- Smore Submissions (see video below)
- Review The Jungle - test tomorrow
- Writing Prompt
- Native American Intro
HW:
- Submit your Smore
- On this blog entry, post your thoughts about "Children of the Plains"
- What surprises you?
- What angers you?
- Other thoughts/comments/questions
Children of the Plains was definitely interesting to watch. The living conditions that these people are in, are terrible. That cannot be good for young children that are still developing. It makes me angry to see parents that just do not care. All they want to do is drink or do drugs, and do not worry about the well being of their kids. I'm kinda surprised because when I think of a modern day Native American reservation, I think of a relatively nice town with a huge casino. To see such run down conditions and barely any jobs is odd. I could not believe how little jobs were available. The documentary focused on three kids that were making the best out of their situation, and good for them! But even still, one of these girls got pregnant. At no point did they mention abortion or adoption for the baby... is this a social thing? Or did she want to have the baby, because her own mother was a teen mom? The living situation these people are in is very basic, there are not many stores and there are no places for activities, like movies or bowling alleys. If these reservations are modernized, I think things will improve.
ReplyDeleteGreat question about whether adoption or abortion are a "social thing". I am not sure.
DeleteI really liked watching Children of the Plains. It actually really kept me interested. Agreeing with Emily, it makes me angry to see parents not care about their children. These parents are just constantly drinking and the kids do not have anyone there for them. It is sickening and upsetting. Then again like Desj taught us today, kids were starting to drink when they were around 5 because they would take anything they could get, not to just get drunk. It is a domino affect because the parents are drinking not feeding the kids and then the kids end up drinking and by the time they grow old, they themselves will be alcoholics as well. It surprises me that some of these children work so hard and are so determined to succeed even though the conditions they live in. If I could use one word to describe the three kids we talked about it would be determination. The willingness and desire of these kids to succeed and the goals that they have are amazing. Even though they do not have the best, each child makes the best out of it because it is where they are from, their home, and what they are used to.
ReplyDeleteGreat job working your adjective into this blog post.
DeleteI enjoyed watching Children of the Plains because I think it was sort of a "wake up call" to the fact that people are living like that in this day and age. In response to what Emily and Mikayla said, I don't necessarily think that the parents don't care about their children, I think that their addiction has severely clouded their judgement. Addiction is an actual mental problem and I think that deep down they want the best for their children and that they care, but physically and mentally cannot provide for the children. What surprised me before we watched the whole video was that these Native Americans did not leave the reservation. I now think that it is because they're too poor to leave and would not have many other options. I also think that where they live has a lot of meaning and sense of pride to them about their culture and who their ancestors were. What angers me is that so much of this type of neglect and poverty goes on in the world, but I don't think much is done about it. I think that people watch videos like these and they care for a while, but I feel like issues similar to these are forgotten and left to the side after some time. I think that for change to come about, someone within their reservation or community must become educated, get a degree, and then come back to the reservation and bring the resources and businesses that the community needs in order to stand on its own. I think it's going to have to take someone from there and who has this land in their heart to make that change.
ReplyDeleteMaleeha, I actually agree with what your saying. I am familiar with a similar situation and can make the connection that it is not always that alcoholics do not care, they just physically and mentally cannot. Thank you for making me see the other side of the story.
DeleteI never knew how bad other kids could have it, and that's not even the worst conditions. I'm very suprised at the fact that these kids have such big dreams and ambitions coming from such bad backgrounds and poor living conditions. I would think that they would be upset about it and not have dreams to do anything, but these conditions seem to motivate them to do something in life. I'm angered at the fact that some of their parents are alcoholics and only care about drinking, and don't take into consideration their children or their futures. It's hard for these kids to grow up in crowded houses, especially without a caring mom or dad. I can say that I'm lucky to have supporting parents and everything else I have that they don't. People don't realize how bad other kids have it, including me sometimes.
ReplyDeleteSpencer, great point here. We don't realize how terrible others have it. I also really like how you comment on the dreams and motivations of these NA children
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat surprised me most about the Children of the Plains was how poor the area where the children lived was. When I think of poor places, I do not think of Native American reservations. It also surprised and angered me at how many alcoholics lived at the reserve and how little they cared for their children. These children already live in a very difficult environment growing up and it just makes it harder when their parents do not see or care about their children. A lot of people on the reserve care more about alcohol than their own child and that is disturbing. I am also startled at how many children go without food on the reservation and their school lunch is their primary source of nutrition. It was eye opening to see how difficult children and people have it on the reservation and how different their life is compared to ours.
