I Am Where I Come From

and Melanie Benson Taylor, Robert Kilkenny, Andrew Garrod

Description

"The organizing principle for this anthology is the common Native American heritage of its authors; and yet that thread proves to be the most tenuous of all, as the experience of indigeneity differs radically for each of them. While many experience a centripetal pull toward a cohesive Indian experience, the indications throughout these essays lean toward a richer, more illustrative panorama of difference. What tends to bind them together are not cultural practices or spiritual attitudes per se, but rather circumstances that have no exclusive province in Indian country: that is, first and foremost, poverty, and its attendant symptoms of violence, substance abuse, and both physical and mental illness.... Education plays a critical role in such lives: many of the authors recall adoring school as young people, as it constituted a place of escape and a rare opportunity to thrive.... While many of the writers do return to their tribal communities after graduation, ideas about 'home' become more malleable and complicated."-from the IntroductionI Am Where I Come From presents the autobiographies of thirteen Native American undergraduates and graduates of Dartmouth College, ten of them current and recent students. Twenty years ago, Cornell University Press published First Person, First Peoples: Native American College Graduates Tell Their Life Stories, also about the experiences of Native American students at Dartmouth College. I Am Where I Come From addresses similar themes and experiences, but it is very much a new book for a new generation of college students.Three of the essays from the earlier book are gathered into a section titled "Continuing Education," each followed by a shorter reflection from the author on his or her experience since writing the original essay. All three have changed jobs multiple times, returned to school for advanced degrees, started and increased their families, and, along the way, continuously revised and refined what it means to be Indian.The autobiographies contained in I Am Where I Come From explore issues of native identity, adjustment to the college environment, cultural and familial influences, and academic and career aspirations. The memoirs are notable for their eloquence and bravery.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• Memoir
• Indigenous peoples
• Higher education
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 25 avril 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501708022
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

IAMWHEREICOMEFROM

IAMWHEREICOMEFROM

NativeAmericanCollegeStudentsand Graduates Tell Their Life Stories

EDITED BY

Andrew Garrod, Robert Kilkenny, and Melanie Benson Taylor

WITH A FOREWORD BY

K. Tsianina Lomawaima

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Cover illustration:Celestial #2 (Shannon Prince), from the Dartmouth PowWow Suite, 2009, by Mateo Romero (Cochiti Pueblo). Photo transfer and acrylic paint on 60 x 40 in panel. Courtesy of the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; purchased through the Mrs. Harvey P. Hood W'18 Fund.

Copyright © 2017 by Cornell University

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

Firstpublished2017byCornellUniversityPress Firstprinting,CornellPaperbacks,2017

Printed in the United States of America

LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData

Names: Garrod, Andrew, 1937– editor. | Kilkenny, Robert, editor. | Taylor, Melanie Benson, 1976– editor. | Container of (work): Prince, Shannon. Seeking to be whole. Title: I am where I come from : Native American college students and graduates tell their life stories / edited by Andrew Garrod, Robert Kilkenny, and Melanie Benson Taylor. Other titles: First person, first peoples. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2017. | “The essays by N. Bruce Duthu, Davina Two Bears, and Bob Bennett originally appeared in the 1997 book, First Person, First Peoples: Native American College Graduates Tell Their Life Stories”—Foreword. | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2016049570 (print) | LCCN 2016050595 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501706912 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501706929 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501708015 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501708022 (pdf ) Subjects: LCSH: Indians of North America—Education (Higher)—New Hampshire—Hanover. | Indian college students—New Hampshire—Hanover—Biography. | Minority college graduates—New Hampshire—Hanover— Biography. | Dartmouth College—Students—Biography. Classification: LCC E97.65.N4 I24 2017 (print) | LCC E97.65.N4 (ebook) | DDC 378.1/9829707423—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049570

CornellUniversityPressstrivestouseenvironmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

ThisbookisdedicatedtotheNativestudentswhohave opened their lives with such generosity and grace and to the many others whose stories have yet to be told.

AndtoformerNativestudents,friends,andteachers at Dartmouth and in the Marshall Islands:

Taylor Keen MelissaCandelaria Carnell Chosa DiandraBenally Saige Hoaglin Cody Riggers Casey Sovo Paige Anderson Peter Sabori SarahMcGlaughlin Casey Lozar NehomahThundercloud ColleenLarimore Carmen Lopez Eric Hogenson Cheryl Two Bears JacquelineBegay Hannah Sahn GilbertLittlewolf Dwight Bero Kodiak Burke CoteTheriault AalukEdwardson Aza Erdrich Shawn Attakai Don Carlos Steele Amado Sainz Shawn Schmitt Andre Cramblit AG

Foreword K. Tsianina Lomawaima

Preface

Introduction: Coming Home Melanie Benson Taylor

Contents

PART I. BROKEN: RACIAL MIXTURE AND CULTURAL HYBRIDITY

1. Seeking to Be Whole Shannon Joyce Prince

2. Bringing Back a Piece of the Sky Blythe George

3.Chahta hattak sia, “I Am a Choctaw Man” Preston Wells

PART II. AN INDIAN EDUCATION: LEAVING AND FINDING HOME AT DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

4. Nihalgai Bahane’, A Fourth-World Story Jerry Watchman

5. Bracelets Upon My Soul Ma’Ko’Quah Jones

6. My Journey to Healing Kalina Newmark

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xiii

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69

85

100

viii

Contents

PART III. FULL CIRCLE: RETURNING AND REMAKING HOME

Lame Deer 7. Little Woman from Cinnamon Spear

8. Village Girl AlexAnna Salmon

 9. Future Ancestor Hilary Abe

10. An Unpredictable Journey John Around Him

PART IV. CONTINUING EDUCATION: NADS REFLECT ON THEIR JOURNEYS

11. I Walk in Beauty Davina Ruth Begaye Two Bears

12. The Good Ol’ Days When Times Were Bad N.Bruce Duthu

13. Why Didn’t You Teach Me? Bob Bennett

Notes

AbouttheEditorsandAuthoroftheForeword

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Foreword

Inhishaunting,searinglybeautifulmemoirofearlytwentiethcentury student life at St. Peter Claver’s Indian Residential School—known to its captive boys as “Spanish”—Ojibwa educator and language scholar Basil Johnston wrote of shame, laughter, desolation, rebellion, camara derie, and, eventually, escape. He concluded by quoting his friend Dom inic: “We toughed it out, didn’t we? They couldn’t break us down, could 1 they?”When I interviewed my dad, Curtis Thorpe Carr (Creek) and about fifty other alumni of the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, their memories of Indian school in the 1920s and 1930s—like Johnston’s— 2 mingled anger, joy, nostalgia, and anguish.Bitter recollection inter twined with fond remembrance, as survivors of Canadian residential and US boarding schools made meaning of their lives. That isnotto say that the institutions themselves were balanced, or equitable, or humane. They were not. They were schools that took schooling to extremes, and in the blast furnace of colonialism welded the worst aspects of schooling— rigidity, homogenization, abuse of power, mindless bureaucracy, demean ing labor, and rote “learning”—with racism, oppression, and dispossession 3 to eliminate the Native.They destroyed some, wounded others, but also forged resilient survivors. Theexperiences,then,ofNativepeopleswithcolonialschoolsare diverse, complex, and filled with paradox. We must not forget: for Na tive peoples, most schools still are colonial. That’s true in 2017, and well beyond, most likely. Indigenous selfdetermination in education has deep—centuriesdeep—roots; but the beginnings of Indigenous self determination inschoolingin the United States date back only to the