Ceremony by leslie silko?

Question

i dont get why the whites get more respect than tayo & the indians?

Answer 1

I "get it" and I am ashamed of it.

In anthem, the United States may be "the land of the free and the home of the brave," but she has stolen the land of her native peoples; disrespected their values; humiliated them with broken promises; and neglected their history and cultures.

Is there any doubt that the American settlers attempted to destroy the Native American peoples and use the land for their own purposes?  Is there any doubt that the American government vanquished Native Americans by forcing them onto Indian reservations?  

Native Americans are only "first-class citizens" when the United States needs them to fight and to die to protect the freedoms of the economic majority (i.e., "Whites") of her citizens.

Are we taught about the bravery of Native Americans?  Are we taught to respect Native Americans?  I submit that we are not; moreover, I submit that it is not inadvertent.  Our texts teach history from a European perspective.  We are taught to venerate the "Founding Fathers" but we are not taught to respect the Native Americans, their leaders and their traditions.  We are fed books that manipulate the events that deprived Native Americans of their land and their rightful place in society.

I believe that you have thought about and been touched by the insights found in Leslie Marmon Silko's novel "Ceremony"; and I suspect that your question (i.e., Why do "whites get more respect than [T]ayo & the [Native Americans]?") is rhetorical.