Gommel: Sarajevo

A Sarajevo Rose is a concrete scar caused by a mortar shell’s explosion that was later filled with red resin.

They are a unique feature to the city

In the siege of Sarajevo, the literature and film focused on how those trapped within the city survived whether it was Sarajevan citizens or foreign journalists. The psychological warfare was horrendous. This seems to be a major part of modern warfare, and so much crueler and inhumane than wars where armies charged in and killed indiscriminately. In this siege, snipers held people’s lives at bay continually. One never knew when the sniper might strike, but they knew they were there and could randomly choose who and when they wanted to kill. Snipers humiliated the people as they watched them decide on how to cross a street, walking straight, running zigzagged, alone or helping someone. Eyes were always on them, making them live in fear as they scrounged for food and water, knowing at any moment they could be shot. Yet there was also the indiscriminate shelling that showed no mercy to citizens and the institutions that were supposed to be protected during “legal” sieges.

The Cellist of Sarajevo was framed from the point of view of 3 citizens going through their daily routines and becoming further distressed by the long range effects of the siege. It also revealed the daily routine of the cellist who for the 22 days played the cello in memory of those killed while standing in a bread line in front of his apartment. The song he plays was once destroyed, but later reconstructed. It may not be the original but it is still beautiful and this is the hope the cellist also wants to offer to the living in the city of Sarajevo- that their city may be rebuilt beautifully, albeit changed. The three citizen’s lives interconnected in small ways to the cellist, but in the end the music and demeanor of the cellist touched them greatly and led them to maintain their identity and hold onto their humanity.

Kenan, the family man wanted to give up on everything, even Ms.Ristovski, after the struggle to fetch water nearly escaping death and witnessing the deaths of those around him and the greed of his own people taking advantage of his friend. But the cellist’s music had given his weary mind and body rest from the reality of the war. With a renewed spirit, he went back out of his way to get his neighbors water, joked with his wife and was overjoyed with hope over a little electricity and simple pleasures for his family. And he continued to fetch water and care for his family.

Dragan had been overwhelmed by fear in the war and couldn’t even move to help a friend after a haggard day deciding when to cross the street. But in the end he comes to the realization that he lost his grip on life in defending himself from death (224). Now he must live and flourish. He stands up for his city he loves and doesn’t let a camera man film the dead hatless man. He will preserve the city he remembers for the world. He now addresses others joyfully instead of downcast. He goes out of his way to help those in need. He will live his life with zeal instead of fear (224).

Arrow (her code name) was a defender for the city. She was put in charge of protecting the cellist from a sniper. She killed the sniper, but momentarily hesitant as she saw his eyes were shut and his demeanor relaxed listening to the cellist. But it was her orders and had to be done. Later her own defenders called upon her to kill a seemingly innocent old man and she refused to do it and left. After 10 days she returned to her apartment. The night before she had listened to the cellist play for the last time. He put his bow down among the flowers and she laid her rifle down. She would no longer protect a city, whose own defenders acted like the ruthless men on the hill. She heard the steps of the defenders coming, she knew they were coming to get her for her defiance, but she did not pick up her hand gun to kill them. She was no longer Arrow, but Alisa.

I gathered that the world saw the siege as Dragan’s stray dog. The world saw images of what was happening, yet just kept going on with their own lives “uninterested.” Mankind had things to do and places to go and it didn’t have time to bother with non-essentials. And the citizens of Sarajevo sensed the inhumanity, as they saw humanity drift out of sight.

Welcome to Sarajevo was framed from the reporters’ point of view from within the city. They were moved by the suffering and the murders. Yet internal conflict erupts about how much they can and should do. When one reporter assisted someone after a shooting he was condemned by most of the other reporters. Yet they worked together to get the children out of the city. They were astonished after their continued reporting and the world would not help; and royal divorces were more newsworthy than man’s inhumanity to man. Disconcerting too were the many excuses from all the bureaucrats: Plenty others are in the same condition or worse; It can’t be that bad; It has to go through bureaucratic process. Don’t count on the West; Don’t Dream. Some acted concerned; but ultimately did nothing. The reporters also saw the corruption from within, as did the citizens in the Cellist, when lured into an apartment and then robbed and shot at. In the end though we see the people of the city and the reporters transcend all the iniquities through the music of the cellist. The world may be slow to help, but they have to have something on which to hold. Music takes them away from this disturbing world and helps them to find that spark inside themselves that makes life worth living.

Raymond: Week 6 Welcome Sarajevo & The Cellist of Sarajevo

The film, Welcome to Sarajevo and the book, The Cellist of Sarajevo, gives us as the audience two great ways of learning the effects and events that took place during the siege. Welcome to Sarajevo, brings us right into the heart of reporters telling us about what they are experiencing, this film has a very similar resemblance to Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg. A business man willing to risk his own life to save others, during the genocide of Jews and in this we see a reporter risk his life to aid the locals during the siege. The Cellist of Sarajevo a young musician continuing to play his cello at the site of an attack to maintain the mood. This is much like the novel the Pianist, where he plays the piano to maintain the mood during the Holocaust. They may not have been playing for the same reason, but both maintain their passion to play music for others during a genocide taking place. The siege of Sarajevo may have been the longest in modern history, but the Holocaust and this siege share many similar characteristics of dehumanizing individuals for reasons of power.
Many scenes in the novel express to us how scared and dehumanizing it was for the citizens to witness their fellow citizens lose their lives at any moment. “Dragon tries to count the seconds since the sniper last fired, tries to figure out how much time they have before the next bullet comes”(118). The citizens are on hiding in anticipation of the next shooting to take place; will it be them or someone near them? Do they have time to run and hide? As outsiders we see this as a very inhumane way to live, day by day literally minute by minute. In the very next paragraph he says “He can’t look away from the street, where the hatless man is trying to crawl, and a centimeter at a time, to safety. There’s an expanding smear of blood surrounding him, and although Dragon knows the streets around him is full of noise, he doesn’t hear a sound” (118-119). Dragon having to witness a man who was shot and being too afraid to help for fear he himself may be shot next. The man as he says is crawling to safety, if someone is in this dire need of help, we should help them. All human reflexes to help others are taking from you under this type of situation. You are unable to think clear and logically. These Serbs were out seeking Muslims and achieving massive deaths, just as the Nazi’s did in attacking all the Jews.
The film we see reporters stepping around and completely overlooking the hurt and people in need. I do realize that they are there to do a job and that is to report what is taking place so others can understand. I do not understand one human can walk away from another in need of real help. You always hear that you must keep business and personal separate; I do believe that is true in most cases. However, out in the field of a siege as this one taking place brings a whole new level. Reporters must maintain their composer, but as a human how are you to actually hold back your sympathy for those suffering around you. This goes on for quite a while in the movie, and then we see a turn in one of the reporters. Later in the movie, Henderson one of the reports has to tell a little girl that her parents have been killed. This was the turning point of reporter like characteristic of being dehumanized, he regains his human nature and promise to resuce this little girl away from the siege. This little girl really touched his life; he was very much in aid for all the children there as well. As a reporter doing what he has done, made him make a very significant choice. Henderson had to choose between his long career of a reporter and saving the young lady. He made choice he could live with for the rest of his life.
You can try and take control over people and their lives as they once knew. The Serbs tried here and the Nazi’s did, but you are not going to get them all. There are some individuals who are not afraid to stand up or take a stand for what they have always believed in and stood for. A person’s integrity is all we have as humans and no one should be able to take this away.

