...Native American Culture Have you ever wonder how the world was created from another culture’s perspective? Native Americans used creation myths to explained to their people how the world was developed overtime. Creation myths are a big part of the Native American culture. they have been passed down from generation to generation. In the creation myths, harmony with nature, rituals, and strong social values are shown in each myths. The purpose of having strong social value in these myths is to teach younger Native Americans valuable lesson if they ever do something bad. These myths reveals how the rituals were created and their intentions for doing it. Creation myths has harmony with nature in it to show a very close kinship between them and nature. Native American explained how the world began with their myths. Various works of literature reveal the Native American tradition and beliefs of rituals, strong social value, and harmony with nature. Rituals plays an important role in Native American Culture. In the short story, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds”, the Laguna ritual was shown when Leon did the funeral rites on Teofilo. For example, “ Leon ties feathers to Teofilo’s hair, paint his face, and sprinkle holy water on his grave” (50). This quote is important because it is part of the Native American’s tradition that was past down from generation to generation, and the purpose of doing this funeral rites is to make him be part of nature. Another example of Native American ritual...
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...229 3/2/2014 Native American Culture Perhaps no other culture is quite rich as much as of the Native American culture. So many aspects of our modern life were adapted from the old Indian cultures practiced centuries ago. The Native American way of life is different, but unique in its own way. The Native Americans’ way of life is very traditional and is still very similar to the way the earliest settlers lived. The Native Americans have strict beliefs and guidelines that they live by. They live to serve themselves and their tribes. They grow their own food and raise their own meat. There are few things from Native Americans that still exist in other cultures. I have visited to the Native American Museum in D.C. I have seen many different things that present the Native American culture. Weapons: When people think of American Indian weapons, bow and arrow is the first thing that comes to mind, their weapons are not limited to the arrows and bows. They also used spears, sword and knives for hunting and other good reasons. Native American bows were made of wood. Those bows were so powerful, able to shoot an arrow completely through the body of animal to be hunted. American Indian arrows were fletched with feathers to make them fly straighter. Spears are another kind of weapons that Native American used. Just like bows and arrows, spears are also made of wood and used for hunting and warfare. Knives and swords were also the common weapons used by Native Americans. Knives were...
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...Native American Culture Native American Culture America has always been described as one of the richest cultural regions. If you look at the American culture now, you will find that it has a really huge variety and diversity. And so if you study the history of America, you will find the same thing. America passed through multicultural stages until it reached what it is now. In this essay I will talk about the indigenous people in North America, which called Native American, or sometimes American Indians. First of all, I’m going to talk a little about some facts in the history of Native American people. The Native people were first who lived in this land “America” “They had lived in the land many, many years before white man set foot on their soil”(1). As any other cultures there are prosperity periods and another tragic periods. The period from the 16th through the 19th centuries was a tragic period for Native American. The population of Native American people was declining considerably in that period because of many reasons. The most harmful cause of this decrease in population was the epidemic disease that brought from Europe. An interesting piece of information is that the Native Americans were named “Indian” mistakenly! You would ask how is that? That accidentally happened when Christopher Columbus mistakenly believed that he landed in India. One of the most important aspects in the Native American people culture is their rituals and beliefs. Native American...
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...Native American Culture: Disappearing or Evolving? It has been made clear through our studies and the understanding of cultures through various pieces of work, that culture is something that defines most of us as humans, while allowing us to keep close to our traditions and values and in a society that is constantly progressing and evolving. In addition, Native Americans are one group of individuals throughout history, who have always had a strong set of traditions and values, and these traditions have even evolved and progressed. On the other hand, one could argue that these set of traditions and historical roots of has begun to disappear. Through comparing Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues, and Edward Curtis’s photography sets documenting Indian Culture and identity, we are shown how these works represent Native American Culture as it is changing and evolving over time, and how it is disappearing. In Reservation Blues, we are introduced to modern day Indians, and how they are influenced by music, and a less traditional lifestyle, while Edward Curtis used his photography as a visual platform to paint a historical and attempted to recreate history through his photographs. The evolving culture of Native Americans is something that is represented throughout Reservation Blues. We are introduced to characters that defy, what some would consider, traditional values and norms. We are presented a literary picture of modern day Native Americans who challenge this through music,...
