重建生态和谐——生态批评视角下西尔科《仪式》-rebuilding ecological harmony —— silkkos ritual from the perspective of ecological criticism.docx

Introduction Introduction PAGE PAGE 10 Introduction The native voice in American literature is indispensable. There is no true literary history of the United States without it. —N.Scott Momaday Brief Introduction of Native Americans and Their Literature “Native Americans? Aren’t they vanishing?” I was asked the question many times when talking about my thesis with classmates and friends. In fact, I’d like to tell them without hesitation, “Definitely no”. Thousands, even millions of years before Christopher Columbus actually stumbled on the continent, the Native American people had been living there. They were overall a peaceful people who enjoyed family, prayer, and creativity. An appreciation and respect for nature was of the utmost importance. Once the Europeans arrived in America, things became much different. At first, the Native American people found these new arrivals to be intriguing and interesting and they almost worshipped these fair skin people. As time went by, it became apparent that the Europeans were greedy and cruel as well as materialistic. Soon the Native American people began to despise the “white man”. Not only did these new settlers bring greed but they also brought many diseases that the Native Americans had never faced before. These new diseases affected the Native Americans and killed many of them since they had no resistance. As time went by, the plight of the Native Americans grew worse and worse. They were forced off their lands and pushed further and further west with many promises being made but never kept. There were also many conflicts that ended up with massacres or wars, in which many Native Americans lost their lives. As Joy Porter notes in her historical essay, the Native American population in 1492 ranged over ten million. By 1900, diseases and military encounters had reduced the population to approximately 250,000. Soon the Native American people were only left with some small Indian reservations. Beginning in 2002, the front