Rogers: Welcome to Sarajevo and The Cellist of Sarajevo

After reading Steven Galloway's "The Cellist of Sarajevo", several instances served as a stark reminder of the dehumanizing efforts of modern warfare, like the kind practiced by the Serbs on the Croats and Muslims in Sarajevo. In similar fashion to the Nazi's, the Serbs sought to and succeeded in making the inhabitants of Sarajevo bend to their will through the illegal act of terror. In the article by KJ Riordan, "Shelling, Sniping, and Starvation: The Law of Armed Conflict and the Lessons of the Siege of Sarajevo" she states that people use terror to, "…break the will of the enemy to fight or...cause the civilian population to lose confidence in a government that cannot protect them (165)." Forced to scurry through the streets like mice running from the looming threat of a hungry cat, the civilians that we meet in "The Cellist:" Dragan, Kenan, and to a lesser extent, Arrow, seem shocked to find themselves in such an unbelievably bad situation. They are even forced to treat each other like animals. We see an example of this when Dragan becomes Emina's guinea-pig for crossing the street and leaving their place of safety. Dragan did the same thing earlier to a couple trying to make their way across the city; waiting to see if a sniper was in the area, testing him out on the couple.

On the other hand, in Welcome to Sarajevo, the civilians go about their everyday business, at least at the beginning of the film. Women go to the hairdresser, people go to church. Humans, through our ability to overcome oppression and carry on with the customs that shape civilized society, are shown to be adapting, at the beginning of the film, far better then by the films ending, the situation in Sarajevo having gotten progressively more atrocious. There is definitely some dehumanizing going on on the part of the reporters in the film. They seem to exist in a separate world; able to come and go as they please, able to separate themselves, at least at first, from the carnage around them. One part in the film that struck me, as well as the characters, was when Risto and Henderson have to explain to the little girl in the hospital that her parents have been killed in a shell-attack. Not waiting for their sympathy and help, and perhaps unknowingly realizing the psychological distance between them, she gets up and walks away from the adults. The reporters, in their enthusiastic fervor in being out in the field, mindlessly film the suffering of the inhabitants of the city without offering any succor, only later realizing that the civilians are not merely fodder for their respective news networks, but people who are living under constant terror of snipers and shells.

Trujillo, week 6 - Sarajevo

The opening scene of "Welcome To Sarajevo" astounded me. It was so unbelievable in fact that I spent quite a lot of time re-watching it, making sure that what I had seen wasn't a figment of my imagination and it wasn't something I was misinterpreting.

I kept thinking over and over, Are they filming a movie? Where are the microphone men? When is that woman going to get up? Is someone gonna call cut soon?

It took me a second to realize that this was real life... and that the people filming were apparently just there to document, not to help out (as was stated by a very shaken up camera man halfway through the movie). I was so angry for a minute or two (maybe for the length of the movie...), angry at the people who were watching others die, who were basically ignoring the fallen, using them as 'necessary' sacrifices for their documentaries, filming the horrors of genocide and death without lending a physical helping hand.

I guess it was important though, important to see what was happening in Sarajevo and the news wouldn't have been able to get out if every single reporter and camera man had dived to the rescue of a poor woman or child getting shot at. It makes my heart hurt, but I guess it's true.

It seems to me though, that the filmmakers and the reporters seemed to be to emotionally detached from the whole situation. Wouldn't seeing dead bodies with limbs ripped apart in the middle of the street bother you? Wouldn't the image of a bride on her wedding day being shot at rub you the wrong way?

Maybe that's why they were constantly drowning themselves in alcohol, keeping their heads down and ignoring what was around them... if they acted out, they would die. And I guess that goes against the basic instinct of survival.

My anger was appeased a little when I saw how the reporters would get so incredibly angry when their extremely important and eye opening newscasts would be replaced and brushed aside for news of the royal British family. People didn't seem to really care, because it wasn't happening to them.

That seems to be such a pattern with humanity. As long as it's far away from here, we might send a little money, we might shake our heads and we will definitely switch the channel, but we will forget it the next day. It's just not happening at our front door. While Welcome to Sarajevo showed the views of outsiders more than anything, the book The Cellist of Sarajevo really delves deep into the relationship of the locals with this genocide, and the fact that no one really seemed to care.

The novel really brought into light the dehumanization of these people, being shot and killed with nothing to spare. It is distinct in the novel the thought that there are no people, there are no humans. There are just the good guys and the bad guys, and each side is pointing the finger... and the gun.

Ramon- Week 6: Sarajevo, Bosnia

This week, we look at two works that investigate or portray genocide in our lifetime (including us students). Whenever I hear the word ‘dehumanize’, I immediately think of the relationship between the hunter and the hunted. One of the opening scene of Welcome to Sarajevo and in the characterization of Kenan in The Cellist of Sarajevo, the audience is introduced to the idea of running. Kenan runs through tunnels, hiding in every nook he can find, and traveling across Sarajevo to have a small amount of water readily available for his family. We see this same situation in Welcome to Sarajevo, when a man is running through trenches with gas cans (probably water inside). If this were just the norm modern-day Bosnian recreational activity, the Olympics can count on Bosnia as a sure favorite in the medal count. However, this running is sparked by Serbs shooting at anybody and everybody who is in the streets; this is dehumanization.

What is the hunter-hunted relationship, and where is it applicable here? A deer hunter, or a hunter of any wild game at that, goes through the same routine in a hunt. The hunter sits and waits for the game to come into sights. When the deer comes into the range of the hunter, he fires. Other deer around the area may flee, and run. The deer know to not go into that area again, or else they will be hunted. In Bosnia, the people of Sarajevo were the hunted. The Serbs would sit on rooftops or any other place they could seize control of, and wait for the people to run.

