Medicine Journal #3: The Long Journey from the Deep Woods to Civilization

Week 3 Student Competencies:
The student can:

1. Articulate a balanced perspective upon lessons to be learned from the life story of Lakota writer Ohiyesa (aka Charles Alexander Eastman), who chronicles the last Indian War of 1890 at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and include the perspective of his wife upon these events as well (LSPO #1).

2. Take a position upon what historical elements from the Lakota story, if any, should be passed on today to the American mainstream in order to avoid repeating negative behaviors from our past history and support this position with evidence from the learning materials (LSPO #3 & #5).

Required Reading Material:
Book: From the Deep Woods to Civilization by Charles (Ohiyesa) Eastman. This is the story of a Lakota Sioux boy who grew up in the Native ways of his people and then crossed over to white society through his education as a medical doctor. His historical narrative offers an excellent example of how Native Peoples take the “history of the heart” approach to understanding and passing on important past events. (As you read through the book, be sure to mark any pages that especially capture your interest. It will be very important to refer back to those pages in the writing assignment.)
Week 3 Writing Task: Medicine Journal #3: The Long Journey from the Deep Woods to Civilization

READ. Read all of Eastman’s book From the Deep Woods to Civilization. Here again is the direct link to an online version of this book: https://archive.org/details/deepwoodsto00eastrich

Be sure to mark or write down on separate paper pages that particularly interest you as you go. You will need page numbers to refer to specific examples, facts, stories, etc. in the writing assignment below.

WRITE. Write a Medicine Journal entry of a minimum of TWO pages in response to the questions below. Be sure to follow proper MLA Paper Format as you write. Take care to organize your writing into coherent paragraphs and to use page numbers from the book for any quotes, examples, facts or other important information that you take directly from the book. Here again is the MLA Journal Format Model: MLA Journal Writing Format (attached) View in a new window

1. Overall, what are the 2-4 passages from Eastman’s pages that gave you the most to think about? Explain with examples and quotes.

2. Near the end of Chapter II, Eastman’s Lakota grandmother makes a most interesting critique of mainstream American society. She is shocked by a world where not only the months and days of the year are carefully named and counted, but we even break up a single minute into 60 seconds so as to be able to keep track of our time down to the very second. In response, she says, “It is not a true life. It is a sham. I cannot bear to see my boy live in a made-up life” (p. 28). Have you ever wondered why we call January “January” and Monday “Monday”? Who decided these names? Who decided that our children will hate Monday because it is not only the first day of the week but also a dreaded school day? Who decided that we will all love our Saturdays and Sundays because we do not have to work those days? How different would it be to live in grandmother’s world where people got up with the rising sun and went to bed when the sun went down? How different would it be not to work a certain number of hours, minutes, and seconds each day to earn enough money to pay bills and to buy things that we often do not really need but only want because “everyone is getting one”? How different would it be to live in harmony with the natural world from day to day, season to season, childhood to old age? When you think of these things, what do you think of grandmother’s critique of our modern “made up life”?

3. By the end of his book, Eastman has followed another of his grandmother’s teachings, which is “When you see a new trail, or a footprint that you do not know, follow it to the point of knowing” (p. 28). What seems to be his position on “civilization” at the end of his book? What has he come to “know”? Has he become a “white man” or does he remain a Lakota at the end? Explain with quotes.

4. Finally, at the end of this sentence is another artfully presented Native proverb. When you read this proverb and relate it to all that you have studied this week, what closing thoughts and insights into the eventful life of Charles Ohiyesa Eastman does it bring to you? Every struggle.jpg