Native American Culture, Questions And Answers

Identity in Native America is directly associated with culture and language. As a result, some of the issues today which are important in shaping the identity of modern Native Americans include: representations of native people by the media in sports and popular culture; how indigenous languages are being revitalized and maintained; and identity reclamation. The Native American lifestyle has changed significantly during the last half of the 20th century and that is because views on the Native people have drastically changed over time. They have had many hardships that have greatly impacted their culture over the past few centuries leading up to today.

In comparison to the Europeans, depending on the region, a lot of Native Americans were largely migrant people who followed resources as needed. Tribes would stay in one area for as long as they could utilize whatever was in season and then moved forward once the land’s resources had nothing left to offer. Hunting and gathering forced tribes to relocate quite often due to the different seasons’ impact on game and plants. Even though agriculture was not a reliable source of sustainability for these people, Indians often found ways to make use of whatever herbs and plants grew around them. Low environmental impact and zero waste are two very important values to Indians as they have a very spiritual connected to the earth. In other parts of the country, Indians used agriculture quite a lot and even found ways to make their crops last through the winter. Some tribes established themselves fairly prominently in one area, but a key difference between their establishment and the English’s was their inherent view that no matter what they yielded from the land, it was not their property to claim forever. The Native Americans really

For Native Americans food was important and was only considered as a need not a pleasure. Colonists used to see the Native Americans as gluttons since they didn’t have the all picture of Natives habits, considering they didn’t share most of the time or didn’t have

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

The biggest impact the United States had on the Native American society was that they kept pushing them off of their land. There is a quote from Chief Joseph from document 4, Perspectives from the Chiefs, talking about how the United States keep taking things that aren't rightfully theirs. He compared the US government to grizzly bears and Native Americans as deer. The grizzlies who repeatedly went at the deer needing more. Even after the US was given more land they asked for more. Year after year they were pushed further west and then all around when manifest destiny began. Document 1 shows a map of Native American land loss from year to year. The NAtive Americans have been pushed around since the first English settlers came over. They had lost most of their land between 1850 and 1870. (Doc 1) The US invaded peaceful lands of the Native Americans out of pure greed. In document 3, 2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie 1868, shows a map of a piece of land owned by Indians with a treaty and a few years after. In 1868 there was a treaty that was signed so that Americans couldn’t even enter the land. After gold was found in that area the treaty did not matter. ( Doc 2) The forced them into a reservation nearly ten times smaller than their original land area. Court actions made it worse, their land was even smaller. America forced the Native Americans to go and move to places they did not want to go despite treaties and people’s actions.

During the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, the Europeans decided to embark on many journeys that would change their way of life forever. These journeys and the exchange of people, ideas, animals, food, and diseases between the two groups shaped history for the next five hundred years. When the Europeans arrived at this new-found land, they discovered what they considered to be an entirely new species of humans, the Native Americans. These two newly encountered groups of people had a few of the same characteristics and way of living, but overall the differences between them were extremely immense.

Native American culture originated in some parts North America. These countries are known as the United States of America and some parts of Canada. In the United States, there are 6.6 million Native Americans, which form about 2.0 percent of the population (Bureau, 2016). Europe had realized there were about 50 million people already living the “new world” and these people were called Native Americans. Native Americans were originally called Indians, but later through history they formed a new name. These people were called this because of them being native to the “new world” and the American part came after the colonist named the United States. Throughout history, Native Americans believed that using raw material in nature was the best way to provide for their people. Their culture thought no part of an animal should go to waste. They would eat the meat, use the skin for clothing, and make jewelry from the bones. Over the years a lot of their culture and customs were lost due to conforming with society. Their languages were referred to as “Indigenous Languages” because of them being extremely complicated and diverse. Some important factors that help understand the foundation of Native American culture are their rituals/practices, death ceremonies, holidays, family, and stereotypes.

The first of all, native Americans were very smart and they knew how to survive in that different kinds of environment . Because they understand how to get foods from nature and they knew using traps to hunt animals

The Native Americans, at the time of the first encounter, were still very culturally and socially primitive compared to the Europeans. They moved a lot, lived mainly of fishing and hunting, spent their time cultivating and used primitive tools and equipment in their daily activities.

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

However, with the remains of their pieces of tools and other goods across the lands in different villages it can be speculated that some groups of Native Americans had social relations with others, or had mobile groups spread across the lands. For example, the clovis was an instrument used for hunting by the Paleo-Indian groups. The Clovis and Folsom peoples, and has been found in animal and village remains across the land. Judging that their groups traveled a lot this means that they built social connections with other groups. Leaving behind many small villages of fewer people for archaeologists to excavate. Additionally, social constrictions are seen in the people who follow after the Paleo-Indian peoples who focused more on hunting and gathering, but relied heavily more on natural foods such as fruits and nuts. As a result of this gathering technique for food supply, more villages were formed beginning with the archaic peoples. I believe this had led to the evolution of larger populations in native villages as I had read throughout Plog’s book that the villages got bigger with the increased use farming agricultural goods such as maize and beans. Rather than small campsites, villages rose as a result such as the Shabik’eschee peoples in Chaco Canyon. The development of village life led to new cultural customs such as cremation of the dead and preserved

Every country and nation has they own special festivals and music, and Native American is no exception. First, the native music related many aspects such as ritual, life and work. They like to combine music with dance, and the Native American music always created rich percussion instruments. For example, the hand drum, log drum, water drum and rattle, etc. Powwow is an important festival and ritual for the Native American, and it is a symbol for the tradition culture of Native Indians. Powwow, is a social gathering by the Native American tribes, and they singing and dancing. Powwow is not only a method that the Native American expresses the enthusiasm of the life and peace, but also enhances the sense of identity and cohesion. Hence,

In general, they were the first people to cultivate chocolate, corn, cotton, peanuts, pineapples, potatoes, rubber, quinine, tobacco, and vanilla. But, in the frozen tundra of Western Alaska, Native Americans dealt with arctic conditions. They relied on hunting and fishing. They hunted seals, whales, and other marine mammals. These animals were not only useful as food, but as skinned layers of clothing that kept them warm in such climate. However, in milder regions along the northwest Pacific Coast, the people there could produce food with very little effort. The physical environment impacted them by providing marine life for fishing. In the Southwest, some of the earliest farming societies developed. Since the environment was desert, Native Americans developed complex irrigation systems for farming. They even dug wells, built ponds, and built dams to collect rainwater to water their crops in the desert weather. All across the different regions and climates where the First American lived, they all adapted to thrive in whatever environment they were dealing

The physical environment of Native American cultures greatly impacted their way of living. Throughout North America, there were many different regions that had different environmental features. The people and tribes of these regions had to quickly adapt to the changes in the physical environment in order to survive. By doing so, they created and introduced simpler ways to live and grow.

Native Americans endured a lot of environmental changes. From strangers invading their land to being exposed to many illnesses, these issues changed and shaped the values of many tribes. Newcomers provided the challenge of adapting to new ways of life and cultures, such as being able to hunt better, use weapons to their advantage, and the idea of trading items for more useful items.