As I mentioned in class, recently the Canadian Prime Minister issued an official apology for Canada's historical treatment of indigenous people, specifically for the practice of placing indigenous children in boarding schools where they lost contact with their families and their traditions. (Some of you are reading about a similar practice that took place in Australia). A similar official apology has yet to be made by the US government, although currently a bill for it is in the US Senate... check it out here.
IMMIGRATION
As promised in class, here is a link to Fievel's American Tail (I loved this movie when I was little) and Fievel Goes West. Imagine, little Fievel Mousekowitz as a gun-slinging cowboy! Very interesting given our discussion about indigenous peoples, immigrant cultures, and the concept of nationhood.
And here's that iconic photo I told you about:
In 1869, work crews consisting mainly of Irish immigrants coming from the east and Chinese immigrants coming from the west meet at Promontory Point, Utah to complete the Transcontinental Railroad. At center, they drive a golden spike into the ground to commemorate the event.
For more perspectives, from real live people from the USA, check out our Facebook group where we ask them questions, entitled 'Tell Your Story'. Just click on this link... No wait, this one... No, wait, that's another song about Facebook.
No, THIS ONE! That's it! (See also: 'Comments' on this blog.)
There are no cats in America,
Charly
2 comentarios:
Responses from our Facebook group:
What did you learn about the history of Native Americans in history class when you were young? Are any of you Native American/American Indian/First Peoples/indigenous/autochtonous Americans?
Lori Schlesinger (UMBC)
To be honest, I don't remember learning much about Native American's in school. There was the random blurb when talking about the explorers, but in my opinion, not nearly enough was taught. It wasn't until I got to college where I had the opportunity to take a Native American Literature class, that I actually learned about the culture. Things like: The importance of land, nature, and different rituals. We learned about the "forced assimilation" - they would put Native American's in camps and force them to learn outside cultures in an attempt to "Americanize them." All the while, they were shouting, "We were here first."
Emma Lilley (South Carolina)
No matter what school I was in, we always learned how horribly we treated Native Americans and how they are still being forced to live on deplorable reservations to this day. You never see anything about that on CNN these days. Shame on us!
Christian Amonson
In elementary school, they try and "celebrate" American Indian cultures. I learned about wigwams and peublos and the different tribes of the different regions, including South America. We also learned about how disease was brought along with the animals and produce in the "Columbian Exchange". For Thanksgiving, we dressed up as indians and pilgrims and had a party. As we got to high school, we learned more about the travesties surrounding America's "Manifest Destiny". It's still hard to think about.
Last year, the area around William and Mary was home to the Jamestown 400th Festival. It was a "jamboration" of the four-hundredth anniversary of the settlers' landing in Jamestown in 1607. They didn't call it a "celebration" because they wanted to be sensitive to all the indian tribes that were destroyed or displaced. They combined "celebration" with "jamboree" to create "jamboration". It was silly word, but it helped me remember the big picture: the birth of America was also the death of many other nations.
Immigrant cultures. Where did your ancestors come from? Were any of you born in another country? What traditions do you have?
Christian Amonson replied to your poston Jun 12, 2008 at 2:25 PM
My great-great grandfather's name was Brown Peterson. He emigrated from Norway when he was five years old I think. That's where I get my middle name: Christian Brown Amonson. My dad's middle name is also Brown. We have other family from Norway too. Their last name "Amundsen" was changed to "Amonson" when they came through Ellis Island.
My dad is very interested in genealogy and has traced our family back to specific towns and farms in Norway as far back as the 1700s. Many families in America aren't aware of their family roots. I guess I have my dad to thank for helping us stay connected. I've applied for a scholarship to study in Norway, see the country, and learn the language. I'm on the waiting list, I'll reapply so hopefully I can go next year!
I don't like applications that require you to fill out your ethnicity because they rarely list "Scandinavian" or "Norwegian". It makes me feel left out.
My mother's family comes from Swizterland. Her maiden name is "Egli". I found out when I went to Swizterland last summer that an "egli" is a type of fish. How romantic!
Nicholas Smith
Although you wouldn't know it from the names in my family, I trace back my genealogy into Italy, France, Germany and a region in Europe within modern Polish borders.
I can trace my my genealogy through my dad's families back into the 14th Cent. in Germany, thanks largely to my grandfather Smith's work. Intriguingly, the name Smith is only a handful of generations old; the real name was von Oershlin. On my mom's side, we can trace back to very few living relatives in Italy, France and Poland, but we know from what parts of the country. Additionally, I can claim to be only a third generation American through my mom's, mom's mom - my great-grandmother Lann who only recently passed.
