The Sun Dance Ritual Was Regarded As Savage

Early in the nineteenth-century and the Louisiana Purchase in hand,”… (Thomas) Jefferson, much as he struggled with the issue (Indian policy), could simply not envision a future for the United States that included a place for ‘Indians as Indians.’ As president, Jefferson tried to design an Indian policy that would humanely assimilate Native Americans into the new republic, but his vision of national expansion turned out not to have any room for Native Americans.”[4] Those who refused or resisted assimilation would be forcibly pushed westward to lands deemed unfit for anything by most Americans.[5] As expansion increased further West, the Native Americans faced another subtle weapon in addition to religion from the government in its attempt to subdue them – American-style education.

Native American cultures has been deteriorated by centuries of interactions with Old World settlers. From wars, enslavement, and diseases, the Indian population has been diminished greatly. Indians were considered by white settlers as “backward savages” with “invalid belief systems” (Stockdale) because nature played a very important part in the everyday life of Indian; they protected and valued it. Political leaders and land-hungry Americans saw their tree-hugging-way-of-life as a waste of land and set out to conquer it. Some early officials of the American republic, like George Washington, believed that the best way to solve the “Indian problem” was to “civilize” them (History.com). The civilization of the Native Americans depended on their conversion to Christianity, English literacy, and the concept of land ownership (some even owned slaves). The Five Civilized Tribes were the ones that embraced these changes custom changes and assimilated within Western culture. For example,

Marcus Garvey once said, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots” (Bro). Here, he proclaims the idea that in order to live a culture must be passed down from generation to generation, growing its roots. When two cultures were fighting for dominance in the U.S., the American government developed a plan to eradicate the First Nations’ roots, buying into the philosophy of Captain Richard H. Pratt when he stated that instead of killing all the Natives it would be of more use to “kill the Indian, and save the man” (“Kill”). Between the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the United States government used boarding schools to try to assimilate Native Americans into modern American culture;

Richard Henry Pratt was born in 1840 in Rushford, New York. And at the age of 20, Pratt joined the Union Army and served in the American Civil War. Being accustomed to the military lifestyle and becoming a commander in Fort Arbuckle working with the black and Indian troops, he assumed that the American Natives needed to learn how to live in a white man’s world. With that being said, he believed that with educating the natives they would learn to fit in the Anglo world. He was known for the phrase “Kill the Indian, save the man”. He practically wanted to tech the Indians a different way of living, by removing them from their reservations and taking them far away from their roots, so they were able to forget the native life style.

In 1883, the new American culture is thriving. The colonists believed that the traditional ways of the American Indians needed to come to an end. The Settlers did not think that their old ways would help them at all. Henry L Dawes says, in a speech given at Lake Mohonk, “There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilization. Till this people will consent to give up their [communal] lands, and divide them among their citizens ... they will not make much more progress” (Document D). Most people, at this time, still believed the Native Americans to be

The main point of this article is that the United States is built upon many American Indian, especially Iroquois, principles.

The army that came into the Sun dance gathering has left a mark on Momaday's grandmother. When the army came in Aho witnessed the murder of her Kiowa god. From that event the Kiowas were moved onto a reservation. Momaday can recall his grandmother praying in the Kiowa language. Although, he couldn't speak Kiowa they sounded as prayers of suffering,hope, and very sad sounding. Most likely from the events that happened to the Kiowa

The dance was performed for the people, it was a tribal expression. The power of the Sundance Way of Self-sacrifice required that everything be handled in a sacred way in order to attract the energy of the Great Spirit. According to Fisher, (56) the chosen participants could dance as many as 4 day. Each tribe had their own structure of a Sundance. The structure of the group’s (the Lakota) ritual dance/ceremony was the participants would dance without food or water, not just looking but staring at the Sun and praying for blessing for their people and protection and return of the land and the Buffalos.

