain to the students how important the oral culture is in the Native American teachings because through trickster tales, children would learn not to steal, or believe obvious liars because of what the tricksters learn in the trickster tales. Tricksters were also used as examples of what each person�s responsibility was on the reservation, as this trickster tale does.

For this group of readings, an assignment that students can do is to create a cartoon strip of a scene in the trickster tale from the class reading or their own version of a funny story, related to the themes of trickster tales. Make sure that they include a moral for the story they created; including what this story would teach kids if they were living on a reservation.

3. After introducing some of the different tribes with their oral tales, it might also be a good idea to include some artwork from those tribes. If you can get your hands on some tangible stuff to pass around the class that might be a good idea, otherwise looking online for photos of the artwork or researching some of the reservation museums would be a great alternative. While looking through the art, have students write a reaction log on several of the pieces that caught their attention the most. Ask them to write about how the art work made them feel toward the tribe, what they think the artist is trying to convey, etc. If you can, print out the artwork or have students recreate some of the pieces they saw and display them around the classroom.

4. As an out of class assignment, have students look for creation stories or trickster tales on the Internet and incorporate their findings during the days discussing that particular story type. In class, have students read their findings aloud, or give the students the option to act out the stories they have found. Hopefully this will get students interested in the remainder of the unit.

Center Pieces:

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time India (summary taken from the inside cover of the novel):

Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation.

Born with a variety of medical problems, he is picked on by everyone but his best friend. Determined to receive a good education, Junior leaves the rez to attend an all-white school in the neighboring farm town where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Despite being condemned as a traitor to his people and enduring great tragedies, Junior attacks life with wit and humor and discovers a strength inside of himself that he never knew existed.

Erdrich, Louise. Tracks (summary taken from the back cover of the novel):

Set in North Dakota at a time in the past century when Indian tribes were struggling to keep what little remained of their lands, Tracks is a tale of passion and deep unrest. Over the course of ten crucial years, as tribal land and trust between people erode ceaselessly, men and women are pushed to the brink of their endurance—yet their pride and humor prohibit surrender. The reader will experience shock and pleasure in encountering characters that are compelling and rich in their vigor, clarity, and indomitable vitality.

Momaday, Scott M. House Made of Dawn (summary taken from the back cover of the novel):

House Made of Dawn, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969, tells the story of a young American Indian named Abel, home from a foreign war and caught between two worlds: one his father�s, wedding him to the rhythm of the seasons and the harsh beauty of the land; the other of industrial America, goading him into a compulsive cycle of dissipation and disgust.

After reading all the novels, or only two if there is not enough time allotted for all three, have students write an essay or a series of essays focusing on the relationships between the characters across the different novels. How are their situations similar? How do the characters overcome isolation or the problems with assimilation? These types of questions will help students see the overarching theme of all the novels on assimilation and isolation. Maybe before or during the readings, a small lecture on the definition of assimilation and isolation can be explored with a class discussion on how it feels to be isolated on a personal level or what they have noticed from books they have read before. Anyway that they can make connections to the readings and what they may have read before would help in their understanding of the Native American novels discussed above.

Extending the Unit:

Once there has been a class discussion on the novels above, the class should be introduced to a number of other Young Adult novels or short stories on Native American literature.

Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (summary taken from Great Books for High School Kids ed. By Rick Ayers and Amy Crawford, p. 120):

Revisit Thomas, Victor, Junior, and a slew of other characters in this beautiful, funny, and devastating collection of short stories offering glimpses into modern life on the Indian reservation. Alexie is one of the great, funny, deep, and affecting young Native American writers of today.

Colton, Larry. Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn (summary taken from Great Books for High School Kids, p. 130):

A teenage Lakota Sioux Indian girl and her team fight their way to respect and awareness in their pursuit of the high school state title.

Dorris, Michael. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (summary taken from Great Books for High School Kids, p. 132):

Secrets and a generation gap threaten to break apart a Native American family, but Dorris braids together three generations of women by letting each one tell her own version of a story.

Erdrich, Louise. Four Souls (summary taken from the back cover of the novel):

After taking her mother�s name, Four Souls, for strength, the strange, compelling Fleur Pillager walks from her Ojibwe reservation to the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. She seeks restitution from and revenge on the lumber baron who has stripped her reservation. But revenge is never simple, and her intentions are complicated by her dangerous compassion for the man who wronged her.

Hillerman, Tony. The Wailing Wind (summary taken from Great Books for High School Kids, p. 144):

Hillerman has created a series of delightful books. These Native American cultural journeys are part police method and part mystery. In each one (and there are more than fifteen), Navajo tribal cops Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee get to the bottom of a crime while teaching or learning more about indigenous ways.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony (summary taken from Great Books for High School Kids, p. 171):

This is a story of Tayo, a young Pueblo Indian damaged by his experiences in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. In his search for healing, Tayo finds a profound link to his past and to the crucial rites of passage we all long for.

Storm, Hyemeyohsts. Seven Arrows (summary taken from Great Books for High School Kids, p. 172):

Seven Arrows is a book of wisdom and joy, in both form and content. Storm shares the Native American past and presnt in this beautiful volume, which is neither a novel nor a memoir. Rather, it seeks to break the boundaries of category, being part narrative, part artwork, part poetry, and part tales told by elders. This book is not �about� Indian culture but rather a journey to a new (for many, old) way of seeing the world.

Of course not all of these novels can be read during the course of a short unit but giving the students the option to write an essay on a book they read outside of class, plus giving them the option of the book, will enhance the unit.

Closing the Unit:

Coming to the closing part of the unit, students should hopefully have a better idea of the Native American culture and ideologies discussed in class. This new knowledge will broaden the student�s minds on different cultures other than their own and educate them on the history of the country that they live in.

To include some of the novels listed above, students can do several activities as individuals or as groups. What might be a good idea for these outside text is to group students, or pair them depending on the number of students, and have them read one of the novels as a group and do some group work on their findings. One student can be the note-taker, as the teacher you can have students underline the words they do not recognize and have one of the students in the group define all of the questionable words, another student can do some artwork for the group like a possible comic strip that the group collectively does. These groups can also have the option to perform a one-act play of the novel they read or make a television talk show based on the dramatic elements of the novel. The possibilities for these outside novels are endless.

Another idea to close the unit is to show one of the films based off of the novels listed above. For example the film Smoke Signals is based off of Alexie�s novel The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (information taken from Great Books for High School Kids). Have students watch the film and compare the notions and culture they learned in class with the representation in the film.

Works Cited:

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007.

------. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove/Atlantic, 2005.

Ayers, Rick and Amy Crawford, ed. Great Books for High School Kids. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004.

Colton, Larry. Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2001.

�Coyote Kills a Giant: A Navajo tale from the long collection of tales about Coyote.� Fiction: the eServer Collection (1994). 8 December 2008 < http://fiction.eserver.org/short/coyote- and-the-giant.html>

Dorris, Michael. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. New York: Picador, 2003.

Erdrich, Louise. Four Souls. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

------. Tracks. New York: HarperCollins, 1988.

Hillerman, Tony. The Wailing Wind. New York: HarperTorch, 2003.

Hooker, Richard, ed. �The Iroquois Creation.� (2006). 8 December 2008 <http://wsu.edu/~dee/NAANTH/IRCREAT.HTM>

Momaday, Scott M. House Made of Dawn. New York: HarperCollins, 1989.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin Group, 1977.

Storm, Hyemeyohsts. Seven Arrows. New York: Random House Inc, 1972.