Story Review of TA NA E KA

The story “TA NA E KA” written by Mary Whitebird, talks about Mary when she was eleven and she had to do an event, because it was part of her culture. Mary and her cousin named Roger had to take the TA NA E KA which they had stayed out in the wilderness for five days straight, and hunting food for themselves. Before the event, Mary borrowed five dollars from her teacher. When the event started she was left in the wilderness with only swim suits on, she first tried to eat the berries in the bushes, but thought it was disgusting and decided not to eat them. She instead went to a cheap restaurant and ate a burger and milkshakes, the owner of the restaurant decided to let her stay, and she picked flowers for the tables every day. After the event was over, her cousin was very skinny but she was plum, her grandpa was suspicious of her and asked what she ate. She finally told the truth that she went to the restaurant and ate the milkshakes and burgers. Her grandpa almost made her do it again, but her parents stopped him from doing so.

Traditions help us pass down our culture, so we can know what religion we are, and what culture we are in. When we do traditions we do it every year or once in our whole life, to remember what our culture is just like how Mary did, with her family. Mary had to do a tradition of staying alive for five days in the wilderness, because her grandpa is a Kaw Indian, and he is the last one left. When Mary did this tradition she had understood why her grandpa made her do it, because it was part of who they are. His cousin when he had done the TA NA E KA he had felt like a warrior at the end, because it was part of the tradition. Traditions help us remember the past and what other people have done, and even what we may have done. When we celebrate Christmas it helps us remember that Christ was born, and it also lets us know that we had a good time on Christmas, because of Santa. When we do new years, it shows that we are a new self, and shows us the things that we can do better from the last year. Traditions help show and remember parts of life that we can do to have fun. 

Change may be hard towards us, because we are moving to a new different style, and maybe even resetting to start one. Change is hard in life when we change people may not like us, or maybe they like you more, but with changes anything can happen. Mary’s grandpa feels a change between his time and the modern world, he sees that modern technology has advanced then back in his days, and that they would buy food rather than hunt for the food. In TA NA E KA it is easier to survive now, because of modern technology and the less chance of dying to a person or an animal. But in the old days where the grandpa lived, they had more of a problem because they were just in a sole village and also animals had still roamed. When people change it is hard to do so because you may start at level one. When you move you have to completely start at level one, making friends, and going to new schools, you are also unfamiliar to the landscape there not knowing where to go, and potentially getting lost. Change is hard in life, but sometimes we need to do it for work or some other things.

When people endure something they keep up something, like we have to have a long endurance to survive. When we endure something we have the energy to do it even if it is hard, like running a mile, we must have stamina and endurance to run it. When Mary, Roger, and the grandpa had to take the TA NA E KA, they had to have endurance, to live that long, even though it is unnatural to do this, they still endure it to become a warrior. Roger had to endure starving to death, by eating gross foods, like grasshoppers. The grandpa was lucky to find a deer shot, and he ate it but he had to conserve the food for the five days. Endurance is good, because when we have endurance we can do many things, like surviving in the woods, waiting for help. Also in sports we have to endure our stamina of energy, like running we have to keep at a steady pace. When we endure stuff, we can survive in life, endurance is a necessity that we need in life. 

The story “TA NA E KA” written by Mary Whitebird, talks about Mary who has to do the TA NA E KA, but she cheats by buying food. The TA NA E KA is a tradition, when we do traditions it is to help remember our culture, such as Christmas, we know that Christ was born. Just like the TA NA E KA it is a tradition to the Indians. When we change, many things can happen, the grandpa sees the change of the modern world and the past. In the past you had to hunt, but in the modern days you can just go to a market and buy food. When we endure something we have energy or stamina to do it, like in the TA NA E KA, the cousin of Mary Roger, has to endure surviving in the wilderness, just like the grandpa did when he was younger. The story TA NA E KA is a great story, that talks about many different things we need in life.