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Totem Poles
A totem pole is a well-known native artifact that was used by the Native Indians. Coastal Indians used giant cedar trees for carving totem poles. Totem poles were used for telling stories about a family, a clan or a person’s history. Therefore, totem poles were very similar to storybooks. Totem poles are very important to me because I enjoy the fact that they were used for telling the history of a family, a clan or a person, which taught younger generations the traditions of a family and all of their past history. Totem poles were also an important part of a traditional ceremony. Totem poles were not only an exciting way to tell stories but were also a beautiful form of native art because of the beautiful symbols and the bright colours that were used. Totem poles still are a huge impact on story telling to this day.
Totem poles were meant to be used for specific special ceremonies. Though, the natives decided to use them for telling stories about important events that occurred in family, a clan or a person’s history. Totem poles were raised for several reasons. For ...
The Tohono O’odham tribe has been weaving baskets for at least 2000 years. Although the reason for weaving has changed through the years the Tohono O’odham are still using the same weaving styles as their ancestors. Basket weaving for the Tohono O’odham has gone from an everyday essential to a prestigious art form. Basket weaving for the Tohono O’odham represents an active way of preserving their culture, valuing traditions, and creating bonding ties within the tribe; consequently weaving has transcended into an economic resource.
Their Sundance ceremony surrounds the story of the tai-me, “The Kiowas were hungry and there was no food. There was a man who heard his children cry from hunger, and he went out to look for food. He walked four days and became weak. On the fourth day he came to a great canyon. Suddenly there was thunder and lightning. A voice spoke to him and said, ‘Why are you following me? What do you want?’ The man was afraid. The thing standing before him had the feet of a deer, and its body was covered in feathers. The man answered that the Kiowas were hungry. ‘Take me with you,’ the voice said, ‘and I will give you whatever you want.’ From that day Tai-me has belonged to the Kiowas”(36). This story is used to tell how the tai-me came to be a part of the Kiowa tribe and why they worship it as a part of the sun dance ceremony. Momaday describes that the “great central figure of the kado, or sun dance, ceremony is the taime”(37). It was a small image representation of the tai-me on a dark-green stone. As a symbolic part of this ceremony, it is kept preserved in a rawhide box of which it is never exposed to be viewed other than during this
the native cultural practices of the use of the pipe. Herb than was able to find true
Native Americans chose to live off the land such as animals and the trees for houses from the time of early civilization in the Americas to when Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic. In Thomas Morton’s writing he said “they gather poles in the woods and put eh great end of them in the ground, placing them in form of a circle.”
Have you ever heard of the Powhatan tribe? If not let me share a little fact about them. Powhatan means “waterfall” in the Virginia Algonquian language. The Powhatans didn't live in tepees. They lived in small roundhouses called wigwams, or in larger Iroquois-style longhouses. Another fact is Powhatan warriors used tomahawks or wooden war clubs. They also carried shields. Powhatan hunters used bows and arrows. If you would like to learn more about the Powhatan tribe please continue reading this paper. You will learn all about the Powhatan and how they lived. Enjoy.
2) There are many rituals carried out by the Indigenous people but in particular there is one called
Holism is present and the importance of nature and the maintenance of a traditional life-style (stick four). Through McLeod’s (2007) work we see a bond between landscape and other beings. “Through ceremonies, prayers, and songs, the Nehiyawak were able to communicate with other beings and the powers of the land around them, the Atayohkanak, the spiritual grandfathers and grandmothers” (p. 26). McLeod goes on to state that the power of ceremonies in a relationship is not limited to a human-to-human relationship. For example, “[t]he pipe stem is significant for the Nehiiyawak, the Dene and other Indigenous nations as a way of concluding arrangements… [it] was more than… a way of sealing political arrangements… it was a way of making and affirming relationships with the land, of honouring the spiritual powers who dwelt where the people were living.” (McLeod, 2007, p. 27) As well, language is a reoccurring theme. McLeod (2007) attributes much of the continuity of the Cree people to maintaining language which is often through the elders (in his instance, his
The Hopi have a highly developed belief system which contains many gods and spirits. Ceremonies, rituals, dances, songs, and prayers are celebrated in year-round. The Hopi believed they were led to the arid southwestern region of America by their creator, because he knew they had the power to evoke rain with power and prayer. Consequently, the Hopi are connected to their land, its agricultural cycles and the constant quest for rainfall, in a religious way. The religious center of the community is the kiva, which is an underground room with a ladder protruding above the roof. The kiva is very important for several reasons. From the kiva, a connection is made with the center of the earth. Also, the kiva is symbolic for the emergence to this world. The room would represent the underworld and the ladder would represent the way to the upper world. In fact, a room is kept in the house to store ceremonial objects. A sacred ear of corn protects the room and symbolizes the ancestry of the family members. Kachinas are also a focal point of the religion. For a Hopi, they signify spirits of ancestors, dieties of the natural world, or intermediaries between man and gods. The Hopi believe that they are the earth's caretakers, and with the successful performance of their ceremonial cycle, the world will remain in balance, the gods will be happy and rain will come. Because they think of their crops as gifts, the Hopi Indians live in harmony with the environment.
