Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Reading Selections for Week 9 and 10

As soon as I saw the Alaska section for the Native American unit, I knew I wanted to read it. I feel like my future started with Alaska.

Here's the shortened version of why: Josh's family was stationed in Alaska a few years before they moved to Lawton, Oklahoma. Where they lived, there were several local coffee huts where you could drive up and get a coffee and bagel.

When they moved to Lawton, Josh's mom missed the local coffee huts, so she opened Lu Lu's Coffee & Bagel, where I had my first job, and later met Josh, who is now my fiance. I also surprised him in Alaska shortly after we started dating and he had already planned a trip to visit his friend there for a whole month (he wanted me there, I promise.)

Other than that, I love how wildly natural Alaska is. The "Last Frontier" is one of the few places where humans haven't defiled every inch of the land with stores and roads, and I think that's really cool. I've grown up around lots of Native American history, but everything I know is from Oklahoma, so I'm excited to learn about a culture far, far from from where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. I'm most interested in section B, which has more diverse stories about wildlife and nature and ghosts, rather than many about one character.


I may have to go against my better judgement and read stories from the Cherokee tribe. Like I said, I grew up in Oklahoma, so I feel like I've been bombarded with stories of red dirt and the Trail of Tears my entire life, so much so that I've grown to resent it. But, I must admit, if I dig around in my brain, I don't know many stories about the land I grew up in, and it might do me some good to gain a fresh perspective, rather than basing all my opinions of Native American history on the boring museums I walked through as a kid. Plus, the title, "How the World was Made" caught my attention. I love myths and folktales that tell a story of why nature is the way that it is.

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