Notes We Took In Class

I was wondering if you wanted us to email you the notes we took in class on the video. On Friday no one said anything so I was wondering if you actually wanted them but I just didn't hear. Please let me know!

Native American Video Characters

It is really funny how most of them are portrayed. Some are feather wearing bad asses like Chief Thunder from Killer Instinct, others are humble mechanics like Tommy from Prey.

http://www.giantbomb.com/native-american/92-1632/

Direction for Native American education

"In 1998, President Clinton held a two-day conference on building economic self-determination in Indian communities. During the conference the Executive Order on American Indian and Alaskan Native Education was signed. The six goals of the order are to:

1. improve reading and mathematics
2. increase high school completion and post secondary attendance rate
3. reduce the influence of long standing factors that impede educational performance, such as poverty and substance abuse
4. create strong, safe, and drug-free school environments
5. improve science education
6. expand the use of educational technology"

Just an interesting tidbit of information. Since 1998, their really hasn't been too much controversy in the world of education.

Thorpe Award

Each year the top defensive back in college football is rewarded the Jim Thorpe award because he is considered one of the best there ever was

Hampton University

Some historical facts about Hampton University and its foundation.
http://www.hamptonu.edu/about/heritage.cfm

This is a story that Carol Hodgson wrote about her experience in the boarding schools. It talks about how horrible the school was.

http://www.twofrog.com/hodgson.html

Today in the lagniappe section of the newspaper there is an article about a new game based off of dantes inferno..yall should check it out!! Have a good weekend and dont forget about the boys bball game tonight at 7!

The Carlisle School

I found everything that we have been learning on the Carlisle School really interesting, so i thought i would post a link to their website with a picture of their students and the school here if any one wanted to get any more information on it:


http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html

Into the West

There was a miniseries in 2005 called "Into the West" which was produced by Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks, and follows the stories of two families, one White American and one Native American. The story intertwines real and fictional characters and events spanning the period of expansion of the United States in the American West, from 1825 to 1890. Richard Henry Pratt is a character in it, and he is

Publish Post

played by Keith Carradine.

Wheaties

In "Our Spirits Don't Speak English," there is a Wheaties box in the background of the woman who is speaking. The Wheaties box does in fact have Jim Thorpe on the cover, and here is a closer view of it.

Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe is one of the greatest atheletes of all time. He went to the Olympics and also played football for the Carlisle Indian School. This is his official website.

This image shows the transformation Native Americans were forced to go through when they were attending boarding schools. Whites expected them to look and act more like them. Their hair had to be cut and they couldn't wear their traditional clothing.

John Collier- American Indian Defense Association secretary

The article we were assigned to read mentions a man named John Collier who worked to defend Native Americans. I did a little research on his background and contributions. I discovered that he was born in Atlanta, Georgia and went to Columbia. John Collier's emergence as a federal Indian policy reformer in 1922 marked a turning point in Indian affairs. Collier fought against legislation and policies that were detrimental to the well-being of Native Americans. Collier's efforts led to a monumental study in 1926-1927 of the overall condition of Indians in the United States. The results of the study became known as the Meriam Report.

Very cool website, with reflections of former Boarding school students.

http://www.nospank.net/n-e27.htm

Seaworld Trainer gets killed by Killer Whale..good article

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/24/killer.whale.trainer.death/index.html

Here is an interesting site about Native American boarding schools.

http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/a_f/erdrich/boarding/index.htm

So since I'm not going to be in class tomorrow I finished the dvd today. First of all, I don't find the accounts on the video shocking as much as I'm just kind of horrified. I mean, if we look into this country's past it's not hard to believe that something like the Native American boarding school incident happened (and I don't mean that in "I hate this country" sort-of way). I just mean, look into our past and there's a history of mistreatment of people who are "different." However, I had no idea that something to this magnitude was going on, especially not so close to the present time. Also, there are some comments towards the end coming from some Native Americans who went through the system and claim to be grateful for it. I guess it's just hard for me to wrap my head around that. Though I realize that not everyone was directly affected by the beatings, imprisonment, rape, ect...I just don't see how any Native American could come away from that, knowing what others went through, and still speak well of the system. That's just my personal opinion. The part I think is the worst is the fact that the government tried to wipe their whole culture away. They have such unique practices, beliefs, arts..and so on, that were not really understood or appreciated properly by the rest of America. That's what I got out of the video, just hoping to start a discussion.

