Asmussen Powwow Highway and Saint Marie

There are many different ways that one can protect their cultural identity. In the movie Powwow Highway and in the short story Saint Marie we are shown a number of ways to defend ones personal identity and culture against modern day genocide. Filbert Bono is a very unique character with a very strong sense of identity and a strong bond with history. In the movie we are shown his desire to find the Indian American Dream and become a warrior. One of the first instances we see this is when he buys a car, his pony, and sees a field full of wild horses to choose from. Then the camera zooms back into reality and we see that he is still looking at a junk yard full of old cars. He seems to see things through the eyes of the old Indian warriors. Filbert is trying to protect both his personal identity and community identity by continuing traditions that have been done by his ancestors. He believes he is on a quest to be a warrior and has already picked out a warrior name.When they are stopped on the road, Filbert tells an old tale to the group and the story ends with a moral. Red Bow criticizes him and says that telling stories will not solve their problems. Filbert disagrees and says that this old tales can help then and tell them how to save their reservation. Filbert deals with the modern day genocide of his people by not only practicing traditions but also trying to preserve them by educating others about them. He asks his grandmother for advice of the old days and on the road trip he stops by places of importance to Indian American culture and history. One of these is the mountain that they stop by where he leaves his Hershey bar, a little token of his personal identity in a place full the identity of his ancestors, represented by the ribbons and bells.

Buddy Red Bow’s struggle to protect his identity is on a much more realistic and less spiritual element than Filbert’s. Red Bow wants to protect his tribe and is one of the only ones that speaks out during the meetings discussing the future of the reservation. He stands up and tried to convince his people that they are being fed lies and that jobs have in fact decreased and the reservation is being exploited. Red Bow deals with a lot of discrimination and he always fights against it. He protects his identity by actively fighting and therefore is frequently getting in trouble with the law. An example of this is when he is buying a radio for Filberts car. The salesman doesn’t think that they can afford the most expensive model in the store and when Red Bow asks for it he calls him “chief” and tells him that one isn’t on sale. This blatant discrimination bothers Red Bow and this is why he has no problems running back into the store and beating the salesman when he thinks the radio isn’t working. When it comes to dealing with genocide, Filbert takes the more passive road of preservation while Red Bow believes they must defend it.

In the story of Marie and Sr. Leopolda, we see that Marie deals with her struggle to protect her identity in a very unique way. In her story we see that her and Sr. Leopolda do not get along at all and she is abused by her. Sr. Leopolda makes her superiority to her very clear and even says that she has two options “ she can marry a no-good Indian, bear his brats, die like a dog. Or two, [she] can give [herself] to God.” Because of this, Marie is determined not to run away, even though she is being abused and burned, and become superior to Sr. Leopolda. She wants to beat her at her own game. She was determined to show them that their ideas of being superior to them were wrong, that she would in fact turn the tables and make them kneel before her. However, in the end we see that she doesn’t enjoy making all the nuns kneel before her, she doesn’t enjoy being superior and abusing her power like they do.