How Did The Indians Culture Affect The Lakota Culture

The Lakota, an Indian group of the Great Plains, established their community in the Black Hills in the late eighteenth century (9). This group is an example of an Indian community that got severely oppressed through imperialistic American actions and policy, as the Americans failed to recognize the Lakota’s sovereignty and ownership of the Black Hills. Jeffrey Ostler, author of The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground, shows that the Lakota exemplified the trends and subsequent challenges that Indians faced in America. These challenges included the plurality of groups, a shared colonial experience, dynamic change, external structural forces, and historical agency.

For the Lakota Indians, stories were passed down through the generations as a way of teaching lessons. Their creation story places an emphasis on maintaining a balance between man and nature. This balance was broken for the Indians when, after violating the Dawes Act, a treaty that gave them full rights to their sacred land, white men pushed them out of their homeland and forced them into a society that they never wanted to be a part of. In doing this, their culture was greatly diminished, along with their hope of a better future. Today, the Lakota Indians face poverty and other challenges that all stem from a time when their rights were violated, peace broken, and stories forgotten.

One extreme change for the Indians was the arrival of Anglo-Europeans. Native peoples’ lives were changed at the blink of an eye while new ideas, practices and beliefs were shown to them. The arrival of the Europeans changed the way the Indians viewed their world and manipulated their resources. This new change could be viewed as positive as well as negative, for while some tribes entered into trade relations with the Anglos, others were used as slave labor and all were subject to disease brought on by the European newcomers. However, despite all the advantages and disadvantages, no other introduction changed the lives of the Indians more than firearms and horses. West outlines one of the most important evolutions for Native life and how it represented a new way to harness resources and gain power. In just a few chapters, we are able to see the great advancements the Indians made in hunting and trade due to these new technologies and how they allowed the Cheyennes to rise to a new purpose as the Called Out People.

            Virtues are usually taught through the eyes of the wise, also known as the elder. In the book The Lakota Way, by Joseph M. Marshall III, his tribe teaches virtues though story telling. The virtues of the Lakota tribe and those of my family are more similar then I had anticipated, although we do have our differences.

Throughout the course of history there have been numerous accounts regarding Native American and European interaction. From first contact to Indian removal, the interaction was somewhat of a roller coaster ride, leading from times of peace to mini wars and rebellions staged by the Native American tribes. The first part of this essay will briefly discuss the pre-Columbian Indian civilizations in North America and provide simple awareness of their cultures, while the second part of this essay will explore all major Native American contact leading up to, and through, the American Revolution while emphasizing the impact of Spanish, French, and English explorers and colonies on Native American culture and vice versa. The third, and final, part of this essay will explore Native American interaction after the American Revolution with emphasis on westward expansion and the Jacksonian Era leading into Indian removal. Furthermore, this essay will attempt to provide insight into aspects of Native American/European interaction that are often ignored such as: gender relations between European men and Native American women, slavery and captivity of native peoples, trade between Native Americans and European colonists, and the effects of religion on Native American tribes.

The Lakota Indians, are sometimes known as the Sioux, but they call themselves the Lakota, which is translated as ‘friend’ or ‘ally’ in their native tongue. Their description of themselves make sense when looking at their seven virtues that they live by, “These are Wóčhekiye (Prayer), Wóohola (Respect), Wówauŋšila (Compassion), Wówičakȟe (Honesty), Wówačhaŋtognaka (Generosity), Wówaȟwala (Humility) and Wóksape (Wisdom) (“Lakota Today”). A culture’s idea of the most importance qualities a good person should have gives a good idea of what kind of people they are. The Lakota’s virtues all revolve around a general concept of respect for everything, compassion, humility, and honesty. These things can either refer to their fellow man, or

The romanticization of the American frontier as the space of self making for Americans is predicated upon two premises: one, that Native Americans must be eliminated as they—as in their tribes, with their chiefs, medicine men, and warriors—stand in the way of progress and true civilization with their primitive ways; and two, that self making on the frontier is limited to European Americans. Nothing makes this more clearer than the trajectory of U.S. history leading up to the Wounded Knee