Indian Boarding School

Here is a link if you are interested in the Indian boarding school or it's a pretty decent website for notes and facts about the Indian Boarding School.



http://www.kporterfield.com/aicttw/articles/boardingschool.html#section1

Tiger Woods' Apology Speech

I hope you'll watch this video. Tiger is eloquent, contrite, and admirable in his apology. I think you can learn a lot about how to behave with dignity from this apology.

Tiger's Apology

Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Here is a little bit of information I got from Wikipedia on the Carlisle Boarding School that was mentioned in the article we read last night for homework and had a quiz on today in class. If you are interested on learning a little more about the school like I was then check out the link!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Indian_Industrial_School

Indian New Deal

Here are some details about the Indian New Deal that I got from Wikipedia. The Indian New Deal was mentioned in the article we read for homework last night and I did not know exactly what it was so I looked it up. It helped me a little bit and I thought it would be useful to other people as well. If there is something you know about the Indian New Deal that isn't on this website, post it here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Reorganization_Act

Treatment of Indian Students

The majority of Indian children, in their youth, were forced off to these Indian boarding or "residential" schools because the United States wanted them to become hard working citizens in our society. While in class, Ms. Deckard said that they were treated very poorly. So I researched a little bit about the way that the children were actually dealt with in these schools. When Ms. D said they were treated poorly, it was a gross understatement. I've found an article by CBC News, a Canadian news source, that released an article strictly about these "residential" schools that was released in June 2008.

This is the most straight-forward description that really helped me understand the reality of being a Native American child in the early 1900s.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/05/16/f-faqs-residential-schools.html

Chemawa Indian School

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemawa_Indian_School
This is the wikipedia page to the Chemawa school which opened in 1880 and as of 2005 was still currently open serving as a high school.

The Onion Reports - 10th circle added to hell

We are on the front of the funny bubble over here at St. Martin's, but The Onion finally got with the joke. Read it here:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28898

Nietzche's Übermensch

Today in class, Ms. Deckard mentioned the Nazi concept of a "Superman", the strong, tall, blond-haired, blue eyed Aryan male. She mentioned the name of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche as the origin of this ideal. However, while Nietzsche is indeed the originator, there is a distinct difference between Nietzsche's Übermensch and the Nazi version.

Let's begin at the beginning. Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosopher of the late 19th century, about half a century before World War II. As you should know, Nietzsche is the one who said, "God is dead", but there is much more to Nietzsche then that statement. You can summarize Nietzsche's opinion of Christianity in one word: abhorrence. He saw Christianity as a sickness, and as proof of this he wrote an entire book bashing Christianity (along with many other religions) and appropriately titling it The Anti-Christ. Nietzsche saw nearly all Judeo-Christian ethics, especially pity, as decadent.

Seeing as how he damned Christianity, the obviously dominant moral and religious model in Western culture, Nietzsche needed an alternative. Therefore, he created his Übermensch, which is best personified by the eponymous character in his novel, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. His Übermensch was named after the famous Persian prophet, Zoroaster (Zarathustra being the German rendering of the name), and to my recollection was almost never given defining physical traits, such as blond hair, blue eyes, or even nationality. Other than his old age, the only time I can remember Zarathustra ever being given a definition in his character was when at one point Zarathustra spoke, "I shall speak in clear German to you."

So, how does this translate to Nazi Supermen? Simple, Nietzsche had a sister named Elizabeth, who was married to an anti-Semite. In 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental breakdown (the causes are a mystery, but many suspect syphilis), and was put under the care of his sister. His sister was now entitled to all of his works, and after a few "edits", Nietzsche's work, including his beloved Zarathustra, wast changed to promote anti-Semitic views, and Nietzsche's Übermensch was changed from a goal intended for those who had morals without Christianity (Nietzsche also hated nihilists, as well as pessimists) to the Aryan superman Ms. Deckard was mentioning today in class.

