It is interesting to read To The American Indian by Lucy Thompson. I know more Indian Cultures by reading stories from the book. It's interesting to read about how different people operate the Klamath Bluffs Store. Successful and failure cases are told by stories. I think Thompson is making a point that people have to be wise when they run business otherwise they will get themselves into trouble. When she talks about how Indians build their houses, it is sort of boring because I hardly image the actual physical subject that she talks about. It would be better if she provides more pictures to show how it looks like. It's also interesting to read about that they have a weird tradition that for a girl to become a doctor she have to do all the dancing torture. The story of Creation is really appealing to me because I found many things that is similar to the bible. For example, men is created before women, the creator is using men to create women, and others.
I think Thompson writing this book because she wants more people to know about Indians and their culture. And I think she is successful because I am amusing by those stories.
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Survival + Resistance.
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4 comments:
It's interesting that you thought the parts about Bill McGarvey's store were included in order to teach a lesson about business ownership. I did not make that same connection until now. I wonder if Thompson will continue to discuss the store or if that is all she wrote about it in the book. We will have to see.
I also found the parts about constructing things to be quite boring. I had a hard time visualizing certain parts of the construction. I would have enjoyed more pictures too.
In the creation story, I also found a lot of parallels to the Christian bible story. It is so interesting how the Bible story, the Popol Vuh, and this creation story all have similar elements. I wonder if this is a result of coincidentally similar cultural views or if it is largely due to possible mistranslation over the years...
Definitely this story is told to pass along the beliefs of the Indians and their culture. As I had mentioned in my blog, I thought the creation story was interesting as well and did follow ways in which the bible describes. Thompson's story of creation to me seemed very straight-to-the-point, as when describing how sin first came about. I also thought the rain dance torture was interesting as well. It is like you have to nearly experience death before you can become a doctor. Almost like that saying about walking in the other person shoes in order to understand better.
The doctor ritual is interesting and I think you're right that it suggest one must have experienced pain in order to be a successful doctor. I wonder, though, if we think Thompson is accurately representing the religious beliefs or if something else is going on here?
I also thought that the description of the building of houses was boring. I think Thompson had to have realized that as well though since it universally seems pretty boring. I'm sure she was not the one building houses so it isn't like the process was near and dear to her heart. That being said, she must have felt she had good reason to include it in her book when most other chapters are stories rather than descriptions. With all the reference to Indians being called sagaves and uncivilized, I think the in depth description of the construction of their homes was trying to being light to the fact that they, indeed, had complicated, logical, innovative ways of doing and constructing things that really were not a whole lot different from how the "white men" did it. It also, of course, contributes to the documentation and passing along of another aspect of their culture and lives.
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