Zitkala-Ša and the American West (When the Buffalo Herd Went West and Search for Bear Claws, the Lost School Boy)

Prof. Jaroslav Kusnir, University of Presov, Slovakia

Abstract

In her stories, Zitkala-Ša often depicts various aspects of Indian mythology in the form of transformed origin stories, but at the same time, as not only an Indian but also a Westerner, she points to a specificity of the American West. On the one hand, the themes of her stories are related to the Native American cultural tradition; on the other hand, she depicts a specificity of the American West that is connected both to the past and to modernity. This paper analyzes Zitkala-Ša's representation of the American West as a specific region and the way in which the Native American literary tradition is generated in her understanding of the American West.