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Something I learned about the Native American experience is that the Cheyenne word "Veho" means spider, trickster, and white man, which I thought was interesting.

Question: Why was Octavio mostly mad at Sixto for the death of his father even though his brother, Junior, was also somewhat apart of it as well?

Quote: “But you showed me. I knew how much you loved me. You did shit like, like how you got me that expensive-ass Schwinn. Probably used to be some hipster’s bike, you probably stole it, but still, you stole it for me, and in some ways that’s even better than if you bought it.” (Daniel Gonzales, pg. 191)

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Discussion quote: ¨What can´t be gotten easily, the recorded screams of dying Indian women, maybe even a taxidermied torso, a collection of Indian womens heads, there's probably some floating in tanks with blue lights behind them in a secret office on the top floor of an office building in midtown Manhattan.¨ 203

Question: Why did David mainly blame Octavio for his brother's death?

Something I learned: Something I learned in this chapter was that the Cheyenne word ¨Veho¨ means spider, trickster, and white man all at the same time which is interesting to me.

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Something new that I learned about the Native American experience is that they have a “medicine box” that contains sacred items to them to secure good health and a good life.

A quote I would like to discuss is “Part of what kills me about you being gone is that I never really said anything to you. Even when you emailed me. I didn't even really know how much I wanted to say to you until the day you left. Until I felt that feeling of losing you on the lawn out there, right on that same spot where that boy's blood stained the grass. But you showed me. I knew how much you loved me.” pg.212

I am confused on why Daniel blames Octavio for his brother Manny being killed, what did Octavio say that made Manny get into the fight?

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Quote: "Death alone eludes hard work and hardheadedness. That and memory. But there’s no time and no good reason most of the time to look back, Leave them alone and memories blur into summary. Opal preferred to keep them there as just that. That’s why these damn spider legs have her stuck on the problem. They’re making her look back" (Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield pg 165)

Question: Is there an even deeper reason as to why Thomas Frank is referring to himself in a second person point of view?

Something I learned about the Native American Experience: I learned that the Cheyenne word for "veho" means spider, and tricker, and white man.

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Quote: “It’s to prepare them for a world made for Native people not to live but to die in, shrink, disappear. She needs to push them harder because it will take more for them to succeed than someone who is not Native.” Opal Bear Shield pg. 165

Question: Why did Ronald change from trying to help Jacquie and Opal deal with their mother's loss to then abusing Jacquie?

While reading I learned that native Americans can get married in a tipi ceremony, also called the Native American Church.

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Quote: "I’ve been trying to figure out what it means to be Indian, and I think I have to learn it, but the learning part is the hardest part. It’s not like just knowing stuff. It’s not like a lesson. It’s something you have to feel."

Question: Why would Opal make it so difficult for Orvil to try and connect to his heritage if he is so passionate about it?

Something I learned was that the Natives have their own Church where they can choose to get married at for a special ceremony.

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Quote: ¨I read one website that said the Tall Whites are controlling America now.¨- pg 154

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Quote: ¨I read one website that said the Tall Whites are controlling America now.¨- pg 154

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Question: In the same paragraph it said after Harvey said the quote the author says ¨jacquie feels sad for Harvey.¨ Why does she feel sad, is it because his past and how he thinks that makes her feel bad?

Something I learned was that the teens and the kids didn´t know much about what was going on with them and the Whites.

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Quote:"Opal preferred to keep them there just like that. That's why these damn spider legs have her stuck on the problem. They're making her look back." Page.165

Question:What does Octavio's grandma mean about when she talks to him about "someone aiming a bullet meant for you"?

Something I learned is that "Veho" which is a Cheyenne word means spider and trickster and white man.

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quote: EVERY TIME she gets into her mail truck Opal does the same thing. She looks into the rearview and finds her gaze looking back at her through the years. She doesn’t like to think of the number of years she’s been working as a mail carrier for the USPS.

question: why are mirrors such a big significance in the book and what does it tell us about the characters.

something I learned is that there is a lot of times characters use mirrors to shows their identity or look back in the past.

