http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6PU7eNrJnE
In response to this you tube video:

When looking at Us history and its relationships and policies put in place to deal with tribes you are presented with a lot of tragedy and loss. So much of US policy was aimed at completly removing native's from their own identity, this idea of "kill the Indian save the man". Stripping away a people's culture and attempting to "white" wash them and make them fit into this cookie-cutter mold what is to be "civilized", and what is "acceptable" behavior. I think this movie shows the damage these policies have had on native communities but has also shown their resilience and strength. You can see the impact these policies had on this woman's family with the death of her grandmother's brother in the boarding school and how inturn her grandmother refused to teach her own children their traditional ways and language out of fear. The narrator brings up her own desires to learn her own language and spread it on to her kids and future generations. Although, the government had implaced such culturally genocidal policies somehow native people beat the odds and fought to keep their identies and culture alive. Maybe some parts have been lost or have been changed, because culture DOES change it is not static, but there is still this value and need for traditional ways and teachings. They are still here and they will continue to be in the future no matter how hard the government tries to, "kill the Indian" they will continue to survive.

Brianna Howze