1. Boarding schools for native americans began in 1860 on the Yakima reservation in the state of Washington. Herbert Welsh and Henry Pancoast created the boarding school, the goal of the boarding schools were to assimilate Indian tribes into mainstream of “the american way of life”. They thought using education would be their best tool to succeed this goal. They wanted the indian people to learn the importance of private property, material wealth and monogamous families. Reformers thought it was necessary to civilize indian people. They felt boarding schools were the ideal way to assimilate indian youth. The first lesson from boarding schools would be; reading, writing, speaking and learning english. They also wanted indian youth to be individualized. The end result would be to eliminate indian culture. Richard Henry Pratt, owned and operated one of the most well known boarding schools, Carlisle Indian School. His motto was “Kill the Indian, save the man”. He hoped indian children would not return home to their reservations, but instead become a part of the white community. Pratt and other off-reservation boarding schools took away any outward signs of tribal life the children brought with them. Long braids were cut from the children, they were forced to wear uniforms. They were given “white” names and surnames. Traditional native food was forbidden and they had to eat foods of the white society along with

This dance is when “Community members and ritual leaders perform the ceremony guided by various visions of spiritual elders and their stories, songs, traditions, and instructions that have been transmitted orally across the generations,” as stated by Hallowell in the “Time-Binding in the Lakota Sun Dance Oral Tradition and Generational Wisdom,” article (Hallowell, 87). These ceremonies have stories, songs, traditions and instructions that are transmitted orally. Since these are only transmitted orally makes us realize that if these tribes don’t push their young students to learn them, then these traditions will die out. Hallowell also gives us the purpose: “The deepest purpose of the ceremony is to facilitate communal, tribal, and individual renewal that preserves Lakota traditions and values… two essential elements are sacrifice and ethical behavior,” (Hallowell, 87). I see how Hallowell makes a good point on how the two essential points are sacrifice to keep traditions going, and ethical behavior to keep the traditions sacred. Incorporating the Native American culture will not only enhance the performance of native Americans, but will also contribute to the learning experience of the non-native American students (Gentry). For instance the non Native American students will become well educated on topics related to Native Americans. Learning about a different culture from the one that grew up in that culture is a breath of fresh air and you get to see things from a different perspective which helps you grow up

The Native Americans worked hard for the right of religious freedom. Many of the Americans thoughts that there religion was the only religion that was right. So many people tried to push their religious rituals and practices out. In an article by the American Academy of Religion many of the Indian groups such as the Indian Shakers and the Native American Church tried to defend their dance practices religious events. Other Indian leaders called their religious dances as harmless social gatherings, much like a dance that many of the white Americans have. Many of these rituals were suppressed by the government because they were trying to assimilate the Native Americans into their culture. They fought to keep everything that they had the right to, including their religion and their different rituals. In the film it showed some of their religious dances and other

At the start, the schools were all on-reservation, designed to make education affordable and accessible to as many tribes as possible. This method held hopes of the children spreading American culture to parents; however, it allowed for Indian culture to seep into the children’s’ lives.

America Prides itself for being a country of freedom. It is a place where everyone is equal and can be a part of any religion. It welcomes all and tries to celebrate each one. People believe this and happily live not realizing the high cultural neglect, especially that of the Native Americans. The Indians would try to be in small groups and they were less likely to get into wars. These people lived simple lives as hunters and gatherers. As well as creating beautiful woven baskets, danced and had other forms of art such as doctoring or warding off evil. Once America started to be colonized, the native culture was being set aside. In an article entitled “American Policies to Remake Tribal Worlds”, the author States “Americans hoped that if Indian

His belief was that if they accept God and the rules of a civilized community they would become useful members of American life. Pratt spoke to reformers of the time about the importance of citizenizing Native Americans, he believed they were savages but not a lost cause.

The article focused on the formation of Native American consciousness through five personal themes unique to each individual. The five themes are as listed: “Native American language and culture, validity of one's genealogy, adoption of Native American world perspective that aligns with traditional native American customs, one's self concept as a Native American, and enrollment or not in a tribe.” (Horse, 2005, p. 65) Throughout the article horse starts to discuss the oppressive history of Native American groups in the United States and the socio-cultural conflicts that Native American culture have had with “White” mainstream culture. The legal status and cultural change provided an in depth look of how different