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you should change the title

rhonda j levaldo (2007-09-16)

  

When I first read the abstract, I thought wow, interesting if the the title was "The Real Native Americans". Alluding to the idea that many people see "native" as to being from a country or certain land. If you go to Arizona you see many people with the license plate "Native" not referring to the fact that they are Native American Indian but Native to being born in Arizona. So I thought, if you would have titled it "The Real Native Americans" you would recieve a lot more attention to the curious question of who is the real Native American? The idea of identity in this country is very strange to many "Americans" because, when you ask what they are, they say "American" but, I ask again, what is your ethnic background, and they will say "oh, Irish, German, or Scotch." If you ask a Native American Indian, they will say, "I am Acoma, Lakota or Makah" always referring to their tribe.
With the references to the movies and war genres to the historical relationship of Native American Indians and the U.S., the message was pretty much on target. I took interest how you stated "I will explore how far a very familiar visual narrative trope, first in painting, and then in cinema over the 100+ years U.S. citizens have been watching movies, may have ingrained itself to the point that they are only too willing to accept that they are under lethal attack and must respond both vigorously and violently if not to be swept away...it has, become a core element in Americans' national self definition and understanding."
When the Battle of the Little Big Horn was taking place it was only one side could be told, and that was of the U.S. Army. to the newspapers. How was America to know of the all the bloody massacres of Indians, with one side to be told? Native American Indians have long had that internal struggle of whether to go into service for America, but one thing that made them change their minds, was, that they weren't fighting for the Non-indians, they were fighting for their Mother Land, their Mother Earth. They know to well, that feeling of being overrun by American soldiers, christianized and made into decent citizens. All the movies you told of, each of these minorities could have been the Native American Indian and their story of how America was taken from them. There is a wonderful author you must read, his name is Vine Deloria Jr., read "Custer Died for your Sins". In it he talks of the plight of the Native American Indian, "Out of the Land of the Free, and into the homes of the Brave." His takes on American Government and the American Identity are quite interesting, in one interview, he knew that the reporter only wanted the novel indian, the romantic indian who spoke in eloquent phrases of the land of the past, and she asked, "what did Indians call America before it was called America?" (knowing she wanted some good old indian word for the land of America) Vine responded "Ours!"
He is a great author, but, back to the article, with regard to the issue of Americaness in times of tragedy, it would be interesting to see how much American pride there was before 9/11. It is sad, that it takes a devastating tragedy to your people to instill that pride. I look forward to more articles in correlating the American identity to wartime endeavors.

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