Real Injun

The title of the documentary says everything, a depiction of Native American people made by Native Americans. The most interesting part of the documentary for me wasn't the negative portrayals in film or the ignorance that many people have about the culture, it is not news to me that movies and television are not the best at portraying other cultures. What I found the most interesting were the failed attempts at understanding the culture by those who were trying to emulate it. Though the intentions were good, groups that idealized Native American culture in the sixties still managed to oversimplify the culture and impose their own ideals into their perception of the culture. It shows just how unique Native American culture is, and it becomes more and more clear as I read trickster tales and have to constantly catch and then reprimand myself for colonizing the texts.
The Night Chant was very eye opening for me. I found it to be repetitive at first and did not really appreciate it. It was later on in the week that thinking back to it I realized that I didn't appreciate it because I was trying to hard to relate to something else to try to make sense of it. My brain is based in relations and anytime I encounter something I try to make sense of it through past experiences. Now that I have come to terms with the fact that I am not going to be able to to clarify anything I find in the text with Western ideas, I am appreciating the stories for what they are.
The trickster tales themselves are very funny and I find that they are easy to get through. Even the tales that have many of the same mechanisms are interesting and I don't feel as if I am just getting through them for class. One of the things that I notice, and I'm sure we all did, is the number four. So saying that "It is significant to the culture" does not stave my curiosity. So being intrigued I looked into the significance and found an article that explained it. (http://www.examiner.com/native-american-spirituality-in-denver/totems-of-the-four-directions). So I cross referenced the article and found that one recurring view is the tie to the four directions.  Understanding the origin of the of the number helps appreciate the repetition, especially when it is beginning to become monotonous.
 I misread the syllabus and read the next section of the trickster tales and found especially interesting the section on love. The very funny and sometimes vulgar nature of the stories is very unfamiliar to those like me who are use to Western style folk tales, though they also contain modern ideas that are relatable. The old tales still contain humor that a modern audience can appreciate.
The tale "The Cheater Cheated" involves the cheating of a French man. I was unaware of the newness of some of the tales until I had read this. With that in mind the next tale "The Spider Cries Wolf" is incredibly similar to the Western idiom of the boy who cried wolf. I makes me wonder how many of the tales were influenced by Western civilization, as they were oral tales that have no definitive manuscript that pre dates Western influence. Not being able to know for certain how close the tales are to the originals, or even how much they changed after contact with Western civilization is upsetting.