Duncan Campbell Scott's Representation of Native People in "The Onondaga
             Duncan Campbell Scott was significantly renowned to be one of the greatest
             writers during the Confederation period, in Canadian literature. Raised in the country of Ontario and Quebec, he spent many years working in the Department of Indian Affairs, where he was deputy superintendent from 1913, until his retirement in 1932 (Bennett and Brown, 190). His career kept him in contact with Native people in isolated communities in the Canadian wilderness, and he was inspired upon these experiences in his works. While his poems and works expressed sympathy towards the native culture and treatment, his compassion directly contrasted the severe policies of the department he headed. Much of his work about native people accurately portrayed the crude and hostile stereotypes circulating the culture in Canada during the 19th century. Scott's "The Onondaga Madonna," provides a clear illustration of a female member of the Onondaga tribe, and her son, during the time of Confederation. While the poem is accurate in its negative representation of native people, there is also a sense of empathy and compassion
             towards the deterioration of the culture. Through Scott's depiction of characters, word choice, sound, use of metaphors and sentence structure in "The Onondaga Madonna," he accurately portrays the stereotypical nature of the Indians' savage behaviours, and their ongoing battle to preserve their culture from European assimilation.
             Scott's "The Onondaga Madonna." Depicts a female member of the Onondaga tribe and her son, during the time of Confederation. In the first stanza, Scott describes the woman as a savage, violent member of an Iroquois tribe, "full-throated with a careless pose" (1), and possessing "rebel lips" (7). Though his portrayal of the woman is rather vulgar and malicious, he...