Lee Maracle Education

In this article, Lee Maracle discusses how Native people handle situations with enemies, paths to take in life, education and the laws of the land. Maracle begins with discussing her personal life, "I sought the teachings of my grandmother" (36) to enhance the reader's understanding of the complexity of Native people inheriting and learning everything from their elders. This information then gets expanded on when Maracle discusses the importance of decision making and how someone has to use "self-determination... when our own people are making decisions." (37) Maracle then furthers her discussion of life paths with the discussion of education systems and educating on traditions, laws, and values for young children. She discusses the difference …show more content…
The culture of many groups of people are being overlooked and are losing the sense of community for which they live in. Maracle finishes on a powerful message, "if we are the caretakers of this land, then the obligation to alter the destiny of this society is our collective responsibility." (42) Maracle believes that the education of laws, politics, and tradition are something that should be taught to young people by the elders so that there is an understanding of their culture. The mainstream European society that the 'elite' have created and fall within is not what Native people want for their children or their communities. It is clear that the sense of belonging to a community with a rich culture is looked upon as a high power. Through this article, it is apparent the problem is that the young people in the Native community are being taught other cultural laws and traditions and are losing the sense of their own. One way Maracle believes this situation could be helped is by having the elders teach the children and adults what Native traditions are and have the higher sense of community within their