The Origin Of The Native American

Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt is a story told for readers that take them on an adventure to knowing and caring about Black Elk himself and his tribe of his people. Neihardt talked about the spiritual visions of Black Elk that preceded sacred ceremonial dances, such as the Heyoka Ceremony, which followed Black Elk’s Dog Vision. Neihardt discussed the feelings and emotions that Black Elk felt from the visions he was experiencing; the sorrow that overwhelmed him as he witnessed the loss of loved ones and the conflict that he continually suffered while taking on such an essential duty for his tribe. Black Elk recognized that his people and their culture were starting to dwindle away. Neihardt expressed Black Elk's passion towards this situation by creating a vivid picture of the conflict that the

When Lame Deer was a sixteen year old boy, and was being initiated into manhood in Sioux tradition, he had to sit alone in a pit on a hilltop, and wait for the image. Shivering in anticipation of what would be revealed to him, he never doubted whether the vision would come. “When [the vision quest] was all over,” he says, “I would no longer be a boy, but a man. I would have had my vision. I would be given a man’s name.”

The Black Elk realized in having the power to cure people as few other spiritual leaders could. Black Elk, being a little afraid, always influenced his friends into fighting believing and thinking always about his vision, which seemed reality to him. All his life he was getting more strength after losing someone close to him, this was a sign of the flow of powers to him from the spiritual world. Going through sorrow and despair, Indians had to stand up for themselves. Indians were proudly keeping on fighting the Wasichu, many times left with two horses and wounded.

The first article is called Digging Out a Lost City’s Secret. It’s basically about Teotihuacan remains found by archaeologists. Many possessions resembling boxes filled with shells, jaguar remains, and rubber balls. The second article is called Skeleton Dating Back to the Ice Age Sheds Light on Native American Origins. Briefly, the previously mentioned article is about a young girl who died 12,000 to 13,000 years ago in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by divers diving in the area. The last article is called Guatemala’s Finest Clothing Shops. It is pretty much about Guatemalan trends working ways into design studios to make shoes, night gowns, and purses. The one that states more informational facts, in my opinion, would be the second article, Skeleton Dating Back to the Ice Age Sheds Light on Native American Origins.

In every culture people have different creation stories from the ancient Aztecs to modern-day. Creation stories myths are symbolic since they are narratives of how the world began and how men were created. These stories or “myths” helped people in the past to explain the world around them (Long, 2015). However, people often use the term myth to describe these stories since they regarded as fiction while to some there true. Regardless, to who believes these “myths” but everyone has their own belief on the origin of the world.

Amayeta Miwok decided that she would teach this human. She wanted him to be comfortable and warm. So she sat down with him and picked up blades of grass and twisted them together. Next she placed one twisted strand over the other, instructing him how it is to be accomplished. When the man was fully garbed in his clothes of grass and leaves, she took him to a sheep whose wool was overgrown, causing it pain. She showed him how to cut the wool off the beast without having to kill the animal. She demonstrated that you could to the same with the wool as you could the leaves. When all this was completed, the spirit mother told the man to walk from human to human teaching them what she had taught him, and she went

The domesticated generations fell from him. In vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed, to the time the wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest and killed their meat as they ran it down. It was no task for him to learn to fight with cut and slash and the quick wolf snap. In this manner had fought forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him, and the old tricks which they had stamped into the heredity of the breed were his tricks. They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always. And when, on the still cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolflike, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him. And his cadences were their cadences, the cadences which voiced their woe and what to them was the meaning of the stiffness, and the cold, and dark”.(London 25)

My connection to Native American culture is very limited. The knowledge I do have would primarily be from the Disney movie Pocachontas as well as what I learned in elementary school relating to the first settlers and Thanksgiving. I have a basic understanding that their culture is based deeply in spiritual rituals. I also know that they have been forced to move from their land and have had to fight to keep the reservations that they currently reside on.

One night at camp, Buck hears “a long-drawn howl, like, yet unlike, any noise made by husky dog” (91). So, Buck crept closer to the woods and saw a “long, lean, timber wolf” (91). Since Buck was curious, he went into the woods and visited the wolf daily. They soon became friends. The timber wolf symbolized what Buck could be in the wilderness. Buck enjoys his company, and “he knew he was at last answering the call, running by the side of his wood brother toward the place from where the call surely came” (92). Buck felt that the wild was his calling. In the woods with this wolf, Buck felt at home. After meeting the timber wolf, Buck realized his purpose was to live in the wild and be savage. He was destined to be an undomesticated dog.

Sitting on the porch of the cabin was an old man, who carried an air of wisdom and insight that seemed almost inhuman. He possessed a gruff appearance, with a shaggy beard and piercing eyes as blue as the lake before him. This particular morning, he was whittling a piece of wood into a wolf, with expert strokes of the short blade.

As the newborn wolf aged, his father taught him more and more of all that he needed to know. How to fight, defend, hunt, and much more. Then at midnight, the wolf decided

“The Great Plains region extends from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west, and from Canada in the north to Texas in the south “ (Native American Indian Facts) The Great Plains Indians followed the buffalo migration because they were the primary food source. The Great Plains Indians utilized all parts of the buffalo and nothing went to waste. The Buffalo hide was used for shelter and clothing, the bones were used for weapons and tools, the horns were used for spoons and cups, and the tails were used as whips. The buffalo’s stomach was also used as a container to hold water. (Native American Indian Facts) The Plains Indians would seize upon the opportunity to hunt what was available for food such as small game, elk and deer. Since the Great Plains Indians were nomadic hunters, they used tepees for shelter. Tepees were easy to assemble, disassemble, and transport. (Native American Indian Facts) With knowing how the Indians lived, let's look at how the expansion of America affected the Indians.

The Elephant has a very good memory, and is said to one time remember a Human who saved them. The Crow is said to

Quite a few of the authors focus on the plain Indian views, with an emphasis on the Blackfoot culture. The biggest emphasis perhaps falls on the philosophy of everything in our world having a spirit and being in constant motion. This constant motion is also referred to by the authors as a relationship with the flux. Every spirit is in constant motion, combining and recombining with everything for example, once the host of the spirit dies the spirit is sent back into the flux. This allows for the renewal of the spirit, although this is not the only way to renew a spirit. There are many ceremonies surrounding the renewal and protection of the spirit embedded into the culture. Some of these ceremonies include medicine bundle ceremonies, the Sundance, and sweat lodges. These ceremonies also hinge on the two day operational time increments.

“The Creeks were rounded up and forced into heavily-guarded, rat infested camps. They were bound in shackles and chains and forced to march from Alabama to their new home in Indian Territory… it is estimated more than 3,000 began the trip did not survive” (“Creek Removal” 1). This is just one of the many examples of torment the Native American peoples faced. Native Americans are the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Tainos were one of the many Native American tribes that were in the Americas before Columbus but were killed nearly out of existence. Some argue that the Native people of the New World and the Americas were victims of genocide, others passionately disagree. A genocide is the killing of many people, usually of a specific race, religion, or political affiliation. A popular example of a genocide is the Holocaust where over 6 million people were killed. The stages of a genocide are: Classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial. Indians were victims of genocide because they were dehumanized by the Spanish colonizers, they lost their homeland to the American government, and were forced to assimilate to White American culture via boarding schools.