Impressions Of An Indian Childhood And The School Days Of An Indian Girl

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2002

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Impressions of an Indian Childhood and The School Days of an Indian Girl What is Gertrude Bonnin complaining about? Is she even complaining? She got to go to school and get an education for free. She even went on to go to college. Very few white Americans could say that in those days, much less Native Americans. Even today a free ride through college is a rare occurrence. Of course she experienced a few hardships along the way. Learning a new language was definitely a challenge for her in the beginning, although one she overcame quite well (after all, she did win an oratorical contest at her college). Living by the rules of a different culture was another challenge for her. But she eventually became accustomed to the new ways and she learned how to adjust. And of course she went through many years of discrimination and persecution, simply because of the fact that she is a Native American.

But in the long run, wall the challenges she overcame helped to improve herself as an individual and as a representative of a culture. We must all go through hard times and face many difficult challenges in our lives if we want to make a better life for ourselves. As long as there are different races, racism will always exist. People like Gertrude Bonnin who can overcome racism and discrimination by succeeding in the "white man's world," are the people who help others like them be accepted in our culture.