Otto-Stealing Agency

Agency is a key component to living a full life and one without it may not necessarily be considered to have a valued human life, as well as do serious damage to an individual. In sociology and philosophy agency is how a person acts in the world. Human agency is the capability for a person to make conscious choices and to exploit these choices onto others. The Native American genocide in the United States, as well as the overall treatment of Native Americans living on reservations is a dulled down tragedy of American history. This period of time could be likened to that of the Holocaust, where the Native Americans played the part of the Jews; they were being forcibly moved into restricted areas, having essentially no rights, and being treated poorly due to their race. This poor treatment is emphasized in Louise Erdrich’s “Saint Marie” when a young girl joining the Sacred Heart Convent who is tortured by one of the sisters, Sister Leopolda. Similarly, in Pow Wow Highway(1989), the Native Americans are treated without respect or compassion and are merely being used by the white American for their resources and land. While “Saint Marie” is about a young girl attempting to join the convent, a white idea, Pow Wow Highway is about a group of individuals trying to preserve not only their land, but also their old traditions and stories, namely the history of their people.

Philbert Bono(Gary Farmer) appears to be simple man, but one who wants to live out the old traditions and legends that his aunt has told him about. He dreams of being a Native American hero, naming his “horse” which was really a beat up car, “The Protector.” He tells stories to young children about their ancestors because the stories are being lost in this youthful generation emphasizing how the white Americans were slowly driving out the Native American ideals. The fact that Native Americans could also be sold into slavery takes away even more from these people’s agency. They were being stripped of their rights and began to lose their culture within the fast-pace movement of the white American. Buddy Red Bow(A Martinez) attempts to save the reservation land, and he is angry about how his people are being kept down at the bottom, with no equal rights and status.

Marie Joins the nunnery but is too prideful to run away after Sister Leopolda first abuses her. Marie uses her pain and wounds against Sr. Leopolda when all of the other nuns believe that Marie is a Saint. This emphasizes the individuality of Marie. She goes against the odds and through her diligence is able to make these women believe that she is something to be valued. This is what the Native Americans want, to be valued and respected, but American were not treating them as such.

White Americans took away agency from the Native American population, which is a disturbing thought for modern times that “the land of the free” would commit such crimes and have their own Holocaust, their own genocide of an innocent group of people. This treatment of people from Americans seems surreal, but it happened, and we have to face the consequences.