Communication as a Means of Stability Essay -- Essays Papers

Communication as a Means of Stability As demonstrated throughout various autochthonic American texts, communication tends to be the Natives greatest challenge in that they are unable to develop achievementful relationships with the outside world. Ultimately, broken treaties collect become the unfortunate model for miscommunication between the European Americans and the Natives. Granted the white husbandry and the Natives share very few of the same beliefs or traditions, neither culture has yet to flourishingly compromise and broken through the barrier that so obviously separates them. Therefore it remains crucial that these very different cultures develop a good enough rapport with one another that would allow either culture the freedom to pr moveice and express their beliefs non offensively, and prevent future communication from existence null. From these Native novels, in particular Louis Owens Bone Game and Henry Gordons The Light People, we learn that communication and c ompromise are key to the success between these cultures, and lack of it will result in feud and confusion. The plot unfolds in Bone Game as a Native American prof Alex Yazzie unleashes a large cultural discrepancy between Natives and the white people as he skins a deer at his Santa Cruz residence for faculty housing. Since this act is atypical and shunned by the white community by which Alex is surrounded, tensions rise as his actions are perceived as barbaric. It is Cole, the storys protagonist and a sonny Native, whom the university calls upon to mediate and resolve this disturbing Indian Emergency (Owens 23). Contrary to the schools understanding and the laws that govern the county, this native is simply partaking in traditional Indian practices and u... ...ion aspect of it, but more importantly the potential it had as a future tourist location (Henry 101).According to Websters Dictionary, an agreement is defined as an arrangement made by negotiation between two parties. Th e word negotiation infers somewhat of a compromise or acceptance through successful communication by both parties. Yet through historical events, especially those pertaining to Native Americans, society has developed an understanding that language tends to often be dishonest. As Owens puts it, The realization that words can say what they dont mean and mean what they dont sayindicates to an Indian that every doom in English may be a broken treaty (Owens 43).Works CitedHenry, Gordon Jr. The Light People. University of Oklahoma insistency Oklahoma, 1994.Owens, Louis. Bone Game. University of Oklahoma Press Oklahoma, 1994.