ReplyDeleteI have seen the documentary the “Children of the Plains” before and I was still moved by it the second time. I watched it for the first time with my mom, who called me over to watch it because she was so surprised by the conditions these people were living in. We both had no idea that the American Indian reservations were full of such poverty. The land that is now America was the Native Americans first and now they live in isolated areas full of poverty. It is sad to think that these groups of people, who are of so much importance in American history, have such hard lives because of the way people have treated them over the centuries.
ReplyDeleteI believe the children of this documentary are very inspiring because they are so intelligent and have such big dreams; coming from a hard life, where very little achieve something great. Most of them do not have supportive families who are around all the time. They have to deal with parents suffering from addiction and that in itself is hard enough. These children are strong and through their struggles they know they want to rise up and achieve something great.
What surprises me about the children of the plains is how the Native Americans know they have it tough, but they stay at the reservation. I understand that this is their home, but they could possibly better themselve if they move. It angers me that the alcoholism in the town-reservation is really screwing with a lot of kids' futures. Also, several deaths occur and that is also not good for the children. Although their lifes are tough, the kids in these reservations are tough kids and have great perseverance and do well with what they have.
ReplyDeleteHow would they move? Do they have the resources to do this? Do they have the education? How does one break away from their culture?
DeleteI found The Children of the Plains to be very moving. I was extremely surprised to see the living condition of these Native Americans. In the past, I thought Native American Reservation were nice because they were given federal money, but on this reservation there is only one school funded with federal money. Other than that, most children will not receive a real education. In the documentary it said more than 70% of students will drop out of school. I was inspired by the stories of these kids. There are many day where I, and I'm sure many others, want to give up because things seem too hard. These children are forced to live in the worst conditions imaginary, but they persevere and are motivated to do better. It puts things into perspective because if these children can do deal with these things daily, one bad day is nothing for me. It made me angry to see these awful conditions and to know that conditions like these exist in the United States. I've seen many commercials about donating money to help families in Africa, but not one about helping the Native Americans on reservations. I think this is a national problem that needs much more attention than it receives.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching The Children of the Plains I was heartbroken. I knew that life on a reservation was very difficult, but I had no idea just how bad it is on reservations. The fact that the children were okay with living like that and were not very envious of people who have more than them was absolutely astounding to me. The strength and high hopes that those children had definitely made me want to cry throughout the entire movie. The obesity levels on reservations really angered me because we are such a health conscience country now that there is no reason to give Native Americans non-nutritious food and to not give them enough to properly feed themselves. I feel that the treatment of Native Americans back in the 1800s has changed very little today because we are still killing them off, just in more unorthodox ways.
ReplyDeleteWow! That is a powerful closing statement.
DeleteIt is said that this culture cannot get the proper nourishment. To think that a Subway restaurant is providing them with the best food they can possible can get is horrifying.
I am not surprised to see the children in The Children of the Plains recognizing what is wrong with their society. Once you see something bad happen over and over again, it eventually registers as "hey, that is bad and I shouldn't do that." For example, in The Children of the Plains, the children recognize that alcoholism is a major issue on the reservation because they see the effects alcohol has on someone because 80% of adults are alcoholics within the reservation. The children in the spotlight are all intelligent enough to see that alcoholism ruins lives and, therefore, they should avoid it. With that being said, I not surprised that these children are motivated to better themselves with education because, if they succeed, that will be their ticket out of the reservation. Some of these motivated children make it clear that they like the cultural aspects of their lives, and if they could change one thing, it would be the prosperity within the reservations. I believe that some of these children will strive to make reservation life more inhabitable and to make an honorable society out of the reservations.
ReplyDeleteChildren of the Plains was very eye opening. When people think of poverty stricken areas the ghettos of large cities generally come to mind. No one thinks about the Native American reservations. It is surprising that there are not more efforts to help out these communities. The high poverty and the shambles that they live in is appalling. I believe that the reason this issue is not as public is that while the ghettos are in the cities where the wealthy can see, the Native American reservations are tucked away in desolate areas. The most infuriating thing about the documentary was the children that are affected. All of the children had different aspirations, but they all had a determined attitude to improve their living conditions. However, the society around them is full of drugs, alcohol and teen pregnancies which making achieving their goal incredibly difficult. It makes me angry to see the hardships that these optimistic children have to over come to improve their situation. When was this documentary made and is the issue of the reservations still relevant? Near the end of the documentary there showed promise for a better future.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting ideas. Certainly we are exposed to the poverty in cities or suburbs, but who visits a reservation? Great observation and conclusion.
DeleteThis documentary is not that dated. The issue is still very relevant.
