Optional Short Writing
In "The People and the Land ARE Inseparable," how is Leslie Marmon Silko providing a map for her readers? What is she mapping? Why is she mapping it?

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Short Writing 1
Why has the National Academy of Science (NAS) labeled the Navajo reservation a "national sacrifice area"? What is being sacrificed? For whom?

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Short Writing 2
We have begun the semester with environmental essays in both Churchill's Struggle for the Land and Grinde and Johansen's Ecocide of Native America. Briefly describe what you see as the purpose of each book overall (not within each chapter). Which book is more effective in achieving that purpose? Use examples from the text(s) to support your argument.

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Short Writing 3
What are land trusts and what role do they play in Mean Spirit? How do land trusts interrupt relationships? What are the cultural consequences of these land trusts for the Osage?

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Short Writing 4
In Mean Spirit, Linda Hogan writes a short passage about different kinds of spiritual renewal:

"That autumn night after payment, a peyote ceremony was going to take palce in the arbor at Twin Forks Road. Also, a carnival had been erected just outside the Watona town limits. The Pentacostal Brethren set up their own tent, as always, as close to the carnival as they could get, hoping to catch stragglers that passed by and save their souls. All three events customarily accompanied payment times when the town was richly populated with Indian people whose pockets were full and whose tired spirits longed for renewal" (66).

These spiritual "practices" are also about different ways of knowing, different systems of knowledge. Think of another example from Mean Spirit that demonstrates Hogan's belief in interacting and interdependent ways of knowing about (some aspect of) the land. You may want to consider land use, a sense of place, or the formation of identity, for example.

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Short Writing 5
Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony has storytelling at its center. How can a story be a ceremony? What connections can you make between the two? What power do stories and ceremonies have? How might Tayo be healed?

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Short Writing 6
There are a variety of rituals in the Ceremony, among them storytelling, blaming, remembering, hunting, healing. Choose one of these rituals and trace several examples throughout the novel. How does it serve as a ritual? How are these ceremonies?

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Short Writing 7
What is LaDuke's call to action in Chapter Ten? How is she using the concept of the "seventh generation"? How does that concept apply to literature by Native American authors?

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Short Writing 8
Thomas King includes a variety of creation stories in Green Grass, Running Water. After looking back at your class notes about creation stories and culture, consider King's revision of Genesis on pages 72-77. What does King's revision suggest about creation stories or the cultures on which they are founded? Does his obvious use of humor undermine or emphasize the point(s) he makes about creation stories and culture?

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Short Writing 9
In Solar Storms, Angel reflects on a map that Bush wants to use for their journey (on pages 122-123 and in other places as well). How does Hogan characterize the map? What other kinds of knowledge does she present in the novel to either complement or contradict that map? How does Hogan specifically tie (or not) maps to place?

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Short Writing 10
Consider the interconnections of genre, structure, and theme in Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain. How do these literary elements affect one another in the book?

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Short Writing 11
Identify what you perceive as the single most important action that the Puyallup tribe undertook to "rise from the ashes" and argue its importance. Would that action work for other peoples that we have studied this semester?

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Short Writing 12
See Group Project assignment sheet.

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