Assertion Analysis: Wooden leg

       Wooden Leg was born into the Cheyenne tribe. He got his name "Wooden leg" because he was the only one who could outlast tireless walks alongside his uncle, in which he ended up inheriting his name. His Native culture (and native culture in general) is to be respectful toward animals and nature in general. They value everything equally, as if hey are one with nature and the Earth itself. Wooden Leg was an excellent leader and a role model to kids. As a respected person from all the wonders he did and heroic play in the battles his respect thrived throughout his tribe. 
            Wooden Leg fought in various battles for his tribe. He captivated the thought and way of life of himself through admiration and protection. He accustomed himself to some American ways, but never betrayed his Indian roots. He took value for his culture and history. He believed that things should never be uprooted from their birthplace. He understood they can be cut, modified, and weakend but he stated that when something is cut off completely, the person accountable acted out of sadness and prayed for the fellow thug that has lost. This doesn't just refer to nature, but also to the Indian culture. Colonizers came and stripped Indians of their beliefs, it was the Indians job to protect their roots and try to preserve them as much as they could. 
                The metaphor that Wooden Leg is stating is that Native culture and the people within that culture is given the acceptance to integrate into American culture and at the same time preserve their Native lifestyle. He believes that engulfing American culture isn’t uprooting himself from the Native culture but simply just cutting away his native ways and praying for forgiveness. He preserves Native culture for instance, Wooden Leg was a Christian priest himself believing that both power(s) in Native and American culture we're the same.
                   Wooden Leg believes assimilation is acceptable as it follows the old Native teaching of being cut but not uprooted. He is an example of an optimistic case who befriends the oppressor after being oppressed. He accepts the American ways, intigrating himself into that life style while still having his Native roots. Other Natives might call this naive, and destruction towards the culture itself. Yet Wooden Leg strongly believes it's a better option to keep his culture alive. 

Assertion Analysis : #7 Chief Joseph

              Chief Joseph was a leader of the Wallam-wat-kain band of Nez Perce, a Native American tribe of the inferior Pacific Northwest region of the United States. He led his people in an attempt to resist the takeover of their lands in the Oregon Territory by white settlers. It was 1100 mile journey and during the whole time they were fighting American soldiers. They got trapped just forty miles from Canada and on October 5, 1877 at Bears Paw, Chief Joseph made his speech of surrender called "I'm tired of fighting".
              Chief Joseph's speech is about being tired of fighting. He has already lost almost everybody in his tribe, he doesn't want to lose anyone anymore. All of the elders have already died or have been killed and how the younger people were the ones that were still alive. But the elders had more experience, the younger people don't have that much experience which can lead to their death. He knows that if he continues fighting more of his tribe are going to get killed and he doesn't want that to happen, which is why he surrenders. He gives in extreme details how "the little children are freezing to death", he uses pathos to make the audience feel remorse or sad about how even kids are dying because of something stupid such as a battle which everybody just keeps dying in. He talks about how some of his people are running away trying to hide in the mountains and how they have no water and no blankets. He talks about how he has to find his children, but maybe he should look for them amongst the dead, since the conditions that they are in are really bad. Since they're is so much death around them, some people are getting lost and Chief Joseph thinks that maybe he should look for them in the dead because they have probably died already. With his last words he says "hear me chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad", it sounds like he's saying sorry to his chiefs because he is surrendering, he's telling them the reason why which is that he is tired of everybody around him dying and that he can't keep up with it no more.    
                Native Americans were damaged really bad by white settlers. They got killed, raped, and were enslaved by them. They had to flee their land because it was taken over by white settlers. For those who are non-natives Chief Joseph kinda explains it in his surrender speech. It's like you can hear almost the emotions that he is feeling, which are anger and mostly sadness. He doesn't want his tribe to suffer anymore because of the white settlers, so he is giving up to give them a better faith different than death.

John Deer : Assertion Analysis #5

         We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves. Civilized is something that describes us human beings as in having manners, following laws, utilizing silverware, actually having a law set in place that helps with criminals. Yet human beings are far from “civilized”, some people don't even act as human beings leaving a man/women/child in need to fend for themselves when they can't even protect themselves with basic needs. John Lame Deer uses satire, irony and non-examples to prove the fact that they as Natives were civilized before the white men showed up showing them the true meaning of “civilized”.

        John Lame Deer explains his view of the Natives before the white men came to make them “civilized”. He sarcastically states, “We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don't know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.” In the previous sentence he had used non-examples to explain this statement, "We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property." He was sarcastically stating that they were uncivilized even though they had much more freedom and humanity in them then the Europeans. He was also explaining how all of the characteristics that the Europeans brought from their world were irrelevant and selfish. They had a different mentality that was full of greed, unlike the natives that had much love for their own people and helped them out. Ironically he knows the European ways were just uncivilized and severally wrong. The natives were able to survive for hundreds of years with out the "fundamental things that are so necessary for a civilized society."

                 To close, I would like to say that I agree with what John deer is saying. He states it without completely criticizing the people who destroyed his culture, that the reason for being told that their way of life was "uncivilized" was was for the very reason that they were more advanced and civilized people who didn't need these ways of life as in greed and selfishness, property owning, to keep them in tact, because they were already living a perfect life before being forced to leave their culture and change their way of life by the real "savages". I feel that if the Europeans would have stopped being so selfish and self centered and considered that maybe the peaceful way of life the Natives were living and harmonious our world wouldn't be the messed up and greed full place that it has turned into till this day.
         

Socratic Seminar: "Between the World and Me" Question #1

   Coates' life was distorted with the fear of people of color being inferior. It showed how unbalanced and full of fear the world is with dangerous waves of good and bad. The people he knew were not free they were afraid of setting themselves free for the dangers it might bring. All he knew at that young age was that the people he knew,which were black, were powerful but had tremendous fear. He got hit with the cold hard facts of life. It shaped his view of the American Dream because it already had an issue with people of color, having said that all the posters and ads were of white people, and their perception of the American Dream. Signifying that the perceptions they had been thinking of were real. That people of color would not be able to accomplish the American Dream in a white world. This fear is inevitable, there will always be an oppressor and an oppressed, one who is inferior and one who is superior in a world full of betrayal, greed and racism this fear is endless.