Essay Native American Astronomy

He explained how the Apache can look at the constellations and planets and determine what time it is, even though as the seasons change, so do the times. This was difficult for the author to understand or learn even though she spent a great deal of time at the reservation over many years. She says, 'to be a competent star watcher at Mescalero requires years of watching until the sky becomes as familiar as the back of one's own hand' (99).

“One general truth that threads throughout the Native American spiritual beliefs is the belief of the Mother Earth spirituality” (Coll). They often called earth their mother and called father the air. The earth to the Natives is very sacred to them and is the most important thing to them. Most of the ceremonies were in some way revolving around the earth and they called earth “home.” Most of the ceremonies were practiced for many years and were passed down through generation to generation. The Native Americans didn’t have a book like the bible or any language that was written. One big thing they had was Totems. These were everywhere in their tribes and it was supposed to represent people and the animals that represented them. The Indians were supposed to have 7 spiritual animals and the many animals on the totems were supposed to represent all the person’s spiritual

Throughout our existence, mankind has looked up to the stars with a fantastical wonderment that excites a feeling of the unknown. In order to understand the heavens above us, ancient cultures created grand mythologies utilizing valiant heroes, gods, and life practices and then imbedded these stories into the stars in the form of constellations. One of these cultures is the Navajo Native American tribe that resided in the southwest region of the United States. By viewing these constellations and the myths behind them, we can learn about what they Navajo held scared and how they viewed the world around them.

The Native Americans believed that in the story “Coyote Places The Stars”, a coyote wonders why his wolf brothers look up at the sky every night. Well when the wolves finally tell the coyote that there are animals up in the sky. The coyote shot arrows up into the sky to create a ladder to be able to climb to the stars and visit the animals above. As they climbed to the stars they found two bears roaming the skies. The coyote decided to leave the wolves with the bears and as he climbed down the arrows he took one out at a time so the wolves couldn’t leave. As the coyote looks up at the night sky, he is pleased on how the arrangement of the stars look so he begins to arrange other stars as well, pleased with work he told Meadowlark to tell people who looks at the stars that it was the coyote who has placed the stars, now Meadowlark tells everyone about coyote and the stars ("Native American Legends").

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.

Culture, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is stated as “The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior that dpends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. The customary beliefs, social forms and material traits of a racial, religious or social group. The set shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes an institution or organization. The set of values, conventions or social practices associated with a particular field, activity or societal characteristic.” Of these four definitions, I shall be focusing on the second one to discuss what makes up the culture of American Indians.The culture of the various tribes that made up the Native Americans is one of close knit families, highlyspiritual peoples and living together as one with the land they lived on. They believed in spirits, worshiping and honoring them. Some settled into single locations while others were nomadic, but all had a focus on working with the land around them. Because there are so many varying tribes that make up Native

When the Europeans came to America they impacted the Native American religions in many different ways. The Native Americans had to adapt to Europeans, but they also kept to their original ways. Even before the adaptations, the Native Americans and Europeans had similarities including: believing one god and one main evil spirit, believing in an afterlife, and they both believed in the immortality of the soul. Even though the Natives believed in one god, “Master Spirit”, unlike the Europeans, they believed that the god could assume a variety of forms and both genders; Native Americans also believed in many lesser spirits. Other differences were that Natives passed their beliefs down verbally instead of documenting everything in a book or books. As a result of exposure to Europeans, Native American traditions gradually intermixed with Christian beliefs. One example of the influence of Christianity on Native American rituals is the adaptations to the Sun Dance. Before the Sun Dance was primarily practiced in the Upper Plains and the Rocky Mountains and performed at the summer solstice. The dance was often practiced differently for each tribe, but the Eagle, helping bring body and spirit in harmony, is an important symbol for all tribes. There are many similarities for each tribe including: specific songs and dances that

When Europeans first set foot upon the shores of what is now the United States they brought with them a social structure which was fundamentally based around their concept and understanding of Western European Christianity. That the indigenous peoples might already have a thriving civilization, including religious beliefs and practices, that closely paralleled the beliefs and practices of European civilization, was a concept not considered by these early explorers and settlers. This European lack of cultural understanding created tensions, between Native Americans and Europeans, and later between Native Americans and Euro-Americans, that eventually erupted into open warfare and resulted in great bloodshed between cultures. For the Lakota

Imagine living in a world where everything is ruled by how the night sky looked. As the sun starts to set, the sky starts to get illuminated not by one, but by millions and millions of other stars! This is what the Aztecs and the Mayas saw every night. Both the Aztec and the Maya were a powerful and advanced civilization that were created separately from the Western European civilizations and did an amazing job doing so. Just like many other Ancient Civilizations the night sky plays a significant role in their society. Astronomy, Religion, culture and architecture are all aligned the stars.

One might not understand what makes one keep moving forward day after day. Nobody gets it unless they have lived in the footsteps of another. Ask any Native American. They have lived a life of others judging and misunderstanding and if they haven't their ancestors have. The Native Americans pass stories down generation by generation so surely they have heard what it was like to be misunderstood. They believe differently than other cultures, yet not one is alike. They have a very complicated and hard to understand system when it comes to their views. The way they view, believe and run their system is never fully understood unless one has grown up with the Native American culture. The religious culture of these people is what holds their

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.

There are hundreds of Native American tribes and millions of people that are within North America that identify themselves as Native Americans. Each tribe has their own unique customs, language, and myths. However, within the confines of this paper I will take a broad view with regards to Native American customs and traditions from a small sample of tribes that were observed prior to the vast expansion of colonizing the west.

From as early as the time of the early European settlers, Native Americans have suffered tremendously. Native Americans during the time of the early settlers where treated very badly. Europeans did what they wanted with the Native Americans, and when a group of Native Americans would stand up for themselves, the European would quickly put them down. The Native Americans bow and arrows where no match for the Europeans guns and cannon balls. When the Europeans guns didn’t work for the Europeans, the disease they bought killed the Native Americans even more effectively.

Have you ever wonder how the world was created from another culture’s perspective? Native Americans used creation myths to explained to their people how the world was developed overtime. Creation myths are a big part of the Native American culture. they have been passed down from generation to generation. In the creation myths, harmony with nature, rituals, and strong social values are shown in each myths. The purpose of having strong social value in these myths is to teach younger Native Americans valuable lesson if they ever do something bad. These myths reveals how the rituals were created and their intentions for doing it. Creation myths has harmony with nature in it to show a very close kinship between them

In the distant past, people were both awed and alarmed by comets, perceiving them as long-haired stars that appeared in the sky unannounced and unpredictably. Chinese astronomers kept extensive records for centuries, including illustrations of characteristic types of comet tails, times of cometary appearances and disappearances, and celestial positions. These historic comet annals have proven to be a valuable resource for later astronomers.