I was not born in another country and neither was any of my immediate family. But we still have strongly European traditions, native to each of our home countries. The most obvious and simple one that my immediate family practices is the Italian traditional seafood dinner on Christmas Eve. For as long as I can remember, we've always had seafood of some varying sort. Additionally, we still eat lots of what might be considered ethnic food on my mom's side, including Eastern European stews and cabbage/pork/beef dishes and many different variations of southern Italian food.
Entirely Catholic on my mom's side, we maintain the practices of godparents, celebrations on particular Church holidays and similar things. Entirely German on my dad's side, there are few traditions left which haven't been erased or assimilated into standard American culture, predominantly the Christmas tree or the New Year's foods - pork, sauerkraut, etc
Lori Schlesinger (UMBC)
Though you can't tell from my last name, I am mostly Polish. My last name is German, and it comes from a paternal Great Grandfather - the only one to be German. The rest, including my paternal Great Grandmother, is Polish. My mom's parents are also from Poland - Polish Jews who were lucky enough to escape during the war by way of Russian Labor Camps. So technically, that would make me second generation American.
Many of our traditions come in the form of FOOD. Of course we keep the Jewish cultures and traditions, but much of what my grandmother likes to cook is from recipes from "the old country." Cooking in my family is a family affair - days spent before holidays cooking so we could all eat together - things we still cherish. My grandmother always uses this time to instill some wisdom on us, or just to tell stories.
Emma Lilley (South CarolinaI was born in Canada, and I lived there until I was about 15. I'm not sure what traditions I personally have from there... I enjoyed eating poutine up there (fries with gravy and cheese), I used to order that all the time from my high school's cafeteria. When I was little I used to go to the skating rink almost every Saturday night, and have hot chocolate and nachos. Our town was pretty small, but of COURSE we had to have a hockey arena. Hockey there is kind of like football in South Carolina, where I live now... even if it's a town with one street light, there's somewhere to play hockey.
Charly Abbott
Wow, what fast replies! Excellent!
I guess I could reply also, with what little I know (Matt, Justin, maybe you guys can help me out...). On my dad's side we have a lot of New England pilgrim types (I heard we have one ancestor who came on the Mayflower, his name was John Alden) along with French-Canadian, Scottish, and some other nationalities. Most of my dad's family lived in Massachusetts until his generation. Some of the last names on that side of the family are Abbott, Teasdale, Chasson, Beroz... some others that I forgot too. I hear tell that my grandma owns an "Abbott family book" with geneaological records and such...
On my mom's side of the family, there were French, Belgian, Scottish, Polish, and other nationalities mixed in there, almost all Europeans according to what they tell me. I wouldn't be surprised if we have some other ancestors we don't know about. My mom's last name is Rowley, but other last names from her side of the family include Abercrombie, Engles, Baunerslausky, McGillicutty, Pfufnik, Vail, etc.
So yeah, we are mutts, like everyone else. I never really thought I had a "culture" to speak of until I started living in other countries all the time. I'm continually discovering and re-inventing my traditions here, as do we all. There is a pharmaceutical company here in Argentina that's called Abbott (no relation) and I'm excited that people here can spell my last name, which is usually unheard-of in the USA.
Also, when I was little I loved the movie "Fievel: An American Tail."
Andrew Welch (Washington, DC)
Americans have a peculiar way of characterizing themselves as "German" or "Irish" or "Italian". This seems an interesting tendency because:
1) It is not mutually exclusive with the notion of being "American"; in fact, many "Americans" tend to embrace the idea of identification with their heritage as something that makes them uniquely American, even if they do not in fact know anything about the nationality that they identify with.
2) See above... much of the time, someone claiming to be "Italian" really doesn't know much about Italian culture.
But I digress. My ancestors were Swedish, Irish, Native American, English, and a pretty wide range of others. I identify most, however,with the Swedes because my great-grandmother, whom I was very close to, was actually from Sweden. Before she died she was teaching me to speak Swedish, but I was young then and do not remember any of it. To this day, though, our family eats traditional Swedish food at Christmas, decorates our Christmas tree with Swedish flags, and even sings a Swedish drinking song when we get together for holidays. Nobody has much idea of what it means, other than that the phrase "bottoms up" is in there somewhere :-D
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