Children of the plains video was really good, you get to see the the conditions and the problems those natives were facing. What surprises me were out of 80% of the people living in this reservation were alcoholics and the poor condition they are living in, look at Robert's living condition, he had to move in with other extended family members in a little lousy house because his mom was an alcoholic. What angers me is to see those cute little children were often went hungry over the weekend, and many five years old children had to drink alcohols to get rid of the thirsts, it makes me sad to think about it. I agree with what Logan said, the society the children are living in is pretty harsh, yet, it's happy to see that they still have faith and are trying hard to pursuit their dreams.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else and I think that Children of the Plains was an eye opening video. Usually the videos we watch during school are boring, but this one was actually entertaining. To be honest I never pictured the Native American reservations to be anything like that. I thought that they lived like what we picture the old Native Americans to live like with the tee pees and animal skins and hunting. It seems pretty stupid thinking about the reservation like that now that I've actually seen the real one, but that came as a surprise to me.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that the Native Americans didn't leave the reservation. It seems easy for me to say that I would just leave and move into a better town with more opportunities, however, I don't know if I would be able to do that if I was in the situation. I feel bad for the Native Americans and I think that it's hard for them to get help because people are uneducated about the issue. Before watching this video I had no idea how bad life was for them.
Emma, I think that we all have stereotypes of any culture in our head. This is partly because of the media portrayal of different people (news, movies, books) and partly because of our own ignorance. I am so glad you made this comment because I think many of us would think this!
DeleteI'm not sure what her name was, but the lady with brown hair that was being interviewed by Diane Sawyer in a seperate interviewing room not appearing to be on the reservation really shocked me. She seemed so bitter about the whole situation! Rightfully so because the conditions that these Native Americans live in are awful. But, I could not seem to identify if she herself lived on the reservation. She tended to use many "they"s and "them"s so I could not tell if she was an outsider to the Native American experience or if she had personal experiences on the reservation. Either way, I found that the children who were shown in the video were much more optomistic than her. They believed that they bennefit from living on that reservation, and I was truly inspired by that. In regards to what everyone else said in the above comments, it is a shame for them to have to live this way and we all wish it didnt have to be like this. But, I believe these children having sligthly differing opinions. I think that they are finding ways to become better because of living on the reservation. They are fighting each and every day to uphold their family history even though it is so difficult in this modernized American society.
ReplyDeleteI am extremely surprised at the condition the Native Americans are living in. I thought that they would be poor but not as poor as they really are. It makes me angry to see parents ignore and in some cases abuse their children. I do not think any parent should put themselves before his/her child. However I am surprised at how optimistic some of the Native Americans are. In the situation they are in it seems tough to be able to see the light. Very few people go to college from Pine Ridge reservation, and to see a child want to go against the odds and want to succeed in life is very uplifting.
ReplyDeleteNothing in this documentary was surprising to me because it was lnown that these people were marginalized and in poverty. The only thing that angered me was that there was a lack of presence of government in these communities. As these lands are owned by the native americans I belive that the government should still be helping these people with stuff like subsidies ad access to government programs to help them provide for their families.
ReplyDeleteWhen we started watching this documentary I was somewhat surprised. A man from my church frequently goes on short term mission trips to a reservation in New Mexico and has told us that there is a large number of suicides in the reservation and that many of the children and teens are severely depressed. However, I was surprised that it was the lowest level of poverty in the country. We often are led to believe that people in the 'bad' areas of cities and way out in the middle of the woods are the most poor, yet we never really consider Native American reservations. It is really upsetting, especially since these Native Americans were here first, yet they are living in the worst conditions. I do believe that some of these citizens brought upon their own misfortune by making bad decisions, but so many of them were born into it that they really are just stuck in these horrible conditions. I believe that more Americans should step up and try to help these poor citizens.
ReplyDeleteWhat I was really surprised by, like many others, was the overwhelming poverty. I was not aware that the Native Americans living on these reservations were living in such awful conditions. The rampant alcoholism also surprised me. So many of those kids on the reservation are forced to deal with alcoholic parents, and it's just so sad. However, they are also very strong and determined to live better lives. I really admire the strength those kids have, even when they have it so tough.
ReplyDeleteI watched some of "Children of the Plains" on Youtube so I wouldn't be lost during discussions. It was definitely not what I expected to see. I thought that Native American reservations were places where Native Americans embraced the old ways of living. I always imagined that a reservation would be a place full of people willingly relinquishing technology in order to live a simpler lifestyle. It could not have been farther from what I expected. Poverty is rampant in these reservations, and I never knew that these children had such tough lives. It definitely opened my eyes to get an inside look at what these reservations are actually like.
ReplyDelete