Essay on Learning about Another Tribe: The Amish

I took the Native American IAT and the Age IAT tests. I thought my results would be that I would have some association with Native Americans because I have Native American in my ancestry. My results were that I had little or no association between Native American and American with Foreign and American. I am not sure if I agree with them or not and that maybe from family history. I have no ideal if this method is truly effective and I would try to make sure that I am being considerate about other people's culture when teaching students and interacting with their families. I took away from this test that I learned new things about my thought process.

The Amish is a group of traditionalist Christians that rely on simple living, plain dress and refuse to adapt to modern technology. The history of the Amish started in Switzerland in 1693 led by Jakob Amman. Today majority of the traditional descendants of the Amish live in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will

For many tribes of Plains Indians whose bison-hunting culture flourished during the 18th and 19th centuries, the sun dance was the major communal religious ceremony . . . the rite celebrates renewal - the spiritual rebirth of participants and their relatives as well as the regeneration of the living earth with all its components . . . The ritual, involving sacrifice and supplication to insure harmony between all living beings, continues to be practiced by many contemporary native Americans. -Elizabeth Atwood LawrenceAs the most important ritual of the nomadic Plains Indians, the Sun Dance in itself presents many ideas, beliefs, and values of these cultures. Through its rich symbolism and complicated rituals we are able to catch a glimpse

"My People the Sioux" is a good literary work written in 1928. This book leaves an everlasting impression with some because it definitely intensifies the sympathy for the Indians. Luther Standing Bear, also known as Plenty Kill, portrays the dramatic and traumatic changes about the Sioux throughout their traditional way of life. As a young boy growing up, he experienced many of these hardships first hand between his people and the whites. This autobiography is quite valuable as it helps allow us to envision what really happened in the battling times of the Indians. Luther stated this quote, which to me, is unforgettable and very well said. It reads:

To begin with, the Cherokee tribe was one of the three primary Native American tribes in South Carolina that called themselves “the real people.” Upward in the mountains, they lived in these villages called “longhouses.” For the girls, their daily lives consisted of doing work in the field, planting and hoeing corn, then harvesting it. On the other hand, the boy’s daily lives consisted of being taught to fish and hunt. Their food was examples of fruits, nuts, corn, pole beans, squash, pumpkins, bottle gourds, and tobacco. Next, the Catawba tribe was another one of the three primary Native American tribes in South Carolina that called themselves the “river people. They used Carolina clay to make their pottery which they were known for. The Catawba dwellers lived in villages that had an open rounding on the top. The Catawbas were primarily farmers because every day they planted crops by the river, fished and hunted. Therefore, the Yemassee tribe was the third primary tribe in South Carolina that was from Spanish Florida. Throughout the summer, they lived on a beach, staying in Wigwams concealed in palmetto leaves. However, during the fall, winter, and spring they stayed in wattle and daub homes with a roof of leaves like the Cherokee. Every day they would eat clams which were part of their diet and equip the land for crops. Women were obligated for child rearing, making clothes, and served food and the men congregated the rest of the food in fishing and hunting.

Current American society is constantly affected by events from the past, but sometimes what society thinks is in the past is not so far behind. The way Native Americans were treated historically continually plays a part in current American society. Due to the racism and stereotypes carried throughout society the Native American cultural circle is constantly under fire.

It’s very easy to find the differences between Amish and American societies and even though it may not seem like it at first glance there are some similarities between the two. Such as religion, yes America has a diverse set of religion, but both societies believe the right to religious freedom. That is why Amish societies are located in America because they are allowed to express their religion. Another similarity in both societies is education. Even though Amish children mostly only go to an eighth grade education, both societies prepare the children for adulthood and teach them skills that will help them in society.

The Amish family life is that of a simple one, they believe in living separate from non Amish and justify this belief with the quote from the bible “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (II Corinthians 6:14) Frater, J.(2012) Unlike in British modern day society the Amish do not own cars, they use what they call buggies to travel in, there has been very little march of progress from the Amish. The Amish also use their dialect as another means to keep their society separate, although they can speak English, they

In her book American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa's central role as both an activist and writer surfaces, which uniquely combines autobiography and fiction and represents an attempt to merge cultural critique with aesthetic form, especially surrounding such fundamental matters as religion. In the tradition of sentimental, autobiographical fiction, this work addresses keen issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. In Parts IV and V of "School Days," for example, she vividly describes a little girl's nightmares of paleface devils and delineates her bitterness when her classmate died with an open Bible on her bed. In this groundbreaking scene, she inverts the allegation of Indian religion as superstition by labeling

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Native Americans had their own way of passing down wisdom of their culture. They passed their stories orally, that today is read in history books. Even after the written word had spread across the globe, Native Americans still primarily used storytelling to pass down their spiritual, mythological, and historical beliefs. Many people have heard one of these passed down stories, also known as myths or folktales.

The family care for their own and the Amish community gives assistance as needed. Therefore, the way how mainstream American life is driven by technology, I don’t think many Americans will take on the Amish culture.The Amish culture believes in the idea that everything has a reason in life. Their philosophy comes from their deep-rooted Christian faith from the church. They follow the basic tenets of the Christian religion by emphasizing on adult baptism, simplicity, community, separation from popular culture and the division of the church. In 1693, the Amish people formed their own branch of Anabaptism in Switzerland and eastern France under the leadership of their founder Jakob Ammann.All of the Amish communities today are from that group. We already know that within the Amish culture they do everything with hands, but there is some selective technology they do use by permit for agriculture. They use the tractor to help with the farming and time management. For the American society, farmers use computers, cell phones, cars and other technology, but for the Amish, they reject this technology because they believe it will do harm in their

The Amish faith is to be considered as living a life of self-surrender. According to Kraybill this attribute is the core of the Amish religion. The cornerstone to the values in the Amish faith is Gelassenheit. “The German word means submission=yielding to a higher authority. It entails self-surrender, resignation to God’s will, yielding to others, self-denial, contentment, and a quiet spirit” (12). Being able to display wholesomeness and respect toward the individuals which are trying to bring about an end of your complete form of life is an influential aspect which enabled the Amish to aid in the uprising of the First Amendment clause. They continued to fight for their religious rights in away that does not intrude on their belief of living a

Imagine living in a society where the members socialize exclusively with each other and not with the outside world. The men of this society dress conservatively in dark colors sporting clean-shave until married when they switch to beards. The women, wearing only full skirts, wear their hair up in a bun and covered with a simple white cap or bonnet. The community, called an ordnung, decides how the community will be run from state to state. The culture itself keeps an arms distance from technology because they believe that it weakens the structure of the family.