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4-1-2021

Who Am I?
Ariel Comey

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Comey, Ariel, "Who Am I?" (2021). Open Books -- Open Minds: All Submissions. 11.
https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/obom/11

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Comey      1

Ariel Comey

Professor Duneer

English 121

6 August 2020

                                      Creative Depiction

       In Tommy Orange’s There There and Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, the authors’

use of imagery allows their audience to envision these stories. Both There There and American

Indian Stories entail the horrors and injustices Native American Indians witnessed and lived

through when the white colonists arrived on their land. There There begins with white men

forcing Indians from their land while murdering and committing inhumane acts to their people.

Orange continues with accounts from multiple perspectives of first- and second-generation urban

Indians’ knowledge of their heritage and new lives they created. In Zitkala-Sa’s autobiography

she recounts her childhood experience as a Native American Indian growing up on Indian land in

Dakota; her story takes a turn when white missionaries arrive to preach the word of God.

       I chose to use art to depict two stories, There There by Tommy Orange and American

Indian Stories by Zitkala-Sa, because I discovered a connection between them: Native American

Indians abandoning their former heritage for a different culture. The Indian woman is a

representation of Native American Indians transitioning to urban Indians. On one side she is

wearing a traditional headdress with braided hair signifying her past, while in the background,

fire is destroying her land and feathers are falling from her headdress while colonists seize her

land. When she moved into the urban setting, she no longer wore her hair traditionally with

braids and she abandoned her headdress because of the atrocities it reminisced. This is a mirror

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for Orange’s prologue in which he provides detailed stories of colonists forcing Indians from

their land to the cities becoming urban Indians, killing them with their bullets, as well as

destroying what was rightfully theirs. Before their new lives in the urban setting, they valued

their heritage and culture such as teepee huts, generational stories, and most importantly their

tribes. The right side of the woman’s face represents present day Indians. In Orange’s There

There, first-generation Indians abandoned anything that represented their tribe and heritage

including their headdress and their braids. The cartoon clipart of the individual lying on the

sidewalk in front of buildings signifies homelessness of Indians after they moved to the city

because they did not have anywhere to live. One of the characters, Octavio, resorted to the drug

world to help provide for his grandmother and cousins.

       When the Indians emigrated into the city, they went through the process of trans-

culturalization. Some Indians appeared before the city officials and created the powwow,

allowing Indians of all tribes and generations to come together and share a commonality, their

culture. The powwow is the one day out of the year when Indians from all tribes within the city

are together to celebrate their heritage, traditions, and culture. They play the drums, dance, have

regalia contests, sell Indian clothing, and make authentic food. In There There, most of the

crowd attending the powwow were children of first generational Indians (parents) with a desire

of connecting with their Native American side. Unfortunately, the parents refused to share stories

of ancestors and heritage with their children resulting in unanswered questions such as, who am

I? Or, what tribe to I belong to?

       Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories is similar to There There because she writes of her

personal experience growing up on Native American Indian land in Dakota. Before her family

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settled there, they were driven out of their previous home, like in There There, by white

colonists, “paleface men”, and forced to relocate with their belongings and families. When the

white missionaries arrived again on their plantation, their intention was to preach the word of

God, convert the Indians to Christianity, and give them a proper education. The children were

soon convinced by the missionaries and left to attend the Christian school. During their time

there, they abandoned their religion, were taught to fear Satan and worship God, and their braids,

which were considered sacred to them, were cut off. This sudden transformation is represented

by symbols of the Indian gods and woman’s braids on one side and on the opposite side the

Catholic religion as well as no braids and shortened hair.

       Before this class, I thought I had a clear vision of Native American Indian history, but

everything I thought to be true is false. Before colonists took away their land and rights, Indians

lived in order and peace. Upon the whites’ arrival, the Indians provided them with the limited

goods they had and showed them nothing but kindness and generosity. The whites, in return,

destroyed their homes and took everything they worked hard for. While Orange talks about the

innocent lives that were taken, bodies used as trophies by colonists, and the little resources urban

Indians had in the city, Zitkala-Sa recounts her transformation from worshipping multiple gods

to one God and leaving against her mother’s will to receive a formal education. Although There

There and American Indian Stories are different stories and comprise of different types of

characters, they have one thing in common: trans-culturalization of Native Americans Indians.

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