This semester is going to be my most challenging semester yet (although I don't really know what's to come in my senior year next year...). This semester I decided to take 18 credits. Yes, that says 18 credits, people; it's not a typo. I wasn't planning on taking 18 credits until my favorite professor had sent out an email saying that she would be teaching a new course this semester. This class, categorized under Indigenous Rhetoric, is all about Native Americans.
I guess you could say that I took 18 credits this semester for one of two reasons: 1). I really want to learn more about Native Americans in this country because in all honesty, I have no knowledge about them besides what was given to me by Disney when Pocahontas came out back in 1995. Or 2). I like this professor SO MUCH that I just had to take her again so that I can slack off and receive an easy A in the class.
Clearly I am kidding about number two (But seriously, Dr. Morris, I would LOVE an A!). Truth be told, I do not know a thing about Native Americans or their culture. So, in my lack of knowledge of this subject, I decided to do a little research of my own and think back to what I know about Native Americans.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Native Americans is Pocahontas. No, not the real one, the Disney version of the singing, dancing, optimistic princess (well not really a princess) who lives in the forest. Now, what I could remember of this Disney classic was that Pocahontas lived in the woods with her animal friends until one day John Smith and his gang came in a tried to conquer Pocahontas' and her villages' land. I also remembered the fact that Pocahontas had perfectly straight hair for someone who lived in the woods.... with no hairbrush!
Trying to remember the catchy Disney songs that were featured in the movie, I found myself looking on YouTube to reconnect with the movie I once watched as a kid. The first thing I noticed was that the spelling on the particular video I chose had been spelled in an unusual way: Colours of the Wind. Instead of questioning the spelling of the title, I grabbed my dictionary and decided to look up the word "color" and this is what I found: color or chiefly Brit colour.
Seeing that I was not at all interested in diving deep into research to find the meaning of the term chiefly Brit, I overlooked it and went straight to the one source I knew would be most helpful to me in finding the difference between color and colour : Wikipedia!
I found out that the only difference between color and colour is the fact that one is American English and the other is British English (hence chiefly Brit). In other words, I wasted my time looking up something that entirely had nothing to do with Native Americans. Awesome.
The next thing I thought of was Lacrosse. You know, the sport where men (and women, separately of course) run around pushing and shoving each other while carrying a hard rubber ball in a basket stick. Yeah, that sport. Anyway, I remember this one time back in Elementary school I had signed out a book in the library about Native Americans and how they invented Lacrosse. I wasn't sure if that was actually true or not, so naturally I googled it.
Lacrosse was in fact created by Native Americans. The sport was originally called Stickball and was also played by some Plains Indians who migrated to Canada. Believe it or not, the national sport of Canada is Lacrosse, not Hockey! And I'm guessing this is why!
The most recent thing I can remember about Native Americans is reading Sherman Alexie. To be honest, the only thing I have ever taken from his books and stories are that reservations are places where I would love to look at from the outside, but never go and visit the inside. What I mean by that is that Alexie writes discouraging stories (stories about losses, stories of bad luck, stories about pessimism, and stories about drunken failures). Maybe there are better books and stories of Sherman Alexie out there that contain more than this; I just haven't come across one yet.
In conclusion, I hope to learn more about Native Americans this semester other than the knowledge of Disney's Pocahontas, Lacrosse's history, and Sherman Alexie.
So here's to a great Spring Semester!
Trying to remember the catchy Disney songs that were featured in the movie, I found myself looking on YouTube to reconnect with the movie I once watched as a kid. The first thing I noticed was that the spelling on the particular video I chose had been spelled in an unusual way: Colours of the Wind. Instead of questioning the spelling of the title, I grabbed my dictionary and decided to look up the word "color" and this is what I found: color or chiefly Brit colour.
Seeing that I was not at all interested in diving deep into research to find the meaning of the term chiefly Brit, I overlooked it and went straight to the one source I knew would be most helpful to me in finding the difference between color and colour : Wikipedia!
I found out that the only difference between color and colour is the fact that one is American English and the other is British English (hence chiefly Brit). In other words, I wasted my time looking up something that entirely had nothing to do with Native Americans. Awesome.
The next thing I thought of was Lacrosse. You know, the sport where men (and women, separately of course) run around pushing and shoving each other while carrying a hard rubber ball in a basket stick. Yeah, that sport. Anyway, I remember this one time back in Elementary school I had signed out a book in the library about Native Americans and how they invented Lacrosse. I wasn't sure if that was actually true or not, so naturally I googled it.
Lacrosse was in fact created by Native Americans. The sport was originally called Stickball and was also played by some Plains Indians who migrated to Canada. Believe it or not, the national sport of Canada is Lacrosse, not Hockey! And I'm guessing this is why!
The most recent thing I can remember about Native Americans is reading Sherman Alexie. To be honest, the only thing I have ever taken from his books and stories are that reservations are places where I would love to look at from the outside, but never go and visit the inside. What I mean by that is that Alexie writes discouraging stories (stories about losses, stories of bad luck, stories about pessimism, and stories about drunken failures). Maybe there are better books and stories of Sherman Alexie out there that contain more than this; I just haven't come across one yet.
In conclusion, I hope to learn more about Native Americans this semester other than the knowledge of Disney's Pocahontas, Lacrosse's history, and Sherman Alexie.
So here's to a great Spring Semester!
