Chief Joseph Assertion Analysis

    In Chief Joseph's surrender speech, Chief Joseph asserts that he was tired of his children dying and wanted to surrender from the battle. Many of his tribe ran away and died due to the fighting, and it made Chief Joseph sick. There was too much suffering for his heart to handle, so he surrendered his tribe and took a loss for the greater good of his people.
    In order to support this assertion, Chief Joseph used syntax, diction, and imagery. Since English was not Joseph's first language, the syntax was very simple and "to the point", making it easy to understand. Similar to the syntax, the diction in the speech wasn't extremely complicated, allowing for further clarity of what Chief Joseph was asserting. Finally, imagery was used to persuade the combatant that he was to surrender with examples such as starvation, freezing, and death.

John Fire Lame Deer Assertion Analysis

    In John Fire Lame Deer's commentary, he asserts that the Native Americans were perfectly fine before the white people came to "civilize" them. The author says that there was no crime because there was no reason to commit crime in the first place. Just the same that when someone was suffering, friends from the community would gift them what they needed to get that person back on their feet. John Fire Lame Deer seems to even be saying that their society was and is much more civilized than the white's idea of society.
    In order to support his assertion, John Fire Lame Deer used satire and parallelism. Satire was used throughout the enite text, emphasizing that the Native Americans "never would have known how to function without the white people", when in reality the Natives were doing so much better without them. Parallelism was used to emphasize the unity throughout the commentary by continuously using the word "we" when explaining how peaceful the Native American society before the whites.