Another thing that I noticed was a continuous resentment towards white people throughout most of the stories. Whenever white people were mentioned it seemed to be in a negative tone, the most extreme example being in "How to Catch a White Man (Oops) I Mean Trickster," and this made me wonder how many "Indians" hold white people today personally responsible for the horrible things white people did hundreds of years ago. And if so, are they correct? Should I, as a young white girl, feel personally responsible for the things white people did to "Indians" hundreds of years ago? Even though my family didn't immigrate here themselves until the late thirties? I know that I can't hold myself personally responsible for the white people who took "Indian" children away from their families in attempt to "reform" them, as illustrated in "From Keeper'n Me," but I've always thought that "Indians" have put up with so much crap from our government, and I can't help but feel like maybe I can understand how they can stereotype and group white people, even though I think that is totally unfair, but that is a different story, or in this case, a different Dialogue Journal Response.
I think that our of all the stories I read, the one that moved me most was "The One About Coyote Going West," mostly because it took me about 2 pages to realize that "bite them toes" means to lie. I love how the author writes as though he's relating this incident to a close friend, it is so informal it's almost charming. If more authors wrote as though they were comfortable with their subject matter like this one does, I think I would find a lot more stories a lot more interesting.
Another example of some writing I enjoyed because of the authors style were the poems by Wayne Keon. I really wish I knew why he was spelling "and" as "nd" throughout all of his poems, because I'm sure the reason must be a pretty good one. I didn't quite understand what he meant by the line "paint the picture in your hand," that he repeats throughout the poem "howlin at the moon," does he mean we should put the information he gave us in the previous stanza in a place where we won't forget about it? So we always remember the things that he said? I wasn't positive but that was the best definition I could come up with, and that is assuming that it is a metaphor for something in the first place. It could just be him being creative.
Overall I enjoyed this reading very much. I love reading stories about other people and events, narratives, instead of just factual accounts of what happened and when. I hope we get to read more things like this in class because overall I liked it very much.
Although in my dialogue journal response I didn't actually use symbolism or metaphors or anything else, the pieces that I was writing about used many different forms of communication; poems, stories, narraratives, animals, monsters, the list could go on! And that is why I feel that this piece fits under the Communication University Studies Goal.
People interested in reading this essay would include groups who are interested in the art of storytelling, since many of these stories that were on paper would probably make excellent spoken stories, and I have a feeling that many of them have been read or recited in the past. Others would include people who are interested in the creation of the world as we know it, or even people who are trying to get in touch with their own heritage.
If I had to write this essay differently I would be sure to include examples of other tribal literature that I've read in the past (although none of them were Anishinaubae), and maybe even Greek fables or Grimm fairy tales, because really all of these stories are similar in that they offer explanations for things that already exist, or offer resolution or hope for trials that people have to endure.
Turner, Victor. Rites of Passage and Status reversal: Liminality and Communitas.