Last Rites for Indian Dead By Suzan Shown Harjo

Last Rites for Indian Dead by Suzan Shown Harjo

1.      Harjo’s position in her discussion is that she illustrates the injustice in the United States regarding the burial rights to remains of ancestral American Indians based on their historic value. She also emphasizes her position on the issue that there exist too many laws that define American Indian remains as archaeological property of the United States, while too few exist in disapproval to “such insults”. Harjo is more precisely protecting the remains for proper burial. She states her viewpoint in the second sentence of paragraph two. Rhetoric questions were utilized in her essay and facts and opinion were also balanced wisely.

2.      She created her argument by clarifying the details of American Indian decapitations that took place in the name of research, and based on undecided specified intentions regarding the government’s role in it. She also included excerpts from an officer’s journal accounts about the nature of the observations recorded, such as weight and measurement of Indian skulls. In addition, she used various methods of rhetoric and persuasion to solidify her side of the argument. She stances various situations in which all readers can find themselves imagining. Lastly, she employs a strong call to action in the last part of her essay to gain the approval of her audience of readers.