John Fire Lame Deer

After reading the brief autobiographical excerpt from John Fire Lame Deer, I want you to think about and answer ONE (you can address more, but don't feel obligated to do so) of the following questions:

1. JFLD states on p. 65 "You can almost say that a man with no vision can't be a real Indian." What do you think he means? Do you agree with him?

2. What do you think about JFLD's rejection of peyote? Why does he feel that he "shouldn't mix these two beliefs" (i.e. the sacred pipe and peyote)?

3. From pp. 67-69 JFLD goes on a bit of a rant about white (frog-skin) culture. Is this rant completely unfair, somewhat true, completely true? What is his general point about white American culture?

4. Did you learn anything new about the Sun Dance from JFLD's description?

5. What do you think of JFLD's statement on p. 74 when he writes, "Insight does not come cheaply, and we want no angel or saint to gain it for us and to give it to us secondhand..."?

REMEMBER: No anonymous posts - please post under your first name and last initial. Refrain from using internet short hand (no 'lol' or 'u,' etc.). You do not have to create a completely new comment as your participation; you may respond to someone else's comment as your contribution and participation, BUT be courteous to other posters. No personal or ad hominem attacks.

Mary Crow Dog

After reading the brief autobiographical excerpt from Mary Crow Dog, I want you to think about and answer ONE (you can address more, but don't feel obligated to do so) of the following questions:

1) What connections do you see between what we learned about primal religions in the Brodd book and MCD's experiences?

2) What do you make of the skin piercing associated with the Sun Dance?

3) When MCD states, "Hand in hand with my radicalization went my going back to Indian traditions" (52), does it remind you at all of Ninian Smart's analogy of religions A and B meeting?

4) Is there anything strange about tribes that traditionally did not use peyote using peyote in the modern American Indian Movement?

REMEMBER: No anonymous posts - please post under your first name and last initial. Refrain from using internet short hand (no 'lol' or 'u,' etc.). You do not have to create a completely new comment as your participation; you may respond to someone else's comment as your contribution and participation, BUT be courteous to other posters. No personal or ad hominem attacks.

Judith Magyar Isaacson

After reading the the brief autobiographical excerpt from Judith Magyar Isaacson, I want you to think about and answer ONE (you can address more, but don't feel obligated to do so) of the following questions:

1. On page 150 Isaacson mentions "Yom Kippur Jews." What does she mean? What would be the equivalent in your own tradition?

2. "I prayed. But to a god I no longer trusted" (252). This quote seems to encapsulate a feeling we all have at one time or another. For the Jewish people, I think this feeling takes on particular weight in light of the Babylonian Exile, constant persecution, the Holocaust, etc. When great and inexplicable tragedy befalls us, our family, or our world, how can we still muster faith and trust in a loving, all powerful, all knowing God? How can Jews do this using the template(s) of the Covenant we discussed in class?

3. When discussing her still unfinished memoir with her daughter, Isaacson says "I seem to owe it to the dead" (261). Her daughter responds "You owe it to the living" (ibid.) . What does each mean?

4. What was the most shocking part of Isaacson's memoir and why?


REMEMBER: No anonymous posts - please post under your first name and last initial. Refrain from using internet short hand (no 'lol' or 'u,' etc.). You do not have to create a completely new comment as your participation; you may respond to someone else's comment as your contribution and participation, BUT be courteous to other posters. No personal or ad hominem attacks.