PDF 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Holman Reference) by Christian History Magazine Editorial Staff in History

Description

The life story of Viola Martinez; an Owens Valley Paiute Indian of eastern California; extends over nine decades of the twentieth century. Viola experienced forced assimilation in an Indian boarding school; overcame racial stereotypes to pursue a college degree; and spent several years working at a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. Finding herself poised uncertainly between Indian and white worlds; Viola was determined to turn her marginalized existence into an opportunity for personal empowerment. In Viola Martinez; California Paiute; Diana Meyers Bahr recounts Viola’s extraordinary life story and examines her strategies for dealing with acculturation.Bahr allows Viola to tell her story in her own words; beginning with her early years in Owens Valley; where she learned traditional lifeways; such as gathering piñons; from her aunt. In the summers; she traveled by horse and buggy into the High Sierras where her aunt traded with Basque sheepherders. Viola was sent to the Sherman Institute; a federal boarding school with a mandate to assimilate American Indians into U.S. mainstream culture. Punished for speaking Paiute at the boarding school; Viola and her cousin climbed fifty-foot palm trees to speak their native language secretly.Realizing that; despite her efforts; she was losing her language; Viola resolved not just to learn English but to master it. She earned a degree from Santa Barbara State College and pursued a career as social worker. During World War II; Viola worked as an employment counselor for Japanese American internees at the Manzanar War Relocation Authority camp. Later in life; she became a teacher and worked tirelessly as a founding member of the Los Angeles American Indian Education Commission.