Journal 20: Zitkala Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)

Michelle Romero
Eng. 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford

"'Pity the man, my child. I knew him when he was a brave and handsome youth. He was overtaken by a malicious spirit among the hills, one day, when he went hither and thither after his ponies. Since then he cannot stay away from the hills,' she says." Page 1014, 1st paragraph

This quote is the quote of Sa's mother advising her to have pity on Wiyaka-Napbina, a man who Sa is not very fond of and even a little frightened by perhaps. Her mother tells her of a time when Wiyaka was brave and handsome, before he was overtaken.

What strikes me here is the metaphorical hills in the passage. Later down the page, we read that they are making coffee with water from the Missouri River. Missouri of course has literal hills, but also, compared to mountains, they are just little stumps. Sa publishes this work in 1900 and a little over 60 years later, Martin Luther King writes a speech using mountains and hills as metaphors for high and lowly people. In fact, he specifically criticizes the hills of Missouri, where there was a huge amount of oppression and racism against blacks. I wonder if he didn't read Sa. Who knows?

What I do know is that both King and Sa perceive the Missouri hills to possess a "malicious spirit" as Sa puts it. In this story, it is a spirit which overtakes a member of their tribe, but in a broader sense, an evil which overtook the minds of many ignorant people in a shameful part of American history. It is not a coincidence that Sa describes Wiyaka's defeat as coming when he rode in to the hills after his ponies. I suppose Native Americans did use ponies, but when I think of ponies, I think of American westerns where the cowboys are riding ponies. Then the ponies in Sa's picture might be a representation of this white Western movement and the impact it had.

The last part of this quote says that since Wiyaka was overtaken by this evil among the hills, he cannot stay away from the hills. This to me seems like a idea or theory that once you leave your culture to join the white man, you can never return. Or at least, you will not fit in again.

Sa's own experiences later in the story after leaving for the Quaker schools and returning for visits, indicate a similar idea. She never really feels the same closeness with nature as she did when she was younger, living on the reservation.

The unanswered in all of this is still whether or not the price of assimilation and acculturation is too high, too low, or just right. Should she have maintained her family and ethnic traditional ways, rebuking all else, or is it good to embark on adventures in to other worlds even if it means never fully fitting in either place?