Browsing by Subject "Chief Eagle, D., 1925- -- Criticism and interpretation"

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    A Winter Count Documents Changes in Identity
    (2016) Armendariz, Julianne; McGuire, Anne Marie
    The Lakota are an American Indian tribe in South Dakota. Throughout history, the Lakota have faced many changes with the onset of settler colonialism. The Lakota have had to face many changes to their lifestyle, and in spite of these changes the Lakota have found a way to survive and resist assimilation and complete loss of their culture and identity. This thesis analyzes Dallas Chief Eagle’s, a Lakota author and activist in the mid-1900s, Winter Count. The story follows the Teton (Lakota) Turtleheart as he undergoes changes from contact with settlers, formation of reservations, and missionaries. The novel Winter Count reimagines Lakota identity as flexible and adapting to the changes that are occurring. Lakota identity is able to reshape itself by subsuming new facets into their existing identity. Despite the oppression, the Lakotas’ continued survival reveals the strength, which I would characterize as adaptability, which they possess. It is a story of survivance, a survival and resistance. The narrative acts as a resistance to the claims that Lakotaness has been erased, and instead highlights the flexibility intrinsic to their identity as Lakota that allow them to survive these intense and many times destructive changes.