Skinless animals (The History Lesson)
In “The History Lesson” , the skinless animals signify the undesirable end results of white civilization in the Americas. Arguably, the skinlessness is due to skinning; the skinning is equivalent to the attrition of the Native American culture. The foremost outcome of the skinning is exposure of the internal organs that would have been enclosed by the skin. The skinlessness is representative of the adversative perils that the Native Indians were exposed due to the influx of the whites.
The Indian woman (“Indian Woman”)
The Indian woman is emblematic of female dehumanization. The woman says, “I am a squaw/ a heathen/ a savage/ basically a mammal.” The oppressive tone in these opening lines suggests that the Indian woman has been brutalized to the extent that she deliberates that her standing/ importance is corresponding to that of a mammal.
“bone fragment, chipped stone and delicate cedar weave” (Artifacts)
According to the speaker, these artefacts that cannot yield a wide-ranging, perfect and in-depth detail about a people. Even though the archaeologists are more dependent on the artifacts than living history the artifacts do not advance dependable historical explanations.
