7] Following Carlson’s discussions on literacy as “part of a broader genre of transformation” (61), try to explain what he means when he says that transformation is an “act of literacy.” This can be confusing at first, but if you follow his discussion beginning with “how Salish people understand the process or act of transformation in relation to literacy itself” and pay attention to how he uses etymology to shape his insights, you should be able to extract an explanation for conceptualizing transformations as writing and as readable.

I think that Carlson is trying to teach the readers that the many people in the world have a distinct idea of how indigenous culture and live is and many of those assumptions are wrong.  I think that Carlson wants to use indigenous literature to teach people who are ignorant of the real life problems and customs of these people.  So many people have ideas of indigenous cultures that are completely wrong.  I think this “transformation” is that people are able to have their personal ideas about indigenous people changed.  I think it is important for people to have their ideas about the world challenged every single day, this is what makes humanity a better place as a whole. I also think the easiest way to get the point across to many people is in writing.  Many people will not believe what is right in front of them unless there is scientific evidence.