Project 2: The Cutting of My Long Hair”

Valeria Salinas

May 4, 2016

CULF 1318-10

Dr. Julie Sievers

“The cutting of my long hair” by Zitkala-Sa

         During the last few decades many of the Native American languages and cultures have become extinct, since the United State government has attempted to assimilate the Indian. According to Nizhone Meza, the Federal Indian Policy was looking to educate and civilize the Native Americans and stated that “the only good Indian is a dead one […] kill the Indian in him, and save the man” (354). Zitkala-Sa decided to take a stand and defend the Indian culture by writing a book called The School Days of an Indian Girl. I will focus specifically on the section called “The Cutting of my Long Hair,” where she describes her humiliation at her first day of school in the land of apples where she was forcefully extracted from her culture. The customs from white Americans were imposed upon her. Constantly, through her writing the author would use sentimental language to evoke sympathy to her readers when describing her experience at the American school. She managed to tell the story of what the minority living in America had to go through. Zitkala-Sa ’s description of her experience going to a white American school shows her indignation over the treatment of American Indians, by portraying her own suffering, humiliation and deculturalization by the white people.

In the first part of this section, Zitkala-Sa demonstrates how the white people had already changed the other Indian girls to become and act more like them. In order to highlight the terrible treatment of Native Americans, Zitkala-Sa adopts an observant point of view. She describes this section as an outsider looking in, someone who is just observing what was happening around her. The white people were supposed to educate the Indians; however, the Americans were focusing more on assimilating Native Americans. It was stated in the article “Factors and Events Leading to the Passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act,” written by Marc Mannes, that, “from the earliest days of the American republic, one of the primary intents of federal Indian policy was to eradicate the ‘Indianness’ in young people” (2). During the first part you can see how lost Zitkala-Sa felt by the way that she describes everything around her. She does not understand what is going on or the clothes that the other Indian girls are wearing. She was placed behind a line of girls who were walking to the dining room and she mentions, “these were Indian girls, in stiff shoes and closely clinging dresses. The small girls wore sleeved aprons and shingled hair” (186).  In her description of the situation she was really focused on what they were wearing and how the girls looked. She was then obligated to look like them and to wear the same clothes.

They were not only using other clothes, but they would also follow a routine imposed by the white people. In her writing Zitkala-Sa mentions “eating by formula,” which she used to describe the routine that the Indian girls needed to follow every morning. The author describes the place using the word “bedlam,” which is known as one of the first lunatic asylums in England and is constantly used to describes a place of madness (Facts of Bedlam history). Her observation of this scene shows that she and the other girls felt more like prisoners than students. Her observations from the outside help the reader visualize better the transformation the Native Americans were going through, how they had eradicated the “Indianness” in the other girls. It was easier to see the difference between Zitkala-Sa, who had not been yet transform, and the other Indian girls who had been there longer.

During the second part of this section Zitkala-Sa not only included the description of what was going around her, but she also included both inner and outer dialogue to show her suffering and her indignation. In the first part Zitkala-Sa felt like it was going to be useless to resist the changes the white people were making them do. In the first paragraph she mentions that, “my spirit tore itself in struggling for its lost freedom, all was useless” (186). Her friend Judewin also acknowledged that the white people were really strong and that fighting to preserve her culture and who she is going to be useless. Everything she was going through made her feel like she was losing her self. They were not only changing her physically, but they were also affecting her emotionally.

She felt it was useless to fight the white people at first, but when she found out that they were going to cut her long hair, her attitude changed. When her friend informed her that they were going to cut her long hair, she mentions, “No, I will not submit! I will struggle first!” (187). She had portrayed herself as a rebellious girl who decided to resist to the unfair treatment of the white people. The change in her attitude is reflected in the change in her dialogue and shows that this was part of her culture and was really important for her. In the story she mentions that her mother had taught her that only “unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy” (187). In her culture, the only people who wore short hair were the mourners, and the ones that were considered cowards wore shingled hair. By removing their long hair, the white people were not only going to change her image and the way she looked, but they were also going to change her internally. The way that she voiced her suffering showed how much the assimilation was affecting her internally. For the white people having shingled hair was in a away helping her look more “elegant” or it was more for personal hygiene. On the other hand, Zitkala-Sa looked at this in a different way, it was not for her looks, but it was something that made her part of her culture and her family. With the use of inner and outer dialogue it helped her show the reader her indignation and how the transformation was affecting her more and more.

After they had cut her long hair Zitkala-Sa felt like she had lost everything, that the white Americans had accomplished their goal of assimilation. In a way she gave up fighting and realized that it was going to be useless to resist. Zitkala-Sa uses sentimental language to evoke sympathy and touch her readers. In her writing, after having her long hair cut, she mentions, “I moan for my mother, but no one came to comfort me. Not a soul reasoned quietly with me, as my own mother used to do” (187). This part helps the reader understand how lonely and hopeless she felt after she had been abused and humiliated by the white people. The use of the word “soul” and “mother” as interchangeable shows her loneliness and the lack of support she received at the white American school.  Additionally, she also mentions after the white people had cut her hair, “then I lost my spirit.” This words are really emotionally powerful and show the suffering she felt as she lost her identity. She had been forced by the white people to abandon her culture. She felt that she was going to disappoint her mother and the other Native Americans at her home. She ended this section by saying, “I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder” (187). By comparing the Native American girls to a cattle drive it shows they had no other choice but to follow their orders. What the author wanted to express was that she had lost her identity and her listing cultural recognition after they had change her clothes and cut her hair. The Americans had accomplished their “deculturalization.”

Zitkala-Sa had accomplished her goal of showing her suffering and humiliation when she assimilated to the white people’s schools. She demonstrated that the primary objective of the white people was not to educate the Indians, but was more to assimilate them into their culture. In the end, when she went back home, she noticed that many Indian girls had changed and become more like the Americans. She was at her home and looked to the Indians walking outside and said, “they were no more young braves in blankets and eagle plumes, nor Indian maids with prettily painted cheeks. They had gone three years to school in the East, and had become civilized” (192). They were no longer using moccasins and were now using the American’s clothes.  Unfortunately, it is sad to see that the Native American languages are becoming extinct and that it all started because the white people wanted to “civilize” the Indians and turn them more like Americans. Nizhone Meza mentions that the “Native American culture and language preservation will not only improve individual student success, but will help preserve tribal sovereignty” (366). By including her own story in her writing it made the reader feel more connected with her and get sentimentally involved with what she was going through; which is why many readers sympathized with the writer.

Work Cited

Devlin, Mike. “10 Crazy Facts From Bedlam, History’s Most Notorious Asylum.” Listverse. 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.

Mannes, Marc. “Factors and Events Leading to the Passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act.” 30.2 (2006): 1-9. Corporate ResourceNet. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.

Meza, Nizhone. “Indian Education: Maintaining Tribal Sovereignty Through Native American Culture And Language Preservation.” Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal 1 (2015): 353-366. Legal Collection. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.

Zitkala-Sa. “The Cutting of My Long Hair.” The School Days of an Indian Girl. Vol. 85. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1900. 186-87. Print.

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