Indigenous Peoples in the American Imagination: Representations of Native Peoples in Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God and Cynthia Kadohata's Weedflower

1. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE AMERICAN
IMAGINATION: REPRESENTATIONS OF NATIVE PEOPLES
“The Sovereignty and Goodness of God” by Mary Rowlandson
And
“Weedflower” by Cynthia Kadohata
Created by Kennedi Williams on April 9,2018

2. HIGHLIGHTS
• Racism/oppression
• Stability
• Model Minority
• Migration
Both Rowlandson and Kadohata show these key points in their works.
• Rowlandson gives representations on Indigenous peoples.
• Kadohata represents the Japanese people.

3. RACISM/OPPRESSION
• Racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a
different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
• Oppression: prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control; the state of being
subject to unjust treatment or control.
-stuck in a prisoner state; you can’t get out; cast in society; system-
feeds into itself.
-loss of dignity; difficult to feel self pride; lonely.

4. INDIGENOUS/JAPANESE
OPPRESSION
• Indigenous peoples face oppression from infrastructure; never ended.
• Japanese peoples face oppression by living on reservations; ended after the war.

5. COMPARE/CONTRAST OPPRESSIONS
• Both were:
o Displaced
o Surviving on what the have
o Limited education
o Limited future opportunities
• Differences
o Japanese came to country to just escape oppression while Indigenous are
oppressed on their own land.
o Japanese internment exploded families (lost respect for elders after displacement).
Indigenous peoples forced to stay together when moved.
o Japanese know farm hacks but Indigenous not given the same infrastructure.

6. STABILITY
• Rowlandson numbered and described each removal to emphasize how much she
was moved.
-gives the idea that Indigenous peoples aren’t stable.
-emphasizing pain and suffering.
• Kadohata mentions being removed from their homes and schools and places in
camps to later be moved again to reservations.
-stability was limited due to uncertainty of the next move.

7. MODEL MINORITY
• Definition: immigrant group that people perceived as good.
• Rowlandson: portrays Indigenous peoples as savages, all while humanizing some.
• Kadohata: the Japanese were humanized and lived their own lives. Later suffered
embarrassment from displacement
- loss of model minority status and now considered savages for
involvement in the war. (involvement bases in race, not actual support
for the war)

8. MIGRATION (JAPANESE)
• Moved to the United States because Empire of Japan as under an emperor. During
World War II they sided against the United States.
• The lifestyle in Japan at the time migration to the United States started was of an
oppressive sort.

9. MIGRATION (INDIGENOUS)
• Were moved because of the arrival of the Europeans.
• Lives lost during migrations because of diseases.
• They were constantly moving as colonization spread and there was a lack of stability
of their living conditions.

10. CONCLUSION
• Both Rowlandson and Kadohata gave different representations of the indigenous
and Japanese peoples.
• Rowlandson perceived Indigenous peoples as savages with lack of stability; her
perspective was more racist with respect to certain individuals.
• Kadohata gave a fresh perspective on the Japanese drawing attention to oppression,
stability, and migration.