Sep, 27, 2014
Multi-cultural Workshop
Seminole tribe
There are many native tribes in the United States. Especially, I was interested in the Seminoles, so I researched about them such as features, history, and customs. First is about who are Seminoles. Seminoles were the group that combined Indian and Black slave, and they lived in south of Florida. Also, they lived in the everglades land, in other word, which means swamp, so the climate was so humid and wet. Moreover, the land is so important for them because this is the important source to ensure the good water quality. Additionally, they ate mainly animals and some crops. They were good at hunting, so they hunted animals such as otter, raccoon, turtle, and birds. In addition to the animals, they ate many crops like pineapples, mangos, guava, and oranges. Also, corn is the main crop for them, so they had many menu of corn. Second is about their home and dress. Their house was called Chickee. The roof was made from thatch, and it had no wall. Furthermore, Seminoles had a eating house which is so big and everyone came together to eat. Also, the features of the clothes are original, colorful, and the design is so complicated. Furthermore, the dresses are different between men and women. Men wore the only breech clothes, but women wore the long skirts. Also, both of them wore the poncho style mantle and moccasin that are the shoes. Thirdly, they have some unique customs. It was the customs to make some items such as basketry, palmetto dolls, and necklace with beads. Basketry was used as a container to store something like foods, and dolls are toys which children play with. Additionally, they have native Seminole languages which are Miccosukee and Creek. Miccosukee is still spoken today by about 500 Seminoles people in Florida. On the other hand, Creek is getting disappeared gradually, so some people are working to keep the language for their future. Moreover, the roll is also different between men and women. Men are mainly hunters, and sometimes they had to go to war to protect their family, but women are usually farmers, and they did their children’s care and cooking.
To sum up, Seminoles thought a great deal of their tribe. For example, if the happen, men have to go to war to protect their family, and women have to do the housework to support their family. That is why, they respect and cherish their tribe.
October 12, 2014
Multi-cultural workshop
“Smoke Signals”
I was wondering that how and where Indians still live in, so I watched the movie about present Native American, which is Smoke Signals. This movie is about two young native Indians, who are Thomas and Victor. When they were child, Thomas’s parents died in a fire, and Victor’s father saved Thomas. However, his father left his family, and when victor grew up, his father died. Then, Victor went a trip to go his father’s remains with Thomas. It shows the current Indians, and then I found some thing about them.
In the movie, I could see the present social position of Indians. According to this movie, I thought this Indians are in the still low position, which means they cannot have sustainable jobs, and they are provided the allowances by the government. Therefore, they don’t have enough money. Also, in the movie scene, when Thomas and Victor get on the bus, other people saw them warily. The reason is that their clothes and hair were not modern style, so others saw them like stranger.
To sum up, I thought they couldn’t still join American society. The condition has been improving little by little. However, they cannot live like a non-native American people.
November 2. 2014
Multi-culture Workshop
Gloria Estefan
In the United States, there are many Hispanic people who succeeded in some fields. One of them is Gloria Estefan who succeeded as a singer. She was born in Havana of the Cuba in 1957. In 1994, she became famous by this song which is TURN THE BEAT AROUND. In addition to her song becoming famous, she is known as a key person in Cuba’s music history. The relationship is that she has been trying to make a good relation between Miami and Cuba because she couldn’t sing her songs in only Miami because of their bad relationship. Thus, she thought she wanted to make the connection more closely, so she has worked hard to do that. That is why, she was famous among many people.
Multi-cultural workshop
Petaluma Art Center
We visited the Petaluma Art Center in the multi-cultural workshop class. The purpose of visiting there was to learn more how to celebrate the day when a person died. In the Art Center, there were many altars, and I felt sadness about dead people. Also, on the altars, we could see many ceremonial objects like candles, dead person’s items, flowers, and skeleton figures. Especially, there were many skeletons, so I thought skeleton is really significant symbol for them. Moreover, we learned every item has special meaning. For example, candle represents the person has dead because the flame is fragile. Additionally, there are similarities between Hispanic culture and Japanese culture because I found the “bodhisattva figure” there. Therefore, I was really surprised about that because bodhisattva is only Buddhism’s symbol. In brief, I could learn new many new things about celebration with dead person in the Hispanic culture. If I have more chances to visit such an art center, I want to go there.