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quote: Opal pulled three spider legs out of her leg the Sunday afternoon before she and Jacquie left the home, the house, the man they’d been left with after their mom left this world. There’d recently been blood from her first moon. Both the menstrual blood and the spider legs had made her feel the same kind of shame. Something was in her that came out, that seemed so creaturely, so grotesque yet magical, that the only readily available emotion she had for both occasions was shame, which led to secrecy in both cases.

question: what do the spider legs mean to opal

something I learned is that the characters in are book are very spiritual so when something happen with bugs or animals it means something to them

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Quote:

"As for your mom's side, as for your whiteness, there's too much and not enough there to know what to do with." 216

Question:

Did Blue really make it away from Paul?

I learned about the "medicine box[es]" and what they're made for.

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Quote: "We all came to the Powwow for different reasons. We all came to the Powwow with different needs. We all came to the Powwow carrying different burdens. But we all came to the Powwow to be together."

Question: How does the fragmented storytelling in There There reflect the fractured yet interconnected nature of Native American identity?

Something I learned about the Native American Experience: I learned how urban Native Americans navigate dual identities, balancing cultural heritage with the challenges of modern urban life, often maintaining traditions despite systemic erasure.

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Quote:
"Getting us to cities was supposed to be the final, necessary step in our assimilation, absorption, erasure, the completion of a five-hundred-year-old genocidal campaign..." (Prologue, pg. 12)

Question:
How does urbanization impact the sense of identity and belonging for Native Americans, and how does this relate to historical policies of assimilation?

Something New I Learned:
I didn't realize the extent to which Native relocation programs, like the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, were designed to erase Native identity. I always assumed urban migration was primarily for economic opportunity, but this passage helped me understand that it was also a continuation of colonial efforts to dismantle Native culture.

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Quote - “She could have waved first, then you couldn’t help but copy. But look at this,” he said. and then he broke out into a wild dance. Arms flailing, he jumped and spun. It looked to Onal like he was powwow dancing. But he couldn’t have been. He was just trying to act crazy in front of the mirror to prove no one else was in control but him, the Orvil on this side of the mirror”

Question - Why is Opal making it so hard for Orvil to try and connect to his Native American culture if he is really eager about it?

Something new - something I learned was the word "veho" which means spider or trickster in Cheyenne

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Quote: "The wound that was made when white people came and took all that they took has never healed. An unattended wound gets infected."

Question: How do the characters in "There There" cope with the historical trauma and ongoing challenges faced by Native American communities?

Something new I learned: I learned about the Urban Indian experience, specifically how many Native Americans have been displaced from their ancestral lands and now live in cities, often facing unique struggles related to identity, community, and cultural preservation.

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Discussion Quote: " Almost all I know about my birth mother is that her name is Jacquie Red Feather." 197

Question: Why didn't blue anything to Jacquie about her knowing she was her daughter?

I learned about Peyote Medicine and what its used for and what its called!

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Quote: “But the wound that was made when white people came and took all that they took has never healed.”

How does the novel illustrate the lasting effects of historical trauma on Native American characters and their sense of identity?

I discovered that Native American communities are still actively impacted by generational trauma, which has an impact on their issues with identity, addiction, and belonging.

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Something I learned about Native American culture is that they have challenges to balance themselves in with modern urban life, while maintaining their traditions.

Discussion quote, "We all came to the Powwow for different reasons. We all came to the Powwow with different needs. We all came to the Powwow carrying different burdens. But we all came to the Powwow to be together."

Question: How does Orange use different people/perspectives of Native people to show that most of them are dealing with the same problems.

