Deborah A. Miranda, a member of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen tribe, in writing this tribal memoir, attempts to reveal the “truth” that has been hidden from American history books. History books that forget the first peoples who had been living on the soil we know today as the United States of America, cheating American Indians of having their history known to the world; a cruel twist of fate that Miranda will not accept, titling her memoir Bad Indians. Miranda constructs meaning in her writing about the experiences of indigenous peoples under colonialism through identifying negative changes brought over by Europeans and losses of her culture and language. Specifically, she discusses her father’s method of discipline, the indigenous people who
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Harrington, a research ethnologist from the Smithsonian Museum who interacts with several American Indian individuals, all of whom were trying to survive a world that was no longer their own. Harrington documented American Indians, their beliefs, cultures, and languages to keep in the Smithsonian and archives, knowing that soon, these people would all be gone and take the last vestiges of their existence with them. These indigenous peoples were trying and failing to simultaneously hold onto their heritage and native identity while learning to survive in a society centered on wealth and property, a mindset brought over by the Europeans. Harrington remarks in his field notes on the Gonaway Tribe, “These Indians realize they are the last of their tribe and they ask a frightful price. But I have managed to jew them down to half of what they ask or less” (100). As an outsider, Harrington does not value highly the cultural identity of these indigenous peoples as shown by him bargaining down the price of their stories. There is less emphasis on protecting the last of these peoples who survived generations of missionization and its adverse effects, and more emphasis on documenting that these people were once in existence with the expectation that they will die out. Harrington continues, stating, “...in the years to come people will always be finding Indian relics, but they can’t find talk no matter how deep they dig. Once it …show more content…
She explains how the Europeans tore down the infrastructure American Indians had built: their religion, culture, language, material items, and replaced them with Christian ideals with the mission efforts to “civilize” a group of people who were arguably more civilized than the Europeans who stole their land and annihilated almost all indigenous peoples. Those negative changes combined with her loss of identity and language through missionization is the truth about U.S. history, a fact Miranda wants to make
Harrington, a research ethnologist from the Smithsonian Museum who interacts with several American Indian individuals, all of whom were trying to survive a world that was no longer their own. Harrington documented American Indians, their beliefs, cultures, and languages to keep in the Smithsonian and archives, knowing that soon, these people would all be gone and take the last vestiges of their existence with them. These indigenous peoples were trying and failing to simultaneously hold onto their heritage and native identity while learning to survive in a society centered on wealth and property, a mindset brought over by the Europeans. Harrington remarks in his field notes on the Gonaway Tribe, “These Indians realize they are the last of their tribe and they ask a frightful price. But I have managed to jew them down to half of what they ask or less” (100). As an outsider, Harrington does not value highly the cultural identity of these indigenous peoples as shown by him bargaining down the price of their stories. There is less emphasis on protecting the last of these peoples who survived generations of missionization and its adverse effects, and more emphasis on documenting that these people were once in existence with the expectation that they will die out. Harrington continues, stating, “...in the years to come people will always be finding Indian relics, but they can’t find talk no matter how deep they dig. Once it …show more content…
She explains how the Europeans tore down the infrastructure American Indians had built: their religion, culture, language, material items, and replaced them with Christian ideals with the mission efforts to “civilize” a group of people who were arguably more civilized than the Europeans who stole their land and annihilated almost all indigenous peoples. Those negative changes combined with her loss of identity and language through missionization is the truth about U.S. history, a fact Miranda wants to make