Postcolonialism and Native Alaskan groups

Caitlin Scarano

ENGL 601

Heyne

4 March 2012

Reading Response 2: Postcolonialism

“Listen, I’m trying to say something –

always the stories lived through paintings,

always the stories stayed alive in retelling.

You wonder why sometimes you can’t reach me?

I keep going back.”

-Robert H. Davis – “Saginaw Bay: I Keep Going Back”

            I am writing this because this week’s readings really lined up for me.  I had an idea of what postcolonialism is, but until I read the chapter from Bressler’s Literary Criticism, I had not realized just how much I believe in postcolonialism – as a theory and criticism in practice.  I actually think I am trying to teach ENGL 111 and ENGL 213 with a postcolonialism and/or cultural studies approach, but had never really realized it.  I took a Cultural Studies course (“Sexuality and Its Discontents”) last spring at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and it was one of the most fascinating classes I’ve ever been in.

            Literary Criticism posits postcolonialism as a direct cultural aftereffect of European colonialism, specifically the colonialism done around the world by the British Empire.  But as I was reading this I kept thinking: what about the postcolonial concerns of Native American groups?  Is there an area of study within postcolonialism that focuses on the colonialism that has occurred (and is still occurring) within our own country? (I assume so.)

            I am thinking about this for several reasons.  First, in the ENGL 213 course that I teach (“Writing and Imagining the Environment”), we just finished up a unit on Alaska, where we read several essays and pieces about Alaska and its environment.  We read John Haines, Sherry Simpson, Annie Tupek, Barry Lopez, etc. 

In William Cronon’s “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” (free online, would be great for ENGL 111 too: http://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html), he discusses how people “other” nature through the socially constructed concept of wilderness.  Last semester, in the ENGL 111 course that I taught (“Writing and the Social Self”) we spent a lot of time discussing the Other – it frequently comes up when reading essays on identity, culture, and place.  But I had not expected the concept of the Other to come up in my ENGL 213 course, the course about nature.  But Cronon’s essay was easily the one that the students engaged with the most this semester.  And we spent a full day discussing dualism and the Other.  Then othering came up in Annie Dillard’s essay “Seeing.” 

            I had the students complete a mini-essay (writing prompt of about 3-4 pages) on the following questions:

1.)             Based on our discussion, what is the concept of the Other in your own words? (Provide your reader with a thorough, personally developed definition.)

2.)             What does it mean to other someone?  Give at least one clear example of how and when this might occur in society.

3.)             The Other usually involves different groups of people in society. For example, people with disabilities are frequently othered in the United States.  But we’ve discussed the Other and nature writing. How and why has the concept of the Other come up in our class readings? (It has appeared more than once.) Show this through quotes and explain those quotes.

4.)             Now, tell about a time when you were othered/made out to be the Other (by a person, a group, an institution, a policy, whatever).  Why and how did this happen?  How did it make you feel?  How was this situation resolved (or not)? What did you learn from this experience?

5.)             Tell about a time when you othered someone/made someone feel like the Other.  How and why did this happen? How was this situation resolved (or not)?  What did you learn from this experience? 

Another reason postcolonialism has been on my mind – I am currently reading Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner.  Told through the perspective of a white boy who grew up outside a Native Alaskan village, the novel demonstrates well how technology and modernization fragment the cultures of the Native Alaskan peoples.

The poetry of Robert H. Davis tackles the same topic – how white culture has impacted, fragment, and forever altered Native cultures.  For example, consider the high rate of alcoholism in the Native Alaskan villages.  One could link this negative societal situation to the dispossession of Native Alaskan tribes of their cultures and land. (Statistics: http://www.alaskool.org/resources/anc_reports.htm).   But this dispossession and the societal issues it leads to do not occur in a vacuum.  The problems that Native Alaskan tribes face are similar to the problems other Native American groups face.

The Raven character (from Davis’ poetry) is similar to the Coyote character in the Navajo creation myth.  This connection made me think of the Navajo Nation and the times I have been there.  The Navajo Reservation is technically dry, but yet there are still high rates of alcoholism on the reservation. Why would this be?  How are Native groups across the United States similar and dissimilar?  What are the effects of postcolonialism in America (white dispossessing Native peoples)?  How are these effects still occurring?  If so, what are possible solutions?