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  • Essay / A Look at Structural Poverty as Depicted in the Silko Ceremony

    As the Silko Ceremony progresses, the problem of poverty among indigenous Indians becomes evident. The whites subjugate the native Indians by stealing their land and livestock. Tayo focuses on economic self-sufficiency as part of his healing when he focuses on finding and returning his family's cattle that the white rancher took from them. He faces many challenges in his attempt to recover the cattle as he encounters white patrolmen who are only interested in shooting coyotes and catching Mexicans. Tayo faces a lot of problems because he abuses white people's land and steals white people's cattle. Native Indians lack economic autonomy due to historical and modern racial prejudice against them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayIn Ceremony, Tayo, the protagonist, grew up in harsh conditions in Gallup, and the conditions there are similar to those of most impoverished real Native American communities. He remembers how he lived in a tin shelter in Gallup and his memories in that shelter are a nightmare. He endured abuse, neglect, promiscuity and alcoholism as a child. His mother left him in Gallup bars, and Silko writes, "He couldn't remember when he first knew that cigarettes would make him vomit if he ate them." He played quietly for hours under the tables, watching for someone to drop a bag of chips on him for a wad of chewing gum” (108). This means that Tayo grew up in poverty and it was not easy for them to find a decent meal. He depended on his well-wishers because his mother did not have the capacity to support him. Even though white women had children with white men in the hopes that white men could lift them out of poverty, white men left them and therefore struggled with life. Although Indian reservations have experienced phenomenal growth in the recent past, there are still gaps compared to other regions of America. Gaps in economic development explain cycles of poverty in Native Indian counties (Akee, Katherine, and Jonathan 39). As a result, the standard of living on most Indian reservations is very low. The issue of land is repeated throughout the story as it shows how the whites pushed the natives into poverty. The whites used any means necessary to expel the natives from their lands. Land alienation is the main indicator of racism in the novel and causes poverty. Silko explains this: He [Tayo] walked for miles through dry lakes and rocky cerros until he came to a high fence of thick steel mesh with three strands of barbed wire at the top. It was a fence that could hold back spotted cattle. The white man, Floyd Lee, called it a wolf-proof fence; but he had poisoned and killed all the hill wolves, and the people knew what the fence was for: a thousand dollars a mile to keep out the Indians and Mexicans; a thousand dollars a mile to enclose the mountain in steel wire, to appropriate the land (187). The enclosure in this excerpt refers to the obstacles that white people put in the lives of native Indians. Poisoning the fence is inhumane because the land belongs to the indigenous people. The fences symbolize the obstacles that prevent Indians from escaping poverty. The whites impose obstacles on the natives because they want to take over everything, like thelands, which belong to the indigenous people. White people are putting native rights to their land on ice because they think they have more rights to own the land than native people. Additionally, the fence implies that the natives are criminals who may come onto their land with the intention of stealing. Relative and absolute poverty levels are higher among Indians than among non-Hispanic whites. Huyser, Isao, and Arthur point out that "the problematic nature of poverty among Native American racial groups is underscored by their much higher risk of being poor (compared to non-Hispanic whites), even after statistically controlling for age , gender, education, metropolitan status and region of residence” (120). The implication of their findings is that Native Indians have the highest levels of poverty in their families, regardless of their area of ​​residence, age, gender, metropolitan status, and education, among other variables. Therefore, poverty is transmitted from one generation to another because it is deeply rooted in the community. The natives have colonized their minds and therefore lack the capacity to confront the experiences of hegemony that are repressed in their hearts. Therefore, they feel that killing in poverty is their destiny and they cannot change it. The suppression of feelings is attributed to racism which makes natives feel inferior and view whites as superior. To demonstrate the extent to which the natives suppressed their feelings about their desire to escape poverty, Silko writes that "he knew he had learned the lie by heart – the lie they wanted him to tell." he only teaches brown skin –. people were thieves; white people didn’t steal because they always had money to buy what they wanted” (191). Here, Tayo realizes that from the beginning, the white people have brainwashed the natives, making it difficult for a native to believe that the white person may be involved in the theft. He realizes that the whites are using lies to treat the natives as thieves when it is they who are stealing the natives' land and livestock. The whites smell the heads of the natives with lies, that is why it is difficult for them to realize that the whites are stealing their properties. These lies encourage discrimination and racial profiling of indigenous people. Additionally, they encourage stereotypes that Native Indians are thieves. Therefore, cycles of poverty among Native Indians are attributed to historical injustices. It is clear that poverty today is concentrated on Indian reservations due to the lack of economic development initiatives; Native Americans, as depicted here, lack the resources essential to establishing and operating various business enterprises on Indian reservations. The low volume of business enterprises on Indian reservations means that employment opportunities are limited. Additionally, Indians face a lot of discrimination when trying to find employment off reservations. It is very difficult for Indians to access credit, which means they lack capital that could help them start their business. Community values ​​and tribal institutions on Indian reservations also prevent economic development on Indian reservations. Some natives believe that seeking an alternative source of income, such as business, constitutes a violation of the social norms of the community (Mauer 71). Therefore, the weak economy has a detrimental effect, 2006.