This story tells us about a creation myth. One where a daughter’s curiosity gets the better of her and her father is a creator. This story has been told for many generations to ensure that locals, natives, and others respect what is and how it came to be in their eyes. Things don’t just come out of nowhere, there must be a beginning. This story reveals the meaning of the customs and beliefs of the Modoc. Myths do tend to serve functions in cultures and everyday life. It’s important for the Modoc tribe to tell this story because it helps explain how things came to be and why there are certain respects that must be paid. They honor the grizzly bear and all of nature due to this story and respect a higher power that started it all. Modoc tribe members, locals of Mount Shasta want people to fall in love with their mountain and area just as they did so they do no harm and realize the beauty of it. There is no beauty in life without meaning. There must be a reason for why grizzlies walk on fours now and how the mountain came to be. …show more content…
Modoc tribe members want to instill awe of where they live.
They do not want to take for granted what they have. In their eyes they will be punished for disrespecting the higher power that made things the way they are now. The story has been passed down for so long so when children ask how the mountain came to be the Modoc can answer “Chief of sky spirits came down in giant strides, melting the snow and tearing up the land under his feet. That is why there are tracks in the rocky path.” Or “The Mountain is there because the Chief of sky spirits grew tired of his home so he created a new one by carving a hole in the sky with a stone to allow the ice and snow below until there was a great mound almost touching the sky. With his large stick he made animals and plants.” That would surely help children ensure the lasting of their huge
imagination. This story reveals that the Modoc have a great deal of respect for tradition. The Modoc know their place and know that the animals came before them so it’s not their decision when they can kill an animal that is worshipped like the grizzly bear. When a bear kills one of their own people, they do not fight back but burn the body instead. They want their children to mind their parent’s teachings. They do not steal because they know that will be dishonoring the Chief of sky spirits since his daughter was taken. In conclusion, the Chief of sky spirits suffered by losing his daughter and punished those who stole her from him. The Modoc knew this and took it into consideration while creating their customs. They also know that the reason they have that area still today is because of the Chief. By continuing to tell the story, it shows they still respect the higher power and how the world came to be.
The Muckleshoot are a Native American tribe are a part of the Coast Salish people. their territory can be found located in Washington. They are recognized as the Muckleshoot Tribe, they are composed of generations of different tribal groups who inherited Puget Sound areas and occupied river drainages from the rivers confluence in Auburn to their reservations in the Cascades.
The mosh is an awesome place in Downtown Jacksonville; where everyone can learn some interesting facts about our city, how the body works , what animals are in the ocean and etc. I visited the Timucua Indian exhibit; I learned a lot of intriguing information that I didn’t know before. I learned how the Timucua Indians first came about, how the Indians lived and survived during this time period. This exhibit also showed me how the Indians looked and the way they did things. Being able to learn about the Timucua Indians is so fascinating to me.
It begins with the story of Wetamo and her husband Wamsutta the leader of the Wampanoag people. It describes the struggles that the couple faced when the settlers of Plymouth decided that the people's land, in fact, belonged to the Plymouth government. The story follows Wetamo as she became a widow and the new leader of her people. Wetamo spent the rest of her life fighting English settlers, one day it was reported that “ … an Indian squaw in Metapoiset newly dead, cut off her head and it happened to be Weetamoo” . Throughout this chapter Berkin uses Wetamo to explore the early lives of American Indian peoples, marital interactions and the rights of passages that the peoples perform. Along with the relationship that children and mothers
Mabo was raised by his Uncle from what was practically birth, due to his mother’s death. He lived a simple existence with his family, caring for the land and learning the traditions of his people, until his exile from the island.
“The Old Paniolo Way” focuses on the identity we form away from home and the identity we have when we return home. Kristiana expresses the theme through the tension the son has with his family after being embraced in a culture away from home. The story follows the tension between the old Hawaiian traditions and the new perspectives the son has learned on the continent. The story also focuses on how we address the fluctuations between our identities across place in a stressful situation. In the story, the narrator has an identity disturbance when he returns home as his father’s death draws near. The customs of his family frown upon his identity, which makes it hard for the narrator to open up to his family. In one scene in the story, the narrator tries to come out to his father but once again hides his identity (Kahakauwila 217). The narrator has become used to an accepting culture, but is once again thrown backwards when he returns home. The final story perfectly examines the different identities an individual can have across place. Kristiana uses this narration and Hawaiian terms once again in order to address the cultural differences present in
The story made clear how the Kiowas appreciate and respect the nature around them. Momaday gives a deep explanation of what it was like to be in Rainy Mountain when he describes the changes in weather: “Winter brings blizzards, hot tornadic winds arise in the spring, and in summer the prairie is an anvil’s edge. The grass turns brittle and brown, and it cracks beneath your feet”(Momaday 5). The way the
Judith Minty's story, "Killing the Bear," is a rather chilling tale about a woman who shoots a bear to death. The story is not merely a simple account of the incident however. It is full of stories and facts about bears, which affect how the reader reacts to the story. In the beginning, the reader expects the bear to be portrayed as a cold-blooded monster who must be killed for the safety of the primary character however this expectation is foiled throughout the story and the reader sees the bear in a very different light. Due to the stories and facts given about bears throughout the story, the reader comes to pity the bear, but most will still acknowledge the necessity of killing him.
