week eight response

This week I have been spending a lot of time gathering supplies and planning for my plant journal. Though I know a fair amount about PNW native plants, I feel like the information gained through Keeping it Living and our other texts has been invaluable to so much -- this course, the particular project, but also how I approach and think about plants in my day to day life.

When thinking about my experiences with plants, this course, and Keeping it Living, I keep going back to Philip Drucker's work; particularly, his introduction of the idea of ownership and privilege. Up until this point, I had been thinking about the Earth (and its inhabitants - plants, animals, etc) in separate systems -- an "us vs. them" perspective. I think it is so important to critically examine why I was thinking that way, and why many non-Indigenous people instinctively feel that way as well. When I actually go out into the field to collect the plants for my project (I need them to be fresh, so it will be closer to the due date), I want to be prepared to interact with the environment on a fluid level. I want to rid myself of the European concept of "the plants are there because they are there" entirely. Everything interacts, and everything that has happened in the formation of this land has contributed to the way that the canopy, the forest floor, and everything in between exist now. I feel like this may be common sense, but it is something that I honestly never considered past face value until this course. I think that this may be the most important concept that I've drawn from the course, and I want to explore it in a deeper manner in my final reflection.

week seven response

This week I really enjoyed the film, literature, and discussions surrounding Indigenous youth. I have read several books, both nonfiction and novels, about youth in Indigenous cultures, so it was interesting to see them speak on the film we watched on Tuesday. I am a Dream Project volunteer and work with some Native American teens, so it was very beneficial for me to gain another perspective on what else is possibly going on in their life and culture, outside of what is discussed regularly at school.

I have actually already read "We Have to Take Care of Everything That Belongs to Us" before, for another class. I've actually found that I've already read many of the required texts, and already owned some of the required books. Regardless, I am rereading them for this class, because it is interesting to read them through again through a different lens. I am particularly looking forward to working with the Pojar text again while working on my herbarium project -- I have already started, and I am eager to finish and share with the class.

week 6 response

I missed my reflection last week -- oops. This quarter has been very hectic with family activities and taxes, and I work in accounting. Though I am missing class today, I feel connected to the group in knowledge, because we are all consuming the same material. I feel that this is integral in utilizing all aspects of education. In addition to the information the instructor provides, I also receive information from speakers, texts, videos, and other forms of media. This inspires me to go on and do my own further research, whether it be by going out in the field and looking at plants, or by doing a quick google search on attributes of the Pacific Northwest region.

In addition to these tools of knowledge, my peers play a huge part in this class in particular. Working with a group last week to make posters of the last 20,000 years was hugely beneficial and I hope to do more group work like that.

For my plant journal, I will be collecting plant specimens while hiking either Twin Falls or Rattlesnake, whatever is flowering best when I go out. I hope to invite several classmates along with me, for companionship or to gather specimens of their own.

Robert's visit to the class was very interesting to me. I think the topic that interested me the most is how the water treaties were interpreted by the Indigenous population as they would be able to with their background knowledge, a kind of knowledge and worldview vastly different from what is taught in American schools. I think this is the underlying issue in so many relations between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples. I look forward to learning about this further this week.

Week four response

Yesterday's class was really important to me. It was refreshing to be able to connect with my peers and hear about why they were there, what they wanted to learn, and what they already knew about Indigenous history, Pacific Northwest history, environmental issues, and overall their hopes and dreams for this class and beyond. One thing I really enjoyed about Antioch was the in depth seminars; I have not been able to find this yet at UW -- except for in this class. It was invigorating to see and hear what others have to bring to the table, so to speak -- everyone knew something different, and everyone had a unique passion that they wanted to talk about. Bringing it all together into one discussion really made me feel that community and community organization is the key to unlearning problematic behaviors and habits, and growing in a positive manner.

