"Oh See Us Draw Pictures" No Parole Today pgs 1-17

Intriguing and Important Quotes
“Utter one word of Dine and the government made sure our tongues were drowned in the murky waters of assimilation” (Tohe, 2005, p. 3).
“The taking of our language was apriority” (Tohe, 2005, p. 2).
“Suddenly we are immigrants, waiting for the names that obliterate the past” (Tohe, 2005, p. 4).
“Joe babes were the ones that left the reservations for the cities, for the schools, for the jobs” (Tohe, 2005, p. 9).
“The you might remember what your mother said about “dropping him like a hot potato” if he turned out to be your clan relative but you don’t bring it up” (Tohe, 2005, p. 18).

Key Themes
Taking the Dine language was both a priority and a tool used by the US government in assimilating the Dine people into white society.
To take the language the government placed native children in boarding schools away from their families, customs, cultures, beliefs, etc. and did not allow them to carry on any of their practices.


Thoughts/Reflections/Reactions
When reading these passages I was struck by how upbeat Laura’s writing was when it deals with such a dark issue. From what I know about boarding schools they were an extremely dark place where horrific violence was inflicted on children as young as two, in multiple forms. Here Tohe expresses the assimilation and violence she experienced through the boarding school experience in an artistic way. A way in which I have not seen this experience expressed before. I’m intrigued by her openness but also by the way in which she illustrates her experience allowing the reader to create her or his own picture.