Nick Berndt

Period 7th & 8th

5/24/17

Reflection

My experiences as a junior in the AGS community have been a roller coaster of

emotions, to say the least, whether it be staying up late doing last minute homework or having
fun on the trips we take as a family, especially this year everything we do can be traced back to
educate us on Native culture and how the American culture has intervened with it. Throughout
the year we go on miniature field trips but once a year we go on a main trip and this year that trip
was to New Mexico where we got to really immerse ourselves in the remaining Native cultures
in that area while having a blast doing so. Before we could have all of these stressful nights and
fun days we were tasked with creating a question that addresses the interaction between Native
Americans and non-natives throughout early american history. My question was How have
common misconceptions of Native Americans shaped their relationship with the American
Government and the American people?. This question has been answered during this school
year through assignments, projects, and trips that we have done or taken.
The first assignment that aided me in answering my question was assigned before the
school year even started. This was the summer assignment in U.S. History. During this
assignment we were tasked to watch a multitude of videos and take notes on a template. These
videos helped me get a better understanding of how the people that were native to this land
behaved before and after European powers took over. This was a very good starting point to help
answer my question because it gave a very broad view on how the expansion of the new world
affected the Natives culturally and economically. The Natives whole world changed after the
continent was discovered by Europe in more ways than one, the way that they gathered food,
their social systems, and even their use of resources were all altered by the new arrival of
settlers.
The next assignment that I would like to talk about is a project that was given to us in
history from the same era of as the summer assignment. For this project we were all given
different regions of the pre-columbian era and had to research the different Native American
tribes and the ways that they lived based on the surrounding geography. My group was given the
south west region of the current United States and the tribes that inhabited that area. We were to
search the internet to find the economics, social and political structures, as well as the types of
housing that they had. Once we had this information we had to create a graphic organizer on
popplet and present it to the class so we could acquire information on all of the regions. This
project gave us a basic understanding of how the natives thrived before the current United States
was discovered, which then once we get further along in the American history we can relate to
how they lived before American history was called American history. Which in turn has helped
me answer my question by giving me the necessary information to make a comparison of past to
present.
Later in the year in English we watched a movie called Smoke Signals and took notes
as we watched. This movie was based on the daily life of an American Indian and his family and
 Nick Berndt
Period 7th & 8th
5/24/17

friends living on a reservation in 1988. This movie played a major role in helping me answer my
question because throughout the movie we had to recognise common stereotypes that took place,
which is also what my question is based around. Whether the stereotypes that we saw we
resembled by the Natives in the movie or enforced by the non-natives they were extremely
obvious and purposefully put there to help you recognize how many of these stereotypes are still
around in modern culture. Some of the stereotypes resembled in the movie were small for
example, most of the Natives were portrayed with long black hair or they could have been more
major, like when the main character's dad was a drunk which could imply that Natives are lazy
drunken parents, which is obviously not true. These many stereotypes helped me wrap my head
around how the american culture has helped influence and keep these stereotypes afloat in
today's society.
Earlier in the year while in U.S. History we were assigned a mini lesson on how the
culture of the Native Americans was impacted by the Europeans. During this lesson we were
assigned several documents to analyze how the Natives reacted the way that they did when the
Europeans started to colonize their land. After completing this assignment you can see how the
multiple stereotypes that were formed by the non-natives are not true but still impact the Natives
today. This Has helped me answer my question by giving me more information on how these
common misconceptions have originated in the native/non-native history and seeing how, even
though they might not be as common now, have still played a major role in the way that
non-natives view the remaining Natives in this country. Ultimately this assignment has let me
see the history of Native Americans in this country through a different point of view than I am
used to which has opened my eyes and changed the way I think about American history.
Another project that we completed in History was the Dakota/Sioux war project. For this
project we were given 29 documents to narrow down to 10 as a group. With these 10 documents
that were split throughout our group we were tasked with analyzing them for historical context,
audience, purpose, and the significance of the piece. Once this was done we created a
Powerpoint with all of our information to share with the class. This project taught me how the
rising government in this country viewed and treated the Native Americans as subhuman savages
that had earned no rights in our government. This viewpoint is predominant in one of the
documents titled Indian Land for Sale. In this document you can see an advertisement that was
put out by the government to sell the prime land that was owned purely by the Natives as a way
to undermine their basic human rights and privileges. This project helps answer my question
because after seeing how the American government portrayed the Natives in ads you can see
how these stereotypes were produced by the brainwashing of the American people by the
Government.
Towards the end of the year during English class we had a socratic seminar based on the
types of stereotypes that minorities, especially Native Americans, face in this country. This
socratic seminar helped me get a better perspective on the numerous stereotypes that minorities
suffer from in this country. After carrying out the seminar I have now gathered multiple
 Nick Berndt
Period 7th & 8th
5/24/17

viewpoints from other people in my class that brought different research to the table. These new
perspectives have helped me answer my question by giving me different misconceptions and
stereotypes and how they have plagued the relationship between the Natives and the American
government.
During the SouthWest trip to New Mexico, one of the activities we did was disburse
throughout the ToHajiilee community school and help with multiple grade levels and activities.
I was chosen to help a second grade class along with other AGS students. We started out helping
them with spelling activities and word searches but then we got into writing and it reminded me
a lot about how they teach kids to right at the elementary school that I went to. This surprised me
to to see how similar the practices of such a close-knit community were to how the school
system in the rest of the country is. This clearly showed how the American culture is influencing
cultures that should remain untouched by the American government. Soon enough the culture of
this ToHajiilee community will become so mixed with the modern American culture that you
will not be able to tell the difference and so many of their practices and culture will be lost as
time goes on. After visiting this school I have a better understanding on how the American
government has shifted the culture of the Native Americans by influencing their private culture
with our culture, which has helped me answer my overarching question.
Overall these assignment and experiences have helped me answer my question in ways
that I would never have imagined. I think we can all agree that the beautiful native cultures are
best left alone and away from the hands of the American Government, because when cultures
clash you will end up with people having misconceptions about the other culture that will
eventually turn into stereotypes which will follow that culture through the generations. More
often than not these stereotypes that are created will affect the receiving culture negatively. In the
Native Americans case they have been affected by multiple negative stereotypes that were based
off of the way that the early American Government portrayed them. These have made it harder
for Native Americans to get jobs because if they look a certain way then the business will think
of them as savages or lazy and will refrain from hiring them. Although it is well known that
these are in fact misconceptions the past government has made them look so bad that it has
followed them all the way to present day.

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 Nick Berndt
Period 7th & 8th
5/24/17

Works Cited

She-Philosopher.com: Gallery exhibit (Powhatan's map on deerskin mantle).

She-Philosopher.com: Gallery exhibit (Powhatan's map on deerskin mantle),
www.she-philosopher.com/gallery/powhatan-map.html. Accessed 24 May 2017.