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...American and Native Culture The American culture differed in many ways from the Native Americans. The American culture thrived in advancement of technology and wanted succeed in life at the expense of others. They thought of the Native American as savages and didn’t really recognize them as human beings. All they really wanted was there land to build industries, farming, homes, and mine for gold, etc. The land could supply so much lumber to build homes and fences to grow a colony. The new production of technology in agriculture helped out farmers from hard labor and being able to do the task much faster. As for the Native Americans they lived a more humble culture as they did everything on their own to provide for their family. They hunted, farmed, made their own clothes, thought their children’s old traditions. You could say they lived a life free of corruption and manipulation. The only rivals they had were tribes that did not see eye to eye on certain things or over land; which would be common. Free of diseases, wars, and greed they would soon face a vicious society that would tarnish everything they believed, Americans. There was four major treaties and legislation that the U.S. government had in place against the Native Americans. In 1863, the Nez Perce Treaty was signed illegally on behalf of the whole tribe, this document forfeited 6 million acres of land in return for a small piece of land northeast of Oregon. The Nez Perce wars followed for about 14 years which ended...
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...Native women have been highly sexualized throughout pop culture and history. There are a number of examples that come to mind–the story of Pocahontas, or Tiger Lily in Peter Pan, or Gwen Stefani in her “Looking Hot” video, or even the Land ‘O’ Lakes Girl–the “Indian Princess” stereotype is far and wide. A current example of an American Indian stereotype happened in 2012. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show caused some controversy as their model, Karlie Kloss, strutted along the catwalk. She wore a tiny leopard print bikini, high heels with leather fringes around her ankles and hips, a large turquoise pendant, matching rings, bracelets and a belt. Her most alarming accessory, however, was a lofty Native American headdress. Kloss’s garb was designed...
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...After 2500 B.C.E, Native American cultures began to change their ways of farming, religious systems, hierarchical states, and political systems. (http://www.samiachughtai2.blogspot.com/2013/03/chapter-1-apush-notes.html) Many Native Americans transformed their ways in farming through producing food surpluses by cultivating crops. The Mesoamerican farmers found ways to improve their crops, such as planting beans with maize because the beans heightened its nutritional value. These types of discoveries convinced some societies to evolve and focus their lives more on farming rather than a hunter-gatherer system. An increase in crops in the Mesoamerican community also led to trading with those communities that had yet to adapt to farming. Establishing formal exchange networks gave farming communities wealth and power, leading to further urbanization. For example, the Olmecs and Chavin de Huarntar exercised a hereditary ruling system of absolute power, also known as “chiefdoms” (pg 7). Despite these developing societies, there were some communities that had yet to adapt to the new ways of living due to...
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...Dark times of the Native American Indians The foundation of the United States is based on the belief of peace, freedom and equality, which is enjoyed and practiced by most of the people in this “Country of Liberty.” However, the idea of equality and freedom does not apply to every person living in the U.S. Luis Valdez, an American writer, once said: “No Statue of Liberty ever greeted our arrival in this country. We did not, in fact, come to the United States at all. The United States came to us.” Growing up, children in the U.S. learn little of what has truly happened to the vast population of the Indigenous people on the continent? What has led to such a drastic decease of their culture and tradition? The answer lies in a dark part of the...
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...After the drastic change in climate around 10,000 years ago, bands of hunter gatherers began to change their subsistence strategies and, as a direct result, their political structures. The nomadic culture of the early Native Americans transitioned into a more sedentary way of life as they adopted horticulture as their main method of subsistence. Following this change was the rise of chiefdoms out of former-egalitarian societies. The once equal distributions of power became centralized and lead to the development of hereditary inequality. This progression was the result of a number of social and cultural changes including food storage, the knowledge of growing food, the accumulation of resources that allowed for the trade of material luxuries,...
