Plot+Overview

__**Plot Overview:**__

Zitkala-Sa in the beginning was a happy free spirited girl who loved her culture and where she came from. She loved to run around feeling free as a bird. She would spend time with her mother and time with her elders. Most of all she loved the bead work they did. She loved listening to stories and legends from her elders. She did everything she could to learn more. She loved how she could be wild and the fact that she had her freedom.She treasured that she and her mother could hate the "palefaces" from a safe distance. All that was about to change.

When Zitkala-Sa was taken to the school, she lost all of her individuality. She had to start speaking English. She didn't necessarily lose her native language but English became her primary one. She was told when to eat, when to sleep, when to do //everything.// She lost all her freedom. The girl who was considered untameable became as tame as a house cat. She was stripped of her religion, her culture, her everything. She was //the wild child//. Now, shes just //a// child.

Zitkala-Sa and Mother are part of the Indian culture. They live in a wigwam made of canvas near a river from which they get their water. When Mother goes to draw water from the river, Zitkala-Sa seizes her play to run along with her. Mother is solemn, with tears in her eyes, but tells her daughter to never talk of her tear Enter away message text here.s. It is the paleface that makes Mother cry, because the paleface has stolen their lands and driven them away. He is the reason that their family members have died. In Mother's eyes, the paleface is heartless.

Zitkala-Sa and Mother had some of the members of their community come to their tepee one night for a meal and to tell legends. They are keeping their culture alive. Zitkala-Sa loves the stories the elders tell. She also loves the beadwork she sees her mother making. She tried to make her own work beadwork, but she prefers the beaded moccasins that her mother can make. Zitkala-Sa is a wild, untamed girl. She loves her freedom and her culture. She can't wait until someday she is just like her older cousin Warca-Ziwin, and also like her mother.

One day an elder comes to visit Mother. Mother is not there, but Zitkala-Sa is. She welcomes the elder inside their tepee. As soon as the guest comes inside, Zitkala-Sa begins to try and make him coffee. She knows that the coffee she made isn't very good, but gives it to him anyway, out of hospitality. When she gives it to him, it tastes awful, but the guest does not express that it is bad tasting. He drinks it, because it is good to be respectful when someone has been hospitable to you. When Zitkala-Sa's mother returns, she laughs at the fact that Zitkala-Sa tried to make coffee, something she's never done before. Zitkala-Sa's mother then starts to make some better coffee for the guest. The fact that the elder drank the horrible coffee shows that when someone makes an attempt to be respectful in their culture, it's all you can do to show the same manners back.

Another autumn afternoon Zitkala-Sa and Mother we on their way to a feast. Zitkala-Sa ran ahead to pick a purple plum that grew on a small bush. Her mother stopped her and explained. She told her to never pluck a single plum from that bush, for its roots are wrapped around an Indian's skeleton. Plum seeds were buried in the brave's hand at his death, and from them sprang up the little bush. The fruit from this bush was deemed forbidden. Zitkala-Sa now silenced herself every time she passed by this bush.

Zitkala-Sa is eight years old when she is introduced to the fact that two paleface missionaries are in her village. She heard about it from some of her playmates. Mother told Zitkala-Sa that they had come to take away Indian boys and girls to the East. Mother didn't seem to want her to talk about the missionaries. However, Zitkala-Sa persisted. She told her mother how her friend Judewin was going home with the missionaries. Judewin was going to a more beautiful country than theirs, said the palefaces. Zitkala-Sa's older brother Dawee had returned from three years' education in the East, and his coming back made Mother take a step away from her native living. Their home was now made of clumsy logs. Mother told Zitkala-Sa that her brother said the missionaries inquired about his little sister. She wanted to know if he told the missionaries to take her. Mother replied by saying sadly that she knew she had been wishing to go, because Judewin had filled her ears with the white man's lies. She goes on to telling Zitkala-Sa not to listen to a word they say, because their words may be sweet, but their deeds are bitter. Mother discourages Zitkala-Sa's curiosity in the East. However, Zitkala-Sa was tempted again when the white missionaries visited their wigwam. She asked if little girls could have all the big red apples they want in the East, and they responded by saying the nice red apples are for those who pick them. They also told her she would ride on the iron horse. This intrigued Zitkala-Sa, because she had never seen a train before. Thus, she begged her mother to let her go East with the white missionaries, much to her mother's sadness. Her mother followed up the next day by telling her that the white missionaries could take her. As much as this thrilled Zitkala-Sa, she was soon filled with sorrow and regret when she looked back upon her mother standing in distance. Having gone over thirty miles, the group got to the train station. Zitkala-Sa was terrified by the massive building. And so begins her journey East.

