Erasing Culture

I think that it’s really great that we get to read previous students’ work. I also think that both papers strongly demonstrate that it’s so easy to categorize peoples or cultures into hierarchies. For those in power, White Americans, there seems to be a feeling of benevolence. They believe that they are being generous and charitable by civilizing Native Americans and assimilating them into White American culture. It is easier for us to look at this now and see how sad this really is, but that is only because our culture and thoughts on Native American lifestyles have evolved. But then again, the way White American culture views Native American culture may not have changed very much at all. The image of a Native American as a feathered and leathered bow and arrow toting wild savage still persists.

Ms. Stock’s aim for the “needy Apache family’s” initially seem quite so bad, but when we consider that “desirable habits, insights, attitudes and knowledge” are not universal, it becomes scary. The Apache students are being taught that their culture, simply because it is different, is wrong. The paper talks about this being a “hidden curriculum” within this particular education system. As these students are being molded to fit into White America, they are being half erased- but only half, because they can never stop being “Indian.” They can stop being “Apache” or “Navajo” but not “Indian.” Nor can they fully be “White.” The White American will always (in this time period, at least) view the Native American’s achievements in White society as something that the Whites gifted them with. The Native American is supposed to be thankful for this “kindness.” Moreover, any Native American that is not participating in White American society is ungrateful and a failure. They cannot win. Whatever they do, they will always be subordinate.