Native American Diary Entry Analysis

I have changed so much these past weeks It’s crazy! Just at the ceremony I was a small town girl in a small colony. Then I got picked for the testing and It all changed. I can’t believe how tall I’ve become in just a few weeks and how mature I’ve become now. I am not very scared of blood anymore since all that time stitching up thomas and will.

These recent times have been tough for the tribe. Since the appearance of the Europeans upon our lands there has been a great plague upon our society. They brought with them unknown diseases that have infected much of the tribe and killed many others, the Europeans go to our hunting grounds killing hundreds of buffalo’s for pleasure and we have been restricted to a certain piece of land.

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.

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.

Due to the lack of transcribed history by the indigenous California Native American Indians on their own behalf, one must take into account the possibility for inaccuracy and unreliability of primary sources from immediately before and after the arrival of the European Settlers. There are several factors which contribute to the low value of primary sources. First, prior to first contact, the Indigenous People of America did not typically document their cultural heritage. Second, existing primary sources are written through translators which can lead to the value of the primary source to be only as reliable as the person performing the translating. Lastly, primary sources of indigenous people typically date to after European settlers began colonization, and the views of the primary source could have been influence by colonialization.

Day 1: It's day one of my expedition, exciting, we are documenting on a thought to be extinct tribe.

Who really are the Cheyenne Indians? According to historians, they were Indian people who became nomadic and moved to the Great Plains in the 18th century (Berkin 366). Another tribe, the Souix, developed the name of "people of a different language" for the Cheyenne. Some people said that the Cheyenne did not exist until the mid-1600s or at least this is when the earliest known records were found. They are one of the most famous and prominent Plains tribes, too.

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.

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

De Soto's North American expedition was a vast undertaking. It ranged throughout the southeastern United States, both searching for gold, reported by various Indian tribes and earlier explorers, and a passage to China or the Pacific coast. De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River[5] in what is now Guachoya, Arkansas or Ferriday, Louisiana.

The poem, “The Theft Outright” by Heid E. Erdrich, a Native American poet, refutes claims made in another poem, “The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost, that America was empty before the colonists. In his poem, Frost claims that America was “unstoried, artless, [and] unenhanced,”(Frost 15) demonstrating blatant racism by erasing the entire Native American culture and race from American history. Erdrich counters his beliefs by citing the colorful, full lives of Indians in the past and now, directly juxtaposing his work by saying that the Americas are “still storied, art-filled, [and] fully enhanced”(Erdrich 30) from the Native Americans that lived there. Similarly, the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie deals with racism. It tells the story of Arnold Spirit Jr, a Native American boy who wants a better life, so he switches schools from his poverty stricken school to an all white school in a small town called Reardan. Junior frequently faces challenges of racism; he is seen as less than his white peers at his new school because he is Indian, and he is constantly being shown by others’ words and actions that he does not deserve a quality education because of his heritage. Despite the novel’s humorous style, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” provides accurate commentary on education and racism in recent times through Junior’s experiences at Reardan, with his developing friendship with Gordy, his views on the pedestals that white

There were many places throughout the parts of the book I read, where I felt extremely grateful. Two of them were when I was reading from page 11 through page 13, and I stumbled against two things Junior said that struck me. The first part was when Junior said “They (his parents) never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams”, on page 11. While the second part was when he said, “But we reservation Indians don't get to realise our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re poor. Thats all we are,” on page 13. While and after reading this I felt extremely fortunate, yet apologetic. I felt extremely fortunate, due to the fact that I was born into family that isn’t a victim of poverty and also because

Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish conquistador who went on many expeditions to Florida around the late 15th century and early 16th century. Ponce de Leon started his exploration in joining Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas in 1493. They landed in Hispaniola and found a settlement to be destroyed and the sailors to be murdered. Columbus enforced a forced-labor policy and made the Natives rebuild the settlement and look for gold. In this voyage, Ponce de Leon learned many skills and tactics in which he would use in later voyages. In 1508, Ponce de Leon was sent to explore Puerto Rico and look for gold. He settled with 50 other soldiers in what is now San Juan and became the first governor of the eastern part of the country in 1509. He also discovered the Dry Tortugas, 10 small keys southwest of Key West. Ponce de Leon was governor for two years until he was replaced by the Columbus’s son. He then sailed north through the Bahamas in search of new

Washington’s native people came from Africa, Europe, and Asia, also known as the Old World. Archeologists can make a good guess on when they arrived by the age of the tools they left behind. Native Americans arrived in Washington at the minimum, 10,000 years ago. The Native Americans divided. Some went towards the coast near the Pacific Ocean, and others went to the plateau near the Columbia Basin.

Don’t be confused when an Indian tribe is called the Chippewa or the Ojibway because they are the same tribe. French settlers could not pronounce Ojibway correctly so they called the tribe the Chippewa. Have you ever wanted to know about the Ojibway Indians? If you read on, you will learn many interesting facts about this tribe.