Aleutian Sparrow

Pre reading:
Honestly, I am very naive about the world. I have my little bubble, which some people criticize, that I live in. Its not that I don’t want to learn about the bad things in life, I would just rather live in a world with all happy thoughts, which is very unrealistic. So as I have decided to become a teacher I have really broadened my horizons, because I think it is important to know about history, especially as a teacher. I had no idea that this happened to the Aleutian people, I didn’t even know were the Aleutian islands where. But now through research it seems to me before the Aleutians were all separated and forced to evacuate their homeland islands, they were treated similarly like the Native Americans once outsiders began to inhabit the island. It mentions that they were forced to hunt otters for their fur and that’s exactly what the Indians were made to do with beavers. They were relocated (even as far away as the California islands!), had epidemics, starved, etc. and on top of all that a war were their island, culture and people were distroyed. the climate doesn’t seem very adaptable as well. It mentions that because of were it is located that there was volcanoes, earthquakes, and TONS of rain.

Responce to reading:
Throughout the book Vera doesn’t seemed to be worried about everything. The Aleutian tribes as a whole seem to see the bright side of things. They try to continue with what they have and build cabins, find work, worship together, and even at Christmas time go from cabin to cabin within the camp and sing hymns. They seem like such a strong and united community, it’s beautiful. Vera goes through a horrible life, it’s absolutely heart breaking. I think what makes it even sadder, honestly, is that she does take it so well. Over her three years in this camp she gets separated from her friends and family, has to leave a home she has always known, and see it destroyed, see friends die and family die, live under unsanitary living conditions, and loose everything. She even watches Pari die right before her eyes. They had little to eat, extremely unsanitary water and living conditions, all five tribes at one point lived in two bunk houses! I have never even had to share a bathroom; I can even imagine living that closely with people I didn’t even really know. I found it fascinating and absolutely disgusting that the German prisoners were treated in an extremely better manner. I found it awful that they were even aware of the fact that the prisoners were treated well; this has to make them feel diminished and worthless. The Aleutians seemed to have many traditions like going to trap blue foxes, fishing, telling stories, etc. I love how even though “trouble advances like lava” the elders still sit around and tell stories. I like the story about iidigidi, the bogeyman. They children seemed nervous while telling this story even though this was the least of their worries. Over all the Aleutian people are strong and adaptive. They adapted and made light of an awful and devastating situation.

At first I wasn’t sure about the writing style in this book. I thought it was going to be awkward and hard to follow because it looks like just a collection of poems. But it was just a beautiful way to tell a story. It flowed in such an elegant manner; it was easy for my eyes to follow. It was easy to follow and was divided into chapters making it easier to distinguish between time periods. But what I really liked is the imagery. “Our dreams are ravens” I loved this. It wasn’t our dreams are like ravens, they are ravens soaring and continuing hopefully above all circumstances. I really learned a lot form this book; I started out with no prior knowledge of the Aleutians or the islands. This was a great way to show an inside view of what happened.

I also wanted to point out that doing the activity we did in class would be a great strater to the lesson. We wrote down all our favorite things and people without knowing what for. Then to be told imagine life without all of them. It really hits you then once you have just thought of eveythihg you love and thinking about it all going away. I couldnt do it! I just can't imagine the trials these people went through, and I think this was a great activity to shed a little light in on this subject.