Native and Italian Assimilation Experience in the Documentary 'This May Be The Last Time'

Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Write about assimilation. What is lost, and/or what is gained, when an ethnic group gives up its cultural identity in order to blend into American mass culture? You may focus on the ethnic group of your choice, but remember to compare/contrast that group’s experience to the Native American Indian experience
This May Be the Last Time- Native and Italian assimilation experience
In the documentary film This May Be the Last Time Sterlin Harjo looks into the life of his grandfather Pete Harjo and the Muscogee Creek/Seminole people in Oklahoma, who composed songs after Pete Harjo’s disappearance. The director further explored how Muscogee hymns can explain the American music scene and especially spiritual songs. Assimilation represents the way people embrace aspects of a culture in a society including the language. In the U.S. immigrants assimilate into the mainstream society as they speak English and embrace American values, while merging their culture with that of other Americans. A comparison-contrast on the lives of Native and Italian American experience highlight how official policies and assimilation influenced how they became American..
Even as the Native Americans lived in various places before the arrival of settlers, they were moved into new places and expected to be like the white people. The American Indian people then lived in their own reservations, and sometimes there was minimal contact with Whites. Nonetheless, they embraced Christianity and in the film their hymns also represent their shared culture. In the case of Italian Americans, it is mainly men who first immigrated, and many still returned to Italy when they could not fit in or make money. Many of them were still attached to their homeland and few came with their families as they intended to stay for only a few years.
The restrictions placed on Native Americans meant that they were concentrated in certain areas, even as it was recognized that they were part and parcel of America. Despite assimilation and promoted genocide, they had been recognized by legal statutes and treaties over centuries (Huyser, Sakamoto and Takei 542). Many adopted Christianity over time and could speak English as this was most dominant in the wider American society the result is that many lost their folk cultures and especially when the young people, were not too keen to embrace their culture and religious beliefs. In the early stages of migration to America there were restrictions on Italian migration as they were not even considered White. Policies favored established inhabitants compared to immigrants and newcomers, and while they came from Europe they were different than established immigrants of English, Scottish and Irish descent.
The assimilation of Native Americans has been a painful experience as their land was first taken away from them where land-allotment programs provided their lands to White people who acquired it ‘legally.’ Native Americans were to be assimilated through adopting American ways of life, and one suggested way was putting them in reservations where they were to be supported to be civilized Americans now that their ways of life had been altered (Takaki 233). By the 20th century Italian Ame...