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Native American Beliefs Of Native Americans, The Puebloans

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“Hold on to what is good, even if it’s a handful of earth” is the first line of a prayer of a native American group called the Puebloans. Looking at US history to 1865, it is clear that this is reflective of native Americans’ belief in simplicity that stems from stories passed through generations. When the Europeans arrived in “the new world” they sought to take advantage of the natives. Overall, Americans were motivated by self-interest whether that was economic or cultural. The natives were focused on unfurling their culture but the arrival of Europeans divided society into class system focused on the production and consumption of goods. Native Americans had a need to contemplate their origins and beliefs and use that as a basis for their lifestyle. According a Cherokee creation story that theorizes about the perils of the world, “The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again. The Indians are afraid of this.” This negative outlook is why natives centered their architecture around their respect for nature. In fact, the natives in the southwest had fears that bound them together and resulted in them constructing cliff dwellings that “had 23 kivas and 150 rooms housing a population of

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