An Indian Father's Pea Robert Lake Analysis

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A person’s culture could be taught to them all their life but when they meet the outside world and different people they are going to try and blend in with them. Even though they are ethnically different, or even by how their heritage is based upon, and how they grew up can be major impacts also. Culture is up to internal interpretation. Our thesis our group came up with is that experiences that you’ve been through yourself shape your culture.

In the story An Indian Father’s Plea by Robert Lake (Medicine Grizzly Bear) the story tells about how he writes a letter to his son’s teacher. He explains how Wind Wolf (his son) is affected heavily but his culture and his cultural experiences. The teacher call Wind Wolf a slow learner when Robert Lake just says that the customs he was taught as a child counters the way he learns from other students, not a slow learner. An example from the text says, “He is not culturally “disadvantage,” but he is culturally “different.” If you
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He will respond this way not because he doesn’t know how to count properly, but because he has been taught by our traditional people that there are 13 full moons in a year according to native tribal calendar and that there are really 13 planets in our solar system and 13 tail feathers on a perfectly balanced eagle, the most powerful kind of bird to use in ceremony and healing” (Robert Lake page 77). That paragraph gives a good image on how a person cultural experiences and interpretation shape his knowledge in school. Ever though Wind Wolf is trying to blend in with school and trying to learn things that have been taught differently to him as a younger person, he will never forget his culture experiences that he has been through. You can call this cultural identity but also you can call this living in you culture. As a child I was technically also a slow learner because of what I’ve been taught as a child, and I still am today but I try my best to go around