Native American Literatures
Essay One Assignment


Due: Monday, February 26
Length: Four to Five pages




Please choose one of the following questions and answer it, with a prominently placed thesis (in the first paragraph), in a four- to five-page essay. In this essay you will need to quote from your primary text on numerous (probably at least four) occasions. You are also required to quote from, and correctly cite following MLA guidelines, at least one scholarly source. The article that you use as your scholarly source must come from a peer-reviewed journal. You cannot use a book review or an abstract as a scholarly source. The whole paper must follow MLA guidelines. Please use Times New Roman font, 12 point, and double-space throughout your paper.

1. Please describe Nancy Ward’s negotiation of her roles as a woman warrior (a “War Woman”) and as a keeper of the peace among the Cherokee. How does Ward reconcile the two? Among the Cherokee of her time, what was the traditional role of women, and how did Ward’s societal role conform with or diverge from this traditional role? What does Ward see as her role, to the Cherokee, to the whites, and to both simultaneously?

2. Please examine Pontiac’s two speeches, "You Must Lift the Hatchet Against Them" and "Father, Be Strong and Take Pity on Us, Your Children, as Our Former Father Did," and consider the stark differences between the two – in terms of rhetorical stance, in terms of reliance on Native spiritual references, and in terms of conveyance of power. What explains the differences (what historical, political events and what changing strategies of leadership)? Is Pontiac a warrior in both, despite his seeming conciliation? What aspects reveal his rhetorical savvy?

3. One of the groups in class wrote of Nancy Ward that she “mentioned the land frequently and she understood the difference between these two nations. She realized that one wanted the land for their livelihood and the other wanted it only for profit.” Please use a text from this semester in addition to Ward’s to discuss this statement. Complicate this statement in a thoughtful, well supported essay. Don’t offer a simple refutation or inversion.