What do you think ( Linda )

The fate of Native Americans has often been compared to the Holocaust in Germany during WWII. Do you think this comparison is fair and justified?

I think this comparison is fair and justified. When the government of the United States set up reservations, they signed up the Indians who were assigned to that particular reservation. Everybody was given a number. It’s a way to keep track of them. Hitler did the same thing by giving the Jews a star and putting them in concentration camps. The Jewish people weren’t allowed to leave these camps. Indians were also forbidden to leave their reservations. Hitler wrote that the prison camps in the United States were model for his concentration camps.

How have Western films influenced your opinion of Native Americans? What are the effects of stereotyping people and how do you think this could be applied to the modern Native American?

My opinion of Native Americans is based on Western films. All these films give me the same image of an Indian. In films, all Indians look exactly the same. They have a brown skin, wear a head with feathers all over it and make weird sounds. The men go hunting for animals and they are fighting with the cowboys or other Indian groups. I think that an stereotyping people can have bad effects to those people. They might feel like they aren’t worth being seen as well educated people. It makes us think those people only have simple thoughts, that they don’t belong in modern society. The modern Native American could be more modern then we think.

How objective have the makers of the documentary “The Canary Effect” been?

I think the makers of the documentary “The Canary Effect” have been quite objective by using photos and documents. I think the experts in the documentary were telling facts that can be proven. The documentary isn’t fully objective, because some Indians were telling stories about what they saw. Those Indians might have exaggerated their stories, because they are angry about what happened to them.

 In what way would the lives of Native Americans be different today if there had not been any treaties?

I think the lives of Native Americans would be totally different today if there had not been any treaties. There would be a lot more Native Americans and they would be accepted as every other American. This would give them the opportunity to expand their culture. They also would feel a lot better about themselves and have more chances in life. The cultures of Native Americans and “normal” Americans would have mixed a bit. Children would grow up while learning about both cultures, instead of only seeing movies with stereotypes of Native Americans.

Some people claim that there were positive aspects to the boarding school system. What do you think?

In my opinion people who claim that there were positive aspects to the boarding school system are right. It’s very important for a child’s future to be well-educated. In boarding schools children learn everything they need to get a good job, but those boarding schools weren’t good for the happiness of those children. They had to go away from their parent at a very young age. So the boarding school system didn’t have only good sides.

Why do you think Native American novels often reflect on the past? 

I think Native American novels often reflect on the past, because the opinion most people have about these Indians is very obsolete. In novels we keep writing about we know about them, which isn’t that much. We keep falling back in stereotypes, because it’s nice to recognise things in books that we already know. At the same time, we seem to forget that those Native Americans have also changed over time.

What do you think about this topic in general? Does history repeat itself?

This topic is matching with my interests, because, although I didn’t choose the subject in school, I like history and I like reading and learning more about stories. I read a lot of western books in the past, in Dutch. Those are called “Arendsoog en Witte Veder”. I highly recommend them, but you might be a bit too old to read them, they’re a bit childish. Anyways, where was I. I think this project has made me realise that the history repeats itself. We human beings are so stupid, we keep making the same mistakes, but I shouldn’t be so pessimistic. We should let our children know what happened in the past and keep talking about things such as war and stereotyping. Maybe the history will stop repeating itself, and if not, maybe it’s just meant to be.