While reading Zitkala-Sa book with all the indigenous stories and legends it really brought forth just how important this type of voice is for indigenous people, and it is still a very important thing that they practice today. This article "The importance of Indigenous storytelling in tales of post‑apocalyptic survival"(https://www.dal.ca/news/2022/04/04/indigenous-survival-stories.html) allows us to connect with some of the stories in her book. The title of this article alone has a huge meaning. Post-apocalyptic means to survive after a destructive disaster, well in this case the disaster would be colonialism and how destructive that has been for indigenous people throughout time. They have stories to help each other find the power to make it through and cope with what they have gone through. The storytelling allows them to stay connected to their culture. Zitkala- Sa brought in the stories she did to try to show how the colonizers came in and took the indigenous culture from them. Indigenous stories do it in a way that you really have to think about what you're reading, it is not just spelled out in the text, as we have found out through our class discussions about the legends and stories. I think this is a very unique thing to indigenous storytelling, and each sentence that Zitkala-Sa writes has a deep meaning to the story.
The author Cherie Dimaline writes books of survival stories to share with indigenous people to make them feel like there is hope in the future, she makes sure to include stories from survivors to show the readers that there is still a way to stay connected to their history and culture even in this new post- apocalyptic world.
I thought that this article really drives home the point that colonialism has changed the way that indigenous people live today, but by having their stories it gives them that connection to their history and family so they can focus on how to make it in this new world and challenges they are faced with today.