Neither Unca nor Alluca are examples of feminist characters for one simple reason: every action they both take is motivated by the pursuit of a man.

“persuaded his wife to conform to European dress

The entirety of the first two chapters reads like a male colonialist’s wet dream

North American botany,

could not reek more of predictability and cliche.

but let’s imagine authentic Princess Unca barbie dolls

woods in the midst of winter; and yet how to admiration did the Lord preserve them for His holy ends, and the destruction of many still amongst the English!

God seemed to leave his People to themselves, and order all things for His own holy ends. Shall there be evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it?

and they told me I disgraced my master with begging

I went to see how she did, and she was well, considering her captive condition

Whereupon I asked one of them, whether they intended to kill him; he answered me, they would not. He being a little cheered with that, I asked him about the welfare of my husband. He told me he saw him such a time in the Bay, and he was well, but very melancholy

I hoped to be carried to Albany, as the Indians had discoursed before, but that failed also

I should suddenly leap up and run out, as if I had been at home, forgetting where I was, and what my condition was; but when I was without, and saw nothing but wilderness, and woods, and a company of barbarous heathens

was that I desired

that it would be no matter if my head were off too.

Then one of the company drew his sword, and told me he would run me through if I did not go presently.

I had to go through, my master being gone, who seemed to me the best friend that I had of an Indian

I complained it was too heavy, whereupon she gave me a slap in the face, and bade me go

Bible; she snatched it hastily out of my hand, and threw it out of doors

whether he would sell me to my husband

looking that every hour would be the last of its life

in the snow, by a little fire, and a few boughs behind me

being no furniture

God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along

Indians told me they would kill him as he came homeward

se black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell.

Flesh-and-blood Native Americans at variance in dress, thought, or activity from this instant, yet too familiar, prototype are accused of "losing their culture." Myth both becomes and predicts the "acceptable" ethnic reality, and the diversity, past and present, of Native American cultures is once again ignored.

Momaday writes of an unglorious period in American history known to Native Americans as the "Relocation" years.

a Child of the Forest is snatched from the nest and sent off into the Great White World to go to school, train for a job, join the army, or the like

Unquestionably, an understanding of any national literature depends very much on an awareness of a larger cultural context. Without some knowledge of language, of history, of inflection, of the position of the story-teller within the group, without a hint of the social roles played by males and females within the culture, without a sense of the society's humor or priorities, without such knowledge, how can we, as reader or listener, penetrate to the core of meaning in an expression of literary art?

peans, then therefore c) they must all be the same. And to carry this fascinating logic a step further, to its obvious conclusion: d) because Europeans thought they were heading towards the Asian Indies when they collided with America, and e) since Europeans were never wrong, then f) these all-the-same people must of course be INDIANS

so too was the indigenous North American misclassified. It seems simply to have been assumed that because: a) all natives of North America lived in North America,

Societal diversity was accepted, tolerated, and assumed,

More than three hundred cultures, each differentiated to a greater or lesser degree by language, custom, history, and lifeway, were resident north of the Rio Grande at the time Columbus first accidently bumped into the Bahamas.

he estimated ten to twenty million people who lived in what is today the United States and Canada

re- flect aspects of a shared consciousness, an inherently identifiable world-view, a col- lective understanding of custom, language, and tradition.

literature rich in diversity and imagery

This indicates that the Glooskap voyage meant a trip to heaven.

which they merely point at people or animals, to kill them.

The French people fired cannon at him till the afternoon.

“Of leaves.” She replied, “Let the leaves alone. I have something better.” She had many buffalo skins alreadytanned

Whenever you wish to kill anything, though it were half a mile off, point this stick at it.” She pointed it at the deer; it fell dead.

“Mother, if you let any one have this pipe we shall starve.”