The knowledge and universal understanding derivative from a journey can leave the traveller positively enlightened. In Coelho’s story, Santiago is faced with recurring dreams which lead him to ‘’traverse the unknown’’ in search of a treasure buried in Egypt, the metaphor for universal connection, and in doing so, comes to the unrelenting realisation of spiritual transcendence. After arriving at the assumed geographical location of the treasure ‘’several figures approached him’’. They demand the boy keep searching for this treasure as they are poor refugees and in need of money, but as Santiago does, he finds nothing. Then, after relentless digging through the night ‘’as the sun rose, the men began to beat the boy’’ , finally relenting with the truth, Santiago reveals his dreams to the travellers. In doing so, Santiago finds out that these men had also been faced with recurring dreams measured around the place where the boy had undergone his own, both relative to hidden treasure. However the leader was ‘’not so stupid as to cross an entire desert just because of a recurrent dream’’. It is with this fact, tha...
“I, Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian Woman in Guatemala” (1983), is the personal narrative of the life of a young Guatemalan Quiche Indian woman. Written in the genre of personal testimony, Menchu's powerful voice records the hardships of the Guatemalan people during the political terror of a 36-year Civil War that ended in 1996. Menchu's reality is harsh; life is a struggle to survive. Menchu as if creating an indigenous cloth with numerous threads, creates a tale of connection within her Quiche community. One of Menchu's main objectives is to maintain a cohesive Mayan culture and to bring cultural identity to her community. Menchu records her culture's past through memory, detailing rituals, customs, and traditions. She presents the Mayan culture with a sense of wonder and mystery. She speaks of candles lit to welcome the newborn children, of celebratory fiestas at weddings, of the importance of maize, and of respect for the elders of the community. Menchú promotes cultural identity of her people and encourages it for those other indian an indigenous nations around the world. The rituals she describes are alien and very different to the Western mind.
“Belisa Crepusculario had been born into a family so poor they did not even have names to give their children. She came into the world and grew up in an inhospitable land where some years the rains became avalanches of water that bore everything away before them and others when not a drop fell from the sky and the sun swelled to fill the horizon and the world became a desert. Until she was twelve, Belisa had no occupation or virtue other than having withstood hunger and the exhaustion of centuries” (10).
This internal conflict between how society characterizes bears versus the natural behaviors of wild bears is exemplified in the documentary Grizzly Man, by German film-maker Werner Herzog. The documentary analyzes the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, a want-to-be filmmaker, who spent the later years of his life living amongst wild bears while compiling footage of wild bears that aimed at educating the public about bears and how to preserve bears and their habitat. Unfortunately, Treadwell and his girlfriend are later mauled to death by the bears he was attempting to protect. In the film, it is immediately evident that Treadwell’s perspective on wild bears is abnormal; he treats the bears as if they were harmless animals by petting them, turning his back, reading to them, and giving each bear a nickname. However, throughout the film it is apparent Treadwell is fighting with an inner struggle, shown by baby-talking to the wild bears, yelling at them when they get too close, and then immediately apologizing for yelling and professes his love of the bear. In an interview Treadwell states that bears are misunderstood, and that people should not harm wild bears. In one scene, Treadwell films himself in his tent, cuddling with his favorite teddy bear, so it is apparent that the concept of virtual bears has clouded his beliefs about wild bears. In For the Love of Nature: Documenting Life, Death, and Animality in Grizzly Man and March of the Penguins, Jennifer Ladino describes Treadwell’s view on nature, “The fact that he frequently occupies the frame alongside the bears undermines the tendency of the wildlife film to draw a stark line between animals and humanity” (Ladino, 75). While Herzog conveys the message that wild nature is indifferent to humans, Treadwell is
The bear skulls and limbs were not particularly interesting themselves but how they were unnaturally arranged in the ground. Bächler found that the bones were arranged into a perfect circle and believed that they were intentionally placed in a circle so it could be used in some sort of bear cult ceremony. While this may be just a theory, archeologists suggest that this was the origin story of animal worshipping that took place in the Upper Paleolithic era.
Jara’na family history involves the ‘Stolen Generation’ which is why his father believes Jara’na should be able to learn the importance of where he comes from. This enables Jara’na to mature and strengthen his understanding of his family background. As well as gaining knowledge to broaden his identity. This is explained by Jara’nas father introducing his grandfather (George Dutton) through images and songs written from past elders. As well as Jara’nas father expressing his beliefs about the importance of the ‘Stolen Generation’, Jara’na also needs to understand what impacts this may have on his future life and surrounding
The Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) has long been considered to be the symbol of the wild. They are beautiful, powerful and at the same time vulnerable animals. They are known to survive in remote areas not inhabited by humans. The Grizzly was once able to occupy most of the land from northern Mexico to Alaska and most places in between. With a disappearing natural habitat and one of the lowest reproduction rate of any mammal in North America the Grizzly bear has seen population number fall dramatically. Most Grizzly bears left in the continental United States are located in four states near Yellowstone National Park. Canada has Grizzly populations in five provinces. The state of Alaska has the largest population of these amazing animals. With change in habitat due to human involvement and low reproduction rates, Grizzly bears have had a hard time sustaining population numbers. This has caused them to virtually become non-existent in certain areas of North America and is forcing the bears that are left to move to more sufficient areas that can sustain their populations.
...r my parents allowing me to explore my desert surroundings and walk barefoot on the land. Even my small experiences pale in comparison to the understanding and connection that Native Americans have with the land and its beings. You can truly always learn from your surroundings and Deloria expresses the beauty of the knowledge possessed by medicine men in this book. If you are searching for information on indigenous people or just a new perspective on life, this book is the book to read. By sharing just some of this knowledge with readers he brings awareness to the importance of having a relationship and connection to the earth, and not thinking we are above it or any of our fellow living beings on this earth or in the next.