Bringing the Marginalized into Conversations about American Raciality - Erin Kane - Keely Gaeta - Emily Norris

THE BUFFALO AND BUTTERFLIES

Butterflies are frequently mentioned as a symbol of memory, migration, and the importance of generational knowledge. Little Dog and his family, similarly to butterflies, were forced to migrate in order to survive. Butterflies rely onmigration pattern passed down through ancestral behavior. Comparably, Little Dog depends on the lessons he learns from his mother and grandmother. Both the butterflies and Little Dog rely on the knowledge of the previous as essential to survival. In the context of Little Dog, survival tactics are key when you are othered in essentially all facets of self. The familial memories and lessons Little Dog carries with himprovide himwith a path and give him context he wouldn't otherwise know, which in turn help him survive in a country with no true understanding of what it means to be a refugee. The buffalo are symbolic of the blind following of one’s family. This can be understood through Little Dog and Lanwatching a herd of buffalo follow each other over the edge of a cliff to their death. He compares the actions of the buffalo to the opioid crisis in America, with both simply falling victim to learned behavior. While the butterflies learned behavior proved to be crucial to survival, the buffalo's is the opposite. Little Dog is extremely affected by the opioid crisis, as many of those present in his life passed away as a result of addiction. He asserts that the learned behavior of those addicted to drugs can be unlearned through the recognition of the harms of addiction. Little Dog understands that this cycle can be broken, only if one can learn from the experiences of those before them. To learn is not to mimic, but to reflect.

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