THE NATIVE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

Introduction: Listed below are perspectives attributable to the Indians of the Plains and the American Southwest through the 19th century. Some of these perspectives may be appropriate to other Native American tribes within North America.

1. The Pueblo culture is characterized by collectivistic, ritual emphasis under priestly direction. 2. The Plains Indians emphasize individual self-realization through aggressive fighting against outsiders and hallucinatory vision experiences. 3. The Pueblo Indians were gardeners, the Navaho practiced pastoralism, and the Plains Indians were hunter/gatherers depending on the buffalo for survival. The Comanche later engaged in horse herding. 4. Pueblo Indians reside in compact masonry villages with communal land ownership and ownership restricted to the privilege of use. The Navaho lived in widely dispersed hogans or lodges. The Plains Indians lived in tipis that could be easily disassembled and moved. 5. The Plains Indians treated the hunting grounds a public domain. Some tribes engaged in communal sharing of killed animals, particularly for the elderly, the infirm, and the wives of hunters who brought back nothing. 6. Trade was essential to survival. The Navaho traded in wood and wool, the Pueblo in maize, and the Plains Indians in tobacco, meat, and skins. 7. The Pueblo were noted for pottery making, the Navaho for weaving, the Plains Indians for buffalo hides and feathered bonnets. 8. The Plains Indians destroyed the property of a deceased person by burning it, throwing it into a river, or setting the items out to rot. 9. All tribes practiced a division of labor between males and females. Pueblo men gardened, Navaho men did the spinning and weaving while the Plains Indians hunted. 10. Some tribes practiced puberty rites for