Current Event Analytical Piece

The land that was taken away from the Native American tribes years ago is now influencing Native Americans in a great way today. When they lost all of their land they also lost much of their power and money as they were forced onto small reservations that were built on the worst land possible, giving them very few economic opportunities. The United States Government allows them some benefits in order to try and repay the damage that they did to the Native Americans by taking away their land , but they cannot easily fix many of the problems they have caused.

The government allows casinos on Native American reservations, which has been greatly debated recently. These casinos have been a blessing for some tribes and a curse for others. Certain tribes have had huge amounts of success with the gaming industry as "Indian gaming in America has become a multi-billion dollar industry, which many Tribes have embraced as a tool to pull their people out of poverty and unemployment" (Antelope). These tribes have had great success with casinos as they have provided jobs to many people living on the reservation and they have brought in great amounts of money and outside visitors. This has influenced the Native American culture as they are integrating more with people outside the reservation. For many Native Americans there were no jobs available and they could not live off the land because most reservations are built on land unsuitable for growing crops and have no natural resources; so, for certain tribes the Casinos have provided an economic lift that has allowed them to live comfortably. However, the casinos have had the reverse effect on some tribes. If a tribe is unable to make great profit off of the casinos, as many smaller tribes have had trouble with, they are negatively impacted by succeeding tribes. This is because Americans see successful Indian Tribes and assume that all tribes are rich because they generalize the Native Americans. Americans want the government to raise taxes and cut spendings on Native American programs. Those who are not flourishing really have nothing to do with the prospering tribes, but they still are having their benefits cut. For example, in California the "state and local funding for substance abuse and alcohol prevention at Indian health clinics has been slashed from $2.8 million to $100,000, virtually wiping out the program” (Coin). Tribes who are not flourishing from the casinos still are having their programs cut and are being negatively impacted by the stereotype of rich Indians. The Native American tribes need these programs to prevent suicide and substance abuse because these issues have become extremely prevalent on reservations as “"Indian youths commit suicide at nearly triple the rate of young people in general" (Katel). This problem needs to be confronted with the programs that are being cut by the U.S. government. The U.S. government is partially at fault for the suicides that are occurring according to Lindquist-Mala as she says that the “suicide epidemic happening in Indian country is just a manifestation of all its history and reflects our community’s historical oppression”. By taking away the Native Americans power, freedom to roam the land, and by changing their culture they have oppressed the Native Americans which has led to a great amount of depression in their community. In order to solve these problems the U.S. government was spending money on programs to curb the upward trend in suicide attempts, but this spending has been cut. Even when there were programs coming from the U.S. government they were not extremely successful, so many Native American reservations chose to self-govern and decide where they would spend money and how to run specific programs. The poorer reservations are unable to afford this system of self-government and must continue to receive single grants from the government for specific programs. This plan has not been shown to successfully curb the suicide rates, but there is nothing Native American tribes can do because they are in a state of poverty.

The United States government took away much land and pride from the Native Americans; this caused many problems that now need to be solved. There has been a great deal of poverty on reservations so the government allowed them to open casinos which has helped some tribes, but hurt others. Some reservations are negatively impacted as casinos do not help them and the stereotype of rich-Indians now has allowed the government to cut spending on Native American programs. These programs are related to suicide prevention and alcoholism. The rates of these issues have increased drastically in Native American reservations because of their difficult history. The Native Americans were once a proud people who had control of millions of acres of land but after much oppression they have been left a people who can barely afford to confront their own problems.

Analytical Piece on Short Story

Sherman Alexie’s short story “This is what it means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” points out a lot of changes in the Native American culture. As the main character, Victor and his companion Thomas Builds-the-Fire travel to Phoenix to retrieve the remains of Victor’s father and reminisce about the past Alexie points out the massive changes in the Native American culture. A lot of the culture changes came as a result of the white American culture infiltrating the culture of the Native American culture. Alexie also points out how hard it has been for Native Americans to assimilate to the ways of American society. Alexie uses Thomas as a representation of the present and Victor as a link to the past in order to illustrate the changes that Native American culture has experienced.

