Friday, July 11, 2008
Athletics + Assimilation
When learning about how much emphasis was placed on athletics at Haskell in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, I was not sure how I felt about this. Obviously there were many positive things that came from the success of Haskell athletics, but the very nature of having them seemed weird to me. Whether Native Americans used to hunt and gatherer, practice sedentary agriculture, or a mixture of the two, the main focus of native peoples throughout history was to keep intact their culture and beliefs. Since Americans have had a drastic impact on their culture they now are restricted in their practices. Going from a lifestyle of trying to meet basic needs, to a culture that competes in athletics at an international level shows how much influence Americans have had on their culture. To me this seemed like the last straw, what else can the United States take away or add to their culture? The assimliation that was talked about in the article which talked about schools was also quite amazing. The reference that was made about how the United States even wanted the Native Americans to go by "clock time" rather than "natural time" was mind boggling. I am overwhelmed with how ignorant people can be. Wowzers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I agree with your comments on athletics. I feel that athletics were an opportunity for Natives to escape certain pitfalls that came at all of them in general. Like the examples given in class, a few were able to achieve national promnence and international prestiege.
I can see where you are coming from about the athletic training but advancing in athletics may have simply given them a way to advocate for the Native American cause to the American government and Americans that were simply judging them from stereotypes. They may have been trying to escalate the status of their people with their achievements. Also were they athletes given some sort of finanical subsidies or tuition assistance that would be useful in providing for their families? That may have been a factor in their decision to participate as well.
I personally found the emphasis and even recruiting based on athletics to be rather strange, considering the emphasis on actually education and learning was rather dismal. I think it may also come from the same stereotype that existed in WWI, where whites saw Native Americans as possessing some sort of superhuman abilities in areas of pure physical talent and competitiveness. That just seems crazy to me, but I sure wish I had some superhuman physical abilities.
I think that even today, at all schools, emphasis on athletics is often stronger than it should be. This was not just a problem for those Native Assimilation schools.
Post a Comment