Zitkala Sa

A detailed Summary of Zitkala Sa

During the time of western development in the 19th century of American

history, the Sioux Nation was at the forefront of political aggression.

Already forcing the Native American people onto cramped lands, the dominant

white man began to turn to new solutions in order to kill the salvage and

westernize the Indians. While it was obvious for the most part it is hard to

school an elder and force him/her to repent their ways, the best possible

solution was to disconnect the future generations from their heritage and

exploit their innocence and purity. Methods such as cutting each natives

hair in order to separate them from their former people, banning the young

Indians from making snow angels which in turn reminded each who they really

are, installing proper eating habits and not tolerating any language except

English to be spoken by every native even if he/she did not know how. Call

these methods culture shock, trauma schooling or whatever you must they

slowly helped minimize the Native American culture. If it was not for those

wise enough to cherish their heritage, it is quite possible the culture would

have been lost for ever. Zitkala-Sa was one of those people. Capturing a

lose grasp with her roots. Year after year her daughter went to the

with the beauty of the Sioux. She was compelled to "become the literary

daughter in a fire greater then the brave warriors of their stories. And more

held out a white flag with an Indian girl on it. Under the girl were bold

Zitkala-Sa uses this education that was meant to break and conform her to

eye, "Thou shalt not kill, and with the other gloats upon the sufferings of

counterpart of the oral storytellers of her tribe because she felt compelled

she received. Instead of westernizing she used the white man's words to tell

Approximate Word count = 1878
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

join now Save Paper

Saved Paper

Save your papers so you can locate them quickly!

"Thank You So Much!!! You have saved me once again!!!"
Jack M.
"With so many papers to chose from, I was able to get ideas to help me with all of my classes. Thank You!"
Brian P.
"I've used this site for the last 3 years to help me come up with ideas for my papers."
Sara J.
"I use this site every week to help me write my own papers!"
Rachel W.
"I love this site!!!"
Marie N.