(But first a tangent on names and languages. The Navajo people call themselves "Dine" ... which is pronounced "dee-NAY" and means something like "the people." We got our English name for them from the Spanish, and the Spanish got it from neighboring tribes to whom it apparently meant something like "enemies [or livestock rustlers] who live in a large field." In recent years, "Dine" has come to be preferred by many, but you still hear both. For more on names, see my explanation of my usage in our syllabus (scroll down to Roman numeral XII) and a table of census figures on the names that blacks, whites, Hispanics and American Indians prefer to be called.)
There's a good bio of Luci Tapahonso on the hanksville.org website. Read it, and go to the links at the bottom of the page. Surf around and check out her poetry. (If you pay attention to poetic lines, set your browser on the next-to-smallest text size or they won't come out right.) Be sure to read these poems and answer these questions:
It Has Always Been This Way. What does it tell you about Dine culture? What about it is unique to the culture, and what is universal? How do you respond to it? What in your culture, background, taste in literature, etc., makes you respond that way?Post your reaction to the poems as a comment to this blog.
Hills Brother Coffee. Ask yourself the same questions. (If you want to see a picture of the coffee can, there's one on line.) The poem is about family, too. How imporant would you guess family is to the poet? To the Navajo or Dine people?
Hard to Take. Ask yourself the same questions. Have you had the same kind of experience she describes? (Few of us get through our teenage years without at least one.) Does she convey what it's like? Is the poem about discrimination against Indians or is it about snobs in general? Or is it about both?
A Discreet Conversation. Ask yourself the same questions. What does it add to the poem when Tapahonso quotes the grandfather in Dine? Is the poem about American Indians, about drunks or basic human nature? Or all three?
In 1864. Same questions. You'll need some background on this one, which you'll find -- with a good map -- in Wikipedia. In this poem, Tapahonso and her daughter are driving across New Mexico; when they get near Bosque Redondo, where the Dine people were exiled, she tells her daughter about a friend who had a job there but got freaked out, quit and went back to Dine country. After they stop for a Coke, she tells the family story of Bosque Redondo and finds some good that came of it.
16 comments:
In the poem It Has Allways Been this Way, the poem relates to family. It talks of a child from birth. In the poem, it talks of burying the babies belly button at the house just so the child will allways return to help the family. Family appears to be a very important thing to the Native Americans. The other poems show us that the Indians enjoy such thing as coffee, just like we enjoy. They have the same wants, needs, and desires as we do today plus a few added.
In the poem, "It has always Been This Way", it seemed to me the poem related to the family. It talks about burying the babies belly button at the house, so the child will return to help the family. In native American society, it seems to appear family is very important to them. When i read the other poems, it showed us that indians likes coffee, just as much as us. And when i read it it seemed like they had to the same wants and needs as us too.
In "It Has Always Been This Way", it tells you of the Dine culture and the importance of family, especially new borns and their upbringing. When a child is born he or she's belly button is taken and buried near the house so that the child will always come back to help their mother. The child is also celebrated with lots of food, family, and pollen sprinkled onto their head.
In the poem "It has always been this way" it describes how a baby enters this world and is flourished by the idea of family. I believe her culture is surrounding by the idea of family and loved ones. The title implies that in their culture it has been that way forever and will continue to be that way. In the poem "Hard to take" she talks about being discriminated against because she is a Navajo indian. At first they don't realize it but then she speaks in her language. I think this poem doesn't only apply to Navajo indians but as our society as a whole. We are a very discriminatory society. We have come a long way since slavery but we all have our secret discriminations whether it is against indians or anyone else.
What the poem "It Has Always Been This Way" tells us about Dine culture is they care for their young and is a part of their culture and "has always been that way". I believe that it isn't unique to their culture because all cultures take care of their children. I would respond to this poem by saying that all cultures do take care of their children but I believe the Dine culture have more common sense in the fact that all children are treated the same way and loved by the whole tribe, not just a small family unit like in our society.
In the poem " Hills brother coffee", it talks about a man and his brother sitting down and having a cup up coffee...I think they are watiting for their mother, and the author's brother perticualrly likes one certain type of coffee. Anyway, I think the poem is trying to show the importance of family to them. It is showing how just sitting down and having a cup of coffee makes them happy and is important to them
In the poem "Hard to Take", it talks about one girls struggle with discrimination for being a Navajo. She talks about how the saleslady at a store was friendly to her when she thought she wasn't a Navajo and then was mean to her when she found out she was one. It also talks about how she could not get service at a beauty place. I think this poem is abput Indian discrimination. She describes specific situations of times when she was discriminated against.