As a final note, I'd like to explain that Nietzsche was in no way an anti-Semite, or even patriotic of his country. He even stated in one of his books that if he could go back, he wished he would have written Zarathustra in French. Furthermore, Übermensch has sprouted many arguments in its exact translation. The most common translations are superman or overman, but the prefix uber can mean superiority, transcendence, or excessiveness. Because of this, many modern translations of Nietzsche's work don't translate the word. If you are curious as to how he was not an anti-Semite, you can read more here.

P.S. During class, I briefly searched the topics we discussed in class, and failed to close it before leaving for art. Being a tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed male, I realized the potential situation in opening my laptop to have the Wikipedia page for Ethnic Cleansing viewable. Thanks, Ms. Deckard.

A Town Full of Twins

Here is a super interesting video about this town in Brazil that has 1000 percent above average number of twins. It is believed to be the work of the Nazi runway fugitive Josef Mengele. Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItHrNPxRY-A

HW: Indian Boarding Schools

After reading the homework, I found it interesting how reformers believed they could completely transform native Indians into normal citizens, since it would be difficult for Indian boys and girls to suddenly leave their old lifestyle to join a new, foreign "American" lifestyle. Also, it was interesting to find out that Indian students who were caught speaking their native language were severely punished. Pretty ridiculous.

Indian Country Diary

Background of Indian boarding schools.

p.s. its not that interesting...
actually its not at all.

Enjoy :)

http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/history/boarding.html

Homework for Feb. 23 (Read this for Tuesday)

http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/marr.html

This article, called "Assimilation Through Education," briefly outlines the development and goals of the Indian boarding schools in America. Please read it for Tuesday. There will be a brief quiz.

Over the Break

Does anyone know if we had homework over the vacation? On the reading schedule we had it said we had reading on Mardi Gras Indians, but i'm not sure if that fell through. Let me know

woah

thats a lot of addons for sale

Mardi Gras Indians

www.mardigrasneworleans.com/mardigrasindians.html

This contains an interesting bit of information regarding the Mardi Gras Indians. They are basically a combination between african american culture and native american.

PSA: The Importance of Internets Security

Recently, there has been a plethora of bot spam coming from Ms. Deckard's account (either that or she has gained a sudden interest in online retail), so I'd just like to take a moment to lecture you all in internet security.

First thing is your password. Passwords such as "1234567" are not ideal passwords. Choose something that you can easily remember, but still pretty cryptic. You'll be safe with a ten digit number, but if you want to be super tricky, you can put a letter or two in there. However, I'll explain why password strength isn't all that important, but having a decently strong password is still invaluable.

Now I'd like to educate you in how your account can be stolen. Because most people have strong passwords, many account-stealers assume that the password will not be cracked. This method is also deterred by many programs locking the account after multiple incorrect attempts. Because of this, gaining direct access to someone's account by guessing the password is a very illogical method, unless the thief has a good clue as to what the password is, which he or she shouldn't since you should never give out your password.

So, how do people gain access to your account? Well, one of the more popular methods is "phishing". Phishing is when you ignorantly give out your password to a site under the guise of being legitimate. I'm sure you could find a phisher on Facebook pretending to be a quiz for which Twilight character you're like the most, but they can also be seen through e-mails. The bottom line is this: keep your password safe and don't give your information out to a website you're unsure about, and be careful of what quizzes you take on Facebook.

However, there is another, more clever way to gain access to someone's account, one that doesn't require much output from you. I don't know if this has a name, but this method is achieved by abusing the "Forgot Password?" utility. A little more than a year ago, Sarah Palin's e-mail made national news when it was "hacked". I don't really like calling it hacking, because that implies it requires someone to be tech-savvy. I'll explain why Palin's hacked e-mail could have been done by any of us at St. Martin's. The guy who gained access to Palin's e-mail used the method I just introduced. He went to password recovery, and it asks the series of questions to prove you are the owner of the e-mail. The three questions asked were ones like, "Where did you meet your husband?" and other questions that were based off of Palin's life. All it took was the Vice Presidential Candidate's Wikipedia page to find the answers, and he then had access to one of the most powerful women of the time.

