Native American Culture Essay

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.

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.

“Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.-Native American proverb” This is a Native American proverb that shows how important storytelling and stories are to the Native Americans and their culture. Storytelling was a big way of teaching their lifestyle to their younger generation. Storytelling is very important to the Native American culture because it helps explain their way of life, faith, and helps teach life lessons to the younger generation.

Native American people have a unique struggle in society. This stems from cultural epidemics like drug addiction, alcoholism, obesity, and rampant suicide, but also systemic racism and a sort of cultural lag. This is not meant to be a critique of culture, simply an observation of the condition of the families I have helped serve over the course of this internship. To be “Native” has become a slew of stereotypical representations. Stereotypes do not represent reality, but they do affect how individuals view themselves, and limit their ability to become anything but what they are expected to be. This is called the self-fulfilling prophecy. If Native American children grow up in a closed network, such as a reservation or a boundary, they are presented

There is great respect through the Navajo Culture with regards to their kinship system. They are very traditional towards they religion and

People have been living in the Americas for thousands of years. Only fairly recently, the past few hundred years, have foreigners begun to arrive and drastically disrupt the way of life of the aboriginal population. The situation has become so severe that a population that was one believed to be numbered in the millions, was at one point reduced to as few as 220,000 in 1910, and entire tribes have been either irretrievably warped or have disappeared altogether. While Native American Indians have almost completely recovered population-wise, they will never catch up to the rest of the world, and their culture can never fully recuperate. At the time the United States was settled by Europeans, it was abundantly populated by dozens of

The Navajo family is usually a nuclear one that consists of the husband, his wife and their children living in small wooden and mud houses called a Hogan, and live in small communities with other families. Although the mother is the main nurturer and authority figure of the family, the father still plays a large role in helping the mother raise the children and teaching them manners and their legends and chants. It is also the father’s responsibility for punishing and teaching respect to his children. And as his sons’ get older, it is not uncommon for the father to become his sons’ companion.

The family is very important to Native Americans. Father is the hero and the breadwinner; his son takes a leaf out of his father's book. There is no intelligence in animals, but they learn something by looking at their parents. Looking at Native Americans, each tribe has a different culture. Some tribal groups, such as the Great Plains, were patrilocal. This means that the father was considered the head of the family, new couples lived near the husband's family, and linage was traced through the father's side of the family (Native American cultures: Family life, kinship, and gender, 1996a, para. 4). One important story to them is the story of the Stone Boy. A woman lived with her five brothers. Every time the brother's went out to hunt, one never came back. Eventually, the girl was left alone in despair. She swallowed a stone, and that stone caused her to give birth to a strange son. When he was old enough, the Stone Boy set out to find his five uncles. He found they had been killed by an old hag. He killed the old hag, brought the uncles back to live, and brought them back to their sister (The sun and the Moon: Myths from around the world, 2017). This story proves that the women in the tribe were nothing without the men going out and hunting for food. The sister could not have lived without a

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

In The Lakota Way, Koskalaka meets the deer woman and remembers what his grandmother had told him and out of respect he declines her tempting offer to go with her. Just like Koskalaka respects his elder grandmother my siblings also have learned that we must respect people and more the elder.

The Native Indian history of violence and debasement changed their views and self-image as well. This change later affects how they adapt to American culture and education after being dissuaded from embracing their own for so long. The violence and indifference shown towards the Native Americans during the “Trail of Tears” contributed greatly to this change. In this dreadful journey, Natives of all kinds were forced off

For most of my life, the word “Native American” had immediately made me think of feathers, powwows, and a society uncorrupted by civilization. However, in watching the movie Smoke Signals, a movie that depicts the modern Native American culture, I learned many other things. For one, I learned that many of the customs that modern Native Americans have are very similar to my own. I also saw that the family life of the Native Americans in the film had many of the same problems that my family had undergone in the past years. This film was unlike any that I have ever seen; therefore, it reached me on a very personal level.

Most indigenous cultures had a profound respect for their environment. They believed that their relationship with nature was very sacred, they believed the earth needed to be treated with dignity and reverence, they believed in harmony with their surroundings. Speaking of indigenous religions, Lewis (1995) wrote,

Forgiving: Having the Indians be understanding of the reasons why the non-natives did what they did many years ago.

Every year, more and more cultural beliefs and traditions continue to be disappearing. Those cultural traditions that kept generations thriving strong throughout out our families are becoming nothing more than memories. Traditions were something that brought cultures and families together and made them one within each other. Traditions allowed people to become strong independent well-balanced individuals. Family traditions had an intense connection to the food they consumed. While men were the ones that went out hunting, fishing, and farming, works out of the home to make money. Women completed the family; they were one with the home. Women were homemakers in the authentic sense. The roles of women, and traditional way of life, structured one’s family life. Consider how many families after a long day of the kids at school and the fathers at work; sit down for a nice home cooked meal mothers made. That is, what generations of our native ancestors did every day? The women, who is one with nature and the traditional beliefs, would gather ingredients out of the garden or from the cultivated and grown farm land that the families tends to and bring them together to made a warm meal for her family.