We have many defining factors that make humans and animals different. This could spark another conversation of “are humans really at the top of the food chain.” However, one difference between humans and animals is our ability to stand still. Humans were not designed to run, especially if they were meant to be atop of the food chain. So, when humans are forced to run wherever he or she must go, his or her humanization is removed.

To close, I would like to say that we should remember that this conflict was not too long ago. A good friend of mine was four years old when this conflict began and eight years old at its end. He recounts numerous stories of rocket-propelled grenades flying over his head, mortar shells crashing, and bullets constantly within his range. He recounts how his father would have to risk his life running through tunnels to get bread and water for his family. His father was threatened at and shot at, but still lives today to tell the story to his first generation.

Baudot- Week 6: Sarajevo

Welcome to Sarajevo 

The longest, modern siege known to history can be seen in the battle that Sarajevo underwent during the late 1900s. In Welcome to Sarajevo, we are introduced to Michael Henderson and Jimmy Flynn, a UK reporter and journalist who travels to Sarajevo to report on the brutality and mass murder and the siege that is occurring in the city and an American journalist who is on the hunt for the best stories and most highly sought after news topics in the "14th worst place on earth" (as the city of Sarajevo is named in the film. In the way in which the film is put together, we are able to get a very wide perspective of the different ideas and viewpoints of everyone involved in the siege, the emotional ties and frustrations that come along with being involved in the city during this terrible time of mass killing and devastation, and how the world might be viewing what is happening in Sarajevo at that time. It is by no chance that the film's producer chooses to have 2 of main characters be journalists, because they are, in this way, given special "access" to be up close and personal with the death and destruction in the city along with the orphanage, which comes to be one of the most important aspects of the film. As one of our blackboard articles states,"As a professional soldier, Galie would have known that throughout time, there have been five tried and true methods, used alone or in combination, for effectively laying siege to a fortified position. Successful prosecution of such warfare relies on any or all of the tactics of assault, bombardment, starvation, trickery, and terror (Riordan 158)."    

This quote truly resonates within the film most importantly in the orphanage but also in other aspects of the city and how families were raised, etc. There is a striking scene in the film where they show a small, young, blonde girl eating a piece of food after they have been taken on the bus to Italy and she is sitting by herself. There is a wind blowing, she gently wipes the hair off of her face, and the background behind her is filled with water, peace, and serenity. This, to me, embodied the type of rigor that was being placed upon these children in terms of the living conditions. Their homes were being sieged, and there was never a time that they did not have to worry about their safety. One of the worst "tactics of assault" that was placed in these children's lives was the notion that they weren't being fed properly, they were deceived  and worried about being pulled away from their families. The scenes get more graphic as the movie goes on, and we begin to see deceased babies that were innocently killed because of a home siege. These images seem to embody the total, unnecessary loss that occurred through the Serb sieges. How does this affect the people within the city? Not only is the killing and being torn away from their family members a tragic thing to endure, there is enough evidence in the film to support the idea that people began to be immune to what was going on around then. In the beginning of the film, Flynn and Henderson discuss how the older woman was shot down in the middle of the street for no reason, and nobody came to do anything for her until after several minutes, when the small boy and the priest come to take her body inside. People continue to pass by or just watch from a distance without getting involved, and this is, arguably, what became a "new reality" for the people of Sarajevo. 

As other countries and cities watch what is going on in the city at that time, I think it would be most interesting to look towards Flynn's character to see how it was not only being portrayed in the media, but also in terms of the question of morality. Flynn is much more lackadaisical than Henderson when it comes to seeing the death and witnessing it first hand. He only seeks what will bring the most benefit for his company, and opposed to Henderson to even tries to rescue the children himself. Perhaps it is indifference; perhaps it is ignorance; perhaps it is a refusal to confront the reality he is being placed into. But regardless of how the world seems to be reacting to what is going on in Sarajevo, the citizens themselves seem to be a point of desperation. There is a line in the film that states, "Would it be safe to try to get to Italy on these buses? Is there even an option to stay where we are now?" People are willing to do something possibly dangerous for their lives in order to get to a "better reality" so to speak. The movie also shows how once internalized and organized crime begins to take place and also the scene where Risto is shot in his home, the outlook for Sarajevo begins to look very dim and unhopeful for improvement. 

When it comes to The Cellist of Sarajevo, much of the similar themes can be found in the text in comparison to the film. As the quote mentions earlier, the Serbs knew what was best in order to bring down the city most. The methods used were inhumane and cruel and blind to the innocence of its victims. There is a "new reality" that becomes very real for the people of the city, and many people do not know how they will ever be able to go back to how the city and their way of lives once were. They are unwilling to come to terms with this "new reality." In the book, we meet Kenan, Dragan, Arrow, and the unkown Cellist himself. Kenan, Dragan, and Arrow are all just trying to survive, while the Cellist is not actually one of the main characters of the text. Ultimately, he seems to be the hope at the end of all of the destruction that there will be hope for the city and its future. His music and attentiveness to each death seems to ultimately suggest this notion. Many of the characters struggle with their new reality. The text states, "Every day the Sarajevo he thinks he thinks he remembers slips away from him a little at a time, like water cupped in the palms of his hands, and when it's gone he wonders what will be left... But as time went on he began to see things as they now were, and then one day he knew that he was no longer fighting the city's disappearance, even in his mind. What he saw around him was his only reality." 

The text is another perfect example of how the loss and devastation within the city was viewed by its own citizens. It was something that has permanently altered their lives forever.  Dragan seems to suffer with the notion of this reality the most, especially when he could potentially lose his wife and son. Yet he chooses to remain true to his city and where he is from, which makes you wonder why he would choose to pledge an allegiance to such a horror-ridden place. This is an aspect of the text that makes it a bit different than Welcome to Sarajevo. In the film, we do not see such allegiance to the city, and we are much more inclined to just hope for the survival of the oppressed as opposed to the struggle to maintain Sarajevo allegiance from its citizens. Ultimately, however, the concept of perception (mainly in this sense being able to perceive and comprehend the totality of what is going on around you) is what is most important in both the film and the text. 

Tregre: Week 6, Sarajevo

The Cellist of Sarajevo and Welcome to Sarajevo both portrayed the longest siege in modern history in very different ways. The attack of modern warfare and dehumanization of people was shown explicitly through four main characters to describing their personal terror, and with an orphanage of innocent children.

In The Cellist of Sarajevo, four characters were used to show their independent struggles that each were a direct result from the siege attacking the city. It was the early nineties and the Bosnian Serb forces were basically holding the city hostage. 

