Shaping Survival: Essays by Four American Indian Tribal Women (review) (original) (raw)

2004, Studies in American Indian Literatures

AI-generated Abstract

Shaping Survival: Essays by Four American Indian Tribal Women is a compilation of memoirs from four Sioux Nation women, reflecting their early life histories and examining themes of identity, cultural survival, and resistance against assimilation efforts. The narratives highlight the authors' connections to their families, lands, and traditions, offering critical insights into the impact of boarding schools and colonialism on their lives. Through acts of defiance and commitment to cultural education, the writers not only advocate for the preservation of Sioux identity but also challenge systemic attempts to erase Indigenous cultural distinctions.

“Disability and Native North American Boarding School Narratives: Madonna Swan and Sioux Sanitorium." Journal of Cultural and Literary Disability Studies 7.2 (2013): 195-212.

Kelsey’s article on Swan’s narrative argues for reading Swan as an exemplar of decolonization, contending that Swan’s story has the potential to claim healing from the boarding school experience, an often otherwise victimizing era with an overwhelmingly similar body of critical literature. Kelsey’s intervention resides in identifying and analyzing the liberatory space Swan claims by refusing her status as victim and insisting upon her wholeness as a TB survivor and a complete Lakota person always already. Swan embodies decolonization in her lived embodiment of Lakota culture and oral tradition and in teaching the language as a Lakota language teacher at Cheyenne River Community College. Ultimately, Swan stands as an allegory or symbol of individual Lakota decolonization and through her work as a Lakota language teacher she spreads the seeds of decolonization like the figure of Corn Woman, whom Dakota author Elizabeth Cook-Lynn has explored in her own creative and critical work (Jahner 132). Kelsey acknowledges foundational works in disability studies’ critique of overcoming narratives; yet, her argument asks that we understand Madonna Swan’s autobiography as a narrative of resistance and overcoming in the context of colonization. Swan’s struggle is not “a requisite overcoming of nature” (Mitchell and Snyder 109), but a fight for bodily and tribal survival. Ultimately, Native American resistance can be framed legitimately in an overcoming narrative, and the decolonization of Native American responses to illness can be supported and developed by disabilities studies methodologies.

"This is the way that I am" : Early Indigenous American Women's Literature

Social justice and American Literature, 2017

Early American Indian women’s literature stands deeply rooted in historical Native issues of oppression and genocide, yet also brings to light more subtle and personal issues that have plagued indigenous women for generations. The justified anger and inevitable grief of subjugation parallels the issues of interracial children, interethnic identity, and cultural practices as resistance tactics. 19th and early 20th century Native women authors meet such complexities with protagonists who revolt against and resign themselves to an unjust society so that their enduring presence and literary voice embodies a revolutionary act.

Female Native American Storytelling: Female Storytellers in Native culture. Presence in Contemporary Native American Literature. Leslie Marmon Silko

The Grove - Working Papers on English Studies, 2015

The role of Native American women has been extensively debated. Much has been said about their relationship with men and their relevance within the tribe. One of the most important tasks they had was that of storytellers. Storytelling is one of the pillars of Native American culture since it helped to transmit their values and folklore and keep them alive and that is why women's role as storytellers is fundamental for the survival of the tribe. Although this role has often been shared with men, it seems that the relationship of women with storytelling is more complex, valuable and relevant than that of men. This is shown in their characterization in traditional Native American myths or in the fact that old traditional Native American women and storytellers became the source of inspiration of many contemporary writers, such as Silko, Erdrich or Allen, who took them as models for their novels. Silko exemplifies with her novels Almanac of the Dead and Ceremony this fundamental role of Native Women and the influence they had on her life and writing.

Barbie Feathers: Writing Native Women

Literature has often misrepresented Natives and women. I involved Native Women in researching and editing my novel to fairly and acurately represent them. In open-ended interviews they described their experiences of nature, enjoyment, and discrimination as well as their critiques of the novel itself. Descriptions were of discrimination as perceived difference, originating from their own people, originating from inequality, and of language as both cultural understanding and a stage for discrimination. Critiques varied about representation of estrangement and language, but consistently clarified and coroborated material in addition to supporting my methodology. I ultimately recommend this methodology with additional suggestions.

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