So be smart even about those things. If your screenname is "BrittanySpearsfan777" (which is my name on imvu), don't make your answer for, "Who is your favorite singer?" Brittany. Make it someone either unknown or someone you haven't mentioned. For instance, BrittanySpearsfan777's favorite singer should instead be Corpsegrinder from Cannibal Corpse. Not only is that hilarious, but an attempted intruder would probably never guess it. Things like these are especially dangerous on Facebook where you give out a lot of your information.

So remember kids, have fun on your internets, but safety comes first.

<3 Shiloh, King of Hearts and Internet Superhero.

P.S. inb4 product spam. I'm waiting for the posts to become lewd.

indian removal

hey y'all! hope everyone is having fun at parades...and since I'm sure you are still totally focused on the awesome native americans we are learning about here is a very informative article on the removal of the first nation! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html just follow the link!

HAPPY MARDI GRAS EVERYONE!

Mardi Gras Indians are African-American Carnival participants in New Orleans who dress up for Mardi Gras in suits influenced by Native American ceremonial apparel.

use the thread to help study

I just remembered that ms. deckard has used this same thread for a few years now... so some questions and answers from past years may be helpful.

TESTTTT!

Yooo, Okay, I just finished studying for the test. I was wondering if anyone had an further quotes or ID ideas they could give me. If not it's cool. Also for the chapter "Crown of Thorns," I forgot the main points of what happened in that chapter. So if anyone could give me a short overview, that would be quite helpful. Thank you!!! (=
-amanda

Native American Lawsuit

Today I found an article about a lawsuit involving Native Americans. It has been a lawsuit that has been ongoing for 13 years that could be delayed again if Congress doesn’t give its approval by the end of February. It is one of the largest class-action lawsuits in history. About 300,000 Native Americans would be compensated for billions of dollars of royalties they say is owed them. The money is from royalties from the past 100 years on oil, mineral, and grazing rights. According to the article I read, the settlement will have to be renegotiated if it isn't approved by the end of February. The settlement would be $3.4 billion to Native Americans.

Test thread

What do you think might be good identifications that Ms. D might put on the test?

Setting of Love Medicine

Most of Love Medicine takes place on the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota. Here is the Reservation's own web site which contains a lot of information such as demographics and population and what not.

http://www.tmbci.net/

Chippewa Indian History

I was wondering about the history of the Chippewa tribe and I came across a very good article that talks about the tribe originated from and the extensive history of the tribe.

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/chippewa/chippewahist.htm

Louise Erdrich Strives To Save Independent Bookstores

Hey y'all so I found Louise Erdrich's bookstore website. heres the link: http://birchbarkbooks.com/

I think it's pretty cool that she native arts and jewelry. You can see from the website that she also believes local bookstores are an important part of a community. Reminds me of an excellent movie, boys I especially recommend this to you, "You've Got Mail".

A Few Great Videos

I've found this video on Youtube, which explains some symbolism and the effectiveness of Louise Erdich's writing style as she wrote "Love Medicine".. This describes the account where Nector burns Lulu's house down, and in the last chapter we had to read where Lulu actually has to go and rescue baby Lyman from the flames. This video also describes the clear symbol of the Geese in the Novel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30-37aKF43g

This second video i found is pretty cool. It a short faux-trailer of the chapter "Crown of Thorns" where Gordie endlessly drinks and shouts June's name and struggles to turn many loud noises on to mask seeing or hearing June.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r24pGvXuKOY

Superbowl

So besides going absolutely crazy about the Saints winning the freaking Superbowl, I was also watching the famous Superbowl commercials. One of them was for a new video game featuring a warrior jumping into a fiery pit to rescue a descending maiden. This new game is of course Dante's Inferno, and the fallen maiden is presumably Beatrice. The game looks a little over done, but what do I know about video game. Below is a link with a video and detail about the game. http://www1.dantesinferno.com/thebiggame.html

Resurrection

I found this site insightful debating whether or not Jesus' resurrection was a historical event.

http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/jesus-resurrection.htm

Here is another website analyzing evidence to support his resurrection.

http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html

Actual Love Medicine

The idea of magical medicines and potions have been around for awhile. Chemically, potions are supposed to contain a very powerful aphrodisiac which in turn causes someone to fall in love with you. Do they work? Well, women can buy pheromones and whatnot off the web. As for men...well excessive amounts of cologne will do.

http://health.discovery.com/centers/sex/aphrodisiacs/potions.html

http://www.links2love.com/love_potion.htm

In class we talked about "huffing" because Gordie dies from drinking Lysol. It was very popular in the 80s and 90s among punk rock groups. It has been talked about in several different songs including Nirvana's "dumb" and Beck's "Fume."

