Discussion
I have included the Publishing Information for the readings this week, so that, should you choose to use this work in your future essays, you can do your works cited as though you had the book.
“Thoughts from an Autochthonous Center” from Thinking in Indian: A John Mohawk Reader
Page (232 – 239)
Publishing Info for Thinking In Indian: A John Mohawk Reader
“Decolonization” from Native Studies Keywords
Page (301 – 308)
“The Place Where We All Live and Work Together” from Native Studies Keywords
Page (18 – 24)
Publishing Info for Native Studies Keywords
1. What is something you like that no one else, or very few people, seem to like? What you see in it that no one else does?
2. What is an example of your lived experience with one of the ideas presented in the Colonialism power point? (remember, you can talk about decolonization if your experiences with the other ideas are all painful or traumatizing).
3. Identify a moment where we can see one of the concepts from the Colonialism power point at play in the literature we’ve read so far.
4. John Mohawk—who is not from Mohawk Nation—is an important Indigenous theorist. We’ll read several of his writings throughout the term, some of which was influential and impacted writers at the time but that nowadays is hotly debated such as his views on Native people voting in American elections, something he was very much against. What do you think about this piece? How might we use it to understand Native Lit? Give a thoughtful response.
5. One of the criticisms of the definitions of genocide that we read a few weeks ago are that they are actually too narrow. They only discuss genocide as it pertains to the body—whether that body is moved, jailed, or killed—they don’t much allow for things like cultural genocide where a culture in the base is, through organized means, attempted to be forced out of existence at least in the country in question such as Residential Schools, or even forcing everyone in a country to subscribe to a State Religion. What do you think about these criticisms? What do you think a more appropriate definition of genocide should be?
