The problem of belonging neither "here nor there" is
common to all people in a period of transition. It is often
the situation of Native Americans who feel they don't belong
in either the traditional or the modern world, the Anglo or
the Native world. Some have become hopelessly lost in the
middle, unable to move out of this state of being on "the
threshold." This is analogous to the situation in which many
ESL students find themselves. The sense of hopelessness, of
loss of self, of "anomie," is common for these students who
have been thrust into a very different culture.
As Paula Gunn Allen says in her book Song of the Turtle,
"Liminality, literally a state of being on the threshold,
is the most common theme in the Native narrative tradition
. . . . It is while one is on the threshold that sacred
things happen. The threshold or the doorway implied in the
anthropological term 'liminal' (from limen, which
means threshold), pertains to the process of initiation or
transformation." This kind of passage describes the very
situation in which an immigrant finds himself or herself. In
this sense, it seems that an ESL student might identify with
the Native American experience. He or she might find solace
and perhaps even help in moving from the liminal state into
the transformation of self.
For the Native American, this is a constant endeavor. As
Paula Gunn Allen states, "We are ritual, sacred-centered
peoples who reside equally in the modern and ancient worlds.
Liminality is our chronic state, and transformation is our
daily enterprise." The immigrant experience is one that
demands a fluidity of identity. Allen says, "In this country
the rigid sense of self demanded by Anglo-European values
is difficult to achieve. The United States is a society
based on a multiplicity of cultures, languages, and
traditions. It is still in a formative stage. Fluidity of
identity implies fluidity of every kind of boundary, an
attractive notion for Americans. And while boundary crossing
is fraught with dangers, Native narratives often highlight
the even greater danger of fixing those boundaries."
It is often my job as an ESL teacher to try to help my
students navigate these boundary crossings. it is with this
in mind, and within the constraints of finding writing that
is clear and understandable to non-native speakers, that I
have selected the following readings from Allen's
Song of the Turtle: American Indian
Literature 1974-1994.
- "Yellow Calf" by James Welch. This is an excerpt
from Welch's novel
Winter in the Blood in
which the narrator is caught in a liminal state. Although he
is far beyond puberty, he is unable to move beyond that
period of transition to manhood. Throughout much of the
novel he seems to wander without any real sense of himself
or where he is going. It isn't until he meets Yellow Calf,
an old man that his father used to visit, that he begins to
find his own sense of identity. Yellow Calf tells him a
family secret, and this knowledge enables him to move out of
his inertia and towards manhood.
This excerpt, or possibly the entire novel, is good material
for an advanced-level ESL class, because the language is
not too difficult and the story is fairly straightforward.
It is rich with symbolism and traditional beliefs. These
areas would be fruitful for analysis and class discussion.
Finally, the story can be brought into the realm of the
students' own experiences by relating it to transitions in
their own lives: What role does understanding your family
background play? How do adolescents make that transition
in their cultures? Who helps them?
- "Tony's Story" by Leslie Marmon Silko. This is a
story based on an actual event in which a brutal police
officer was killed by a Native man in New Mexico. The story
revolves around two very different world views, one
traditional and the other materialistic. For the traditional
Native man, the police officer is a witch and his murder is
necessary in order to rid the world of an evil thing. The
murder is very logical within the traditional frame of
reference. The police officer needs to be stopped. This
story dramatically portrays the juxtaposition of two
completely different world views and the tragedy that can
occur when these worlds collide. It is very relevant to ESL
students who come from vastly different worlds themselves
and who need to live in an new culture that they don't
always understand.
The exploration of this story would help them to see how we
can be living side by side without any real understanding
of one another. How does Tony feel? How does the police
officer feel? The students could role-play the characters in
the story. They could attempt to show us their thoughts,
feelings, motivations and world views.
There is also a very interesting shift of pronouns in this
story. At the beginning of the story, the police officer is
referred to with the pronoun "he," but toward the end, the
traditional Native man begins to use "it." This is a subtle
shift and an interesting lesson in pronouns. The entire
mental shift is signaled by this change.
- "Wili Woyi" by Robert Conley. This story, like
"Tony's Story," deals with the injustice of the
Anglo-American legal system for those with different world
views. The story centers on the fact that a Cherokee man,
Wili Woyi, killed another man in self defense. He is
confident he will have a fair trial and be acquitted by the
district court of the Cherokee Nation. When he finds out
that he is going to be taken to Fort Smith for trial, he
knows that he will not get a fair trial in front of the
"hanging judge" who wants to bring the law of the white man
to Indian country by hanging Indians.
Wili Woyi's solution is through magic. He is a trickster, a
shape-changer, and it is through these methods that he is
able to escape the white man's legal system. His solution,
again, arises from an entirely different world view and the
possibilities inherent within that view.
Wili Woyi's name even changes. In the traditional society,
he is Wili Woyi, the conjurer, but to the U.S. Marshal, he
is Bill Pigeon, just an Indian man. Again, we see the
shifting of identities between worlds. It would be
interesting for ESL students to compare the methods that
Wili Woyi uses to the traditional Anglo-American methods of
protesting injustice. Many minority students can relate to
the feeling of being unfairly treated within the American
law enforcement system. What can they do about it? What
would they do in Wili Woyi's situation? How could they find
help? What role does magic play in their cultures? Are
there people who are regarded to have supernatural power?
How does Wili Woyi feel? This is all fruitful ground for
class discussion, role playing, and writing projects.