The first character used to describe the terror and effects was Kenan. He had to travel across town to collect drinking water for his family. He has a wife and two small children and tried to avoid the conflict for four days until he had no choice but to leave to get water. It truly shows his courageousness when he also went to get water for his selfish, mean elderly neighbor. He has to make a long route in order to help his family survive. However, no one is safe. He must face gunfire in the open, but it also is not safe since buildings are being bombed daily. One feel how he feels hostage. He has to leave to survive and seems to has his entire family's lives in his hands. He is between a rock and a hard place and must risk his life and face likely death to get water, an essential to survival. 

Next is the character, Arrow. She will not face her real name because it reminds her of who she was before the war and how happy she was. One can see her attempt to cope with this dark time. Her name is Arrow "so that the person who fought and killed could someday be put away." She struggles with her personal morals, however, feels that this is the only choice that she has. She is chosen to protect the Cellist who plays for 22 days in memory of the 22 people killed. She must eventually face who she is. When the war is over, she wants to die under her old name and be her old self who "hated nobody." However, she must face who she really is and see if her old self will even still exist.

Then there is Dragan. He sent his wife and son out of the city at the start of the war. He often thinks about them and avoids friends for survival. His goal is to cross the street in order to survive. He is paralyzed by fear. The reader can feel his terror. If he does not cross, he will surely die, if he does he can be shot. 

Ironically, the character who the novel did not discuss the most, was the Cellist of Sarajevo. It was a man who saw a shelling attack from his window. They victims were his neighbors and his friends, so in their honor, he decides to play the cello for 22 days, a day for each victim. His passion to honor the fallen and to keep his humanity alive was amazing. His life was at risk and it was surely a death sentence, however, he kept playing in spite of the "men on the hill." 

These characters are normal, everyday people who have to act as heroes in order to survive. It is the flight or fight method. Whether it is going across town to get water or to kill the enemy. They each reacted a different way, but chose to survive and let their will shine through and not let it steal their humanity. The "men on the hill" threaten their lives, but they continue to live and value their chance at life. They do what it takes and the cellist even looked death in the eye to show his courage. They were not humans scared by death into hiding, they would do what it took to survive this siege. These four people were the exception. Haunted by memories of a bright past as they slowly slip away day by day. But the Cellist represented the light of the past. There was hope for survival and not all would die in vain. Death could be surpassed by the spirit and bravery.

In Welcome to Sarajevo, it is about two journalists named Flynn and Henderson. They meet during the beginning of the Bosnian war in Sarajevo. This movie had a very different take than the book, but both included the cellist who left an impact on the world forever. When the journalists find an orphanage near the front line, they cannot help but take action to help these innocent children, especially Emira. Henderson gets her away from the war then had to bring her back because her "real" mother wanted her back in her life. He risks his life in order to protect these children against the siege. Each character in the movie, along with the book, all risked their lives in order to keep humanity alive. Whether it was to simply survive or to save lives, characters put their lives at risk. These were heroes. They would not let the enemy take their will to live. Henderson was able to eventually adopt Emira and save her life. However, at the end is when the cellist plays. Though it was under different circumstances (when the Sarajevo became the number one worst place instead of the fourteenth), he played in the middle of the city. People were going to die listening to his music, but he did not want everyone to die in misery and in vain letting the enemy win.

Both these pieces discuss in detail the city under siege in different lights. Some were about people who had to chose between life and death, while others made the choice to help others. Regardless, each character chose not to let it beat them and dehumanize them. They kept their spirit. Modern warfare is not the same as it was back in let's say the 1800s. People would face each other and fight. Now, it is much more strategic and not as honorable. People are help captive. For example, instead of going into the city and killing its citizens, they surrounded it and just shot and bombed them. This kind of siege can be more frightening since there is no honor system, much like the Holocaust. People were shoved into gas chambers thinking that they were going take a shower. Honor and honesty does not exist. It is to eliminate people fast and swiftly, no matter what the way or how. It is scarier and more tragic. Modern warfare can be much more deadly and devastating than back then. People's sense of lack of safety and insignificance shown by the enemies desire to just dispose of them like garbage, proved to be very dehumanizing. It makes people question their right to survive. When empathy is not shown and one's life is in danger for no specific reason besides their geographical location, dehumanization occurs. They just have to pray to be lucky. People are capable of cruel things, much like what these citizens of Sarajevo witnessed. 

Tran: The Sarajevo Story

Vedran Smailović (the inspiration for The Cellist) playing in the National Library 1992.


I didn’t realize Sarajevo was the longest siege in modern history and I have a feeling most of the class probably didn’t either which says a lot. It goes to show that even though Sarajevo was so recent, it isn’t remembered as much as it should especially since there is a lack of knowledge surrounding it. Though many people know about the Yugoslavian Genocide, most don’t know the details or circumstances of it. I don’t think anyone either in Sarajevo or in the world community expected the siege in Sarajevo to last so long.

The novel The Cellist of Sarajevo and the film Welcome to Sarajevo shows the two sides of the siege: the locals caught in the siege while the other side deals with the media and those outside looking in. One of the scenes that really stood out in the film was when Michael showed the footage of the attack on the streets in which everyone was covered in blood, wounded, and bodies severely detached. Later his producer said that it wouldn’t be the channel’s main story, but instead the divorce of a Duke and his wife. This suggests the lack of importance the media world was giving Sarajevo and how no one showed much attention to it. Also in the film there were clips where the UN director said Sarajevo was only the 14th worst place on earth, and one where someone says, “They should not expect the West to come in and fix everything. We will not.” The West was making a point it was not coming in to do anything about the situation.

Though there were journalists and international committees coming to view Sarajevo, it must have not been important enough because nothing was done and the situation lasted for so long. The citizens of Sarajevo after time got use to the constant fears of shelling, artillery fires, and snipers. There is another part in the film where it says, “We will not evacuate Sarajevo because that would mean we’re giving up and letting the other side win.” It almost shows a lack of concern for the citizens even after the siege had been going on for so long. It is more important to stay and keep fighting when no one was allowed to leave the horrible conditions of the city. They should have at least given the residents a choice, but every exit from the city was guarded. The lack of concern from city officials and the international community left residents of Sarajevo in a complicated situation where they had to simply fend for themselves while people were innocently shot and killed daily for just being in the streets. In the article by Andreas it says, “Siege dynamics were often more about controlling humanitarian supplies and smuggling routes than about military success or failure.” It was a power struggle to control the city and control supplies which regular residents weren’t getting. It was never about the people in Sarajevo, they were just caught in the middle and expendable of war for both sides.

