Sie sind auf Seite 1von 2

Civilizing the Savages; A Short Summary on Luther Standing Bear

In the article, Luther Standing Bear (c. 1868-1939), Luther goes on to describe his experience during the white man's infiltration and take over of the American Indian culture. When the white man came along they forced their ways upon the Indians without the least regard or consideration, in an effort to civilize the savages. The whites persuaded the Indians to let them take some of the their children in exchange for good medical care and education, a front, in an effort to infiltrate the Indian culture, gain their trust and revamp the wild beasts into a civilized manner. Stopping short of totally obliterating the Indians culture, the white man ushered them to live on designated reservations, areas of land that the Indians were allowed to live on, partials of land that they happened to be also restricted to. Luther tells his story of being taken by the white people to their land, a foreign land where Luther and many other Indian children, were forced to change into a white man and transformed. Uprooted and implanted into the white peoples civilization was shocking enough, but the Indian children soon discovered not only were they expected to leave the only life they knew but were required to wear the white mans uncomfortable clothes, eat their unhealthy food, adopt their mannerisms, language and were even forced to change their names. On top of this, the Indians were not allowed to use their native languages, practice Indian costumes or anything that remotely resembled their Indian culture. The whites had forced their hands, bearing down on the children with a spirit breaking diligent regiment, as if they're previous lives had never existed.

This proved too much for some of the children and half of them died, some from a shocking dietary change, others from sheer shock or depression. Through all this, Luther privately hung onto his heritage, practiced his Indian prayers in private or maybe sang his Indian songs in his head but he never diverted far from his rightful born path and this may very well be how he came out of it all in tact, healthy and able to return back to his home as the same Indian that had left his culture many years ago. Luther is an exemplar on how one can try to break another person by taking everything from him, Luther always had himself, showing us that your beliefs, your dreams and everything that makes up who you are, is the one thing that nobody can ever take away from you.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen