Native American Observation

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.

Quoted by Handler and Gable, critic Ada Louise Huxtable declares the newly constructed reproduction of Colonial Williamsburg as “too clean,” arguing that it “does not include the filth and stench that would have been commonplace.” (Source E) This sanitation of the truth completely misrepresents history, and the educational value greatly suffers. Conversely, the National Museum of the American Indian hopes to avoid this lack of judgment by dedicating itself to the “preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and Arts of Native Americans.” (Source C) The main goal of the museum is to “span all major cultural areas” (C) and educate the public about and preserve the rich history of such a vast culture. The authenticity and significance of artifacts are important to representing culture and history, and the ability of these artifacts to educate should be a key factor of the selection 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.

After reading and listening to the lectures, I would have first enacted laws that would do away with underminding the Great Plains Indians knowledge of their homeland and authority they had over their people. Having dealt with Indian relations for over 200 years, I believe that the people of the United States, white or indian, should be treated fairly on their own land. Creating individual towns and territorys for both whites and indians would create even more tention, so rather than seperating each race the I would create united communities consisting of both whites and indians on both white land and indian land. Living in a community were both races are next door to each other and are trading items, would allow for relationships to grow much

The teaching of Native American history and the colonization of America is often misconstrued, with the complete, and “actual”, story almost always being concealed behind the bare minimum of historical evidence. For a country more concerned with impartialness now than ever, the truth about past relations with Native Americans should be a key component in the education of students across the nation. The realization and acceptance of this nation’s disreputable past involving indigenous people, though threatening a US legacy that most people believe in, will provide an essential and clear understanding that could lead to future equality and peace.

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.

The fascination with Native Americans has been a constant with outsiders since explorers first “discovered” the New World. The biggest surge in this fascination came in the mid-19th century when the Indian Wars were starting to come to an end and the belief that Native Americans were disappearing, walking into the sunset never to be seen again. This led to an increase in the collecting of anything Native American, from artifacts to stories to portraits. The inevitable outcome of this was that Native Americans, who were never considered very highly to begin with, where now moved into a category of scientific interest to be study. This scientific interest in Native Americans is what many museums and other institutions based their collections and exhibits on and is one of the issues that many Native Americans have with how both their people and their culture were, and to some extent still are, represented in these places.

Native Americans, possibly some of the most intelligent people there are, played a major roll in the survival, and death, of the settlers. The Native Americans are so smart that many of their century old ideas and practices, are still used today, such as farming, fishing, and hunting. Some Native American tribes would battle with the settlers killing them but other tribes, like the one in Roanoke, would instead engage in trade with the settlers. The Native Americans and the settlers would trade goods, and skills to each other that would help them to live good, healthy lives. “Whatsoever commodities we receive by the steelyard merchants or by our own merchants flaxe, hemp, pitche and tarre.”

At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. President Jackson and the government had plans to drive the Native Americans out of the south. The southerners appealed Jackson because they wanted him to remove the Indians that were living in the region. Jackson was part of the democratic party. The national politics were becoming more democratic.

The Cherokee are perhaps one of the most interesting of Native American Groups. Their life and culture are closely intertwined with early American settlers and the history of our own nation’s struggle for freedom. In the interest of promoting tolerance and peace, and with regard to the United States government’s handling of Native affairs, their story is one that is painful, stoic, and must not be forgotten.

To start off, a Natural History Museum is usually a place where the public can visit to obtain knowledge on the history of the earth and its inhabitants. Much about people’s culture and customs is found in a Natural History museum, especially people that have made a difference or played a role in history that we learn today. Therefore, the Indigenous peoples are represented in these precise museums. The indigenous people have various amount of customs that are even used today, however, the fact that many of their descriptions are led by the word “histor” or “ancient” almost makes the guests at museums believe that these indigenous people are no longer alive, and that is incorrect. The key objective for a Natural History museum is to simply help connect the understanding of human beings, connections based on culture, communities, to the earth and to each other. Precisely, The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles does not fully represent in depth the qualities that made the indigenous people so innovative, intelligent, and powerful; Therefore, the importance of the indigenous people is almost overshadowed by everything else that is presented at the museum. Overall, the indigenous people are represented here because of their

The major Native American patterns in North America seemed to be endurable, in the sense that they may have not been as technology advanced, but they were able to build their own civilization, cities, roadways and live off their agriculture.The Native Americans also must have been quick thinkers and problem solvers since western Indians were able to “perfect the techniques of desert farming” after migrating to the south & east after droughts ruined their living conditions. The Women would do most of the field work while the men would usually fish and hunt, which the Europeans found very uncivilized when they first arrived.

The Cherokee are perhaps one of the most interesting of Native American Groups. Their life and culture are closely intertwined with early American settlers and the history of our own nation 's struggle for freedom. In the interest of promoting tolerance and peace, and with regard to the United States government 's handling of Native affairs, their story is one that is painful, stoic, and must not be forgotten.

Throughout history, the subject of who discovered America has been greatly disputed. While some say the Native Americans were the first to discover America, others postulate that the Vikings or the Romans were the first to find it. While convincing evidence is presented on all sides, the Native Americans were definitely the first people group to walk on American soil.