Galloway’s novel takes the perspective even further through the views of Sarajevans. The novel shows the different sides of the war from locals who are trying to survive with their family, defend the city, or simply wonder what has become of their society. One of the scenes that was memorable in the book was Dragan’s where he wonders to himself if the snipers would waste a bullet to shot a dog, but they would shoot a human. He asks, “Do they recognize more of themselves in a dog or in a human” (Galloway 113). It questions the value and worth of a person because they are now targeted and easily shot as though an animal. Arrow too makes a difficult decision in the book whether to kill the sniper or not and later to kill the innocent man walking up the hill because he might be the father of a rebel in the hill. Hasan says that there are only two sides in the war: us and them. People are no longer even people, but simply targets and no longer just people.

The film and novel reflect that in a time of modernization and humanism, events like Saravejo and the Bosnian Genocide can still occur. Even after all the history that has taken place in the 20th century, they still allow the siege of Sarajevo and the killings in Bosnia to happen. Modern warfare has shown that mass killings aren’t so shocking anymore and it will continue to happen especially now since people now seem to be desensitize to these events. I think with the siege carrying on for so long, after awhile the international community simply got used to it and just allowed for it to play out and settle itself, disregarding the needs of the residents of the city. There were people there covering the stories, but not enough people cared. Henderson tried to humanize the situation by reporting on victims like the orphans, while others said there were more important issues, or news-worthy stories to cover. The siege deprived the people of necessities of life, in turn showing the little value of their lives and the unimportance of a human life when it comes to war.

J Rogers- Sarajevo & The Balkan Genocide

Bosnian parliament building set ablaze during the Siege of Sarajevo

The Siege of Sarajevo is an excellent case study in genocide for this class. It is one of the few genocidal events that we have had the opportunity to witness during our lifetime. I was born in 1990, so I do not remember this completely. However, I do remember turning my ear to world events around, interestingly enough, the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Since this occurred in 1998, I can remember the news talking about Kosovo during the final Clinton years. I'm also a huge basketball fan, and I recently watched the excellent ESPN 30 For 30 documentary Once Brothers, about the strained relationship of Serbian basketball player Vlade Divac, and his fellow hoopster, Croatian countryman Drazen Petrovic. Even being 2-6 years old during the Siege, and 8 years old during the Kosovo War, these Balkan wars were able to grip my mind and make me aware of these conflicts. That leads this genocide to be incredibly powerful.

For me, I think both the novel The Cellist of Sarajevo and the film Welcome to Sarajevo make for excellent companions to each other. I think the use of the perspective of the journalists in Welcome to Sarajevo clearly shows the outside perspective, and the state of modern warfare. In contrast, The Cellist of Sarajevo was a much more personal account, even though it was a novel. As such, the novel shows the perspective of the people actually living amongst the siege. I found that the experience of dehumanization was documented in both pieces.

In the film, we are forced to confront our own views as outsiders of the siege. While the United States were very active along with the United Nations in monitoring the siege, military action didn't occur. This is in contrast with the interventionist wars we are fighting today in the Middle East. As journalists flocked to Sarajevo to report on the siege, we must ask what purpose these men and women are serving. Of course their reports create headlines and sell papers, but to what degree, if any, do they help? In a siege that lasted four years, many stories are likely to be similar. Day after day, stories of starvation, bombings, and snipers can have an hypnotic effect. If journalism is to be an unbiased reporting at all times, I think the very practice is a fool's game. We see in the film that Henderson finally gives in to his humanitarian urges when he agrees to smuggle Emira out of the country. Obviously taking a stand on an issue like this could end in loss of "journalistic integrity," but Henderson chose his humanitarian integrity instead, a choice of which he can be proud.

The film also displays the siege in a way that gives us a sense of how these modern wars have been fought since. We've seen the siege of Baghdad just recently as an example of this. The way the Serbian army surrounded the city, choking out the life and controlling it from a perimeter is a slow process, but it allowed them to achieve their stated goal of depriving the Bosnians of their own government for quite some time before eventually being defeated. The film shows effective war tactics, but I believe the book shows their dire effects in a wholly negative light.

The novel brought to light much more completely the human aspect of the Bosnian genocide. The Serbians have destroyed the city, burning buildings of art and knowledge. A permeating feeling of despair seems ready to take root. We see the cellist being haunted by his memories of the bread line bombing, and he seeks meaning in the only way he can: through music. He chooses to play his cello in remembrance of the lives lost in the tragic event. In this way he finds that he can provide hope for his people. He sees the massive death, mourns, and looks to the future.

Living in constant fear of the Serbian threat led to dehumanization that we can see quite clearly in both the film and the novel. The Bosnians were under constant threat of attack, a process which can lead to loss of identity in itself. A lack of safety can threaten one’s very perception of what it means to be human, as we can see in both media. The every day process of living becomes a constant chain of ethical dilemmas about how to stay alive and feed one’s family.

The genocide in the Balkans’ standing as a recent genocide in our time has given us an excellent perspective on the issue this week. The modernity of the tragedy allows us a great example of both warfare and dehumanization in our time.

Raymond: Marie & POW POW Highway

Reading St. Marie and watching Pow Pow Highway, made me realize how miss informed or uneducated about the genocide of American Indians. Then once I actually thought more about it, humans try and over take anything they can to be the hero or become rich. If Jews and African Americans are sought out to be eliminated or made to be slaves, then what makes Indians an acceptation? It is really ashame that all heritages who deal with genocide are not talked about more often.
Pow Pow Highway, I thought was an exellent way of way of exploring, the Indian genocide with the character of Gilbert. Gilbert made his life more authentic Indian like, one example is he used his car as his pony. We all know Indian warriors rode horses, in battle. In his eyes he really thought of himself as an American Indian just using modern items. We see this when he first purchase the car. He looks at the window and we first see and viewers horse running widely. The only thing that Gilbert says to the man, it “what about that brown one”. Next Gilbert pays the man and is outside getting in his pony (car). Red Bow one the other hand, was very angry with what was happening on his land and became more so when his long lost sister was arrested. He knew that they had only arrested her, because she was Indian. That there was no way she really had drugs on her. The police and other authorities at this time were known for stereotyping against all Indians. He is also disappointed in his friend for fleeing to Denver, to escape the harsh reality of the land takeover. Red Bow feels that his friend is abandoning his home land, and not trying to stay and stand their ground. Many of the Indians took this same approach, because they had families and wives to look after. It wasn’t worth losing their lives, to Red Bow this was everything their heritage stood for. They should stay and fight for what was theirs first. This film did end with the fugitives getting away from the police and for now being saved. Even though the fight is still there on their land, this group was ready to use their heritage to save the land.
St. Marie takes the approach of abusing young Indian children forced to attend their schools. The nuns knew they would be able to try and control the young children, because no one else would be there to protect them. Sr. Leopolda, is trying the whole story to abuse and hurt poor Marie. In the being she thinks the devil is actually inside of her. Nuns labeling the children and as being part of the devil, due to their exterior characteristics, is unbelievable and hard to understand. She was a nun and a part of God, but yet had no reservation to hurting and tormenting. This is the total opposite of what we learn as Catholics to accept all. It was very hard for me to listen and imagine Sr. Leopolda pouring hot water down Marie’s back. Marie tried very hard to please and she actually thought she wanted to be like Sr. Leopolda. Why would she want to be like a person filled with such hatred towards human life? The young girl was trying to fit in and actually made herself think she was white, like the nuns. Just like we had seen several times before in the Holocaust films, people denying their own identities just to make it or fit in.

