The Native American culture has relied on verbal language as a way to pass down their history, legends, and customs. Many of their tribal stories have been passed down from generation to generation through the use of oral tradition as opposed to written language. These tales were told for both entertainment purposes and to preserve their rich history. These stories are a very important part of the Native American Culture. Diane Glancy’s novel, Pushing the Bear, captures the unique tradition of storytelling by the Cherokee tribe during the 1838 Trail of Tears.
In this novel Glancy tells her story by using the thoughts and dialog of a wide array of characters. Their differing perspective show the wide range of emotions felt by those that had
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Corn is sacred to the Cherokee nation; in Pushing the Bear corn represented their way of life. Corn was the way they sustained themselves it was their main crop and it was also part of their legends. At the beginning of the novel Maritole tells the tale of Selu, she states, “Didn’t the soldiers know we were the land? The cornstalks were our grandmothers. In our story of corn, a woman named Selu had been murdered by her sons. Where her blood fell, corn grew”. This can be considered a creation story because Selu gives her life in order to create the nourishment for the corn. The fact that Selu was a mother that sacrificed herself can also be interpreted as a connection between Cherokee ideals of a matriarchal society. Throughout the book many of the characters struggle with the loss of the corn. At one point Maritole’s father goes as far as to say that corn is their lives. When Knobowtee loses his farm land he essentially loses his identity, and he mentions how he misses planting his corn several times in the novel. Corn is what gave him a purpose in life and without it he felt as though he had lost his livelihood. Corn was not only vital to the Cherokee for agricultural purposes it was also a part of their own culture. Glancy mentioned this creation tale for the purpose of showing the great loss the Cherokee felt during the forced
Winona Wheeler’s essay, “Cree Intellectual Traditions in History” analyzes the oral history of First Nations Elders. She specifically questions the identities of the Elders telling their story and how they have attained the stories that they are telling. Wheeler’s thesis is that the Elders are not mere storages of knowledge, they are humans. And as the days go on, few of them remain which makes it even more relevant to take in what they have and pass it on to the newer generations.
This book report deal with the Native American culture and how a girl named Taylor got away from what was expected of her as a part of her rural town in Pittman, Kentucky. She struggles along the way with her old beat up car and gets as far west as she can. Along the way she take care of an abandoned child which she found in the backseat of her car and decides to take care of her. She end up in a town outside Tucson and soon makes friends which she will consider family in the end.
Before European contact with Turtle Island, the Native Peoples fully occupied the lands, maintaining extensive trade networks, roads that tied different nations together, and successfully adapted to the specific natural environments across the continent.15 In her book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes of the Natives also adapting the environment to their needs,
We turn back the clock as Welch draws on historical sources and Blackfeet cultural stories in order to explore the past of his ancestors. As a result, he provides a basis for a new understanding of the past and the forces that led to the deciding factor of the Plains Indian tribes. Although Fools Crow reflects the pressure to assimilate inflicted by the white colonizers on the Blackfeet tribes, it also portrays the influence of economic changes during this period. The prosperity created by the hide trade does not ultimately protect the tribe from massacre by the white soldiers. It does, however, effectively change the Blackfeet economy and women's place in their society. Thus, it sets the stage for the continued deterioration of their societal system. Although their economic value is decreased, women still represent an important cog in the economic structure. Indeed, women are central to the survival of the Blackfeet tribal community that Welch creates and in many ways this strength and centrality provide background for the strength of the women depicted in his more contemporary novels. Welch's examination of the past leads to a clearer understanding of the present Blackfeet world presented throughout his work.
These stories have a continued overlapping influence in American Fiction and have remained a part of the American imagination; causing Americans to not trust Native Americans and treat them as they were not human just like African Americans. In conclusion to all these articles, Mary Rowlandson and John Smith set the perception for Native Americans due to their Captivity Narratives.
Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of the value of the Native American past, these literary works have also revealed knowing perspectives on the meaning of the modern world in the lives of contemporary Native Americans.
“Film is more than the instrument of a representation; it is also the object of representation. It is not a reflection or a refraction of the ‘real’; instead, it is like a photograph of the mirrored reflection of a painted image.” (Kilpatrick) Although films have found a place in society for about a century, the labels they possess, such as stereotypes which Natives American are recognized for, have their roots from many centuries ago (Kilpatrick). The Searchers, a movie directed by John Ford and starred by John Wayne, tells the story of a veteran of the American Civil War and how after his return home he would go after the maligned Indians who killed his family and kidnapped his younger niece. After struggling for five years to recover his niece back, who is now a young woman, she is rescued by his own hands. Likewise, Dances with Wolves is a Western film directed and starred by Kevin Costner. It is also situated during the American Civil War and tells the story of a soldier named John Dunbar that after a suicide attempt; he involuntarily leads Union troops to a triumph. Then, by his request he is sent to a remote outpost in the Indian frontier “before it’s gone”. There, the contact with the natives is eminent and thus it shows how through those contacts this soldier is transformed into another Indian that belongs with the Sioux to tribe and who is now called Dances With Wolves. While both John Ford and Kevin Costner emphasize a desire to apologize to the indigenous people, they use similar themes such as stereotypes, miscegenation, and the way characters are depicted; conversely, these two movies are different by the way the themes are developed within each film.
Cherokees valued the corn so much that they held the Green Corn Ceremony to honor the corn
Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Print.
King, Thomas. “Let Me Entertain You. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. 61-89. Print.
Throughout ancient history, many indigenous tribes and cultures have shown a common trait of being hunter/gatherer societies, relying solely on what nature had to offer. The geographical location influenced all aspects of tribal life including, spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices. Despite vast differences in the geographical location, reports show various similarities relating to the spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices of indigenous tribal cultures.
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
Thomas King uses an oral story-telling style of writing mingled with western narrative in his article “You’re Not the Indian I Had in Mind” to explain that Indians are not on the brink of extinction. Through this article in the Racism, Colonialism, and Indigeneity in Canada textbook, King also brings some focus to the topic of what it means to be “Indian” through the eyes of an actual Aboriginal versus how Aboriginals are viewed by other races of people. With his unique style of writing, King is able to bring the reader into the situations he describes because he writes about it like a story he is telling.
I’m fascinated by the spoken word variety of storytelling. Splintered Literacies, when tied into my personal experience surrounding Native American and Spanish American literature drew me to the realization that grammatically correct English, the variety found typeset in classrooms and institutions, lacks substantial oral tradition. The author and extended family from rural Appalachia clearly value the stories passed down through the generations. Her account of her grandfather’s experience
Cultural competence is a skill essential to acquire for healthcare providers, especially nurses. Cooperating effectively and understanding individuals with different backgrounds and traditions enhances the quality of health care provided by hospitals and other medical facilities. One of the many cultures that nurses and other health care providers encounter is the American Indian or Native American culture. There are hundreds of different American Indian Tribes, but their beliefs and values only differ slightly. The culture itself embodies nature. To American Indians, “The Earth is considered to be a living organism- the body of a higher individual, with a will and desire to be well. The Earth is periodically healthy and less healthy, just as human beings are” (Spector, 2009, p. 208). This is why their way of healing and symbolic items are holistic and from nature.