Annabel Dwyer

AP LANG

Cooper 1

20 May 2019

Southwest Reflection

It’s easy to float down the Rio Grande, look into your surroundings for ox and mountain

goats, and completely disregard the Native American woman sitting right in front of your eyes

and all she has to offer. At least, I noticed it was easy for some peers of mine as we actually

experienced this opportunity to exchange cultures firsthand. As for me, it was impossible to

ignore a human who could answer all of my guilty questions, who attained such brilliant

knowledge and awareness of herself and her environment, a type of cultural and natural

awareness that we white, colonial-descended Americans are not attuned to. Jolene was an

unmarried Pueblo woman who looked me in the eye and told me every issue that affected her

community, yet with such a grace that instead of just mere curiosity and interest, I also felt

shame and guilt for being one of many who consistently marginalize Native people just by

withstanding from paying them attention. As I floated down the Rio Grande with a literal mother

earth sitting right before me, questions rolled off of my tongue that I wasn’t aware I was even

curious about. I realized in that moment that I had the opportunity not many go out of their way

to see, and that in speaking with this Pueblo woman, I was hearing actual truths apart from the

half-truths that society spits at me, and it was such a relief, yet so troubling all at the same time.

Jolene spoke with such nostalgia about the issue of language loss in her tribe, and it felt

like her original language was punching me in the throat. She spoke of how english has

consumed her people, and today less and less children are being taught the language in school,

which leaves the responsibility to carry on the language in the hands of the parents. Since not
every child was required to learn their language in their home situation, native kids began

speaking english as their first language, and this sight has greatly troubled elder Pueblos.

Jolene looked at me with such deep sadness about her culture and the gravity to which white

lifestyles are affecting it, and I knew she knew there was little that could be done to completely

reverse the negative effects of white culture on her people. Language loss is an issue that is

affecting native peoples everywhere, and it is the string that attaches so many other aspects of

native culture; stories, traditions, identity, all of these things can be easily diminished if the

original language in which they were created is destroyed. Not only that, but such an identity

struggle occurs for children who do not speak the language of their ancestors; there is a barrier

created in the community, and the child feels remorse for something they have no control of.

They also experience the alienation from their culture, which can lead to depression, loss of

direction, and substance abuse in turn. Language is the most powerful connecting surface

between like peoples, and losing access to one’s own language is those in power indirectly

violating the cultural rights of a group of people. As Jolene simply explained to me how hard it is

for the elders to watch this happen, I stressed for her people. I have absolutely no idea how it

feels to be marginalized, to be ignored and forgotten, to be relocated and abused and

mistreated and attacked simply for having a different culture, religion, and appearance than my

perpetrator. I will never truly understand the struggle that Native Americans have endured, as

their population has been decimated overtime and as their people have primarily grown dormant

in the wake of their loss of identity. But what I can say is this; Native Americans deserve more

people on their side than high schoolers forced to go visit their humble abodes and listen to

them talk about their environment and culture. They deserve money, resources, positions of

power to liberate themselves from society’s inhibiting chains.

 The trip to New Mexico was primarily an eye opener for me, as white and generic as that

may sound. I did not expect to see the beauty I did, and to partake in fluid and meaningful

conversation with Jolene, a strong, just, and kind Native woman who clearly sought change for

her people and longed for days of relief for their constant struggle. Floating down the river was

an experience where you got out of it what you put in, and I believe it can be a reminder for all

of us. It is easy to ignore the things we wish not to see, but to ignore them is to marginalize and

to perpetrate and to watch as real, living, breathing people and their world crumbles beneath our

selfish ignorance.