Gommel: St. Marie and Pow Wow Highway

In St. Marie and Pow Wow Highway the three characters pursue the path that they feel called to take as Native Americans in a white culture

It is sad to see the choices they have to make to survive in the white man’s society. The ideologies of the two cultures are so far removed or at least they were at one point in time. But as even the old Indian woman says, no one wants old Indian wisdom. The old Indian woman would have been most highly respected in her ancestral culture; but the negative effects of losing one’s identity within the forced culture of the reservation has taken its toll and even the old no longer hold on to their ancestor’s wisdom.

In the story of Marie her path was to try to assimilate into the white man’s culture. She compares her skin color to theirs and finds she is like them. She endures great abuse but wants so badly to fit in with the nun’s. She wants to be like the ones the nuns admire – the saints. So she bears the persecution of Sr. Leopolda. Ironically, the nun’s cruel treatment to Marie leads the other nun’s to think she has the stigmata and Marie is truly holy. She has succeeded in fitting in to the path she chose. She is no longer an Indian brat, as Sr. Leopolda and society has portrayed her. But her true identity is lost.

Both the movie and the film were framed around the white man’s culture of destroying the identity and the self esteem of the Indians. I found the movie framed with the overarching element of true freedom that the Native Americans espoused-being one with nature, not destroying it. It began with the Indian riding over the plains with their music in the background. Later there were scenes of wild stallions running free, the eagle soaring, wide open lands and mountain tops, gentle streams and beautiful sunsets. Even saving the giant arachnid. The backdrop of the story was the Christian holiday of Christmas. With even the old Indian’s door decorated for Christmas. Yet the story was based on surviving the slums of the reservation and the guile tactics of the government.

Red Bow works in the agricultural office and fights the government to keep the reservation’s resources. The greed of those working for the government causes so much grief and unlawful conduct it led both Red Bow and his friend Filbert to the highway. Filbert is in touch with his ancestral past and is called to be a warrior. He veers off the highway to the open spaces; he meditates and connects with ancient warriors and partakes in the Pow Wow. He finds his tokens –his medicine- to ward off evil. Red Bow doesn’t initially understand Filbert, but he comes to chant and dance like his ancestors and in the end sees himself fighting as a warrior. They use unconventional tactics, but it is justified in preserving the dignity of their people against the false accusations of the government. The end of the movie was awesome with the chief helping his “brothers” by opening the cattle gate and Filbert being the hero, going down with his “pony” as Red Bow rescued the relatives. Thank goodness the pony kicks Filbert out and he is united with his friends and Bonnie, the sweet girl he remembers from his youth, Red Bow’s sister.

I imagine they will have to go back to the reality of the reservation (after all that’s what Red Bow stressed to his friend Wolf Tooth as he left for the condos). But I hate to think what might happen to them. But it shows the freeing power of reclaiming your identity and being proud of it even with the struggles.

I suppose Marie has some sense of freedom, too, since it is the white man’s world for which she yearns. Yet still so sad that she has lost the desire for her own heritage and accepts such cruelty.

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602 × 352 - POWWOW HIGHWAY & THE AVIATOR'S WIFE. christopher funderburg & john cribbs

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Trujillo - Powwow Highway and St. Marie

War Pony... The Protector

I think it is extremely important that we discuss this holocaust, this genocide of the Native American people. Sometimes we tend to skip over this as though it isn't as important as the Jewish Holocaust. I think we tend to forget that all human life is to be valued equally, no matter the nationality, race, religion, gender, orientation ect. We are all equal, especially in God's eyes.

I think we should start with psychological and emotional genocide and how we see that especially in 'St. Marie.' Here we see a young girl trying to escape her race and heritage and believing herself to be white. Not even white as in American, but she sees her own skin as white. She wants to incorporate herself fully into the 'white' traditions and ignores her native american heritage. Her mind is so set on being part of everyone else and her head has been warped with images and thoughts that are set to derail her from her heritage that she even joins the american (white, for the purposes of this essay) convent in order to incorporate herself more fully with the white people. The person that really leads to a psychological and emotional turmoil within Marie is Sr. Leopolda and her hatred of the Native American people. She makes basically turns Marie into her slave and brainwashes her further with bad thoughts about her people and her heritage. I guess you could call it a stamping out of the race by means of discrimination and hatred.

We can almost certainly turn to the film Powwow Highway when discussing economic and social genocide. This film shows mostly what the Native American people went through (and probably still continue to go through in more subtle ways) in economic standpoints, talking about the destruction of their lands and livelihood to make space for 'white' Americans and their daily living. We know that Buddy Red Bow wants to shut down the mining that will be taking over his home and his determination seems to really speak for what he wants to do. We see this culture, these people, rich in traditions, honor and intelligence having to make ends meet in whatever way they can because everything is taken from them.

I guess it's that question of 'What right do people have of destroying other human beings like that? Of destroying their livelihoods, dreams and even their lives? It's a part of the human world that I cannot ever possibly understand nor do I wish to, simply, we must see it for what it is, unacceptable and try to learn as much as we possibly can from the extremely poor moments in humanity's history.

Tregre: Week 5, Pow Wow Highway and "Saint Marie"

The Trail of Tears

Pow Wow Highway and "Saint Marie" allowed the audience to deal with the psychological effects of Native American's interaction with Whites during a suppressed time. Each character faces different types of psychological, economic, and social genocides. Whether it was the killing of their spirit, or being socially suppressed, this was genocide if it exterminated the essence of a culture or race. Genocide was an attack against the spirit and an effort to rid the world of people who were deemed “lesser.” Each person has their own struggle and journey in this movie and short story. Their hardships made them notable long after the movie and story was over. 

