This really stands out to me.it is so important in america to get students, especially underrepresented communities, involved in politics.In not only benefits their education but the future of their community.

I think that this is extremely important to tribal sovereignty and to forming a future generation of natives that can mantain control of their land and their people

This is essential to changes to the way we view education. Not all education has to be standardized and not involve culture. As a society we need to rethink how we prioritize certain education over the other and why.

this must have hurt?

what is heartbreaking about this story is that I am sure that this feeling that comes from being seperated from ones family is something that is shared through generations of native american children

This story is already very sad. A young person wondering where their roots lie is already something to struggle with, and to know that the people around you feel this type of way about the people that you come from must be very hard for a young person to deal with.

there is a lot of power to this statement. Regardless of the scenario or circumstances, rape is rape, it is a violation of the body and a violent act that serves a purpose of exerting power over a person.

this is heartbreaking to me. The attacks on their land and their bodies illustrate the value that americans have put on native lives, or lack thereof

many native women actually express a desire to not be native anymore. Sexual violence is so normal in native populations that it goes hand in hand with being a native women, creating a constant fear, and trauma that makes natives not want to be native anymore

Violence against natives and native women is not new. Sexual violence has been used as a means of colonization since the beginning of European colonization. To call it an epidemic maes it seem as if it is a blameless phenomenon, when research suggests that most violence against natives are interracial, reflecting the long standing history of violence against native women.

motherhood was a very important aspect in the matralineal culture of a lot of native societies. Denying women of motherhood, physically, attacks an ability to reproduce, and attacking motherhood after she has already had the children, attacks the ability for cultural reproduction

I feel for these kids who felt like they were stuck in between two places. Who felt as if they were disappointing their family and their tribe, but were also being conditioned to live and think like white Americans. Especially for young brains, that must have been very confusing and hard to process.

I think that seeing this resistance especially at such a young age is heart breaking. For a kid to have to say "No, I will not submit" and make that decisions shows the strength that she had and the will that she had to hang on to her culture and her identity.

Here we can see the difference in cultural norms of dressing, illustrating the very little differences that matter to a culture and how we have assimilated natives and transformed their norms to fit ours.

This illustrates how important oral tradition is not just generally to a culture, but on the most personal levels.

When reading texts like this involving racism, it is easy to forget the role of colorism in a racist society.

The fact that they emphasized this, they targeted a specific portion of the population is scary. It realigns reality to a certain point, recognizing the faults and the real policies that the US government had and enforced.

It is interesting to consider the lack of real knowledge that the average American has about Washington and who he was, what he did. Reading things like this almost shock me, it's crazy how history is written and told to highlight certain things and bury others.

I really liked this sentence. It brings into perspective the internal difficulties and confusion that these kids experienced. I think that them seeing it all so clearly and realistically, understanding the complexities made it so much harder for them because the didn't just see it as black and white, good and evil like the adults did. They showed care toward what happened to both sides.

This is something completely unknown to me before reading this. I think it is interesting the use of not only females as a peaceful messenger, but also children. When thinking of history, it is easy to disregard the place of women and children because of how history was written and who the heroes were.

Reasons and severity of these claims really do make a difference. I have never heard of her using it to her professional advantage but you never know- and obviously when that is the reason for the claim then it is undermining and entire population. But Warren does have small native ancestry in her families history and I think that simply saying that yes she is linked to native americans is relatively harmless. She is not claiming to be an indian or to be enrolled in a tribe. If she tried to use this to her advantage in any way at all, then I do think she should be called out for it- there is a difference between being indian and having indian ties.

This is such a big factor into why indians are treated the way they are today. Before taking this class, I did not realize to the extent of how much colonization is still affecting these natives who are living in the aftermath of it.

Very sad but very true. People still don't make a place for Indians in our society and generally don't advocate for them. More support is seen around other races in the Unites States, I feel like native problems are largely pushed to the side.

So what is the real reasons behind opponents to indian gaming, were these allegations a true thought in peoples minds, or were they purposely blown out of proportion; if so, what is the underlying reason.

Pulling in foreign actors to be the enemy or someone involved with the enemy is a very popular tactic in creating support for a certain side of an argument.

the overregulation of ntive american communities and the unneeded desire for americans to control natives is definitely a recurring theme.

Definition- Damaging the purity or intergrity of; defiling

Just the fact that now a lot of reservations are assoicated with and by their casinos, is very interesting. It makes you take a step back and look at what led to the norms that define reservations today.

this definitely encompasses the high rates of drinking among indians, the amount of pain they have gone through and poverty.

this is very powerful in that it show the real life pain that was experienced throughout the community by indians because of this.

The way the author describes the situation, makes it seem so real. She creates a very good illistration of the emotions as well as the scenery.

This whole piece is very powerful in conveying its message. In particular this line is timeless, and holds true in so many situations regarding basic human rights.

I find it funny how "responsibilities" or lack thereof is a constant theme when discussing Indians, as if they weren't doing just fine with the responsibilities they had before white people conquered them. What do Americans expect when they are forced to change their entire way of life to fit american standards. those standards of the "hard working" white man with innate "responsibilities" were not valuable to them, and everything they really valued, their culture and their people and their land were ripped from them. I just dont see what Americans expected from them, that they would be so eager to adopt a completely different set of "innate" values.

The way she concludes this is very sad to me, it's as if she knows that her words will change nothing. It seems like her and her people have been defeated. The rhetoric of it just seems like a last cry for help. Not necessarily a cry for help but a conclusion or a closing statement to the conflict that has been continuously going on.

Even then, you can feel the negative connotation behind the term colonizer. I know today it is used so negatively (as it should). What really interest me is how a lot of people say that it was the norm back then and things have changed and now we know that it is wrong. But I have read documents for my history of brazil class that discuss primary sources of colonizers recognizing that what they were doing was bad, physically saying that this is not what "God" wants. In regards to Hawaii, there is no way that people didn't realize what they were doing was not right, they simply didnt care due to personal interest.

I find it interesting the divide between blacks and indians during this time period both in the view of the indians as well as white americans. Why was the government so on the side of the native americans and helping them but not the blacks. I think this represents colorism on a broader scale, not just within one race.

It is sad that this division was implemented so early in their lives. They really don't know any better and are trying to conform to social norms set up around them. It is interesting to me how the division inside the school really imitated that of the position of the school in that it was literally the middle of privelaged and white and enlightened and poorer, darker people.

I think this little baby is very representative of the Lakotas slaughtered as a whole. The baby represents isolation, being abandoned, just like the Indians across the US. The adoption and care of the baby, in contrast, represents the unity of the Indians. Obviously it is not a rhetoric device used by the other. But the one baby noted is a very powerful image to put into the readers brains

I find it interesting how powerful "women and children" can be. It can be used on either side of a conflict, to inflict pain and sorrow, or as evidence that innocent lives were slaughtered. I have read a few accounts of the west in the 1800s about white men and Indian men raping eachothers women and children and killing them in order to inflict pain and anger on the men in the community. The soldiers saw the death of these women and children. and because of the power that that term has in determining tragedy, you would think that the soldiers knew it was not a battle. They couldn't have thought that a little kid was going to offer much danger to them...