Posted at 12:31am July 27
Enduring
Columbus was about the
Native American experience after the first white settlers came to
America. I also have a lot of Native
American blood in me so I was very interested to see what my
ancestors experienced. I had always read whatever was written in my
textbooks as a child about Native Americans, however I had never gotten the other side of the story.
In this movie it talked about how the Spaniards arrived in the West. They killed the men and then sent the women and children to be slaves. Their relationship does get better. The Spaniards and pueblo people pulled together to protect themselves. They began to understand each other’s ways. The Spaniards gave the Indians land grants, but the Spaniards still tried to convert the pueblo to Catholicism. There was much trade at these trade fairs. Pueblo people were sold as slaves. However the Mexicans lost their lands. The pueblos were dissatisfied with the Mexican government. Tribes of Indians revolted against the Mexicans. The revolt failed.
During the rebellion of 1847-indians took a stand against the U.S. Colonists who were trying to take their lands. Indians killed a governor and news spread and so did the rebellion. The U.S. won the revolt, they took the Indian leaders to Santa Fe to “talk�, but these leaders were actually hung.
The Pueblo people went from fifty thousand to seven thousand. Indian slavery was very acceptable, even after the civil war. There was a treaty signed that was supposed to end the war against the Indians, but it didn’t. Non Indians settled on Indian land, so did the U.S. government. Roosevelt took Blue Lake, a sacred place for the Pueblans. They took Indians to an Indian school to become more “civilized�. They taught them English and Christianity. They were trying to make the Indian culture vanish.
But the Indians refused to disappear. This is what I found so amazing. The Indians never gave up. They refused to conform to the ways of the White man. It is difficult to stand up for what you believe in, but the Indians still do today.
Posted at 12:30am July 27
I was really excited to watch this movie because my ancestors came from Ireland. As I watched I was really captivated about the terrible things the Irish had to endure that I had never heard about.
The story talked about Clarice Wolf one of the seven million Irish that came to America in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Many Irish were told stories form their grandparents; some made American look good, and others made it look very bad. Presbyterians of Scotch ancestry came looking for land in the U.S. They all had different experiences due to the fact that they were catholic. English armies had taken away their land in Ireland. They oppressed them and took away any land belonging to Catholics. Two brothers had to pay rent to liver on the land that had been stolen from them by the English. To own land was considered very powerful because it was hand in hand with the government. One of the brothers moved to the United States, the other brother enlisted the help of a Blacksmith and made weapons for an uprising against the English. They attached in 1798 and were a success. Then in June the “Piteman� (Irish) were defeated. Then this brother too immigrated to the U.S. The first immigrant brother became a mayor of a town and was very successful; the rebellious brother was never heard form again.
Nationalists’ say that immigration was forced exile by the English. It was the only option left for the Irish. The Barrats, an Irish family, immigrated to Canada, they left behind their eldest daughter Mary Rush. She had her own little potatoe crop. Despite poverty, they ate well due to the potatoes. There was soon a potatoe famine. Over one million people in Ireland died of starvation. Mary rush could not afford the passage to America so she was forced to stay and starve to death.
It’s these types of situations that I really thought were amazing. I had never realized the amount of persecution that was endured by the Irish. I am so glad that I watched this movie because it gave me a greater understanding of what my ancestors went through. I also feel better aware of the truth surrounding what was experienced while they stayed in America.
Posted at 12:28am July 27
When I watched this movie I found myself so caught up in the practices of the Jewish culture. I found it amazing that all of these practices are still practiced today. Not many cultures still practice their different types of cultural practices. These are things I would quite possibly never be exposed to if it weren’t for watching this movie. I found it interesting that she turned to God in her times of trouble. Many people do that, I know I did.
When she found out that she got cancer in her lungs she began to look for things she could do that involved being with others. In the Jewish religion a sense of community is very important. I also found some of their laws to be quite interesting. There is a law that men and women cannot have sexual relations for the half of the month. Also the women must go through a purification process before sex. It showed this lady going through this purification process, although she was not married. She had to take a bath and dunk herself under so many times. It was interesting, but I also found it somewhat sad because they had to go through all these processes to feel close to God. I feel close to God everyday no matter what, but to each his own.
They also talked about how Husbands and Wives sleep in separate beds every night. They didn’t go into much detail about why they did things like this, so it’s hard to understand the reasoning behind it. They also showed a family in which the mother decided to change her life and follow God, they talked about how this changed everyone in the whole family. One by one they all began to practice the Jewish religion too. That was very interesting to me. This lady then went to a Rabbi to see if he could perform a miracle. We never got to see anything beyond that. It never said what miracle she wanted, I’m assuming she wanted healing and the movie was turned off before we found out if she ever received that healing.