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...North American continent. they encountered the completely new cultures of the Native American peoples of North America. Native Americans, who had highly developed cultures in many respects. must have been as curious about the strange European manners and customs as the Europeans were curious about them. As always happens when two or more cultures come into contact. there was a cultural exchange. Native Americans adopted" some of the Europeans' ways. and the Europeans adopted some of their ways. As a result. Native Americans have made many valuable contributions to American culture. particularly in the areas of language. art, food. and government. Native Americans left a permanent imprint on the English language. The early English speaking settlers borrowed from several different Native American languages words for the new places and new objects that they had found in this new land. All across the country. one can find cities. towns. rivers. and states ,with Native American names. For example. the states of Delaware. Iowa. Illinois. And Alabama are named after Native American tribes as are the cities of Chicago. Miami. and Spokane. In addition to place names. English adopted from various Native American languages the words for animals and plants that were to be found only in the Americas and no place else. Chipmunk. moose. raccoon. skunk. tobacco. and potato are just a few examples. Although the vocabulary of English is the area that shows the most Native American ...
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...This source is an educational video about the early life of Native American culture. I chose this source because I like that students can get information from a visual source. The video would be a great way to help introduce my lesson because it is not very long and it gives a very brief over view of what students will be learning about. This correlates with my glee that says students will summarize the viability and diversity of Native American culture before Europeans came. Questions from DOK for the source: 1. Level 1- How did the Native Americans document what happened in their lives? Use evidence from the video to answer the question. 2. Level 2- Make observations to answer the question, why do we need to know about Native American early culture? 3....
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...undeniable that societies and cultures have structures and roles that are intended to apply to men and women. These gender roles and structures also seem to transcend into the literature of that society and time period respectively. There is a particularly stark contrast in the roles of women between cultures in specific stories. European-centric stories tend to have inverted roles of women in comparison to Native American stories. For example, Theseus, a tale of greek mythology, has strikingly contrastive roles of women when juxtaposed to a book such as Land of the Spotted Eagle that emphasizes women’s roles in Native American stories and culture. These examples, among others highlight differences and make note of similarities. The...
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...It is important to understand the existence and culture of Native people prior to European arrival because life was drastically different before they arrived. Natives continually based their culture on ensuring that everyone was taken care of. The bow, arrow, and spear were their weapons for hunting and for battle. The arrival of Europeans greatly impacted the lives and culture of Native Americans. Europeans had no problem taking over Native land because if conflict were to arise, they knew they had the weapons and men to overpower them and defeat them all. They wanted to take over their land because European settlers viewed owning land as being very important. Land to them meant wealth. Upon European arrival, Natives were introduced to more...
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...When there is change often there is loss to the Native Americans heritage or traditions. However in Native Americans culture change can also symbolize growth and the coming of age. The acculturation of modern technology and beliefs caused Indians to loose many of their traditions. One of the most important traditions is the Name Change. This tradition still lives on today. The name change tradition remains as one of the essential traditions passed down. A Native American will be named when they are born and then they will change names as they change and go through life. Some Indians may change their name two times while another may change it five times. Some of the names may be given based on your appearance, such as light hair. Or another name may be given because you were a great warrior such as crazy horse. The name change signifies that a shift in a person’s ethos or personality has occurred. When a Native American changes names they are growing. When a person is given only one name it almost signifies a dull life. There was no change or growth during their life. They are forced to stay to the roots of that...
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...fail to comply with the requirements. Native American Cultures before European Contact Introduction Before Columbus’s unexpected landfall in 1492, North America has long been untouched by “outsiders”. There were barely any contact or connections between North American cultures and the rest of the world. After 1492, however, people of generations (mostly European colonists) were motivated to come to the “New World”, hoping for the wealth this new-found-land could possibly bestow them. Their encounters with Native American people were therefore inevitable. The Native American people who had resided in the Americas for thousands of years were, to many of the outsiders’ surprise, not some sort of wild “savages”(Boyer et al., p.20). They were comprised of many different communities, or tribes. And the interactions among the tribes were frequent, leading to the fact that the Native American cultures, in general, have formed many common features. The key word to describe the Native American cultures before European contact, if any, can be ‘Equilibrium’. Throughout the history of Native American Indians before 1492, ‘Equilibrium’ had been Native American’s philosophy in dealing with in-tribe, inter-tribe relations as well as their relationship with nature. To illustrate how Native American Indians achieved ‘Equilibrium’, I will analyze their social structure, religious beliefs and social values. Social Structure The Native American Indians are mostly bonded together by...
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