Pow Wow Highway

Fisher - Pow Wow

For this weeks topic there are three strong characters of the Native American people to compare and contrast with each other, with the Jewish Holocaust, and oppressed people throughout the world. There is Buddy Red Bow and Philbert Bono in the movie Powwow Highway and Marie from the short story "Saint Marie". Each of these characters is struggling to find their identity and dealing with it differently. Their stories address the oppression that whites demonstrated over the Native American people. It is seen in each that the characters cope their people's oppression and handle it differently. This idea can be construed with the same conception of the Jewish people's oppression by the Nazi party during the Holocaust. However, the genocide of the Native American peoples is much more drawn out. Where the mass-genocide of the Jewish people occurred over a few years during World War II; the genocide of the Native American Indians extended from the the middle of the fifteenth century into the twenty-first century. Powwow Highway tells the story of two men, Buddy Red Bow and Philbert Bono, who are Native Americans living on a reservation. A mine was discovered beneath their land and they were offered a deal to vacate their reservation. Buddy, thinking of the past when his ancestors were cheated and robbed of their land, denies the deal. He is distracted then by the news of his sister being arrested on charges of possession in New Mexico. This was a ploy to get Buddy to leave the reservation. Which was successful as Buddy leaves on a cross-country trek with Philbert in his "War Pony", a car in complete disrepair that surprisingly still runs. During the course of the trip, the viewer sees Red Bow struggle and fight against his oppression with a chip on his shoulder, as we see in the car radio scene. He lashes out against those who he thinks have wronged him. Reacting much like an animal backed into the corner of his territory. He does not handle his position well, and often times seems to not know why he is fighting or is angry. Over the trip he reconnects with his past/identity and finds a path. Meanwhile, Philbert is on a personal/spiritual quest to become a warrior. Bono is a gentle soul who finds his Native American identity elsewhere and by different means. Instead of fighting his fate like Buddy, he wishes to walk the same path as his ancestors and thereby establishing his identity as an Indian. What is interesting to note here is that the entire time that Buddy is acting violently and fighting, like a "warrior", Philbert walks the true path of a warrior. They both represent different reactions of people under oppression. They either fight against it or cling to their origins in vain hope. Marie, from "Saint Marie" somewhat represents a third option, conformity. Despite her treatment by the nun Sister Leopolda, she considers herself "as white" as any of the nuns in the convent. Marie survives her physical abuse to eventually be looked upon as a saint after the satist Sister Leopolda stabbed her hands with a fork, creating a false stigmata. This situation with the Indian children in the convent can reflect the oppression of the Medieval Catholic Church over the Native American people. Interesting that the same people who come over to preach and convert, many of whom died as martyrs, were also responsible for much of the early oppression against the "savages".