The California Department of Education requires high school students to take one course of U.S. history in order to graduate and move onto college (California Department of Education). These classes often explore the histories of the living or, more famously put, the winners. However, many American history courses fail to mention the effects of settler colonialism on racialized groups, specifically the Native Americans, resulting in the deletion of their existence and stories. Through her memoir Bad Indians, Deborah Miranda thoroughly brings forth the continuous oppression and experiences of Native Americans by revising the version of U.S. history that many are taught with her counter-narrative, which brings a new perspective and more knowledge
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Her widespread use of various types of poetry exhibits storytelling and oral history in its many practices, which also strays away from traditional rhyming poetry. The absence of rhymes in the poems pull focus onto the topic at hand and not the rhyme pattern that “completes” the classic poem, showing a parallel to Native American history in the way that it is not yet complete. In “Lies My Ancestors Told for Me,” the speaker questions the survival of the Native American race and answers it by illustrating the effect of colonialism and forced assimilation that her ancestors had to go through in order to survive (Miranda 38-40). The speaker describes Grandfathers and Grandmothers who try to hide their grandchildren away from their own culture to prevent the children from experiencing the same kind of violence and force. Here, Miranda shows the erasure in effect. They “put it on the birth certificates / put it on the death certificates” to show the change in their identity and, ultimately, the change in Native American identity as a result of American coercion (Miranda 38). The ending of the poem shifts to talking about younger generations rediscovering their identities because their ancestors forgot to lie. This transition depicts exactly what Miranda is doing with Bad Indians; she takes the history, art, and narratives of …show more content…
The “bad Indians” turned out to be the ones who resisted colonization and assimilation and ultimately died while fighting for their right to keep their culture alive. Though, the poem ends with the line, “Even dead Indians are not good enough,” revealing the fact that dead Indians are not fully useful in the push away from the settler colonialism that the Native peoples experienced, as Indians today can only ask for their help and guidance (Miranda 99). However, the quote from General Philip Sheridan that precedes the Novena saying, “[t]he only good Indians I ever knew were dead,” shows a difference in perspective (Miranda 97). To the oppressor, the good Indians is one who assimilates, but to the Indian, the one who is considered good is the one that carries on the culture. Although the Novena is religious at its structure, the meaning of it is much different. The person praying it would be someone asking the dead Indians to help them find the courage to withstand violence in order to preserve Indigenous cultures from total eradication. From this, the Natives of the land would be able to reclaim it as theirs. As the Novena ends the first part of the memoir, it also serves to foreshadow the second part of it, which explores Miranda’s own
Her widespread use of various types of poetry exhibits storytelling and oral history in its many practices, which also strays away from traditional rhyming poetry. The absence of rhymes in the poems pull focus onto the topic at hand and not the rhyme pattern that “completes” the classic poem, showing a parallel to Native American history in the way that it is not yet complete. In “Lies My Ancestors Told for Me,” the speaker questions the survival of the Native American race and answers it by illustrating the effect of colonialism and forced assimilation that her ancestors had to go through in order to survive (Miranda 38-40). The speaker describes Grandfathers and Grandmothers who try to hide their grandchildren away from their own culture to prevent the children from experiencing the same kind of violence and force. Here, Miranda shows the erasure in effect. They “put it on the birth certificates / put it on the death certificates” to show the change in their identity and, ultimately, the change in Native American identity as a result of American coercion (Miranda 38). The ending of the poem shifts to talking about younger generations rediscovering their identities because their ancestors forgot to lie. This transition depicts exactly what Miranda is doing with Bad Indians; she takes the history, art, and narratives of …show more content…
The “bad Indians” turned out to be the ones who resisted colonization and assimilation and ultimately died while fighting for their right to keep their culture alive. Though, the poem ends with the line, “Even dead Indians are not good enough,” revealing the fact that dead Indians are not fully useful in the push away from the settler colonialism that the Native peoples experienced, as Indians today can only ask for their help and guidance (Miranda 99). However, the quote from General Philip Sheridan that precedes the Novena saying, “[t]he only good Indians I ever knew were dead,” shows a difference in perspective (Miranda 97). To the oppressor, the good Indians is one who assimilates, but to the Indian, the one who is considered good is the one that carries on the culture. Although the Novena is religious at its structure, the meaning of it is much different. The person praying it would be someone asking the dead Indians to help them find the courage to withstand violence in order to preserve Indigenous cultures from total eradication. From this, the Natives of the land would be able to reclaim it as theirs. As the Novena ends the first part of the memoir, it also serves to foreshadow the second part of it, which explores Miranda’s own