Reservations

So I am in Bend, Oregon right now and on the way down I drove through the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. To give you an idea of where this is it is southeast of Portland and north of Bend. It is also near Mt. Hood, Oregon if anyone wanted to go skiing while visiting. I must have blinked or sneezed when I drove through the town because even though the Warm Springs website has a map of it posted, I completely missed it! I did see two houses though (several miles apart)..... and this is on more than 1,000 square miles (according to wikipedia) of reservation.
Apparently there are about 4,000 tribal members (according to the Warm Springs website) living on or around the reservation, so I am still not sure how I missed the town. But any way as I was driving through I was thinking about how beautiful the land was. I realized though that it would be a pretty hard place for any agriculture or livestock because a lot of what I saw was rocky and a lot of it seemed a little steep to drive a tractor up. So in a sense I understand how a lot of tribes when they moved to reservations struggled because they got the bad end of the deal. Because of what they were given they now struggle as a result of choices that were made by white men who most likely thought Native Americans were beneath them.
(I am hoping to write more about this reservation when I pass through it again on my way home)

Writing Books

So I was thinking about Sherman Alexie's book last night and how he put his life story into a book. Then I though what if I did that? Of course it would have to have humor like Alexie's and I really like the pictures in the book, so it would probably end up looking very similar to Alexie's book except it would be about a white girl. I am not sure that story would turn out too well but I tried. So here is what I have come up with so far for my future book:

My school district is so poor that they had to buy land from the state prison and build the school on that. How does that sound going to school right next to the prison and if you miss behave they can just throw you over the fence and have the convicts take care of you for them. During football games there is a supposed rumor that the convicts sit outside in lawn chairs and listen to the football game. I do not know why they would want to do that because our team almost always loses. Maybe they sit and listen to the band because everybody knows that the band is the best part of the game. (Insert picture of convicts sitting in lawn chairs while listening to the football game, which was just over a fence)

As a Sophomore I decided to take the hardest teacher in the school, Mrs. A. She was so proud of her reputation was in the school she kept witch memorabilia tacked to one wall of her classroom. She even referred to herself as a witch! Her collection was complete with a broom and hat. When I first came into that class I was like 'what is wrong with this lady?', I mean I knew she was a hard teacher but isn't that just a little excessive. Turns out the whole witch thing works because she had the whole class scared of her and everyone did their homework. Even if the homework was to write an essay in SSR format assigned 5 minutes ago and do the next day. During that year I was surprised no one had to be hospitalized, there where only a few small mental break down throughout the year. (Insert drawing of Mrs. A on a broom while grading English papers)
________


That is what I have come up with, granted it is still a work in progress. I do have to say I am impressed with Sherman Alexie because he came up with 230 pages of writing and I am having problems coming up with more then 2 paragraphs.

My Thoughts on Pain, Fear and Moving On

Let me be honest......I have no idea what to write about. I am sitting here trying to figure things out and it feels like someone is going to have to take a hammer to my head before I get anything out of here and onto paper. My friend suggested I go into detail about my breakfast this morning, but who honestly cares about that either. By the way, I had a very sad and pathentic looking pancake (not much of a cook). Right now though I feel confused (I guess that would be the best word to describe it) because I do not know how to get all the thoughts I have runnign around onto my computer.
What has happened to the Native American tribes is horrible. I would not want that to heppen to anybody and I understand why many of them would be bitter, but people only hurt others when they express their hatred and it becomes almost contagious. As a very smiley person it is almost impossible for me to hold a grudge and most people get forgiven quickly. But I do understand how many people, especially older generations, stay upset (for lack of a better word), to me it is because they can not forget the pain and move on. For me just because you move on does not mean you have to forget, but because of that the pain becomes less.
I personally would love to forget my fears and pain but they have made me a stronger person because of them.

Analysis Papers and Interesting Facts

So I am writing my analysis paper for my English 102 class and it is really bugging me that i have all these great ideas but I do not know how to write about them. My topic is on Native American education and poverty, you would think that would be easy.... but I am having the hardest time because I feel like I am either talking about education or poverty, not tying the two together.
Interesting things I have found while researching Native American education and poverty:
-50% of Native American school children drop out before completing high school
-36% of males in high-poverty Native American communities have full-time, year-round employment
-30% of Native Americans with families lived in poverty
-the idea of Native American boarding schools was mainly to “exterminate the Indian but develop a man.” said by Commissioner of Indian Affairs William A. Jones in 1903