Every Day is a Good Day: Ch 1 & 2

Wilma Mankiller seems to be quite a humble woman. She refers to the great many women that have helped and influenced her life and expresses a lot of gratitude towards these women. She points out that many anthropologists and "experts" on Native Americans have written books and articles about Native peoples' culture when they really have a very limited knowledge of this subject because they're not Native Americans. She's right; how can someone be an expert on a culture and society they've never been raised with or understand another peoples' experience just by looking at it from the outside. Part of this reading also discusses being "despiritualized". Spirituality was a central part of Native peoples' lives and through forced assimilation and being placed in boarding schools, Native people were stripped of their spirituality, culture, and their identity.