Assignment 9

     1.    What is 'home' for the kids in these boarding schools?

 

Indian people are longing for their own Indian culture and their own families.

Here, “home” represents the Indian culture fighting for survival amidst the boundless control  in the boarding Schools. Erdrich’s poem becomes a death song for the Runaways, as home no longer exists.

In line 3 it says that the boxcars do not wait for the runaways, the runaways’ flight for home depends on the schedule of the train. This means that they are forced to live by someone else’s rules, like the kids in the boarding schools are forced to forget their culture and they have to dress and behave a certain way. This means that they have to forget where they came from, so they have lost their home.

 

2.    What was the impact of these boarding schools on the tribal traditions?

 

All of the children were separated from their parents. The boys were forced to cut their hair off and they collected all the clothes so everybody was forced to wear the same uniforms. Physical and sexual abuse was widespread. The children were punished, what explains why they are so reserved.

 

Indians are traumatized. They were being punished in these boarding schools in the most cruel way possible, desktops were slammed onto their fingers or they got beaten up. Because of these terrible actions, some native Americans got into alcohol or committed suicide. Most of the Indians are so traumatized that they have blocked that part of their life. Doctors and loved ones of the ones that are traumatized keep saying: “Talking is the key.” But it is really hard to talk about, especially when it is too hard or too emotional to think of that part of one’s life. So they become reserved, but by talking they would be able to release their anger, sadness and the feelings that they have about these terrible actions.

 

Our opinions:

 

Tirza:

The poem made a very strong impression on me. You can feel the pain behind the words, there is a real story behind it. This is, of course, also because of the background of the writer of the poem, she was a native American herself. I think that it is a very strong and powerful poem and it is beautiful that such emotion and pain can be put behind words.

 

Evy:

I think that the poem is very well written. It gives me a certain feeling, it makes me feel ‘ashamed’ of what they had to go through. I really feel that she knows what she wants to tell the readers and she explains it very well. This poem shows that the Indians had to go through a very though time, but they had to keep their anger for themselves. These schools were very strict and it was like hell for most of the Indians, they are traumatized.

 

Denise: I think it is terrible that the Indians feel like they don’t have a home. Nobody should feel like that. Forcing Indians to live by someone else’s rules, to forget their culture and to have to dress and behave in a certain way is so cruel. Let the Indians be. We can learn from them and they can learn from us. These boarding schools that the Indian children had to go to are not necessary, Indians were punished for all kinds of nonsense. Slamming desktops on their fingers is not the right punishment. The poem really expressed these feelings of longing, fear, anger and sadness. It is a beautiful poem, it really touched me.

 

Leanne:

Normally I don’t like poem’s very well, but this poem makes me think about the Native Americans. She told a story about her life and I cannot empathize in her because I am from the Netherlands. She has had a whole background that can relate to the subject Native Americans, because she was one of them. I have respect for her and all the other Native Americans. In my opinion, this poem was very profound and it will let everybody think.

 

Sanne:

I’m not a big fan of reading, especially poems. But this poem made me think about the lives of the Native Americans and how bad it would have been to live in that time. Behind the poem there is a big story, that has a really big influence on the reader. You can feel the pain and emotions where they need to deal with in their lives every day again. I couldn’t think about the difference between their lives and mine. There is nothing in common. Even if I am not a big fan of poems, I think this one is written very well and detailed.