Engl022s Final Review

Braiding Sweetgrass (Book) - Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Talks about Kimmerer’s experiences as an Indigenous person, mother, and professor of botany

• Emphasizes the importance of treating non-human beings, especially plants, as kin and the concept of reciprocity

Nature Poem (Long Poem) - Tommy Pico

• Analyzes Teebs’s struggles with writing a nature poem due to him being an Indigenous person

• Includes topics like racism, injustice towards Indigenous people, identity, the environment, and city life

Giving Thanks (Children’s Book) - Chief Jake Swamp

• A colorful children’s book highlighting the many ways Indigenous people give thanks to the Earth (the sun, the moon, etc.)

Iroquois Creation Story (Narrative) - David Cusick

• The story of the Skywoman - how she fell from the upper world and had twins (one good, one evil)

• The good twin eventually went on to shape the world and banished the evil twin

How The World Began (Narrative) - Arthur C. Parker

• Another variation of the Skywoman story, albeit with more detail

• Skywoman angers her husband and falls from the sky, then has a daughter, who would then have two twins

• The good twin would help form the Earth, while the evil twin would cause havoc

• The good twin would go search for his father and bring back animals for the Earth

• Skywoman would return to the sky, leaving the good twin alone

• The evil twin would be banished and the good twin would be left to rule the world for good

Seven Generations (Video) - M. Kalani Souza

• Describes the seven different generations, which includes the generations before (ancestors, grandparents, parents) and after (children and grandchildren) your generation, with the seventh generation being anyone after you

• Emphasizes the importance of our decisions and how they can affect future generations

Tending the Wild (Film) - KCET

• Showcases how Indigenous tribes care for the land around them through practices like controlled burning

Fire Kinship at The Fowler (Exhibit/Presentation) - Lina Tejada

• An exhibit used to honor controlled burnings by Indigenous tribes that manage plant growth and eradicate invasive species

Contribution of Indigenous Peoples’ understandings and relational frameworks to invasive alien species management (Scientific Article) - Wehi, et al

• Explains the biological and economic effect invasive species have on society

• Argues that there are better ways to handle these species (especially those proposed by Indigenous People themselves) instead of eradicating them

• Compares the general want to eradicate these invasive species to treatment towards Indigenous People themselves

Indigenous environmental justice: Anti-colonial action through kinship (Book Excerpt) - Kyle Whyte

• Introduces the idea of kinship towards non-human beings and provides examples of reciprocity

• Introduces Indigenous culture and how it was stripped away after colonialism

Angry Inuk (Documentary) - Alethea Arnaquq-Baril

• Introduces the tradition of hunting seals for food and clothing, which can be used to make profit in Inuit communities

• Fights back against anti-sealing campaigns

Tongues (Music Video) - Tanya Tagaq

• Promotes the importance of keeping Indigenous languages alive

Tungijuq (Film) - Tanya Tagaq

• Promotes seal-hunting and its importance for Inuit communities

There Is No Respectful Way to Kill an Animal (Essay) - Craig Womack

• Starts off with a personal story about hunting, then argues that the injustice is unfair

• Uses two well-known scenes in Native literature about hunting: Archilde Leon in The Surrounded and Gerald Vizenor’s “October 1957: Death Song to a Red Rodent”

• Archilde needs to find an “appeal” in shooting/hunting an animal because “no one’s living depended on it”, while Vizenor does the shooting but regrets it and tries to help the squirrel by dreaming empathically

Deer (Poem) - Deborah Miranda

• Portrayed in the perspective of a deer being butchered, but deep down is about a woman being sexualized

Cottonwood Part Two: Buffalo Story (Book Excerpt) - Leslie Marmon Silko

• Tells the story of the Yellow Woman who went out to fetch water for her family, but was taken by Buffalo Man

• Arrowboy ventures out to save her and does, but Yellow Woman secretly wants to stay with the buffalo

• When they rest in the cottonwood tree, Arrowboy shoots Buffalo Man, but Yellow Woman is sad about his death, and Arrowboy ultimately shoots her as well

• Although upsetting for Yellow Woman’s father, the village finally had food to eat

The Woman Who Married a Goose (Folklore/Fable) - Alootook Ipellie

• The narrator goes goose-hunting with their family until they stumble across a woman and goose mating together

• After they are done, the goose flies away, and the narrator tries to speak with the woman, who feels ashamed and shy

• She says that she and the goose both get along well because they both felt like outcasts

• The goose leaves every autumn, so the two do not get to see each other often

Windigo (Poem) - Louise Erdrich

• Told in the perspective of the Windigo, a flesh-eating, wintry demon with a man buried deep inside of it

• The Windigo is searching for a child, but the child seems as if it wants to escape with the Windigo

The Flood (Poem) - Joy Harjo

• About a story of a girl who was tempted by the watersnake despite her trying to care for her baby sister

• The girl would yearn for the watersnake and even was cured from her sickness when she dreamed about being in the river

• She disappeared during a storm that affected her family

• When she reappeared from the river, no one recognized her

• The girl simply gave into her desires instead of marrying a man her parents wanted her to marry

Things to Do with a Monster (Poem) - Tacey M. Atsitty

• Action-based, verb-heavy poem that shows the many ways to be a monster

• Describes relatively normal actions until the last stanza, where the human looks into their reflection and sees a monster, suggesting the two are one

• Themes of ancestry and identity

Lost in the Milky Way (Poem) - Linda Hogan

• A descriptive poem about what happens after entering the afterlife

• Entities like a dog and an Old Woman monitor the reader, ensuring no animals/humans were harmed by the reader and if the reader has any scars

• Suggests the path to the afterlife is a journey with many stops

Wakening (Film) - Danis Goulet

• Following the arrival of occupiers, a Cree wanderer searches for the creature Weetigo to help fight back against the occupiers

• Weetigo is initially seen as a monster, but changes character completely when it eats the occupiers trying to hurt the protagonist

• Can parallel themes of Indigenous people and colonialism

Reclamation (Documentary) - Theo Cuthand

• Interviews three Indigenous and LGBTQ people in Canada following the departure of wealthy, white Canadians to Mars

• The three all express relief and freedom, stating they felt controlled by the Canadians before their departure

• Following their departure, thethree start to restore the land ruined by the Canadians

Why I Teach ‘The Walking Dead’ in My Native Studies Classes (Article) - Cutcha Risling Baldy

• Summarizes The Walking Dead before comparing it with Indigenous experiences, stating that genocide has happened in both

• Argues that Indigenous people are not able to “get over” genocide when it is part of their history

• Emphasizes the importance of standing up for and supporting Indigenous voices

Serafina’s Guest Lecture

• Uses the axolotl and compares it to the salmon who were not cared for in “Burning Cascade Head” in Braiding Sweetgrass

• Argues that axolotls are used seemingly for pop culture and memes, which is a facade to the sad truth: axolotls are endangered

• Additionally states that axolotls’ ability to regenerate can make them helpful for humans

• States that people have disconnected with nature since the rise of technology

• Argues that conducting scientific experiments with care is a humane way to care for the environment, paralleling Indigenous traditions