Cultural imperialism is a term I never heard until earlier this week. In both the poems by Sherman Alexie and the chapter's talking about the European takeover of North America, we can see that cultural imperialism is a huge theme. When European settlers came to this country years ago, they did so with the idea that the only culture that mattered was their own. They had no regard for the lives or culture of the natives of the land. The fact that they actually robbed the graves of native people shows how little respect they had for the people who were the original settlers of this land.

Loewen presents an argument backed with facts and ideas from many different sources. Alexie, however, gives a personal account filled with imagery and wordplay. They both tell the same tale of a culture being turned upside down and really not knowing what to believe in. One of my favorite lines in Alexie's poems was in the sixth section of "Drum as Love, Fear, and Prayer."

"Is God red or white? Do these confused prayers mean we'll live on another reservation in that country called heaven?"

These are powerful questions concerning cultural imperialism. Sherman Alexie tries to grasp the concepts that he and other Indians have been taught but have trouble. It is hard for them to believe in white people's God when all white-people have done to them is oppress them.