In It Has Always Been This Way, it amazed me that the Navajo knew so much about the health of a mother when she is pregnant and the health of a new born. Many of their practices are still used today when dealing with new-born babies, and they had been doing it, “for centuries among us.” Hills Brother Coffee seems to be a more modern day interpretation of how family remains important in the Dine culture. A young boy and his uncle are able to relate easily to one another. I think that in many families today, younger children have trouble relating to older family members, but this is not the case with the Dine. A Discreet Conversation seems to be mainly just about drunks. I am not sure how it could be related to human nature because I do not believe that as humans we are inclined to get drunk and drive our cars. The other two poems Hard To Take and In 1864 deal more with the hardships that the Dine and Navajo people have had to face. After reading In 1864, I am amazed that one culture could endure so much, and still have enough pride and happiness to carry on each day without worry.
I read the "Hills Brother Coffee" and all i got out if it was that the guy likes coffee. But he only likes this kind of coffee because it has a kick to it, unlike the other kinds of coffee he has had before. Basically in this all they do is sit around and talk about their mother and just wait for her to come home while they wait and ejoy a good cup of joe.
The poem "It Has Always Been This Way" relates to the importance of family to Native Americans. The title refers to how their values and beliefs have been a tradition that they plan on keeping the same. The poem tells how the child's belly button buried at the house means that child will always help their family if in need. The other poems were about how Native Americans are similar to us; they share some of the same wants, needs, and doing as we do today.
In “It Has Always Been This Way” It talks about their unique culture and how a great deal of emphasis is put on the family life and being taken care of.
In “Hills Brothers Coffee” family is important because the coffee has some significance. It reminds him of something.
In “Hard to Take” it is dealing with snobs and rude people in general. It happens everyday no matter who you are.
In “A Discreet Conversation” it is mostly about what happens when you drink too much and get behind a wheel. But it is also about human nature.
The poem, "It Has Always Been this Way," talks a lot about the culture and how they raise their children. It lists some traditions they carry on when a woman has a child, since it has always been done that way for centuries before them. One particularly unique part of the culture is that they bury the umbilical cord by the home so the child will always return home to help their mother. In the poem “Hills Brothers Coffee,” the importance of family is stressed. I think that family is very important to them, but the mother may not like this importance too well since her brother says she is never home when he visits. I think the poem “Hard to Take” is about racism and snobs in general. The people at the Merle Norman could have just been snobs with poor customer service or they could have been racist. It is hard to tell, but I have seen things like this happen all too often. I can also relate to this since I have been in similar situations. The “Discreet Conversation” poem is about basic human nature. Many times we hear that people who just got paid go out and spend all their money buying alcohol, get in a wreck where they probably should have died, and they come out without a scratch. “In 1864” tells us about the hardships the culture came through to get where they are today. The daughter gets to know her family’s culture while she is driving with her mother. This poem just lets us know how badly the Native Americans were treated in this great country.
The poem " It has always been this way",relates mainly to family in the poem the author shows that the native american family is really close. The author states that the children always stay close to home and their mothers and the author also shows that the indian families always take care of one another.
The poem "Hills Brothers Coffee" is mainly realated to family. In the opoem the uncle and the child get together everyday just to sit down and drink coffee and talk about everyday things. The poem also shows that the indians enjoy such things as coffee just as ewdo and the have some of the same needs and wants as we do.
The poem "Hard to take"is about discrimination against indians. In teh poem the author shows the women in the salon basically ignoring the native-american as if they weren't there. Eventhough the indian was the only person in line the women just simply ignored them,as if they weren't there.In the poem the author made it clear that this discrimination was an often occurence in the salon so the didn't seem to shocked or appalled by the behavior, they just simply turned around and left.
In the poem, "It has always been this way", the poet talks about how life begins before the baby leaves the mother womb, how they grow up and as they get old enought they leave, which at this time always seems like time flies by. The belly button signifies that even though the child is gone he will always be there to help the family when in need. The other poems describe how family is one if not "the" most important things in Indian culture. They are much a like us, they like coffee, they drink, they drive, and yet its like we dont give them credit for anything.
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