The horse left a large impression on the lives of the Plains Indians; however, the real question being viewed is how this animal impacted the lives of, more specifically, the Sioux, Comanche, and Apache Plains Indians. Life before the introduction of the horse was a challenge. The Sioux’s constant migration with the buffalo required long days and created the need for a tool like the horse in order to better the living standards. The Comanche Indians were extraordinary horsemen once the horse was introduced to them allowing hunting and gathering to become more efficient. The Apache Indians were known for their fighting skills and warrior-like attributes. When they encountered the Spanish conquistadors and saw their use of the horse, strong desires for this animal swept over the Apache population and quickly lead to the trade and even theft of the horse. It boosted the abilities to fight for these Indians and provided them with a tool that made them, in their opinion, almost invincible. This information is being derived from a source that covers every Plains Indian tribe and accurately expresses the actions of these Indians. Without a bias, it describes that advantages and disadvantages of each tribe, and in this case, explains the actions of the Apache Indians. Even with this advantage, however, the Comanche Indians still seemed to have an advantage over the Apache Tribe. This efficiency as well as addition to the Indian tribes allowed for these societies to feel more

Throughout North American expansion the Lakota people have suffered some of the worst and straight forward persecutions against Native American Indians, and live in some of the poorest if not the poorest conditions in the United States. This is sad for a people who use to be one of the strongest nations in the Central Plains, feared by white men and other Indian nations alike for their ferocity and warrior abilities in the heat of battle. The Lakota arrived at positions of dominance because of their success in controlling live¬stock, land, trading rights, and people. Wars for conquest were motivated principally by these practical considerations, not driven by aggressive instincts. Their success in this respect rested

Of all the features upon the earth there are some ascribed with special significance. These features, whether caves, lakes, deserts, outcroppings, or something else entirely, hold tremendous relevance for the groups that dwell near them. Such beliefs in the worth and importance of such sites are entrusted from one passing generation to the next. These beliefs, and the physical objects they rest upon, become increasingly vital to that group’s identity as a people. One such group is the Teton Lakota of the Sioux Nation in South Dakota, an area that has been home to them for hundreds of years and, while their entire homeland is precious to them, of particular importance are the Black Hills, or Paha Sapa as they are called in Lakota.

Talking Back to Civilization , edited by Frederick E. Hoxie, is a compilation of excerpts from speeches, articles, and texts written by various American Indian authors and scholars from the 1890s to the 1920s. As a whole, the pieces provide a rough testimony of the American Indian during a period when conflict over land and resources, cultural stereotypes, and national policies caused tensions between Native American Indians and Euro-American reformers. This paper will attempt to sum up the plight of the American Indian during this period in American history.

The Cheyenne tribe were a powerful, resourceful, tribe of the Great Plains. They fought against the Americans when they went to take their land. Within their tribe there were very powerful role model like figures. Some of these leader like figures were Chief Roman Nose and Little Rock. All of the Native American tribes seemed interesting to learn about, but the Cheyenne tribe had a certain charm and dedication to their tribe that none of the of the other tribes seemed to have from the outside looking in.

Watson provides further insight when he states that “The Plains Indians, for example, had as yet no horses – because these were introduced by Europeans. ‘Far from being the stereotype of war-bonneted warriors, they were essentially farmers who planted gardens along the Plains rivers and hunted game on foot,’” (p.

“My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain...There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory.,” Chief Seattle Speech of 1854. The culture of the Native American people has been deteriorating ever since the Europeans arrived in the Americas. The impactful and immense loss of lifestyle that they faced is one that can never be recovered, what the United States has given them are generations of trauma and blatant suffering. However, the U.S. did not stop there, a multitude of cultures have been broken to help keep America pure. For instance, one of the most significant cultures that have been dismantled by the U.S. other than the Natives and their music were the languages and music of the African slaves. The apparent likeness of these two cultures in the ways in which their deconstruction impacted them is in more of an abundance, such as the dominating influence of the Christian religion and the gravely vital role of maintaining what little heritage they could through language. In contrast to this, the two groups had an opposing difference pertaining to how the Natives and slaves tried to compensate the immense loss of their culture through the generations.

The book “Lakota Woman,” is an autobiography that depicts Mary Crow Dog and Indians’ Lives. Because I only had a limited knowledge on Indians, the book was full of surprising incidents. Moreover, she starts out her story by describing how her Indian friends died in miserable and unjustifiable ways. After reading first few pages, I was able to tell that Indians were mistreated in the same manners as African-Americans by whites. The only facts that make it look worse are, Indians got their land stolen and prejudice and inequality for them still exists.