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“We know the sound of the freeway better than we do rivers, the howl of distant trains better than wolf howls, we know the smell of gas and freshly wet concrete and burned rubber better than we know the smell of cedar or sage or even fry bread – which isn’t traditional like reservations aren’t traditional, but nothing is original, everything comes from something that came before, which was once nothing.¨

Question:

One question I have is why do people forget where our roots came from and why does it have to turn to stereotyping when other people don't?

Something I learned is that Cheyenne word ¨veho¨ means spider, trickster, and white man.

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Quote: “Opal and Jacquie’s mom never let them kill a spider if they found one in the house, or anywhere for that matter. Her mom said spiders carry miles of web in their bodies, miles of story, miles of potential home and trap. She said that’s what we are. Home and trap.” (page 163)

Question: Are the spider's legs supposed to represent the past?

Something I learned: I learned how Natives in Urban communities feel disconnected due to being away and apart from those in their tribes. Like how Blue feels due to being adopted into a white family.

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Quote: "Some of us got this feeling stuck inside, all the time, like we've done something wrong. Like we ourselves are something wrong. Like who are we deep inside, that thing we want to name but can't it's like we're afraid we'll be punished for it. So we hide. We drink alcohol because it helps us feel like we can be ourselves and not be afraid. But we punish ourselves with it."

Question: Do all natives feel this way?

Something I learned: They used badger fur as an ingredient for medicine.

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Discussion quote:
“It’s called the Indian Head test pattern. It you left the T V on, you’d hear a tone at 440 hertz—the tone used to tune instruments—and you’d see that Indian, surrounded by circles that looked like sights through riflescopes. There was what looked like a bull’s-eye in the middle of the screen, with numbers like coordinates. The Indian’s head was just above the bull’s-eye, like all you’d need to do was nod up in agreement to set the sights on the target. This was just a test.” Pg 94

Question: How does the imagery in the Indian Head test pattern reflect the broader themes of surveillance and targeting of Indigenous people?

Something I learned: Something I learned is the Indian Head test pattern symbolically represents the surveillance and targeting of Indigenous people. The use of rifle scope imagery and the bull’s-eye conveys a sense of ongoing threat and dehumanization, linking past and present experiences of Native communities.

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Quote: "Opal and Jacquie's mom never let them kill a spider if they found one in the house, or anywhere for that matter. Her mom said spiders carry miles of web in their bodies, miles of story, miles of potential home and trap. She said that's what we are. Home and trap."

Question: Is the fact that there were spider legs in Opal's leg a reflection or metaphor for being "home and trap" or is there another meaning?

Something new I learned was how much spirituality means to Native culture as spiders and animals all have meaning and are relatable in more than one way to their history.

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Quote: "That's why these damn spider legs have her stuck on the problem. They're making her look back."

Question: How does Opal's perspective of her world relate to the sense of the world around her today?

Something I learned is that the Native American experience has a deep emotion of generational trauma, which connects to a loss of identity for some of the characters due to their own experiences and their struggle to connect with their heritage.

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Quote: "Death alone eludes hard work and hardheadedness. that and memory. but there's no time and no good reason most of the time to look back. leave them alone and memories blur into a summary. opal preferred to keep them there as just that."

Question: How does Opal's past relate to how she deals with all the trauma she's endured?

I learned that Native Americans are usually superstitions.

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Quote: " She walks carefully because she's always had the sense that there are holes everywhere, cracks you can slip between-the world, after all, is porous". (pg.160)

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Quote: " She walks carefully because she's always had the sense that there are holes everywhere, cracks you can slip between-the world, after all, is porous". (pg.160)

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Question: Why does Opal's past challenge what she faces in life now?

Something I learned was that generational trauma within native communities can lead to personal struggles that impact one's present life.

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Quote: "Bad luck or just bad shit happening to you in life can make you secretly superstitious, can make you want to take some control or take back some sense of control". (pg. 160)

Question: Is there a particular reason why there are change in points of views (first, second, third person)?

Something new I learned was that Native Americans had their own places to get married and hold their own ceremonies.