In Geary Hobson’s “In the Name of Science”, Thomas Darko was removed from his home to help a group of scientists in Washington. These scientists were trying to study and recreate the Ofo language of which Thomas was finally the only speaker. Thomas was not always alone. He used to be surrounded by his family, but several disasters befell the Darko’s and the last Ofo stood alone. In the story, Thomas’ family was dead, and, before the culture died out, the scientists swooped down on the unsuspecting Thomas. There are several parts in this story that can be paralleled to different events that occurred in the twentieth century when the government imposed several different policies on the Native American peoples.
The first policy that I would like to introduce is “Allotment”. The allotment was policy
Thomas that each of those people is dead. Because of the separation between them, Thomas was unaware that he had lost his entire family. This separation accounted for the death of their language and their culture.
in which the government parceled out land grants to Indians. This land was not theirs to give, though. They got this land by dividing up the reservations. The worst part of this crime against those on the reservations was that the land given to the individuals was only a small piece of the reservations; the rest was called surplus and it was sold off. The aim of the government was to destroy the reservations and separate the peoples so that they would be unable to continue with their culture and they would assimilate. The parallel to these events in the story are seen when Thomas begins naming the
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