Native American Sociology

I was sitting in my Sociology 119 lecture, Race and Ethnic Relations, with Dr. Sam Richards, and in walks a Native American man. He looked defeated and tired. He began to speak, but I could hear the despair in his voice as he told us his story. He came from Northern Minnesota Native American reservation, and he explained what it was like growing up in that environment. He was a recovering alcoholic and drug user, which he explains is a very common thing on the reservations. They were networking for a course at Penn State called Indigenous Ways of Knowing. He had me in tears, and I was immediately drawn to him and I knew that I needed to get into this course to do whatever I can for this indigent population. That’s where my most rewarding opportunity comes in. I got into the course, and I was lucky because there is nothing like it in the nation, and I feel extremely honored to have them take us in and learn with the Ojibwe tribe. …show more content…
We learned about the Native Americans in grade school, but I have come to know that we didn’t get the whole story or even the true one. My experience was amazing and I will have lifelong friends. Before we went on the 24 hour trip to Minnesota from University Park, we had a semester long course learning the ways of the people of Northern Minnesota’s’ Ojibwe tribe. We learned about the Ojibwe people’s hardships and about their triumphs. We learned about their religion and about their God. We learned about what our ancestors did to their children by sending them off to boarding schools. Our group went to one of those boarding schools, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle Pennsylvania. When we were there we met a woman who took us around the property, and the stories that she told us were horrifying. They treated those children like they were