Compare and contrast two Native American writers (compare an early to a recent Native American writer or compare two writers that captivated your interest). Consider how dialogue, description, and details are used or explore significant changes in voice, theme, and characterization in these stories about diversity in America. Respond in a five-paragraph APA essay format with quotes, proper in-text citations, and references. Please be sure to include the following in your assignment submission: Write a formal, 5-paragraph essay in APA format, including a cover page, in response to this question. Base your answer on your own observations and support your assertions quoting from your assigned readings. Read the assigned readings from the Native American Literature sections . Highlight quotes, summarize, or paraphrase from this week's readings and be sure to include an in-text citation in proper APA format (Author, year, p. X). Include three quotes from our readings . When we discuss literature, it is all about the words before us. They are ours to consider and reflect on. So, you will want to make a strong assertion and prove it, or support it, by quoting from the readings. Include three quotes in our essay. Create a strong thesis for your essay. A thesis states your main idea in a sentence. A sample thesis (which you are free to use) might be: Charles Alexander Eastman and Sherman Alexie, Jr., both award-winning authors with strong cultural roots, differ greatly in voice, theme, and characterization of Native American culture. Be sure to include an APA reference page. The Native American has a deep underlying connection to the Earth, land, and all living things. They have a troubled, sordid past, and have struggled long and hard to maintain their rights among people. We are familiar with this from history books, but now we will closely examine and carefully study the Native American culture from these writers perspective. If you have not read writers like Eastman, Silko, and Alexie, you are in for a treat. Please consider how the care and tending to the land and their heritages translates to the care of choosing words to write across the printed page. You will want to ask what it is each author is doing to add his/her version, or vision, to what is the Native American identity. Is the writer actively writing against commonly held beliefs, questioning the persistent images popular culture has inundates us with, or is it fueled by a different passion or concern? Charles Alexander Eastman Eastman , one of a long line of chiefs, one of the first Native American authors to publish, and one of the first Native doctors, wrote about the Sioux life and customs with brilliant descriptions and influence. The opening lines of Winona, The Child Woman from Old Indian Days, shows this: "The sky is blue overhead, peeping through a window-like openings in a roof of green leaves" (Bryant, 2010, p 244). Eastman was also known to write collaboratively with h.

1. Compare and contrast two Native American writers (compare an
early to a recent Native American writer or compare two writers
that captivated your interest). Consider how dialogue,
description, and details are used or explore significant changes
in voice, theme, and characterization in these stories about
diversity in America. Respond in a five-paragraph APA essay
format with quotes, proper in-text citations, and references.
Please be sure to include the following in your assignment
submission:
Write a formal, 5-paragraph essay in APA format, including a
cover page, in response to this question.
Base your answer on your own observations and support your
assertions quoting from your assigned readings.
Read the assigned readings from the Native American Literature
sections
. Highlight quotes, summarize, or paraphrase from this week's
readings and be sure to include an in-text citation in proper
APA format (Author, year, p. X).
Include three quotes from our readings
. When we discuss literature, it is all about the words before us.
They are ours to consider and reflect on. So, you will want to
make a strong assertion and prove it, or support it, by quoting
from the readings. Include three quotes in our essay.
Create a strong thesis for your essay.
A thesis states your main idea in a sentence. A sample thesis
(which you are free to use) might be: Charles Alexander
Eastman and Sherman Alexie, Jr., both award-winning authors
with strong cultural roots, differ greatly in voice, theme, and
characterization of Native American culture.
Be sure to include an APA reference page.
The Native American has a deep underlying connection to the
Earth, land, and all living things. They have a troubled, sordid
past, and have struggled long and hard to maintain their rights

2. among people. We are familiar with this from history books, but
now we will closely examine and carefully study the Native
American culture from these writers perspective. If you have
not read writers like Eastman, Silko, and Alexie, you are in for
a treat. Please consider how the care and tending to the land and
their heritages translates to the care of choosing words to write
across the printed page.
You will want to ask what it is each author is doing to add
his/her version, or vision, to what is the Native American
identity. Is the writer actively writing against commonly held
beliefs, questioning the persistent images popular culture has
inundates us with, or is it fueled by a different passion or
concern?
Charles Alexander Eastman
Eastman
, one of a long line of chiefs, one of the first Native American
authors to publish, and one of the first Native doctors, wrote
about the Sioux life and customs with brilliant descriptions and
influence. The opening lines of Winona, The Child Woman from
Old Indian Days, shows this: "The sky is blue overhead,
peeping through a window-like openings in a roof of green
leaves" (Bryant, 2010, p 244). Eastman was also known to write
collaboratively with his wife, Goodale Eastman.
Helen Hunt Jackson
Jackson
, a highly successful poet, was a neighbor of poet Emily
Dickinson's neighbor, shared the same mentor, Thomas
Wentworth Higginson, and, later, friendship. While
Jackson
used her poetry as a means to grieve for the deaths of her infant
son and first husband, she also wrote to assert her opinions and
views as seen in our reading,
A Century of Dishonor
.
Sherman J. Alexie, Jr.
Alexie

3. , a truly gifted storyteller, writes, "I sing with everything I have
inside of me: pain, happiness, anger, depression, heart, soul,
small intestine. I sing and am rewarded with people who listen.
That is why I am a poet" (Bryant, 2010, p. 268). Emotions,
humor, and the truth are hallmark of his work as Alexie raises
awareness and redefines what it means to be Native American.
His is a place of honor. If you have not read his book,
The Absolute Diary of a Part-Time Indian
, you might want to after reading his story, "What Your Pawn I
Will Redeem."
N. Scott Momaday
"Momaday, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, poet, painter, and
printmaker, grew up listening to his father tells stories from the
Kiowa oral tradition" (Bryant, 2010, p. 304).
Momaday
was equally influenced by his mother, who became an author of
children's books and went on to be quite a successful novelist,
educator, and mover for the Native American people. Here's an
introductory video
that shares his background in his own words.
Joy Harjoy
Harjoy
is a "writer, musician, photographer, university professor, and
feminist/activist," that is hailed as "one of the real poets of our
mixed, fermenting, end-of-century north American imagination"
(Bryant, 2010, p. 317). Here Harjoy, a rich storyteller,
shares her power, poetry and personality
.
Simon J. Ortiz
Many bios claim while
Ortiz
did not speak until the age of four, his fascination with
language and literature started early on (Byrant p. 331). "Ortiz's
experiences at various boarding schools for Native-American
children, where punishment was meted out to those who spoke
in their own tongue, no doubt also reinforced his passion for

4. words and for understanding their power" (p. 331). He often
speaks about the importance of listening: Listening, "not really
to find any secrets or sudden enlightenment, but to be improved
with that whole process and experience the whole process and
experience of language. That's the way we'll come to know how
we are, who we are, what we know, what we'll come to know"
(p.331).
A Sense of Community & Culture
As we read these authors who are central to the study of
contemporary Native American literature we will find various
tribal affiliations, primary communities mentioned. Others will
present a wider approach and identity as simply Native
Americans.
Get Acquainted with the Culture & Philosophies:
Indigenous Native American prophecy
Native American - Amazing Grace in Cherokee
Get to know our authors:
Learn more about
N. Scott Momaday
Explore more about
Joy Harjo
References
Bryant, J. (2010).
The Pearson Custom Library of American Literature. Rasmussen
College English Department.
New York, NY: Pearson Learning
Solution
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