        

In Pow Wow Highway, Buddy Red Bow seems to be the person who always has to be the tough man and leader in order to psychologically cope with his Native American Genocide. Genocide is something that does not have to be killing, it can also mean destroying a race by psychological, economical, or political ways. In this case, Americans, such as the cops, were trying to set up the Native Americans. Buddy Red Bow chooses to fight this and has a lot of angry outbursts. He sees the unjust situation and wants to find a solution. At many points it seems that his outbursts are not necessary, however, he is the only family member who can help his family and be strong enough to rise against adversity. He is angry at the situation and feels helpless, so this is his front. However, violence must not be met with violence. Buddy Red Bow must gain wisdom and respect in order to help their tribe, the Cheyennes, exist and not be endangered or made extinct by the Whites.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is, Philbert Bono. He is easygoing and wants to start his journey to become a warrior. He believes in mysticism, meditation, and is stuck making the journey with Buddy Red Bow to get his sister out of jail. He has faith unlike Buddy Red Bow. His wisdom and meditations show Buddy Red Bow that his way was not the right way to go. He was just as wrong as the Whites who were trying to eliminate their race, destroy their economy, and ruin their tribe.

These two characters in Pow Wow show two different reactions of an attempted genocide. Though it was not outright like the Holocaust, it was obvious that they were not welcome there. Instead of being angry and fighting back, Red Bow learned that the problems and system rigged against the Native Americans were not all the white man’s fault. Blaming them would not help the situation or make him a better person, in turn it was time to take his eyes off of the suppression and understand himself and his place in the world. Empowerment of the self and honoring the Cheyennes was the best way to beat this attempted genocide. The White man wanted to split up their families, deny them of their religion and heritage, and even their economic means. In order to stop this, they had to be strong and seek justice, not revenge. One cannot go back in time, and one cannot create an ideal society, which were the two views of Bono and Red Bow. It was important for a middle ground to be taken to accept reality and make a change to fight off the oppression.

In “Saint Marie,” religion is highly observed. Native Americans were not even accepted in the religious world. The girl, Marie, was abused by Sister Leopolda since she was a Native American. Leopolda oppressed Marie and would stick her hands in the oven or poor hot water on her. This was an attempt at psychological genocide. Leopolda wanted to hurt Marie and prove to her, her low worth. However, when she accidently stabs Marie in the wrong spot, they believe her to be a Saint. This story showed how Indian children were sent to schools and other communities in order to disintegrate their customs and take away their heritage for a life of poverty. This was economic genocide. By taking them to these places and raising these children as inferior and abusing them, it would eventually white out the Native American culture and replace it with impoverished people.

These ways that the Native Americans were oppressed all had one main goal, elimination of this culture. Although this was not as severe as the Holocaust, the Whites just went about it in a more indirect, meticulous way. Regardless, it would all eventually have the same result. These characters were able to be spared, however, they were only fairytales.

Baudot: Week 5: Powwow Highway and Saint Marie

Scene taken from Powwow Highway 

In both "Saint Marie" and the film Powwow Highway, we see what it is like for these different individuals to face the ongoing struggle of protecting personal and tribal identity, and the emotions and psychological effects that come along with the struggle to try to inculcate and thrive with white, American society, which is portrayed in the film more than the short story. Each of these characters' personal aims and objections are forced to clash with modern day social and economic genocide as well. Both the film and the short story track the journeys of these individuals as they seek to embrace who they are in a cultural where who they are is not accepted, and/or they are trying to "go against the grain" in a time when social genocide is still very prevalent for their people. We can first take a look at Powwow Highway, which tracks the journey that Buddy Red Bow and Philbert Bono take together to Santa Fe. Before they set out in the journey, the film helps you better understand the character of Bono, and what his main objective is, which can be seen in 2 striking scenes. He claims to be guided by the "spirits," and he wants to start his long journey to becoming a warrior by trading drugs, money, and more to get his "war pony," which he first lays eyes on and gets the idea from by sitting in an old cafe where he sees the car lot advertised on television. He goes to the lot, and you can see that all of these cars are very old and run down and in extremely poor condition, yet he makes an exchange for on of the oldest cars and names it "Protector." This scene is highly symbolic to what it is like for Bono to be a Cheyenne within the United States because he believes that he is getting something of value and something that will be important to helping him become who he wants to be, yet he cannot realize that what he has just made an exchange for is actually worthless, especially in terms of most Americans (one could argue). He is limited and being denied the best advantages of being in the US, which can be represented through the transaction of the car and the state that the car is in. It can also be seen in the way in which the name for his car is completely inappropriate considering the transmission is deplorable, the window falls off, the bumper falls off, etc. 

The next striking scene that we see in the film is when Bono gets out of the car, goes to the top of a peak, and uses a Hershey bar to claim his territory after seeing other marks left behind of the yellow and red strips of cloth. His choice of the Hershey bar is symbolic of using a highly identified American symbol of production and wealth and industry and commercialization to represent his own journey. As Dr. McCay states, "Philbert is trying to return to a time when Native Americans had power over their own lives and had a cultural identity that was meaningful." We can see how he is desperately attempting to do this through these scenes. Likewise, Buddy Red Bow is a very important character because he is on this journey with Bono in order to save his sister from the FBI to which she has been subjected to unfairly. As stated in the notes, he "is trying to empower his reservation to resist the incursions of profiteering mining companies on reservation land." Red Bow is much more of a non-traditional character than Bono in the way in which he goes about trying to inspire and encourage change for the reservation and the ways in which Native American culture is inculcated with the United States. For him, pride and character are important, and he seems to be much more inclined to fight against the ways in which the US has oppressed the Native American culture as opposed to Bono, who is more invested and interested in looking inward and learning to not necessarily resist, but embrace a newer culture and means of cultural identity. Together, however, both characters especially suffer from the economic and social genocide and its effects of what it is like to lose a sense of where your culture and identity come to play in a certain society. There is a line in the film: "Indian wisdom? I ain't got none." Clearly, a sense of identity has been lost. There is also an interesting commentary on the American perspective of this oppression stated in one of our articles which states, "Native cultural groups are often denigrated and romanticized. Their demise is depicted during many of America's celebrations making its success at colonization. This demise is linked to the collective American mythos of Western dominance and exalted under the principle of Manifest Destiny. In these facile assertions of national pride, which hide the price of native lives, Americans do not seem to comprehend their own complicity in the legacy of death and destruction."

