Zitkala Sa

While reading Zitkala Sa’s narrative I got many impressions. My first impression came during the first chapter title My Mother. Here, I got the impression that the Native Americans not only had a strong dislike for the Palefaces (Anglo-Americans), but also feared them a bit. “She pointed to the hill where my uncle and my only sister lay buried. ‘There is what the palefaces has done! Since then you father too has been buried in a hill nearer the rising sun. we were once very happy. But the paleface has stolen our lands and driven us hither. Having defrauded us of our land, the paleface forced us away’” (1009). This exerpt gave me this impression of fear and hate towards the white settlers of early America.

The next impression I got was in the third chapter titled The Beadwork. In this chapter I got the impression that the youth of the tribe really held their elders up high and respected them on the utmost level. “I remember well how we used to exchange our necklaces, beaded belts, and sometimes even our mochassins. We pretended to offer them as gifts to one another. We delighted in impersonating our own mothers. We talked of things we had heard them say in their conversations. We imitated their various manners, even to the inflection of their voices. In the lap of the prairie we seated ourselves upon our feet; and leaning our painted cheeks in the palms of our hands, we rested our elbows and knees, and bent forward as old women were most accustomed to do” (1012). I interpreted this as showing that the older one is in the tribe, the higher they were held amongst members and the wiser they were.

One last impression I got during Sa’s essay was that of respect for the dead. I got this impression from the fifth chapter titled The Dead Man’s Plum Bush and also from the quote I used earlier from chapter one. This impression was one that really jumped out at me, even more so than the obvious one’s such as the respect for nature that can be seen throughout all the chapters. Zitkala’s mother would not let her pluck a plum from a plum tree because buried underneath this particular plum tree was the remains of a fallen warrior. “’Never pluck a single plum from this bush, my child, for its roots are wrapped around an Indian’s skeleton. A brave is buried here. While he lived, he was so fond of playing the game of striped plum seeds that, at his death, he set of plum seeds were buried in his hands. From them sprang up this little bush’” (1015). This shows the true spirit of the Native American which is respect for your family, your tribe, the dead, and nature, which I believe is encompassed throughout these few chapters we read of Zitkala Sa’s work.

Washington Vs. Du Bois

In his speech at the Atlanta Exposition, Mr. Booker T. Washington states his claim for the Negro race. In this speech he claims that 1/3rd of the population of the south is of the Negro race and that, if given a chance in society, they will make a difference in a positive way; they would not be a burden. This rise of the Negro race as an equal in the American society would happen over time, not over night. Mr. Washington states that the White Population of America fears that the Negro population would ruin our society, but he begs to differ. "Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upward, or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body politic" (762-763). This statement says that Mr. Washington agrees that if change isnt made soon towards the equal rights for the Negro race in the South, that they will become what everyone else fears: ignorance, crime, and death.

W.E.B. Du Bois, although he respects Mr. Washington's stand, disagrees with what he said at the Atlanta Exposition. Du Bois quotes this statement from Washington by saying that it was the most notable thing in Mr. Washington's career: "In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fingers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress" (885). This notion stated by Washington, Du Bois agrees with. But, there are other things from his speech that Du Bois does not agree with.

Mr. Washington's idea was to essentially surrender some civil and political rights in exchange for future considerations to larger chances of economic development for the Negro race. "Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things,--
First, political power,
Second, insistence on civil rights,
Third, higher education of the Negro youth,--" (889).

Du Bois completely disagrees with this (I do as well) because aren't those three things the basis of our equal rights in America right now? How can a major leader for the Negro race ask his people to give up essentially what it is that they are striving for all on the idea that it might, and i stress might, be beneficial in the long run? Du Bois goes on to say that members of this nation should feel that they have the right to ask for three things: 1. The right to vote 2. Civic Equality 3. The education of youth according to ability (890). But, my god, arent these the three things that Washington asks his race to give up for the time being? I now see where the bitterness of Du Bois and the Negro race comes from towards Mr. Washington's speech at the Atlanta Exposition.