Response to Mankiller

***Tol, hopefully this is alright, but I sort of borrowed a concept from Walker's response and added my own thoughts to the idea. I figured since blogging is a kind of discussion forum anyways that you wouldn't mind, but if you do just let me know.***

Wilma MankillerҀs autobiography was definitely different than any kind of biography I have ever read. The way she incorporated Cherokee history into her own personal story really enriched the reading for me. This past year I took an introductory course in Native American history, so a lot of the history she recounted in the book was familiar to me already. I have never been particularly interested in just reading history, but the way Mankiller emphasized the struggles of the Cherokee people through her own trials managed to keep me captivated in the book.

As a Psychology major, when learning about the past of a particular people I like to get a social view into their lives. In WalkerҀs response he brings up the idea of MankillerҀs book showing readers the рremembered historyҀ of the Cherokees; I found this to be a very astute observation because for me it pinpointed exactly what makes the book interesting. I find oral history to be a much more personal look into a culture than just what you will find written in a regular history book, so I think the stories were an important addition for the feel Mankiller tried to give her autobiography. A facet of her book that I thought emphasized this idea of a рremembered historyҀ was the traditional Cherokee stories provided at the beginning of each chapter. The creation story told at the beginning of the second chapter particularly caught my interest because I have actually heard it before in my Native American History course. My class watched an animated short of this story being told in the Cherokee language (with English subtitles). Reading this story again in MankillerҀs book reminded me of the things IҀll be able to experience from this trip. I find oral history to be a much more personal look into a culture than just what you will find written in a history book, so I think the stories were an important addition to the book.

I cannot say the book has actually caused any questions to arise for me; rather it has just inspired a general enthusiasm for learning more about the Cherokee people first-hand. I canҀt wait to get to Oklahoma and see for myself how these people incorporate their past into present times.