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Recent Comments on Public Documents

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Oct 21

REally interesting how he doesn’t see ‘the Drome’ on him anymore when he puts on the clothes. While yes, alcohol abuse is a thing that is quite common upon urban Natives, maybe he never had some kind of medical affliction, and instead was commented on his face because people were judging him for being a Native American. Maybe it could be both.

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Oct 21

This makes a lot of sense. It helped me understand how to colonists justified what they did

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Oct 21

They both are established to be parallels to one another. Both of them have a grandmother they care about deeply, both of them were largely ignored and both of them are screwed up, likely because of circumstances outside their control.

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Oct 21

I do agree that Indian relocation brings in a lot of background context, but I also see this paragraph explaining how all land was once Native land, and even despite urbanization on it, they still have their own sense of culture that belongs to it.

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Oct 21

It’s interesting how you thought Tommy Orange included this reference to show how people erased Native American history and culture. I also think he included it to show how Native Americans are invisible and their culture isn’t recognized.

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Oct 21

Metacomet fought against the Plymouth Company for 2 years before he was shot in the heart. His body was cut into 4 parts, his head was sent to Plymouth to be put on a spike, and his hands were sent to Alderman.

rhodetour.org

Tommy Orange might’ve included this to show how cruelly Native Americans were treated by the people stealing their land.

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Oct 21

This is an important example of history being hidden and how that could impact Indigenous identity.

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Oct 21

I didn’t know that the lack of showers spread diseases within Natives, that’s pretty interesting

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Oct 21

When you mentioned “trauma they had to go through,” it made me think that a recurring theme in this story is being able to adapt through hardships, or when it comes to home, that it’s never permanent or rigid but is fluid and adapts over time.

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Oct 21

This guy has crazy humour. Edit: I stand corrected, he is extremely philosophical and introspective in his analysis of his life and lifestyle. Kudos to you man.

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Oct 20

From a historical lens, what you say is very true; Native American relocation and assimilation is definitely a main topic of this paragraph, along with the rest of the story. Additionally, from a memory-study lens, the topic of homesickness and familiarity is also incorporated in a similar manner.

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Oct 20

(Laura) mine was blocked.
Good question, I hadn’t given this much thought so this was helpful.

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Oct 20

I didn’t think about this thanks for enlightening me.

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Oct 20

That’s really interesting. I knew that Tommy Orange didn’t like Iron Eyes Cody, but I didn’t know that they were honored during at the time. Really does show how not making the effort to reject stereotypes can be really damaging, because stereotypes lead to bias, leads to actions, leads to genocide.

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Oct 20

Well written summary + explaining why he added it. It helped me to understand why they would completely eradicate them.

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Oct 20

King Philip (Metacome) supposedly instigated war, but previously adopted English names with his brother. Also, many English missionaries spread Christianity to the Plymouth colonies, turning many natives to Christ.

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/metacoms-war/

Orange is probably including this to show how Native people were treated like objects, and how history tends to erase or soften the most violent parts of the past.

https://www.firstcolonyfoundation.org/history/commonplace-decapitations/

https://landmarkevents.org/chief-metacom-killed-1676/

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Oct 20

I did a similar research to you guys. This helps connect to the historical relocation of the NAtive people.

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Oct 20

>"https://www.history.com/articles/king-philips-war":https://www.history.com/articles/king-philips-war

- King Phillip had originally created the treaty with the English
- Tensions rose
- Wampanoag raids Swansea colony
- English destroy his home village
- England declares war
- Continued fighting until his eventual death

Likely included in order to highlight the existing precedence of violence against natives by Western communities. Demonstrates how they’ve historically been driven out.

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Oct 20

Historical: It is found that the mentioned movie is Apocalypto by Mel Gibson, portraying a plot that depicts many instances of Indigenous Mayan peoples in a very violent, barbaric manner. Tommy Orange likely included this, as Mayans are closely associated to Indigenous Americans, and Gibson’s portrayal can be associated with the public opinion of Indigenous Americans in the 20th century.

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Oct 20

if you just read the book you would never know the natives actually liked the actor because orange portrays it as so evil

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Oct 20

Hi Chris and Shaurya, I thought it was interesting how you mentioned they changed the races of other races in order to appeal to the average reader.

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Oct 20

We discovered that the English came and colonized the Powhatan and Wampanoag tribe. When the English came to the US they didn’t shower, which lead to the spread of diseases to the Native Americans. They fought in the First Anglo-Powhatan war. After the war in 1622 they agreed to meet and eat a meal together. The Powhatan tribe brought prisoners from the war. When the English made a toast, the Powhatan’s were poisoned by the wine and they fired on the Powhatans killing 200. We think Tommy Orange included a reference to this event to show how Native Americans have been backstabbed and betrayed by their colonizers. Tommy Orange included a juxtaposition between a friendly dinner and 200 Natives dead to show how quickly the English turned their backs on the Native Americans.

Sources:
Smithsonian magazine
National Museum of the American Indian

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