Cardon - Powwow Highway & Saint Marie

I was rather surprised to read and view material on Native Americans considering that the name of the course is Holocaust in Literature in Film, but it was a nice break from the familiar scenery and storylines. It was also nice to have some female characters with Marie Lazarre and Bonnie Red Bow. The two mediums dealt with identity much differently compared to one another. Red Bow and Phil were very proud and protective of their culture/heritage compared to the short story’s main character, Marie, who was more focused on hiding her ethnicity. She also went to the extreme of converting to Catholicism because of the Sacred Heart nuns. The Sacred Heart Convent was interesting to see in the reading, because I attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart on St. Charles and we were always taught about Philippine Duchesne and how she taught the young Indian children. The tribe that she taught was the Potawatomi who gave her the name of “Kwah-kah-kum-ad,” the Woman Who Prays Always. We were never taught the discrimination faced by the Indians from the hands of the religious, such as Sister Leopolda. Erdrich brings up the fact that through the feeling/emotion of displacement can stem racism. Marie and Leopolda understand one another and more importantly each knows the extent to which the other will go to manipulate the power granted through institutionalized religion. In Powwow Highway, the one particular scene that screamed to me how Red Bow and Phil feel towards the white man is after they leave the Christmas powwow and stop at the rest stop by the factory/power plant. They are sitting at a picnic table and Red Bow is going off on how the white man intends to rape their land and resources (their history & culture as well) for a profit. Even though Phil through out the film appears to be aloof and somewhat out of it, his intentions and desires to be a warrior for his Cheyenne tribe are really shown. Red Bow’s intentions are good as well, but his rough exterior sometimes got in the way of him properly expressing himself. He doesn’t appear to be quite so in touch with the traditions that Phil is so intrigued and respectful of. We also see this as they are driving to Santa Fe and Red Bow finds the spider in the glove compartment. Phil swerves so Red Bow wont kill the spider. He believes that it is one of the three tokens that are good luck or what he calls medicine in helping them on their “journey” of sorts. In the end they wind up sort of “sticking” it to the white man: Phil busts Red Bow’s out of jail, he takes about four thousand grand in cash from the police vault, and they escape the cop chase successfully.