The Cedar readings were great this week as well. I am extremely passionate about knitting, spinning wool, and weaving, so it was really fascinating to learn about the many uses for cedar, and how women and men interacted with it differently. I thought it was especially interesting that men and women had their own kinds of baskets for different things. I assumed that different kinds of baskets/carriers/boxes would be used for different activities; Fish would be carried in a different kind of basket than a baby, for example. I did not know the in depth intricacies of the many uses for cedar, and I am very grateful to have read this book.

Week three reflection

In my opinion, the third week of the quarter is the one of the best weeks. You begin to have a handle on the concepts covered, and form opinions about the material. This week was probably my most successful week so far. Seeing how passionate Jewel James and Kurt Russo are about preservation of trees, forests, and Indigenous practices really hit me hard. Though I didn't doubt the horrific realities and destruction of culture that has affected First Peoples for so long, hearing it firsthand from Jewel was intense. It happened so recently in time -- the eagle feathers being banned, the arrests, fishing restrictions -- that it really put into perspective how desperately necessary it is to advocate for Indigenous rights.

Reading Indians of the Pacific Northwest has been a great experience this week as well.  I like that it is written in the first person, and I like that honest thoughts and thought processes are shown. It has been very intriguing to read about practices such as ways to prepare salmon, fishing techniques, and local myths/legends. I have read about these things before, but only in historical fiction and poetry.

week three reading notes

An Atlas of Indigenous Seattle
http://books.google.com/books?id=hr__fFaUFL0C&pg=pa209#v=onepage&q&f=false

• We won't see what we expect to see - totem poles, etc
• Landscape was/is varied, intellectual
• Waterman's work classified First Peoples as "primitive" etc, looked down on their naming conventions, culture
• Biggest problem with Puget Sound geography has been accessibility

Indians of the Pacific Northwest

in Kindle App

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week three reading notes

week three reading notes

week two response

This week, the topic of language was incredibly interesting to me. I knew that many languages have been wiped out, but I was not aware of the sheer volume of languages -- not just dialects -- that have gone missing. It is interesting to me that so many different nations, tribes, and communities had different languages. If there were similarities or differences, where did they lie? From previous classes, I know that many sounds, particularly palate-oriented sounds, cross language boundaries, but I'm not sure how those similarities came to be.

I feel that my background knowledge grew a lot with these readings to help me interpret what we are studying and will continue to study in class. For example, I was not aware that many nations and tribes had social hierarchies. That is something that history textbooks never cover (if they cover Indigenous history at all) and I experienced a bit of cognitive dissonance over the fact that I had never considered it before. Nevertheless, it has inspired me to do some reading on the topic outside of class to further grow my foundation of knowledge that will help me get the most out of this course.

week two reading notes

week two reading notes

week one response paper

In Native Science, Natural Laws of Interdependence, Gregory Cajete states, "The only constant is change". I feel that this is relevant to this class, the readings, and the relations present in our lives as a whole. From my worldview, Cajete means that nothing ever stops evolving, whether it be humans, plants, animals, nature, emotions, or perspective. This theme was apparent in the other readings this week, and also in my previous experiences with this subject matter.

I have approached the topics of native plants and First Peoples in other courses, and it has been intriguing to see the first glimpse of how they interact with such intrinsic interdependence. Upon hearing this quote, I pictured in my head a video I came across on the internet at one point. It shows a tree changing, from a tiny sprout to a huge, towering creature. Around it, the other flora grows, and dies, and grows, and dies. Sometimes a human or animal walks past, climbing or touching the tree. I feel that this is a great literal and metaphorical description for Cajete’s feelings towards change. The tree changes throughout its life; the scenery and life forms around it change as well. However, they all exist throughout the image. The tree, humans, animals, and other plant life all take on different forms of growth and destruction. Despite this, they are always there, always growing and changing.

week one reading notes

Personal notes:

Cedar book is in my Google books (personal account): https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=N3kyLJycxeMC&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PP1

Indians of the Pacific Northwest is in my Kindle app

Pojar is physical book

Still need to buy Keeping It Living