Thomas is shown as somewhat of a loner in this short story as he is much different than today’s Native American. Since he was younger he questioned the culture change of Native Americans. When he and Victor were children, on the Fourth of July Thomas questioned why Native Americans celebrate this day because “it ain’t like it was our independence everybody was fighting for” (63). Thomas refers “our independence” as the independence of the Native Americans, as really it is other Americans who were fighting for independence and many Native Americans were on the other side of the battle. It would have been ridiculous for the Native Americans of the past to celebrate on this day, but Victor as well as the other children on the reservation did not question this tradition, they just followed it. They celebrated a part of the new American culture because this aspect, along with other traditions of the new American culture crept into the culture of the Native Americans and changed their culture. They did not consciously take in these aspects of the culture, they were forced upon them and these concepts eventually mixed into the Native American culture. The culture of a tribe being family was also shown to have changed. When Victor realizes he will not be friends with Thomas even after Thomas helped him on his journey to Phoenix he asks himself “whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community?” (74). He is disappointed in himself for caring what others would think about him if he were to be friends with Thomas. In the past this would not have happened as all members of a tribe were extremely close and treated each other like family, but since the culture changed Victor values what others think more than his relationship with Thomas. Thomas still embodies the traditions of the past as he felt a strong bond to Victor, someone he had not talked to in years, because they were members of the same tribe so he treated him like family. He also was especially helpful to Victor because he promised Victor’s father that he would look out for Victor. Thomas still exemplifies the culture of treating tribal members like family as he spent a lot of time and money in order to help Victor, another member of the tribe. Most present day Native Americans would not have done this because they embody many cultural facets of the new Americans. While they have done this, they have still not been able to successfully integrate into the American society. Victor’s father moved off of the reservation and lived in Phoenix, Arizona. Victor’s father died and “the only reason anyone found him was because of the smell” (68). He was not found by family or friends, probably because he did not have many. While he moved off of the reservation he did not integrate into the American culture as he was unable to make friends and fit in. The Native Americans replicated many traditions of the United States but they were not able to integrate into society.

Sherman Alexie’s short story exemplifies how Native American culture has changed over the years and has been impacted heavily by the American culture. He uses the experiences and feelings of Thomas and Victor to contrast the old Native American culture and the new Native American culture. The Native Americans have changed a lot, but their comfort level still remains within their own tribes. The new Native American culture is much more similar to that of the culture in the United States, but even with these similar cultures, Native Americans have not been able to successfully integrate into American society.

Analytical Piece on Background Information

The Native Americans were viewed with great respect before the American Revolution, but afterwards everything began to change. When American leaders looked at the Native Americans before the revolution they saw them as a model for how to form a government. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin looked at "the Iroquois' lack of class stratification and their representational form of government" as "an inspiration" ("Iroquois Confederacy"). Jefferson looked at the Iroquois, the dominant Native American military power of the 18th century, with high regard and appreciated their structure. Other American leaders of the time also had great respect for the Iroquois and many “democratic principles of the constitution would be drawn from the Iroquois model” (“Iroquois Confederacy”). The founding fathers of America looked so highly upon the Iroquois that they took their policies of representative government and a lack of class segregation into account when creating the infrastructure for the future of America. There was a certain time when the Native Americans were highly respected but there was a huge contrast to this after the American Revolutionary War. The Iroquois had to choose if they wanted to support the Americans, the British, or remain neutral. They chose to support Britain because "it appeared the British would win the war," "British trade routes and practices were more lucrative and widespread than those of the rebellious colonists," and "for the British, violent retaliation was a dangerous trend that they hoped to curb" ("Native Americans in the American Revolution"). While not all Native Americans supported the British, by the end of the war most of them did side with the British because of the potential benefits. However, when America won the war the Native Americans had to pay huge consequences. While not all Native Americans supported Britain this is the way that most white Americans looked at it, as they generalized the Native Americans then. This relates to present day because Americans generalize Native Americans as a wealthy people, which in turn lowers the benefits they receive, thus harming the poor Native Americans.
As a result of the war, the Americans still respected the Native American way of life as they used their ideas in the constitution, but disliked them as a people because “All Native Americans were considered traitors" and they were targeted "as enemies of the nascent republic" ("Native Americans in the Revolution"). They went as far as raiding the Native American communities which made "Indian groups perpetual enemies of the new nation" (Iroquois Confederacy"). The white Americans pillaged the Native American villages and overpowered them off of desirable land. This time period completely deteriorated the relationship between the Native Americans and the white Americans. The relationship between the white Americans and Native Americans shifted from one of respect to one of hate. The white Americans saw anything that belonged to Native Americans and took it as their own, partially because they viewed them as traitors, but also because there were growing stereotypes about Native Americans as a bad people. There were cultural representations, such as “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show which showed Native Americans as “savage Indians attacking civilized white Americans” (“Cultural Depictions of Native Americans”). The white Americans saw shows like this and assumed that these representations of Native Americans as savages were true. The white people then felt superior and they knew they were powerful enough to take what they wanted, so they did. The white Americans succeeded in their efforts "to confine the Native Americans to reservations in areas deemed unsuitable for white settlement" ("American Indians and Buffalo Soldiers"). The white Americans took away millions of acres of land from the Native Americans and forced them to live on the worst possible land. There was some Native American resistance, but after they failed in a large attempt to revolt they gave up fighting. The Native Americans were at one point highly respected by the white Americans, but after there was widespread fighting for the British in the American Revolution, this view was drastically changed. The Native Americans were forced off of the land they had inhabited for years because they were seen as traitors. The land they had once lived on for years now belonged to the white Americans which shows the shift in power. White Americans did not feel guilty about what they were doing to the Native Americans because of the widespread view that they were evil savages. Today, many Native Americans still live on reservations and face many challenges such as alcoholism and suicide. They do not have enough money to confront the issue in large part due to the fact that they were forced to live on undesirable land. The government has been trying to give benefits to Native Americans in order to repay them for the atrocities that occurred; however, the Native Americans will never again enjoy the vast land and power that they had before America was “discovered”.