The significance of oral tradition is stories that are told in which people formulate, pick up, and carry along as part of their cultural freight and these stories are told by people through folklore which is a form of oral tradition. Oral tradition helped shape our culture because we continue to do what we have been told orally by our ancestors as they passed it down through the generations. Culture shaped folklore by using
The earliest known records of the Cheyenne Indians are from the mid 1600s. They were a nomadic peoples whom lived completely off the land. Originally, the Cheyennes lived in larger masses, residing in homes they called wigwams. Eventually, as they became a nomadic peoples, they converted to the usage of a teepee as a home. A Cheyenne teepee was primarily made of buffalo-hide and could be easily moved form place to place, following along behind the buffalo herds. The hunting of buffalo was no easy feat, as the Cheyennes hunted on foot, with bow and arrow. However, the Cheyennes thrived on buffalo; their meat provided food, there hides provided warmth, and the bones allowed for bows, cooking utensils and toys. Also, the sinew made bowstring and sewing equipment.
Also the Apache Indians had many tools that the used when they were on the hunt for
In Thomas King’s “Totem”, he uses all kinds of objects to satirize that the Canadian Government is not treating First Nations fairly and all they do is to push them aside. The story starts with a paradox. The author combines “Prairie Museum” with “Seaviews” show- terms that are totally unrelated- in order to satirize the staffs which symbol the Canadian government not knowing the history. In addition, the totem poles make different sounds which refer to the different languages First Nations speak and which also are causes of misunderstandings between the First Nations and the Canadian government. However, the government never tries to solve the misunderstandings by negotiating with the First Nations just like the staffs never try to understand the sounds that the totem poles make.
Gods. Earth. Animals. These three things make are sacred in the Native American culture. Whether it's in "When Grizzlies Walked Upright" (Source A) showing that god should not be messed with because the grizzly never told him about his daughter. Or in the story "The Earth on the Turtle's Back" (Source B) when the animals helped the woman live because they cared about her. These things have a symbolic meaning to them because in each of the stories it uses all three of these things . Even in the "Navajo Origin Myth" (Source C) it shows these symbols because the gods made the first people shelter and had plants and animals there too. These stories show us symbolism because of the interactions of the gods, animals, and the earth.
One would be the source of finding your family identity. Family identity is very important to have. Everyone should have that sense of knowing who and where they came from. By doing so this allows you to share the history with your love ones and have that understanding of why your tradition is epic to your family. Tradition is like sharing that family bond. It brings people close together as a hold and as a family. In the article Creating a Positive Family Culture: The Importance of Establishing Family Traditions states “Traditions provide an all-too-rare chance for face-to-face interaction, help family members get to know and trust each other more intimately, and create a bond that comes from feeling that one is part of something unique and special”. (Mckay, 2013). Tradition has a lot of meaning behind it and families trust in that
Indigenous Knowledge (IK) can be broadly defined as the knowledge and skills that an indigenous (local) community accumulates over generations of living in a particular environment. IK is unique to given cultures, localities and societies and is acquired through daily experience. It is embedded in community practices, institutions, relationships and rituals. Because IK is based on, and is deeply embedded in local experience and historic reality, it is therefore unique to that specific culture; it also plays an important role in defining the identity of the community. Similarly, since IK has developed over the centuries of experimentation on how to adapt to local conditions. That is Indigenous ways of knowing informs their ways of being. Accordingly IK is integrated and driven from multiple sources; traditional teachings, empirical observations and revelations handed down generations. Under IK, language, gestures and cultural codes are in harmony. Similarly, language, symbols and family structure are interrelated. For example, First Nation had a