Exploration of the Divergent Cultural Relationships with Land in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony

Back when the United States wasn’t so immense and powerful, its people and their leaders wanted to expand. The people thought that the entire country should be theirs, and anyone who stood in their way, including the Native Americans, would pay for it. Manifest destiny was the “motto” for the country in this time. The first railroad that could cross the entire country was built. This encouraged many to move out west. While this was good for the Americans, it might not have been so good for the Native Americans. Native American land and culture was impacted by western expansion of the United States because of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the United States army, or militias, and government.

Identity in Native America is directly associated with culture and language. As a result, some of the issues today which are important in shaping the identity of modern Native Americans include: representations of native people by the media in sports and popular culture; how indigenous languages are being revitalized and maintained; and identity reclamation. The Native American lifestyle has changed significantly during the last half of the 20th century and that is because views on the Native people have drastically changed over time. They have had many hardships that have greatly impacted their culture over the past few centuries leading up to today.

Throughout history, religions have diverse impacts on humanity. As a part of society, people have lots of types of relationships with each other. As the most popular ideology in ancient world, religions lead not only how people think about the physical nature. They have also affected to how people relate to each other through different rituals and rules. The hunka ceremony of Lakota is one of the rituals, which builds a special kind of relationship between some people who were in the ceremony. So how hunka affect to people who participated it? How is the ceremony similar from the sacrament of marriage and some other ceremony?

Native American art is a profoundly expressive culture that has been a way of life for so many Native Americans. Native American art history has advanced over thousands of years and is composed of several idiosyncratic styles from the differentiating cultures of diverse Indian tribes. From Navajo to Hopi, each tribe has a particular history, which consists of many types of Native American arts including beadwork, jewelry, weaving, pottery, carvings, kachinas, masks, totem poles, and more. To truly understand Native American art, we will explore Native American art history, its subjects, and if Native American art has a spiritual connection to it.

Throughout the process of colonization, the Native people in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, Silas Hagerty’s documentary Dakotah 38, and Phillip Noyce’s film Rabbit-Proof Fence, all cope with the on going struggles of being colonized against their will. All three of these sources tell their own, different stories about their same struggles. In both Things Fall Apart and Dakotah 38, the colonizing people create a sense of doubt in the Natives’ cultures; whereas in Rabbit-Proof Fence, the people fight to hold their beliefs by continuing to practice their own traditions.

Every country and nation has they own special festivals and music, and Native American is no exception. First, the native music related many aspects such as ritual, life and work. They like to combine music with dance, and the Native American music always created rich percussion instruments. For example, the hand drum, log drum, water drum and rattle, etc. Powwow is an important festival and ritual for the Native American, and it is a symbol for the tradition culture of Native Indians. Powwow, is a social gathering by the Native American tribes, and they singing and dancing. Powwow is not only a method that the Native American expresses the enthusiasm of the life and peace, but also enhances the sense of identity and cohesion. Hence,

Native Americans celebrate a lot of traditions but one of the most popular celebration is Pow wows. Pow wows are also a time to extend native american culture and preserve the rich heritage of american indians. According to the article, What is a Pow wow, “A pow wow is gathering for many different communities”. Native americans have a diverse culture. Some say that Pow wows stand for an “American Indian medicine man”. Pow wows celebrate people’s way of meeting together, to join in dancing, singing, visiting, renewing old friendships, and making new ones.

Lindsay’s statement illustrates how racial formation greatly influenced the actions and mindset of the European-Americans and its effects on Native Americans. It reveals how disillusioned European-Americans were because of their belief of racial superiority and that it caused them to turn a blind-eye to the possibilities of peaceful coexistence with the Native people. The portrayal of Native Americans as savages shows how European-Americans used this to prove themselves as a higher race in the social hierarchy and to justify their entitlement to the land and resources that waited for them in the west.

o Christopher Columbus called the Native Americans “Indios” because he thought that he had landed in India

1. Discuss key aspects of Indigenous thought in contrast to Eurocentric thought as illustrated in the lectures and work of Horn-Miller and Frideres. Provide 5 points and support your argument using examples.

While the 19th century Americans were the adventurers and explorers of this land, they were also the conquerors and exploiters. During the infamous Trail of Tears, the Cherokee nation was forced onto a 1000-mile march, during which thousands of Native American perished. In the Letter to President Pierce, Chief Seattle condemns the white people’s disrespectful exploitation of land through rhetorical strategies such as sarcastic tone, the imagery of the nature, and the parallel structure of “what” towards the end of the letter. Chief Seattle maintains a sarcastic tone throughout the letter. He repeatedly refers to the red men as “savage” who “does not understand,” “But perhaps because I am a savage and does not understand, the clatter only seems to insult the ears.”

There were something many years ago called native americans . And in South Carolina we had 3 native americans tributes. So I’m going to tell you about the 3 tribue in south carolina .

1. The wood carving of the Native Americans reveals more about Europeans than Indians in that it shows how the Europeans saw the Indians. It discloses the main fears that they had of the Natives, and also depicts how intrigued they were with Indian life. The view of the European boats in the background conveys that they were prepared to take over.

The Pipe Ceremony is used for many different rituals and is used throughout many different tribes. Most of the rituals pertain to the Native American’s spiritual beliefs/religion, although some are for other purposes. The Pipe Ceremony is of great importance to the Native American culture and the pipes used are considered to be sacred items. Every aspect of the ceremony down to the way the pipe itself is designed hold significance for these cultures. There are different pipes for different ceremonies.

    Leslie Marmon Silko is a Native American from New Mexico and is part of the Laguna tribe.  She received a MacArthur "genius" award and was considered one of the 135 most significant women writers ever.  Her home state has named her a living cultural treasure.  (Jaskoski, 1)  Her well-known novel Ceremony follows a half-breed named Tayo through his realization and healing process that he desperately needs when he returns from the horrors of World War II.  This is a process that takes him back to the history of his culture.