"Native Son," a song by U2, was originally written about Leonard Peltier who Gerry Nanapush was based on. The title was later changed (along with the subject matter) and it became the Grammy Award-winning song "Vertigo," though it was no longer about Peltier. The original version of the song was later included on the Unreleased and Rare and U2: Medium, Rare and Unreleased albums. U2 has never stated publicly why the subject matter was changed.

Leonard Peltier

I found this nice website on the man who has spent basically his whole life in prison for something he didn't do. www.leonardpeltier.net/theman.htm

Corny Native American Jokes

If you want to read some jokes that are kind of so unfunny that they are actually quite funny then you might want to read some of these. www.spottedeagle.com/jokes.htm

Resurrection

I think it's weird how not having the alcohol causes Gordie to freak out, and how he then resorts to the Lysol, because he needs something in his system. Anyway, what I don't exactly understand is why Marie says how much she loves her first born, Gordie, but will kill him if he gets out again? And on the third day he will rise again? I know this must be some sort of biblical allusion.. but what's the relation to it in the chapter?

Pine Ridge, POOREST PLACE--> picture of it...

http://grannevacation.s3.amazonaws.com/2007_summer_plains/20070630_saturday/20070630_pine_ridge_2_640x480.jpg

A photo essay from the NY Times

Nector's Alcoholism

I was reading online about the affects that alcoholism has on the brain. We know little to nothing about Nector's medical life other than that he is in his "second childhood." Could this be because of his alcoholic lifestyle?

As a result of new technology, "researchers are finding direct effects of chronic drinking on the brain and liver... Imaging studies have revealed a consistent association between heavy drinking and physical brain damage, even in the absence of other usual symptoms of severe alcoholism -- chronic liver disease or alcohol-induced dementia." (http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/brain/a/aa000425.htm)

If Nector wasn't such a heavy drinker, do you think that he would have turned out more like Eli?

Chicken, Alaska!

Yes, Chicken, Alaska is a real place!
Susy, a character from the chapter The Red Convertible, is from Chicken.
Here is the link to the city's website:
http://www.chickenalaska.com/

In case anyone wanted to know...Chicken, Alaska DOES actually exist

http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=Chicken,+Alaska&fb=1&gl=us&ei=xohoS8OzCoiEzAS-j_WsDg&ved=0CBYQpQY&hl=en&view=map&geocode=FXWu0QMdETqK9w&split=0&iwloc=A&sa=X



This is a google map of where Chicken is located within Alaska^^

Crown of thorns

I felt this chapter was very crazy, does he imagine those things just because he's drunk, or does he have an actual problem?

Incident at Oglala

You can watch Incident at Oglala in its entirety at this link. I highly recommend that you watch it. The movie is really interesting and professional (produced and narrated by Robert Redford).

Mary Martin de Porres

I'm very confused on what Erdich means when she said that she is on one of her "nights."

also!
When she walks down to the room with her clarinet and her music books, she puts something on called an Afghan. I was confused as to what that is so researched it a little bit. This attachment explains a little bit more about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_%28blanket%29

Intervention

I actually was watching Intervention tonight before I saw the email Ms. Deckard sent to us about watching it. It was interesting but quite disturbing at the same time. The first person on the show, Allison, had an addiction to inhaling household products. This clip is from part one of the episode. I think y'all should watch!

Louise Erdrich

I was wondering about Louise Erdrich's background and found out that she is 1/2 Native American and belongs to the Ojibwe tribe. Here is a link that leads to her biography.

http://www.answers.com/topic/louise-erdrich

Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin is a piece of cloth with an image that is suposedely the body of Jesus. The Shroud of Turin has been subject to a countless number of tests as it is the most studied artifact in the world. The controversy over whether or not it is Jesus still goes on.
http://www.shroud.com/menu.htm