Stereotypes of the 'Indian Princess' and the 'Easy Squaw'
As we've seen, the stereotypes of the 'Indian Princess' and the 'Easy Squaw' exults and degrades. Although these images are an imaginary construct, they have very real effect on the lives of First Nations women. First Nations women writers battle these stereotypes in different ways. Beth Brant is one of them.
Beth Brant is a Mohawk lesbian writer, a mother, a grandmother who has written books articles, edited anthologies, gathered oral histories, mentored younger First Nation writers. She began writing when she was forty years old. She's the editor of Gathering of Spirit, a collection by North American Indian Women, author of Mohawk Trail, Food and Spirits, I'll Sing 'till the Day I ...
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at the Basket and the Bow, the themes of recovery and transformation - recovery being stronger that the disease of homophobia, asking the hard questions of internalized hatreds and transforming these hatreds into a journey of healing and the transformative power of sexuality. Although she has not found the word for 'lesbian' in Mohawk, in her research she has found the names in the language of many other first nations ('Nadle, shopan, a-go-kwa, ayekkewe, bade, winkte, geenumu gesallagee, ma ai, pote are the words in Navajo, Aleut, Chippewa, Cree, Crow, Lakota, Micmac, Shoshone respectively, that are still in use' p.48 Writing as Witness.) And this uncovering, this searching of other two-spirited people, Beth Brant gains strength in numbers and determination. Writing is survival. In Mohawk Trail, she casts the Coyote as trickster tricked by her own trick. In "The Long Story" she parallels the theft of First Nations children by the state in the past with the present day theft of ...
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Stereotypes of the 'Indian Princess' and the 'Easy Squaw'. (2011, May 17). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Stereotypes-of-Indian-Princess-Easy-Squaw/99252
"Stereotypes of the 'Indian Princess' and the 'Easy Squaw'." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 17 May. 2011. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Stereotypes-of-Indian-Princess-Easy-Squaw/99252>
"Stereotypes of the 'Indian Princess' and the 'Easy Squaw'." Essayworld.com. May 17, 2011. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Stereotypes-of-Indian-Princess-Easy-Squaw/99252.
"Stereotypes of the 'Indian Princess' and the 'Easy Squaw'." Essayworld.com. May 17, 2011. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Stereotypes-of-Indian-Princess-Easy-Squaw/99252.
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