When we shift to "Saint Marie," we can see similar motifs of identity and cultural oppression. The story illustrates the way that cultural and religious oppression as well can result in the destruction of a group of people. Marie, an Indian student, is up against Sister Leopolda, a nun at the school at which Marie is treated unfairly and with cruelty and abused. Sister Leopolda is described as a "definite hard trial for everyone." She firmly believed that because of the child's race, she contained "evil" and needed to be ridden of this evil that contaminated her. Sister tells her she needed to "suffer for her smile." Ultimately, Sister stabs Marie in the hand, and everyone believes that she has received the stigmata, which has everyone bowing and kneeling down to her (essentially worshiping her) including Sister Leopolda. The text states, "I saw her kneeling there. Leopolda with her soul like a rubber overboot. With her face of a starved rat. With her desperate eyes drowning in the deep wells of her wrongness." Overall, Marie is exalted for who she is, which is symbolic of triumphing over the cultural oppression she experienced within her school. She triumphs over cultural and individual deprivation, which is a theme that can  be related back to Powwow Highway.

Tran: Native American Genocide

Wounded Knee siege, South Dakota (1973)

The genocide of the Native Americans is probably one of the lesser known and less talked about genocides. I think some of the reasons behind that is 1) it was happened through an extended period of time during America’s history 2) the death figures aren’t as high as some of the other genocides 3) and I think many Americans don’t want to remember this kind of past because as America was trying to fight for its freedom and democracy, it was killing the people who were already here. It is a part of the country’s history that many don’t want to know about because it cast a light on the wrongs and cruelty that was committed by Americans in their own country.

The short story “Saint Marie” by Lousie Erdrich was an interesting one because it is deals with quite a few issues that have been seen repeated time and time again throughout history. The treatment of Marie by Sister Leopolda mirrors the treatment of natives of Africa, Asia, and the Americas by Europeans when they first came to those places. As professor McCay mentioned, Sister Leopolda resembles King Leopold of Belgium so this story is a reflection of those past events. Sister Leopolda treats Marie and her people as though they are less than, uneducated, uncivilized, impure, and unworthy people because they are different. She acts as though she is a higher human being trying to help save these people from ultimate sinful destruction. She thinks she knows what is best for Marie and other children and it is quite similar to the way Europeans came to Africa and treated the natives as sub-human and had to ‘civilize’ them, but ultimately controlled and abused them. Marie is young and in the story she seems to want to please Sister Leopolda, but she is treated horribly. Sister Leopolda dumped hot water on her and stabbed her among other things. For Marie, she takes advantage of the fact that the others believe her hand to be a miracle. She gets back at Sister Leopolda and makes her kneel next to her and now Sister Leopolda has to follow along or be discovered of abusing Marie. Marie knows she has to and will overcome this because she doesn’t want herself and her people to be just forgotten and buried.

Powwow Highway has a strong contrast between two individuals in the Cheyenne Tribe. Buddy is committed to the community and making sure that the Feds and developers don’t overtake the reservations while Filbert is trying to gain in his place in the community because he doesn’t even have a spirit name. Buddy doesn’t want investors to come and are trying to stop them from trying to get more of their land and ruin their community. When Sandy tries to persuade the others to allow the vote to go through Buddy brings up the fact how it doesn’t benefit everyone and most of the people are the reservation are still living under the poverty line. He wants to make sure that no more destruction comes to their community. During the powwow in Pineville, he makes the comment how having some feathers and a powwow in a gym doesn’t make Indian culture. He wants them to do more than that and protect what their have left of their identity and land. Filbert takes detour along their trips to Denver so he could reconnect with his tribal past by visiting all the famous Indian sites. I think Filbert is more optimistic about who he within the community and preserving the rituals and history. He tries to keep up with the practices and not become cynical about everything that is going on. I think Buddy’s friend near Denver shows the complexity of the situation of the Native Americans because though the friends want to stay they know it isn’t safe and there are not many opportunities so they decided to live in the Denver suburbs for a bit. This upsets Buddy who thinks they are giving on their people and community. By the end I think Filbert finds or understands who he is and what his people’s history means to him. Buddy too sees that the fight for the tribe to maintain their community will be hard, but it is something he will fight for. I think the protective attitude he has to stop investors from stripping their land states there are those who aren’t oblivious to the manipulation outsiders are willing to do in order to take advantage of reservations. He is trying to better his community and not allow to this to continue happening to other reservations.

J. Rogers- P-Wow Highway & St. Marie

I'm very glad we got to discuss the American Indian genocide this week. I think it often gets swept under the rug so often because it occurred quite a long time ago, but more pointedly, because it is one that was perpetrated directly by Americans. We don't often like to think about the awful things we ourselves have done.

It's funny you mention the close resemblance between Sr. Leopolda's name & King Leopold. I'm actually reading Adam Hochschild's book "King Leopold's Ghost" in my African History class with Dr. Fiddler right now. I've done projects on the Congo in the past as well. Leopold exploited the jungles for natural resources through the use of what amounts to slave labor, as the only individual who owned an African colony. That's right, the colony was not owned by his nation of Belgium, but by him personally. Leopolda's actions are certainly similar to those perpetrated in the Congo. Under the guise of Christianity and civility, Leopolda seeks to remove all traces of Marie's Indian-ness. Being Native American in itself was viewed as a default by Leopolda, and so Marie needed to become more like the white Christians of the world. This is the best example from the week of psychological genocide. It would be difficult to maintain one's identity in the face of the world telling you that you aren't good simply because of who you are, but Marie is able to find redemption through Leopolda's great errors & shame.

Powwow Highway provides the best examples of economic & social genocide. Economically, Buddy Red Bow's quest to shut down the mining operation is a symbol of the Native American's struggle to gain footing in a nation that has ripped land from them & forced them to live in arid, desolate regions. He is a shining example of economic genocide, as he is a war hero, clearly a smart man, but he can't even afford a car for transport. The Native American population is very poor, whereas they once presided over vast stretches of crops and wild buffalo that could support entire tribes for generations, until the intervention of their white oppressors. Philbert Bono's strength of character as a spiritual man contrasts with Buddy's turning away from his Indian heritage. He wants what Buddy has, a record as a warrior, but is unwilling to depart from the traditions of his people to get it. This is dignified, as Philbert refuses to let the social genocide occur within himself. The same cannot be said of Buddy or his sister, as he has lost such faith, and she does not educate her children in the slightest about the Cheyenne nation. Philbert provides hope that the social aspects of Indian culture won't die out, while Buddy & his sister offer a less optimistic picture.

It is a shame that the American Indian population was decimated so badly. Their exemptions from the Constitution, were they to exist in much larger numbers on lands that were of greater use to them, would provide a very interesting side-by-side nationhood here in the United States. Instead, the Indian Nation is still in a mode of recovery after all these years. They must battle to discover & keep their very identity, & to hold on to any economic strengths they still maintain.