December 7, 2014
Multi-culture Workshop
Cesar Chavez
Senator Robert Kennedy called Chavez “one of the heroic figures of our time”. Cesar Chaves was born on a small farm in Yuma, Arizona. When he was a child, his family lost their farm, so they had to move from place to place. His parents worked hard even though the pay was little. Therefore, Chavez could not complete school, but he always loved studying. During World War II, he joined the United States Navy and served in the Pacific. After that, he returned to migrant farm work in California, and joined the Community Service Organization (CSO), which trained people to form groups that worked to improve their communities. Through this movement, he begun to work to make sure people were not treated unfairly because of their backgrounds. He decided to start an organization to support farmworkers. Thus, he set up the National farm Workers Association in 1962, and he fought to improve working conditions for farmworkers. Also, he organized strikes and boycotts against grape growers because they treated farmworkers unfairly. By his efforts, he was able to reach his goal, so after that he was awarded the Residential Medal of Freedom from the United States and Mexico to honor his effort. That is why he was called “ one of the heroic figures”.
November 20, 2014
Multi-Culture Workshop
The Civil Rights Movement
The United States is sometimes called “Melting Pot”. It means this country has various racial people such as native people, Asian, European, and African people. However, until today, white American people had been struggled with Black American people because white African people have enslaved black African people. Since white people enslaved Africans in 1607, 1,200 thousand black people were brought to America. Although slavery ended in 1865, there is still strong prejudice against black people. Up until the 1960’s African American’s could not sit same seat with white people on the bus. However, they tried to protest against white people to get civil rights and freedom in 1950’s. It is called Civil Rights Movement, and it continued for ten years. This period was one of the hardest terms in American history because many people died because of terrible competition, and a lot of violence. Many African American sacrificed themselves for their freedom. I felt really sorry for them, and I thought it was so hard and meaningful time for all American people. Also, I cannot still understand why white people rejected black people, and they could not accept African people. Japan has also bad relationship with neighboring countries like Korea and China, but the problem is only about history. These have already passed, so we have to make compromise each other because we are just same pieces.
November 29, 2014
Multi-Cultural Workshop
Roots
In the history of America, African American slavery is most terrible incident. This movie showed this happening directly. The main character is African boy, Kunta Kinte, who was enslaved in America. The outline of his history was the basis for this movie. At first, we can see life of African people in the movie. The village was small group, but we can see clearly that family is important for African people, and they respect older person. One day, Kunta Kinte saw the white men, and he said to others “I saw white men”, and then others were surprised and begun to beware because it was unlikely that there were white men in Africa. However, white men captured many African men, and they were sent to America, but it was long trip from Africa to the United States, so a lot of Africans died on the ship. After that, African people were sold to white people to make them work on their farm. This part of American history is most cruel time, but I cannot still understand why white people did the terrible things to African people. Also, I was shocked that white men regarded black men as stupid people like animals, so it is a really harsh thing because both of them are same human beings. I hope strongly all people would be treated equally.
December 6, 2014
Multi-cultural Work shop
Stevie Wonder
There are many famous African American people in the United States although they have terrible history with white American people. Stevie Wonder is a one of them, and he has been praised for his work by many people. On May 13 in 1950, Stevie was born in Saginaw, Michigan in the United States, but he had a condition in which the growth of the eye is aborted, so he cannot see any thing. However, he became a famous American musician because he has talent for music. Therefore, he has a lot of songs, which became famous such as Sir Duke, You Are The Sunshine Of My Life, and Lately. However, he had a car accident in 1973, and he lost the sense of smell and taste. Through the happening, he became interested in joining for Charity work, so he made many songs for peace. One of the examples is “Happy birthday” which is the song to praise Martin Luther King. Thus, he was appointed as a United Nations Messenger of peace in 2009. To sum up, he is a well-noted person because not only he has talent but also he did much work for people.
November 29, 2014
Multi-Culture Workshop
HARRIET TUBMAN
Harriet Tubman is known as one of the important fighters against African enslavement. She was born on Maryland in 1821, and she escaped to Pennsylvania because she heard that the property of slave would be sold. When she was in Philadelphia and other communities in the North, she worked part-time jobs, and she used the money she earned to prepare for her missions to the South because she did not forget the terrible African American’s history. she traveled to Baltimore and rescued her sister and her two children, and then she decided to rescue as many enslaved Africans as she could. Thus, she made 19 trips, and she saved more than 300 people to freedom. In addition to known as brave women, she is also famous as great planner because she planned specifically plan, including how much food, how much money she would need, and where they can stay at night. Moreover, she knew some white American would allow her to hide. This process of moving house to house becomes known later as the “Underground Railroad”. After that, when the Civil War stared, she worked as spy, cook, and nurse, so the government gave her official commendations, but she did not receive any benefit.
In my opinion, I think strongly escaping from African enslavement was hard to success, but she achieved it, so people say she is a brave woman. Also, I believe she is magnificent person because she saved many African people. the discrimination against African people is still remaining now, but I hope it would disappear gradually.