The Sunrise Dance Pt. 2
The Sunrise Dance's purpose is to initiate girls into womanhood, happening around the time of her first menstrual cycle. Since these girls sleep in a wikiup or tipi all night, winter is usually deemed too cold. They are starting back up again now and will continue through the fall.
My friends and I went to one recently and watched the Crown Dancer and girls dance around the bonfire. While the dancers took a break, there was an open dance. Anyone who wanted to could dance around the drummers and medicine man as they sang and chanted. My friend Josh and I linked arms and joined the many who danced.
Back at home, we discussed education and culture on the reservation. I shared with my friends an observation a colleague had made: "This isn't an Apache culture anymore. This is a culture of drugs, alcohol, and addiction." Living here, it's hard to disagree with this statement. The Sunrise Dance is one of the last remnants of Apache culture. And even that has been bastardized. And a place for more drinking and drugs. While there, Josh had students asking him if he wanted to smoke with them. Of course he declined. Many of these kids no longer celebrate any aspect of Apache culture. They don't know what a wikiup is. They don't have Sunrise Dances. The closest they come to being Apache is the color of their skin, knowing how to swear in Apache, and eating frybread (which comes from the white flour and lard the whites shipped to reservations, often the only food they had).
So in this dying culture, do we teachers try to teach them to assimilate or to save their culture? What is the value of trying to preserve the Apache culture when so many of them live in a culture of drugs and alcohol? How do we instill a cultural pride in them when their parents can't save themselves? When they live with an aunty because mom and dad are dead or drunk? When their big brother (aged 20) dies of liver failure and their other brother works his way toward the same fate?
And yet again, what's the point of the 5-paragraph essay? The difference between a hyperbole and a paradox? The definition of a metaphor? Are we doing them any justice by teaching these kids these things? We struggle to make them better readers, writers, and problem solvers, but even then what?
These are issues that we each struggle with every day. Why are we here? What's the point? What do we believe? Personally, (and I never thought I'd say this) I hope they get off the reservation, whether or not they choose to come back to do some good. I hope they get out, get an education, and find a way to survive away from this culture of drugs, dependence, and enabling. I also hope, rather than believe, that they'll come back. Because they're only ones with any real voice here, I feel. And they so rarely use it.
My friends and I went to one recently and watched the Crown Dancer and girls dance around the bonfire. While the dancers took a break, there was an open dance. Anyone who wanted to could dance around the drummers and medicine man as they sang and chanted. My friend Josh and I linked arms and joined the many who danced.
Back at home, we discussed education and culture on the reservation. I shared with my friends an observation a colleague had made: "This isn't an Apache culture anymore. This is a culture of drugs, alcohol, and addiction." Living here, it's hard to disagree with this statement. The Sunrise Dance is one of the last remnants of Apache culture. And even that has been bastardized. And a place for more drinking and drugs. While there, Josh had students asking him if he wanted to smoke with them. Of course he declined. Many of these kids no longer celebrate any aspect of Apache culture. They don't know what a wikiup is. They don't have Sunrise Dances. The closest they come to being Apache is the color of their skin, knowing how to swear in Apache, and eating frybread (which comes from the white flour and lard the whites shipped to reservations, often the only food they had).
So in this dying culture, do we teachers try to teach them to assimilate or to save their culture? What is the value of trying to preserve the Apache culture when so many of them live in a culture of drugs and alcohol? How do we instill a cultural pride in them when their parents can't save themselves? When they live with an aunty because mom and dad are dead or drunk? When their big brother (aged 20) dies of liver failure and their other brother works his way toward the same fate?
And yet again, what's the point of the 5-paragraph essay? The difference between a hyperbole and a paradox? The definition of a metaphor? Are we doing them any justice by teaching these kids these things? We struggle to make them better readers, writers, and problem solvers, but even then what?
These are issues that we each struggle with every day. Why are we here? What's the point? What do we believe? Personally, (and I never thought I'd say this) I hope they get off the reservation, whether or not they choose to come back to do some good. I hope they get out, get an education, and find a way to survive away from this culture of drugs, dependence, and enabling. I also hope, rather than believe, that they'll come back. Because they're only ones with any real voice here, I feel. And they so rarely use it.
posted by Jessica at 1:33 PM
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