Eight bronzed children were going East with the missionaries. The train ride was expected to be fun, but staring palefaces disturbed and troubled the children. The trip inside the iron horse was several days long. It was night when they entered the school grounds and entered the house. The light and the whitewashed rooms dazzled Zitkala-Sa's eyes. Someone suddenly grasped her and tossed her in midair. Remembering that her mother would never have done such a thing, she cried aloud. She wanted her family, and wanted to go back home. She had arrived in the land of rosy skies but was not happy. Her tears were not wiped away by her mother or her aunt. She was also made a fool of. Assimilation was part of this new school. There were bells to sit down, and bells to eat. This confused Zitkala-Sa. Also, all the girls had to line up to have their hair cut. Having her long hair shingled was a sign of being a coward. Zitkala-Sa would not submit without a struggle first, though it was no use. She cried aloud more, but now she moaned for her mother. She felt like she was one of many little animals driven by a herder.

In the winter, the children would play outside. The palefaces told them not to fall a certain way, and they got in trouble one day. Judewin taught them the response "no". This was not the right response in this case. One of their friends was punished. Another day Zitkala-Sa was made to mash turnips. She mashed so hard she broke the bottom of the jar. She felt good getting her revenge, and seeing that at dinner no turnips were served. A paleface woman also showed her a picture of the white man's devil. The picture scared her and gave her a frightening dream. The next day Zitkala-Sa found the book the picture was in, and scrached out the picture of the devil until nothing was left but a ragged hole. Zitkala-Sa had her little bits of rebellion in the iron routine which everyone had to follow. You had to be there when attendence was called, unless you were horribly sick. Those who were were treated neglectfully. Zitkala-Sa felt bad for those children.

After her first three years of school, Zitkala-Sa went back to the Western country through four summers. Her brother didn't understand her feelings, and her mother, having never been insidde a schoolhouse, could not comfort her. When Dawee arrived at the wigwam with his pony, Zitkala-Sa took his pony for a ride. She could not be satisfied. She was not yet an adult, and she couldn't go with Dawee to a party. She thought about running away, and soon she returned to the eastern school. She figured in a few years, when she is grown, there would be more friends awaiting her. She returned to school, and it wasn't long before she was the proud owner of her first diploma. The following autumn she ventured upon a college career against her mother's will. Zitkala-Sa started her college career, not being nourished by her mother's love, but remaining among a cold race whose hearts were frozen hard with prejudice. She entered an oratorical contest, and she was astounded to hear the same applause after her concluding words as the others. She was also awarded first place. She was in another contest after this, where in the crowd someone held a flag that said "squaw" on it. She showed them, because she was awarded a prize in this contest as well. Even in her triumph, she still felt sorrow for her mother back on the Western plains. She wrote to her mother saying that she was going to teach in an Eastern Indian school. She headed eastward. When she arrived at the school campus, she was shown to her room. It looked dreadful. Her employer found her room, and said, more to himself than to her, that this is the little Indian girl who created the excitement among the college orators. There was a small hint of disappointment in his voice. Once the man left, Zitkala-Sa threw herself onto her bed, closed her eyes, and forgot her good intension.

The superintendent told Zitkala-Sa that he was sending her West to gather Indian pupils for the school. She choose to use this opportunity to seek her mother. She arrived in her village seeing the first wigwam, and she spoke out in exclamation. She saw her mother and they reunited. Although she meant always to give up her own customs for such of the white man's ways, she made only compromises. She was now old, and Zitkala-Sa's brother was without a job. Mother yalked of how she always prayed to an absolute power. One night Mother told Zitkala-Sa to beware of the paleface, for it was he who took the lives of Zitkala-Sa's sister and uncle. She sent a curse upon white settlers, outstretching her hands as if an invisible power passed from them to the evil at which she aimed. When Zitkala-Sa left her mother, she returned to the school in the East. Her illness prevented her from concluding her college course, and also put her in no mood to strain to see the good in her white co-workers. She had given up her faith for the white man's papers. She was uprooted from her mother and planted in a strange earth. A new idea came to Zitkala-Sa. She resigned her post as teacher, and is now in an Eastern city following the long course of study she had set for herself. She saw that many passed through the Indian schools during the last decade, afterward to boast of their charity to the North American Indian. Zitkala-Sa finds that there are few who have stopped to inquire whether real life or long-lasting death lies beneath the semblance of civilization.