Mean Spirit Linda Hogan Analysis

Cultural Genocide: Destroying a Way of Life In her novel, Mean Spirit, Linda Hogan depicts violence against Osage people during the oil boom in Oklahoma in the early 1920s. Greed of the EuroAmerican system creates a crisis in cultural identity for those Osage who have tried to live among the white people. Ways in which the white characters corrupt the world of the Osage at that time include degrading their native beliefs in the things they hold sacred, the damaging relationships among themselves and their kin, and betraying the trust of those in charge of government and justice. The themes of Mean Spirit reflect the history of abuse and destruction of the ways of life of conquered Native Americans. In addition to physical genocide, this story raises the question of how white colonizers created social processes-legal and illegal-to assault native peoples and their …show more content…
According to Don Trent Jacobs, in the 1870s, the U.S. government enacted a policy of assimilation of Native Americans, to Americanize them. Their goal was to turn them into white men. Schools were an important part of facilitating their goal and were established on and off reservations throughout the United States. The government believed that education is the best way to kill tribe without any violence. The aim of the government boarding school was not only to introduce Native Americans to new ideas but also to destroy their tribal customs and culture. In these schools Indians were forced to speak English, study standard subjects, attend church, and leave tribal traditions behind. The children forcibly separated from their parents by soldiers often never saw their families until later in their adulthood. When children returned from boarding schools, they no longer knew their native languages, they were struggle in their own